“It’s history, it’s engineering,
it’s the landscape, it’s the West!”
September 16th, 2013 by jules
“The more I learned about how the machines worked, the more interesting they became to me—in the same way that a puzzle can become more interesting as you begin to solve it. And the more I thought about and read about and then saw the landscape through which the transcontinental line traveled, the more amazed I became. Some of that landscape is beautiful and frightening in its openness, emptiness, grandeur. I remember cruising along state Route 233 in Nevada, absolutely alone, and imagining what it would have been like to be out there, building that line in 1869.”
That’s Brian Floca, pictured here, on his beautiful new picture book, Locomotive (Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, September 2013). Today over at Kirkus, we talk about his research. That link is here.
Photo of Brian Floca used with permission of the publisher.
