College of Urban and Public Affairs

Nick at City Council cropped

Nick Fish City Hall Book Collection

The Nick Fish City Hall Book Collection provides an overview of Nick's self-education on the history of Portland and Oregon, a place to which he migrated from his home in New York City in 1996. The collection showcases his attention to detail and to the personal.  It contains significant numbers of privately or self-published books. These books might strike another reader as idiosyncratic but they are very telling for Nick, who knew that meaning was both place-based and personal, and one-of-a-kind. The collection also demonstrates Nick’s visual sense and his love of the arts and architecture. If he loved a beautiful book, he usually bought several copies. He loved first editions of a cherished book and delighted in the second and third if such were to be had. Finally, many of these volumes contain autographs. A significant number of the books contain multiple autographs. These inscriptions testify to the personal relationships that fed Nick’s mind and fired his spirit in his work with people and for the city of Portland. The bookplates have been placed on the inside of the back cover whenever possible to preserve these autographs. 

THE BOOK COLLECTION

A

 Abbott, Carl. Imagined Frontiers: Contemporary America and Beyond. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2015. 

———. The Great Extravaganza: Portland and the Lewis and Clark Exposition. Third edition. Portland, Or: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2004.

_____. The Metropolitan Frontier: Cities in the Modern American West. University of Arizona Press, 1993.

———. Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2011.

______. Portland: Planning, Politics and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City. University of Nebraska, 1983.

“Artslandia Magazine 2016-2017 by Artslandia - Issuu.”

Atterby, Vivian Corbett. The Oregon Story. Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort, 1947.

Applewhite, Ashton. This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. Networked Books, 2016.

B

Banis, David. “Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas.” Seattle, WA: Sasquatch Books, 2015.

Bender, Steven. One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, César Chávez, and the Dream of Dignity. London: Routledge, 2016.

Bridge Lab. True Portland: The Unofficial Guide for Creative People, 2014.

Birk, Mia. “Joyride: Pedaling toward a Healthier Planet.” Portland, Or: Cadence Press, 2010.

 Block, Shirley. Amalgamated Transit Union 757, 2017.

 Blue Sky Gallery. Blue Sky. Portland, Oregon: Blue Sky Gallery, 2005.

Brewster, Elizabeth W. Portland Sketchbook. Lipman & Wolfe, 1968.

Brown, Richard. This Is Not For You: An Activist’s Journey of Resistance and Resilience. 1st edition. Oregon State University Press, 2021.

Buan, Carolyn M., and Caroline P. Stoel. The First Duty: A History of the U.S. District Court for Oregon. Portland, Or: U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society, 1993.

Burkholder, Rex. The Activist’s Toolkit: Advice and Encouragement from an Experienced Activist to Help You Be a Successful Leader in Your Community. First edition. Portland, Oregon: Rex Burkholder, 2015.

C

Chaille, Greg and Kristin Anderson. State of giving: Stories of Oregon Volunteers, Donor, and Nonprofits. Oregon state University Press, 2015.

 Citizens Commission on Homelessness. Home Again: A Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. Portland, Or.,Bureau of Housing and Community Development, 2004.

City Club of Portland. The Conscience of a City. Portland, Or., 1966.

Cloepfil, Brad. Case Work: Studies in Form, Space and Construction.

Coalition for a Livable Future. “The Regional Equity Atlas: Metropolitan Portland’s Geography
of Opportunity.” Portland, Oregon: Coalition for a Livable Future, 2007.

Cook, Janet. Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area: 25th Anniversary Commemorative
Edition.Woodburn, Or.,: Beautiful America Publishing Company, 2011.

Crutchfield, Leslie R., and Heather McLeod Grant. Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits. Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2012.

D

Darroch, Lynn A. “Rhythm in the Rain: Jazz in the Pacific Northwest.” Portland, Oregon: Ooligan Press, 2016.

Davis, H. L., Brian Booth, and Glen A. Love. Davis Country: H.L. Davis’s Northwest. A Northwest Reader. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2009.

Deatherage, Marie. “Pieces of Portland: An inside Look at America’s Weirdest City.” Portland, OR: Quiltlandia, 2015.

DeWolfe, Fred. “Portland Tradition in Buildings and People.” Portland, Or: Press 22, 1980.

Dietsche, Robert. “Jumptown: The Golden Years of Portland Jazz, 1942-1957.” Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2005. 

Disjecta. A Reader on Place and Work, 2016.

Dodds, Gordon B. “Serving Justice: A History of the Oregon State Bar, 1890-2000.” Salem, Or. Oregon State Bar, 2004.

Dodds, Gordon B. Oregon A History. New York: W.W.Norton, 1977.

Drew, Elizabeth. “Citizen McCain.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Druckman, Mason. Wayne Morse: A Political Biography. Oregon Historical Society Press, 1997.

Duin, Steve. “Oil & Water.” Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2011.

E

Eng, Steve. The Defrauding of the Worms: Thirty Years of Poetry. AuthorHouse, 2007. 

Edwards, G. Thomas. The Triumph of Tradition: The Emergence of Whitman College. Walla Walla, Wa.: Whitman College, 1992.

Eggers, Kerry. The Bill Schonley Story: Wherever you may be. Wilsonville, Or.: Book Partners, 1999.

F

Forster, C. Bruce. “Above Portland: A New Collection of Original and Historical Aerial Photographs.” Petaluma, CA: Cameron + Co., 2010.

Friedman, Elaine S. “The Facts of Life in Portland, Oregon.” Portland, Or: Portland Possibilities, 1993.

G

Gordly, Avel Louise. Remembering the Power of Words: The Life of an Oregon Activist, Legislator, and Community Leader. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2011.

Grant High School. The “N Word,” 2016.

Goodyer, Karen. Where The Invisible Vanish. Portland, Or.: Powells’ City of Books, 2012.

Goldsmith, Stephen. The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America. Washington DC : Regnery Publishing, 1997.

H

Hall, Bill. McCallandia: A Utopian Novel. Astoria, Or.: Nestucca Spit Press, 2015.

Hall, Lisa Shara, and Roger J. Porter. The Food Lover’s Companion to Portland. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.

Halprin, Lawrence, Randy Gragg, Janice Ross, John Beardsley, and Susan Seubert. “Where the Revolution Began: Lawrence and Anna Halprin and the Reinvention of Public Space.” Landmarks. Washington, DC: Spacemaker Press, 2009.

Hammel, Laury. “Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships That Strengthen Your Community.” The Social Venture Network Series. San Francisco, Calif: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007.

Hatfield, Mark O., and Stuart W. Little. Not Quite so Simple. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.

Hatfield, Mark O., and Diane N. Solomon. Against the Grain: Reflections of a Rebel Republican. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 2001.

Hathout, Hassan. “Reading the Muslim Mind.” Plainfield, Ind: American Trust Publications, 1995.

Hawkins, William John. “Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon: 1850-1950.” Portland, Or: Timber Press, 2005.

———. “Portland’s Historic New Market Theater.” Portland, Or: W.J. Hawkins, 1984.

Heffner, Richard D. A Documentary History of the United States. 7th ed., Expanded and Updated. New York: Signet, 2002.

Heinl, Russ, and Sallie Tisdale. Portland from the Air. Portland, OR: Graphic Arts Center Pub, 2000.

Heron, Jim. Denning’s Point: A Hudson River History from 4000 BC to the 21st Century : Home to the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. First edition paperback. Hensonville, N.Y: Black Dome Press, 2006.

Hockaday, Joan. Greenscapes: Olmsted’s Pacific Northwest. Pullman, Wash: Washington State University Press, 2009.

Houck, Mike, et. al. Wild in the City: Exploring the Intertwine.

Houle, Marcy Cottrell. A Generous Nature: Lives Transformed by Oregon. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2019.

I

J

Jacobs, Jane. “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” New York: Vintage Books, 1992. 

Johanson, George. Equivalents: Portraits of 80 Oregon Artists. Portland, Or: Portland Art Museum, 2001.

Jordan, Charles, and Melissa Favara. More Than Just Fun and Games: The Life and Legacy of Charles R. Jordan. 1st edition. Not listed, 2014.

Jentz, Terri. Strange Piece of Paradise: A Return to the American West to Investigate my Attempted Murder and Solve the Riddle of Myself. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2006.

K

Kilpatrick, Golda, et. al. The Botanist and Her Muleskinner: Lilla Irvin Leach and John Roy Leach, Pioneer Botanists in the Siskiyou Mountains. Portland, Or: Leach Garden Friends, 1994. 

Kroger, John. Convictions: A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves. Farrar Giroux Straus, 2008.

King, Bart. An Architectural Guidebook to Portland with an introduction by Mayor Vera Katz. Gibbs Smith Publishers, 2001.

———. An Architectural Guidebook to Portland. 2nd edition. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2007.

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man Made Landscape. Simon & Schuster, 1993.

L

Lansing, Jewel Beck. Multnomah: The Tumultuous Story of Oregon’s Most Populous County. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2012.

 ———. “Portland: People, Politics, and Power, 1851-2001.” Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2003.

Leighninger, Matthew, and Bill Bradley. The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance-- and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. First edition., 1st ed. Nashville [Tenn.]: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006.

Licata, Becoming a Citizen Activist: Stories, Strategies and Advice for Changing our World. Seattle Wa.: Sasquatch Books, 2016.

Lincoln, Abraham. “Long Remembered: Facsimiles of the Five Versions of the Gettysburg Address in the Handwriting of Abraham Lincoln.” Library of Congress Facsimile ; No. 3. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1963.

 Leeson, Fred. Rose City Justice: A Legal history of Portland, Or. Oregon Historical Society Press, 1998.

Lommasson, Jim. Exit Wounds: Exhibit Notes. Portland, OR, 2008.

Lowenstein, Steven. “The Jews of Oregon, 1850-1950.” Portland, Or: Jewish Historical Society of Oregon, 1987.

Lucia, Ellis. The Conscience of a City: Fifty Years of City Club Service in Portland, the City Club of Portland Golden Anniversary, 1916-1966. Portland, Or.: 1966.

 M

MacColl, E. Kimbark. “Merchants, Money, and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843-1913.” Portland, Ore: Georgian Press, 1988.

———. The Growth of a City: Power and Politics in Portland, Oregon, 1915-1950. Portland, Or: Georgian Press, 1979.

 Mapes, Jeff. “Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities.” Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2009.

Mark, Pete. Making Our Mark, 2011.

McArthur, Lewis A. “Oregon Geographic Names.” Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003.

Mccormack, Win, ed. Profiles of Oregon: An Anthology of Articles From Oregon Magazine 1977 to 1987. New Oregon Publishers, 1986.

Morrell, Jessica P. voices from the Street: Truths about Homelessness from Sisters of the Road. Gray Sunshine, 2007. 

Munk, Michael. “The Portland Red Guide.” Portland, Or: Ooligan Press, 2011.

N

National Lawyers Guild. Government Funded Legal Services, 1991.

Nelson, Donald R. Portland’s Washington Park, 

Nelson, Matt and Bill Nygren. “Radicals in the Rose City: Portland’s Revolutionaries 1960-1975.” Portland: Northwest History Press, 2013.

Norman, James. Oregon Main Street: A Rephotographic Survey. Oregon Historical Society press, 1994.

 O

O’Donnell, Terence, and Thomas Vaughan. Portland: An Historical Sketch & Guide. Second edition, Revised. Portland, Or.: Oregon Historical Society, 1976.

 Ooligan Press and Oregon 150. “Oregon Stories.” Portland, Or: Ooligan Press, 2010.

Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries Technical Assistance Unit. “A Handbook of Oregon Civil Rights Laws.” Salem, Or: The Bureau, 1988.

Oregon Holocaust Memorial Coalition. “Oregon Holocaust Memorial.” Portland, Or: Oregon Holocaust Memorial Coalition, 2004.

Ozawa, Connie P. “The Portland Edge: Challenges and Successes in Growing Communities.” Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004.

P

Palau, Luis. Portland City Fest, 2008.

Papas, Tessa. “Papas’ Portland.” Portland, OR: Chetwynd Stapylton, 1994.

Papas, William. Papas’ Portland. Chetwynd Stapylton, Inc. 1994.

Pittock Mansion Society. Simply Splendid: Portland’s Pittock Mansion Remembered. Portland, Or: Pittock Mansion Society, 2009.

 Portland Art Museum. Selected Works. Portland Art Museum, 1996.

Portland Northwest Getaways, 2016.

Purdy, Ruby Fay. The Rose City of the World.  Portland, Or.: Binford & Mort, 1947

Putnam,Robert D. and Lewis M. Feldstein. Better Together: Restoring the American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.

Prince, Tracy J. Portland’s Goose Hollow. Images of America. Charleston, S.C: Arcadia Pub, 2011.

Public Power Council. “Public Power Chronicle: A Guide to Public Power in the Pacific Northwest for the Twenty-First Century.” Portland, Oregon: Public Power Council, 2016.

Purcell, John M. American City Flags: Part 1, United States: 150 Flags from Akron to Yonkers, 2003.

Q

R 

Reynolds, Phyllis C. Hoyt Arborteum: Its Story. Macrophyllum press, 2018.

Reynolds, Phyllis C. Trees of Greater Portland: New Edition. Portland, Or.:Macrophyllym Press, 2013.

Ritz, Richard E. An Architect Looks at Downtown Portland. Portland, Or: Greenhills Press, 1991.

 Robert, Henry M. III, Daniel H. Honemann, Thomas J. Balch, Daniel E. Seabold, and Shmuel Gerber. Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief. 3rd edition. PublicAffairs, 2020.

Roberts, Barbara. “Death without Denial, Grief without Apology: A Guide for Facing Death and Loss.” Troutdale, Oregon: NewSage Press, 2002.

__________. Death without Denial, Grief without Apology: A Guide for Facing Death and Loss.” Troutdale, Oregon: NewSage Press, 2016.

_________ Up the Capitol Steps.

Robert, Betty. With Grit and by Grace.

Rogers, Kelly and Kelly Roy. Cartopia: Portland’s Foodcart Revolution. Portland Or.: Roy Rogers Press, 2010.

Roy, Kelley. “Portland Made: The Makers of Portland’s Manufacturing Renaissance.” Portland, Oregon: Portland Made Press, 2015.

Ryan, Kathleen, and Mark Beach. Burnside, a Community: A Photographic History of Portland’s Skid Row. Portland, Or: Coast to Coast Books, 1979.

 S

Sanders, Richard. “Glimpses from the Past: The Housing Authority of Portland : Fifty Years of Building a Better Community.” Portland, Or: Housing Authority of Portland, 1991.

———. “Portland State: A History in Pictures.” Portland, OR: Retirement Association of Portland State University, 2009.

Sarasohn, David. Waiting for Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and the Changing West. Oregon Historical Society, 2005.

Schwab, Mildred. “Forest Park,” c. 1970s.

Shuman, Michael. “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity.” A Community Resilience Guide. White River Junction, Vt: Chelsea Green Pub., 2012.

 Sightline Institute. Cascadia Scorecard: Seven Key Trends Shaping the Northwest. Seattle, WA: Sightline Institute, 2007.

SOLV. The SOLV Oregon Owner’s Manual. Hillsboro, Or., SOLV, 2002.

Smith, A. Robert. A Tiger in the Senate: A Biography of senator Wayne Morse. Doubleday, 1962.

Smith, Gordon H. Remembering Garrett: One Family’s Battle with a Child’s Depression. First Carroll and Graf edition. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006.

Stafford, William. “Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2014.

Stark, Peter. “Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire : A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier.” New York, NY: Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2015.

Stein, Harry. Gus Solomon. 

Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. New York: Knopf, 2016.

T

Tesner, Linda Brady. “Maryhill Museum of Art.” Portland, Or: Arcus Pub., 2000.

U

V

W

Wagner, Matt. Tall Trees of Portland. Portland, Or.:Overcup Press, 2014.

Walker, Peter. Peter Walker and Partners: Defining the Craft. San Rafael, Calif: ORO Editions, 2005.

 Walth, Brent. Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall & the Oregon Story. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1994.

Water: Portland’s Precious Heritage. City of Portland, 1983.

Water: Portland’s Precious Heritage (2nd ed.). City of Portland, 2011.

Water Bureau. Portland Water Works. Portland, Or., 1999.

Why we work here: The Ecology of the Visual Arts in Oregon. Oregon Arts Commission and the Ford Family Foundation, 2013.

Williams, H. Opportunity. Portland, Or.: Gerding/Edlen Development Co.

Williams, Travis. The Willamette River Field Guide. Portland, Or.: Timber Press, 2009.

Wollner, Craig. “The City Builders: One Hundred Years of Union Carpentry in Portland, Oregon, 1883-1983.” Portland, Or: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990.

Wood, Sharon. The Portland Bridge Book. Oregon Historical Society, 1989.

Wright, Richard K. America’s Bicentennial Queen, Engine 4449, the Lone Survivor. 1st ed. Oakhurst, Calif: Wright Enterprises, 1975.

Write Around Portland. Blueprint to My Backbone. Portland: Write Around Portland, 2011.

Wu, Charles Q. “Listen to the Fragrance: Literary Inscriptions in Lan Su Yuan, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.” Portland, Or: Portland Classical Chinese Garden, 2006.