#eve

People began to understand that with the acquisition of California the nation had obtained practically half a continent, of which the future possibilities were almost unlimited, so far as the development of natural resources and the genera production of wealth were concerned. ↗

— John Moody

#almost #began #california #concerned #continent

The close relationship between railroad expansion and the genera development and prosperity of the country is nowhere brought more distinctly into relief than in connection with the construction of the Pacific railroads. ↗

— John Moody

#brought #close #close relationship #connection #construction

The construction of extensive railways, however, and particularly the consolidation of small, experimental lines into large systems, dates from the days of the discovery of gold in California. ↗

— John Moody

#consolidation #construction #dates #days #discovery

The public conviction that a railroad linking the West and the East was an absolute necessity became so pronounced after the gold discoveries of '49 that Congress passed an act in 1853 providing for a survey of several lines from the Mississippi to the Pacific. ↗

— John Moody

#absolute necessity #act #after #became #congress

Yet, in 1850 nearly all the railroads in the United States lay east of the Mississippi River, and all of them, even when they were physically mere extensions of one another, were separately owned and separately managed. ↗

— John Moody

#east #even #extensions #lay #managed

But that incessant drive to be out there in the literary universe that was important to me when I was in my twenties, like going to a Paris Review party or whatever, that seems totally irrelevant now. ↗

— Rick Moody

#going #i #important #incessant #irrelevant

I am in Boston right now, in fact, to do work at the New England Historical Genealogical Library, where I'm trying to finish up tracing my lineage back to the seventeenth century. ↗

— Rick Moody

#back #boston #century #england #fact

I have worked really hard to defy categorization, to break down a taxonomy whenever it comes my way. ↗

— Rick Moody

#comes #defy #down #hard #i

It's also true, however, that having conquered the regional writer ghetto, I am now intent on conquering the nationalist writer ghetto and moving out into the world more. ↗

— Rick Moody

#am #conquered #conquering #ghetto #having

Writing the book was itself a process of concealing and revealing. ↗

— Rick Moody

#concealing #itself #process #revealing #writing