Seeing Spartanburg A History In Images By Philip N. Racine ISBN: 1-891885-10-3 Paperback 376 pages, 8.5 x 11 600 historic photographs Publication Date: November 1999 $20.00

Twenty years ago, Philip Racine's pictorial history of Spartanburg took readerson a visual tour of our city. Treasured by teachers and local history aficionados, Racine's book remained in demand long after it went out of print. Now Racine's book is back--in a tremendously expanded form with twice the number of photographs, and this time, loaded with historic Spartanburg objects as well. Seeing Spartanburg: A History in Images, a 376-page, large-format book, is the best-selling title of Spartanburg's Hub City Writers Project.

Determined to offer Racine's work to a new generation of readers, Hub City commissioned a new edition of the Spartanburg story. His work took him to the Library of Congress and the National Archives and to the homes and offices of many citizens of Spartanburg. Drawing on his original work, Racine collaborated with photographer and graphic artist Mark Olencki to produce a delightful scrapbook of history, photos, and memorabilia.

Inside the pages of this book are the images of world-renowned photographers Dorothea Lange and Jack Delano and local professionals Alfred T. Willis, Harry White and others. There is a gallery of Spartanburg's mighty men and influential women, her colorful characters and earnest faces, her children at play and citizens at work. There are construction projects and demolitions, local triumphs and tragedies, boom years and hard times.

"As had been true in the first edition, much of the life of these new pictures came from interviews," Racine said. He scribbled down stories and recollections and wrote hundreds of captions. Seeing Spartanburg traces Spartanburg's history from its beginnings during the Colonial period, through the boom years of the early twentieth century and the hard days of war and depression, to the dynamic growth of the present era. Filled with images that are often poignant, sometimes surprising, and always rewarding, Seeing Spartanburg is a visual record of the life of one Southern city.