Long out of print and much sought after by collectors, Lansden's classic 1910 his tory of Cairo remains valuable for the early history of the city. Its reprinting here, with a new Foreword by Clyde C. Walton, former Illinois State Historian, thus makes available again one of the finest examples of local history ever written, stressing as it does Cairo's im portant relations with its area and with the country-- in Lansden's words, " this part of the Valley of the Mississippi-- this Illinois Country."