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On Still Waters: Living on the Canals of Europe and Great Britain.. $9 Kindle. During the six years I lived in France, I often traveled on the canals aboard converted barges or drove along them on the old tow paths. Often I was in my Citroen 2CV "Deux Chevaux," which I sometimes loved, but often hated; it was as uncomfortable as it was, well, ugly. Might as well say it. (I might as well promote another book while I have your attention. Henri and the Old American is the novelized memoir I wrote about traveling around France in the 2CV. It is also available through Kindle and is shown at right).I love the French and British canals, particularly the Canal du Midi because I lived near it for four years and often went for walks along its little brother, the Robine, which went through Narbonne: take a bus out to the lovely village of Salleles d'Aude, then walk the seven miles home. I collected information, anecdotes, photos and other artwork connected to canals. My first canal adventure was in Yorkshire aboard a British narrow boat, and I have been hopelessly addicted since. This book is a result of this affliction. It tells you where the canals are in Western Europe and Great Britain. It also tells you how and where to buy converted barges and those slim, elegant narrow boats that travel on Britain's canals. Several photographs and drawings, and a glossary of English, French, Dutch and American words make this a unique and lovely book. The cover photo, above, is of my friends' barge, the Deja Vu, when it sailed under another name. Jadel Roe and Jack Shomenta have lived aboard two barges in France for more than a decade and their love of the barging life still burns bright. The photo was taken after the barge passed the great cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris. You may order a copy on Kindle by clicking on either the cover art or the text in the column at right. Or you may purchase an ebook copy through Overseas Registry at http://www.overseasregistry.com/.
Backroads and Byways of Washington, Countryman Press $18.95, a map and 52 b&w photos. The book was published in May, 2010, and is a companion to the other book in the series on Missouri. The Washington book offers 17 country-road trips, beginning with two choices of off-Interstate 5 drives north to Canada, then crosses the Cascades to country roads in the Okanogan, the Pend Oreille, then down through the Palouse to the Snake and Columbia Rivers, the vineyards of the Yakima Valley, and on down the Columbia River to the ocean. From the Long Beach Peninsula, the book follows US 101 around the Olympic Peninsula and ends on the Kitsap Peninsula, across Puget Sound from where the book began.
Backroads and Byways of Missouri Countryman Press. $16.95, 30 b&w photos, 1 map
This book, a history and guide to Missouri, is actually a rewrite of a book first published several years ago by Country Roads Press. It is a tribute to the state of my birth. One of the first reviews of the revised edition was in the Chicago Tribune, and it is reprinted below:
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Archie Satterfield is a veteran journalist who, as the title indicates, loves to meander down backroads, byways and all manner of lost highways. What he looks for on a trip are the kinds of things that are becoming increasingly rare on the American landscape—quirky towns, ma-and-pa shops and interesting men and women with a story to tell; in other words, places and people with character. And if there is a bit of fascinating history attached to it, all the better. No strip malls or high-speed interstates for Archie. If this type of travel appeals to you, and if you are, to use Satterfield's word, a "lollygagger" at heart, then you will love "Backroads & Byways." Being an old-fashioned kind of driver himself, Satterfield chooses places "that commemorate things that happened before the turn of the 20th Century." And so the endlessly curious Satterfield visits Lewis and Clark State Park, Jesse James' house in St. Joseph, the Amish country around Jamesport, Mark Twain sites in Hannibal and New Madrid, the "epicenter" of Midwestern earthquake country. Branson, the Nashville of Missouri, also is here, but a section on the lost art of front-porch sitting best captures the essence of this short but lovely book as Satterfield celebrates the fact that front porches still exist but laments that nowadays you seldom see anyone actually sitting on them. -- By June Sawyers, The Chicago Tribune
For other reviews, all very positive of course, please click on the newsletter tab above.
The Home Front: An Oral History of the War Years in America by Archie Satterfield, Authors Guild's backinprint.com $23.95. One of the best oral histories of how people lived in the US during WWII received excellent reviews when it first appeared and has been excerpted in dozens of books and is used in college courses all over North America. Nearly 200 persons were interviewed for the book, including Japanese-Americans who were uprooted and sent to internment camps at least 100 miles inland from the West Coast to prevent sabotage, even though no German- or Italian-Americans were interned anywhere. It was a period of "using it up and doing without," and it was a period of great injustices. Just like now, and yesterday and tomorrow. Popular songs, slogans, jokes and many examples of popular culture of the period are scattered throughout the text. It is an excellent snapshot of America during the so-called Last Great War.
Writing the history of this Northwest icon was one of my favorite assignments. After all, who hasn't heard of Tillamook Cheese? No other cheesemaker on the West Coast of America has such a well-earned and enduring reputation.Think of cheddar cheese and Tillamook is the first word that comes to mind. In addition, for decades the Tillamook Cheese plant on the northern edge of the town of Tillamook was the most popular stop for tourists on the entire Oregon coast. The book is still selling steadily after more than a decade in print.
"Archie has captured the essence of Tillamook as well as anyone could. I've lived here all my life and reading the book brings back memories I had forgotten." -- Harold Schild, former general manager, Tillamook Cheese
Alex Haley's book, ROOTS, is the one of the most important books ever written about family history, and since its publication genealogy has emerged as a major industry, and a major hobby for millions of Americans of all colors. Satterfield's friend, the late Richard V. Sawyer, was one of the early practitioners of writing family history for people in the Seattle area, and he referred me to the Chick family on Mercer Island, who wanted a family history written. It was one of my most pleasant experiences as a writer, and I came to believe even more strongly in the basic decency of people who love their families enough to hire a professional writer to write their history.
This was the first commissioned history I took on, and remains the most outspoken because the late Bruce Kennedy, CEO at the time, instructed me to write a "warts and all" history. Earlier I wrote an illustrated history of Southeast Alaska's first airlines rather awkwardly called Alaska Bush Pilots in the Float Country, and many of the people in that book were serving on Alaska Airlines' board of directors. So I wrote one of the most unusual airline histories because it was truly "warts and all," and the old-timers in the airline liked the book as much as did the public.
"He did an outstanding job. He captured living history." -- James A. Johnson, former vice president, Alaska Airlines
When the small, picturesque town of Edmonds, Washington, neared its 100th anniversary, the centennial committee decided to commission a history of the town that began as little more than a row of sawmills and grew into an upscale village-by-the-sound. Fortunately I had been living in Edmonds for several years and the commission was offered to me first.
Crescent Foods had been a fixture in Seattle for nearly a century, and owned by the same family most of those years. The Weaver family chose me as their historian after reading some of my articles in the Seattle newspapers, where I had worked several years, and also the history of Alaska Airlines I wrote on a commission. The family wanted a low-keyed history devoid of flash and flurries, and I was happy to deliver just what they wanted. As an aside, the Weaver family proved their decency when a representative of their ad agency suggested to them that they release me as soon as I completed the research in order for a member of their staff to do the actual writing. The ad executive was given a dressing down and told, among other things, that what he suggested went against everything the family stood for. I only heard this story a long time after the book was completed, and after the woman who told me had left the advertising agency.
One of my writer friends, Richard Sawyer, specialized in writing family histories. One day while drinking coffee and comparing notes, I told Sawyer that I was trying to reach an agreement with Chuck West, founder of Westours, for a history of his company. Sawyer said he was trying to corral Eddie Bauer into a family history. After discussing the problem for several minutes, we decided to try something unusual: I would approach Eddie Bauer and Sawyer would talk to Chuck West. This change in personnel worked. Sawyer wrote a fine book on West, and I wrote three outdoor how-to books with Eddie Bauer; this one plus Cross Country Skiing and Backpacking. Sadly, the biography of Bauer never happened, though.
I also work as an editor on occasion, as I did when the board of the Sahalee Golf and Country Club asked me to help them prepare a history of their world-class golf course and community east of Seattle. The club members wrote most of the book and I, and an associate, took over editing, further writing and the production work, including design and shepherding the book through printing and binding.
"Archie was delightful to work with. We are very pleased. Our book is unique."--Harry Wilson, Founder of Sahalee Country Club.
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Commissioned Histories
Humor
Famous First Words
The first words spoken between famous couples
Travel
Fifteen More Trips
Fifteen more trips from my travel writing career
Ten Trips
Ten of my favorite trips as a travel writer
History/travel
After the Gold Rush.
A journey through Yukon history
Fiction
Henri and the Old American
How an old American discovers the pleasures of living in France
GROUND EFFECT
Chapter Four
Memoir
Fragments
The first of three books of my memoirs, from the Ozarks to Seattle
History
Tillamook excerpt
The Tillamook Way
The first chapter of the commissioned history
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Archie Satterfield
Ten Trips Amazon/Kindle. $9.00, are some of my favorite trips, which I took during the years I wrote travel articles. The countries covered are Antarctica, the Arctic, the Balearic Islands, Belize, Chile, France, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand and the former Yugoslavia.
Historical Sketches From the Northwest Corner Kindle/Amazon $9.00, is my salute to Washington State, where I lived for more than 40 years. My love of Northwest history came as a result of becoming a friend of Dr. Herman Deutsch, a history professor at Washington State University. This collection of anecdotes and events began as a book many years ago, which didn't work out, so the manuscript sat in my filing cabinet, then on my computer, for several years before I recently remembered it. At about the same time I found the drawing of Captain George Vancouver calling on a village on Vancouver Island, which was done by Bob McCausland, an artist on the Seattle P-I who illustrated many of my book reviews when we worked together, So I am using the excellent drawing as cover art for this collection of historical sketches.
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