Review by Martha Quillen
Local History – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chaffee County – The First 125 Years
by Kay Marnon Danielson
published by GARNA, 2004
ISBN: 0-9670604-3-5
CHAFFEE COUNTY THE FIRST 125 YEARS was written by Kay Marnon Danielson, author of Images of America: Salida, Colorado, which we reviewed last month. In that review, I described Images as a picture book which offered absurdly abbreviated history but marvelous historic photographs.
When I first heard about the release of Chaffee County The First 125 Years, I expected that it would offer much of the same material. But Chaffee County is a considerably different book: for better and worse.
Chaffee County The First 125 Years is published by the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association in honor of Chaffee County’s 125th birthday. Many local citizens, historians, editors, and photographers contributed to the project, and proceeds will go toward GARNA’s goals: to promote and organize educational activities, volunteer projects, and community involvement in order to protect and conserve “the natural, cultural, and historical resources of the Greater Arkansas River Area for present and future generations.”
With that said, it should be noted that Chaffee County is a fairly typical local book, in that it could have benefited from a lot more copy-editing than it received.
But over the years, I’ve tried my hand at editing special publications such as this one, and in my experience, it’s darned near impossible.
Twenty or so years ago, I proof-read a local book and circled the word its twenty or thirty times because the word needed an apostrophe to denote it is. But the author told me he didn’t like apostrophes. Nor did he approve of spelling out “it is” — because he thought it sounded too formal. And so it went.
That author also loved extended metaphors. If he had concluded that life was like a bowl of cherries, he probably would have spent several pages describing that bowl of cherries with a thesaurus in hand, using at least fifteen synonyms for both “red” and “luscious.” So sometimes his prose bogged down and went off course. Thus his book seemed unfinished and error-laden. But in truth, the author was an organized writer and capable researcher, whose technical errors could have been fixed by diligent copy-editing.
Every mark I made on his manuscript, however, seemed to arouse doubt and disbelief. Before long, the author declared that grammar and punctuation rules stifled his creativity.
Well, I was merely a proof-reader on the project, and I sure didn’t want to do that….
That, however, is no doubt why publishing houses and regular publications like newspapers and magazines generally have an established hierarchy. In most operations, there’s an editor at the top who has the final say, and the author and proofreader know it.
Presumably, however, the author and his editor are both professionals who work together and establish a rapport.
As for copy-editors and proof-readers, they’re technicians. They read for typographical, spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, and places where the manuscript just doesn’t make sense, and they mark those problems. But the author is entitled to object to their ideas, and the editor is free to accept or reject their suggestions. And if there are several copy-editors and proof-readers, they don’t have to agree on everything, either (or even meet with one another).
Local, one-time-only publications are considerably different, however. I’ve worked on a number of them, and there’s seldom any established chain of command.
So things frequently get weird — and it often shows in the final product.
THOSE WHO READ a lot of local novels and histories, may understandably conclude that only people in New York can read, write, and spell well enough to organize and/or edit a manuscript. But I don’t believe it.
Although local books definitely read that way sometimes, I suspect that the real problem is that too many local books are produced by a committee — with no one clearly in charge. And since everyone wants to get along and stay friendly….
Corrections are frequently suggested, but seldom insisted upon. And in the end, even corrections which everyone would presumably agree upon get lost in the process — and don’t get made.
Anyway, it doesn’t take an English teacher to note that too many locally produced publications feature a surplus of errors. And errors don’t improve the product.
That’s especially true of Chaffee County The First 125 Years. It’s better than a lot of local books, with agreeable design and excellent graphics, but there are numerous annoying errors in the text, including things like: typos; and a tendency to write “all though,” instead of although; and a reference to a “medium custody” prison instead of a medium security prison; and a passage about “canoe boaters.”
There are also several places where the syntax is so convoluted as to be confusing — or so compressed that it seems more like notes for a book, rather than part of a book. For example:
“Italians came in 1880s to do stone work for the narrow gauge railroad bridges and abutments, mining and raising produce for truck farming and ranching.”
“For the next 80 years, Commission business was mostly conducted in private, few minutes taken with newspaper reporters and the general public largely banned from the proceedings.”
“It was a special train the townspeople came out to see and take pictures in 1998.” (To make matters worse, the excursion train actually came through in 1997 rather than 1998.)
Furthermore, the book also includes many mismatched cutlines and pictures. For instance, in one picture, there are twelve boys in a back row, and eight names listed. In another, there are pictures of several youngsters and groups of youngsters, but the cutline maintains that the pictures are of individuals — and of the Salida Regional Library.
Also, the history presented in Chaffee County The First 125 Years tends to be gallingly generic. According to this book, most newcomers came to Chaffee County due to the “promise of gold.” But the “railroads had an enormous impact,” too.
And that, of course, is a fairly accurate summary of Colorado history. But it seems an odd way to describe a county where the biggest city was named by the railroad, and the second largest city was home to three different railroads.
Yes, mining played a part in Chaffee County’s past. But the place thrived because the region’s railroads and crews served Leadville, the fabulous Silver City; plus Saint Elmo; the Gunnison Country; the Bonanza District; and numerous granite and marble quarries. In the late 19th and early 20th century, railroads were the county’s lifeblood and principal reason for being.
But despite such annoying drawbacks, this book features crisp, clear pictures and many interesting facts about local families and pioneers. Proceeds from the volume will go to community improvements, and there are numerous gorgeous, full-color modern photos included, too.
Although Chaffee County The First 125 Years is far from perfect — and the prose can be a mite irritating in places — it contains a treasury of family photos and personal narratives that make it a worthy keepsake.
–Martha Quillen