Along the way, Sale touches on the economic diversity of late nineteenth-century Seattle that allowed it to grow; describes the major achievements of the first boom years in parks, boulevards, and neighborhoods of quiet elegance; and draws portraits of people like Vernon Parrington, Nellie Cornish, and Mark Tobey, who came to Seattle and flourished. The result is a powerful assessment of Seattle's vitality, the result of old-timers and newcomers mixing both in harmony and in antagonism.
With a new introduction by Seattle journalist Knute Berger, this edition invites today's readers to revisit Sale's time capsule of Seattle―and perhaps learn something unexpected about this ever-changing city.