William C. Speidel (1912–1988)

Somehow, I guess I never thought I'd read a history book that detailed how much help prostitutes were to the growth of a major city. But that's one of the things I learned in the very irreverent Sons of the Profits, which details less of the grand views and more of the muddy underside of the founding of Seattle. The author, when he was alive, gave tours of the true Seattle underground, and reading the book was like reading his script, complete with sarcastic asides. However, I'm not from show more Seattle -- I read the book for a little inside information for a future trip -- and so I'm not as intimately familiar with all the street names and regional references, so I would have liked to have seen a few more maps to get my bearings. (I also might have liked the stories to tie in a little more to modern times, but perhaps the author was being prudent in not connecting current high society with the rogues gallery he profiles.) I suspect more people might enjoy history if it were taught with stories like these interspersed with the usual boring lists of dates.

-----------------
LT Haiku:

Quick money (and girls) --
Seattle's founders are
All in for themselves. show less

This one's a snarky history of the beginnings of Seattle, written by the founder of the Underground Tour. Mr. Speidel has an entertaining mix of irreverence and respect for Seattle's founders. It's a book well worth checking out.
--J.

A fun lesson in history of Washington State and Seattle. Informal style and humorous theme enhance the story about Seattle's founder. A drunk, a doctor, a lawyer, a philanthropist, a politician, a bigamist, and a scoundrel--he turned a hilly, sopping wet timber stand into the city it is today. All in five years or so from 1850-55. If you don't like history, you'll still like this book. The stories relate to real places and even though it was written decades ago, they still exist. I show more especially liked the story about doctoring to Arthur Denny with opium based laudanum and then making him sign over the rights to most of what is now downtown Seattle. Or...how he left his wife in Cleveland, trekked across the plains heading for the California gold fields, fell in love with another woman and followed her to Seattle...created it in the image of Cleveland. :-) Doc Maynard is a colorful character and Spiedel tells it like it is. show less

A breezy, informal bio of one of the biggest movers and shakers of early Seattle. Part philanthropist, part robber baron, Doc Maynard comes across as a very complex man in a time when there were few brakes on what a man could accomplish if he had the will and the nerve. And sometimes, Doc had a lot of nerve!