R. A. Lafferty wrote a surprisingly large number
of clever, quirky stories that revolved around an
extraordinary, sometimes bizarre, concept. One of
the most famous of these is “All Pieces of a River
Shore,” in which a very rich and eccentric man
named Leo Nation decides to collect paintings of
the Mississippi River—but not just ordinary
paintings. During the 19th century, traveling
entertainers would display enormous canvases,
paintings of elaborate sections of the river shore.
Nation acquires many of these panoramic canvases, but a handful seem different, almost as if
they are not paintings at all. He believes that they
are sections of one enormous photograph that
captured the entire length of the Mississippi in
one continuous shot.
With the assistance of an expert, Nation examines the fragments in more detail. The foliage
and occasional birds provide clues that indicate
the picture predates the European discovery of the
New World. The picture itself seems impervious to
fire, as though constructed of some alien material.
4 “All Pieces of a River Shore”
Heartened by his discoveries, Nation begins a concerted effort to find additional pieces, convinced
that the complete picture will reveal a full 1,000
miles of primitive shoreline. As more pieces are
added to a computerized database, Nation’s companion begins to express anxiety and a disinclination to finish the project; he has a particular
aversion to a few cloudy discolorations that cover
some of the newly acquired sections. Ultimately,
we discover that the pictures are actually a kind of
microfilm taken by visitors to our planet during the
last Ice Age and that the blotches are fingerprints
of whatever gargantuan creature handled the material.
In this story, Lafferty used old science fiction
devices in an innovative way. We never discover
much about the alien visitors, but we do feel a
sense of great wonder about the universe and the
potentially insignificant role of humanity in that
setting. The story is written in a deceptively lighthearted style, with surprisingly little plot or characterization, but is powerful and memorable for its
vivid imagery and skillful use of language.