A somewhat shy Autumn Spence, right, talks with "Apples to Oregon" author Deborah Hopkinson about what she liked best about her book.

Marcus Larson
News-Register

Oregon was a natural subject for authors Marie and Roland Smith.

"I love Oregon," said Smith, who was born and raised in Wilsonville. "I can't imagine living anywhere else."

So it was a treat, Smith said, to learn more about the state as she researched "B is for Beaver." The book lists Oregon facts related to each letter of the alphabet, including B, which stands for the state animal.

Smith and her husband, who also has written novels such as "Sasquatch" and nonfiction like "Sea Otter Rescue," aren't the only authors to be inspired by our state. In fact, Oregon has a rich literary tradition dating back to the 19th century.

"Prairie Flower" by Sidney Walter Moss is considered the first novel written in the state, according to the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission. It was finished in 1843, the same year Oregon's provisional government was formed.

According to OCHC, the first novel published in Oregon was 1854's "Grains, or Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, with Occasional Pictures of Oregon, Natural and Moral." Author Margaret Jewett Bailey was a missionary in the Oregon territory, and the book includes many autobiographical details.

In 1890, "The Bridge of the Gods, A Romance of Indian Oregon," became a bestseller for author Frederic Homer Balch. For many years, it was considered the most popular of all Oregon novels.

Numerous nonfiction accounts also were written and published in Oregon in the 1800s. They range from an autobiographical adventure, "The Canoe and the Saddle, Adventures Among the Northwestern Rivers and Forests," written by Theodore Winthrop in about 1862; to "River of the West," Frances Fuller Victor's 1880 biography of Joe Meek; to important cultural nonfiction such "Life Amongst the Modocs: Unwritten History," published in 1873 by Joaquin Miller; and "Life Among the Paiutes," published a decade later by a Paiute writer, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins.

If you include both writers who were born here and those who chose to make Oregon their home for a while or for a lifetime, it includes the likes of Ken Kesey and Ursula LeGuin, Jean Auel and Zane Grey, Rick Steber and Chief Joseph, William Stafford and Vladimir Nabokov - the latter a Russian-born author who fell in love with Southern Oregon.

Also on the list are many authors with ties to Yamhill County. Perhaps the best known is Beverly Cleary, who was born in McMinnville and raised in Yamhill. She made Klickitat Street and other Portland locations famous in books such as "Ramona the Pest" and "Mouse on a Motorcycle," but she chose to title her autobiography, "Girl from Yamhill."

Other Yamhill Valley writers range from suffragette Abigail Scott Duniway, who published 17 novels serially in her weekly newspaper in the 1870s and 1880s; to more modern-day authors such as Linfield College professors Barbara Drake and Bill Apel.

One of the most prolific local writers in recent years has been Floyd Skloot. He's what you could call a triple threat in the writing business: poet, memoirist and novelist.

Skloot, an Amity resident, last year published his newest book, "In the Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life." Many of Skloot's previous essays have focused mostly on the debilitating brain illness that made writing a struggle; this memoir explores instead the circumstances and characteristics that made him into a writer in the first place.

Skloot will discuss "In the Wink of the Zenith" at the Thursday, Feb. 19, meeting of the McMinnville Kiwanis Club. The club meets at noon in Room 103 of the McMinnville Community Center. Lunch costs $7.75. To make reservations, contact club president Rene Bittle at 503-472-6171 or rbittle@firstfedweb .com.

Like Skloot, the crop of local writers includes Gretchen Olsen, Amity author of young adult novels such as "Joyride" and "Call Me Hope." The latter, a novel about the hurt caused by verbal abuse, is one of the books included on this year's "Battle of the Books" reading list for sixth through ninth grades throughout the state.

Battle of the Books is a team competition that encourages students to read. This year's lists for both elementary and middle school competitors are made up entirely of Oregon books - either about the state or by Oregon authors.

The middle school list also includes "Alphabet of Dreams" by Susan Fletcher; "Ark Angel" by Anthony Horowitz; "Atherton: House of Power" by Patrick Carman; "Bat 6" by Virginia Euwer Wolff; "Eyes of the Emperor" by Graham Salisbury; "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull; "Fire on the Wind" by Linda Crew; "Girl from Yamhill" by Beverly Cleary; "Half-moon Investigations" by Eoin Colfer; "Minerva Clark Gets a Clue" by Karen Karbo; "Peak" and "Sea Otter Rescue" by Roland Smith; "The Pinhoe Egg" by Diana Wynn Jones; "Stout-hearted Seven" by Neta Lohnes Frazier; and "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula Le Guin.

The elementary list includes "Escaping the Giant Wave" by Peg Kehret; "Gentle Ben" by Walt Morey; "Cryptid Hunters" by Roland Smith; "Dark Hills Divide" by Patrick Carman; "Gooseberry Park" by Cynthia Rylant; "The Black Paw" by Heather Vogel Frederick; "B is for Beaver" by Marie Smith; "Bound for Oregon" by Jean Van Leeuwen; "Who was Sacajawea" by Dennis Fradin; "The Summer of Riley" by Eve Bunting; "Into the Firestorm" by Deborah Hopkinson; "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane," by Kate DiCamillo; "Rules" by Cynthia Lord; "Gossamer" by Lois Lowry; and "Clementine" by Sara Pennypacker.

Both lists contain a variety of genres - biography, realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, adventure, science fiction. That mirrors the adult-focused books written in and about Oregon.

If you're looking for a novel set in Oregon, here are some suggestions, listed by genre:

* Mystery/thriller: "Heartstone," Portland author Phillip Margolin's first novel, is based on an actual murder that happened in Oregon. Margolin's subsequent thrillers also are set in various parts of Oregon.

* Oregon life: "Sometimes a Great Notion" by Ken Kesey looks at the culture of logging in Oregon; "Honey in the Horn," H.L. Davis' Pulitzer prize-winning novel from 1936, is about pioneer life in rural Oregon; "Winterkill" by Craig Lesley, is about fathers and sons, native practices and the land.

* Children's literature: "Henry Huggins," "Ramona Quimby, Age 8," and other books by Beverly Cleary, are set on streets and in schools of Portland.

* Young adult: In "The Ancient One" by T.A. Barron, a young heroine sets out to stop the logging of an untouched forest of ancient redwoods.

* Science fiction: "The Lathe of Heaven," a novel by Ursula Le Guin, is set in Portland in the future; "The Postman" by David Brin is set largely in the Willamette Valley; "Dies the Fire" and its sequels by S.M. Stirling are set in the Willamette Valley and other parts of the Pacific Northwest.

* Coming-of-age: "The River Why" by David James Duncan is set in rural Oregon; Linda Crew's "Long Time Passing" is set in a small Oregon town during the 1960s.