WIDE SWATH is a historical biography of a Maine family, focusing on Alonzo Peabody Richards. Lon was a lumberman, real estate broker, and entrepreneur in Western Maine. The book describes the French-Canadian woodsmen and lumbering operations as they were done in the early 1900s. Lon's trip to Colorado resulted in a small fortune for his family. He used this to build his small empire, keeping it from his mother and his seven siblings, until it was lost in the 1929 stock market crash. He continued to be a benefactor to many and destroyer of others. Lon's bankruptcy, wheeling and dealing continued until his death in 1951.