Gloucester City
Holiday City
Jersey City
Margate City
McKee City
Neptune City
Ocean City
Roosevelt City
Sea Isle City
Surf City
Union City
Ventnor City
West Atlantic City
NEW MEXICO
Air Base City
Cotton City
*Estes City
Hillburn City
Humble City
Jones City
*Las Vegas City
*Navajo City
Oil City
*Sacramento City
Silver City
*Virginia City
*Weber City
Whites City
NEW YORK
Air City
Border City
Button City
Cottage City
*Forest City
Garden City
Grant City
Groton City
Johnson City
*Little Rock City
Old City
Perry City
Pine City
Rock City (2)
*Rock City
Rock Falls City
Slab City (3)
White City
Burton City
NORTH CAROLINA
*Bay City
Bessemer City
Bryson City
Buffalo City
Cove City
Elizabeth City
Elm City
Forest City
Fort Raleigh City
James City
Morehead City
Oak City
Rebel City
*Ruby City
Siler City
Silver City
*Soul City
Surf City
Tabor City
*Thermal City
Tin City
Pick City
Tower City
Valley City
Watford City
Willow City
OHIO
Beach City
Cream City
Crown City
Dexter City
Eagle City
Garden City
Grove City
Jerry City
Jones City
Junction City
Lime City
Limestone City
Lore City
*Marl City
Miller City
Mineral City
Murray City
Ohio City
Plain City
Pleasant City
Quaker City
Tipp City
Tremont City
Union City
Long Island City
Model City
New City
New York City
Boise City
*Burke City
Cox City
Custer City
Del City
Dill City
*Douglas City
Eagle City
Elk City
Elmore City
*Empire City
Garden City
*Gas City
Harden City
*Indian City
Kaw City
Little City
*Lost City
Marble City
Midwest City
*Oil City (2)
Oklahoma City
Ponca City
Pruitt City
Ratliff City
*Reno City
Silver City
Spelter City
Valley City
NORTH DAKOTA
Grace City
North Valley City
Canyon City
Columbia City
Cutler City
Elk City
Falls City
Island City
Junction City
* Kansas City
Lincoln City
*Malheur City
Mill City
*Opal City
Oregon City
Pacifc City
Pelican City
*Pine City
Power City
Prairie City
Shale City
*Silver Falls City
Tri City
*Vanport City
White City
Willamette City
Karns City
PENNSYLVANIA
Arnold City
Blain City
OKLAHOMA
*Beer City
Dickson City
Duff City
Elk City
Evans City
Fairmont City
Fayette City
Ford City (2)
Forest City
Garden City (2)
Glade City
Glass City
Gowen City
Grant City
Greece City
Grier City
Grove City
Harrison City
*Hill City
Homer City
Horton City
Houston City
*Iron City
James City
Jamison City
Lake City (2)
Lumber City (2)
Mahanoy City
Strong City
Union City
Webb City
Wright City
OREGON
Bay City
Cabell City
Sawyer City
Spindley City
Spring City
Steel City
Tower City
Trade City
Turkey City
Union City
*Wallace City
Weber City
West Ford City
Westmoreland City
Wick City
Windy City
RHODE ISLAND
Garden City
*Rice City
SOUTH CAROLINA
Garden City
Johnson City
Lake City
Broad Top City
Cambria City
Central City (2)
Cherry City
Coal City
Custer City
Dallas City
Derrick City
Mound City
North Sioux City
Prairie City
Rapid City
Silver City
Trail City
TENNESSEE
Ashland City
*Beechnut City
Block City
Bluff City
Cumberland City
Fountain City
Goat City
Iron City
Jefferson City
Johnson City
*Kansas City
Lake City
Lenoir City
Lupton City
Marble City
Maury City
Marble City
Mill City
Oil City (2)
Pine City
*Pithole City
Quaker City
Queen City
Russell City
Richard City
Rock City (2)
*Sal City
*Silver City
Spring City
Summer City
Tennessee City
Tracy City
Union City
Webber City
White City
Windy City
TEXAS
*Abell City
Airport City
*Angel City
Archer City
*Arkansas City
Arthur City
Bay City
*Beach City
Bowers City
Bridge City
SOUTH DAKOTA
Big Stone City
*Canyon City
Central City
Claire City
*Crook City
Garden City
Hill City
*Hub City
*Junction City
Lake City
Crystal City
*Custer City
Dell City
Denver City
Dodd City
Electric City
Falls City
*Foard City
*Frankel City
Garden City
*Glaze City
Gun Barrel City
Haltom City
*Hay City
*Hill City
Horizon City
*Hynds City
Jacinto City
Johnson City
Karnes City
Middle City
Morrison City
Mountain City
North Johnson City
Oak City
*Obey City
Owl City
*Owl City
Park City
Pearl City
Proctor City
Rayon City
*Pope City
*Provident City
Queen City
Rio Grande City
*Rose City
Royse City
Scharbauer City
*Schwab City
*Silver City
*Sinclair City
Sterling City
*Stone City
Sullivan City
*Tee Pee City
Texas City
*Todd City
Twin City
Universal City
Victory City
Warren City
*Burns City
*Cain City
*Caney City
Canyon City
Center City
*Chavez City
*Citrus City
Clarksville City
Close City
*Coffee City (2)
Colorado City
Coy City
Salt Lake City
Sandy City
*Shenendoah City
*Silver City
Spring City
*Valley City
VERMONT
Goose City
Old City
VIRGINIA
Bluff City
Chase City
Dale City
*Franklin City
Garden City
Gate City
*Pike City
Royal City
Knox City
Lackland City
Lane City
League City
Liberty City
*Lime City
Magic City
Mirando City
Missouri City
Monroe City
*Mound City
*Mountain City
*Nelson City
*Oil City
Ore City
*Pearl City
Fall City
*Fall City
Garden City
*Gould City
Grays Harbor City
Junction City
Lake City
*Mineral City
Mock City
Moxee City
*Oil City
Navy Yard City
North City
Ocean City
Pine City
*Pinkney City
*White City (2)
*Willow City
Wolfe City
Wright City
UTAH
Bear River City
Brigham City
Cedar City
*Christmas City
East Carbon City
Heber City
*Mound City
Oak City
Park City
Plain City
Spring City
Stephens City
*Virginia City
Viscose City
Weber City
WASHINGTON
Basin City
Bay City
Benton City
*Clay City
*Copper City
Coulee City
*Diamond City
Electric City
Elmer City
Royal City
*Skagit City
Wiley City
WEST VIRGINIA
Blackberry City
Coal City
*Crown City
Cub City
Dupont City
Elk City
Hartford City
Kanawha City
Lost City
Mineral City
Paden City
Raymond City
Star City
1. Harington, Donald. Some Other Place. The Right Place. New Milford, CT: Toby Press, 2004, p. 543.
2. P.85.
3. P 118.
4. P. 166-7.
5. Longus. Daphnis and Chloe. In Three Greek Romances. Tr. Moses Hadas. New York: Doubleday, 1953, p. 40.
6. Randolph, Vance. Pissing in the Snow and Other Ozark Folktales. New York: Avon, 1977, pp. 156-157.
7. This parallel passage appears in Let Us Build Us a City on page v, and in Some Other Place. The Right Place..
8. Macauley, Rose. Pleasure of Ruins. New York: Walker, 1966, frontpiece.
9. Goldsmith, Oliver. The Deserted Village. In Eighteenth Century English. Ed. Geoffrey Tillotson, Paul Fussell, Jr., Marshall Waingrow, with Brewster Rogerson. New York: Harcourt, 1969. II: 29-35.
10. Place, p. 442.
11. Place, p. 479.
12. Place, p. 469.
Contents
Part one: Why have we come here to this water?
Chapter one
Chapter two
Chapter three
Chapter four
Chapter five
Chapter six
Chapter seven
Chapter eight
Chapter nine
Chapter ten
Chapter eleven
Chapter twelve
Chapter thirteen
Chapter fourteen
Chapter fifteen
Chapter sixteen
Chapter seventeen
Chapter eighteen
Chapter nineteen
Chapter twenty
Chapter twenty-one
Part two: How to get down out of trees
Chapter twenty-two
Chapter twenty-three
Chapter twenty-four
Chapter twenty-five
Chapter twenty-six
Chapter twenty-seven
Chapter twenty-eight
Chapter twenty-nine
Chapter thirty
Chapter thirty-one
Chapter thirty-two
Chapter thirty-three
Chapter thirty-four
Chapter thirty-five
Chapter thirty-six
Chapter thirty-seven
Chapter thirty-eight
Chapter thirty-nine
Chapter forty
Chapter forty-one
Chapter forty-two
Part three: Bridge Burning
Chapter forty-three
Chapter forty-four
Chapter forty-five
Chapter forty-six
Chapter forty-seven
Chapter forty-eight
Chapter forty-nine
Chapter fifty
Chapter fifty-one
Chapter fifty-two
Chapter fifty-three
Part one
Why have we come here to this water?
Little Rock is, without any flattery, one of the dullest towns in the United States; and I would not have remained two hours in the place, if I had not met with some good friends, who made me forget its dreariness.
—Friedrich Gerstaeker, Wild Sports, 1842
Chapter one
Olyphant is the name of the tiny jerkwater town in Jackson County, northeast Arkansas, where the Missouri Pacific train I was riding to Little Rock stalled for thirty minutes in the late hours of a Sunday in late April, leaving me with nothing to do but read the paper and wait impatiently fo
r the (as near as I could make out by expressing my anxiety to the conductor) triple-thierce camming pin on the glaring-rod of the fifth car’s starboard glomhefter to be replaced. Olyphant, which has a population of less than three dozen and was named after a much larger town now a suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania, of all places, has no significance for this story except that it happened to be the place where I was when I began to wonder, perhaps for the first time, why I was on that train, why I had left Boston, and why I was heading for a place which, home town or not, seems in the retrospection of these past weeks embarrassingly pregnant with fortuitous happenings leading to gloom of one sort or another—to shame, to frustration, to disillusionment, to, yes, even tragedy.
But on second thought, I think that I should say that Olyphant does have more than such limited significance, because in a way it became for me a symbol, whether I was aware of it or not and whether the symbol was actually metaphorical or instead only catachrestical, of the whole of the Arkansas which I would find during my brief, transient return; that is to say, Olyphant was small, vastly empty, flat, alluvial, dark in the early morning, quite lonely, and I did not stay there very long.
It took me not more than fifteen minutes to get down off the train, walk back up the gravel roadbed to the highway, find an all-night café where I could get a cup of coffee to go and a Sunday paper, insult the waitress, and return to the train, all without being missed by the five other passengers in the car. Physically I’m a small person, and have no conspicuous characteristics other than a pair of gibbous ears, and I’m usually unnoticed, ignored, until, for example, the aroma of the coffee I began drinking drifted to the others, one of whom came up the aisle to ask me where I got it, the dining car being closed. I told him, and then I unfolded the thick Sunday issue of the Arkansas Gazette and let my eyes fall, for the first time in almost four years, on its familiar, neat, unique typography.
In Boston, which I had slipped away from two days previously, I always read the Christian Science Monitor because it is the least hideous of all Boston’s degenerate dailies and I am less put out by its slant than by that (not slant: tilt, list, lurch) of the Globe, Herald, or Record-American, and because we live in a section of town where for some reason it is impossible to have the New York Times delivered to the breakfast table. My wife comes from Rutland, Vermont, where a very good daily paper, the Rutland Herald, has been published continuously since 1794, and I always read it thoroughly during our too-frequent visits to that city. So there are three newspapers in my life: the Arkansas Gazette, Boston’s Christian Science Monitor, and the Rutland Herald. Each of these papers has its own distinctive format and outlook, and its own personal appeal. If I had to choose among them, as sometimes I visualized myself reaching the point of having to, I would without hesitation have selected the Arkansas Gazette, I can’t help it, and that too, I reflected, must have been part of the reason why I happened to be on that stalled train that night in Olyphant on the way to Little Rock, and why I was greatly pleased to find a copy of that paper at that all-night highway café. I had not, let me repeat, been to Little Rock in almost four years, which, for reasons which may later become clear, was entirely too long, and I did not know, when I left Boston, why I was going back there, or who, or what, if anything, I expected to find.
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