Rivers of America

I recently picked up a used copy of Peter C. Mancall's Land of Rivers: America in Word and Image.  This is a collection of writings over the past few hundred years that describe the place of rivers in America's history.  The essays and excerpts are accompanied by a number of incredible photographs and artwork illustrating America's rivers.  There are pictures of floods and baptisms and waterfalls and commerce, from 17th century woodcuts to photos by Ansel Adams.

This book reminds me of the Rivers of America series of books that were published (and republished) from the 1930s to the 1970s.  Each edition in this series of over 60 books is a historical narrative devoted to a single river.  Many of them are familiar - the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Hudson, and others - but I have to confess that some of them I had never heard of before.  The Housatonic?  The Sangamon?  And where the heck is the Winooski?  There for a while I thought I would start collecting this series; I have a weakness for series of books, especially if they deal with history, or the outdoors.  But shelf space is at a premium in my house, so I decided to forego this pleasure.