Eminent Astorians ─ From John Jacob Astor to the Salmon Kings

Eminent Astorians marks the bicentennial of Astoria with nine engaging essays on figures who loom large in Astoria's history. The biographical stories range from Chinook leader Comcomly, who welcomed and protected John Jacob Astor's first adventurers in the fur trade, to the "Salmon Kings," who capitalized on the region's natural bounty a century and a half later. The essays, modeled on Lytton Strachey's literary portraits in Eminent Victorians, are interpretive and rich in context, and the authors are among the most respected writers and scholars in the Northwest today. Stephen Dow Beckham, distinguished historian at Lewis and Clark College, contributed a comprehensive introduction and served as the book's historical advisor.

Praise from James Ronda, author of Astoria and Empire

Small Places Often Have large and impressive histories. So it is with Astoria. Eminent Astorians traces the lives of an expansive and fascinating cast of characters—each revealing important stories about North America in general and the Pacific Northwest in particular. American history is filled with signature places—Plymouth Rock, Gettysburg, Little Big Horn, and Ground Zero. These are the places that help us understand where we come from, where we are now, and where we might yet go. Astoria belongs in that list. In the pages of Eminent Astorians the past comes alive to both entertain and inform us.