skid row(1931) and "skid road"

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Sep 9 14:41:42 UTC 2006


At 9:30 AM -0500 9/9/06, David Lonergan wrote:
>Check Murray Morgan's history of Seattle, Skid Road (1960), for a
>discussion of the phrase.
>
My library catalogue lists a 1951 book by Morgan, _Skid Road: An
Informal Portrait of Seattle_; maybe that was an earlier edition of
the same history.  But for us unwashed masses, could you tell us in
25 words or less whether Morgan does support the tale of my old tour
guide about how that  "Skid Road" in Seattle was the origin of Skid
Rows everywhere, or does he cast doubt on that (now apparently
debunked) story?  (If it's more complicated than that, I guess we
will have to go out and read the book, or one of the books.)

Larry

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