The Great American Railroad War; How Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris Took on the Nortorious Central Pacific Railroad

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Julia Ewan (Author photograph). [12], 306, [2] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads For Sandy (a real historian) Dennis Drabelle Sept. 15, 2012. The notorious Central Pacific Railroad riveted the attention of two great American writers: Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris. In The Great American Railroad War, Dennis Drabelle tells a classic story of corporate greed vs. the power of the pen. The Central Pacific Railroad accepted US Government loans; but, when the loans fell due, the last surviving founder of the railroad avoided repayment. Bierce, at the behest of his boss William Randolph Hearst, swung into action writing over sixty stinging articles that became a signal achievement in American journalism. Later, Norris focused the first volume of his trilogy, The Octopus, on the freight cars of a thinly disguised version of the Central Pacific. The Great American Railroad War is a lively chapter of US history pitting two of America's greatest writers against one of America's most powerful corporations. Dennis Drabelle was born and raised in St. Louis, where he graduated from St. Louis University. He earned a Master's in English and a law degree, both from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. HE moved to Washington, D.C., where he became counsel to the assistant secretary of the interior with responsibility for the national parks. He had developed a passion for wilderness--both hiking in it and reflecting on its importance to the human spirit. I then work as a contributing editor of the Washington Post Book World from 1984-2015. Derived from a Kirkus review: A story of rapacious railroads and angry pens in the Gilded Age. On May 10, 1869, the rails of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined at Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory, creating the first transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad soon became the object of public ire. Not only did it fail to bring longed-for prosperity, but the railroad charged unfair rates and suborned lawmakers and regulators; its major backers lacked the common touch and built offensively lavish mansions with their newfound wealth. Washington Post Book World contributing editor Drabelle offers a bright, anecdote-filled account of the rise of the railroad corporations, their corrupt business practices and how through journalism and fiction, two leading authors—Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris—made the Central Pacific "a symbol of everything that ailed Gilded Age America." The complex business story involved surveying, overcoming obstacles (weather and cholera), finding laborers, and cajoling investors, including the federal government, which provided massive aid for construction. Rail barons "achieved a near-miracle by building a railroad through some of the roughest terrain in the country," but they "couldn't overcome the widespread perception of their company as a monster that threatened the American republic form of government itself." In more than 60 articles written in the 1890s for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, Bierce reamed the railroad and its owners. Based on Bierce's writing and other sources, Norris then wrote The Octopus (1901), a novel about a railroad whose tentacles wrapped around California. Drabelle's chapters on Bierce and Norris make fine introductions to these important but lesser-known American writers. A nicely crafted portrait of monopolists and muckrakers.