Oregon Fiction Bibliography compiled by Browsers' Bookstore

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Oregon Fiction Bibliography

This list is an ongoing project. Please email, call, or stop by if you have other authors/titles to add to the list.

We are looking for novels that are set in Oregon. The author does not have to be Oregonian, nor does the book need to be historical fiction.

Adult Novels
Young Adult Novels
I am including young adult (marked YA) fiction, but not younger children's books. Most of the YA books listed will still be enjoyable by adults.

Adult Novels

Randy Alcorn
Portland author who is one of the stars of Oregon's notable community of Christian novelists. Although Christian Fiction is often "ghettoized" (and admittedly at Browsers') in its own section, it is increasingly becoming one of Oregon's foremost literary outputs. He might have others set in Oregon, but the following definitely are:
Deception.
Dominion.
Safely Home. (partly set in Shanghai)

Richard Anderson
Born in Spokane, Anderson lived in Portland and Sauvie Island.
Down River. Commercial fisheries on the Columbia River. Portland, Binfords & Mort: 1950.

Frederic Homer Balch
The Bridge of the Gods. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1890. Native Americans band together to keep out the white settlers.
Genevieve: A Tale of Old Oregon. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1932. Posthumously published (Balch died at age 30.)

Clive Barker
Everville. NY: HarperCollins, 1994. Part of this book is set in the real world: and that reality is Silverton.

Mary Lou Bennett
Murder Once Done. Menlo Park, CA: Perseverance Press, 1988. Trade paperback mystery.

Don Berry
Trask. NY: Viking, 1960. Oregon Coast, 1848. This is one of the most requested Oregon novels at our store.

Archie Binns
Although a better fit for a "Washington Fiction Bibliography," his books have enough interest to an Oregon reader to slip in here.
The Land Is Bright. NY: Scribner's, 1939. Oregon Trail.
Lightship. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1934.
Mighty Mountain. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1940. Puget Sound in the 1850s

F. Rosanne Bittner
Oregon Bride. Popular Library: 1990. An historical romance. A bodice-ripper in genre, but unfortunately, not quite so in cover art... ha ha!

Marje Blood
Morning Song, Mourning Song. Narcissa: Her Story. Book I & Book II. Eugene: Image Imprints, 1985 (Book I), 1987 (Book II.)
A biographical novel of Narcissa Whitman.

Richard Brautigan
The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western. (1974). "The time is 1902. The setting, eastern Oregon. The action begins when Magic Child, a 15-year-old Indian girl of surprising sophistication and accomplishment, wanders into the wrong whorehouse looking for the right men--the men who will kill the monster that lives in the ice caves under the basement of Miss Hawkline's cold yellow house."

Patricia Briggs
River Marked. Ace Books, 2011. A paranormal adventure on the Columbia River.

David Brin
The Postman. Post-apocalyptic novel; basis for the Kevin Costner movie, which I actually liked.

Lynn Bronson [see Evelyn Sibley Lampman]

Terry Brooks
Hugely popular fantasy epic writer. This one took me by surprise: I am told his Genesis of Shannara series takes place in a future Oregon and Washington.

Irene Bennett Brown
Prolific author who has never quite hit it big. Many of her books are historical and are appropriate for teens or adults.

Alafair Burke
Daughter of acclaimed southern mystery writer James Lee Burke, she is an accomplished author herself. She's a Reed alumn, and her Samantha Kincaid series is set in Portland.

Nancy Bush
Her Jane Kelly cozy mysteries are set in Lake Chinook. Not in the LAKE, mind you, but the city. Lisa Jackson's sister.
Candy Apple Red. 2005
Electric Blue. 2006
Ultraviolet. 2007

Melody Carlson
Carlson lives in Sisters. A Christian author of contemporary fiction, though much appears not to be set in Oregon.
Angels in the Snow. Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 2002.

Robert Ormond Case
The Empire Builders. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1947. A "series of exciting personal narratives" rather than an actual novel (Oregon Trail & settlement), but still a good fit for this book list.

Claire Warner Churchill
Slave Wives of Nehalem. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1933. A series of stories, based on original tales or incidents. They are dramatically told, however, and so can have their place in a fiction bibliography.

Robin Cody
Ricochet River.

Sabra Conner (see also "Thirteen Oregon Authors")
The Fighting Starrs of Oregon. Reilly & Lee: 1932. Notable for its map endpapers.
The Quest of the Sea Otter.. Reilly & Lee: 1927. Was published in a signed edition of 1500. (A novel for youth, but we'll keep it with this other.)

Bruce N. Coulter
Wagons across the Mountains. NY: Dodd, Mead, 1957. Boy & his schoolteacher leave Vermont to venture west on the Oregon Trail and find the boy's father.

Catherine Coulter
The Cove.
The Edge.

H.L. Davis
Honey in the Horn. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about southern Oregon.
Winds of Morning. NY: William Morrow, 1952.
The Distant Music. NY: William Morrow, 1957.

David James Duncan
The River Why.

Katharine Dunn
Geek Love.

Eva Emery Dye
The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis & Clark. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1902. All of the mythology of Sacajawea comes from this book.
The Soul of America: An Oregon Iliad. New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1934.

Elizabeth Engstrom
Eugene author who teaches novel writing at LCC.
Lizard Wine. Delta, 1996. "A novel of terrifying sexual warfare and complex character study."

Mary Hallock Foote
Foote, the subject of Wallace Stegner's masterpiece Angle of Repose is a largely forgotten novelist and illustrator. I could use some help to determine which, if any, of her books are set in Oregon.

William J. Forest
Empty Horizon: A Story of Adventure & Romance in the Northwest. Eugene: Falcon Press, 1982. Historical novel of aviation and the pulp & papermaking industry in the 1930s.

Mary Freeman
(see Mary Rosenblum.)

Molly Gloss
The Jump-Off Creek
Wild Life

Donna Grundman
Days to Remember. NY: Dell, 1984. Historical romance, post WWI.

David Guterson

Sheba Hargreaves
Cabin at the Trail's End: A Story of Oregon. Harper & Brothers, 1928. Some real research must have actually been done for this novel, as Nellie B. Pipes (OHS), E. Ruth Rockwood (Head of Reference Dept. at Portland Library Assoc.), and Alfred Powers (U of O) are the three people mentioned in the Acknowledgment.
Ward of the Redskins. Harper & Brothers, 1929. Opens with Nathaniel Wyeth's "Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company."

Ernest James Haycox (1899-1950)
A Portland-based Western hack (24 novels & 250 short stories.) I could use some help with settings for his books: my understanding is that the later ones tend to be Oregonian (including the two posthumous publications.)
The Earthbreakers. NY: Little, Brown, 1952
The Adventurers. NY: Little, Brown, 1954.

Emerson Hough
The Covered Wagon. NY: D. Appleton-Century, 1922. Oregon Trail novel, hugely popular.

Lisa Jackson
Born in Molalla--I could use some help to determine which of her books are set in Oregon.
Running Scared.

Nard Jones
Jones lived in both Washington & Oregon. He wrote a few Northwest histories as well as the novels.
Oregon Detour. NY: Payson & Clarke, 1930. This is often acclaimed as the first "realistic" (a la John Steinbeck & Sinclair Lewis) novel of Oregon. The residents of the town written about were not amused.
The Petlands. NY: Brewer, Warren, & Putnam, 1931. (#2 in the trilogy starting with Oregon Detour.)
Wheat Women. NY: Duffield and Green, 1933. (#3 in the trilogy starting with Oregon Detour.)
Swift Flows the River. NY: Dodd, Mead, 1940.

Ken Kesey
Kesey set the stage for Oregon's literature for at least a generation.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking, 1962.
Sometimes A Great Notion. NY: Viking, 1964.
Last Go Round. NY: Viking, 1994.

Karen Kingsbury
A best-selling Christian author, Kingsbury is a Washintonian who has at least one novel set in Oregon.
Gideon's Gift.

Jane Kirkpatrick
Much props to my buddy Gary Asher at Maverick Publishing for "discovering" Kirkpatrick, who is now a best selling author! :) Most, if not all, of her books are set in Oregon.

Amanda Lee
This author is also listed on our "Cozy Mystery" bibliography!
The Quick and the Thread. "Opening an embroidery specialty shop in Tallulah Falls, Oregon, was a big deal for Marcy Singer. But it was nothing compared to finding a dead body in her store."

Craig Lesley
Very well-received literary author, the only thing that drives me crazy is that when he signs his books, he prints his name. (Call me OCD, I know.) He lives in Portland, and his novels frequently have a Native American interest. He also has a memoir Burning Fence.
Winterkill. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. Father-son novel about Native American rodeo rider (he's the father.)
River Song. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. Sequel to Winterkill.
Sky Fisherman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. Coming-of-age amidst traumatic times.
Storm Riders. NY: Picador, 2000. Trials & tribulations of single father raising mentally retarded son.

Ron Lovell
Former journalist & OSU prof, now pumping out mysteries from Gleneden Beach. His Thomas Martindale mysteries are set on the Oregon coast. Trade paperbacks only; self-published but they do have reasonable distribution.
Murder at Yaquina Head. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2002.
Dead Whales Tell No Tales. Santa Fe: Sunstone Press, 2003.
Murder Below Zero. Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2005. (Part of the series, but Martindale treks to the Arctic, so not really set in Oregon.)
Searching for Murder. Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2006.
Lights, Camera, Murder! Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2007.
Descent into Madness. Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2007
Yaquina White. Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2008.
Murder in E-Flat Major. Gleneden: Penman Productions, 2010.

Bernard Malamud

Phillip Margolin
Contemporary Portland-based mystery author. I believe most of his books are set in Portland, but could use some help.

Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Crown Fire. NY: Coward-McCann, 1951. From the flap: "This is the story of a boy with a temper as flaming as the forest fire which destroys the Oregon forest he loves." (Probably YA. Had the book in my hands...seemed like a coming-of-age novel, but sticking it in adult fiction just in case.)

Mildred Masterson McNeilly
"Mrs. McNeilly was born on a ranch her grandparents bought from the Indians for six deerskins and a plug of tobacco."
Each Bright River. (1950) Grand adventure in the Oregon country in 1845.

Donald E. McQuinn
Another post-apocalyptic tale set in the Pacific Northwest. Although it is mostly set in Washington, in post-apocalyptic times the whole area kind of becomes like the old Oregon Territory, so we'll throw it in.
Warrior.
Wanderer.
Witch.

Tom Mitcheltree
Worldwide Mystery author (but he has a Ph.D.), based in Hubbard. His Paul Fischer books are set in the Oregon. (Thanks to our buddy at Literate Collector in Woodburn for finding this author!)

Honore Willsie Morrow
On to Oregon. NY: William Morrow, 1926
We Must March: A Novel of the Winning of Oregon. NY: Frederick A. Stokes, 1925.

Chuck Palahniuk
Hot Portland author. The next Ken Kesey?

Steve Perry
Oregon author, not sure how many are set here.

Thomas Perry
Nightlife. Set in Portland; Perry is a crazy mystery author & one of my favorites.

Alfred Powers
Marooned in Crater Lake: Stories of the Skyline Trail, the Umpqua Trail, and the Old Oregon Trail. Short stories, rather than a novel. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1930.

Naseem Rakha
The Crying Tree. Drama of family of a murdered son coping with their loss. Set in Oregon's high desert. New York: Broadway Books, 2009.

Mohammod Ti Riff
A Toke to Success: A Fantasy. Corvallis: Motengator Press, 1983. Self-published novel in which the legalization of marijuana and prostitution solves the world's problems. Features a "porn king" from Albany.

Vingie E. Roe
Wild Hearts. Caxton, 1939. "A romance of fast action and brave loving in the [Klamath] range country."

Mary Rosenblum
Oregon author who writes (wrote?) science fiction under her own name and cozy mysteries as Mary Freeman. The Freeman books (Gardening Mysteries) are set in Oregon at the Columbia River Inn--the sleuth is the gardener.
The Drylands. NY: Del Rey, 1993. Republished in 2007 as Water Rites with a sexier cover. Pseudo-post-apocalyptic novel: drought has beset the nation, and an Army Corps of Engineers officer needs to protect the Columbia Riverbed Pipeline against desperate farmers--who might have been framed.

Dana Fuller Ross [Noel B. Gerson]
Oregon! Bantam: 1980. Part of the lengthy Wagons West! series, most of the others of which would have some relevance to the Oregon Trail.

James Stevens (1891-1972)
Big Jim Turner. Garden City: Doubleday, 1948. Though the setting is Idaho, this does contain "characters" Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Joe Hill. Like C.E.S. Wood, Stevens may have received more attention/notoriety from his political activity and articles than from his fiction (or, in Wood's case, poetry.)

S.M. Stirling
Southwest science fiction author who is locally popular for his "Emberverse" trilogy, a pseudo-post-apocalyptic tale (all advanced technology stops working.)
Dies the Fire
The Protector's War
A Meeting at Corvallis
There's a follow-up tetralogy to this trilogy, in which the characters leave Oregon for Nantucket. The first of the four books, The Sunrise Lands, still largely takes place in Oregon, but the next three follow the band as they cross America.

Thirteen Oregon Authors
The authors are: Charles Alexander, Robert Ormond Case, Kathleen MacNeal Clarke, Dean Collins, Sabra Conner, Anthony Euwer, Major John D. Guthrie, Sheba May Hargreaves, Theodore Acland Harper, Stewart H. Holbrook, Alexander Hull, Harold Bradley Say, Lillian Porter Say. Foreword by Fred Lockley.
The Loop: A Tale of the Oregon Country. Run in serial form under the title "Emanon" in The Journal, Portland, Oregon.. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1931.

Lee Wallingford
Author of two Frank Carver & Ginny Trask mysteries for Worldwide. Set in the fictional Neskanie National Forest on Oregon's central coast (sounds like the area around Neskowin.)
Cold Tracks
Clear-Cut Murder

Joyce Weatherford
Descendant of the Weatherfords who came in 1851.
Heart of the Beast. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Contemporary; trade paperback novel of young rancher vs. Nez Perce while going through family/personal drama.

James Seeley White
White is best known for his books on Pacific beachcombing, shells, and diving, but he did manage to punp out one historical novel.
The Spells of Lamazee: An Historical Novel of the Pacific Northwest Coast. A novel of Jack Ramsay. Portland: Loki Books, 1982.

Opal Whiteley
The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart. NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1920. Presented as a diary, this would probably be classified as "creative nonfiction" today. Still, because of its huge influence and some probable fictional elements, it can be included here. Whiteley wound up in an asylum.

Kate Wilhelm
Once known as a science fiction author, she has been writing mysteries for the past 20 years. Contemporary author based in Eugene, as is her mystery heroine Barbara Holloway.

M.K. Wren
Wren is the author of the Conan Flagg mystery series which is set on the Oregon Coast. Her most requested book, however, is not a mystery, but:
A Gift Upon the Shore. NY: Ballantine, 1990. Post-apocalyptic novel. In addition to being set in the Northwest, this also carries with it the Northwest's love of books.

William P. Young
Young is one of the new breed of Christian authors who are blasting away the barriers between bestsellers and Christian Fiction.
The Shack.

Miriam Zellnik
Mystery author whose Libby Seale series is set in Portland.

Young Adult Novels

Charles Alexander
I've been told this author lived in Albany.
The Fang in the Forest. NY: Dodd, Mead, 1923. (YA)

Herbert E. Arnston
WSU prof who wrote a few boy's adventure novels set in old Oregon.
Two Guns in Old Oregon. Franklin Watts, 1964. (YA)
Frontier Boy: A Story of Oregon. NY: Ives Washburn, 1967. (YA)
Mountain Boy in Oregon. NY: Ives Washburn, 1968. Set in 1846, a 13-year old boy keeps trying to climb Pistol Peak, but various incidents cause delay. (YA)

T.A. Barron
The Ancient One. (YA)

Lillian Budd
The Bell of Kamela. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1960. From the flap: "skillfully blends the experiences of a twentieth-century lumberjack, who believes that he hears a bell...with that of a young pioneer family...who crossed the plains alone one hundred years earlier." (YA)

Julia Butler
Member of the Washington State Congress.
Singing Paddles. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1937. Great DJ art by James McKeown. Oregon Trail story with Whitman & McLoughlin as characters in the book. (YA)

Lorna Callahan
Where the Trail Divides. NY: Whittlesey, 1957. Oregon Trail novel "with a vital young girl as heroine." (YA)

Gifford P. Cheshire.
River of Gold (Oregon and the Challenge of the Gold Rush.) NY: Aladdin Books, 1955. The story of the opening up of the Willamette valley. From the flap: "Mr. Cheshire's characters are drawn from actual records of homesteaders who crossed the Immigrant Trail with Marcus Whitman or came by Clipper Ship." (YA)

Beverly Cleary
One of Oregon's most famous authors has also written a memoir A Girl from Yamhill (1996) which may be of interest. Not sure how many of her many books are set in Oregon, but the wildly popular Ramona series is set in Portland. Get your kids started with Ramona the Pest. A little young for this list, but what kind of an Oregon list doesn't have Beverly Cleary? (YA)

Linda Crew
Corvallisite who does not shop enough at Browsers'...but we still like her.
Fire on the Wind. (YA)
Nekomah Creek. (YA)
Nekomah Creek Christmas. (YA)
Long Time Passing. NY: Delacorte, 1997. Small town coming of age set during Vietnam War. (YA)
Daughters of Eve: A True Story Imagined. NY: HarperCollins, 2001. From the LOC CIP: "In this story based on true events, 16-year-old Eva and her female friends become obsessed with a charismatic young man who comes to Corvallis, Oregon, in 1903, claiming to be a Christian prophet." (YA--but read by almost every adult in Corvallis.)

Catherine Cornwall De Moss
De Moss was an Oregon teacher who wanted to write a book that was both informative yet enjoyable.
Blue Bucket Nuggets: A Tale of Oregon's Lost Immigration. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1939. (YA)

Cecil Pearl Dryden
By Sea on the Tonquin. Caxton: 1956. McDougall's voyage to Oregon, building of Fort Astoria, fur trade, etc.

Pearl Gischler & Gwendolen Hayden
Muslin Town: A Story about Gold Rush Days in Oregon. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1946. (YA)
Mystery at Christmas Tree Farm. Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1951. Christmas trees, a lone oak tree, and a buried treasure.(YA)

Vera Graham
Treasure in the Covered Wagon: A Story of the Oregon Trail. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1952. An organ makes its way to Oregon in 1845. From the flap: "Flave-Ann's adventures on the Oregon trail are real ones, based on a journal kept by the author's great-grandfather as a boy." (YA)

Alice Wheeler Greve
From Out this House: A Novel of Early Portland and Oregon. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1945. Probably too young to fit in here, but I'm more lenient with the older books. Good for 8-12 year olds. (YA)

Dorelle Shivez Hale
Oney of Oregon. NY: Pageant Press, 1954. Set in Buena Vista, a growing up story of a daughter of Scottish emigrants. Cute picture on front cover of girl holding pig. (YA)

Gail Langer Karwoski
Seaman: The Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis & Clark. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1999. Only partly set in Oregon, along the Columbia; still, the travels of Lewis & Clark are important enough to oregon history, that they can sneak in here. (YA)

E.A. Krewson
Tioga's Pigs. Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1955. From the flap: "What happens when young, two-fisted Hog Kings drive a herd of hungry, wild razorbacks 16 miles over a narrow, winding pack trail to the myrtle nut flats of Tiogra Valley is told in this true adventure tale of early Oregon." (YA)

Evelyn Sibley Lampman (1907-1980)
Dallas-based and well-beloved children's author.
Timberland Adventure [under pseudonym Lynn Bronson.] Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1950. Set in 1901 (YA)
The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek. NY: Doubleday, 1955. The most famous of all kids' Oregon books features a talking dinosaur. Oh, well, so much for historical accuracy; at least it's fun! (YA)
The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs. NY: Doubleday, 1962. Follow-up to Cricket Creek. (YA)

Jo Evalin Lundy
Lundy was born & raised in Tillamook County, then lived in Portland.
Tidewater Valley: A Story of the Swiss in Oregon. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1949. Dairy farming in Tillamook. (YA)
Seek the Dark Gold: A Story of the Scots Fur Traders. Philadelphia: Winston, 1951.
The Challengers: Oregon in the 1840's. NY: Aladdin, 1953. (YA)

Miriam E. Mason
Young Mr. Meeker and His Exciting Journey to Oregon. NY: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952. Probably too young to fit in here, but I'm more lenient with the older books. Good for 8-12 year olds. (YA)

Isabel Couper McLelland
Ten Beaver Road. NY: Henry Holt, 1948. I don't have a DJ to read off for this one, but it looks to be set in late 19th or early 20th century, and seems to concern Scottish emigrants to Oregon. (YA)

Stephen W. Meader
Keep 'Em Rolling. NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967. Oregon Trail novel by the phenomenally popular boys' historical adventure novelist. The successor to Robert Louis Stevenson and G.A. Henty. (YA)

Helen Cracraft Siler
Pe-Woo-Ee. Corvallis: by the author, 1979. A turn-of-the-century look at homesteading in the Pacific Northwest. Long hog drive. (YA)

A[nna] Rutgers Van der Loeff
Oregon at Last! [Translation of De Kinderkaravaan (1954) and first published in the U.K. as Children on the Oregon Trail.] NY: William Morrow, 1961. See? Even the Dutch think we're interesting! (YA)

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