The Rivers of America series

January 4, 2018 1:40 PM

The series combined geography, history, and folklore to produce a regionalist portrait of America The series ran from 1937 to 1974 and produced 65 volumes. The original editor, Constance Lindsay Skinner, established a standard for writing and book design that influenced book publishing for the next seventy years. The series adapted a fine press printing aesthetic to a mass market product. One of the best qualities of this series is that the variety of authors was astonishing: historians, biographers, naturalists, novelists, and more, leading to a lively tone.

World Rivers by Age One of the rivers, The French Broad, runs through Asheville NC and turns out to be the 5th oldest river in the world.

60th Anniversary RofA Celebration at the Library of Congress in 1977.

posted by MovableBookLady (12 comments total)

Here's a straightforward list of all the titles in the series, which I couldn't find at the links above.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 2:11 PM on January 4, 2018 [8 favorites]

I never knew about this series—thanks for the post! (I love maps like this.)
posted by languagehat at 2:23 PM on January 4, 2018

Dad-drat-it, I thought I'd gotten a list of the books in there somewhere. Sorry.
posted by MovableBookLady at 3:06 PM on January 4, 2018

I would love to read the book about the French Broad. I've floated/paddled down that river many a time
posted by NoMich at 4:21 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I shoulda googled the title/author *before* commenting because it can be found for sale online. Yay!
posted by NoMich at 4:24 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

The French Broad book is great. An Asheville friend just gifted me a copy when I was visiting last week. I didn't realize it was part of a series, so this post is well timed. Thank you!
posted by neroli at 4:33 PM on January 4, 2018

Oh, wow, thank you for this post! Several years ago I read an excerpt of The Colorado by Frank Waters. It appeared in an anthology called A Colorado River Reader, and it described a riverboat trip on the lower Colorado River in Mexico in the 1920s. The subject matter and style seemed almost proto-Hunter-Thompson-esque. Didn't know it was part of a series until I read this; thanks for helping to put it in context.
posted by compartment at 5:15 PM on January 4, 2018

If you're visiting the French Broad, go to Hot Springs and hang out in a hot tub watching the river roll by, it's great, especially in cold weather. I was there not too long after it was acquired by the present owners, and they'd just started building the new spa building and the hot tubs were super-rustic and the site was little-visited, it's much fancier now. (And I'm glad! It's an awesome site that I'm glad they're reviving and it deserves to be much more popular.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:11 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've done that Hot Springs tub thing and it was lovely. There's also good rafting on the river if it's running a little high. If it's not high, the rocks'll get ya. I need to go to Hot Springs again.
posted by MovableBookLady at 9:45 PM on January 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Thirding the Hot Springs idea. We went in the winter one time and it was great. It wasn't too cold outside, but cold enough to make the hot tub really nice.

Another great idea when visiting Hot Springs to hit the ol' Appalachian Trail for a bit. In fact, it was right there in Hot Springs that I hiked the entire width of the trail. Exciting times!
posted by NoMich at 3:59 AM on January 5, 2018

Just put The Wisconsin by August Derleth with illustrations by John Steuart Curry on hold at my local public library. Local libraries are temples of history. The series may be as close as yours.
posted by Jesse the K at 4:49 AM on January 5, 2018 [2 favorites]

Jesse the K: quite right, many libraries should have at least some of the series. It was a famous publishing series and all the used bookstores used to have many different volumes available. It's a great way to "decorate" too, especially if you can find all 67 in dustjackets. Happy collecting. And reading.
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:13 AM on January 5, 2018