Seattle is a mashup of water and mountains — it just might be the ultimate outdoor playground. If you want to go hiking, camping, boating, biking, or meander in a beautiful garden, Seattle is a fantastic place to do all of that.
It also claims a vast realm of ‘firsts’ in music, architecture, politics, and literature. (Not to mention Bigfoot sightings, if that’s your thing.) There’s grunge music, Elvis appearances, the Seattle Seahawks’ 12th Man, an inordinate number of sunglasses, and more library cards than anywhere else in the United States.
The city also hosted two World’s Fairs: the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition in 1909 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush (you do not want to miss the Two Truths and a Lie story about that one!) — and the Century 21 Exposition in 1962. That one — which tried to predict what life in America would be like in the year 2000 and beyond — gave us the Space Needle, the Alweg Monorail, and a car shaped like a rocket.
In this episode, we learn the stories of a few remarkable Seattle women, celebrate Seattle’s superlatives, and share a bookish itinerary for the ‘Most Literate City in the Country.’
Then we recommend five great books that took us there on the page, including an unusual ghost story, a memoir about living in 1950s Seattle, a thriller set in the world of journalism, three graphic novels that will make you want to take a walk, and a modern fable set in the San Juan islands.
Read the full transcript of Seattle: City of Superlatives.
Perhaps you’d like to listen to some Nirvana while you dig into these links.
And some photos to set the scene…
51 Mind-boggling Facts That Proves Seattle Is the Best in the West.
Get your Bigfoot on: History of Sasquatch in Washington; Olympic Project Brings Science to the Legend of Sasquatch (podcast); The Olympic Project.
Visiting the Seattle Central Library: This Stunning American Library Is the Height of Whimsy; Central Library Highlights; FriendShop in The Seattle Public Library.
Seattle’s Civic Poet: About the Seattle Civic Poet Program; Civic Poet 2023-24: Shin Yu Pai.
Statement 1: The Seattle Seahawks fans are so loud that their cheering has been registered as earthquake activity. Read more about The 12s and Taylor Swift’s record-breaking seismic activity.
Statement 2: During the 1909 World’s Fair, a woman was raffled off as a bride. Memorable Time When Seattle Was A World of Wonder.
Statement 3: In the late 1800s, Seattle was saved from financial ruin by a sex worker. Lou Graham on Wikipedia — more here. Of course there’s a ghost of Lou Graham.
I Wish I Was Like You by S.P. Miskowski
This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolffe
Deadline Man by Jon Talton
Crime Spree Magazine: Interview with the author.
Bear by Julia Phillips
Electric Lit: Interview with the author.
Seattle Walk Report by Susanna Ryan
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