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Archives - Fall 2004.
| Coal Writing Revival The last few years have produced a banner crop of coal region-related books. Here's a summary of worthy reads that have crossed my desk recently. A handful are fictional accounts, but most are history-releated ... by Erica Ramus I'm a book fanatic. Books are my hobby, my passion, and my addiction. I live with piles of books all over my office, my house, and I even carry them in my car in case I get stuck with a few spare minutes while waiting for a client. Amazon.com just loves me. I've been gathering coal region-related books for years, and it seems that recently my reading piles have been getting higher as more and more regional books appear. I've weeded through the stacks and picked my favorite ones to suggest here. This is not a strict book review: if I read a book and did not enjoy it or don't think it was well written, it's not included here. I'd rather say nothing at all about a book rather than waste ink and paper giving a book a negative review. These days it's easy to become a published author. Dozens of print houses abound where you simply submit your text and they print your book with the information unedited and unverified. This does not mean that all vanity press books are bad; but, in my opinion, many of them are lacking in professionalism. They should not be used for scholarly purposes. Just because something makes it into print, it is not necessarily a fact. Journalists are trained to always question their source material and seek out the truth. So if I found a title to be "not up to par" or the information questionable, I ignore it here. I'll start with my favorite recently published historical books. Attorney J. Robert Zane just published two books in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Historical Society of Schuylkill County. 1902! The Great Coal Strike in Shenandoah, PA ("A true story of martial law in an anthracite mining community") accounts what happened in Shenandoah during the labor dispute, subsequent riot, murders and court trial. Zane interjects colorful ethnic and family stories (his roots are in Shenandoah) with the historical facts, making this volume a fascinating read. ($10.95). Zane's other title, The Schuylkill County Book of Lists: A Collection of Historical Facts, should be on the bookshelves of every county teacher at all grade levels. This is a fun book that brings to life famous (and infamous) people, places and things in our history. Zane says in the preface, "I have always loved almanacs that listed random information and facts. ...The Schuylkill County Book of Lists is a compendium of facts. Some are new and will hopefully surprise even the best of the local historians out there. This is an informative book that is meant to provide entertainment to the reader. It is also meant to whet one's appetitte for history and to find out more information on the topic or person discussed in the book." From Congressional Medal of Honor Winners to Congressmen, musicians, disasters, breweries and baseball players, Zane gives us a quick overview of Schuylkill County's "greatest hits." ($16.95) Profits from Zane's publications benefit the Historical Society of Schuylkill County. Contact the Historical Society to purchase either of these titles: www.schuylkillhistory.org William G. Williams' The Coal King's Slaves: A Coal Miner's Story describes the horrible conditions and everyday dangers faced by miners. Set in the late 1800s, Williams describes this book as a historical novel - a fictionalized account of a father and his three sons battling filth and hardships to keep their families fed. Williams comes from a coal mining family, and his knowledge of the miners' hardships cannot be doubted. His tales ring true and he has a journalist's ear for good dialogue. My only criticism of is that he paints such a stark black-and-white picture of the time period: miners = good, mine owners/operators = bad. Sometimes he tends to get a bit melodramatic, but mining enthusiasts will enjoy this book. (Burd Street Press, $14.95) Now, on to the deeper, more scholarly volumes. Coal, A Human History by Barbara Freese, starts out in London in 1306 with "the unfamiliar and acrid smell of burning coal" - an obnoxious odor - and ends in modern China. Along the way she chronicles its importance in the Industrial Revolution, Pennsylvania miners, and the rise and fall of King Coal. While this could be a very dull, dry read, it's not. Freese has crafted a social, environmental and political history that spans the globe. She describes the importance of coal to humans throughout the centuries, and peppers the book with colorful stories of the men and women whose lives depend on the industry. Yes, this is a more scholarly read than the previously mentioned books, but don't be scared away by the serious title or pages of notes/bibliography at the end. Freese is an entertaining storyteller - and her humanization of the history of coal - putting names and faces to the history - gives a similar treatment to the black rock as we find in the next book on my list. (Perseus Publishing, $25) Dan Rottenberg's In The Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock that Changed the World is not a quick read, and its laborious title even sounds like it means business before you open the cover. The book's jacket touts that this is "an American saga of how coal operators made and lost fortunes, coal towns flourished and died, and miners and mine owners battled the earth, the atmosphere, and each other in their quest to satisfy the world's appetite for coal." That's a good hint that you won't finish this book in a single sitting. The book's introduction starts out in Pottsville, which set the volume off to a good start for me: When I was a boy in the late 1940s my maternal grandfather's business transferred him from New York City, where he had always lived, to the town of Pottsville in eastern Pennsylvania. As an eight-year-old New Yorker I naturally wondered why my grandfather would forsake the world's most sophisticated metropolis for a provincial burg of twenty-four thousand souls stuck in the middle of nowhere. My confusion was further compounded by my subsequent discovery that nothing in my experience seemed quite so bizarre and exotic as a visit to my grandfather's new home town. The author describes downtown Pottsville in in the 1950s and the Necho Allen Hotel in particular, and how he was attracted to a a mammoth hunk of anthracite in the lobby there. While the story revolves around two families - the Leisenring family (coal entrepreneurs) and the Givens family (miners), Rottenberg states, "Ultimately the dominant character in this story is neither a Leisenring nor a Givens ... It's that massive chunk of black rock that I first encountered, in 1950, behind a glass showcase in the lobby of the Necho Allen Hotel." The juxtaposition of the two families at the heart of the book - the mine operators versus the miners - brings the complex topic to a level the reader can relate to easily. (Routledge, $29.95) On a lighter note, next Halloween, scare the neighborhood kids with stories from Charles J. Adams III's Coal Country Ghosts, Legends and Lore. Covering both Schuylkill and Carbon Counties, Adams is an old pro at compiling regional ghost stories (he's also covered Berks County, the Poconos, the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia and New York City ghosts and more. From the Broad Mountain Ghost to the Hex Cat and Restless Haven, Adams chronicles all our local legends. (Exeter House Books, $12.95). Coal mining fiction also has hit the national bestseller lists lately. Pick up either of Tawni O'Dell's novels for compelling modern-day stories about families living in Pennsylvania mining towns. Her New York Times bestselling Back Roads was O'Dell's debut novel, and was one of Oprah Winfry's book club selections. Her second volume, Coal Run, is about "letting go of the goals of greatness for the ordinary grace of good work, family love and an acceptance of where you come from." Back Roads is available now in softcover, but the recently printed Coal Run is still only out in hardcover. And finally, are you looking for a seasonal story this time of year? County native Ralph Peters (writing under his pen name Owen Parry) releases his latest book this month: Strike the Harp! American Christmas Tales. In a note he enclosed with a pre-release proof he sent me, the author wrote, "The tales are part of my campaign to publicize the heritage of my old home." Comprised of five short Yuletide stories, this book makes a great gift for most any reader on your list. As I was reading "How Jimmy Mulvaney Astonished the World for Christmas", I found myself thinking that this tale is reminiscent of John O'Hara's style; sure enough, the author ends the story with the note: With a Christmas toast to the spirit of John O'Hara. What a great way to celebrate the Yuletide! (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, $14.95) So as the weather gets colder and you're looking for a good book to settle down with, start with one of these titles. |
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