Sketches of the North Country

In the days of log drives on the rivers of New England, whenever a riverman was killed on the drive, his comrades hung his spiked boots on a tree to mark the spot. As a youth, Robert Pike spotted such a pair of boots, and from that moment was born his lifelong fascination with the colorful history of the New England logging industry.

The dozens of tales Pike collected are narrated here by "Old Vern," a cantankerous backwoods character. Here are legends and wild anecdotes of the loggers and rivermen who worked in the woods and on the Connecticut and Androscoggin Rivers, plying their romantic, dangerous trade in the early part of this century.

Although Pike was a respected scholar and historian and the author of many books, Spiked Boots is the one he wanted to be remembered by. The Countryman Press edition features a new foreword by Helen-Chantal Pike, who grew up hearing her father's tales as bedtime stories.

"No one ever wrote better than Robert Pike about the lumberers, river drivers, teamsters, two-fisted brawlers, rum runners, and all-purpose rapscallions of northern New England. Spiked Boots is a sheer delight to read and re-read-a North Country classic."
—Howard Frank Mosher, author of Disappearances

$14.95 (Can. $20.99)
0-88150-436-X
288 pages, paperback, b & w photographs

This title is not currently available for purchase from The Countryman Press. Booksellers may order through Ingram Book Company or Baker and Taylor; individuals may order wherever books are sold.