A final whisper

As Philip Metcalfe struggled through the final stages of brain cancer, he worked to complete the book that had dominated much of the last decade of his life.

Then, just a few months before his death in 2002, the Oregon-raised historian and writer–with many close ties to PSU–finished his book, Whispering Wires: The Tragic Tale of an American Bootlegger.

Metcalfe spent 14 years researching and compiling the story of Roy Olmstead, the Pacific Northwest’s most notorious prohibition-era bootlegger. After five years, family and friends worked to release the author’s posthumous work, which was released last year.

Honoring Metcalfe’s work

Last night, amid the tones of 1920s jazz, over 50 friends, family and others from PSU and the community gathered to celebrate the life and work of Metcalfe with a series of readings by friends and colleagues from his Whispering Wires.

Dr. James Metcalfe, Philip’s father, spoke in honor of his son.

“It’s not hard to talk about Philip. He was an absolutely charming person,” he said.

Metcalfe’s wife, Amy Ross, the executive assistant to the PSU president said after the event that, “This is very special for us.”

Ross picked up her late husband’s efforts to find a publisher for his book, which is now being released by Portland’s own Inkwater Press.

“A lot of the research is original, and it seemed a terrible shame to let it be lost,” Ross said.

Of the 14 years it took for Metcalfe to complete his final work, “The first 10 were research and writing, the next four were writing and research,” Ross said.

His research into the topic of prohibition began while he was in the process of working on his master’s degree at PSU under his thesis adviser, David Horowitz, in the early 1990s. During that time, Metcalfe uncovered transcripts of federal wiretaps of Seattle bootlegger Roy Olmstead, which would serve as much of the basis for his book.

“He hadn’t found a publisher,” Ross said. “There can be as many reasons for that as leaves on a tree.”

It seemed unclear whether the book would see release.

“And then something very serendipitous happened,” Ross said.

Through a friend, Ross met Jeremy Solomon, president of Inkwater Press. When Ross told Solomon that her late husband’s name was Philip Metcalfe, she said Solomon was taken aback. As it turned out, Solomon had known of Metcalfe since 1988, when Metcalfe’s first book, 1933, was published. He had not heard of the writer’s untimely passing.

“I feel very special to be the publisher of this book,” Solomon said at Thursday’s reading. “It felt like magic when it happened.”

Philip’s father helped track down a good many of the photos and maps used in the book.

“He did most of the work of photo researching,” Solomon said about the senior Metcalfe’s efforts. The process of turning the manuscript into a published book took about a year altogether. A copy has been given to the Oregon Historical Society to enhance their scholarship on the topic of the prohibition era.

“It seemed to fall in place,” Ross said, explaining that she was happy to work with a publisher who knew her late husband’s work as a writer and a historian, and who “admired that writing.”

“They did a beautiful job,” she said.

A life in history

Metcalfe was born in 1946 in Boston, and graduated from Wilson High School in Portland. After studying literature at Amherst College and working as a graduate assistant at PSU in the early 1970s, Metcalfe moved to Astoria, where he studied oceanic technology–working on fishing boats and serving as the tender of the Young’s Bay Bridge.

It was while working night shifts at this job that he began working on his first book, 1933. The award-winning book tells of Hitler’s rise to power through five distinct German viewpoints. In 1991, Metcalfe returned to PSU to research prohibition-era America.

Last night’s reading featured historians and PSU faculty, some who knew Metcalfe closely and some who didn’t know him at all.

“I am touched that they’re doing it, and that they’re focusing on his work,” Ross said.