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Sharon Heisel of Central point is among authors on a list of 150 books to celebrate the Oregon Sesquicentennial. Mail Tribune Photo / Jamie LuschJamie Lusch

Sharon Heisel wanted to write about racism in the Old West, so she turned to the 1870s and the little mining town of Jacksonville in Southern Oregon as the setting for "Precious Gold, Precious Jade" (2000, Holiday House).

The young adult novel is the story of the friendship between two girls, one Anglo and one Chinese.

"Precious Gold, Precious Jade" is among the "150 Oregon Books for the Oregon Sesquicentennial" just named by librarians at the Oregon State Library in Salem.

It takes a place alongside books by several other Southern Oregon writers and by Oregon icons such as Ken Kesey, William Kittredge and Ursula K. LeGuin.

"Oh, it feels like they finally got it right," Heisel says on the deck of her Central Point home overlooking the Bear Creek Valley. "I'm in great company.

"This book belongs in Oregon history. It's a window. Of all my books, I think it's the best."

Other books and authors on the list with a Rogue Valley connection are "And the Shadows Took Him" (2005), by Daniel Chacon, "Beyond Deserving: A Novel" (1991), by Sandra Scofield, "A Day With the Cow Column in 1843" (1952 reprint), by Jesse Applegate.

Also "Hiking Oregon's History," (1999) by William Sullivan, "Hole in the Sky: a Memoir" (1992), by William Kittredge, "Legends from Camp" (1992) by Lawson Inada, "The River Why," (2002 reprint) by David James Duncan, "Rogue River Journal: A Winter Alone" (2006), by John Daniel.

"The books present a comprehensive view of the Oregon experience, including the stories and voices of the tribes that inhabited Oregon for millennia to those of the many cultures that live here today," according to the Oregon State Library Web site at www.oregon.gov/OSL/OR150.shtml.

"For 150 years, Oregon has been a state of readers and writers," State Librarian Jim Scheppke said in a statement. "It's no accident that we have some of the best libraries and bookstores anywhere in the country. It's our hope that many Oregonians will use this reading list to spend time in 2009 reading and reflecting on the Oregon experience."

Many of the books will be familiar to Southern Oregon readers. "And The Shadows Took Him" is the story of the Molina family, which became one of just three Latino families in the community when they moved to Medford.

"Beyond Deserving" is also a family story, a complex narrative about a colorful, contentious clan. Applegate's book is a reminiscence of the first organized wagon train to follow the Oregon Trail.

Sullivan's guidebook tells the stories of 56 of Oregon's most scenic historic sites.

"Hole in the Sky" is Kittredge's memoir of growing up in the ranching country of the Warner Valley north of Lakeview and how a gradual change in consciousness required him to settle accounts with his environment.

Lawson Inada, who taught English for many years at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, was sent with his family to an internment camp for Japanese Americans near Klamath Falls in World War II. "Legends" collects poems on subjects from jazz to life in the camp.

"The River Why" is the comic account of Gus Orviston's obsession with the elusive steelhead of Oregon, a metaphor for his quest for self-knowledge.

From November 2000 to March 2001, Daniel retreated to a cabin in solitude so he could survive alone and purify his reflections on his own life. "Rogue River Journal" was the result. Daniel raised vegetables, fished and wrote about his growing up.

Also on the list are books by such writers as Jean Auel, William Stafford, Kim Stafford, Ernest Haycox, Chuck Palahniuk, H.L. Davis, Ursula K. LeGuin, Edwin Markham, Stephen Dow Beckham, Bernard Malamud, Gary Snyder, Sallie Tisdale, Don Berry, Katherine Dunn, George Venn, Raymond Carver and Craig Leslie.

Heisel, the author of three other novels, says she re-read her books recently and discovered, "They're all about friendship."

She says "Precious Gold, Precious Jade" was based loosely on anti-Chinese riots that were sweeping the American West in the 1870s. Chinese were often murdered by white workingmen, who charged that the Chinese took "American" jobs. San Francisco even passed a law denying the use of sidewalks to anybody carrying goods on a pole.

Many of the townspeople in the book see the Chinese as enemies.

"But the girl knows a Chinese person," Heisel says.

Heisel's books have been published by Random House, Holiday House and other publishers."

"Precious Gold, Precious Jade" is no longer in print.

Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail bvarble@mailtribune.com.

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