In philosophic essay and the higher forms of pure belles-lettres the proportion of writings is not so large as in the old literary centers. Thought and time are still requisitioned for the founding of institutions. Few are the leisure-class people who pursue writing as an art. Yet one who cares to investigate will discover that no other state while so young has shown a richer output of literature, in content, in scope or in character. Perhaps this first published list will add to the number of those who do care to investigate. Perhaps too it will result in a wider acquaintance among those who are following the same undying art. Some day Washington writers will band together for mutual benefit. HISTORY =1. Blazing the Way.= (1909.) Emily Inez Denny. Pioneer home-life pictured by the daughter of the early settler who wrote No. 21. =2. Columbia River, Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce.= (1909.) William Dennison Lyman. Fully descriptive and reciting personal adventures. Professor Lyman, long-time teacher of history in Whitman College, has lived his whole life in the country he describes. The book contains many Indian legends. Eighty illustrations. =3. The Conquerors.= (1907.) Rev. A. Atwood. Dedicated to Jason Lee and the pioneer missionaries who laid the foundations of American institutions in old Oregon. Much about Lee whose missionary labors antedated Marcus Whitman's by two years. To some extent it touches the so-called Whitman controversy, a discussion due in part to the fact that the admirers of Whitman claimed too much for a patriot whose services needed no exaggeration. It has the endorsement of the Washington State Historical Society. =4. Glimpses in Pioneer Life on Puget Sound.= (1903.) Same author. A history of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the Pacific Coast. =5. David S. Maynard and Catherine T. Maynard.= (1906.) T. W. Prosch. Biography of two of the immigrants of 1850. Mrs. Maynard is honored in Seattle as the founder of a free reading room which grew into the Young Men's Christian Association of the city. =6. Gettysburg.= (1911.) Captain R. K. Beecham. An account of the great battle. Acknowledged to be most complete and accurate as to facts and it is written with the fire of a patriot and a poet. The veteran returns to visit the battle-field where as a youth half a century before he fought for the flag. Through his eyes and memories the reader sees events. =7. History of Puget Sound Country.= (1903.) Colonel William Farland Prosser. The late president of the State Historical Society compiled this work in two large volumes, a painstaking and valuable reference work. =8. History of Seattle.= (1916.) Clarence B. Bagley. Three large volumes. Very comprehensive. The third volume is wholly biographical.