Next, astoria by author john jacob. This an is hour and 14 minutes. Thank you powells books and thank you for being here. Normally i have a more formal presentation. I have a reading i show at readings. But tonight is a special night so i am going to do something different. And i want to tell stories a little bit more and, of course, i will do some readings. It is special we are at powells books, we are in oregon, astoria is nearby and we are also here with cspan so we have a national and oregon audience. I will tell stories and you may know some of them and may not some of the others. But i will start with how i came to this story. And actually, what is surprising about it is how this story was verywell known in its day. In 1836, when Washington Irving was commissioned by john John Jacob Astor to write these, irvings book also called astoria was a best seller in 1926. They have been forgotten now. I think some of you know about them. But in the National Consciousness they are largely
Why did he not give his a story in party . He did. He had essentially in what amounted to a blank check, like a blank check book. One of the things i write about is the irony. In the bottom of hells canyon in the winter starving. It brings to mind, you know, what money can do in certain circumstances or not do. Haunted have a blank check. This was, you know, another segment of this whole story. When he eventually got to a story he went off, the second supply ship finally arrived, a ship called the beaver three months after hunter arrived. Hundt went off on the beaver to etch rate up the coast of british you know, vancouver island. That ended up being its own fiasco. And he and the captain had the choice of returning to a story at in the winter when it was stormy are going to hawaii to fix is shipped. The captain convinced and to go to hawaii to fix the ship. And then he ended up in the South Pacific after that. He just wanders all over the place. And, you know, he finally shows up 15 m
Layed with 20 tons of goods and equipped with ors, sand and tow ropes the party left from winter camp on april 21, 1811 with sails set in a favorable wind. They hoped to reach the pacific in late summer or autumn. The second passage i am reading takes place as they are going up the river from their winter camp which was about 400 miles up river from st. Louis. And as i mentioned, they were to follow the lewis and clark trail that is going up the missouri, over the rockies and down the columbia. Thaws went up the missouri, the father they went the worse the stories got about the indians at the head water. The overland leader was a young new Jersey Business man named wilson price hunt who was known as a nice guy, serious minded, conscious, and liked to lead by c concensus but he had never been in the wilderness before. Astor knew that hunt would remain loyal to astor. But astor hired a lot of other scottish fur traders, french canadian voyagers. He was looking for the best and that happe
Schedule for coming. Call. On nine me my glass of water cells. Thursday book tv in primetime features books about the civil rights movement. At 8 00 p. M. And discussion with the author of an idea whose time has come the competition up capabilities more and more. Some disagree on this, but i personally consider the smart phone now we all carry around with us early 70 to be a trademark example of the internet of things. We are becoming human senses because were all carrying around an extremely powerful computers in our pocket, but it also takes the form of sensors that exist in the physical world , the form of radio frequency identification readers we pass and anything when we access easy pass on the new jersey turnpike. It takes the form of whether sensors that are all around. Certainly surveillance cameras that collect data and then send them somewhere else. This is all part of unit, the imbedding of computers and to our real world. On afterwards the Deputy Editor of the futurist maga