The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment (1913). By: David Grayson (Ray Stannard Baker), illustrated By: Thomas Fogarty (1873 - 1

By David Grayson, Thomas Fogarty, Ray Stannard Baker

Book Overview

Ray Stannard Baker (April 17, 1870 in Lansing, Michigan - July 12, 1946 in Amherst, Massachusetts)(also known by his pen name David Grayson) was an American journalist, historian, biographer, and author.Baker was born in Michigan. After graduating from the State Agricultural College (now Michigan State University), he attended law school at the University of Michigan in 1891 before launching his career as a journalist in 1892 with the Chicago News-Record, where he covered the Pullman Strike and Coxey's Army in 1894. In 1898 Baker joined the staff of McClure's, a pioneer muckraking magazine, and quickly rose to prominence along with Lincoln Steffens and Ida Tarbell. He also dabbled in fiction, writing children's stories for the magazine Youth's Companion and a 9-volume series of stories about rural living in America, the first of which was titled "Adventures in Contentment" (1910) under his pseudonym David Grayson, which reached millions of readers worldwide. In 1907 dissatisfied with the muckraker label, Baker, Steffens, and Tarbell left McClure's and founded The American Magazine. In 1908 after the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot got him involved, Baker published the book Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy, becoming the first prominent journalist to examine America's racial divide; it was extremely successful. Sociologist Rupert Vance says it is: the best account of race relations in the South during the period - one that reads like field notes for the future historian. This account was written during the zenith of Washingtonian movement and shows the optimism that it inspired among both liberals and moderates. The book is also notable for its realistic accounts of Negro town life He followed up that work with numerous articles in the following decade.In 1912 Baker supported the presidential candidacy of Woodrow Wilson, which led to a close relationship between the two men, and in 1918 Wilson sent Baker to Europe to study the war situation. During peace negotiations, Baker served as Wilson's press secretary at Versailles. He eventually published 15 volumes about Wilson and internationalism, including the 6-volume The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1925-1927) with William Edward Dodd, 5] and the 8-volume Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters (1927-39), the last two volumes of which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1940. He served as an adviser on Darryl F. Zanuck's 1944 film Wilson. Baker wrote three autobiographies, Native American (1941), American Chronicle (1945) and Turtles (1943) Baker died of a heart attack in Amherst, Massachusetts, and is buried there in Wildwood Cemetery. Buildings have been named in honor of both Ray Stannard Baker and David Grayson (his pen name). A dormitory, Grayson Hall, is at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The David Grayson Elementary School is in Waterford, Michigan. An academic building, Baker Hall, is at Michigan State University. Baker's brother Hugh Potter Baker was the president of Massachusetts State College that later became the University of Massachusetts.... Biography Thomas Fogarty (1873 - 1938) Illustrator Thomas Fogarty is known for nostalgic pen and ink illustrations depicting an earlier era, especially simple homespun subjects. He worked in many mediums, but was especially noted for pen and ink, o wash and crayon, as exemplified by his interpretive pictures for the David Grayson books, and illustrations for 'Sailing Alone Around the World' by Joshua Slocum. For many years, Thomas Fogarty was a teacher at the Art Students' League; among his pupils were Walter Biggs, McClelland Barclay and Norman Rockwell. Besides Fogarty's instruction in composition, Rockwell is said to recall that his teacher conveyed his "enthusiasm about illustration", and that it was Fogarty who sent him to a publisher, where he got a job illustrating .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1542703344
• ISBN13: 9781542703345
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

A MELLOW AND REWARDING READ. DO NOT LET THIS ONE BE LOST.

I fear that this work, along with the seven others authored by this writer, have slipped into our misty literary past and can only be found in used book stores and on the shelves of elderly men and women. Like the books, the author has also dropped off the radar scope of most readers. What a horrible, horrible pity this is! David Grayson is the pseudonym used by Ray Stannard Baker, a Pulitzer Prize winner for biography in 1940. Stannard got his start writing for the popular muckracking magazine, McClure's which was quite popular toward the early part of the 1900s. In 1908 he wrote, under his own name, a book entitled "Following the Color Line" and is noted as the first prominent journalist to write about, in a truthful fashion, the deplorable conditions of race relations in this country at that time. Many articles addressing this problem followed and he is considered one of the leading pioneers in this area. He was a close friend of Woodrow Wilson and among his many writings were a series of books, written under the pen name of David Grayson. These books touted the pleasures of country life and country living. Think Tom Sawyer, Henry David Thoreau, Will Rogers and a touch of ever old man who you ever met playing checkers at the corner barbershop, mix well and you get the picture. This review concerns the first of this eight book series. This offering, The Friendly Road, is the first. A farmer, (the author writes all these books in first person) simply puts his hat on, grabs his cane and hits the road. It is sort of like the Australian Walk-about; turn of the century American style. There is no destination, no goal...he just starts walking. This is the story of his journey. The author records, through his farmer's eyes, the land, nature, the seasons and most importantly, he talks with people and actually listens to people. You get a strong dose of countrified philosophy here, astute observations of the condition of mankind and general thoughts and feelings of the man as he makes his journey through the country and small villages. I must say, there are very few of his thoughts that I have not felt myself through the years and very few of the authors opinions that I do not share. He is able to articulate what I am not able. This folks is a mellow read! I can almost promise you that while reading it your blood pressure will drop and your cares will sort of drift away for a bit. Good sound advice; a different and better way of seeing the world around you and a good dose of common sense are all gathered in the pages of this book to make this work one delightful reading experience! We are lucky in that the author does not indulge himself with the flowery prose and verbose, convoluted sentences so popular at the time...no, this book is quite readable even to this day! It should also be noted and strongly emphasized that the authors findings, observations and opinions, grounded though they may be in a past culture, are still as

The Friendly Book

I really enjoyed this one. A farmer (the author) leaves his comfortable farm life and decides to just "walk" and go on a journey. It takes place in America around the turn of the century. He meets various people along the way and he has moments of insight with nature and humanity. This story reminded me of a combination of Tom Sawyer and Thoreau. I read this in a time in my life when things were very hectic and stressful. It brought me back to the simple things in life that really matter: Nature and our relationship with fellow human beings. After just completing such a journey myself I can only say that this book is still strong in my mind. Occasionally his insightful words would pop out of the page and I would exclaim, "Oh, that's right!" as if I had forgotten some great secret to being happy. We should all take the time to read this book when we are looking for comfort and direction in this new world that sucks all our time and leaves us stressed out and haggard.