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羅each revealing important
stories about North America in general and the Pacific Northwest in particular. American history is filled with signature places羅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.
