When Jack Swanson agreed to edit a book of Bainbridge historical photographs, he didn’t know he’d embarked on a project that would consume two years of his life.

“I thought I could do it in a year,” said Swanson, a longtime newspaper journalist and former editor of the Review. “(If) I could put out a paper two times a week, I could do a 192-page book.

“Well, knowing what I know now, I would have been much more humble about my skills, because I wasn’t up to speed in (page design).”

But the effort has paid off in a comprehensive local history, “Picture Bainbridge: A Pictorial History of Bainbridge Island,” which Swanson will preview in a slide lecture Nov. 17.

Producing the book for the Bainbridge Island Historical Society was a crash course in publishing for Swanson.

The volume was planned to document island history and raise money to operate the Bainbridge Historical Museum. BIHS recruited Swanson as editor after the organization was approached by a New Jersey publishing house specializing in pictorial histories.

But the company’s rates were too high, so Swanson consulted with publishing friends Judy Richardson and Carolyn Hurst.

The pair, who run Barker Creek Publishing in Silverdale, said they had recently printed a book in Hong Kong for about $6 per copy – and had sold more than 150,000 copies at book fairs and over the Internet.

Swanson proposed to the BIHS board that they also use the Asian printer to put out the Bainbridge history. American Marine Bank’s Bess Alpaugh and Eddie Rollins raised $20,000 to help defray printing costs.

BIHS hired Swanson for a year. But the extent of the research necessary to lend the book depth doubled its production time.

Swanson also found that while the the museum had lots of photos, many were of the same few locations, such as Port Blakely and Winslow. So an editorial advisory committee had to search out images in archives at the University of Washington, the Museum of History and Industry, the Puget Sound Maritime Association and the Kitsap County Historical Society.

Islanders like Bill Weld, who had been official photographer for the Winslow shipyard during World War II, offered personal collections.

Swanson organized the book into 21 chapters loosely based on island geography. Locales whose distinct flavor is still recognizable today, like Country Club, Fort Ward and Agate Point were explored in depth.

He also had several island histories to draw upon – including books by Andrew Price, Katy Warner and Fredi Perry – and essays contributed by individuals.

But only Warner’s book was still in print, and when texts contradicted each other, Swanson had to find a definitive source.

“Elsie Marriott, a gadabout on Sunrise Drive in the 1930s, was notoriously inaccurate,” Swanson said. “It took a lot of plain old digging to get at the facts. Every chapter was read by at least four or five people – and some by 10 or 15 – and that’s how we rooted out errors.”

Swanson cited a standalone chapter on the Agate Passage Bridge by Review editor Douglas Crist, “The Span of Time: How Bainbridge Got Its Bridge,” as the book’s best writing.

Edit, re-edit

Editing “Picture Bainbridge” meant trading the Associated Press writing style Swanson knew as a journalist for the literary standards of “The Chicago Manual of Style.”

“I’d been an ‘A.P. man’ all my life and it’s tough to relearn,” Swanson said.

He turned to former English teacher Pat Andrews for editing help.

Swanson wryly notes that the book he had originally envisioned had lots of images and little text: “We would have 150-200 words per chapter. It was going to be a picture book.”

In the end, the bibliography listed no fewer than 47 sources.

And even after the first draft was complete, Swanson and the advisory committee decided to expand 16 pages to cover several key subjects in more depth, including Eagledale and the island’s ethnic communities.

So Swanson had to reflow the text and edit heavily.

“It just took a great deal of time, because I was a one-man band,” he said.

As the project’s scope expanded, the book took over his home life.

“It’s different from journalism,” said Swanson, who was Review editor from 1995-99. “It’s always on your back. I’d feel guilty when I took one day off.

“But I knew that going in.”

The compensation, he says, has been working as part of “a real community effort.”

“Nobody’s ever turned me down for anything,” Swanson said, “and I’ve never heard one negative word about the project.”

The book may reach local store shelves in time for Christmas. Swanson said BIHS will ship 1,000 copies in by air freight for islanders who ordered their copies a year ago.

Even with a 22 percent discount offered on advance sales of the book, which lists for about $50, proceeds have already paid for printing.

As the project nears completion, Swanson says he knows far more about his island home of nearly a quarter century than he did two years ago.

“I learned important lessons about Bainbridge,” he said. “I ‘had’ Port Madison, Port Blakely and Creosote, but I had no idea what enormous economic engines they were in the region.

“When Port Madison was the county seat, Kitsap County held one-half the worth of all the Washington Territory. There was a time when Seattle was known as ‘that farming village across from Port Madison.’”

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Jack Swanson presents slides of images from “Picture Bainbridge: A Pictorial History of Bainbridge Island,” at 4 p.m. Nov. 17 at Strawberry Hill Center.

Admission is free for BIHS members, $5 for non-members and $2 for children. Call 842-2773 for information.