The bridge of the gods: a romance of Indian Oregon

Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1890. First edition, with McClurg only in the imprint; 8vo, pp. [7], viii-xii, 13-280, [8]; original pictorial brown cloth printed in black; gilt lettering on front cover and spine; corners and spine extremities scuffed, front hinge starting; otherwise, very good. Frederic Homer Balch (1861-1891) was an Oregon-born writer and "the first Pacific Northwest fiction writer to cast Native Americans as major characters and the first to celebrate the region's geography in a novel." (Oregon Encyclopedia). The Bridge of the Gods is a semi-autobiographical account of a missionary who explores the indigenous tribes of Northwest (truncated) Oregon and British Columbia. Balch aimed to showcase a nuanced and sympathetic depiction of the native population of the Columbia River area while also incorporating elements of mythology and magical realism. This is his only book and it remained in print for more than a century. Wright III, 250. (Inventory #: 57358)