Left In Lowell

If you haven’t heard, local history buff Richard Howe, Jr. is co-author of a new book in Arcadia Publishing’s Legendary Locals series. Legendary Locals of Lowell features stories about the movers and shakers of Lowell’s history, from its founding, to modern times. From the book’s official description:

When Nathan Appleton and his colleagues built their first textile mill on the banks of the Merrimack River in 1822, they were pursuing the vision of their departed mentor, Francis Cabot Lowell. The complex system of machinery, labor, management, and capital that resulted made the city that they named Lowell the centerpiece of America’s Industrial Revolution. Changes in technology and commerce made the golden age of Lowell’s mills short lived. Despite the success of businesses such as the patent medicine company of James C. Ayer, jobs remained scarce for decades. Hard times created strong leaders–people like Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers, who sponsored the G.I. Bill, and writer Jack Kerouac, who added a new voice to the country’s literary mix. More recently, Paul Tsongas inspired a new generation to transform Lowell into one of the most exciting mid-sized cities in post-industrial America and a world model of urban revitalization. Legendary Locals of Lowell tells the city’s story through pictures of its people.

You can preorder from Amazon here. The book will be released on March 11, 2013. If you object to buying from Amazon (some people do, and there are good reasons), you can be alerted from the publisher’s page when it will be available and of course, it’ll be sold locally in stores…I imagine copies will be in the window of the UML bookstore downtown. They better get a lot of copies, because I know a lot of people will want to get one!