author
Frederic Homer Balch
1861–1891
A gifted Pacific Northwest writer with a remarkably short life, he is remembered for turning the landscapes and Native traditions of the Columbia River region into vivid fiction. His best-known novel, The Bridge of the Gods, helped shape early regional literature in the American West.
1 Audiobook
The Bridge of the Gods A Romance of Indian Oregon. 19th Edition.
by Frederic Homer Balch
About the author
Born in Lebanon, Oregon, in 1861, Frederic Homer Balch grew up in the Pacific Northwest and developed an early love of history, storytelling, and the dramatic landscapes of his home region. He became known as a writer and minister, but his literary reputation rests mainly on The Bridge of the Gods: A Romance of Indian Oregon, published in 1890.
That novel is often noted as an important early Northwest work because it placed Native American characters and the Columbia River setting at the center of the story. Readers and later literary historians have remembered it for its strong sense of place and for helping define a distinctly regional voice in Oregon and Pacific Northwest fiction.
Balch died in 1891, only a year after his novel appeared, so his career was cut tragically short. Even so, his work endured, and The Bridge of the Gods remained the book most closely linked with his name and his lasting place in Oregon literary history.