Olive Barber

I enjoyed this memoir of logging in Coos Bay in the 1940s very much. Barber was a schoolteacher who was swept off her feet by one Curly, a hard-drinking logger who changed her life in every conceivable way. The intimate portrait of logging camps, tempered with Barber's occasional bouts of lamentation for the first growth the loggers were stripping from the hills, is very nicely done. The wry sense of humor evidenced by Barber is reminiscent of Betty MacDonald, though not as whoop-out-loud funny.

I think Barber is unfairly forgotten, and due for a revival. Should be required reading for Oregonians, anyway.… (more)