New album by the jazz guitar duo of Rubén Reinaldo and Kely García

Occasionally, one or another of the 400 or so CDs I am annually sent for consideration in the end-of-the-year polls that I participate in especially catches my attention and warrants an assessment. Such was the case of Acuarel, which struck me as outstanding by reason of its artistic excellence, originality of concept and composition, and the virtuosic performance skills of its two musicians, Rubén Reinaldo and Kely García.

My appreciation for string jazz began in the mid-1940s when I acquired a 78RPM album of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, a combo that featured guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli. I was reminded of the seemingly telepathic interplay between these two pioneer jazz artists soon into “Manchica,” the initial track of Acuarel, the new album by the jazz guitar duo of Rubén Reinaldo and Kely García, from Galicia, Spain. The eight selections on the CD have these two masters of their instruments in uncanny improvisational collaboration as well as displaying a decided flair for composition. The session is truly a gem.

W. Royal Stokes, author of The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues and Beyond Reader and other books on jazz and blues and Backwards Over: A Trilogy of Novels.

A ROUNDUP OF 140 OR SO JAZZ, BLUES, BEYOND, AND OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR OR SO

1) BIOGRAPHIES

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

1) BIOGRAPHIES

Lew Shaw, Jazz Beat Encore: More Notes on Classic Jazz (AZtold Publishing Company)

“Even in a time of constant change, Classic Jazz is alive and well and continues to be relevant in today’s musical environment. ‘Classic’ is defined as ‘serving as a standard; an enduring example; always revered and never obsolete; a treasured art form that secures its future by honoring its past.’ In Jazz Beat Encore, More Notes on Classic Jazz, veteran jazz journalist Lew Shaw takes the reader along as he travels his jazz beat and presents a group of contemporary musicians who have interesting and reflective stories to tell that can only broaden a jazz fan’s appreciation of what it’s like to make music for a living as well as gain a better understanding of what is happening on the band stand. The 43 profiles in Jazz Beat Encore are a representative cross-section of today’s music makers: Dan Barrett, Butch Miles, Cynthia Sayer, Ehud Asherie, Rebecca Kilgore, Harry Allen, Joey Alexander, Randy Sandke, Wesla Whitfield, Chuck Redd, Scott Robinson, Howard Alden, John Allred, and thirty more.”

Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson (Chicago Review Press)

“An essential story of blues lore, black culture, and American music history. Robert Johnson’s recordings, made in 1936 and 1937, have profoundly influenced generations of singers, guitarists, and songwriters. Yet until now, his short life—he was murdered at the age of 27—has been poorly documented. Gayle Dean Wardlow has been interviewing people who knew Johnson since the early 1960s, and he was the person who discovered Johnson’s death certificate in 1967. Bruce Conforth began his study of Johnson’s life and music in 1970 and made it his mission to fill in what was still unknown about him. In this definitive biography, the two authors relied on every interview, resource, and document, much of it material no one has seen before. This is the first book about Johnson that documents his lifelong relationship with family and friends in Memphis, details his trip to New York, uncovers where and when his wife Virginia died and the impact this had on him, fully portrays the other women Johnson was involved with and tells exactly how and why he died and who gave him the poison that killed him. Up Jumped the Devil will astonish blues fans worldwide by painting a living, breathing portrait of a man who was heretofore little more than a legend.”

Bruce Conforth, former professor of folklore, blues, popular culture, and American history at the University of Michigan, was the founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Gayle Dean Wardlow is a highly regarded blues historian who has amassed one of the world’s largest collections of prewar blues records. His book Chasin’ That Devil Music is a classic of blues literature. He lives in Pensacola, Florida.

“This is the book the blues world has been waiting for. Authored by two uniquely qualified scholars following years of extensive interviews and exhaustive research, the result is fascinating, important, and factual, without agenda or embellished narrative. . . . It is in my view a far more moving account than many others that have been obscured by so much fantasy. It’s a can’t-put-it-down kind of book—an exciting, great read.” Rory Block, celebrated acoustic blues guitarist/singer and five-time Blues Music Award winner.

“Finally an in-depth biography of one of the greatest blues musicians ever. The clearing up of the myths and mysteries is a relief. The work of the authors is meticulous. They detail Robert Johnson's journey with facts, creating a full view of his life and times, his friends and influences, so the reader has a comprehensive understanding of how he came to be the greatest of the Delta bluesmen. I am blown away!” John Hammond, Jr., eight-time Blues Music Award winner, Grammy winner, and member of the Blues Hall of Fame.

“As the grandson of the iconic blues singer Robert Johnson, I’m honored that the truth is finally being revealed. . . . Up Jumped the Devil contains the real story of his life and does away with all the myths.” Steven Johnson, vice president, Robert Johnson Blues Foundation

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Annye C. Anderson, with Preston Lauterbach, Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson, Foreword by Elijah Wald (Hachette Books).

“Though Robert Johnson was only twenty-seven years young and relatively unknown at the time of his tragic death in 1938, his enduring recordings have solidified his status as a progenitor of the Delta blues style. And yet, while his music has retained the steadfast devotion of modern listeners, much remains unknown about the man who penned and played these timeless tunes. Few people alive today actually remember what Johnson was really like, and those who do have largely upheld their silence-until now. In Brother Robert, nonagenarian Annye C. Anderson sheds new light on a real-life figure largely obscured by his own legend: her kind and incredibly talented stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This book chronicles Johnson's unconventional path to stardom, from the harrowing story behind his illegitimate birth, to his first strum of the guitar on Anderson's father's knee, to the genre-defining recordings that would one day secure his legacy. Along the way, readers are gifted not only with Anderson's personal anecdotes, but with colorful recollections passed down to Anderson by members of their family-the people who knew Johnson best. Readers also learn about the contours of his working life in Memphis, never-before-disclosed details about his romantic history, and all of Johnson's favorite things, from foods and entertainers to brands of tobacco and pomade. Together, these stories don't just bring the mythologized Johnson back down to earth; they preserve both his memory and his integrity.

For decades, Anderson and her family have ignored the tall tales of Johnson "selling his soul to the devil" and the speculative to fictionalized accounts of his life that passed for biography. Brother Robert is here to set the record straight. Featuring a foreword by Elijah Wald and a Q&A with Anderson, Wald, Preston Lauterbach, and Peter Guralnick, this book paints a vivid portrait of an elusive figure who forever changed the musical landscape as we know it.”

Annye C. Anderson is a retired educator and organic gardener who lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Preston Lauterbach (coauthor) is the author of Bluff City, Beale Street Dynasty, and The Chitlin'Circuit. He lives near Charlottesville, Virginia.

“Annye Anderson's lush, vivid memories from Robert Johnson's home base give the bluesman a personal dimension like never before. How he walked, the pomade in his hair, his protection of his guitar. The aura of mystery remains, but with Brother Robert, Johnson gains character and context, and becomes more of a person than we've ever known this specter to be.” Robert Gordon, author of Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters, and It Came From Memphis.

Photographs, index.

Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom, Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race (Oxford University Press)

“A new biography of one of the key composers of 20th-century American popular song and jazz, Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race illuminates Blake's little-known impact on over 100 years of American culture. A gifted musician, Blake rose from performing in dance halls and bordellos of his native Baltimore to the heights of Broadway. In 1921, together with performer and lyricist Noble Sissle, Blake created Shuffle Along which became a sleeper smash on Broadway eventually becoming one of the top ten musical shows of the 1920s. Despite many obstacles Shuffle Along integrated Broadway and the road and introduced such stars as Josephine Baker, Lottie Gee, Florence Mills, and Fredi Washington. It also proved that black shows were viable on Broadway and subsequent productions gave a voice to great songwriters, performers, and spoke to a previously disenfranchised black audience. As successful as Shuffle Along was, racism and bad luck hampered Blake's career. Remarkably, the third act of Blake's life found him heralded in his 90s at major jazz festivals, in Broadway shows, and on television and recordings.

Tracing not only Blake's extraordinary life and accomplishments, Broadway and popular music authorities Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom examine the professional and societal barriers confronted by black artists from the turn of the century through the 1980s. Drawing from a wealth of personal archives and interviews with Blake, his friends, and other scholars, Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm and Race offers an incisive portrait of the man and the musical world he inhabited.”

Richard Carlin is a Grammy Award-winning author of numerous books on popular music, including Country Music: A Very Short Introduction, The Big Book of Country, and Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways.

Ken Bloom is a Grammy Award-winning author of Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes, Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time, and Broadway: An Encyclopedia. He is the co-founder of Harbinger Records, has been a Broadway correspondent for NPR and the CBC, and has directed and produced shows at Town Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, among other venues.

“Along with many others, I have been waiting for a new, scholarly, thorough, and insightful biography of this one-of-a-kind American figure. Finally, we have one, nicely-illustrated and carefully documented.” John Edward Hasse, author of Beyond Category: The Life and Genius of Duke Ellington.

“Blake, in his ten decades of life, persevered through some highs and many lows, only to be truly celebrated for his remarkable talents when he reached his nineties. That we never, ever really know a person is a much-said truism. And yet, Carlin and Bloom, through their extensive and exhaustive research, will make a reader feel and believe that he indeed does know Eubie Blake.” Peter Filichia, critic emeritus of The Newark Star-Ledger.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Ricky Riccardi, Heart Full of Rhythm: The Big Band Years of Louis Armstrong (Oxford University Press).

“Nearly 50 years after his death, Louis Armstrong remains one of the 20th century's most iconic figures. Popular fans still appreciate his later hits such as "Hello, Dolly!" and "What a Wonderful World," while in the jazz community, he remains venerated for his groundbreaking innovations in the 1920s. The achievements of Armstrong's middle years, however, possess some of the trumpeter's most scintillating and career-defining stories. But the story of this crucial time has never been told in depth until now. Between 1929 and 1947, Armstrong transformed himself from a little-known trumpeter in Chicago to an internationally renowned pop star, setting in motion the innovations of the Swing Era and Bebop. He had a similar effect on the art of American pop singing, waxing some of his most identifiable hits such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "When You're Smiling." However as author Ricky Riccardi shows, this transformative era wasn't without its problems, from racist performance reviews and being held up at gunpoint by gangsters to struggling with an overworked embouchure and getting arrested for marijuana possession. Utilizing a prodigious amount of new research, Riccardi traces Armstrong's mid-career fall from grace and dramatic resurgence. Featuring never-before-published photographs and stories culled from Armstrong's personal archives, Heart Full of Rhythm tells the story of how the man called ‘Pops’ became the first ‘King of Pop.’”

Ricky Riccardi is Director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and author of What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years. He runs the online blog The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong, and has given lectures on Armstrong at venues around the world, including the Institute of Jazz Studies, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, the Bristol International Jazz and Blues Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. He has co-produced numerous Armstrong reissues in recent years, including Satchmo at Symphony Hall 65th Anniversary: The Complete Concert, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Cheek to Cheek: The Complete Duets, Pops is Tops: The Verve Studio Albums, and two volumes of Decca Singles for Universal Music, in addition to Columbia and RCA Victor Live Recordings of Louis Armstrong and the All Stars for Mosaic Records.”

“Riccardi's Heart Full of Rhythm is the best account we have of Armstrong’s vital work with big bands, the research is impeccable, the ardor contagious.” Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: Swinging On A Star The War Years, 1940-1946.

“This book is an exuberant treasury of new information about one of the most significant and influential musicians of all time. Most significant here is that this careful researcher torches the clich� that Armstrong rose in a 1920s flash and then fell onto the swords of commercialism. In soaring prose, Riccardi walks you through vital musical/cultural decades while re-introducing a man we thought we knew but who was even greater.” Robert G. O'Meally, Founder and Director Of Columbia University's Center For Jazz Studies and Editor of The Jazz Cadence of American Culture and The Romare Bearden Reader.

“At last! A thrilling and intimate journey through the most undervalued period of Armstrong’s career! Every chapter is a revelation!” Catherine Russell, Grammy Award-Winning Jazz/Blues vocalist and daughter of Luis Russell.

“This vitally American story has been expertly told in this superlative biography SWING THAT MUSIC indeed!” Loren Schoenberg, Senior Scholar/Founding Director, National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

“Riccardi’s meticulous scholarship and his exuberance for all things Armstrong make Heart Full of Rhythm a must-read for all interested in Armstrong, jazz, and our shared cultural heritage.” Jon Faddis, trumpter, conductor, composer, and educator.

“Dedicated research, access to ideal sources, and fine storytelling combine to shed new light and insight on the most interesting and least well-documented period of Armstrong's fabled life. Riccardi has done it again, but even more so.” Dan Morgenstern, Director Emeritus of The Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University.

Photographs, notes, index.

Travis Atria, Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp (Chicago Review Press)

“Based on groundbreaking research and including unprecedented access to Briggs’s oral memoir, Better Days Will Come Again is a crucial document of jazz history, a fast-paced epic, and an entirely original tale of survival. Arthur Briggs’s life was Homeric in scope. Born on the tiny island of Grenada, he set sail for Harlem during the Renaissance, then to Europe in the aftermath of World War I, where he was among the first pioneers to introduce jazz music to the world. During the legendary Jazz Age in Paris, Briggs’s trumpet provided the soundtrack while Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and the rest of the Lost Generation got drunk. By the 1930s, Briggs was considered “the Louis Armstrong of Paris,” and was the peer of the greatest names of his time, from Josephine Baker to Django Reinhardt. Even during the Great Depression, he was secure as “the greatest trumpeter in Europe.” He did not, however, heed warnings to leave Paris before it fell to the Nazis, and in 1940, he was arrested and sent to the prison camp at Saint Denis. What happened at that camp, and the role Briggs played in it, is truly unforgettable.”

Travis Atria is the author, with Todd Mayfield, of Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Billboard, Wax Poetics, and other publications. He lives in Gainesville, Florida.

“If you’ve never heard of Arthur Briggs, join the club. After reading Travis Atria’s intensely readable, superbly researched account, you sure as hell won’t forget him. Atria has uncovered a largely untold, often harrowing tale of jazz, race, and international politics, and he has made it into a nail-biter.” Gary Giddins, author of Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star and Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker.

 “Arthur Briggs is a name you may not know now but will never forget after reading the details of his life: from his humble beginnings in Grenada, to Harlem in its golden Renaissance, to Europe—primarily France—through most of the twentieth century. The trumpeter and bandleader became a Zelig of Paris’s jazz age—playing with, and for, some of the biggest names of the era: Louis Armstrong and Django Reinhardt, Josephine Baker and Ernest Hemingway. Music propels Briggs’s saga, and, for a black man adrift in a white world, is eventually his means of survival—playing classical music in a Nazi prison camp, and teaching music in the years after World War II. Atria’s storytelling is intimately detailed and grandly epic, tragic and triumphant, living up to its title.” Ashley Kahn, author of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Ate van Delden, Adrian Rollini: The Life and Music of a Jazz Rambler (American Made Music Series) (University Press of Mississippi).

“Adrian Rollini (1903–1956), an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, played the bass saxophone, piano, vibraphone, and an array of other instruments. He even introduced some, such as the harmonica-like cuesnophone, called Goofus, never before wielded in jazz. Adrian Rollini: The Life and Music of a Jazz Rambler draws on oral history, countless vintage articles, and family archives to trace Rollini’s life, from his family’s arrival in the US to his development and career as a musician and to his retirement and death. A child prodigy, Rollini was playing the piano in public at the age of five. At sixteen in New York he was recording pianola rolls when his peers recognized his talent and asked him to play xylophone and piano in a new band, the California Ramblers. When he decided to play a relatively new instrument, the bass saxophone, the Ramblers made their mark on jazz forever. Rollini became the man who gave this instrument its place. Yet he did not limit himself to playing bass parts―he became the California Ramblers’ major soloist and created the studio and public sound of the band. In 1927 Rollini led a new band that included such jazz greats as Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer. During the Depression years, he was back in New York playing with several bands including his own New California Ramblers. In the 1940s, Rollini purchased a property on Key Largo. He rarely performed again for the public but hosted rollicking jam sessions at his fishing lodge with some of the best nationally known and local players. After a car wreck and an unfortunate hospitalization, Rollini passed away at age fifty-three.”

Ate van Delden is a music scholar whose writing has appeared in such publications as Doctor Jazz and Vintage Jazz Mart and in the form of liner notes to several CDs. He is a former board member of the Doctor Jazz Foundation, a Dutch organization for the promotion of classic jazz.

“Ate van Deldens Adrian Rollini biography is quite detailed and tells about his personal relationships, musical development, many gigs, and his rarely-discussed later years. . . .This definitive and very well researched book tells the full story and should be of great interest to fans of 1920s jazz.” Scott Yanow, Jazz Around Town – L.A. Jazz Scene.

“This book promises to be the definitive biography of multi-instrumentalist, band leader, and composer Adrian Rollini, a largely overlooked (in the literature) but nevertheless important jazz musician who rose to prominence in the mid-1920s and remained there for nearly two decades.” Bruce Raeburn, Curator Emeritus, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University.

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index.

Stephen A. Crist, Dave Brubeck's Time Out (Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz) (Oxford University Press).

“Dave Brubeck’s Time Out ranks among the most popular, successful, and influential jazz albums of all time. Released by Columbia in 1959, alongside such other landmark albums as Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, Time Out became one of the first jazz albums to be certified platinum, while its featured track, “Take Five,” became the best-selling jazz single of the twentieth century, surpassing one million copies. In addition to its commercial successes, the album is widely recognized as a pioneering endeavor into the use of odd meters in jazz. With its opening track “Blue Rondo la Turk” written in 9/8, its hit single “Take Five” in 5/4, and equally innovative uses of the more common 3/4 and 4/4 meters on other tracks, Time Out has played an important role in the development of modern jazz.

In this book, author Stephen A. Crist draws on nearly fifteen years of archival research to offer the most thorough examination to date of this seminal jazz album. Supplementing his research with interviews with key individuals, including Brubeck's widow Iola and daughter Catherine, as well as interviews conducted with Brubeck himself prior to his passing in 2012, Crist paints a complete picture of the album's origins, creation, and legacy. Couching careful analysis of each of the album's seven tracks within historical and cultural contexts, he offers fascinating insights into the composition and development of some of the album's best-known tunes. From Brubeck's 1958 State Department-sponsored tour, during which he first encountered the Turkish aksak rhythms that would form the basis of “Blue Rondo la Turk,” to the backstage jam session that planted the seeds for “Take Five,” Crist sheds an exciting new light on one of the most significant albums in jazz history.”

Stephen A. Crist is Professor of Music History at Emory University. He works largely in European music of the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with additional interests in hymnody and jazz. He served as contributing editor of Bach Perspectives, Volume 5: Bach in America and contributing co-editor of Historical Musicology: Sources, Methods, Interpretations. His publications on Dave Brubeck have appeared in the Journal of Musicology and elsewhere, and a new study of the Modern Jazz Quartet's reception of the music of J. S. Bach is forthcoming in Bach Perspectives, Volume 13.

Musical scores, bibliography, index.

Ben Sidran’s The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma (Nardis Books) “Captures seven hit-making decades during the American recording industry's glittering, freewheeling years. Tommy LiPuma was one of America's most successful record producers whose work with seminal artists like Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Barbra Streisand, Rickie Lee Jones, George Benson, and Willie Nelson went on to sell over seventy-five million records. It is also a picaresque journey that opens with the murder of a man on a dirt path in Sicily and concludes with five trips up the Grammy red carpet. The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma is real-life Horatio Alger adventure storied with bootleggers, gangsters, artists, hipsters, set in a revolutionary time in music history that changed popular culture around the world. Finally, it's a deeply personal account of how music saved one man's life, and how he went on to affect the lives of millions of others.”

Author and musician Ben Sidran has been a major force in the contemporary history of jazz and rock & roll, having played keyboards with or produced such artists as Steve Miller, Mose Allison, Diana Ross, Boz Scaggs, Phil Upchurch, Tony Williams, Jon Hendricks, Richie Cole and Van Morrison. Though primarily renowned as a gifted pianist, composer, producer, among other music-related roles, Ben Sidran has also made a name for himself as a writer. Sidran's first book, Black Talk: How the Music of Black America Created a Radical Alternative to Western Literary Tradition (Da Capo Press), is based on his doctoral dissertation. Talking Jazz: An Oral History (Da Capo Press), published twenty-four years later, collects personal interviews with jazz greats such as Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. His third literary endeavor, Ben Sidran: A Life in the Music (Unlimited Media), expresses his life-long affair with music and all its functions: as prayer, as community, as legacy, and as nothing but a party. He delves into the complex relationships between African-Americans and Jews, fathers and sons, history and hope, money and technology, ecstasy and transformation. His penultimate book, There Was a Fire: Jews, Music and the American Dream, was a 2011 finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and remains a teaching text in Jewish Studies programs everywhere.

“Tommy was my best friend, my creative partner, my mentor, my confidant, and my producer for twenty-four years. As time goes on, I realize just how special he was.” Diana Krall

“Tommy was a fantastic producer. He always had a great sense of humour . . . he would sit in the studio with us musicians and make every session a complete joy.” Paul McCartney

“Tommy was a great producer and a real friend.” Willie Nelson

Photographs, discography, index.

Wolfgang Sandner, Keith Jarrett: A Biography (Popular Music History) (Equinox)

“This expanded/updated English version of Wolfgang Sandner's 2015 original German book comes out at a bittersweet moment for Keith Jarrett fans. At the end of October, ECM released another masterpiece in the series of Jarrett's solo concerts, this time captured in Budapest, for our enjoyment and amazement (how does he do this!). Joy was muted. The week before Jarrett disclosed in a New York Times interview published on 10/21/2020 that he might never again perform, following strokes in February and May 2018. Long-time fans need no reminder about the truly amazing career of this one-of-a-kind musician. But hopefully this excellent biography attracts interest of more casual fans interested in learning more. And for sure, at least for this long-term fan, there's a lot to learn as well. This in spite of having bought and listened to Jarrett's recordings since the 1971 Facing You. So, I'd conclude you need not hesitate.” Kari, an Amazon reviewer

Photographs, discography, bibliography, index.

Mark Miller, Of Stars and Strings: A Biography of Sonny Greenwich (Tellwell Talent)

“‘I’m not a working musician,’ the legendary Canadian jazz guitarist Sonny Greenwich once declared. ‘When I decide to play, I play to awake people spiritually. That's the only reason.’ For that, and for his stirring, distinctively linear style, he was hailed in 1970 as ‘the Coltrane of guitar players.’ In truth, though, Greenwich made music entirely on his own transcendent terms in the course of an uncompromising 50-year career that took him from the smallest of clubs in Toronto and Montreal to the Village Vanguard and Carnegie Hall in New York and back. Of Stars and Strings is an engaging study of a rare Canadian original, and a valuable contribution by Mark Miller to the history of jazz in Canada.”

Mark Miller has been a writer — journalist, critic, author, historian —and photographer in the field of music, specifically jazz, for more than 35 years. He is the author of 10 books and served from 1978 to 2005 as the jazz columnist for Canada’s National Newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He has also written for Coda Magazine, Down Beat, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Saturday Night and several other popular and scholarly publications.

Photographs, bibliography, notes, discography, index.

Bill Beuttler’s Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century (Lever Press) presents, in the author’s conception—some will judge it to be fanciful; it is but worth considering—what the art form of jazz will sound like down the road a piece. It does so via in-depth, if meandering, profiles of seven young musicians and a trio as examples of the artists who will be, in his view, among those in the vanguard creating the shape of the idiom as it marches into the future: Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, , Miguel Zenón, Anat Cohen, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, and The Bad Plus.

He places two epigraphs at the volume’s outset, the first by pianist Jason Moran: “I’m not an isolationist, and I’m not obsessed with trying to do anything new. I feel as attached to history as my teachers might have been. I’m trying to do what they did—keep it free and open.  I use their language and reshape it. The ones who have passed, when I meet them at the big gate they’re going to ask me, ‘Did you take care of our music?’”

The other epigraph is by bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding:

“The most important artist and the most important time is, like, right now. It's the people who are learning now, and creating new things right now. Idol worship doesn't help this music in any way."

When I read these two contrasting paragraphs, I was reminded of what Jackie McLean told me three decades ago in an interview: “I tell my students, ‘It’s an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn the language all the way through. How are you going to know what’s new to play, if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?’”

Actually, when the epigraph is partially quoted to her by Beuttler during one of his interviews with her, Spalding walks her obiter dictum back a bit. Using it out-of-context, as Beuttler does, somewhat misrepresents her view. She clarifies: “I don’t mean it in the sense of ‘Forget what those guys did.’ I mean addressing, honoring the legacy and what happened, and also recognizing that these are human beings who have infinite capacity, just like anybody does. Knowing that we have unique, unbounded capacity, too, that we can cultivate if we’re not trying to emulate what already worked. Because I do think honoring our elders and our predecessors is critical, but I also think you can’t try to become them. You have to be your own thing, and I know that [emulation]’s not where the source flows—it flows from your life. That [i.e., what came before] can be evidence of what’s possible.” (The bracketed word and phrase are Beuttler’s.)

In other words, “If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn,” as Charlie Parker famously opined.

I am intrigued by Beuttler declaring in his Introduction that Make It New is “modeled” on the late Joe Goldberg’s (1932-2009) 1965 Jazz Masters of the 50s (a far better organized collection of a dozen interviews of major jazz figures), which had been on my shelves since the 1970s when I inadvertently encountered Joe at the local public library soon after my spouse Erika and I relocated to Elkins, West Virginia, a decade and a half ago. Joe had recently resettled in Elkins, where he had spent some of his early years, after several decades in Hollywood working in the film industry. He told me that the advantage he had over the other writers in the series of a half-dozen Jazz Masters volumes edited by Martin Williams was that “The musicians were all still alive and I knew them and could interview them.” That, of course, is also the advantage that Beuttler had in compiling Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century, and he has taken splendid advantage of that similar opportunity.

One correction that I must make is that he credits Joe Goldberg with “what turned out to be his only book.” Beuttler evidently is unaware that Joe authored one other book, Big Bunny: The Inside Story of Playboy (Ballantine Books, 1967). 

Also, in a habit that I find unprofessional for a writer on an art form, Beuttler—except in the case of his interviewees—consistently cites many musicians without naming their instruments, assuming, I suppose, that his readers are as knowledgeable of the music and its makers as he is.

A major failing of the volume is that it lacks an index.

Here is the jacket blurb of Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century, followed by a bio I.D. of its author and one Amazon Commentator’s assessment of the book:

“As jazz enters its second century it is reasserting itself as dynamic and relevant. Boston Globe jazz writer and Emerson College professor Bill Beuttler reveals new ways in which jazz is engaging with society through the vivid biographies and music of Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, The Bad Plus, Miguel Zenón, Anat Cohen, Robert Glasper, and Esperanza Spalding. These musicians are freely incorporating other genres of music into jazz—from classical (both western and Indian) to popular (hip-hop, R&B, rock, bluegrass, klezmer, Brazilian choro)—and other art forms as well (literature, film, photography, and other visual arts). This new generation of jazz is increasingly more international and is becoming more open to women as instrumentalists and bandleaders. Contemporary jazz is reasserting itself as a force for social change, prompted by developments such as the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movements, and the election of Donald Trump.”

Bill Beuttler teaches courses in magazine writing, editing, and publishing at Emerson College. Before joining Emerson, he spent three years covering jazz for the Boston Globe and teaching journalism at Boston University. Beuttler's more than three decades of magazine work includes stints as a senior editor at the Discovery Channel, Men's Journal, and Boston magazine, and as an associate editor at DownBeat and American Way. He has also been published in JazzTimes, Jazziz, The Atlantic, Esquire, Chicago magazine, The Boston Globe Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Cooking Light, and The New York Times Book Review, among other publications.

“5.0 out of 5 stars. A jazz treat: infectious and informative.

I am a veteran jazz devotee. The music is indispensable to my existence. Make it New adds welcome depth to my knowledge. Superbly written and researched, Beuttler goes deeper than most into sociological, spiritual and intellectual contexts. The telling has a lived-in feeling that takes us inside the music. And Beuttler doesn’t disguise his passion for jazz: his love of the music is infectious. A book both for jazz intellectuals and beginners.” Justin Freed, Amazon.

Notes, Interview Sources.

Sammy Stein, with Debbie Burke, Gender Disparity in UK Jazz: A Discussion (https://www.sammystein.org).

“The new book from Sammy Stein with Debbie Burke gets inside the UK jazz scene, looks at gender disparity issues and discusses the reality, the potential for change and the ways ahead. Following Sammy’s books for 8th House (Women in Jazz and In Their Own Words) this book is a transatlantic project, connecting two writers from the UK and the US in their first joint publication.”

Sammy Stein is a popular reviewer, author and columnist, writing for three columns where she brings her keen analysis and eye for detail. She has reviewed music by Sting, Bowie, Monk, Coltrane, Binker & Moses, Mats Gustafsson, Claire Cope, Tina May and many jazz musicians. Her book All That's Jazz (Tomahawk Press) received critical acclaim and her Women in Jazz (8th House) gained the JazzTimes Distaff Award, made the Gearbox list and was nominated by the Jazz Journalists Association for best jazz book. She has curated several radio series, been on Jazz FM, BBC, Jazz Bites Radio, and more. Sammy organized the London Jazz Platform mini-festival event. She was named the Jazz Journalists Association International Editor.

Debbie Burke (editor) is an award-winning editor and author whose jazz blog has earned international praise. Her other books include Icarus Flies Home, Tasty Jazz Jams for Our Times, Glissando: A Story of Love, Lust and Jazz, The Poconos in B Flat, and Music in the Scriptures. She is also the owner of Queen Esther Publishing LLC.

“Essential reading- highly recommended.” Anne Frankenstein, JazzFM.

The Jazz Stories Project, David Haney, Colin Haney, editors. (CadenceJazzWorld.com/The-Jazz-Stories-Project.html).

“Here is a book for every musician and every lover of music. Over 100 stories, presented by the artists themselves. Hours of enjoyment. Years in the making! From 2012 to 2019, Cadence writers and interviewers asked subjects to present stories in their own words. They were asked a simple question. Do you remember a turning point in your life?

The results could and did fill a book.”

The musicians answering that question are:

Carla Bley, Florian Weber, Lionel Loeke, Jan Hammer, Freddie Green, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, Paul Bley, Hank Jones, Steve Swallow, Les McCann, Ron Free, NRG Ensemble, Eloe Omoe, Michael White, Lester Bowie, Louis Sclavis, Mike Nock, Paul Horn, Collin Walcott, Klaus Koenig, Norma Winstone, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, Julia Huelsmann, Gunter "Baby" Sommer, Steffen Schorn, Nils Wogram, Thomas Meyring, Kathrin Mueller, Famoudou Don Moye, Michel Portal, Amina Claudine Myers, Wayne Dockery, Juliane Wilde, Brian Blade, John Patitucci, Danilo Perez, Bill Gottlieb, Wayne Horvitz, Marty Ehrlich, Kevin Norton, Branford Marsalis, David Earle Johnson, Milt Hinton, Barre Phillips, Mike Richmond, Eberhard Weber, Christian Scott, Joachim Kuehn, Pierre Charial, Jack DeJonnette, Don Byron, Ruf der Heimat, David Krakauer, Monika Roscher, John Scofield,  Bruce Hampton, Bennie Wallace, Jeff Mosier, Bob Belden, Ornette Coleman, John Talylor, Glen Moore, David Friesen, David Haney, Buel Neidlinger.

Plus a special 60-page section, ‘Photo Jazz Stories: Photos and Captions,’ by world-traveling photographer  and writer Patrick Hinely, drawn from his personal archive of festival photography and accompanied by his annotations.

“This a splendid collection, both for its first-person accounts by the musicians and for the hundreds of photographs by major jazz photographers and many illustrations of album covers, all reproduced to crisp perfection. And it is a very handsome volume. This is one to both read right through and keep handy for browsing.” W. Royal Stokes, author of The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Reader and other books on jazz and blues and the trilogy of novels Backwards Over.

David Whiteis, Blues Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Chicago (Music in American Life), photographs by Peter M. Hurly (University of Illinois Press).

“Chicago blues musicians parlayed a genius for innovation and emotional honesty into a music revered around the world. As the blues evolves, it continues to provide a soundtrack to, and a dynamic commentary on, the African American experience: the legacy of slavery; historic promises and betrayals; opportunity and disenfranchisement; the ongoing struggle for freedom. Through it all, the blues remains steeped in survivorship and triumph, a music that dares to stare down life in all its injustice and iniquity and still laugh--and dance--in its face. David Whiteis delves into how the current and upcoming Chicago blues generations carry on this legacy. Drawing on in-person interviews, Whiteis places the artists within the ongoing social and cultural reality their work reflects and helps create. Beginning with James Cotton, Eddie Shaw, and other bequeathers, he moves through an all-star council of elders like Otis Rush and Buddy Guy and on to inheritors and today's heirs apparent like Ronnie Baker Brooks, Shemekia Copeland, and Nellie "Tiger" Travis. Insightful and wide-ranging, Blues Legacy reveals a constantly adapting art form that, whatever the challenges, maintains its links to a rich musical past.”

David Whiteis is a journalist, writer, and educator living in Chicago. He is a past winner of the Blues Foundation's Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Achievement in Journalism. He is the author of Southern Soul-Blues and Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories. Peter M. Hurley is a photographer, muralist, graphic designer, and songwriter, and an active contributing photographer to Living Blues magazine.

“In his latest history on Chicago blues, Whiteis is as usual informative and stimulating, while addressing some considerably contentious issues. The author has long demonstrated that he is one of the best writers on blues. He has a way with words that can paint a vivid portrait of his subject or scene.” Robert Pruter, author of Chicago Soul.

Photographs, notes, index.

Ashley Kahn’s George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words) (Chicago Review Press) “is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of Harrison’s most revealing and illuminating interviews, personal correspondence, and writings, spanning the years 1962 to 2001. Though known as the ‘Quiet Beatle,’ Harrison was arguably the most thoughtful and certainly the most outspoken of the famous four. This compendium of his words and ideas proves that point repeatedly, revealing his passion for music, his focus on spirituality, and his responsibility as a celebrity, as well as a sense of deep commitment and humor.”

Grammy-winning author Ashley Kahn has received widespread critical acclaim for A Love Supreme: The Making of John Coltrane’s Signature Album and Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece. His other books include The House That Trane Built and, as cowriter, The Universal Tone, Carlos Santana’s autobiography. He teaches at New York University, and his articles have appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and other publications.

“Despite all the pressures of fame, George Harrison managed to stay grounded, and real, and to live a life in full. In George Harrison on George Harrison, Ashley Kahn has summoned up a portrait of the artist as public figure, as friend, as husband, as spiritual devotee, through a kaleidoscopic assemblage of letters, interviews, broadcast transcripts, and more. Harri-son was thoughtful, sensitive, honest, warmly funny, kind, and very, very smart. It all shines through in this beautiful collection.”  Tom Piazza, author of Why New Orleans Matters

“No one does a better job than Ashley Kahn at bringing us behind the scenes into the inner workings of the music world. He’s done it again with this mind-expanding book on George Harrison and the Beatles.” Ted Gioia, author of Music: A Subversive History

“The quiet Beatle—Janis Joplin’s favorite Beatle, by the way—finally gets his say in this superb collection of Harrison’s letters, interviews, and writings. Ashley Kahn, super-sleuth, has unearthed some real gems. Experiencing the evolution of this amazing musician and human  being through his own words makes for an astounding journey.” Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life And Music

Index.

Ted Montgomery, The Paul McCartney Catalog: A Complete Annotated Discography of Solo Works, 1967-2019 (McFarland). “This complete discography of Paul McCartney's solo and other post-Beatles work examines his entire catalog. It covers his studio and live albums and compilations, including the trance, electronic, classical and cover albums and selected bootleg recordings; all of the singles; videos and DVDs; and the 15 radio shows he made as Oobu Joobu. Each song is reviewed in depth, providing a wealth of information for both dedicated McCartney fans and those just discovering his music.”

Ted Montgomery's writing has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and websites. He lives in Brighton, Michigan. 

Index.

Craig Brown, 150 Glimpses of the Beatles (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

“Though fifty years have passed since the breakup of the Beatles, the fab four continue to occupy an utterly unique place in popular culture. Their influence extends far beyond music and into realms as diverse as fashion and fine art, sexual politics and religion. When they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, fresh off the plane from England, they provoked an epidemic of hoarse-throated fandom that continues to this day.

Who better, then, to capture the Beatles phenomenon than Craig Brown―the inimitable author of Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret and master chronicler of the foibles and foppishness of British high society? This wide-ranging portrait of the four lads from Liverpool rivals the unique spectacle of the band itself by delving into a vast catalog of heretofore unexamined lore.

When actress Eleanor Bron touched down at Heathrow with the Beatles, she thought that a flock of starlings had alighted on the roof of the terminal―only to discover that the birds were in fact young women screaming at the top of their lungs. One journalist, mistaken for Paul McCartney as he trailed the band in his car, found himself nearly crushed to death as fans climbed atop the vehicle and pressed their bodies against the windshield. Or what about the Baptist preacher who claimed that the Beatles synchronized their songs with the rhythm of an infant’s heartbeat so as to induce a hypnotic state in listeners? And just how many people have employed the services of a Canadian dentist who bought John Lennon’s tooth at auction, extracted its DNA, and now offers paternity tests to those hoping to sue his estate?

150 Glimpses of the Beatles is, above all, a distinctively kaleidoscopic examination of the Beatles’ effect on the world around them and the world they helped bring into being. Part anthropology and part memoir, and enriched by the recollections of everyone from Tom Hanks to Bruce Springsteen, this book is a humorous, elegiac, and at times madcap take on the Beatles’ role in the making of the sixties and of music as we know it.”

Craig Brown is a prolific journalist and author. He has been writing his parodic diary in Private Eye since 1989. He is the only person ever to have won three different Press Awards―for best humorist, columnist, and critic―in the same year. He has been a columnist for The Guardian, The Times (London), The Spectator, and The Daily Telegraph, among others. He currently writes for The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. His New York Times bestseller, Hello Goodbye Hello was translated into ten languages.

“Time-play and what-ifs are part of Brown’s formidable bag of tricks, deployed to add emotional range and a poignant twist to his comic vignettes. His biographical method―combining fragments, lists, excerpts, quotes and flights of whimsy―is executed as brilliantly here as in 2017’s glittering Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret . . . Brown’s book is an idiosyncratic cocktail of oral history, personal memoir, tourism and biography.” Charles Arrowsmith, The Washington Post.

Photographs.

Peter Guralnick’s Looking to Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing (Little, Brown and Company) “covers old ground from new perspectives, offering deeply felt, masterful, and strikingly personal portraits of creative artists, both musicians and writers, at the height of their powers. ‘You put the book down feeling that its sweep is vast, that you have read of giants who walked among us,’ rock critic Lester Bangs wrote of Guralnick’s earlier work in words that could just as easily be applied to this new one. And yet, for all of the encomiums that Guralnick’s books have earned for their remarkable insights and depth of feeling, Looking to Get Lost is his most personal book yet. For readers who have grown up on Guralnick’s unique vision of the vast sweep of the American musical landscape, who have imbibed his loving and lively portraits and biographies of such titanic figures as Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, and Sam Phillips, there are multiple surprises and delights here, carrying on and extending all the themes, fascinations, and passions of his groundbreaking earlier work.”

Peter Guralnick's books include the prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, Sweet Soul Music, and Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. He won a Grammy for his liner notes for Sam Cooke Live at the Harlem Square Club, wrote and co-produced the documentary Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll, and wrote the scripts for the Grammy-winning documentary Sam Cooke/Legend and Martin Scorsese’s blues documentary Feel Like Going Home. His most recent book is Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll.

“Peter Guralnick is a dedicated explorer, and like all explorers with true mastery of their quest, he is singular and tenacious. He goes deep into the difficult emotional undercurrents, and the contradictions of success, in the lives of artists, and by subtle extension, into his own life. He is a writer of great sensitivity and intuition, who lyrically untangles the network that exists between artist and art, persona and humanity, rhythm and melody, the mortal desires that underscore it all, and, crucially and seamlessly, his own relationship to everything and everyone he contemplates.” Rosanne Cash.

Photographs, notes, index.

Heather Augustyn, Women in Jamaican Music (McFarland). “As the ubiquitous Jamaican musician Bob Marley once famously sang, ‘half the story has never been told.’ This rings particularly true for the little-known women in Jamaican music who comprise significantly less than half of the Caribbean nation's musical landscape. This book covers the female contribution to Jamaican music and its subgenres through dozens of interviews with vocalists, instrumentalists, bandleaders, producers, deejays and supporters of the arts. Relegated to marginalized spaces, these pioneering women fought for their claim to the spotlight amid oppressive conditions to help create and shape Jamaica's musical heritage.”

Heather Augustyn is a continuing lecturer in the English department at Purdue Northwest. She has written seven books on ska and Jamaican music and lives in Northwest Indiana.

“A must-have for fans of Jamaican music.” Charles, Reggae- Steady-Ska.com

Photographs, bibliography, notes, index.

Rae Linda Brown, The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price (Music in American Life) (University of Illinois Press).

“The Heart of a Woman offers the first-ever biography of Florence B. Price, a composer whose career spanned both the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances, and the first African American woman to gain national recognition for her works.

Price's twenty-five years in Chicago formed the core of a working life that saw her create three hundred works in diverse genres, including symphonies and orchestral suites, art songs, vocal and choral music, and arrangements of spirituals. Through interviews and a wealth of material from public and private archives, Rae Linda Brown illuminates Price's major works while exploring the considerable depth of her achievement. Brown also traces the life of the extremely private individual from her childhood in Little Rock through her time at the New England Conservatory, her extensive teaching, and her struggles with racism, poverty, and professional jealousies. In addition, Brown provides musicians and scholars with dozens of musical examples.”

Rae Linda Brown was a professor at the University of Michigan and a professor and Robert and Marjorie Rawlins Chair of the Department of Music at the University of California, Irvine. She was the author of Music, Printed and Manuscript, in the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters: An Annotated Catalog. She died in 2017. Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop.

“The Heart of a Woman is a complex and engaging read of the life and music of Florence B. Price that illuminates how the cultural and intellectual lives of African Americans are deeply embedded in the tapestry of America’s social and musical history. Rae Linda Brown’s work extends beyond the conventional biography as it offers an analytical narrative that interrogates Price’s negotiation of the politics of race and gender, her role in advancing the black symphonic aesthetic, and her dedication to social change and racial equality on and off of the concert stage. The timeliness of this book and the revival of Price’s music are reflective of how the world’s consciousness has finally caught up with intellectual labor offered by both Florence Price and Rae Linda Brown.” Tammy L. Kernodle, author of Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams.

Photographs, bibliography, notes, discography, index.

Daisy Dunn, The Shadow of Vesuvius: A Life of Pliny (Liveright).

“When Pliny the Elder perished at Stabiae during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, he left behind an enormous compendium of knowledge, his thirty-seven-volume Natural History, and a teenaged nephew who revered him as a father. Grieving his loss, Pliny the Younger inherited the Elder’s notebooks―filled with pearls of wisdom―and his legacy. At its heart, The Shadow of Vesuvius is a literary biography of the younger man, who would grow up to become a lawyer, senator, poet, collector of villas, and chronicler of the Roman Empire from the dire days of terror under Emperor Domitian to the gentler times of Emperor Trajan. A biography that will appeal to lovers of Mary Beard books, it is also a moving narrative about the profound influence of a father figure on his adopted son. Interweaving the younger Pliny’s Letters with extracts from the Elder’s Natural History, Daisy Dunn paints a vivid, compellingly readable portrait of two of antiquity’s greatest minds.”

Daisy Dunn is a classicist, art historian, and cultural critic. She is the author of Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet and The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation. She lives in Surrey, England. Her website is www.daisydunn.co.uk, and she can also be found on Twitter as @DaisyfDunn.

“If you were writing a biography of Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus―or Pliny the Younger, the author of one of the most famous collections of letters surviving from the early Roman Empire―it would be hard not to start with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, in 79 A.D., for Pliny was the only writer to leave us an eyewitness account of the catastrophe. The English classicist Daisy Dunn… wisely does not resist the temptation… She succeed[s] in making Pliny [the Younger]…a poignant character, the kind of person who has to do the dirty jobs of an empire and, having done them, gets no compliments…. Neither Pliny knew that his homeland’s great mountain, Vesuvius, was nourishing in her bosom the extermination of so many of her people. This somehow makes the two men’s kinship closer.” Joan Acocella, The New Yorker.

“If only Daisy Dunn’s book had been around back when I was an aspiring classicist . . . . Dunn is a good writer, with some of the easy erudition of Mary Beard, that great popularizer of Roman history, and her translations from both Plinys are graceful and precise. Ultimately her enthusiasm, together with her eye for the odd, surprising detail, wins you over.” Charles McGrath, New York Times Book Review.

Illustrations, maps, timeline, notes, bibliography, index.

Suetonius, How to Be a Bad Emperor: An Ancient Guide to Truly Terrible Leaders (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers), edited by Josiah Osgoo (Princeton University Press).

“If recent history has taught us anything, it's that sometimes the best guide to leadership is the negative example. But that insight is hardly new. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Suetonius wrote Lives of the Caesars, perhaps the greatest negative leadership book of all time. He was ideally suited to write about terrible political leaders; after all, he was also the author of Famous Prostitutes and Words of Insult, both sadly lost. In How to Be a Bad Emperor, Josiah Osgood provides crisp new translations of Suetonius's briskly paced, darkly comic biographies of the Roman emperors Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. Entertaining and shocking, the stories of these ancient anti-role models show how power inflames leaders' worst tendencies, causing almost incalculable damage. Complete with an introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Be a Bad Emperor is both a gleeful romp through some of the nastiest bits of Roman history and a perceptive account of leadership gone monstrously awry. We meet Caesar, using his aunt's funeral to brag about his descent from gods and kings―and hiding his bald head with a comb-over and a laurel crown; Tiberius, neglecting public affairs in favor of wine, perverse sex, tortures, and executions; the insomniac sadist Caligula, flaunting his skill at cruel put-downs; and the matricide Nero, indulging his mania for public performance. In a world bristling with strongmen eager to cast themselves as the Caesars of our day, How to Be a Bad Emperor is a delightfully enlightening guide to the dangers of power without character.”

“This enticing selection from Suetonius's Lives highlights the role of four Roman emperors as anti-role models―egregious examples of how not to behave, which may also resonate with more recent political leaders.” Catharine Edwards, author of Death in Ancient Rome.

“If you were writing a biography of Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus―or Pliny the Younger, the author of one of the most famous collections of letters surviving from the early Roman Empire―it would be hard not to start with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, on the Bay of Naples, in 79 A.D., for Pliny was the only writer to leave us an eyewitness account of the catastrophe. The English classicist Daisy Dunn . . . wisely does not resist the temptation . . . . She succeed[s] in making Pliny [the Younger] . . . a poignant character, the kind of person who has to do the dirty jobs of an empire and, having done them, gets no compliments. . . . Neither Pliny knew that his homeland’s great mountain, Vesuvius, was nourishing in her bosom the extermination of so many of her people. This somehow makes the two men’s kinship closer.” Joan Acocella, The New Yorker.

Illustrations, timeline, notes, bibliography, index.

Notes, bibliography.

Horace, How to Be Content: An Ancient Poet's Guide for an Age of Excess (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers), edited by Stephen Harrison (Princeton University Press).

“What are the secrets to a contented life? One of Rome’s greatest and most influential poets, Horace (65–8 BCE) has been cherished by readers for more than two thousand years not only for his wit, style, and reflections on Roman society, but also for his wisdom about how to live a good life―above all else, a life of contentment in a world of materialistic excess and personal pressures. In How to Be Content, Stephen Harrison, a leading authority on the poet, provides fresh, contemporary translations of poems from across Horace’s works that continue to offer important lessons about the good life, friendship, love, and death. Living during the reign of Rome’s first emperor, Horace drew on Greek and Roman philosophy, especially Stoicism and Epicureanism, to write poems that reflect on how to live a thoughtful and moderate life amid mindless overconsumption, how to achieve and maintain true love and friendship, and how to face disaster and death with patience and courage. From memorable counsel on the pointlessness of worrying about the future to valuable advice about living in the moment, these poems, by the man who famously advised us to carpe diem, or “harvest the day,” continue to provide brilliant meditations on perennial human problems. Featuring translations of, and commentary on, complete poems from Horace’s Odes, Satires, Epistles, and Epodes, accompanied by the original Latin, How to Be Content is both an ideal introduction to Horace and a compelling book of timeless wisdom.”

Stephen Harrison is a British classicist and Professor of Latin Literature at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He specializes in the poetry of Virgil and Horace, the Roman novel and the reception of classical literature. A graduate of Balliol College, Harrison has held his current position since 1987 and is an occasional visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen and at the University of Trondheim..

“Horace is an unparalleled source of inspiring life advice from the ancient world. This engaging guide to his wisdom succeeds by showing the interconnectedness and continuing relevance of his key themes, including the brevity of life and the importance of being content with one’s material and emotional lot.” Jennifer Ferriss-Hill, author of Horace’s Ars Poetica: Family, Friendship, and the Art of Living.

Index.

John Took’s Dante (Princeton University Press) is “An authoritative and comprehensive intellectual biography of the author of the Divine Comedy. For all that has been written about the author of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) remains the best guide to his own life and work. Dante's writings are therefore never far away in this authoritative and comprehensive intellectual biography, which offers a fresh account of the medieval Florentine poet's life and thought before and after his exile in 1302.

Beginning with the often violent circumstances of Dante's life, the book examines his successive works as testimony to the course of his passionate humanity: his lyric poetry through to the Vita nova as the great work of his first period; the Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia and the poems of his early years in exile; and the Monarchia and the Commedia as the product of his maturity. Describing as it does a journey of the mind, the book confirms the nature of Dante's undertaking as an exploration of what he himself speaks of as ‘maturity in the flame of love.’ The result is an original synthesis of Dante's life and work.”

John Took is Professor Emeritus of Dante Studies at University College London. His books include L'Etterno Piacer: Aesthetic Ideas in Dante and Dante, Lyric Poet and Philosopher: An Introduction to the Minor Works.

“A magisterial work, the result of a lifetime's devoted engagement with Dante's work and all that went into making the man and the poetry.” Corinna Salvadori Lonergan, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin

“A beautiful book that reflects decades of thinking and teaching on Dante. Readers will not be disappointed by Took's incisive, comprehensive readings of the Divine Comedy and other works.” Piero Boitani, Sapienza University of Rome

“John Took offers a splendidly comprehensive and well-informed account of Dante's work. Full weight is given to the ways in which the poet's writings reflect and respond to historical context. But above all the poetry itself is seen, rightly and enthusiastically, as a 'coruscation of delight.'” Robin Kirkpatrick, University of Cambridge

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index of names.

Nicholas McDowell, Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton (Princeton University Press).

“John Milton (1608–1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defenses of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions. Tracing Milton’s literary, intellectual, and political development with unprecedented depth and understanding, Poet of Revolution is an unmatched biographical account of the formation of the mind that would go on to create Paradise Lost―but would first justify the killing of a king. Biographers of Milton have always struggled to explain how the young poet became a notorious defender of regicide and other radical ideas such as freedom of the press, religious toleration, and republicanism. In this groundbreaking intellectual biography of Milton’s formative years, Nicholas McDowell draws on recent archival discoveries to reconcile at last the poet and polemicist. He charts Milton’s development from his earliest days as a London schoolboy, through his university life and travels in Italy, to his emergence as a public writer during the English Civil War. At the same time, McDowell presents fresh, richly contextual readings of Milton’s best-known works from this period, including the “Nativity Ode,” “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso,” Comus, and “Lycidas.” Challenging biographers who claim that Milton was always a secret radical, Poet of Revolution shows how the events that provoked civil war in England combined with Milton’s astonishing programme of self-education to instil the beliefs that would shape not only his political prose but also his later epic masterpiece.”

Nicholas McDowell is Professor of Early Modern Literature and Thought at the University of Exeter. He is the author of The English Radical Imagination and Poetry and Allegiance in the English Civil Wars and the coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Milton.

“This is a masterful and engaging intellectual biography. McDowell has a new narrative to tell about Milton during these formative years. Chapter after chapter contain fresh information and sharp new readings of Milton's works and the biographical evidence.” David Quint, Yale University.

“This is a superb book and a massive achievement. It will be the decisive book on the subject for a generation.” William Poole, Oxford University.

Illustrations, notes, index.

Michael W. Cole’s Sofonisba's Lesson: A Renaissance Artist and Her Work (Princeton University Press) is an account of “The formation and career of the first major woman artist of the Renaissance. Sofonisba Anguissola (ca. 1535–1625) was the daughter of minor Lombard aristocrats who made the unprecedented decision to have her trained as a painter outside the family house. She went on to serve as an instructor to Isabel of Valois, the young queen of Spain. Sofonisba’s Lesson sheds new light on Sofonisba’s work, offering a major reassessment of a Renaissance painter who changed the image of women’s education in Europe―and who transformed Western attitudes about who could be an artist. In this book, Michael Cole demonstrates how teaching and learning were central themes of Sofonisba’s art, which shows women learning to read, play chess, and paint. He looks at how her pictures challenged conventional ideas about the teaching of young girls, and he discusses her place in the history of the amateur, a new Renaissance type. The book examines Sofonisba’s relationships with the group of people for whom her practice was important―her father Amilcare, her teacher Bernardino Campi, the men and women who sought to be associated with her, and her sisters and the other young women who followed her path. Sofonisba’s Lesson concludes with a complete illustrated catalog of the more than two hundred known paintings and drawings that writers have associated with Sofonisba over the past 450 years, with a full accounting of modern scholarly opinion on each.”

Michael W. Cole is professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University. His recent books include A New History of Italian Renaissance Art, with Stephen J. Campbell, and Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Art of the Figure. He lives in New York City.

"A substantial monograph that opens at the poignant moment when Sofonisba ‘left her father’s home’ to study art.” Deborah Solomon, New York Times

“Sofonisba's Lesson tells the story of how it was possible for a young Cremona woman to make a name for herself in the competitive man’s world of 1550s Italy and further afield in Spain . . . . Having run through the biographical information intrigued and entranced, the reader will hit upon the catalog of works without even realizing it; Cole writes with a style that is both thought-provoking and relatable, his subject matter indelibly endearing.” Cindy Helms, New York Journal of Books.

“This insightful book provides a fascinating and original introduction to the first great woman artist of Renaissance Italy. Sofonisba's Lesson makes a timely contribution to Renaissance art history and women's studies, providing a comprehensive and much-needed examination of a major painter.” Babette Bohn, author of Ludovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing.

“Michael Cole makes a compelling contribution to our understanding of the art and life of the Cremonese painter Sofonisba Anguissola, and to broader discussions of women artists in the Renaissance.” Andrea Bayer, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Paintings throughout and an illustrated catalog of the more than two hundred known paintings and drawings that writers have associated with Sofonisba over the past 450 years.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Nathaniel Fanning, Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning, 1778-1783, edited by Louis Arthur Norton (McFarland). “Connecticut privateer Nathaniel Fanning (1755-1805) was captured by the British during the Revolutionary War. Upon his release, he joined the Continental Navy and sailed as a midshipman under Admiral John Paul Jones during his most famous battles. Fanning later obtained his own command, sailing from French ports to prey upon British warships.

This new edition of Fanning's memoir--first published in 1806--provides a vivid account of wartime peril and hardship at sea, and a first-hand character study of Jones as an apparent tyrant and narcissist. Vocabulary, spelling and narrative style have changed in the more than two centuries since Fanning's chronicle, and some details clash with historical and geographical data. The editor has updated and annotated the text for modern readers.”

Louis Arthur Norton, professor emeritus from the University of Connecticut, has published extensively on maritime history topics. Several of his journal articles have been awarded prizes for non-fiction and one for fiction. He lives in West Simsbury, Connecticut.

Photographs, notes, index.

Gillian Gill, Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

“How did Adeline Virginia Stephen become the great writer Virginia Woolf? Acclaimed biographer Gillian Gill tells the stories of the women whose legacies—of strength, style, and creativity—shaped Woolf’s path to the radical writing that inspires so many today. Gill casts back to Woolf’s French-Anglo-Indian maternal great-grandmother Thérèse de L’Etang, an outsider to English culture whose beauty passed powerfully down the female line; and to Woolf’s aunt Anne Thackeray Ritchie, who gave Woolf her first vision of a successful female writer.  Yet it was the women in her own family circle who had the most complex and lasting effect on Woolf.  Her mother, Julia, and sisters Stella, Laura, and Vanessa were all, like Woolf herself, but in markedly different ways, warped by the male-dominated household they lived in.  Finally, Gill shifts the lens onto the famous Bloomsbury group.  This, Gill convinces, is where Woolf called upon the legacy of the women who shaped her to transform a group of men--united in their love for one another and their disregard for women--into a society in which Woolf ultimately found her freedom and her voice.” 

Gillian Gill holds a Ph.D. in modern French literature from Cambridge University, and has taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard. She is the New York Times best-selling author of We Too, Nightingales, Agatha Christie,  Mary Baker Edd,; and We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals. She lives in suburban Boston.

“Gillian Gill has written a bold, incisive book—vividly conceived, impeccably researched, always questioning and ever original. By shedding light upon the gutsy, powerful women who shaped Virginia Woolf’s life and work, Gill makes a compelling argument about legacy, inheritance, and our female forebears’ enduring influence.” Katharine Smyth, author of All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf.

“An engaging, fully persuasive account of the women who stirred Virginia Woolf’s imagination. Gillian Gill’s broad-minded reading of Woolf’s relations with her womenfolk recontextualizes the legends of Bloomsbury.” Carolyn Burke, author of Foursome:  Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keefe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Jill D. Snider’s Lucean Arthur Headen: The Making of a Black Inventor and Entrepreneur (The University of North Carolina Press) “recreates the life of this extraordinary man through historical detective work in newspapers, business and trade publications, genealogical databases, and scholarly works. Mapping the social networks his family built within the Presbyterian church and other organizations (networks on which Headen often relied), she also reveals the legacy of Carthage's, and the South's, black artisans. Their story shows us that, despite our worship of personal triumph, success is often a communal as well as an individual achievement.”

Jill D. Snider is a historian and writer living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“This is one of the best black inventor biographies I have read in quite some time. Jill D. Snider deftly unearths the life of Lucean Arthur Headen from sources that can be difficult to find--something that makes writing about African American people of this era challenging. This is an impressive work of history and biography.” Rayvon Fouche, author of Game Changer: The Technoscientific Revolution in Sports

“Forging a diverse coalition of allies, Lucean Arthur Headen learned to thrive as an independent African American inventor, international entrepreneur, and social advocate in an era of Jim Crow segregation, corporate R&D, the Great Depression, and two world wars. Jill Snider's absorbing biography will help readers understand this remarkable man in the context of his times.” Eric S. Hintz, Smithsonian Institution

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

James E. Overmyer Cum Posey of the Homestead Grays: A Biography of the Negro Leagues Owner and Hall of Famer (McFarland). “Cumberland Posey began his career in 1911 playing outfield for the Homestead Grays, a local black team in his Pennsylvania hometown. He soon became the squad's driving force as they dominated semi-pro ball in the Pittsburgh area. By the late 1930s the Grays were at the top of the Negro Leagues with nine straight pennant wins. Posey was also a League officer; he served 13 years as the first black member of the Homestead school board; and he wrote an outspoken sports column for the African American weekly, the Pittsburgh Courier. He was also regarded as one of the best black basketball players in the East; he was the organizer of a team that held the consensus national black championship five years running. Ten years after his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he became a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame--one of only two athletes to be honored by two pro sports halls.”

Jim Overmyer is a baseball history author specializing in the Negro leagues. In addition to Queen of the Negro Leagues, he is the author of Black Ball and the Boardwalk, a history of the black Atlantic City Bacharach Giants team of the 1920s, and has contributed to several other publications, including Shades of Glory, history of black baseball in America. He is an editor of Black Ball, a scholarly journal of black baseball history. He is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, and belongs to its Negro Leagues, Nineteen Century, Deadball, and Business of Baseball committees. He was a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s 2006 special committee that voted to induct seventeen persons from the Negro leagues and the black baseball period before the leagues were formed as members of the Hall. He lectures on baseball history, primarily African-American and lives in Tucson, Arizona.

“Last year saw the publication of the first biography of Oscar Charleston, the Negro League's greatest player, which swept the Casey and Seymour awards as the year's best baseball book. This year, we have another first biography of the Negro League's most important figures, Cum Posey. Posey is the only person admitted to both the baseball and basketball Hall of Fames and his story, previously untold, is even more remarkable then expected. Starting as a basketball player, Posey evolved into the force behind the legendary Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues. Overmyer's work details the strong moral force behind the man without glossing over the glaring inconsistencies in which he engaged to survive in a hard world. Posey's story, as told in this volume, is in fact the story of the Negro Leagues over its 40 years of existence. An essential contribution to the genre.” Steven R Greenes, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Charlie Nelms, From Cotton Fields to University Leadership: All Eyes on Charlie, A Memoir (Well House Books/Indiana University Press).

“Charlie Nelms is a person of the soil. The fifth of eleven children born to subsistence farming parents who struggled to make a living on their little 40-acre farm in the Arkansas Delta, Charlie decided as a young boy picking cotton that education was the best route for escaping the dehumanizing effects of poverty and racism, which defined life for most Southern Blacks during the 1950s and 60s. With the constant encouragement and support of his parents, teachers, and mentors, he graduated high school and enrolled at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College, an historically black college in Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy and Chemistry. He earned both his master’s and doctorate in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University. With a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, Charlie spent two years as a doctoral fellow in Higher Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Charlie Nelms, a native of the Arkansas Delta, has devoted his life to equalizing opportunities for disenfranchised peoples. He is currently a senior scholar at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and a Center Scholar at the Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University School of Education, as well as retired Chancellor, North Carolina Central University, and IU Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs Emeritus. In retirement, he works with historically Black colleges and universities to strengthen leadership and governance.

Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough is president of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Kimbrough holds degrees from the University of Georgia, Miami University of Ohio, and Georgia State University. He has been recognized for his research on historically black colleges and universities, African American men in college, and fraternities and sororities. In 2010 he was named as part of the Ebony magazine Power 100 list and in 2013 he became one of NBC News/The Griot.com's 100 African Americans making history today.”

“Far too often we meet leaders and forget their journeys to leadership. We forget the struggles, the stumbles, the surprises, and the enormous amount of hard work they put in, amidst twists and turns along the journey. Charlie Nelms has written an autobiography that is authentic, humble, and serves as an example for those leaders who will follow him. His voice, honesty, humor, and compassion shine through his life story.” Dr. Marybeth Gasman, Director, Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions, author of Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority-Serving Institutions.

Photographs, notes.

E. James West, Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America (University of Illinois Press).

“From its launch in 1945, Ebony magazine was politically and socially influential. However, the magazine also played an important role in educating millions of African Americans about their past. Guided by the pen of Lerone Bennett Jr., the magazine’s senior editor and in-house historian, Ebony became a key voice in the popular black history revival that flourished after World War II. Its content helped push representations of the African American past from the margins to the center of the nation’s cultural and political imagination. E. James West's fresh and fascinating exploration of Ebony’s political, social, and historical content illuminates the intellectual role of the iconic magazine and its contribution to African American scholarship. He also uncovers a paradox. Though Ebony provided Bennett with space to promote a militant reading of black history and protest, the magazine’s status as a consumer publication helped to mediate its representation of African American identity in both past and present. Mixing biography, cultural history, and popular memory, West restores Ebony and Bennett to their rightful place in African American intellectual, commercial, and political history.”

E. James West is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in American History at Northumbria University.

“E. James West’s book is the first major examination of Ebony as a forum for black historical discourse and the magazine’s long-time executive editor Lerone Bennett Jr.’s multifaceted thought, work, and scholarship as a leading popular historian of the black past and vital contributor to the post-war black history movement. A well-researched and accessible study situated within the growing field of black intellectual history, Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr. is a major contribution to our understanding of what West aptly calls 'popular black history.'” Pero G. Dagbovie, author of Revisiting the Black Past: The Use and Misuse of African American history in the Twenty-First Century.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Troy R. Saxby, Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life (University of North Carolina Press).

“The Rev. Dr. Anna Pauline (Pauli) Murray (1910–1985) was a trailblazing social activist, writer, lawyer, civil rights organizer, and campaigner for gender rights. In the 1930s and 1940s, she was active in radical left-wing political groups and helped innovate nonviolent protest strategies against segregation that would become iconic in later decades, and in the 1960s, she cofounded the National Organization for Women (NOW). In addition, Murray became the first African American to receive a Yale law doctorate and the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. Yet, behind her great public successes, Murray battled many personal demons, including bouts of poor physical and mental health, conflicts over her gender and sexual identities, family traumas, and financial difficulties. In this intimate biography, Troy Saxby provides the most comprehensive account of Murray's inner life to date, revealing her struggles in poignant detail and deepening our understanding and admiration of her numerous achievements in the face of pronounced racism, homophobia, transphobia, and political persecution. Saxby interweaves the personal and the political, showing how the two are always entwined, to tell the life story of one of twentieth-century America's most fascinating and inspirational figures.”

Troy R. Saxby is an academic and research officer at the University of Newcastle.

“Until recently, there has been very little written about Pauli Murray, and Saxby has made excellent use of her voluminous papers to dive into her life story. He shows how Murray worked to fashion a coherent sense of self, providing important insights into how her private life related to her public endeavors.” Susan Hartmann, author of The Other Feminists: Activists In The Liberal Establishment.

“In recent years, we've been able to learn much more about the incredible life and work of Pauli Murray. She gave all that she could to make the United States confront its failure to live up to its own creed of liberty and justice for all. Now, Troy Saxby's new biography of Murray helps us to understand both the personal cost and the existential sources of her courage. If suffering and struggle are the fates that make us more human, Murray's courage and faith in the face of pain and despair teach us the gritty truth of how one woman became not only a hero for humanity but a modern saint.” Edward E. Baptist, author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.

“Ground-breaker, activist, strategist, and saint, Pauli Murray has been celebrated for the many ways in which she shaped the women's movement and the long civil rights movement. Her fiery activism was fueled by the founding traumas of both the black experience, broadly, and her own family history. Bringing together her emotional complexity and her brilliant drive to make better things possible, this book is an elegantly crafted account of Murray and the complex, wrenching world on which she made her mark.” Adriane Lentz-Smith, author of Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Aubrey Malone, Sidney Lumet: The Actor's Director (McFarland). “Punctilious to a fault, Sidney Lumet favored intense rehearsal, which enabled him to bring in most of his films under budget and under schedule. An energized director who captured the heart of New York like no other, Lumet created a vast canon of work that stands as a testament to his passionate concern for justice and his great empathy for the hundreds of people with whom he collaborated during a career that spanned over five decades. This is the first full-scale biography of Lumet, a man generally regarded as one of the most affable directors of his time. Using the oral testimonies of those who worked with him both behind and in front of the camera, this book explores Lumet's personality and working methods.”

Author and critic Aubrey Malone has written many books on the cinema. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Oliver Stone, Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

“Before the international success of Platoon in 1986, Oliver Stone had been wounded as an infantryman in Vietnam, and spent years writing unproduced scripts while driving taxis in New York, finally venturing westward to Los Angeles and a new life. Stone, now 73, recounts those formative years with in-the-moment details of the high and low moments: We see meetings with Al Pacino over Stone’s scripts for Scarface, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July; the harrowing demon of cocaine addiction following the failure of his first feature, The Hand (starring Michael Caine); his risky on-the-ground research of Miami drug cartels for Scarface; his stormy relationship with The Deer Hunter director Michael Cimino; the breathless hustles to finance the acclaimed and divisive Salvador; and tensions behind the scenes of his first Academy Award–winning film, Midnight Express.

Chasing the Light is a true insider’s look at Hollywood’s years of upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s.”

“Chasing the Light is a deep book, illuminated and relentless, prose at its best. . . . What Oliver Stone has written will last, because I have never seen anything like his insights into the way the film industry works.” Werner Herzog

“Oliver Stone is a giant provocateur in the Hollywood movie system. His autobiography is a fascinating exposure of Stone’s inner life and his powerful, all devouring energy and genius that drove him to become one of the world's greatest filmmakers. Stone rattles cages. He pricks the bubbles of the namby-pambies. He provokes outrage. He stirs up controversy. He has no respect for safe places. Oliver Stone is larger than life. Chasing the Light says it all.”  

Sir Anthony Hopkins

“Oliver Stone's narrative, his life story about the heartbreaks, the near misses, and finally the triumphs is a Hollywood movie in itself. I thank Oliver for writing Chasing the Light, especially for my NYU grad film students—or anybody else with artistic dreams of working in this thing called the movie business. Oliver, in honest and sometimes brutal fashion, lays it out—what it took for him to get to where he hoped to be—a successful writer/director working in Hollywood; the road it took is hard AF. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo.” Spike Lee

Photos, index.

Sarah Cole, Inventing Tomorrow: H. G. Wells and the Twentieth Century (Columbia University Press)

“H. G. Wells played a central role in defining the intellectual, political, and literary character of the twentieth century. A prolific literary innovator, he coined such concepts as “time machine,” “war of the worlds,” and “atomic bomb,” exerting vast influence on popular ideas of time and futurity, progress and decline, and humanity’s place in the universe. Wells was a public intellectual with a worldwide readership. He met with world leaders, including Roosevelt, Lenin, Stalin, and Churchill, and his books were international best-sellers. Yet critics and scholars have largely forgotten his accomplishments or relegated them to genre fiction, overlooking their breadth and diversity. In Inventing Tomorrow, Sarah Cole provides a definitive account of Wells’s work and ideas. She contends that Wells casts new light on modernism and its values: on topics from warfare to science to time, his work resonates both thematically and aesthetically with some of the most ambitious modernists. At the same time, unlike many modernists, Wells believed that literature had a pressing place in public life, and his works reached a wide range of readers. While recognizing Wells’s limitations, Cole offers a new account of his distinctive style as well as his interventions into social and political thought. She illuminates how Wells embodies twentieth-century literature at its most expansive and engaged. An ambitious rethinking of Wells as both writer and thinker, Inventing Tomorrow suggests that he offers a timely model for literature’s moral responsibility to imagine a better global future.”

Sarah Cole is Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature and dean of humanities at Columbia University. She is the author of Modernism, Male Friendship, and the First World War and At the Violet Hour: Modernism and Violence in England and Ireland.

Notes, bibliography, index.

J. Alison Rosenblitt, The Beauty of Living: E. E. Cummings in the Great War (W. W. Norton & Company)

“E. E. Cummings is one of our most popular and enduring poets, one whose name extends beyond the boundaries of the literary world. Renowned for his formally fractured, gleefully alive poetry, Cummings is not often thought of as a war poet. But his experience in France and as a prisoner during World War I (the basis for his first work of prose, The Enormous Room) escalated his earliest breaks with conventional form?the innovation with which his name would soon become synonymous.

Intimate and richly detailed, The Beauty of Living begins with Cummings’s Cambridge upbringing and his relationship with his socially progressive but domestically domineering father. It follows Cummings through his undergraduate experience at Harvard, where he fell into a circle of aspiring writers including John Dos Passos, who became a lifelong friend. Steeped in classical paganism and literary Decadence, Cummings and his friends rode the explosion of Cubism, Futurism, Imagism, and other “modern” movements in the arts. As the United States prepared to enter World War I, Cummings volunteered as an ambulance driver, shipped out to Paris, and met his first love, Marie Louise Lallemand, who was working in Paris as a prostitute. Soon after reaching the front, however, he was unjustly imprisoned in a brutal French detention center at La Ferté-Macé. Through this confrontation with arbitrary and sadistic authority, he found the courage to listen to his own voice.

Probing an underexamined yet formative time in the poet’s life, this deeply researched account illuminates his ideas about love, justice, humanity, and brutality. J. Alison Rosenblitt weaves together letters, journal entries, and sketches with astute analyses of poems that span Cummings’s career, revealing the origins of one of the twentieth century’s most famous poets. 16 pages of illustrations”

J. Alison Rosenblitt is the director of studies in classics at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford and author of E. E. Cummings’ Modernism and the Classics: Each Imperishable Stanza. She lives in England.

“A sparkling narrative of Cummings’s early life. The Beauty of Living is a compelling account of Cummings’s complicated personal, sexual, and family relations, a platform on which J. Alison Rosenblitt can exercise her exceptional skills as an analyst of poetry and art. This is a profoundly enlightening introduction to Cummings by a gifted critic.” Bernard O’Donoghue, author of The Seasons of Cullen Church

Photos, notes, bibliography, glossary, indexes.

Ursula Buchan, Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan (Bloomsbury Publishing). “John Buchan's name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the past hundred years the classic thriller has never been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film, television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by Alfred Hitchcock. Yet there was vastly more to 'JB'. He wrote more than a hundred books – fiction and non-fiction – and a thousand articles for newspapers and magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and imperial proconsul – given a state funeral when he died, a deeply admired and loved Governor-General of Canada. His teenage years in Glasgow's Gorbals, where his father was the Free Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors, fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life contains, at its heart, an enduring love story. Ursula Buchan, his granddaughter, has drawn on recently discovered family documents to write this comprehensive and illuminating biography. With perception, style, wit and a penetratingly clear eye, she brings vividly to life this remarkable man and his times.”

Ursula Buchan studied modern history at New Hall, Cambridge, and horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She is an award-winning journalist and author, having written eighteen books and contributed regularly to the Spectator, Observer, Independent, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Telegraph, and The Garden. She is a daughter of John Buchan's second son, William.

“John Buchan was a writer of considerable significance but he was also a man who led a remarkable public life. This magnificent biography leads us through that life with great style and understanding” Alexander McCall Smith

“[An] outstanding biography. . . . Though factual, it reads like a big, rambling Victorian novel, and takes you, as novels do, into other people's lives.” John Cary, Sunday Times

“Page-turning, buccaneering stuff.” Laura Freeman, The Times.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Philip Gefter, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon (Harper Collins)

“In his acclaimed portraits, Richard Avedon captured the iconic figures of the twentieth century in his starkly bold, intimately minimal, and forensic visual style. Concurrently, his work for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue transformed the ideals of women's fashion, femininity, and culture to become the defining look of an era. Yet despite his driving ambition to gain respect in the art world, during his lifetime he was condescendingly dismissed as a ‘celebrity photographer.’

What Becomes a Legend Most is the first definitive biography of this luminary—an intensely driven man who endured personal and professional prejudice, struggled with deep insecurities, and mounted an existential lifelong battle to be recognized as an artist. Philip Gefter builds on archival research and exclusive interviews with those closest to Avedon to chronicle his story, beginning with Avedon’s coming-of-age in New York between the world wars, when cultural prejudices forced him to make decisions that shaped the course of his life. Compounding his private battles, Avedon fought to be taken seriously in a medium that itself struggled to be respected within the art world. Gefter reveals how the 1950s and 1960s informed Avedon’s life and work as much as he informed the period. He counted as close friends a profoundly influential group of artists—Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Harold Brodkey, Renata Adler, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols—who shaped the cultural life of the American twentieth century. It wasn't until Avedon's fashion work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the late 1970s that he became a household name. Balancing glamour with the gravitas of an artist's genuine reach for worldy achievement—and not a little gossip—plus sixteen pages of photographs, What Becomes a Legend Most is an intimate window into Avedon's fascinating world. Dramatic, visionary, and remarkable, it pays tribute to Avedon's role in the history of photography and fashion—and his legacy as one of the most consequential artists of his time.”

Philip Gefter is the author of two previous books: Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, which received the 2014 Marfield Prize and was a finalist for both the Publishing Triangle’s Shilts-Grahn Nonfiction Award and a Lambda Literary Award for Best Biography/Memoir; and a collection of essays, Photography After Frank. He was an editor at the New York Times for over fifteen years and wrote regularly about photography for the paper. He lives in New York City.

“Gefter weaves the particulars of Avedon's life story into a larger narrative about American culture in the decades after World War II. . . . Read in the context of our own precarious political and ecological moment, this assessment alone argues eloquently for the abiding, even urgent relevance of Avedon's imperfect Art.” Caroline Weber, The New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Barack Obama, A Promised Land (Crown).

“In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden. A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible. This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

“Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. . . . [A Promised Land] is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid. . . . The story will continue in the second volume, but Barack Obama has already illuminated a pivotal moment in American history, and how America changed while also remaining unchanged.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New York Times Book Review.

Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms. He is the author of two previous New York Times bestselling books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, and the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Michelle. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Photos, index.

Jelani Cobb, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (Bloomsbury Publishing).

“When voters in 2008 chose the United States' first black president, some Americans hailed the event as a sign that the nation had, at long last, transcended its bloody history of racial inequality. Obama's victory was indescribably momentous, but if the intervening years proved anything, it is that we never leave history entirely behind. Indeed, this may be the ultimate lesson of the Obama era.

First published in 2010, The Substance of Hope is acclaimed historian Jelani Cobb's meditation on what Obama's election represented, an insightful investigation into the civil rights movement forces that helped produce it, and a prescient inquiry into how American society does-and does not-change. In penetrating, elegant prose, Cobb teases apart the paradoxes embodied in race and patriotism, identity and citizenship, progress and legacy.

Now reissued with a new introduction by the author, reflecting on how the seismic impact of the Obama presidency continues to shape America, The Substance of Hope is an indelible work of history and cultural criticism from one of our most singular voices.”

Jelani Cobb is a historian, and a professor of journalism at Columbia University. A staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015, he is a recipient of the Sidney Hillman Award for Opinion and Analysis, as well as fellowships from the Ford and Fulbright Foundations. He resides in New York City.

“This little book is packed with common sense observations that are given weight and meaning through Professor Cobb's academic and historical insight.” Melissa Harris-Perry.

“A provocative book, from a provocative mind.” Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Notes, bibliography.

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

Jeff Gold, Sittin' In: Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s (Harper Design).

This a splendid collection of photographs of nightclub patrons gazing in rapt attention to some of the greatest of jazz musicians as they perform at renowned venues in major jazz centers: New York, Atlantic City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I can’t speak familiarly of the cities other than D.C., where I was born in 1930 and remained in it and nearby Maryland until 1953, returning in 1970 for another 3½ decades. The nine pages devoted to my native city is short shrift for this important jazz center. I wish that more clubs had been highlighted in the section on D.C., which provides a page each, with a photo or illustration, for a mere four of them and in the chapter’s preface names only eight others. Especially deserving of inclusion but missing are the Brown Derby, the Blue Mirror, the Showboat, and Uptown Jazz, plus the several downtown movie houses that featured big bands in their stage shows. In the period covered (pre-1960s), these and a number of other unnamed venues featured major jazz musicians.

Sittin’ In does mention one of D.C.’s principal 1940s-50s after-hours jazz clubs, the Villa Bea (misspelling it as Villa Bier). I have a personal connection with the Villa Bea in that my extended family rented the stand-alone structure 2019 19th Street NW (see photo below) from 1923-33, that is, before it housed the Villa Bea, an illegal “bottle club,” in the building’s garden-level full basement, which had been my newspaper reporter uncle Jack’s quarters. My two brothers, Billy and Turner, both older than I, were born in bedrooms of 2019 19th Street NW and it was my initial home, from 1930 to 1933, when the family dispersed to Georgetown, the Dupont Circle area, Cleveland Park, and other D.C. neighborhoods.. By the way, the three stories above the Villa Bea accommodated gambling and the address was also a hangout for hookers, providing bedrooms in which they could ply their goods.

2019 19th Street NW, Washington, D.C., which housed, in its garden-level basement, the 1940s-50s after-hours jazz club Villa Bea. The writer of this book roundup spent his first three years (1930-33) in it with his parents, two older brothers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

In the publisher’s words, Sittin' In is “A rare collection of more than 200 full-color and black-and-white souvenir photographs and memorabilia that bring to life the renowned jazz nightclubs of the 1940s and 1950s, compiled by Grammy Award-winning record executive and music historian Jeff Gold and featuring exclusive interviews with Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins, Robin Givhan, Jason Moran, and Dan Morgenstern.

In the two decades before the Civil Rights movement, jazz nightclubs were among the first places that opened their doors to both Black and white performers and club goers in Jim Crow America. In this extraordinary collection, Jeff Gold looks back at this explosive moment in the history of Jazz and American culture, and the spaces at the center of artistic and social change. Sittin’ In is a visual history of jazz clubs during these crucial decades when some of the greatest names in in the genre—Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, and many others—were headlining acts across the country. In many of the clubs, Black and white musicians played together and more significantly, people of all races gathered together to enjoy an evening’s entertainment. House photographers roamed the floor and for a dollar, took picture of patrons that were developed on site and could be taken home in a keepsake folder with the club’s name and logo. Sittin’ In tells the story of the most popular club in these cities through striking images, first-hand anecdotes, true tales about the musicians who performed their unforgettable shows, notes on important music recorded live there, and more. All of this is supplemented by colorful club memorabilia, including posters, handbills, menus, branded matchbooks, and more. Inside you’ll also find exclusive, in-depth interviews conducted specifically for this book with the legendary Quincy Jones; jazz great tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins; Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan; jazz musician and creative director of the Kennedy Center, Jason Moran; and jazz critic Dan Morgenstern. Gold surveys America’s jazz scene and its intersection with racism during segregation, focusing on three crucial regions: the East Coast (New York, Atlantic City, Boston, Washington, D.C.); the Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City); and the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). This collection of ephemeral snapshots tells the story of an era that helped transform American life, beginning the move from traditional Dixieland jazz to bebop, from conservatism to the push for personal freedom.”

Jeff Gold is a Grammy Award-winning music historian, archivist, author and executive. Profiled by Rolling Stone as one of five "top collectors of high-end music memorabilia," he is an internationally recognized expert who has consulted for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Museum of Pop Culture (formerly the Experience Music Project), and various record labels and cultural institutions.

“Sittin’ In is in a word—exquisite. Meticulously laid out and extensively researched, it’s a deep dive into this amazing period of American cultural history.  These venues and this amazing music were among the best vehicles for integration the country ever had. This was an America really making a go of bringing people together. It wasn’t legislation. It was Jazz. And it worked. We are incredibly lucky to have Sittin’ In. The musicians in these pages made some of the most sublime music you will ever hear. Seek it out if you have not already.” Henry Rollins (Henry Lawrence Garfield), born in 1961 in Washington, D.C., is an American musician, singer, actor, presenter, comedian, activist, host of a weekly radio show on KCRW (Santa Monica), and a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia.

Mark Ruffin, Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance, and Baseball (Rough In Creative Works).

“The author compels us to look at white privilege from multiple angles, and to look at the traumatic malignancy of Black hatred. As well, he nudges us to investigate more closely our own biases—explicit, implicit, or internalized—all while telling us some impressive facts about legendary jazzers, sportsmen, and the cities they incarnate. Pretty cool.” from the Foreword by Terri Lyne Carrington.

“In his three stories connected by common themes, Mark also shows the impact of race on those institutions and on our culture in 20th-century America. Baseball, jazz, and race. Yes, it’s a book about America.” Lee Mergner, JazzTimes.

“The music is alive and so are characters who breathe and speak and act out fully realized narratives built on the foundation of jazz legend. His stories weave together details drawn from song lyrics, cultural history, and his own rich imagination, creating scenes of musical transcendence as well as harsh, racial reality. These tales may be drawn from the annals of jazz, but they offer enduring lessons of life in America for all of us.” Ashley Kahn

“Mark Ruffin’s Bebop Fairy Tales captures the heart and soul of the American experience during the 20th century with humor, wit, and accuracy, just like the solos of the jazz musicians he uses as his artistic muse. It’s the best kind of history: poetic, noetic, and hip.” Ben Sidran

Carlotta Hester, The Pure Drop (Govinda Gallery/ To order, please call 202-333-1180 or email popart@govindagallery.com).

Ireland’s Anglo-Celt newspaper, publishing since 1846, featured a story about Carlotta Hester’s just-released book of live-action drawings of traditional Irish music artists called The Pure Drop. This book celebrates the 10th anniversary of the All Ireland Music Festival, the largest festival of its kind in the world. Here is that story.

Carlotta Hester and The Pure Drop

by Thomas Lyons

Anglo-Celt

July 16th, 2020

During the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, American artist Carlotta Hester made over 150 drawings in County Cavan. Each a rendering of traditional Irish musicians, singers, and dancers captured at the height of their creative flow.

Now the artist has gathered a selection of her drawings in a beautiful publication called The Pure Drop.

Chris Murray is the publisher of the collection: “It occurred to me that the 10th anniversary of the Fleadh festival was this summer and that it coincided with the staging of the Ulster Fleadh in Cavan. I thought it would be great to mark that by publishing Carlotta’s wonderful live-action drawings. Even though the Ulster Fleadh is canceled, we felt that because the drawings are timeless we would go ahead with it.”

Hester’s drawings are created directly from life while listening to the music in every festival setting: street sessions, theatres, dance classes, pub sessions, master classes, outdoor concerts, cross-border gatherings, and more.

The impact of the experience on the artist and the publisher is apparent when Chris speaks of the time: “Those three summers were an extraordinary time for us. We had never been to an All Ireland Fleadh before and the experience was just magical.”

The book features musical artists from all over Ireland, Scotland, England, and the United States. The sketched portraits include fiddlers Tommy Peoples and Oisin MacDiarmada, harpist Catriona McKay, and lilter Seamus Fay.

The Pure Drop is a celebration of the artistry of deep-rooted Irish traditions which continue to thrive today: “We have to thank Martin Donohoe. He was our Irish music guru.”

The book is very much a Cavan publication: “I had the book printed in Cavan at Harvest Moon in Killeshandra. It is very much a celebration of coming home and discovering traditional music and being moved by its artistry.”

Carlotta Hester has exhibited in Washington DC, Ireland, and Cuba. She combines her art practice with art teaching, and has been the art teacher at the prestigious Maret School since 1994.

The book had an official launch on Sunday, August 9, 2020 in The Farnham Arms Hotel, Cavan Town, Ireland. It celebrated the book and the 10th anniversary of the 2010 All Ireland Fleadh festival in Cavan.

W. Royal Stokes, The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader (Hannah Books).

“Drawn from his extensive archives and including some previously unpublished materials, The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader provides a generous sampling of the author’s journalism from his years as the Washington Post’s jazz critic and across his four decades as a contributor to JazzTimes, DownBeat, and online forums. An autobiographical essay on his earlier academic career and the transcript of a two-hour talk about his jazz life round out the volume. More than 100 photographs enhance one’s enjoyment of this splendid collection.W. Royal Stokes was the recipient of the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He is the author of Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers, Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson, and other books on jazz and blues and the trilogy of novels Backwards Over.”

“W. Royal Stokes’ The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader (Hannah Books) is a compendium of the works of a leading jazz journalist, historian, and critic. This hefty (560 pages) softcover, large format book is a well organized, well annotated, and well illustrated (103 photos) collection of the major contributions of W. Royal Stokes. He has been reporting on a broad spectrum of hip music for over half a century, on radio and in his writings, for DownBeat, JazzTimes, and the Washington Post, among many others. His interview technique allows the artist to express themselves without judgment or interpretation, yet his well-written, astute and comprehensive observations come through loud and clear as a true participant. Hence this offering is most valuable and insightful for younger readers who seek insights into the jazz, blues, and alternative music scenes. The reader will joyfully return to this book many times on his/her musical discovery journey to learn from the master.” F. Dance

Photographs, index.

Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts, Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (Heyday). “In the 1940s and 50s, a jazz aficionado could find paradise in the nightclubs of San Francisco’s Fillmore District: Billie Holiday sang at the Champagne Supper Club; Chet Baker and Dexter Gordon jammed with the house band at Bop City; and T-Bone Walker rubbed shoulders with the locals at the bar of Texas Playhouse. The Fillmore was one of the few neighborhoods in the Bay Area where people of color could go for entertainment, and so many legendary African American musicians performed there for friends and family that the neighborhood was known as the Harlem of the West. Over a dozen clubs dotted the twenty-block-radius. Filling out the streets were restaurants, pool halls, theaters, and stores, many of them owned and run by African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans. The entire neighborhood was a giant multicultural party pulsing with excitement and music. In 220 lovingly restored images and oral accounts from residents and musicians, Harlem of the West captures a joyful, exciting time in San Francisco, taking readers through an all-but-forgotten multicultural neighborhood and revealing a momentous part of the country’s African American musical heritage.”

Elizabeth Pepin Silva is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, writer, and former day manager of the historic Fillmore Auditorium. She holds a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University.

Lewis Watts is a photographer, archivist, and professor emeritus of art at UC Santa Cruz with a longstanding interest in the cultural landscape of the African diaspora in the Bay Area and internationally.

220 photographs, bibliography, index.

Harald Kisiedu, European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany, 1950–1975 (Wolke Verlag/https://www.wolke-verlag.de/bestellungen-privat/).

“This book is a historical and interpretive study of the movement of jazz experimentalism in West and East Germany between the years 1950 and 1975. It complicates the narratives advanced by previous scholars by arguing that engagement with black musical methods, concepts, and practices remained significant for the emergence of the German jazz experimentalism movement. In a seemingly paradoxical fashion, this engagement with black musical knowledge enabled the formation of more self-reliant musical concepts and practices. Rather than viewing the German jazz experimentalism movement in terms of dissociation from their African American spiritual fathers, this book presents the movement as having decisively contributed to the decentering of still prevalent jazz historiographies in which the centrality of the US is usually presupposed. Going beyond both US-centric and Eurocentric perspectives, this study contributes to scholarship that accounts for jazz’s global dimension and the transfer of ideas beyond nationally conceived spaces.”

Harald Kisiedu is a music historian and lecturer at the Institute of Music at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. He is also a saxophonist, improviser, and recording artist.

“Few studies have understood how improvised music functions as a complex ecosystem, indeed an interlocking one that overlaps and exchanges with other like ecosystems, not just musical ones, but artistic, political, and social ones as well. Perhaps only George Lewis’s A Power Stronger Than Itself and Kevin Whitehead’s New Dutch Swing have managed to capture the intricacies of free music – or what Lewis has termed “experimentalism” – in this way, with the depth and feeling that it deserves. Harald Kisiedu’s magnificent European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany, 1950-75 joins the ranks of these groundbreaking books, adding indispensable substance to the current scholarship. Basing his argument on meticulous primary research that includes many unknown or under-discussed details, Kisiedu moves deftly between biography, history and analysis, ultimately depicting improvised music in Germany as part of a continuum with African American jazz, rather than falling into line with received knowledge, which has tended to treat it as a major break – an ‘emancipation,’ to use the problematic language often deployed – from its precursors and contemporaries in the United States. This allows Kisiedu to investigate the complexities of race, in particular, in the emergent new music of both West and East Germany, but also to evaluate the specificity of German improvised music, its relationships to Fluxus and its place in relation to new art and contemporary composed music in Europe, and the political and social contexts of the divided country in which it all emerged. Along the way, Kisiedu provides the most detailed biographical portraits of his principal subjects – Peter Brötzmann, Alex Schlippenbach, Manfred Schoof, and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky – yet published in English, and the book includes an important trove of newly discovered and previously unpublished photographs.“   John Corbett, author of A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation.

“Harald Kisiedu’s groundbreaking interdisciplinary study trenchantly illuminates how during the Cold War and after, first-generation German and Swiss experimental musicians challenged national, political, conceptual, and racial borders to produce cosmopolitan new forms and practices of free improvisation. Kisiedu brings the study of improvised music together with German studies, critical race theory, and political science to produce a rigorous yet intimate portrait of the musical, cultural, and personal relationships among highly innovative musicians who shaped a new future of music.”  George E. Lewis, author of A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music.

Photographs, notes, bibliography.

James A Harrod, Stars of Jazz: A Complete History of the Innovative Television Series, 1956-1958. (McFarland)

“Imagine an educational television series featuring America's greatest jazz artists in performance, airing every week from 1956 to 1958 on KABC, Los Angeles. Stars of Jazz was hosted by Bobby Troup, the songwriter, pianist and vocalist. Each show provided information about the performance that heightened viewers' appreciation. The series garnered praise from critics and numerous awards including an Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A landmark series visually, too, it presented many television firsts including experimental films by designers Charles and Ray Eames. All 130 shows were filmed as kinescopes. Surviving films were donated to the UCLA Film & Television Archive, where 16 shows have been restored; 29 additional shows are in the collection. The remaining 85 kinescopes were long ago discarded. This first full documentation of Stars of Jazz identifies every musician, vocalist, and guest who appeared on the series and lists every song performed on the series along with composer and lyricist credits. More than 100 photographs include images from many of the lost episodes.”

“James Harrod grew up in northern Wyoming and first began listening to jazz while in high school in the 1950s. After graduating from Portland State College in 1965, he moved to southern California where he was a bookseller until his retirement in 2002. His publishing credits include liner notes for four compact disc reissues of Pacific Jazz artists: Bud Shank/Bill Perkins Quintets, and the Chet Baker Quartet Live (three volumes). He has written numerous articles for the Dutch discography journal, Names & Numbers. He conceived the World Wide Web exhibition, The Jazz Photography of Ray Avery, in 1994. His jazz research website, http://jazzresearch.com/, was registered and established in March of 2000. He maintains several jazz related blogs at Google Blogger.” His research focuses on jazz in Los Angeles during the years 1945-1960. He is a member of the Jazz Journalists Association, the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, and the Los Angeles Jazz Institute. He lives in Laguna Beach, California.

“Harrod has done a superb job of using the available resources to present a complete picture of the genesis and production of this important televised jazz series. By the time that you finish reading this book, you will have learned about this significant slice of jazz history and will feel sad that you cannot see all of the shows. But, you will surely head to YouTube to enjoy what is currently available.” Joe Lang, Jersey Jazz.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert L. Stone, Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus!: Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community, Foreward by Eric Lewis Williams (University Press of Mississippi).

“Folklorist Robert L. Stone presents a rare collection of high-quality documentary photos of the sacred steel guitar musical tradition and the community that supports it. The introductory text and extended photo captions in Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus! Photographs from the Sacred Steel Community offer the reader an intimate view of this unique tradition of passionately played music that is beloved among fans of American roots music and admired by folklorists, ethnomusicologists, and other scholars. In 1992, a friend in Hollywood, Florida, introduced Stone to African American musicians who played the electric steel guitar in the African American Holiness-Pentecostal churches House of God and Church of the Living God. With the passion, skill, and unique voice they brought to the instruments, these musicians profoundly impressed Stone. He produced an album for the Florida Folklife Program, which Arhoolie Records licensed and released worldwide. It created a roots music sensation. In 1996, Stone began to document the tradition beyond Florida. He took the photos in this book from 1992 to 2008 in Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida, and at concerts in Italy. The images capture musicians as they play for worship services before spirit-filled believers singing, dancing, shouting, praying, and testifying. Stone gives the viewer much to witness, always presenting his passionate subjects with dignity. His sensitive portrayal of this community attests to the ongoing importance of musical traditions in African American life and worship.”

Robert L. Stone is an independent folklorist and photographer based in Gainesville, Florida. He has been documenting the steel guitar tradition of African American Holiness-Pentecostal churches since 1992. Supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Stone produced an album for the Florida Folklife Program released by Arhoolie Records as CD 450 Sacred Steel in 1997. Stone, continuing his work with Arhoolie, has produced eight more CDs and directed the Sacred Steel documentary video. In 2011, the Florida Department of State honored him with the Florida Folk Heritage Award.

“When I first heard Bob Stone’s recordings of sacred steel music, it was like discovering a marvelous, magical world. The artists had a deep soul and power like nothing recorded since the golden ages of blues, gospel, and soul. Seeing these photographs, I am reminded that the music was part of a far larger world and am forever grateful to Stone for preserving so much beauty, dignity, and passion.” Elijah Wald, author of Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues.

David Menconi, Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk (University of North Carolina Press).

“This book is a love letter to the artists, scenes, and sounds defining North Carolina's extraordinary contributions to American popular music. David Menconi spent three decades immersed in the state's music, where traditions run deep but the energy expands in countless directions. Menconi shows how working-class roots and rebellion tie North Carolina's Piedmont blues, jazz, and bluegrass to beach music, rock, hip-hop, and more. From mill towns and mountain coves to college-town clubs and the stage of American Idol, Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk, Step It Up and Go celebrates homegrown music just as essential to the state as barbecue and basketball. Spanning a century of history from the dawn of recorded music to the present, and with sidebars and photos that help reveal the many-splendored glory of North Carolina's sonic landscape, this is a must-read for every music lover.”

David Menconi is North Carolina's 2019 Piedmont Laureate, and a longtime music/arts critic. His writing has appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer, Rolling Stone, New York Times, Spin, Billboard and Salon.com. See davidmenconi.com for more.

Photographs, bibliography, discogrphy, index.

Grace Elizabeth Hale, Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture (A Ferris and Ferris Book) (University of North Carolina Press). “In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities. In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.”

Grace Elizabeth Hale is the Commonwealth Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Virginia. Her previous books include A Nation of Outsiders: How the White Middle Class Fell in Love with Rebellion in Postwar America and Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890–1940.

“Not only is Cool Town the most detailed account we'll get of the music of Athens, Georgia, the out-of-the-way college town that gave us the B-52's and R.E.M. It's also a thorough, deeply felt history of a seminal local bohemia that even as it matured changed the surrounding culture more than that culture changed it.” Robert Christgau, author of Is It Still Good to Ya?: Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017.

“A delightful dive into the rich history of the Athens, Georgia, music and arts scene that has nurtured and inspired so many. Grace Hale experienced the scene firsthand, and her recollections are warm, but she doesn't shy away from difficult subjects. I was honored by her inclusion of Pylon as a central part of the story.” Vanessa Briscoe Hay, vocalist, Pylon and Pylon Reenactment Society.

Photographs, notes, index.

Kika Kila: How the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music by John W. Troutman (The University of North Carolina Press). “Since the nineteenth century, the distinct tones of kika kila, the Hawaiian steel guitar, have defined the island sound. Here historian and steel guitarist John W. Troutman offers the instrument's definitive history, from its discovery by a young Hawaiian royalist named Joseph Kekuku to its revolutionary influence on American and world music. During the early twentieth century, Hawaiian musicians traveled the globe, from tent shows in the Mississippi Delta, where they shaped the new sounds of country and the blues, to regal theaters and vaudeville stages in New York, Berlin, Kolkata, and beyond. In the process, Hawaiian guitarists recast the role of the guitar in modern life. But as Troutman explains, by the 1970s the instrument's embrace and adoption overseas also worked to challenge its cultural legitimacy in the eyes of a new generation of Hawaiian musicians. As a consequence, the indigenous instrument nearly disappeared in its homeland.

Using rich musical and historical sources, including interviews with musicians and their descendants, Troutman provides the complete story of how this Native Hawaiian instrument transformed not only American music but the sounds of modern music throughout the world.

The Organization of American Historians named Kika Kila the winner of the 2017 Lawrence W. Levine Award for the Best Book in American Cultural History.

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections named Kika Kila the winner of the 2017 Award for ‘Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music.’”

John W. Troutman is Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

“John W. Troutman’s Kika Kila is a deeply researched, definitive history of the Hawaiian steel guitar, but more than that, it is an eloquent and convincing argument for the influence and centrality of Hawaiian music--and, in particular, Hawaiian musicians--in the broader history of American music.” Elijah Wald, author of Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues.

“Kika Kila is a tour de force, documenting the steel guitar's indigenous Hawaiian roots, while also challenging longstanding conventions in the music industry and in scholarship on American popular music. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Troutmanʻs book is a gift of insight and appreciation for the steel guitar, arguably the most endearing sonic icon of Hawaiian music.” Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman, Professor of American Culture and Music, University of Michigan.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Timothy Hampton, Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work (Zone Books)

“Bob Dylan’s reception of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature has elevated him beyond the world of popular music, establishing him as a major modern artist. However, until now, no study of his career has focused on the details and nuances of the songs, showing how they work as artistic statements designed to create meaning and elicit emotion. Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work (originally published as Bob Dylan's Poetics) is the first comprehensive book on both the poetics and politics of Dylan’s compositions. It studies Dylan, not as a pop hero, but as an artist, as a maker of songs. Focusing on the interplay of music and lyric, it traces Dylan’s innovative use of musical form, his complex manipulation of poetic diction, and his dialogues with other artists, from Woody Guthrie to Arthur Rimbaud. Moving from Dylan’s earliest experiments with the blues, through his mastery of rock and country, up to his densely allusive recent recordings, Timothy Hampton offers a detailed account of Dylan’s achievement. Locating Dylan in the long history of artistic modernism, the book studies the relationship between form, genre, and the political and social themes that crisscross Dylan’s work. Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work offers both a nuanced engagement with the work of a major artist and a meditation on the contribution of song at times of political and social change.”

Timothy Hampton teaches literature at the University of California, Berkeley. A scholar of the romance languages, focusing primarily on the Renaissance, he has written widely about literature and culture. Recently he has been writing about popular music. A study of the history of cheerfulness is in progress.

“With a style that turns analysis into a form of suspense, Timothy Hampton can walk you through ‘Visions of Johanna’ or ‘Summer Days’ the way the art historian T. J. Clark can walk you through Manet’s Olympia. There’s the same generosity of spirit, the same love for the work and the social meanings it absorbs, transforms, and sends back. You really do begin to get a sense of how the songs work--Bob Dylan's songs, but anyone's songs, too--how they are assembled or assemble themselves. And just when you think you've learned the language, Hampton will throw a curve.” Greil Marcus, author of Lipstick.

“This is a truly powerful book written by one of the leading scholars of the history of poetry today. The writing is clear and intellectually most exciting: Dylan’s idiosyncratic genius is explained more compellingly than ever before. Hampton remains relevant, exciting, and persuasively accurate as he shows the genesis of the songs as musical and literary forms and assesses their originality. Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work will become a standard account, destined to appear in class lists under ‘required reading’; it contains the searching close readings of songs that will both enable future study and require contestation for an alternative account: the study sets a gold standard.” Nigel Smith, William and Annie S. Paton Foundation Professor of Ancient and Modern.

Notes, bibliography, list of songs cited, index.

Paul Morley, A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love With Classical Music (and Decided to Rewrite its Entire History) (Bloomsbury Publishing)

“For readers of Mozart in the Jungle and Year of Wonder, a new history of and guide to classical music. Paul Morley made his name as a journalist covering the rock and pop of the 1970s and 1980s. But as his career progressed, he found himself drawn toward developing technologies, streaming platforms, and, increasingly, the music from the past that streaming services now made available. Suddenly able to access every piece Mozart or Bach had ever written and to curate playlists that worked with these musicians' themes across different performers, composers, and eras, he began to understand classical music in a whole new way and to believe that it was music at its most dramatic and revealing. In A Sound Mind, Morley takes readers along on his journey into the history and future of classical music. His descriptions, explanations, and guidance make this seemingly arcane genre more friendly to listeners and show the music's power, depth, and timeless beauty. In Morley's capable hands, the history of the classical genre is shown to be the history of all music, with these long-ago pieces influencing everyone from jazz greats to punk rockers and the pop musicians of today.”

Paul Morley grew up in Stockport, Cheshire, and has worked as a music journalist, pop svengali and broadcaster. He is the author of a number of books on music – Ask: The Chatter of Pop, Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City, Joy Division: Piece by Piece: Writing About Joy Division 1977–2007, and Joy Division: Fragments – as well as an acclaimed memoir of his early years, Nothing. Paul has written for a number of publications, including the New Statesman, the Sunday Telegraph, NME, the Observer and the Guardian.

“Morley's expansive present-tense prose flows from the loosening of the superego, his id let out to play in a style that’s at times neo-gonzo, at others like an inspired hybrid of Mike Cohn and the Julian Cope of Krautrocksampler. I hold him to be one of the great pop writers. You might even call him the Bowie of rock journalism.” Barney Hoskyns, The Guardian on Morley's The Age of Bowie.

“Morley is a bright writer, and most of his commentary on specific pieces and composers is sophisticated and insightful.” John Rockwell, The New York Times Book Review.

Photographs, illustrations, index.

S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler, The Steamboat Era: A History of Fulton's Folly on American Rivers, 1807-1860 (McFarland)

“The steamboat evokes images of leisurely travel, genteel gambling, and lively commerce, but behind the romanticized view is an engineering marvel that led the way for the steam locomotive. From the steamboat's development by Robert Fulton to the dawn of the Civil War, the new mode of transportation opened up America's frontiers and created new trade routes and economic centers. Firsthand accounts of steamboat accidents, races, business records and river improvements are collected here to reveal the culture and economy of the early to mid-1800s, as well as the daily routines of crew and passengers. A glossary of steamboat terms and a collection of contemporary accounts of accidents round out this history of the riverboat era.”

S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler have been writing together for more than four decades.

“Colrful, anecdotal, and interesting. . . . Recommended.” Choice.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, glossary, index.

Candacy A. Taylor’s Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (Harry N. Abrams) is “The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for black motorists. Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the ‘black travel guide to America.’ At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because black travelers couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem. It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. It shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.”

Candacy Taylor is an award-winning author, photographer and cultural documentarian. Her work has been featured in over 50 media outlets including the New Yorker and The Atlantic. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants including The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives in Denver, Colorado. Visit her website at taylormadeculture.com and follow her on Twitter @candacytaylor.

“With passion, conviction, and clarity, [Candacy] Taylor’s book unearths a fascinating and true—if not willfully obscured—history of African American activism and entrepreneurship in the United States. This remarkable study broadens our understanding of black life, leisure, and struggles for equality in twentieth-century America, presents the Green Book as a social movement in response to a crisis in black travel, and makes a compelling case for the need to protect more diverse African American sites that have been heretofore underappreciated.” Brent Leggs, Executive Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Gretchen Sorin, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights (Liveright/W. W. Norton).

It’s hardly a secret that mobility has always been limited, if not impossible, for African Americans. Before the Civil War, masters confined their slaves to their property, while free black people found themselves regularly stopped, questioned, and even kidnapped. Restrictions on movement before Emancipation carried over, in different forms, into Reconstruction and beyond; for most of the 20th century, many white Americans felt blithely comfortable denying their black countrymen the right to travel freely on trains and buses. Yet it became more difficult to shackle someone who was cruising along a highway at 45 miles per hour.

In Driving While Black, the acclaimed historian Gretchen Sorin reveals how the car―the ultimate symbol of independence and possibility―has always held particular importance for African Americans, allowing black families to evade the many dangers presented by an entrenched racist society and to enjoy, in some measure, the freedom of the open road. She recounts the creation of a parallel, unseen world of black motorists, who relied on travel guides, black only businesses, and informal communications networks to keep them safe. From coast to coast, mom and pop guest houses and tourist homes, beauty parlors, and even large hotels―including New York’s Hotel Theresa, the Hampton House in Miami, or the Dunbar Hotel in Los Angeles―as well as night clubs and restaurants like New Orleans’ Dooky Chase and Atlanta’s Paschal’s, fed travelers and provided places to stay the night. At the heart of Sorin’s story is Victor and Alma Green’s famous Green Book, a travel guide begun in 1936, which helped grant black Americans that most basic American rite, the family vacation.

As Sorin demonstrates, black travel guides and black-only businesses encouraged a new way of resisting oppression. Black Americans could be confident of finding welcoming establishments as they traveled for vacation or for business. Civil Rights workers learned where to stay and where to eat in the South between marches and protests. As Driving While Black reminds us, the Civil Rights Movement was just that―a movement of black people and their allies in defiance of local law and custom. At the same time, she shows that the car, despite the freedoms it offered, brought black people up against new challenges, from segregated ambulance services to unwarranted traffic stops, and the racist violence that too often followed.

Interwoven with Sorin’s own family history and enhanced by dozens of little known images, Driving While Black charts how the automobile fundamentally reshaped African American life, and opens up an entirely new view onto one of the most important issues of our time.”

Gretchen Sorin is distinguished professor and director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York. She has curated innumerable exhibits―including with the Smithsonian, the Jewish Museum and the New York State Historical Association―and lives in upstate New York.

“Makes powerfully clear the magnitude of the injustices and harrowing encounters endured by African-Americans traveling by ‘open’ road, as well as of their quiet acts of rebellion and protest, which went far beyond having to find alternative places to eat, sleep and buy gas…. Deeply researched… Driving While Black is more focused on the history of African-American car ownership and travel, exploring why both have been so important to African-American life.... A scholarly examination of the history of black mobility in this country from the antebellum period to now, including the ongoing quest by whites in power to deny or restrict that mobility.” Bridgett M. Davis, New York Times Book Review.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

PRIDE: Fifty Years of Parades and Protests from the Photo Archives of the New York Times (Abrams Books). Introduction by Adam Nagourney, text by David Kaufman, photo editing by Cecilia Bohan.

“It began in New York City on June 28, 1969. When police raided the Stonewall Inn—a bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood, known as a safe haven for gay men—violent demonstrations and protests broke out in response. The Stonewall Riots, as they would come to be known, were the first spark in the wildfire that would become the LGBTQ rights revolution. Fifty years later, the LGBTQ community and its supporters continue to gather every June to commemorate this historic event. Here, collected for the first time by The New York Times, is a powerful visual history of five decades of parades and protests of the LGBTQ rights movement. These photos, paired with descriptions of major events from each decade as well as selected reporting from The Times, showcase the victories, setbacks, and ongoing struggles for the LGBTQ community.”

“To take in the breadth of [PRIDE’s] contents – to see the scope of LGBTQ+ rights, from the first Christopher Street Day march in 1970 to protests for transgender rights just last year – is to witness the power of visibility firsthand.”

them.

“This book is a powerful visual history of five decades of parades and protests for equality. Educational and visually enriching, complete with photos from The New York Times, this book is the perfect companion for any coffee table.”

BookTrib.

William B. Helmreich, The Queens Nobody Knows: An Urban Walking Guide (Princeton University Press).

Bill Helmreich walked every block of New York City―some six-thousand miles―to write the award-winning The New York Nobody Knows. Later, he re-walked most of Queens―1,012 miles in all―to create this one-of-a-kind walking guide to the city's largest borough, from hauntingly beautiful parks to hidden parts of Flushing's Chinese community. Drawing on hundreds of conversations he had with residents during his block-by-block journey through this fascinating, diverse, and underexplored borough, Helmreich highlights hundreds of facts and points of interest that you won't find in any other guide. In Bellerose, you'll explore a museum filled with soul-searing artwork created by people with mental illness. In Douglaston, you'll gaze up in awe at the city's tallest tree. In Corona, you'll discover the former synagogue where Madonna lived when she first came to New York. In St. Albans, you'll see the former homes of jazz greats, including Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday. In Woodhaven, you'll walk a block where recent immigrants from Mexico, Guyana, and China all proudly fly the American flag. And much, much more. An unforgettably vivid chronicle of today's Queens, the book can be enjoyed without ever leaving home―but it's almost guaranteed to inspire you to get out and explore this captivating borough.

Covers every one of Queens's neighborhoods, providing a colorful portrait of their most interesting, unusual, and unfamiliar people, places, and things

Each neighborhood section features a brief overview and history; a detailed, user-friendly map keyed to the text; photographs; and a lively guided walking tour

Draws on the author's 1,012-mile walk through every Queens neighborhood.

Includes insights from conversations with hundreds of residents.”

“First-rate. . . . a superlative gift idea (perhaps as part of a set, along with the author’s earlier walking books) for anyone, walker or not, with an ardor for New York, including armchair adventurers who simply enjoy learning about complex urban societies.” Mark Orwoll, East-West News Service.

Peter Lunenfeld, City at the Edge of Forever: Los Angeles Reimagined (Viking).

“How did Los Angeles start the 20th century as a dusty frontier town and end up a century later as one of the globe's supercities - with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? In City at the Edge of Forever, Peter Lunenfeld constructs an urban portrait, layer by layer, from serendipitous affinities, historical anomalies, and uncanny correspondences. In its pages, modernist architecture and lifestyle capitalism come together via a surfer girl named Gidget; Joan Didion's yellow Corvette is the brainchild of a car-crazy Japanese-American kid interned at Manzanar; and the music of the Manson Family segues into the birth of sci-fi fandom. One of the book's innovations is to brand Los Angeles as the alchemical city. Earth became real estate when the Yankees took control in the nineteenth century. Fire fueled the city's early explosive growth as the Southland's oil fields supplied the inexhaustible demands of drivers and their cars. Air defined the area from WWII to the end of the Cold War, with aeronautics and aerospace dominating the region's industries. Water is now the key element, and Southern California's ports are the largest in the western hemisphere. What alchemists identify as the ethereal fifth element, or quintessence, this book positions as the glamour of Hollywood, a spell that sustains the city but also needs to be broken in order to understand Los Angeles now. Lunenfeld weaves together the city's art, architecture, and design, juxtaposes its entertainment and literary histories, and moves from restaurant kitchens to recording studios to ultra-secret research and development labs. In the process, he reimagines Los Angeles as simultaneously an exemplar and cautionary tale for the 21st century.”

Peter Lunenfeld is vice chair of UCLA's Design Media Arts department, and a faculty member in the Urban and Digital Humanities programs. He has published award-winning essays and several books with the MIT Press about the ways in which art, design, and technology intertwine. He has lived in Southern California for over thirty years.

“This is a luminous, engrossing book. Lunenfeld evokes all of the texture and complexity of Los Angeles in a wholly original way —as both a real place and an imagined place, central to the American psyche.” Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book.

“Here is a title to be added to the list of great meditations on Los Angeles. City at the Edge of Forever is a book about southern California but it is also a book about all of us, about how fringes become mainstream, how politics morphs into culture, and how culture mutates uncontrollably under the American sun.” Thomas Frank, author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?

Photographs, notes, index.

William Hansen, The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends, and Myth (Princeton University Press)

“Captured centaurs and satyrs, incompetent seers, people who suddenly change sex, a woman who remembers too much, a man who cannot laugh―these are just some of the colorful characters who feature in the unforgettable stories that ancient Greeks and Romans told in their daily lives. Together they created an incredibly rich body of popular oral stories that include, but range well beyond, mythology―from heroic legends, fairy tales, and fables to ghost stories, urban legends, and jokes. This unique anthology presents the largest collection of these tales ever assembled. Featuring nearly four hundred stories in authoritative and highly readable translations, this is the first book to offer a representative selection of the entire range of traditional classical storytelling. Complete with beautiful illustrations, this one-of-a-kind anthology will delight general readers as well as students of classics, fairy tales, and folklore.”

William Hansen is professor of classical studies and folklore and codirector of mythology studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

“Enchanting.” Victoria Rimell, Times Literary Supplement

“An extraordinarily entertaining bedside book.” Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“I cannot recommend it highly enough.” Edith Hall, Literary Review

“William Hansen's marvelous treasury lets us experience for ourselves the timeless tales that made the ancient Greeks and Romans think, shudder, and laugh.” Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons .

Nigel Spivey, The Sarpedon Krater: The Life and Afterlife of a Greek Vase (University of Chicago Press).

From the perspective of my limited view of classical scholarship—I departed academe and the field of classics five decades ago (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs147/1102932454996/archive/1112415778593.html#LETTER.BLOCK35)—Professor Spivey’s The Sarpedon Krater has my vote as the Most Fascinating Classics Book of the Year.

“Perhaps the most spectacular of all Greek vases, the Sarpedon krater depicts the body of Sarpedon, a hero of the Trojan War, being carried away to his homeland for burial. It was decorated some 2,500 years ago by Athenian artist Euphronios, and its subsequent history involves tomb raiding, intrigue, duplicity, litigation, international outrage, and possibly even homicide. How this came about is told by Nigel Spivey in a concise, stylish book that braids together the creation and adventures of this extraordinary object with an exploration of its abiding influence. Spivey takes the reader on a dramatic journey, beginning with the krater’s looting from an Etruscan tomb in 1971 and its acquisition by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, followed by a high-profile lawsuit over its status and its eventual return to Italy. He explains where, how, and why the vase was produced, retrieving what we know about the life and legend of Sarpedon. Spivey also pursues the figural motif of the slain Sarpedon portrayed on the vase and traces how this motif became a standard way of representing the dead and dying in Western art, especially during the Renaissance.

Fascinating and informative, The Sarpedon Krater is a multifaceted introduction to the enduring influence of Greek art on the world.”

Nigel Spivey is a senior lecturer in classical art and archaeology at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of several books, including Understanding Greek Sculpture, Enduring Creation, The Classical World, and The Ancient Olympics. He also presented the major BBC/PBS series How Art Made the World.

“Spivey scales mountains, hurtles into caves, treks across deserts, and submits to shock treatment for the eyes in the first few episodes of [the PBS series] How Art Made the World. . . . In broaching questions about the genesis and meaning of art, [he] draws on some of the world’s best-known works of art and architecture for answers.” Benjamin Genocchio, New York Times.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Richard Stoneman’s The Greek Experience of India: From Alexander to the Indo-Greeks (Princeton University Press) Is “An exploration of how the Greeks reacted to and interacted with India from the third to first centuries BCE. When the Greeks and Macedonians in Alexander’s army reached India in 326 BCE, they entered a new and strange world. They knew a few legends and travelers’ tales, but their categories of thought were inadequate to encompass what they witnessed. The plants were unrecognizable, their properties unknown. The customs of the people were various and puzzling. While Alexander’s conquest was brief, ending with his death in 323 BCE, the Greeks would settle in the Indian region for the next two centuries, forging an era of productive interactions between the two cultures. The Greek Experience of India explores the various ways that the Greeks reacted to and constructed life in India during this fruitful period. From observations about botany and mythology to social customs, Richard Stoneman examines the surviving evidence of those who traveled to India. Most particularly, he offers a full and valuable look at Megasthenes, ambassador of the King Seleucus to Chandragupta Maurya, and provides a detailed discussion of Megasthenes’ now-fragmentary book Indica. Stoneman considers the art, literature, and philosophy of the Indo-Greek kingdom and how cultural influences crossed in both directions, with the Greeks introducing their writing, coinage, and sculptural and architectural forms, while Greek craftsmen learned to work with new materials such as ivory and stucco and to probe the ideas of Buddhists and other ascetics. Relying on an impressively wide variety of sources from the Indian subcontinent, The Greek Experience of India is a masterful account of the encounters between two remarkable civilizations.”

Richard Stoneman is an honorary visiting professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter. He is also a consulting editor in classics for I. B. Tauris. His many books include The Ancient Oracles and Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend.

"Drawing on a vast array of research, [Stoneman] has compiled a magisterial overview of 'the Indo-Greek era', beginning with Alexander’s crossing of the Hindu Kush mountain range in 327 BC and ending with the severing of contact about three centuries later. [The Greek Experience of India is an] intriguing and valuable book.” James Romm, New York Review of Books.

Photographs, illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert Goodwin, América: The Epic Story of Spanish North America, 1493-1898 (Bloomsbury Publishing). “At the conclusion of the American Revolution, half the modern United States was part of the vast Spanish Empire. The year after Columbus's great voyage of discovery, in 1492, he claimed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for Spain. For the next three hundred years, thousands of proud Spanish conquistadors and their largely forgotten Mexican allies went in search of glory and riches from Florida to California. Many died, few triumphed. Some were cruel, some were curious, some were kind. Missionaries and priests yearned to harvest Indian souls for God through baptism and Christian teaching. Theirs was a frontier world which Spain struggled to control in the face of Indian resistance and competition from France, Britain, and finally the United States. In the 1800s, Spain lost it all. Goodwin tells this history through the lives of the people who made it happen and the literature and art with which they celebrated their successes and mourned their failures. He weaves an epic tapestry from these intimate biographies of explorers and conquerors, like Columbus and Coronado, but also lesser known characters, like the powerful Gálvez family who gave invaluable and largely forgotten support to the American Patriots during the Revolutionary War; the great Pueblo leader Popay; and Esteban, the first documented African American. Like characters in a great play or a novel, Goodwin's protagonists walk the stage of history with heroism and brio and much tragedy.”

Dr. Robert Goodwin is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. He is the author of Crossing the Continent 1527-1540: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South and Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682, He appears on Spanish radio and TV and writes for Spanish newspapers. He lives between London and Seville, where he regularly conducts archival research.

“Goodwin writes with verve and can be read with pleasure . . . . He revels in set pieces, evoking historical personalities, particularly swashbuckling characters. . . a rattling good story.” J.H. Elliott, The New York Review of Books.

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Suzanne L. Marchand, Down from Olympus: Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany, 1750-1970 (Princeton University Press).

Since the publication of Eliza May Butler's Tyranny of Greece over Germany in 1935, the obsession of the German educated elite with the ancient Greeks has become an accepted, if severely underanalyzed, cliché. In Down from Olympus, Suzanne Marchand attempts to come to grips with German Graecophilia, not as a private passion but as an institutionally generated and preserved cultural trope. The book argues that nineteenth-century philhellenes inherited both an elitist, normative aesthetics and an ascetic, scholarly ethos from their Romantic predecessors; German "neohumanists" promised to reconcile these intellectual commitments, and by so doing, to revitalize education and the arts. Focusing on the history of classical archaeology, Marchand shows how the injunction to imitate Greek art was made the basis for new, state-funded cultural institutions. Tracing interactions between scholars and policymakers that made possible grand-scale cultural feats like the acquisition of the Pergamum Altar, she underscores both the gains in specialized knowledge and the failures in social responsibility that were the distinctive products of German neohumanism.

This book discusses intellectual and institutional aspects of archaeology and philhellenism, giving extensive treatment to the history of prehistorical archaeology and German "orientalism." Marchand traces the history of the study, excavation, and exhibition of Greek art as a means to confront the social, cultural, and political consequences of the specialization of scholarship in the last two centuries.”

Suzanne L. Marchand is Associate Professor of History at Louisiana State University. She is the author of numerous essays on the history of anthropology, archaeology, and classical scholarship in Germany and Austria and is the coauthor of the world history textbook Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (W. W. Norton).

“An enormously rich and stimulating book. . . . It is a masterly study of an important chapter of the classical Greek bearings on the modern world.” Craige Champion, Classical World

“Impressive. . . . Marchand's work will fascinate historians, philosophers, literary theorists, and . . . Humanists. . . . It provides . . . the definitive study of the historical decline of German 'institutional philhellenism.’”Josef Chytry, American Historical Review.

Photographs, bibliography, notes, index.

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 (One World/Penguin Random House), edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.

“A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire. The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion disgorges ‘some 20-and-odd Negroes’ onto the shores of Virginia, inaugurating the African presence in what would become the United States. It takes us to the present, when African Americans, descendants of those on the White Lion and a thousand other routes to this country, continue a journey defined by inhuman oppression, visionary struggles, stunning achievements, and millions of ordinary lives passing through extraordinary history. Four Hundred Souls is a unique one-volume ‘community’ history of African Americans. The editors, Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, have assembled ninety brilliant writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that four-hundred-year span. The writers explore their periods through a variety of techniques: historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and fiery polemics. They approach history from various perspectives: through the eyes of towering historical icons or the untold stories of ordinary people; through places, laws, and objects. While themes of resistance and struggle, of hope and reinvention, course through the book, this collection of diverse pieces from ninety different minds, reflecting ninety different perspectives, fundamentally deconstructs the idea that Africans in America are a monolith—instead it unlocks the startling range of experiences and ideas that have always existed within the community of Blackness. This is a history that illuminates our past and gives us new ways of thinking about our future, written by the most vital and essential voices of our present.”

“An engrossing anthology of essays, biographical sketches, and poems by Black writers tracing the history of the African American experience from the arrival of the first slaves in 1619 to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement . . . With a diverse range of up-and-coming scholars, activists, and writers exploring topics both familiar and obscure, this energetic collection stands apart from standard anthologies of African American history.” Publishers Weekly.

Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He is the author of many books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and three #1 New York Times bestsellers, How to Be an Antiracist; Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored with Jason Reynolds; and Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian, professor, and writer. She is currently an associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, the president of the African American Intellectual History Society, and an editor for The Washington Post's "Made by History" section. Her writing has appeared in popular outlets such as The Atlantic, The Guardian, Politico, and Time. She is the author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom and Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America.

Notes, index.

Michael C. Thomsett, Slavery and Racism in American Politics, 1776-1876, Foreword by Ken West (McFarland). “From the very inception of the United States, few issues have been so divisive and defining as American slavery. Even as the U.S. was founded on principles of liberty, independence and freedom, slavery advocates and sympathizers positioned themselves in every aspect of American influence. Over the centuries, the characterization of early American figures, legislation and party platforms has been debated. The author seeks to clarify often unanswered--or ignored--questions about notable figures, sociopolitical movements and their positions on slavery. From early legislation like the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 to Reconstruction and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, this book explores some of America's most controversial moments. Spanning the first American century, it offers a detailed chronology of slavery and racism in early U.S. politics and society.”

Michael C. Thomsett is the author, coauthor, or compiler of many books including topical dictionaries, collections of quotations and history books. He lives in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Jessica Ingram, Road Through Midnight: A Civil Rights Memorial (Documentary Arts and Culture, Published in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University) (University of North Carolina Press). “At first glance, Jessica Ingram's landscape photographs could have been made nearly anywhere in the American South: a fenced-in backyard, a dirt road lined by overgrowth, a field grooved with muddy tire prints. These seemingly ordinary places, however, were the sites of pivotal events during the civil rights era, though often there is not a plaque with dates and names to mark their importance. Many of these places are where the bodies of activists, mill workers, store owners, sharecroppers, children and teenagers were murdered or found, victims of racist violence. Images of these places are interspersed with oral histories from victims' families and investigative journalists, as well as pages from newspapers and FBI files and other ephemera. With Road Through Midnight, the result of nearly a decade of research and fieldwork, Ingram unlocks powerful and complex histories to reframe these commonplace landscapes as sites of both remembrance and resistance and transforms the way we regard both what has happened and what's happening now—as the fight for civil rights goes on and memorialization has become the literal subject of contested cultural and societal ground.”

Jessica Ingram is assistant professor of art at Florida State University.

“Inviting and engaging. Ingram's book is both reflexive and reflective, guiding us through a difficult history and creatively telling these hidden histories with a sensitivity to a highly trafficked past. Her pioneering approach as a photographer and archivist gives us a new way of looking at the South and the civil rights movement from someone who grew up in the South.” Deborah Willis, author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.

“An unparalleled approach to the topic of civil rights history in photography—studies such as this are so needed today. Ingram's poignant photographs make these quiet, forgotten southern landscapes come alive. An original thinker and dedicated artist, Jessica Ingram fosters a rhythm and flow that captives the reader and draws them in to the very end.” Cheryl Finley, author of My Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South and Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon.

William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century (University of North Carolina Press). “Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. At several historic moments, the trajectory of racial inequality could have been altered dramatically. Perhaps no moment was more opportune than the early days of Reconstruction, when the U.S. government temporarily implemented a major redistribution of land from former slaveholders to the newly emancipated enslaved. But neither Reconstruction nor the New Deal nor the civil rights struggle led to an economically just and fair nation. Today, systematic inequality persists in the form of housing discrimination, unequal education, police brutality, mass incarceration, employment discrimination, and massive wealth and opportunity gaps. Economic data indicates that for every dollar the average white household holds in wealth the average black household possesses a mere ten cents. In From Here to Equality, William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen confront these injustices head-on and make the most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations for U.S. descendants of slavery. After opening the book with a stark assessment of the intergenerational effects of white supremacy on black economic well-being, Darity and Mullen look to both the past and the present to measure the inequalities borne of slavery. Using innovative methods that link monetary values to historical wrongs, they next assess the literal and figurative costs of justice denied in the 155 years since the end of the Civil War. Finally, Darity and Mullen offer a detailed roadmap for an effective reparations program, including a substantial payment to each documented U.S. black descendant of slavery. Taken individually, any one of the three eras of injustice outlined by Darity and Mullen--slavery, Jim Crow, and modern-day discrimination--makes a powerful case for black reparations. Taken collectively, they are impossible to ignore.”

“Darity and Mullen have written a vital intellectual history and a roadmap for these times. Tragically, the nation continues to bequeath its original sin to yet another generation with a persistent unpaid debt and unearned privileges. The issue of reparations for African Americans is long-debated but not often enough seriously considered. This book is a glimmering exception. From Here to Equality is tautly written, fiercely argued, and passionately committed to the spirit and letter of freedom.” Tressie McMillan Cottom, PhD, author of Thick: And Other Essays.

Notes, index.

Thavolia Glymph’s The Women's Fight: The Civil War's Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation (Littlefield History of the Civil War Era)

(University of North Carolina Press) “shows how the Civil War exposed as never before the nation's fault lines, not just along race and class lines but also along the ragged boundaries of gender. However, Glymph makes clear that women's experiences were not new to the mid-nineteenth century; rather, many of them drew on memories of previous conflicts, like the American Revolution and the War of 1812, to make sense of the Civil War's disorder and death.”

Thavolia Glymph is professor of history and law at Duke University and author of Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household.

“Thavolia Glymph has written the first history of the Civil War that brings to light the full panoply of women's thoughts and experiences. With eloquence, brilliance, and an unrelenting commitment to rendering the complexity of her gendered framework, she presents the war's meaning to slave and free, black and white, Unionist and Confederate, elite and poor, combatant and noncombatant, and citizen and stateless refugee—all women in the ‘house divided against itself' and in the fight that tore the nation asunder.” Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Harvard University.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, indexes.

Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove, Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital (University of North Carolina Press). “Monumental in scope and vividly detailed, Chocolate City tells the tumultuous, four-century story of race and democracy in our nation's capital. Emblematic of the ongoing tensions between America's expansive democratic promises and its enduring racial realities, Washington often has served as a national battleground for contentious issues, including slavery, segregation, civil rights, the drug war, and gentrification. But D.C. is more than just a seat of government, and authors Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove also highlight the city's rich history of local activism as Washingtonians of all races have struggled to make their voices heard in an undemocratic city where residents lack full political rights. Tracing D.C.'s massive transformations--from a sparsely inhabited plantation society into a diverse metropolis, from a center of the slave trade to the nation's first black-majority city, from ‘Chocolate City’ to ‘Latte City’--Asch and Musgrove offer an engaging narrative peppered with unforgettable characters, a history of deep racial division but also one of hope, resilience, and interracial cooperation.”

Chris Myers Asch teaches history at Colby College and runs the non-profit Capital Area New Mainers Project.

George Derek Musgrove is associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

“An ambitious, comprehensive chronicle of the civic experience of blacks, whites and other races over more than two centuries in Washington. . . . [It] succeeds in being both scholarly and accessible to the general reader.” Robert McCartney, The Washington Post

“An ambitious, kaleidoscopic history of race and politics in Washington, D.C. . . . Essential American history, deeply researched and written with verve and passion.” Kirkus Reviews.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Christopher Hall, Abandoned Baltimore: Northside (America Through Time). “Baltimore, Maryland, is a city full of history and cultural diversity. However, through the years, the area has been plagued with poverty and forced gentrification that has left the once bustling city in a state of disarray. There are over 16,000 vacant rowhomes within Baltimore. Crime rate is on a rise while population is on decline. Through all the mayhem, many incredible places have been simply disregarded and forgotten about. Many streets that were once full of life now resemble an apocalyptic wasteland. The north side of Baltimore, away from the Chesapeake Bay and industrial side that the city is known for, is home to many interesting abandoned buildings, including schools, churches, asylums, and more. Through the lens, photographer Christopher Hall sets out to showcase and bring awareness to these incredible structures that have been forgotten. His work takes you inside the dilapidated places where few venture. Join Christopher on his visual journey through time as he explores what has been abandoned on the north side of Baltimore City.”

Christopher Hall is currently a student in his first year at Maryland Institute College of Arts working towards a BFA in photography. At just nineteen years old, he has been featured in many galleries for his work as well as receiving many notable awards such as a Gold Key for his portfolio submission in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Christopher began exploring abandoned places about three years ago and it has been a very strong passion of his ever since. Based in Maryland, he travels up and down the east coast exploring what has been left behind.

Photographs, bibliography.

Christopher Hall, Abandoned Baltimore: Southside (America Through Time).

“Baltimore, Maryland is a city full of history and cultural diversity. However, through the years, the area has been plagued with poverty and forced gentrification that has left the once bustling city into a state of disarray. There are over 16,000 vacant row homes within Baltimore. Crime rate is on a rise while population is on decline. Through all the mayhem, many incredible places have been simply disregarded and forgotten about. Many streets that were once full of life now resemble that of an apocalyptic wasteland. Within the southern side of Baltimore lies many tourist destinations such as the inner harbor, and the football and baseball stadiums. While millions of people flock to these areas every year, many are unaware of the disregarded buildings that sit just a few blocks away. Forts that were used to protect the city during the 1800s are now forgotten. Huge industrial buildings that were once vital parts of Baltimore's economy sit vacant with no purpose. Through the lens, photographer Christopher Hall sets out to bring light to what has been left in the dark, and to bring back the forgotten history of the southside of Baltimore City.”

Christopher Hall is currently a student in his first year at Maryland Institute College of Arts working towards a BFA in photography. At just nineteen years old, he has been featured in many galleries for his work as well as receiving many notable awards such as a Gold Key for his portfolio submission in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Christopher began exploring abandoned places about three years ago and it has been a very strong passion of his ever since. Based in Maryland, he travels up and down the East Coast exploring what has been left behind.

Photographs, bibliography.

Kate Dossett, Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (University of North Carolina Press). “Between 1935 and 1939, the United States government paid out-of-work artists to write, act, and stage theatre as part of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a New Deal job relief program. In segregated "Negro Units" set up under the FTP, African American artists took on theatre work usually reserved for whites, staged black versions of "white" classics, and developed radical new dramas. In this fresh history of the FTP Negro Units, Kate Dossett examines what she calls the black performance community—a broad network of actors, dramatists, audiences, critics, and community activists—who made and remade black theatre manuscripts for the Negro Units and other theatre companies from New York to Seattle. Tracing how African American playwrights and troupes developed these manuscripts and how they were then contested, revised, and reinterpreted, Dossett argues that these texts constitute an archive of black agency, and understanding their history allows us to consider black dramas on their own terms. The cultural and intellectual labor of black theatre artists was at the heart of radical politics in 1930s America, and their work became an important battleground in a turbulent decade.”

Kate Dossett is associate professor of history at the University of Leeds and the author of Bridging Race Divides: Black Nationalism, Feminism and Integration in the United States 1896–1935.

“An interdisciplinary tour de force, Kate Dossett's trailblazing study of Black performance communities is a richly illuminating investigation into a revolutionary world. She works with Black theatre manuscripts not only to excavate but to examine the complicated, collaborative, and creative relationships experienced by playwrights, actors, directors, and audiences during the Federal Theatre era. In her powerful social, literary, cultural, and political history, she maps a myriad of Black acts of artistry, authorship, and activism to do hard-hitting justice to the pioneering ways in which Black performance communities 'imagined radical paths to the future.'” Celeste-Marie Bernier, author of Characters of Blood: Black Heroism in the Transatlantic Imagination.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Sam Roberts, A History of New York in 27 Buildings: The 400-Year Untold Story of an American Metropolis (Bloomsbury Publishing).

“As New York is poised to celebrate its four hundredth anniversary, New York Times correspondent Sam Roberts tells the story of the city through bricks, glass, wood, and mortar, revealing why and how it evolved into the nation's biggest and most influential. From the seven hundred thousand or so buildings in New York, Roberts selects twenty-seven that, in the past four centuries, have been the most emblematic of the city's economic, social, and political evolution. He describes not only the buildings and how they came to be, but also their enduring impact on the city and its people and how the consequences of the construction often reverberated around the world. A few structures, such as the Empire State Building, are architectural icons, but Roberts goes beyond the familiar with intriguing stories of the personalities and exploits behind the unrivaled skyscraper's construction. Some stretch the definition of buildings, to include the city's oldest bridge and the landmark Coney Island Boardwalk. Others offer surprises: where the United Nations General Assembly first met; a hidden hub of global internet traffic; a nondescript factory that produced billions of dollars of currency in the poorest neighborhood in the country; and the buildings that triggered the Depression and launched the New Deal. With his deep knowledge of the city and penchant for fascinating facts, Roberts brings to light the brilliant architecture, remarkable history, and bright future of the greatest city in the world.”

Sam Roberts is the Urban Affairs correspondent of the New York Times. He hosts The New York Times Close Up, which he inaugurated in 1992, and the podcasts Only in New York, anthologized in a book of the same name, and The Caucus. He is the author of A History of New York in 101 Objects and Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America, among others. He has written for the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, and New York. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

“A nuanced, richly researched book that delves deep into the history of the city and speaks volumes about its past, present and future . . . a must-read as the metropolis, now almost 400 years old, continues to (re)shape itself and the world.” NPR.org

Photographs, index.

Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution (Knopf). “This masterly work of historical writing, Mary Beth Norton's first in almost a decade, looks at the sixteen months during which the traditional loyalists to King George III began their discordant "discussions" that led to their acceptance of the inevitability of war against the British Empire and to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. Drawing extensively on pamphlets, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Norton reconstructs colonial political discourse as it happened, showing the vigorous campaign mounted by conservatives criticizing congressional actions. But by then it was too late. In early 1775, governors throughout the colonies informed colonial officials in London that they were unable to thwart the increasing power of the committees and their allied provincial congresses. Although the Declaration of Independence would not be formally adopted until July 1776, Americans, even before the outbreak of war in April 1775, had in effect "declared independence" by obeying the decrees of their new provincial governments rather than colonial officials. The much-anticipated new book by one of America's most dazzling historians--the culmination of more than four decades of Norton's research and thought.”

Mary Beth Norton is the author of five books and co-editor of several others. Her textbook, A People and a Nation, a survey of U.S. history written with five other authors, has been published in ten editions and has sold more than 500,000 copies. Norton is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emerita of American History at Cornell University. She lives in Ithaca.

“[Norton] does not fundamentally challenge the traditional trajectory of events in that decisive year. What she does do is enrich the narrative, filling in the story with a staggering amount of detail based on prodigious research in an enormous number of archives. . . . She wants to re-create as much as possible the past reality of this momentous year in all of its particularity. Only then, she suggests, will we come to appreciate the complexity of what happened and to understand all of the conflicts, divisions, and confusion that lay behind events, like the Tea Party, that historians highlight and simplify. . . . She seems to have read every newspaper in the period, and she delights in describing the give and take of debates between patriots and loyalists that took place in the press.” Gordon S. Wood, The Wall Street Journal.

“This was a world on the verge. Though every era writes its own history of the American Revolution, and this one is written from our world on the verge, Mary Beth Norton's 1774 is neither a celebratory account nor a cautionary tale. The Revolution is told not just from the perspective of Boston or Philadelphia, but from a more capacious and complex early America, a vital history of a vital time, told with an unflinching eye for the telling details and sometimes agonizing missteps that took Americans into war and independence. A brilliant book, by one of the very most insightful and significant historians of our time.” Karin Wulf, executive director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and professor of History at William & Mary.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Andrew F. Lang, A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era (Littlefield History of the Civil War Era) (University of North Carolina Press).

“Most mid-nineteenth-century Americans regarded the United States as an exceptional democratic republic that stood apart from a world seemingly riddled with revolutionary turmoil and aristocratic consolidation. Viewing themselves as distinct from and even superior to other societies, Americans considered their nation an unprecedented experiment in political moderation and constitutional democracy. But as abolitionism in England, economic unrest in Europe, and upheaval in the Caribbean and Latin America began to influence domestic affairs, the foundational ideas of national identity also faced new questions. And with the outbreak of civil war, as two rival governments each claimed the mantle of civilized democracy, the United States' claim to unique standing in the community of nations dissolved into crisis. Could the Union chart a distinct course in human affairs when slaveholders, abolitionists, free people of color, and enslaved African Americans all possessed irreconcilable definitions of nationhood? In this sweeping history of political ideas, Andrew F. Lang reappraises the Civil War era as a crisis of American exceptionalism. Through this lens, Lang shows how the intellectual, political, and social ramifications of the war and its meaning rippled through the decades that followed, not only for the nation's own people but also in the ways the nation sought to redefine its place on the world stage.”

“In A Contest of Civilizations, Andrew F. Lang delivers an impressive survey of deeply held notions of mid-nineteenth-century American exceptionalism. He combines lucid prose with a judicious approach in a multifaceted examination of the struggles to define the national identity before, during, and after the Civil War. Always thoughtful and often provocative, Lang relates the dramatic story of the United States testing its ideals of liberty and freedom against a background of turmoil at home and what Americans perceived as tyranny abroad.” Joan Waugh, coauthor, The American War.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Susan Berfield’s The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism (Bloomsbury Publishing) is “A riveting narrative of Wall Street buccaneering, political intrigue, and two of American history's most colossal characters, struggling for mastery in an era of social upheaval and rampant inequality. It seemed like no force in the world could slow J. P. Morgan's drive to power. In the summer of 1901, the financier was assembling his next mega-deal: Northern Securities, an enterprise that would affirm his dominance in America's most important industry-the railroads. Then, a bullet from an anarchist's gun put an end to the business-friendly presidency of William McKinley. A new chief executive bounded into office: Theodore Roosevelt. He was convinced that as big business got bigger, the government had to check the influence of the wealthiest or the country would inch ever closer to collapse. By March 1902, battle lines were drawn: the government sued Northern Securities for antitrust violations. But as the case ramped up, the coal miners' union went on strike and the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan's trains and heated the homes of Roosevelt's citizens went silent. With millions of dollars on the line, winter bearing down, and revolution in the air, it was a crisis that neither man alone could solve. Richly detailed and propulsively told, The Hour of Fate is the gripping story of a banker and a president thrown together in the crucible of national emergency even as they fought in court. The outcome of the strike and the case would change the course of our history. Today, as the country again asks whether saving democracy means taming capital, the lessons of Roosevelt and Morgan's time are more urgent than ever.”

Susan Berfield is an award-winning investigative reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News, where she has covered some of America's largest corporations. She has been interviewed on PBS NewsHour, NPR's Weekend Edition and All Things Considered, Marketplace, On Point, and elsewhere. Her research for The Hour of Fate, her first book, took her to archives in New York, St. Paul, Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was supported by a Logan Nonfiction Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

“Susan Berfield has captured a critical moment in American history with a ripping good yarn. Written with verve and a perceptive eye for detail, The Hour of Fate artfully brings to life two of our nation's most celebrated personalities, caught in an astonishing drama even larger than themselves. It is impossible to read Berfield's fast-paced and entertaining account of events a century ago without gaining deeper insight into the momentous events we wrestle with today.”  Scott Miller, author of The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster). “A unique collaboration between the American Civil Liberties Union and authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, Fight of the Century features original essays by the most influential writers at work today—including Jennifer Egan, Neil Gaiman, Marlon James, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Salman Rushdie, Jesmyn Ward, and more—each writing about a landmark ACLU case, published in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the organization. The American Civil Liberties Union began as a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller and Jane Addams. A century after its founding, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, prize-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays about landmark cases in the ACLU’s 100-year history. In Fight of the Century, bestselling and award-winning authors present unique literary takes on historic decisions like Brown v. Board of Education, the Scopes trial, Roe v. Wade, and more. Contributors include Geraldine Brooks, Michael Cunningham, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman, Lauren Groff, Marlon James, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Morgan Parker, Ann Patchett, Salman Rushdie, George Saunders, Elizabeth Strout, Jesmyn Ward, Meg Wolitzer, and more. Fight of the Century shows how throughout American history, pivotal legal battles, fought primarily by underdogs and their lawyers, have advanced civil rights and social justice. The ACLU has been integral in this process. The essays range from personal memoir to narrative history, each shedding light on the work of one remarkable organization as it shaped a country. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.”

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps and Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, and the middle grade book Summerland. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children. You can visit Michael online at www.michaelchabon.com.

“This is a book I'll be coming back to again and again, both for my own reading and for use in courses I teach. It covers a huge range of civil rights cases, presenting them clearly and offering succinct, engaging reflections on them. This is the kind of writing, involving both research and personal reflection that I encourage my students to do. If things go as I plan, I will use this as a class text for the first time next winter.” Sarah Hope.

James M. Banner, editor, Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today (The New Press) is “The historic 1974 report for the House Committee on the Judiciary, updated for today by leading presidential historians. In May 1974, as President Richard Nixon faced impeachment following the Watergate scandal, the House Judiciary Committee commissioned a historical account of the misdeeds of past presidents. The account, compiled by leading presidential historians of the day, reached back to George Washington’s administration and was designed to provide a benchmark against which Nixon’s misdeeds could be measured. What the report found was that, with the exception of William Henry Harrison (who served less than a month), every American president has been accused of misconduct: James Buchanan was charged with rigging the election of 1856; Ulysses S. Grant was reprimanded for not firing his corrupt staffer, Orville Babcock, in the “Whiskey Ring” bribery scandal; and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration faced repeated charges of malfeasance in the Works Progress Administration. Now, as another president and his subordinates face an array of charges on a wide range of legal and constitutional offenses, a group of presidential historians has come together under the leadership of James M. Banner, Jr.—one of the historians who contributed to the original report—to bring the 1974 account up to date through Barack Obama’s presidency. Based on current scholarship, this new material covers such well-known episodes as Nixon’s Watergate crisis, Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandal, Clinton’s impeachment, and George W. Bush’s connection to the exposure of intelligence secrets. But oft-forgotten events also take the stage: Carter’s troubles with advisor Bert Lance, Reagan’s savings and loan crisis, George H.W. Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and Obama’s Solyndra loan controversy. The only comprehensive study of American presidents’ misconduct and the ways in which chief executives and members of their official families have responded to the charges brought against them, this new edition is designed to serve the same purpose as the original 1974 report: to provide the historical context and metric against which the actions of the current administration may be assessed.”

James M. Banner, a Guggenheim Award–winning historian, was on the Princeton faculty in 1974 when he contributed to the presidential misconduct report and is now an independent historian in Washington, DC. He was a co-founder of the History News Service, a moving spirit behind the National History Center, the author of many books, including Being a Historian, and the editor of Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today (The New Press).

“A very useful compendium, which allows important conclusions to be drawn about the present occupant of the White House.” Elizabeth Holtzman, former congresswoman and member of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate era.

Notes.

Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster). “In Craig Fehrman’s groundbreaking work of history, Author in Chief, the story of America’s presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to history—Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929—to ones we know and love—Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, which was very nearly never published—Fehrman unearths countless insights about the presidents through their literary works. Presidential books have made an enormous impact on American history, catapulting their authors to the national stage and even turning key elections. Beginning with Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, the first presidential book to influence a campaign, and John Adams’s Autobiography, the first score-settling presiden­tial memoir, Author in Chief draws on newly uncovered information—including never-before-published letters from Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan—to cast fresh light on the private drives and self-doubts that fueled our nation’s leaders. We see Teddy Roosevelt as a vulnerable first-time author, struggling to write the book that would become a classic of American history. We see Reagan painstakingly revising Where’s the Rest of Me?, a forgotten memoir in which he sharpened his sunny political image. We see Donald Trump negotiating the deal for The Art of the Deal, the volume that made him synonymous with business savvy. Alongside each of these authors, we also glimpse the everyday Americans who read them. Combining the narrative felicity of a journalist with the rigorous scholarship of a historian, Fehrman delivers a feast for history lovers, book lovers, and everybody curious about a behind-the-scenes look at our presidents.”

Craig Fehrman is a journalist and historian who’s written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Indiana with his wife and children.

“Fehrman offers a decade of painstaking research boiled down into a supremely engaging narrative about presidents and their relationship to reading and writing.” Rebecca Rego Barry, Fine Books Magazine

“Craig Fehrman takes us from Thomas Jefferson—a president who happened also to be the best prose stylist around—to the age of the obligatory campaign biography, on to the modern blockbuster. Along the way we meet revisionists, ghost writers (Truman went through four), runaway bestsellers (it seems there was a sport at which Calvin Coolidge excelled), surprising flops.  We learn that the Civil War turned the occasional authorial impulse into a flood of literature; that Nathaniel Hawthorne quietly wrote a campaign biography; that the most literate presidents can meet with the worst reviews. Shapely, original, and brimming in anecdote, Author in Chief expertly illuminates, amid much else, how history finds its way into the books.” Stacy Schiff, author of The Witches

“This book is just as fun and fascinating when taking you inside the minds of presidents as into ordinary eighteenth-century bookworms. It’s witty, charming, fantastically learned, and engrossing. I loved it.” Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland

Photographs, notes, index.

Linda Barrett Osborne, Guardians of Liberty: Freedom of the Press and the Nature of News (Abrams Books for Young Readers/ Grade 6 Up.)

“Guardians of Liberty explores the essential and basic American ideal of freedom of the press. Allowing the American press to publish—even if what they’re reporting is contentious— without previous censure or interference by the federal government was so important to the Founding Fathers that they placed a guarantee in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Citing numerous examples from America’s past, from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement to Obama’s and Trump’s presidencies, Linda Barrett Osborne shows how freedom of the press has played an essential role in the growth of this nation, allowing democracy to flourish. She further discusses how the freedoms of press and speech often work side by side, reveals the diversity of American news, and explores why freedom of the press is still imperative to uphold today. Includes endnotes, bibliography, and index.”

“Deeply researched and beautifully written, Guardians of Liberty enlightens and entertains readers of any age.” Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Washington Post.

“Grade 6 Up. This book seeks to live up to the promise contained in its subtitle-explicating freedom of the press and the nature of news. Nine chapters cover everything from the partisan press in Colonial and Revolutionary America to the incendiary rise of ‘fake news.’ In the introduction, Barrett Osborne poses a series of questions: “How does the press act as a watchdog against government abuses? Can freedom of the press exist in time of war without endangering national security? Why does it matter that different points of view are represented?” The text attempts to answer those questions by explaining the history of the press's role in American society as well as key controversies and court cases. Sidebars and highlighted feature segments provide additional information detailing technological advances that revolutionized journalism. Notable individuals and developments in the history of the news are also described. A time line of key events, source notes, and a selected bibliography round out this title. A timely title that offers solid research and an engaging structure. Recommended for upper junior high and high school libraries, and students with a nose for news.” Kelly Kingrey-Edwards, Blinn Junior College, Brenham, Texas.

“Deeply researched and beautifully written, Guardians of Liberty enlightens and entertains readers of any age.” Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic for the Washington Post.

Photogaphs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index

Lina Jakob, Echoes of Trauma and Shame in German Families: The Post–World War II Generations (Indiana University Press).

“For decades to speak openly of German suffering during World War II―to claim victimhood in a country that had victimized millions―was unthinkable. But in the past few years, growing numbers of Germans in their 40s and 50s calling themselves Kriegsenkel, or Grandchildren of the War, have begun to explore the fundamental impact of the war on their present lives and mental health. Their parents and grandparents experienced bombardment, death, forced displacement, and the shame of the Nazi war crimes. The Kriegsenkel feel their own psychological struggles―from depression, anxiety disorders, and burnout to broken marriages and career problems―are the direct consequences of unresolved war experiences passed down through their families. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and a broad range of scholarship, Lina Jakob considers how the Kriegsenkel movement emerged at the nexus between public and familial silences about World War II, and critically discusses how this new collective identity is constructed and addressed within the framework of psychology and Western therapeutic culture.”

Lina Jakob is a cultural anthropologist with a PhD from the Australian National University.

“This complex story is engagingly told through highly readable life histories and analysis and provides much to think about concerning the aftermath of traumatic histories.” Francesca Merlan, Australian National University.

Photographs, bibliography, index.

Adam Higginbotham’s Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster (Simon & Schuster) is a “definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster—and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters. Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.

Adam Higginbotham writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Smithsonian. He lives in New York City.

“Superb, enthralling and necessarily terrifying . . . the accident unfurls with a horrible inevitability. Weaving together the experiences of those who were there that night, Higginbotham marshals the details so meticulously that every step feels spring-loaded with tension. . . . Amid so much rich reporting and scrupulous analysis, some major themes emerge. . . . Higginbotham’s extraordinary book is another advance in the long struggle to fill in some of the gaps, bringing much of what was hidden into the light.” Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“Adam Higginbotham's brilliantly well-written Midnight In Chernobyl draws on new sources and original research to illuminate the true story of one of history’s greatest technological failures—and, along with it, the bewildering reality of everyday life during the final years of the Soviet Union.” Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History and Red Famine: Stalin’s War On Ukraine.

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert M. Gates, Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World (Knopf)

“Since the end of the Cold War, the global perception of the United States has progressively morphed from dominant international leader to disorganized entity, seemingly unwilling to accept the mantle of leadership or unable to govern itself effectively. Robert Gates argues that this transformation is the result of the failure of political leaders to understand the complexity of American power, its expansiveness, and its limitations. He makes clear that the successful exercise of power is not limited to the use of military might or the ability to coerce or demand submission, but must encompass as well diplomacy, economics, strategic communications, development assistance, intelligence, technology, ideology, and cyber. By analyzing specific challenges faced by the American government in the post-Cold War period--Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Russia, China, and others--Gates deconstructs the ways in which leaders have used the instruments of power available to them. With forthright judgments of the performance of past presidents and their senior-most advisers, firsthand knowledge, and insider stories, Gates argues that U.S. national security in the future will require learning, and abiding by, the lessons of the past, and re-creating those capabilities that the misuse of power has cost the nation.”

“[Gates's] tone is judicious and nonpartisan, and he grades all the administrations fairly according to his standards of professional competence. . . The familiar stories gain new life and interest when told by somebody who’s been in the room where it happens. Gates says what he thinks and refuses to pull his punches and, as a result, the book offers in one volume the most accurate record available of recent American security policy, the most incisive critique of that policy and the most sensible guide to what should come next.” Gideon Rose, The New York Times Book Review

“Few Americans have the depth and breadth of hands-on national security experience that Gates has. . . . He skillfully blends the knowledge and discipline of a scholar with the hard-earned experience of a practitioner to produce a well-organized and superbly written book to lead America forward into a very different and challenging new world, and it is here that Gates’s admonitions are most compelling.” Richard Moe, The Washington Post  

“While the book certainly offers the former defense chief’s insights from being 'in the room,' I was most impressed by his thoughtfulness and clarity when it comes to the imperative for strengthening America’s civilian toolkit. It’s an impressive message for a former defense secretary of both Republican and Democratic administrations to make the first chapter of his book a clarion call on the failure to invest in our nation’s civilian national security tools.” Liz Schrayer, President & CEO, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster). “‘The American political system—which includes everyone from voters to journalists to the president—is full of rational actors making rational decisions given the incentives they face,’ writes political analyst Ezra Klein. ‘We are a collection of functional parts whose efforts combine into a dysfunctional whole.’ In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics. Over the past fifty years in America, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. These merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking much in our politics and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together. Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the twentieth century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and one another. And he traces the feedback loops between polarized political identities and polarized political institutions that are driving our system toward crisis. This is a revelatory book that will change how you look at politics, and perhaps at yourself.”

Ezra Klein is the editor-at-large and cofounder of Vox, the award-winning explanatory news organization. Launched in 2014, Vox reaches more than 50 million people across its platforms each month. Klein is also the host of the podcast the Ezra Klein Show, cohost of the Weeds podcast, and an executive producer on Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. Previously, Klein was a columnist and editor at The Washington Post, a policy analyst at MSNBC, and a contributor to Bloomberg.

“The story of this impeachment is the story of American politics today: polarization. It affects almost every aspect of American political life and has been studied by scholars from many different angles, with dozens of good historical and experimental approaches. Wouldn’t it be great if someone would digest all these studies, synthesize them and produce a readable book that makes sense of it all? Ezra Klein has done just that with his compelling new work, Why We’re Polarized. It is likely to become the political book of the year. . . . Powerful [and] intelligent.” Fareed Zakaria, CNN

“Few books are as well-matched to the moment of their publication as Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized. . . . Klein’s careful book explains how different groups of Americans can see politics through such different lenses, examining how various psychological mechanisms allow committed partisans to rationalize almost anything their party does. . . . This book fully displays the attributes that have made Klein’s journalism so successful.” Dan Hopkins, Washington Post

“Why We’re Polarized delivers. . . . What Klein adds especially to [is] our understanding of how we got here—why Trump is more a vessel for our division than the cause, and why his departure will not provide any magical cure. . . . A thoughtful, clear and persuasive analysis.” Norman Ornstein, New York Times Book Review.

Notes, index.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right Hardcover (Princeton University Press).

“Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across America and around the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being radicalized and why they are increasingly attracted to violent movements. Hate in the Homeland shows how tomorrow's far-right nationalists are being recruited in surprising places, from college campuses and mixed martial arts gyms to clothing stores, online gaming chat rooms, and YouTube cooking channels. Instead of focusing on the how and why of far-right radicalization, Cynthia Miller-Idriss seeks answers in the physical and virtual spaces where hate is cultivated. Where does the far right do its recruiting? When do young people encounter extremist messaging in their everyday lives? Miller-Idriss shows how far-right groups are swelling their ranks and developing their cultural, intellectual, and financial capacities in a variety of mainstream settings. She demonstrates how young people on the margins of our communities are targeted in these settings, and how the path to radicalization is a nuanced process of moving in and out of far-right scenes throughout adolescence and adulthood. Hate in the Homeland is essential for understanding the tactics and underlying ideas of modern far-right extremism. This eye-opening book takes readers into the mainstream places and spaces where today's far right is engaging and ensnaring young people, and reveals innovative strategies we can use to combat extremist radicalization.”

Cynthia Miller-Idriss is Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at American University in Washington, DC, where she also runs the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the Center for University Excellence (CUE).

“From a foremost expert in the field, Hate in the Homeland is the most sweeping and persuasive account yet of the worldwide threat to democracy posed by the resurgent white power movement and other far-right activists. In examining the spaces and processes of radicalization, Miller-Idriss offers hope for real solutions. This book is required reading, especially for journalists, policymakers, and activists.” Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.

“Hate in the Homeland is a profound, robust, and highly original work by one of the world's very top scholars of the far right. In this pathbreaking and important book, Cynthia Miller-Idriss explores critical, overlooked avenues for combatting the rise of far-right extremism across the globe.” Kathleen M. Blee, author of Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Stuart Stevens, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump (Knopf)

“Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody ‘family values,’ and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.”

Stuart Stevens is the author of seven previous books, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire, and Outside, among other publications. He has written extensively for television shows, including Northern Exposure, Commander in Chief, and K Street. For twenty-five years, he was the lead strategist and media consultant for some of the nation's toughest political campaigns. He attended Colorado College; Pembroke College, Oxford; Middlebury College; and UCLA film school. He is a former fellow of the American Film Institute.

“In his bare-knuckles account, Stevens confesses to the reader that the entire apparatus of his Republican Party is built on a pack of lies. . . . This reckoning inspired Stevens to publish this blistering, tell-all history. . . . Although this book will be a hard read for any committed conservatives, they would do well to ponder it.” Julian E. Zelizer, The New York Times.

“This book is going to become an important reference volume for future historians trying to explain what happened to the Republican Party in the second half of the 20th century and the Trump era. It takes someone with Stuart Stevens' insights as a writer to be able to see this story and deliver it to us the way he has.” Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC

“Stuart Stevens has written a brilliant book. Stop whatever you are doing. Order it on Amazon.” Nicolle Wallace, MSNBC.

Notes, bibliography.

Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

“When he opened the FBI investigation into Russia’s election interference, Peter Strzok had already spent more than two decades defending the United States against foreign threats. His career in counterintelligence ended shortly thereafter, when the Trump administration used his private expression of political opinions to force him out of the Bureau in August 2018. But by that time, Strzok had seen more than enough to convince him that the commander in chief had fallen under the sway of America’s adversary in the Kremlin.

In Compromised, Strzok draws on lessons from a long career—from his role in the Russian illegals case that inspired The Americans to his service as lead FBI agent on the Mueller investigation—to construct a devastating account of foreign influence at the highest levels of our government. And he grapples with a question that should concern every U.S. citizen: When a president appears to favor personal and Russian interests over those of our nation, has he become a national security threat”

Peter Strzok is the former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence and a 22-year veteran of the Bureau. He served as one of the original case agents for the Russian couple who inspired the TV series The Americans, and he has investigated a range of other high-profile cases, from WikiLeaks to the 9/11 hijackings to Hillary Clinton’s private email server. He was selected to head the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and worked with Robert Mueller as a leader of the FBI’s efforts in creating the Special Counsel’s Office. Also a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, he is the recipient of the FBI’s highest investigative honor, the Director’s Award for Excellence. He lives in Virginia with his family.

“Out of all the books about Trump that are constantly coming out, this one has to be the most important thus far. The guy heading up the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign is writing about it. This is history in the making and will no doubt be one of the most talked about stories in American history for decades. Why would you not want to get the story straight from the horse's mouth? I haven't finished the book yet, but find it hard to put down. The counterintelligence info in general is pretty fascinating. I haven't even reached the Trump campaign parts yet.” Amazon Customer 5.0 out of 5 stars

Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality (Liveright)

“The Republican Party appears to be divided between a tax-cutting old guard and a white-nationalist vanguard―and with Donald Trump’s ascendance, the upstarts seem to be winning. Yet how are we to explain that, under Trump, the plutocrats have gotten almost everything they want, including a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy, regulation-killing executive actions, and a legion of business-friendly federal judges? Does the GOP represent “forgotten” Americans? Or does it represent the superrich? In Let Them Eat Tweets, best-selling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson offer a definitive answer: the Republican Party serves its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. Conservative parties, by their nature, almost always side with the rich. But when faced with popular resistance, they usually make concessions, allowing some policies that benefit the working and middle classes. After all, how can a political party maintain power in a democracy if it serves only the interests of a narrow and wealthy slice of society? Today’s Republicans have shown the way, doubling down on a truly radical, elite-benefiting economic agenda while at the same time making increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to their almost entirely white base. Telling a forty-year story, Hacker and Pierson demonstrate that since the early 1980s, when inequality started spiking, extreme tax cutting, union busting, and deregulation have gone hand in hand with extreme race-baiting, outrage stoking, and disinformation. Instead of responding to the real challenges facing voters, the Republican Party offers division and distraction―most prominently, in the racist, nativist bile of the president’s Twitter feed. As Hacker and Pierson argue, Trump isn’t a break with the GOP’s recent past. On the contrary, he embodies its tightening embrace of plutocracy and right-wing extremism―a dynamic Hacker and Pierson call “plutocratic populism.” As Trump and his far-right allies spew hatred and lies, Republicans in Congress and in statehouses attack social programs and funnel more and more money to the top 0.1 percent of Americans. Far from being at war with each other, reactionary plutocrats and right-wing populists have become the two faces of a party that now actively undermines democracy to achieve its goals against the will of the majority of Americans. Drawing on decades of research, Hacker and Pierson authoritatively explain the doom loop of tax cutting and fearmongering that characterizes our era―and reveal how we can fight back.”

Jacob S. Hacker is a political scientist at Yale University, and the coauthor of three books, including the New York Times bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Paul Pierson is a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the coauthor of three books, including the New York Times bestseller Winner-Take-All Politics. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Notes, index.

The Washington Post Fact Checker Staff, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies (Scribner).

“In perilous times, facts, expertise, and truth are indispensable. President Trump’s flagrant disregard for the truth and his self-aggrandizing exaggerations, specious misstatements, and bald-faced lies have been rigorously documented and debunked since the first day of his presidency by The Washington Post’s Fact Checker staff. Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth is based on the only comprehensive compilation and analysis of the more than 16,000 fallacious statements that Trump has uttered since the day of his inauguration. He has repeated many of his most outrageous claims dozens or even hundreds of times as he has sought to bend reality to his political fantasy and personal whim. Drawing on Trump’s tweets, press conferences, political rallies, and TV appearances, The Washington Post identifies his most frequently used misstatements, biggest whoppers, and most dangerous deceptions. This book unpacks his errant statements about the economy, immigration, the impeachment hearings, foreign policy, and, of critical concern now, the coronavirus crisis as it unfolded. Fascinating, startling, and even grimly funny, Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth by The Washington Post is the essential, authoritative record of Trump’s shocking disregard for facts.”

Since 2007, The Washington Post Fact Checker has held Democrats, Republicans, and advocacy groups accountable for their claims by awarding "Pinocchios" for false or misleading statements.

Glenn Kessler has been editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker since 2011 and has worked at The Washington Post since 1998. Kessler and his team earned an honorable mention in the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting. He is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Salvador Rizzo is a national politics reporter for The Washington Post. He writes for the newspaper's Fact Checker unit and has fact-checked hundreds of claims from politicians and advocacy groups. He is a graduate of Emory University.

Meg Kelly is a video editor and reporter for The Fact Checker at The Washington Post. She has covered national politics since 2015--first at National Public Radio and, since 2017, with the Post's Fact Checker team. She graduated from Barnard College in New York.

“A great public service of a book.” Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker

“An authoritative and pull-no-punches guide through Trump's alternative universe....a reader-friendly reference for voters, reporters and editors who soon will be seeking clarity and context once the fall campaign kicks into full swing.”The Record

“An extremely valuable chronicle.” Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President - Updated and Expanded with New Essays (Thomas Dunne Books) Bandy X. Lee, Editor and Author, Foreword by Jeffrey Sachs, and 39 more contributors.

“As this bestseller predicted, Trump has only grown more erratic and dangerous as the pressures on him mount. This new edition includes new essays bringing the book up to date―because this is still not normal. Originally released in fall 2017, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a runaway bestseller. Alarmed Americans and international onlookers wanted to know: What is wrong with him? That question still plagues us. The Trump administration has proven as chaotic and destructive as its opponents feared, and the man at the center of it all remains a cipher.

Constrained by the APA’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to weigh in on the issue have shied away from discussing it at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both. The prestigious mental health experts who have contributed to the revised and updated version of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump argue that their moral and civic "duty to warn" supersedes professional neutrality. Whatever affects him, affects the nation: From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. With eight new essays (about one hundred pages of new material), this edition will cover the dangerous ramifications of Trump's unnatural state.

It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.”

Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a Forensic Psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine and a Project Group Leader for the World Health Organization Violence Prevention Alliance. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass. General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She has taught at Yale Law School for more than fifteen years and has spearheaded a number of prison reform projects around the country, including of the notorious Rikers Island jail of New York City. She’s written more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited more than a dozen academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence.

“This is an historic work in the history of American psychiatry. We have never been in this place before.” Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC

“There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump . . . profound, illuminating and discomforting.” Bill Moyers

“The stand these psychiatrists are taking takes courage, and their conclusions are compelling.” Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post.

Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Tim Duggan Books/Crown Publishing Group).

“The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.”

Timothy Snyder is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning. Snyder is a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a permanent fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.

“We are rapidly ripening for fascism. This American writer leaves us with no illusions about ourselves.” Svetlana Alexievich, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings. Put a copy in your pocket and one on your bedside table, and it will help you keep going for the next four years or however long it takes.” Masha Gessen

“Please read this book. So smart, so timely.” George Saunders

“Easily the most compelling volume among the early resistance literature. . . . A slim book that fits alongside your pocket Constitution and feels only slightly less vital. . . . Clarifying and unnerving. . . . A memorable work that is grounded in history yet imbued with the fierce urgency of what now.” Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post.

Timothy Snyder, Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary (Crown).

“On December 29, 2019, historian Timothy Snyder fell gravely ill. Unable to stand, barely able to think, he waited for hours in an emergency room before being correctly diagnosed and rushed into surgery. Over the next few days, as he clung to life and the first light of a new year came through his window, he found himself reflecting on the fragility of health, not recognized in America as a human right but without which all rights and freedoms have no meaning.

And that was before the pandemic. We have since watched American hospitals, long understaffed and undersupplied, buckling under waves of coronavirus patients. The federal government made matters worse through willful ignorance, misinformation, and profiteering. Our system of commercial medicine failed the ultimate test, and thousands of Americans died.

In this eye-opening cri de coeur, Snyder traces the societal forces that led us here and outlines the lessons we must learn to survive. In examining some of the darkest moments of recent history and of his own life, Snyder finds glimmers of hope and principles that could lead us out of our current malaise. Only by enshrining healthcare as a human right, elevating the authority of doctors and medical knowledge, and planning for our children’s future can we create an America where everyone is truly free.”

“[Snyder’s] litany of the many ways the United States bungled the coronavirus response is eloquent and pointed. . . . His cry of rage is certain to get your attention. There’s an initial thrill when reading Snyder’s take on American health care. He’s a brilliant historian whose deep understanding of the origins of fascism and the lessons of the Holocaust made his best-selling book, On Tyranny, published on the heels of the 2016 presidential election, all the more credible. And his critique that the health-care system is organized in a way that maximizes profits for a few, wastes a lot of money and too often leaves patients confused, lacking access and feeling uncared for is correct.” Katie Hafner, Washington Post .

Timothy Snyder is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University and the author of The Road to Unfreedom, On Tyranny, Black Earth, and Bloodlands and On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. His work has received the Hannah Arendt Prize, the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

Twyla Tharp, Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life (Simon & Schuster). “One of the world’s leading artists—a living legend—and bestselling author of The Creative Habit shares her secrets for harnessing vitality and finding purpose as you age. From insight to action, Keep It Moving is a guidebook for expanding one’s possibilities over the course of a lifetime. At seventy-seven, Twyla Tharp is revered not only for the dances she makes—but for her astounding regime of exercise and non-stop engagement. She is famed for religiously hitting the gym each morning at daybreak, and utilizing that energy to propel her breakneck schedule as a teacher, writer, creator, and lecturer. This book grew out of the question she was asked most frequently: ‘How do you keep working?’ In Twyla’s own words: ‘This book is a collection of what I’ve learned in the past fifty-five years: from the moment I committed to a life in dance up until today. . . it identifies a “disease” and offers a cure. That disease, simply put, is our fear of time’s passing and the resulting aging process. The remedy? This book in your hands.’ Keep It Moving is a series of no-nonsense mediations on how to live with purpose as time passes. From the details of how she stays motivated to the stages of her evolving fitness routine, Tharp models how fulfillment depends not on fortune—but on attitude, possible for anyone willing to try and keep trying. Culling anecdotes from Twyla’s life and the lives of other luminaries, each chapter is accompanied by a small exercise that will help anyone develop a more hopeful and energetic approach to the everyday. Twyla will tell you what the beauty-fitness-wellness industry won’t: chasing youth is a losing proposition. Instead, Keep It Moving focuses you on what’s here and where you’re going—the book for anyone who wishes to maintain their prime for life.”

Twyla Tharp, one of America’s greatest choreographers began her career in 1965, and has created more than 130 dances for her company as well as for the Joffrey Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, London’s Royal Ballet, Denmark’s Royal Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. She has won two Emmy Awards for television’s Baryshnikov by Tharp, and a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Movin’ Out. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1993 and was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997. She holds nineteen honorary degrees, most recently from Harvard University. She lives and works in New York City.

“An exhilarating mélange of sage advice and stamina-building exercises.” O: The Oprah Magazine

“This book is two books in one: First, a dancer’s story of injury, depression, and healing; and second, a how-to book for anyone who is facing aging. As with her books The Creative Habit and The Collaborative Habit, this one has grit because Tharp has figured all this out for herself. . . . Of course, Tharp herself, still choreographing in her late ’70s, is an inspiration.” Wendy Perron, dancer, choreographer, and teacher who was the editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine from 2004 to 2013 and author of Through the Eyes of a Dancer: Selected Writings (Wesleyan University Press).

Creative Patterns (lulu.com, 2020), the second edition of a book on improvisation and the creative process first published in 1973, consists of 30 pages of musical notation plus a Preface and Introduction and is “about the interrelation of the 12 tones to each other,” explains its author, pianist and soprano saxophonist Joel Futterman. He has also authored The Design (lulu.com, 2010), “A riveting mystery that deals with existentialism and the ability to become conscious,” and The Question (lulu.com, 2016), which “provides a series of dialogues of questions and parables that advance the search for inner and outer peace.”

If people are curious,” says Joel Futterman, “books, CDs, listening samples, and information about me can be found on my website at: http://www.joelfutterman.com/.”

“We are fortunate to have a master of creative improvisational music in our area [Norfolk, Virginia] though [Joel Futterman] mostly plays elsewhere including Europe, Canada, Russia and in cities like New York where he finds appreciative audiences. Though rooted in the phrasing of advanced modern jazz, his creative music explores the deeper consciousness of tonality and the possibilities of music. As Nat Hentoff wrote in response to his music, ‘Intellect connects with feelings and desire . . . a musician in full communication with himself and others.’ Al Markowitz, Veer Magazine.

“Form and structure is a breathing thing that is growing every second we live. In this book, Joel Futterman shares some of his insight to being yourself. There are no magical scales just magical people and Joel Futterman is one of them.” William Parker, Musician, Composer and Author

“An artist who has richly textured ever changing musical landscape.” Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune.

Emily Hamilton-Honey and Susan Ingalls Lewis, Girls to the Rescue: Young Heroines in American Series Fiction of World War (McFarland). “During World War I, as young men journeyed overseas to battle, American women maintained the home front by knitting, fundraising, and conserving supplies. These became daily chores for young girls, but many longed to be part of a larger, more glorious war effort--and some were. A new genre of young adult books entered the market, written specifically with the young girls of the war period in mind and demonstrating the wartime activities of women and girls all over the world. Through fiction, girls could catch spies, cross battlefields, man machine guns, and blow up bridges. These adventurous heroines were contemporary feminist role models, creating avenues of leadership for women and inspiring individualism and self-discovery. The work presented here analyzes the powerful messages in such literature, how it created awareness and grappled with the engagement of real girls in the United States and Allied war effort, and how it reflects their contemporaries' awareness of girls' importance.”

Emily Hamilton-Honey is an associate professor of English and gender studies at SUNY Canton, specializing in series fiction, girlhood studies, and post-bellum and Progressive Era American women's literature and history. She lives in Potsdam, New York.

Susan Ingalls Lewis is a professor emerita in the department of history, SUNY New Paltz, specializing in American women's history, the Progressive Era, and New York State history. She lives in Rosendale, New York.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Think, Write, Speak: Uncollected Essays, Reviews, Interviews, and Letters to the Editor by Vladimir Nabokov, edited by Brian Boyd and Anastasia Tolstoy (Knopf). “‘I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child’: so Nabokov famously, and infamously, wrote when introducing his 1973 volume of selected prose, Strong Opinions. Think, Write, Speak follows up where Strong Opinions left off, presenting Nabokov's public writings from a 1921 essay about Cambridge to two last interviews in 1977. The chronological order allows us to watch the Cambridge student and the fledgling Berlin reviewer and poet turn into the acclaimed Paris émigré novelist whose stature would bring him to teach and write in America, where his international success exploded with Lolita and propelled him back to Europe as a recognized literary master. Straddling Russian, French and Anglophone worlds, Nabokov discovers contemporary literature and culture at his own pace and with his own strong dispositions. Whether his subject is Proust or Pushkin, the sport of boxing or the privileges of democracy, Nabokov's supreme individuality and his alertness to the details of life past and present illuminate the page and remind us why he has been called the greatest of prose stylists.”

Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin, including the brilliant novels The Defense (1930), Invitation to a Beheading (1934) and The Gift (1938). In 1940, he left France for America, where he taught at Stanford, Wellesley, Cornell, and Harvard, and wrote some of his greatest works, Speak, Memory (1951), Lolita (1955), and Pnin (1957). In 1959 he returned to Europe, where he wrote more masterpieces, Pale Fire (1962) and Ada (1969), and translated his earlier Russian work into English. He died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

Brian Boyd, University Distinguished Professor of English, University of Auckland, has published on literature (American, Brazilian, English, Greek, Irish, New Zealand, Polish, Russian), from epics to comics, art from the Paleolithic to the present, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology, but most of all on Vladimir Nabokov, as annotator, bibliographer, biographer, critic, editor, translator, and more. His works have appeared in nineteen languages and won awards on four continents.

Anastasia Tolstoy, a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, holds a doctorate from Oxford, where she completed a DPhil on Vladimir Nabokov and the Aesthetics of Disgust. She is the co-translator, with Thomas Karshan, of Nabokov's neo-Shakespearean blank verse drama The Tragedy of Mister Morn.

“Immense fun . . . . Any sensitive reader will linger over the beautiful sentences with which Nabokov enriches even his most casual prose.” Michael Dirda, The Washington Post.

“Gives us a window into the earlier decades of Nabokov’s life . . . . This new collection is an expansive record of Nabokov’s worldview and aesthetic philosophy, but one particularly fascinating element of Think, Write, Speak is the insight it gives us into how Nabokov, staunchly opposed to the politicization of literature, navigated being a public explainer of Russian arts and letters in the midst of the Cold War.” Jennifer Wilson, The New Republic.

Notes, index.

Richard Ford’s Sorry for Your Trouble: Stories (Ecco/Harper Collins) is “A landmark new collection of stories from Richard Ford that showcases his brilliance, sensitivity, and trademark wit and candor. In Sorry for Your Trouble, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Richard Ford enacts a stunning meditation on memory, love and loss. “Displaced” returns us to a young man’s Mississippi adolescence, and to a shocking encounter with a young Irish immigrant who recklessly tries to solace the narrator’s sorrow after his father’s death.  “Driving Up” follows an American woman’s late-in-life journey to Canada to bid good-bye to a lost love now facing the end of this life.  “The Run of Yourself,” a novella, sees a New Orleans lawyer navigating the difficulties of living beyond his Irish wife’s death.  And “Nothing to Declare” follows a man and a woman’s chance re-meeting in the New Orleans French Quarter, after twenty years, and their discovery of what’s left of love for them. Typically rich with Ford’s emotional lucidity and lyrical precision, Sorry for Your Trouble is a memorable collection from one of our greatest writers.”

Richard Ford is the author of The Sportswriter and Independence Day. He is winner of the Prix Femina in France, the 2019 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, and the Princess of Asturias Award in Spain.  He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Canada.  His story collections include the bestseller Let Me Be Frank with You, Rock Springs, and A Multitude of Sins.  He lives in Boothbay, Maine, with his wife, Kristina Ford.

“Ford has a gift for nimble interior monologues and a superb ear for the varieties and vagaries of human speech. His prose can strike a Hemingwayesque cadence…One page later, a sparkling note of Fitzgerald. . . . Ford is of the last generation of writers to have grown up directly under the Papa-and-Scott dispensation, and it’s gratifying to hear his sentences pay homage. . . . Acutely described settings, pitch-perfect dialogue, inner lives vividly evoked, complex protagonists brought toward difficult recognitions: There’s a kind of narrative, often dismissed as the “well-crafted, writing-class story,” that deals in muted epiphanies and trains its gaze inward, to pangs and misgivings." New York Times Book Review.

Paulette Simon, The Fiddler: A Novel (William Morrow).

“In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding down. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance, and utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted, however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band.

Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his band mates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can’t help but notice the lovely Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter. After the surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around Texas seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the colonel’s family to finish her three years of service. But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again. Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles’s trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart’s yearning.”

Paulette Jiles is a novelist, poet, and memoirist. She is the author of Cousins, a memoir, and the novels Enemy Women, Stormy Weather, The Color of Lightning, Lighthouse Island, and News of the World, which was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award. She lives on a ranch near San Antonio, Texas.

“The reader is treated to a kind of alchemy on the page when character, setting and song converge at all the right notes, generating an authentic humanity that is worth remembering and celebrating.” S. Kirk Walsh, New York Times. Walsh’s debut novel, The Elephant of Belfast, will be published next year.

Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light (Book 3 of Wolf Hall Trilogy) (Henry Holt and Co.)

“Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.”

Hilary Mantel is the two-time winner of the Man Booker Prize for her best-selling novels, Wolf Hall, and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. Wolf Hall has been translated into 36 languages, Bring Up the Bodies into 31 languages, and sales for both books have reached over 5 million copies worldwide. In addition to the Wolf Holf trilogy, she is the author of A Place of Greater Safety, Giving Up the Ghost, The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother’s Day, Vacant Possession, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street Fludd, A Change of Climate, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O’Brien, and Learning to Talk.

“The Mirror & the Light is the triumphant capstone to Mantel’s trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith who rose to become the consigliere of Henry VIII. . . . The world is blotted out as you are enveloped in the sweep of a story rich with conquest, conspiracy and mazy human psychology. . . . Mantel is often grouped with writers of historical fiction, [but] the more apt, and useful, comparison might be with Robert Caro, the biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson, the great anatomizer of political power.” Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

J.C. Hopkins, The Perfect Fourth (Noir Nation).

“Preston Gomez plays piano in Heaven, a San Francisco dive bar. His wife, Suzanne, has been murdered in Brooklyn. Somebody killed her with her own trumpet. Mona, his girlfriend, has been gone for three months. He suspects her of the murder. After embarking on a cross-country trek in a 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger in search of the truth, he becomes the lead suspect in the New York investigation.”

J.C. Hopkins is a Grammy nominated songwriter, producer and leader of the world renowned J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band.

He has published three books of poetry and his jazz-noir novel The Perfect Fourth.

David Hajdu, Adrianne Geffel: A Fiction (W. W. Norton & Company)

“Adrianne Geffel was a genius. Praised as the ‘Geyser of Grand Street’ and the ‘Queen of Bleak Chic,’ she was a one-of-a-kind artist, a pianist and composer with a rare neurological condition that enabled her to make music that was nothing less than pure, unmediated emotional expression. She and her sensibility are now fully integrated into the cultural lexicon; her music has been portrayed, represented, and appropriated endlessly in popular culture. But what do we really know about her? Despite her renown, Adrianne Geffel vanished from public life, and her whereabouts remain a mystery to this day. David Hajdu cuts through the noise to tell, for the first time, the full story of Geffel’s life and work, piecing it together through the memories of those who knew her, inspired her, and exploited her—her parents, teachers, best friend, manager, critics, and lovers. Adrianne Geffel made music so strange, so compelling, so utterly unique that it is simply not to be believed. Hajdu has us believing every note of it in this slyly entertaining work of fiction. A brilliantly funny satire, with characters that leap off the page, Adrianne Geffel is a vividly twisted evocation of the New York City avant-garde of the 1970s and ’80s, and a strangely moving portrait of a world both utterly familiar and like none we’ve ever encountered.”

David Hajdu is the author of five acclaimed books of cultural history, biography, and criticism, including Lush Life, and a three-time National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He is the music critic for the Nation, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and a songwriter and librettist. He lives in New York City.

“Like The Real Life of Sebastian Knight or This Is Spinal Tap, David Hajdu’s Adrianne Geffel will become part of our cultural lexicon. This is satire at its best: painfully accurate, and utterly enjoyable.” Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl.

Kadya Molodovsky and Anita Norich, A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg's Journal (The Modern Jewish Experience) (Indiana University Press).

“Rivke Zilberg, a 20-year-old Jewish woman, arrives in New York shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland, her home country. Struggling to learn a new language and cope with a different way of life in the United States, Rivke finds herself keeping a journal about the challenges and opportunities of this new land. In her attempt to find a new life as a Jewish immigrant in the US, Rivke shares the stories of losing her mother to a bombing in Lublin, jilting a fiancé who has made his way to Palestine, and a flirtatious relationship with an American ‘allrightnik.’”

Kadya Molodovsky (1894–1975) was one of the most well-known and prolific writers of Yiddish literature in the twentieth century. Born in Bereze, a small town in what is now Belarus, educated in Poland and Russia, Molodovsky was an established writer when she came to the United States in 1935. Known primarily as a poet, essayist, and editor, she published over twenty books, including plays and four novels.

Anita Norich is author of Writing in Tongues: Yiddish Translation in the 20th Century; Discovering Exile: Yiddish and Jewish American Literature in America During the Holocaust; The Homeless Imagination in the Fiction of Israel Joshua Singer; and editor of Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures: Comparative Perspectives; Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intercontext; and Gender and Text in Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Literatures. She is Professor Emerita of English and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan and translates Yiddish literature, and teaches, lectures, and publishes on a range of topics concerning modern Jewish cultures, Yiddish language and literature, Jewish American literature, and Holocaust literature.

“A rare gem! Anita Norich has a rare understanding of her subject matter. Her own experience as an immigrant and her Yiddish spirit are evident in all aspects of her work. When will she publish her own journal? This book, its author, and its translators are true gems.” S. Choron, Amazon

Christine Coulson, Metropolitan Stories: A Novel (Other Press). “From a writer who worked at the Metropolitan Museum for more than twenty-five years, an enchanting novel that shows us the Met that the public doesn't see. Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world: the hallways and offices, conservation studios, storerooms, and cafeteria that are home to the museum's devoted and peculiar staff of 2,200 people—along with a few ghosts. A surreal love letter to this private side of the Met, Metropolitan Stories unfolds in a series of amusing and poignant vignettes in which we discover larger-than-life characters, the downside of survival, and the powerful voices of the art itself. The result is a novel bursting with magic, humor, and energetic detail, but also a beautiful book about introspection, an ode to lives lived for art, ultimately building a powerful collage of human experience and the world of the imagination.”

Christine Coulson began her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1991 as a summer intern in the European Paintings Department. She returned in 1994 and, over the next 25 years, rose through the ranks of the Museum, working in the Development Office, the Director’s Office, and the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. In 2019 she left the Met to write full-time.

“Written with elegance, wit, and a flair for comic genius, Metropolitan Stories describes the museum world as it is and as it strives to be. Coulson is a brilliant narrator of the fantastical and the all-too-plausible excesses of curators and museum directors. Her infectious sense of fun, her steady flow of insights into the human heart and its foibles, her wanton but beady-eyed attention to blind ambition, her passion for art itself, and most of all her deep sense of human character make this not only a delightful book, but also a deeply rewarding one. It marks the emergence of a major new talent.” Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree.

Sulaiman Addonia, Silence Is My Mother Tongue: A Novel (Graywolf Press).

“A sensuous, textured novel of life in a refugee camp, long-listed for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. On a hill overlooking a refugee camp in Sudan, a young man strings up bed sheets that, in an act of imaginative resilience, will serve as a screen in his silent cinema. From the cinema he can see all the comings and goings in the camp, especially those of two new arrivals: a girl named Saba, and her mute brother, Hagos. For these siblings, adapting to life in the camp is not easy. Saba mourns the future she lost when she was forced to abandon school, while Hagos, scorned for his inability to speak, must live vicariously through his sister. Both resist societal expectations by seeking to redefine love, sex, and gender roles in their lives, and when a businessman opens a shop and befriends Hagos, they cast off those pressures and make an unconventional choice. With this cast of complex, beautifully drawn characters, Sulaiman Addonia details the textures and rhythms of everyday life in a refugee camp, and questions what it means to be an individual when one has lost all that makes a home or a future. Intimate and subversive, Silence Is My Mother Tongue dissects the ways society wages war on women and explores the stories we must tell to survive in a broken, inhospitable environment.”

Sulaiman Addonia spent his early life in a refugee camp and went on to earn an MA from the University of London. His novel The Consequences of Love was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and has been translated into more than twenty languages.

“Addonia’s chorus of characters is exquisite, and his interrogation of both traditionalism and love in the desperate circumstances of a Sudanese refugee camp makes for a stunning, enveloping read.” Wayétu Moore, author of The Dragons, the Giant, The Women.

“Stunning. Addonia’s prose layers imagery and insight to keep us glued right to the spectacular end. This is a splendid, compulsive reading experience.” Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze.

“Silence Is My Mother Tongue is a remarkably accomplished and circuitously constructed tale that highlights the poetic aesthetic of its creator as well as its central protagonist.” Ru Freeman, author of On Sal Mal Lane.

Claudia Rankine, Conversation (Graywolf Press).

“Claudia Rankine’s Citizen changed the conversation―Just Us urges all of us into it. As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history. Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, even and especially in breaching the silence, guilt, and violence that follow direct addresses of whiteness. Rankine’s questions disrupt the false comfort of our culture’s liminal and private spaces―the airport, the theater, the dinner party, the voting booth―where neutrality and politeness live on the surface of differing commitments, beliefs, and prejudices as our public and private lives intersect. This brilliant arrangement of essays, poems, and images includes the voices and rebuttals of others: white men in first class responding to, and with, their white male privilege; a friend’s explanation of her infuriating behavior at a play; and women confronting the political currency of dying their hair blond, all running alongside fact-checked notes and commentary that complements Rankine’s own text, complicating notions of authority and who gets the last word. Sometimes wry, often vulnerable, and always prescient, Just Us is Rankine’s most intimate work, less interested in being right than in being true, being together.”

Claudia Rankine is the author of five previous books, including Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric, and Citizen. She is a MacArthur Fellow and is the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

“Rankine has emerged as one of America’s foremost scholars on racial justice. . . . [To] a past we have avoided reckoning, Rankine will be helping America understand itself, one conversation at a time.” Jeff Rowe, Associated Press.

“This brilliant and multi-layered work by Claudia Rankine is a call, a bid, an insistent, rightly impatient demand for a public conversation on whiteness. . . . A rare honesty toward a potential affirmation. Anyone who turns away from this bold and vital invitation to get to work would be a damn fool.” Judith Butler, American philosopher and gender theorist and author of Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity.

“With Just Us, Claudia Rankine offers further proof that she is one of our essential thinkers about race, difference, politics, and the United States of America. Written with humility and humor, criticism and compassion, Just Us asks difficult questions and begins necessary conversations.” Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American novelist, a MacArthur Fellow, and Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Illustrations, photographs.

Jeremy Noel-Tod, The Penguin Book of the Prose Poem: From Baudelaire to Anne Carson (Penguin Classic)

“The last decades have seen an explosion of the prose poem. More and more writers are turning to this peculiarly rich and flexible form; it defines Claudia Rankine's Citizen, one of the most talked-about books of recent years, and many others, such as Sarah Howe's Loop of Jade and Vahni Capildeo's Measures of Expatriation, make extensive use of it. Yet this fertile mode which in its time has drawn the likes of Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein and Seamus Heaney remains, for many contemporary readers, something of a mystery. The history of the prose poem is a long and fascinating one. Here, Jeremy Noel-Tod reconstructs it for us by selecting the essential pieces of writing—by turns luminous, brooding, lamentatory and comic —which have defined and developed the form at each stage, from its beginnings in 19th-century France, through the 20th-century traditions of Britain and America and beyond the English language, to the great wealth of material written internationally since 2000. Comprehensively told, it yields one of the most original and genre-changing anthologies to be published for some years, and offers readers the chance to discover a diverse range of new poets and new kinds of poem, while also meeting famous names in an unfamiliar guise.

Jeremy Noel-Tod is a lecturer in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, and lead poetry reviewer at the Sunday Times. He has previously written for the Daily Telegraph, the Literary Review, the Times Literary Supplement, Prospect, the New Statesman, the Guardian, and the London Review of Books. His books as an editor include the revised edition of the Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry (2013) and Complete Poems of R. F. Langley (Carcanet, 2015).

“A wonderful book - an invigorating revelation . . . . An essential collection of prose poems from across the globe, by old masters and new, reveals the form's astonishing range.” Kate Kellaway, Observer

Index of poets, index of titles.

Peter Murphy, The Long Public Life of a Short Private Poem: Reading and Remembering Thomas Wyatt (Square One: First-Order Questions in the Humanities) (Stanford University Press).

This a fascinating study of a strikingly modern 500-year-old poem.

“Thomas Wyatt didn't publish "They Flee from Me." It was written in a notebook, maybe abroad, maybe even in prison. Today it is in every poetry anthology. How did it survive? That is the story Peter Murphy tells—in vivid and compelling detail—of the accidents of fate that kept a great poem alive across 500 turbulent years. Wyatt's poem becomes an occasion to ask and answer numerous questions about literature, culture, and history. Itself about the passage of time, it allows us to consider why anyone would write such a thing in the first place, and why anyone would care to read or remember the person who wrote it. From the deadly, fascinating circles of Henry VIII's court to the contemporary classroom, The Long Public Life of a Short Private Poem also introduces us to a series of worlds. We meet antiquaries, editors, publishers, anthologizers, and critics whose own life stories beckon. And we learn how the poem came to be considered, after many centuries of neglect, a model of the "best" English has to offer and an ideal object of literary study. The result is an exploration of literature in the fine grain of the everyday and its needs: in the classroom, in society, and in the life of nations.”

Peter Murphy is John Hawley Roberts Professor of English at Williams College.

“Beautifully written and utterly original, Peter Murphy's study of Wyatt's 'They Flee From Me' as it passes through the hands and minds of readers from the sixteenth century to the present is a profound meditation on how we remember and forget the past, on everything that makes us truly human.” John Guillory, New York University.

“Murphy turns the story of a single work into a moving, lyrical meditation on the vicissitudes of poetry as it enters the unpredictable worlds of readers, collectors, editors, and scholars. Beautifully attuned to what can and cannot be known about a poem's history, this book provides a model for understanding what it means for literature to endure.” Andrew Elfenbein, University of Minnesota.

“We take great poems to have survived history by virtue of their excellence. Peter Murphy shows how wrong we are. He tells a vivid, compelling story of one poem's survival across five centuries of reckless printers, contentious critics, warring editors, and devoted readers, and of all the good luck that's kept it alive.” Jeff Dolven, Princeton University.

Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Erica McAlpine, The Poet's Mistake (Princeton University Press)

“Keats mixed up Cortez and Balboa. Heaney misremembered the name of one of Wordsworth's lakes. Poetry―even by the greats―is rife with mistakes. In The Poet's Mistake, critic and poet Erica McAlpine gathers together for the first time numerous instances of these errors, from well-known historical gaffes to never-before-noticed grammatical incongruities, misspellings, and solecisms. But unlike the many critics and other readers who consider such errors felicitous or essential to the work itself, she makes a compelling case for calling a mistake a mistake, arguing that denying the possibility of error does a disservice to poets and their poems. Tracing the temptation to justify poets' errors from Aristotle through Freud, McAlpine demonstrates that the study of poetry's mistakes is also a study of critical attitudes toward mistakes, which are usually too generous―and often at the expense of the poet's intentions. Through remarkable close readings of Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, Clare, Dickinson, Crane, Bishop, Heaney, Ashbery, and others, The Poet's Mistake shows that errors are an inevitable part of poetry's making and that our responses to them reveal a great deal about our faith in poetry―and about how we read.”

Erica McAlpine is associate professor of English at the Oxford University and a tutorial fellow at St Edmund Hall. She is the author of the poetry collection The Country Gambler.

“McAlpine displays a sensitive ear, a command of poetic history, and a critical intelligence that makes fine distinctions clear and meaningful. The Poet’s Mistake is a model of good academic criticism.” Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine.

Notes, bibliography, index.

John Garth’s The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton University Press) “takes you to the places that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to create his fictional locations in The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and other classic works. Written by renowned Tolkien expert John Garth, The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien features a wealth of breathtaking illustrations, including Tolkien's own drawings, contributions from other artists, rare archival images, and spectacular color photos of contemporary locations across Britain and beyond, from the battlefields of World War I to Africa. Garth identifies the locales that served as the basis for Hobbiton, the elven valley of Rivendell, the Glittering Caves of Helm's Deep, and many other settings in Middle-earth, from mountains and forests to rivers, lakes, and shorelands. He reveals the rich interplay between Tolkien's personal travels, his wide reading, and his deep scholarship as an Oxford don. Garth draws on his profound knowledge of Tolkien's life and work to shed light on the extraordinary processes of invention behind Tolkien's works of fantasy. He also debunks popular misconceptions about the inspirations for Middle-earth and puts forward strong new claims of his own. An illustrated journey into the life and imagination of one of the world's best-loved authors, The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien provides a unique exploration of the relationship between the real and the fantastical and is an essential companion for anyone who wants to follow in Tolkien's footsteps.”

John Garth is the author of the award-winning Tolkien and the Great War (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). A writer, editor, and consultant, he gives talks and teaches courses internationally. He is also a regular contributor to the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and other leading publications. He lives in Hampshire, England. Twitter @JohnGarthWriter.

“Fascinating, gorgeously illustrated and thought-provoking . . . . [A] masterful book.” Elizabeth Hand, Washington Post.

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index.

Greg Masters, It Wasn't Supposed to Be Like This (Crony Books).

“In this new book of poems, his ninth from Crony Books, Masters cuts through the lies perpetrated as the American Dream pitched to us like soap detergent over the past 50 years. The title poem is an attempt at a sort of "Howl 2". Written in a wayward trochaic octameter (eight beats a line) it is a grand kvetch to pierce veneer, call out government miscreants and establish truths attesting to perspectives chronically pushed to the margins and excluded from corporate boardrooms and TV fantasies. The bulk of the book is taken up by "My East Village," another epic poem (in trochaic octameter) that chronicles the downtown neighborhood Masters has lived in for the past 45 years, celebrating its cultural riches while bemoaning its blandification. When he arrived in Manhattan's East Village in the mid-1970s, Greg Masters pounded rock and roll drums in basement dives, “alternative” spaces, CBGB and Irving Plaza and attended readings and workshops at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Along with Michael Scholnick and Gary Lenhart, he edited the poetry magazine Mag City from 1977-1985. In 1977-78, along with a crew of poet comrades, he produced a cable TV show, Public Access Poetry. From 1980-83, he edited The Poetry Project Newsletter. He has worked for a number of book, magazine and web publishers, beginning as a proofreader and copy editor and then for the last 20 years as a managing editor. This is the ninth book of his writing issued by Crony Books.”

Homie: Poems (Graywolf Press) “is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family―blood and chosen―arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danez’s friends and for you and for yours.”

Danez Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection and a finalist for the National Book Award, and [insert boy], winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. They live in Minneapolis.

“The radiance of Homie arrives like a shock, like found money, like a flower fighting through concrete. . . . This is a book full of the turbulence of thought and desire, piloted by a writer who never loses their way.” Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

“Homie does not just meet expectations. It shatters them. Smith is at their absolute best, technically and narratively, throughout their third collection, experimenting with form and turning convention on its head.” Ronnie K. Stephens, The Poetry Question

Phillipa K. Chong’s Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology) (Princeton University Press) is “An inside look at the politics of book reviewing, from the assignment and writing of reviews to why critics think we should listen to what they have to say. Taking readers behind the scenes in the world of fiction reviewing, Inside the Critics’ Circle explores the ways that critics evaluate books despite the inherent subjectivity involved, and the uncertainties of reviewing when seemingly anyone can be a reviewer. Drawing on interviews with critics from such venues as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post, Phillipa Chong delves into the complexities of the review-writing process, including the considerations, values, and cultural and personal anxieties that shape what critics do. Chong explores how critics are paired with review assignments, why they accept these time-consuming projects, how they view their own qualifications for reviewing certain books, and the criteria they employ when making literary judgments. She discovers that while their readers are of concern to reviewers, they are especially worried about authors on the receiving end of reviews. As these are most likely peers who will be returning similar favors in the future, critics’ fears and frustrations factor into their willingness or reluctance to write negative reviews. At a time when traditional review opportunities are dwindling while other forms of reviewing thrive, book reviewing as a professional practice is being brought into question. Inside the Critics’ Circle offers readers a revealing look into critics’ responses to these massive transitions and how, through their efforts, literary values get made.”

Phillipa K. Chong is assistant professor of sociology at McMaster University. Follow her at https://twitter.com/ChongSOC

“Filled with acumen and understanding, Inside the Critics’ Circle carefully dissects the reviewing process, a subject that academics and the reading class will find fascinating, relevant, and disturbing. The book’s theoretical claims rest on solid empirical foundations and I applaud its topic and research.” Wendy Griswold, Northwestern University

“In Inside the Critics’ Circle, Phillipa Chong immerses herself in the fluid and uncertain freelance world of newspaper-based book reviewing, where reviewer-writers adhere to the informal norms of playing nice, punching up the status hierarchy of authors. This book will interest academicians and practitioners in the sociology of culture and work, communications, media studies, and journalism, and freelance tastemakers whose reviews of consumer goods appear in print, broadcast, and online media.” Daniel B. Cornfield, Vanderbilt University.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Grant Snider, I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf (Harry N. Abrams).

I’m giving this splendid volume to my grandson for his eleventh birthday. He’s a reader and already has a commodious bookshelf!

“It’s no secret, but we are judged by our bookshelves. We learn to read at an early age, and as we grow older we shed our beloved books for new ones. But some of us surround ourselves with books. We collect them, decorate with them, are inspired by them, and treat our books as sacred objects. In this lighthearted collection of one- and two-page comics, writer-artist Grant Snider explores bookishness in all its forms, and the love of writing and reading, building on the beloved literary comics featured on his website, Incidental Comics. With a striking package including a die-cut cover, I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf is the perfect gift for bookworms of all ages.”

Grant Snider is an orthodontist by day and an artist by night. His comics have been featured in the Kansas City Star, the New York Times, and The New Yorker, as well as The Best American Comics 2013 anthology. He lives in Wichita, Kansas, with his wife and four children. Visit him online at incidentalcomics.com.

“This playful, self-aware collection of strips and gags on the joys and frustrations of reading and writing is equal parts lighthearted and sincere.” Publishers Weekly

“Grant Snider has a prescient book for these times.” Chris Arrant, Newsarama.

Illustrations, index.

Charlotte Artese, Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories (Princeton University Press).

“Shakespeare knew a good story when he heard one, and he wasn't afraid to borrow from what he heard or read, especially traditional folktales. The Merchant of Venice, for example, draws from “A Pound of Flesh,” while King Lear begins in the same way as “Love Like Salt,” with a king asking his three daughters how much they love him, then banishing the youngest when her cryptic reply displeases him. This unique anthology presents more than forty versions of folktales related to eight Shakespeare plays: The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, All's Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Cymbeline, and The Tempest. These fascinating and diverse tales come from Europe, the Middle East, India, the Caribbean, and South America, and include stories by Gerald of Wales, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Giambattista Basile, J. M. Synge, Zora Neale Hurston, Italo Calvino, and many more. Organized by play, each chapter includes a brief introduction discussing the intriguing connections between the play and the gathered folktales. Shakespeare and the Folktale can be read for the pure pleasure these lively tales give as much as for the insight into Shakespeare's plays they provide.”

Charlotte Artese is professor of English at Agnes Scott College and the author of Shakespeare's Folktale Sources.

“Shakespeare and the Folktale is a pleasure to read and a rich resource for anyone who loves Shakespeare or storytelling. The book's lucid introductions to each play and tale-type provide insight into how Shakespeare wrote the plays and how audiences engaged with and understood them.” Patrick Ryan, author of Shakespeare’s Storybook: Folk Tales That Inspired the Bard

“This delightful collection is certain to appeal to Shakespeare enthusiasts of all ages. The accessible introduction and framing essays brilliantly explain the value of folktales to Shakespeare study. And the folktales themselves―thoughtfully selected from diverse cultures and times―are enormously pleasurable to read. A must-have for Shakespeare teachers.” Gina Bloom, University of California, Davis

“This anthology is a revelation. It might change perceptions of Shakespeare's plays and reopen the challenging, central question of why they have had such a long and robust afterlife.” Douglas Lanier, author of Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture.

Bibliography, index.

Dennis Baron, What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He and She (Liveright)

“Addressing one of the most pressing cultural questions of our generation, Dennis Baron reveals the untold story of how we got from he and she to zie and hir and singular-they. Like trigger warnings and gender-neutral bathrooms, pronouns are sparking a national debate, prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, even prisons, about what pronouns to use. Colleges ask students to declare their pronouns along with their majors; corporate conferences print name tags with space to add pronouns; email signatures sport pronouns along with names and titles. Far more than a by-product of the culture wars, gender-neutral pronouns are, however, nothing new. Pioneering linguist Dennis Baron puts them in historical context, noting that Shakespeare used singular-they; women invoked the generic use of he to assert the right to vote (while those opposed to women’s rights invoked the same word to assert that he did not include she); and people have been coining new gender pronouns, not just hir and zie, for centuries. Based on Baron’s own empirical research, What’s Your Pronoun? chronicles the story of the role pronouns have played―and continue to play―in establishing both our rights and our identities. It is an essential work in understanding how twenty-first-century culture has evolved.”

Dennis Baron, professor emeritus of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, has long been a national commentator on language issues, from the Washington Post to NPR and CNN. A recent Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in Champaign, Illinois.

“A scrupulous and absorbing survey. Its great virtue is to show that these issues are nothing new . . . This scholarly assiduousness, though, also makes him the ideal pilot through these contentious political-linguistic waters. If you want to know why more people are asking ‘what’s your pronoun?’ then you (singular or plural) should read this book.” Joe Moran, New York Times Book Review

Illustrations, notes, index.

Brian Buirge, Jason Bacher, and Jason Richburg, Do the F*cking Work: Lowbrow Advice for High-Level Creativity (Harper Design). “A wake-up call for creatives who need that inspiring kick to finally create the thing they’ve been meaning to make, while celebrating the journey of trying, learning, and failing. Over the last eight years, Jason Bacher and Brian Buirge of Good F*cking Design Advice (GFDA) have made a name for themselves in the international design community, inspiring creatives, artists, and entrepreneurs with their products, weekly e-mails, and most important, their unorthodox advice about work ethic and the creative process. Do the F*cking Work is a collection of 100 beautifully packaged pieces that showcase their irreverent advice—inspiration that will help unstick even the most dedicated procrastinators. Covering everything from drinking your morning coffee to handling productive criticism, from embracing failure to rejecting the status quo, their insights upend conventional thinking and teach you to embrace and celebrate the journey of creation—the joy of trying, failing, learning, and sometimes failing again. To make something good we have to make some mistakes. Bacher and Buirge teach you to embrace the unknown and to f*cking laugh at yourself during the process. There is a method to their madness—a surprising reassurance that is baked into their bluntness. We’re all trying, messing up, and trying again. And there’s joy to be found in that—something we often overlook in our rush to get everything done and get it right the first time. With personal insights, actionable advice, stylish visuals, and lots of colorful language, Do the F*cking Work will leave you feeling renewed and inspired, and will make you see that the value of work is as much about the process as the outcome.”

Justin Gomer, White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colorblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights (Studies in United States Culture) (University of North Carolina Press).

“The racial ideology of colorblindness has a long history. In 1963, Martin Luther King famously stated, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." However, in the decades after the civil rights movement, the ideology of colorblindness co-opted the language of the civil rights era in order to reinvent white supremacy, fuel the rise of neoliberalism, and dismantle the civil rights movement's legal victories without offending political decorum. Yet, the spread of colorblindness could not merely happen through political speeches, newspapers, or books. The key, Justin Gomer contends, was film--as race-conscious language was expelled from public discourse, Hollywood provided the visual medium necessary to dramatize an anti–civil rights agenda over the course of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. In blockbusters like Dirty Harry, Rocky, and Dangerous Minds, filmmakers capitalized upon the volatile racial, social, and economic struggles in the decades after the civil rights movement, shoring up a powerful, bipartisan ideology that would be wielded against race-conscious policy, the memory of black freedom struggles, and core aspects of the liberal state itself.”

Justin Gomer is assistant professor of American studies at California State University, Long Beach.

“Justin Gomer's book reveals how Hollywood films helped transform colorblind ideology from a liberal weapon against prejudice into the new common sense that ‘race’ no longer matters since racism is dead. A tour de force, Gomer’s takedown of colorblind ideology offers a new perspective on the drama, comedy, and horror that is the late twentieth century.” Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Cleaver Patterson, Don't Go Upstairs!: A Room-by-Room Tour of the House in Horror Movies (McFarland). “Throughout cinematic history, the buildings characters inhabit—whether stately rural mansions or inner-city apartment blocks—have taken on extra dimensions, often featuring as well developed characters themselves. Nowhere is this truer than in the horror film, where familiar spaces—from chaotic kitchens to forgotten attics to overgrown greenhouses—become settings for diabolical acts or supernatural visitations. Showing readers through a selection of prime movie real estate, this book explores how homes come to life in horror with an analysis of more than sixty films, including interviews and insights from filmmakers and scholars, along with many rare stills. From the gruesome murder in the hallway of The House by the Cemetery (1981) to the malevolent haunting in the nursery of Eel Marsh House in The Woman in Black, no door is left unopened.”

Cleaver Patterson is an author, journalist, and film critic based in South West London. He has written for numerous periodicals including The Sunday Times Magazine, Rue Morgue, Scream, Starburst and Video Watchdog.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Stephen Handzo, Hollywood and the Female Body: A History of Idolization and Objectification (McFarland). “From the first, brief moving images of female nudes in the 1880s to the present, the motion picture camera made the female body a battleground in what we now call the culture wars. Churchmen feared the excitation of male lust; feminists decried the idealization of a body type that devalued the majority of women. This history of Hollywood's treatment of women's bodies traces the full span of the motion picture era. Primitive peepshow images of burlesque dancers gave way to the ‘artistic’ nudity of the 1910s when model Audrey Munson and swimmer Annette Kellerman contended for the title of American Venus. Clara Bow personified the qualified sexual freedom of the 1920s flapper. Jean Harlow, Mae West and the scantily clad chorus girls of the early 1930s provoked the Legion of Decency to demand the creation of a Production Code Administration that turned saucy Betty Boop into a housewife. Things loosened up during World War II when Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth ruled the screen. The postwar years saw the blonde bombshells and ‘mammary madness’ of the 1950s while the 1960's brought bikini-clad sex kittens. With the replacement of the Production Code by a ratings system in 1968, nudity and sex scenes proliferated in the R-rated movies of the 1970s and 1980s. Recent movies, often directed by women, have pointed the way toward a more egalitarian future. Finally, the #MeToo movement and the fall of Harvey Weinstein have forced the industry to confront its own sexism. Each chapter of this book situates movies, famous and obscure, into the context of changes in the movie industry and the larger society.”

Stephen Handzo taught in the film division at Columbia University. He managed movie theaters in New York City and was a member of the projectionists' union. He has written for such publications as Film Comment, Cineaste and Bright Lights and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Brittanica and the Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. He lives in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

W. Royal Stokes, a novelist and a former professor of Greek and Latin languages and literature and ancient history, was the 2014 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award. He has been observing the jazz, blues, and popular music worlds since the early 1940s.  He was editor of Jazz Notes (the quarterly journal of the Jazz Journalists Association) from 1992 to 2001, was Program Director of WGTB-FM (D.C.) in the 1970s, and has participated in the annual Down Beat Critics Poll since the 1980s. He hosted his weekly programs “I thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say  . . . .” and Since Minton’s on public radio in the 1970s and ’80s. He has been the Washington Post's jazz critic and editor of JazzTimes and is author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990, Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers in Jazz, Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers and The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Reader. His trilogy of novels Backwards Over was published in 2017-2018. Publications he has written for, in addition to the Washington Post and JazzTimes, include Down Beat, Mississippi Rag, Jazz Notes, JazzHouse.org, and JJA News. A founding member of the JJA, he authored, for JJA News, “The Jazz Journalists Association: A 25-Year Retrospective” (http://news.jazzjournalists.org/2013/06/the-jazz-journalists-association-a-25-year-retrospective/). He is currently at work on a memoir. 

NPR & Jazz News polls 2020

NEW RELEASES (listed alphabetically; 5.5 points each)

Susan Alcorn Quintet, Pedernal (Relative Pitch)

David Boswell, The Story Behind the Story (My Quiet Moon)

The Claire Daly Band, Rah! Rah! (2008, Ride Symbol)

Chris Hopkins, Chris Hopkins Meets the Jazz Kangaroos, Vol. 1 (Echoes of Swing)

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis, The Music of Wayne Shorter (Blue Engine)

Okuden Quartet [Mat Walerian/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Hamid Drake], Every Dog Has His Day but It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter (ESP-Disk)

Benny Rubin Jr. Quartet, Know Say or See (Benny Jr. Music)

Maria Schneider, Data Lords (Artists Share)

Gregory Tardy, If Time Could Stand Still (WJ3)

Charles Tolliver, Connect (Gearbox)

REISSUES/HISTORICAL (listed alphabetically; 2 points each)

Sonny Rollins, Rollins in Holland (1967, Resonance)

Lennie Tristano, The Duo Sessions (Dot Time)

Phil Woods, The Best of Phil Woods (Chesky)

VOCAL

Kurt Elling, Secrets Are the Best Stories (Edition)

DEBUT

New Orleans High Society, New Orleans High Society (1718)

LATIN

Carla Campopiano, Chicago/Buenos Aires Connections Vol. II (self-released)

The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Reader

My new book, The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Reader, can be ordered here.

BEST RELEASES AND NOTABLE RELEASES OF 2019

The lists below are my choices from the 500 or so CDs that I received for review in 2019. 

Nota bene: All of my choices are in alphabetical order by artist and thus are equally rated. 

10 BEST NEW RELEASES 

• Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science, Waiting Game (MOTEMA MUSIC, LLC) 

• Anat Cohen Tentet, Triple Helix (Anzic Records LLC)

• The Diva Jazz Orchestra, Diva & The Boys (MCG Jazz) 

• Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Bobby Kapp, Ineffable Joy (Esp Disk Ltd.)

• Scott Robinson, Tenormore (Arbors Records)

• Jim Robitaille, View from Within (Whaling City Sound)

• Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Transitions (MSO Records)

• Tyshawn Sorey and Marilyn Crispell, The Adornment Of Time (Pi Recordings) 

• Carol Sudhalter, Live At Saint Peter's Church (Alfa Music) 

• Rodney Whitaker, All Too Soon (Origin Records)

3 BEST REISSUE OR HISTORICAL 

•  Louis Armstrong, Live In Europe (Dot Time Records)

• Betty Carter, The Music Never Stops (Blue Engine Records) 

•  Buddy Rich, Just In Time: The Final Recording (Gearbox Records)

 BEST VOCAL RELEASE

• Calabria Foti, Prelude To A Kiss (MoCo Records) 

BEST DEBUT RELEASE

• John Yao's Triceratops, How We Do (See Tao Recordings)

BEST LATIN JAZZ RELEASE

• Pablo Lanouguere Quintet, Eclectico (PabloLanouguere.com)  

NOTABLE RELEASES OF 2019 

• Casey Abrams, Jazz (Chesky Records)

• Lolly Allen, Coming Home (Oa2)

•  Eric Alexander, Eric Alexander With Strings (Highnote)

•  Dave Bass, No Boundaries (Whaling City Sound)

• Dee Bell, Lins, Lennox, & Life (Laser Records LLC)

• Ray Blue, Work (Jazzheads) 

• Joe Bonamassa, Live At The Sydney Opera House (J&R Adventures) 

• Terrence Brewer & Pamela Rose, Don't Worry 'Bout Me: Remembering Ella & Joe (Strong Brew Music) 

• Katerina Brown, Mirror (Mellow Tones Music) 

• Dewa Budjana, Mahandini (Moonjune Records)

• Jane Bunnett & Maqueque, On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme (Justin Time Records)

• Peter Clark, 20-man Music Machine (Summit) 

• Jordon Dixon, On! (Self-produced) 

•  Leon Lee Dorsey, Monktime (Jazz Avenue 1 Records)

•  Hermine Deurloo, with Steve Gadd, Riverbeast (Zennez Records)

•  Echoes of Swing with Rebecca Kilgore, Winter Days at Schloss Elmau (Act Records) 

• Bill Evans in England (Resonance Records) 

• Five Play, Live from the Firehouse Stage (Diva Jazz Orchestra, Ltd.)

• Mimi Fox, This Bird Still Flies (Origin Records) 

• Friction Quartet, Spark (Innova Records)

• Bill Frisell/Thomas Morgan, Epistrophy (ECM)

• Hal Galper Trio, Zone: Live At The Yardbird Suite (Origin Records) 

• Trevor Giancola , Sonnet 18 (TQM Recording Co.)

• Gerry Gibbs, Alex Collins, Gianluca Renzi, Our People (Whaling City Sound)

• Francesco Guerri, Su Mimmi Non Si Spara! (Rarenoise Records)

• Zac Harmon, Mississippi Barbq (Catfood Records)

• Gerry Hemingway, Reality Axis: The music of Sarah Weaver performed by Gerry Hemingway (Sync Source) 

• Ian & Sylvia, The Lost Tapes (Stony Plain)

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Big Band Holidays II (Blue Engine Records) 

• Jennifer Leitham, Remnants Of Humanity (JenniferLeitham.com)

• Roger Kellaway, The Many Open Minds of Roger Kellaway (feat. Bruce Forman & Dan Lutz) (IPO Recordings) 

• Nancy Kelly, Remembering Mark Murphy (SubCat) 

• Roberto Magris Sextet (Roberto Magris, Ira Sullivan, Shareef Clayton, Mark Colby, Jamie Ousley, Rodolfo Zuniga), Sun Stone (JMood Records) 

• Matej Meštrovic, 3 Rhapsodies for Piano & Orchestra (Navona)

• Allison Miller & Carmen Staaf, Science Fair (Sunnyside)

• Amanda Monaco, Pirkei Avot (RMI Records) 

• New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Missing Pieces (BlackEagles.com)

• New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Music of Allen Toussaint (Storyville Records)

• Petra van Nuis and Dennis Luxion, Because We're Night People (PetraSings.com)

• The OBJB Quartet, Bamako (Tum Records) 

• Tish Oney & The John Chiodini Trio, The Best Part (Blujazz) 

• Ed Palermo Big Band, A Lousy Day In Harlem (Sky Cat Records)  

• Diana Panton, A Cheerful Little Earful (Independent Label Services, Inc./ Diana Panton.com)

• Evan Parker, Concert in Vilnius (NoBusiness Records)

• Tom Pierson, Last Works (Self-produced/https://tompierson.bandcamp.com/album/last-works) 

• Roberta Piket, Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz (Thirteenth Note Records)

• Noah Preminger Group, Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert () 

• The OHJB Quartet, Bamako (Tum Records)

• Prism Quartet—Uri Cane, The Book of Days (XAS Records)

• Rachael & Vilray, Rachael & Vilray (Nonesuch) 

• Javier Red’s Imagery Converter, Ephemeral Certainties (Delmark)

• Joshua Redman Quartet, Come What May (Nonesuch) 

• Sam Rivers, Zenith (NoBusiness Records)

• ROVA (Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt, Bruce Ackley), Saxophone Diplomacy (Hathut Records)

• Adam Rudolph and Go Organic Orchestra, A Garland of Ragas (Meta)

• Catherine Russell, Alone Together (Dot Time) 

• Johnny Shines, The Blues Came Falling Down - Live 1973 (Omnivore Recordings)

•  Wadada Leo Smith, Rosa Parks: Pure Love (Tum Records)

•  Lyn Stanley, London Calling: A Toast To Julie London (A.T.Music LLC)

•  Tierney Sutton Band, Screenplay (Bfm Jazz)

•  Mark Turner, Gary Foster, Putter Smith, and Joe La Barbara, Mark Turner Meets Gary Foster (Capri Records)

•  University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra, Embargo (fmua/U of T Jazz)

•  Various Artists, New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires (Esp Disk Ltd.)

•  Ernie Watts, Home Light (Flying Dolphin)

•  Mark Wingfield & Gary Husband, Tor & Vale (Moonjune Records)

•  Paul Winter Consort, Everybody Under the Sun - Voices of Solstice, Vol. 1: The Singers (Living Music)

•  WJ3 All Stars, Lovers and Love Songs (Wj3 All Stars) 

•  Eric Wyatt, Golden Rule for Sonny (Whaling City Sound)

•  Yes! Trio, Featuring Ali Jackson & Aaron Goldberg & Omer Avital, Groove du Jour (Jazz & People)

•  Nora York & Jamie Lawrence, Swoon (Nora York & Jamie Lawrence)

•  Miguel Zenón, Sonero: The Music of Ismael River (Miel Music)

A ROUNDUP OF 160 OR SO JAZZ, BLUES, BEYOND, AND OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR OR SO

1) BIOGRAPHIES

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

1) BIOGRAPHIES

Muneer Nasser,Upright Bass The Musical Life and Legacy of Jamil Nasser: A Jazz Memoir (Vertical Visions Media Group). “George Joyner, Jamil Sulieman, and Jamil Nasser are three names that appear on the records of Phineas Newborn, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, and Ahmad Jamal. These names identify one jazz bassist, composer, and jazz advocate, who made an indelible mark upon in the the jazz world for over fifty years, Jamil Nasser.Upright Basschronicles his evolution from a young bassist on Beale Street, the musical epicenter of Memphis, to a top-flight bassist on the New York jazz scene. Miles Davis harbored curiosity about the environment that produced Jamil and three Memphis musicians he hired in 1963. "’ wondered what they were doing down there when all the guys came through that same school.’ Nasser's narrative captures the untold stories of two piano giants, Phineas Newborn and Oscar Dennard. He also shares anecdotes about his mentors: Papa Jo Jones, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, and Ray Brown. Moreover, Jamil describes his decade long tenure with Ahmad Jamal, which included a life threatening imprisonment in South America. Finally, we learn about the perils of heroin addiction, his plight as an outspoken, Muslim jazz artist fighting for greater union representation, media access, healthcare, and self-ownership.”

Muneer Nasser is the author ofUpright Bass: The Musical Life & Legacy of Jamil Nasser. As Jamil's son, he experienced some of the history documented in the book. Moreover, he read over one hundred books, magazines, and conducted interviews with jazz masters whose answers piqued his interest in jazz history. “My father shared many compelling stories about his career.” Recently, Muneer put down the pen and picked up his trumpet to record A Soldier's Story, a companion CD to the book. Muneer developed a lifelong commitment to the study of jazz from his early exposure to Jazz through his father.

“Jamil was my favorite bassist,” Randy Weston

“I certainly made a point of buying any record on which he played bass,” Ron Carter

Photographs, notes, discography, list of compositions, index.

Lew Shaw,Jazz Beat: Notes on Classic Jazz(AZtold Publishing Company), cartoons by Bill Keane. “Even in a time of constant change, Classic Jazz is alive and well and continues to be relevant in today’s musical environment. ‘Classic’ is defined as ‘serving as a standard; an enduring example; always revered and never obsolete; a treasured art form that secures its future by honoring its past.’ In Jazz Beat, Notes on Classic Jazz, veteran jazz journalist Lew Shaw takes the reader along as he travels his jazz beat and presents a group of contemporary musicians who have interesting and reflective stories to tell that can only broaden a jazz fan’s appreciation of what it's like to play music for a living as well as gain a better understanding for what is happening on the band stand. The 47 profiles in Jazz Beatare a representative cross-section of today’s music makers: Old pros who have enjoyed long and illustrious careers like Ed Polcer (pictured above), Bucky Pizzarelli, Jim Cullum, and Pat Yankee, one of the last ‘Red-hot Mamas’; The new generation of super-talented musicians who are keeping Classic Jazz alive: Bria Skonberg, Stephanie Trick, and the Anderson twins, Pete and Will; From foreign lands, proving that jazz is world music: Anat Cohen, Niki Parrott, and Rossano Sportiello; Multi-instrumentalists Clint Baker and Andy Schumn, who qualify as versatile autodidacts; Perpetuating the roots of jazz from early New Orleans—New Black Eagle Jazz Band, and the hot jazz of the 1920s—Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks;- The singing ‘canaries—Banu Gibson and Molly Ryan; and the swinging drummers—Danny Coots, Ed Metz, and Hal Smith; And 28 more interviews of what has been described as ‘more like understanding, compassionate conversations’ that offer close-up and personal looks at what makes these jazz musicians tick. Plus  a bevy of jazz-oriented Family Circus cartoons by longtime jazz fan and friend, Bil Keane.” 

“This collection is more like understanding, compassionate ‘conversations’ that present close-up and personal looks at what makes us tick as musicians.” Ed Polcer, trumpeter and bandleader.

“5.0 out of 5 stars. Jazz bios you won't find anywhere else!

Lew Shaw is a masterful interviewer who manages to get the most interesting stories from his subjects. His book lets you really feel like you get to know the person he interviews and Lew always finds out interesting facts about the people--not just who they've played with or where they've performed, but how they got into jazz and why they chose what they do! The articles are interesting and never just a bunch of boring statistics. If you listen to jazz and love, as I do, to learn about the people who play the music we love, you NEED this book!” Jan, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, cartoons.

Chris Hillman and Richard Rains, The Art and Craft of Discography (Chris Hillman Books/chbooks.info). “Our new publication, The Art and Craft of Discographyincludes a detailed review of the history of discography followed by a new look at all our books on the subject with corrections, new relevant information, and further assessments of personnels.” 

As I have observed in reviews of Chris Hillman’s earlier publications, he and his collaborators are musical archaeologists, adept at unearthing all available information about the subjects of their investigations. This most recent of their numerous publications (see: chbooks.info) is highly recommended for both its text and the accompanying CD, which will provide rewarding repeated listenings. Mr. Hillman and his colleagues in research have provided an invaluable service by their delving onto the roots of jazz and blues. It would be well for those truly interested in the history of these two classic idioms—including musicians of any stylistic persuasion—to look into the works complied by this team (again, check out chbooks.info).  As the late great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean said to me in the 1990s, “I tell my students, ‘It’s an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn its language all the way through. How are you going to know what’s new to play, if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?’”

Debbie Burke’sTasty Jazz Jams for Our Times(Kindle Direct Publishing) “shines a warm and loving spotlight on jazz artists around the globe. Heavily tipped towards the indie musician (on guitar, vocals, keys, harp, percussion, etc., and from diverse corners like Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Israel, Hong Kong, and Russia), the book also includes household-name jazz personalities like Houston Person, Christian McBride, Andy Snitzer, Jane Ira Bloom, Bobby Sanabria, and many more. With an intro by the esteemed smooth jazz artist and fellow author Maurice Johnson plus cool pull-quotes from other fascinating jazzers, this book is an exciting musical trip around the world.”

Debbie Burke has written hundreds of columns and articles, was the editor of an award-winning business journal and the editor of a lifestyle magazine. She played alto saxophone in concert bands and jazz bands. Brooklyn-born, she has lived in the northeast US for what seems like forever, but now inhabits the Deep South. Her jazz blog at www.debbieburkeauthor.com offers hundreds of insightful Q&As with the hottest bands, the most exciting emerging musicians, plus music promoters, producers, authors, painters, songwriters, illustrators, and more.

“Enjoyed reading through it!” Giovanni Russonello, New York Timesmusic critic

“A terrific book. Very inspiring!” Jamie O'Donnell (saxophone), Jamie O'Donnell Quartet

“Impressive!” Loretta Chin, journalist

Photographs.

John McCuskerrecounts the story of this legendary player and bandleader in his Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz(University Press of Mississippi), now reissued in paperback. Driving across country from Seattle to Yale grad school in July 1960 (in a tiny Fiat 600!), I spent a week or so in San Francisco visiting friends and while there checked out several bands, among which was Kid Ory’s, then in residence at On The Levee. My several-minute chat between sets with this trailblazer of ur-jazz is a treasured memory and an early-jazz “interview” that I would never match, across the subsequent five decades of conversations with musicians, in terms of the seniority of interviewee. McCusker provides a well-researched story of a pioneering New Orleans musician bearing witness to the dawn of jazz. It is a fascinating tale. Ory’s role, a major one, in the 1940s New Orleans Revival is recounted as well. 

“At last! John McCusker's Creole Tromboneprovides a compelling account of the early life and career of Ed Ory, one of the most fascinating protagonists in the development of New Orleans jazz. Through meticulous research and an innate sensitivity to Louisiana's distinctive couture de métissage, McCusker has brought hitherto undiscovered aspects of Ory's life to light, while deepening our understanding of his contributions to the idiom.” Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University and author of New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History.

Photos, notes, Selected discography, index.

Pelle Berglund,Buddy Rich: One of a Kind: The Making of the World's Greatest Drummer(Hudson Music) “In this meticulously researched biography, author Pelle Berglund presents the first comprehensive book on the life of Buddy Rich, still considered by many to be the greatest drummer ever to pick up sticks. Using interviews with many of Buddy's band members (some conducted by the author himself) along with extensive sourcing of quotes from practically every interview ever given by Buddy himself, a complete chronology of Buddy's life is presented along with insights into what drove him and what he thought about the various situations and people he encountered through his life. One of a Kindrecounts each chapter of a life lived in the spotlight: childhood star Traps, the Drum Wonder; young jazz drummer with Joe Marsala and Bunny Berigan; star sideman with Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Tommy Dorsey; and leading various incarnations of the Buddy Rich Big Band. A twentieth century icon, Buddy's relationships with Shaw, Dorsey, Count Basie, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Gene Krupa, Norman Granz, Lana Turner, and his family, including wife Marie and daughter Cathy, are insightfully investigated. Never-before-seen photos of Buddy culled from the private collection of collector Charley Braun add a new perspective on Buddy's life including a 16-page featured photo section. Beyond providing a complete timeline of Buddy Rich's life, One of a Kind provides a glimpse into the mind of a musical titan who demanded greatness from himself and those around him, and became of the most celebrated and controversial stars in music. Also includes an incredible introduction by drummer Max Weinberg and a link to additional online photos, video and audio.”

“The definitive book on the life and music of Buddy Rich.”

Walter Hern, Amazon commentor.

Photos, notes, bibliography, filmography.

Dave Rivello,Bob Brookmeyer in Conversation with Dave Rivello (ArtistShare). Dave Rivello, Professor at the Eastman School of Music and a former student of Bob Brookmeyer, shares Brookmeyer's compositional legacy with his new textbook and app, which contains sketches/scores, video, audio, and text to create a 360 degree view of the music.

“Brilliance and wisdom abound in this treasure of a book that is pure Brookmeyer gold. . . . Thanks to Dave, Bob’s tremendous insights are not lost treasures, but ones that will continue to enrich us all.” Maria Schneider, award-winning composer, arranger, and bandleader. 

Musical scores, Suggested Listening and Reading, List of Works.

Paul Lopes’Art Rebels: Race, Class, and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese(Princeton University Press) “is the essential account of a new breed of artists who left an indelible mark on American culture in the second half of the twentieth century. It is an unforgettable portrait of two iconic artists who exemplified the complex interplay of the quest for artistic autonomy and the expression of social identity during the Heroic Age of American Art. Lopes tells the story of how a pair of talented and outspoken art rebels defied prevailing conventions to elevate American jazz and film to unimagined critical heights. During the Heroic Age of American Art―where creative independence and the unrelenting pressures of success were constantly at odds―Davis and Scorsese became influential figures with such modern classics as Kind of Blueand Raging Bull. Their careers also reflected the conflicting ideals of, and contentious debates concerning, avant-garde and independent art during this period. In examining their art and public stories, Lopes also shows how their rebellions as artists were intimately linked to their racial and ethnic identities and how both artists adopted hyper-masculine ideologies that exposed the problematic intersection of gender with their racial and ethnic identities as iconic art rebels.”

Paul Lopes is associate professor of sociology at Colgate University. He is the author of Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book andThe Rise of a Jazz Art World.

“With brilliant analyses of the race and gender politics in the personae and works of iconic creative rebels Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese, Art Rebels provides necessary tools for examining the past, present, and future of American popular film and music.” Maxine Leeds Craig, author of Sorry I Don't Dance: Why Men Refuse to Move

Notes, index.

Max Bolleman,Sounds: The History of Studio 44(Mijnbestseller.nl) 

“The most famous musicians come to the recording studio of Max Bolleman, e.g., Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Burrell, Bob Brookmeyer, Freddie Hubbard, and Wtnton Marsalis.”

“Back in 1982, jazz drummer Max Bolleman embarked on a new career, determined to open his own recording studio in his native Holland. The rest, as they say, is history—in this case, history sprinkled with an abundance of interesting anecdotes and experiences along the way. These moments form the basis for Bolleman's new book, which is brimming with fascinating stories delivered in a casual manner that reveals the character of the storyteller and his subjects. . . . . .  Bolleman details his work for Criss Cross at several New York studios, along with the particulars of his own studios in Holland. He does not go into great technical detail, but does reveal some of the many lessons he learned ‘on the job.’ With wit and candor, Max adds considerably to the legacy of a field where so much of what happens remains lost behind closed doors. His story is a vital one that any jazz fan will find a delightful and engaging read.” Andrew Hovan, All About Jazz.

Photographs, discography, index.

Kevin D. Greene’sThe Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy (University of North Carolina Press) “assesses major themes and events in African American history, including the Great Migration, urbanization, and black expatriate encounters with European culture consumers. Drawing on a range of historical source materials as well as oral histories and personal archives held by Broonzy's son, Greene perceptively interrogates how notions of race, gender, and audience reception continue to shape concepts of folk culture and musical authenticity. Over the course of his long career, legendary bluesman William “Big Bill” Broonzy (1893–1958) helped shape the trajectory of the genre, from its roots in the rural Mississippi River Delta, through its rise as a popular genre in the North, to its eventual international acclaim. Along the way, Broonzy adopted an evolving personal and professional identity, tailoring his self-presentation to the demands of the place and time. His remarkable professional fluidity mirrored the range of expectations from his audiences, whose ideas about race, national belonging, identity, and the blues were refracted through Broonzy as if through a prism. Kevin D. Greene argues that Broonzy's popular success testifies to his ability to navigate the cultural expectations of his different audiences. However, this constant reinvention came at a personal and professional cost. Using Broonzy's multifaceted career, Greene situates blues performance at the center of understanding African American self-presentation and racial identity in the first half of the twentieth century.

“A wonderfully engaging and intellectually creative rendering of African American life, the city, and even U.S. foreign affairs through the life and music of Big Bill Broonzy. Davarian L. Baldwin, author of Chicago's New Negroes.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story(Chicago Visions and Revisions/ University of Chicago Press), by Bruce Iglauer andPatrick A. Roberts, “is Iglauer’s memoir of a life immersed in the blues—and the business of the blues. No one person was present at the creation of more great contemporary blues music than Iglauer: he produced albums by Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Professor Longhair, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Son Seals, Roy Buchanan, Shemekia Copeland, and many other major figures. In this book, Iglauer takes us behind the scenes, offering unforgettable stories of those charismatic musicians and classic sessions, delivering an intimate and unvarnished look at what it’s like to work with the greats of the blues. It’s a vivid portrait of some of the extraordinary musicians and larger-than-life personalities who brought America’s music to life in the clubs of Chicago’s South and West Sides. Bitten by the Blues is also an expansive history of half a century of blues in Chicago and around the world, tracing the blues recording business through massive transitions, as a genre of music originally created by and for black southerners adapted to an influx of white fans and musicians and found a worldwide audience. Most of the smoky bars and packed clubs that fostered the Chicago blues scene have long since disappeared. But their soul lives on, and so does their sound. As real and audacious as the music that shaped it, Bitten by the Blues is a raucous journey through the world of Genuine Houserockin’ Music.”

“This book is long overdue. Alligator Records has been a cornerstone of the blues world for over four decades. The stories about the artists and sessions that have paved the way for so many others are a pleasure to read. As an Alligator artist I am truly grateful for what Bruce and Alligator Records have done for me and this genre.” Shemekia Copeland

Photographs, discography, index.

Alan Paul andAndy Aledort, Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan(St. Martin's Press) is “The first definitive biography of guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, with an epilogue by Jimmie Vaughan, and foreword and afterword by Double Trouble’s Chris Layton andTommy Shannon. Just a few years after he almost died from a severe addiction to cocaine and alcohol, a clean and sober Stevie Ray Vaughan was riding high. His last album was his most critically lauded and commercially successful. He had fulfilled a lifelong dream by collaborating with his first and greatest musical hero, his brother Jimmie. His tumultuous marriage was over and he was in a new and healthy romantic relationship. Vaughan seemed poised for a new, limitless chapter of his life and career. Instead, it all came to a shocking and sudden end on August 27, 1990, when he was killed in a helicopter crash following a dynamic performance with Eric Clapton. Just 35 years old, he left behind a powerful musical legacy and an endless stream of What Ifs. In the ensuing 29 years, Vaughan’s legend and acclaim have only grown and he is now an undisputed international musical icon. Despite the cinematic scope of Vaughan’s life and death, there has never been a truly proper accounting of his story. Until now. Texas Floodprovides the unadulterated truth about Stevie Ray Vaughan from those who knew him best: his brother Jimmie, his Double Trouble bandmates Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans, and many other close friends, family members, girlfriends, fellow musicians, managers and crew members.”

Alan Paul is the author of the New York Times bestsellerOne Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band, the definitive book on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band. His first book, Big in China, is about his experiences raising an American family, forming a band and becoming an unlikely rock star in Beijing. He is a regular guest on radio shows and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Guitar World, and other publications. He lives in New Jersey.

Andy Aledort has been an essential contributor to the international music scene for 35 years, working as a journalist, instructor and performer. He has conducted hundreds of interviews and lessons with the world’s greatest guitarists for Guitar Worldand other publications, and toured and recorded with original Jimi Hendrix bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble. He was a member of Dickey Betts and Great Southern for 12 years. He has also sold over one million instructional DVDs and teaches guitar privately and via online sites such as Truefire. He lives on Long Island.

“Soul Brother Stevie Ray Vaughan was a force of nature! His fearless, furious and elegant approach to the guitar was breathtaking. Texas Floodhelps you understand both the player and the person. We are grateful for the gifts he left for us all. We thank God for the Vaughan family; Jimmie and Stevie are both astonishing.” Carlos Santana

“Over 35 years ago when he was still playing small clubs, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan at Antone’s in Austin. Standing so close to the stage, absolutely mesmerized, I knew I was watching a legend in the making. He was dripping with soul and already miles ahead of everyone else. A true, vital influence on my music. This book is important and long overdue.” Lucinda Williams

Photographs, Cast of Characters, index.

David Dann,Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield's Life in the Blues (University of Texas Press). “Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield (1943–1981) remains beloved by fans nearly forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. In vivid chapters drawn from meticulous research, including more than seventy interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives, and band members, music historian David Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his comfortable upbringing in a Jewish family on Chicago’s North Shore to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume.”

David Dann is a commercial artist, music historian, writer, and amateur musician who worked for many years in the news industry, including serving as copublisher of an award-winning Catskills weekly. Most recently, he was editor of Artenol, a radical art journal described by the New York Times as “a cross betweenThe New Republic andMad Magazine.” He has produced radio and video documentaries of Michael Bloomfield and served as a consultant to Sony/Legacy on their recent Bloomfield boxed set.

“I love this book. It’s the best thing I’ve read about Mike Bloomfield and about the whole era.” Charlie Musselwhite, Grammy Award-winning blues harmonica player and bandleader.

“David Dann has restored bluesman Michael Bloomfield’s premier place in the pantheon as the very first American rock guitar god. The author brings the excitement of Michael’s searing licks to the written word and paints a poignant portrait of a man who was unequipped for and uninterested in playing the games that the entertainment-industrial complex demands of artists. This soulful bio reminds us of one man’s dedication to excellence at the expense of fame and fortune." Michael Simmons, contributor to MOJOand author of liner notes to Michael Bloomfield: From His Head To His Heart To His Hands.

Photos, index.

Billy Edd Wheeler’sHotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet's Journey From Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash & More(BMG Books) “is populated by a fascinating cast of characters which he encountered on his journey. Songwriting changed his life, bringing him a long lasting career that saw the birth of classic tunes such as “The Reverend Mr. Black,” “High Flyin' Bird,” “The Coming of the Roads,” “It's Midnight,” “Coal Tattoo,” and others. Peppered with the folksy wisdom of his beloved Appalachia, Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout is like pulling a chair up next to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer by a warm fire. . . .  Award winning songwriter, musician, author, playwright, poet, visual artist, and Appalachian Renaissance man Billy Edd Wheeler is best known for penning “Jackson,” which was popularized by Johnny Cash and June Carter with their Grammy-winning recording from 1967. In addition to his own albums and singles as a highly regarded singer/songwriter (including the Top 5 hit, “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back”), Billy Edd has penned numerous songs for artists such as Elvis Presley, Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, Neil Young, and Kenny Rogers.

“Billy Edd Wheeler is a creative spirit the sort of which this world has rarely seen. He lives it and breathes it. Surrounds himself with it.” Janis Ian

Photographs, discography.

Sheree Homer,Under the Influence of Classic Country: Profiles of 36 Performers of the 1940s to Today.

Foreword by Eddie Clendening(McFarland). “The music today known as ‘classic country’ originated in the South in the 1920s. Influenced by blues and folk music, instrumentation was typically guitar, fiddle, bass, steel guitar, and later drums, with lyrics and arrangements rooted in tradition. This book covers some of the genre’s legendary artists, from its heyday in the 1940s to its decline in the early 1970s. Revivalists keeping the traditions alive in the 21st century are also explored. Thirty-six performers are profiled, including Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Faron Young, Mickey Gilley, Freddie Hart, Jerry Reed, Charley Pride, David Frizzell, The Cactus Blossoms, The Secret Sisters, and Pokey LaFarge. Drawing on original interviews with artists and their associates, biographical profiles chronicle their lives on the road and in the studio, as well as the stories behind popular songs.”

“One of the best Country Music books of all time.” Book Authority

Photographs, discography, bibliography, index.

Dorothy Carvello,Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman's Story of Surviving the Music Industry(Chicago Review Press). “Dorothy Carvello knows all about the music biz. She was the first female A&R executive at Atlantic Records, and one of the few in the room at RCA and Columbia. But before that, she was secretary to Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic’s infamous president, who signed acts like Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin, negotiated distribution deals with Mick Jagger, and added Neil Young to Crosby, Stills & Nash. The stories she tells about the kingmakers of the music industry are outrageous, but it is her sinuous friendship with Ahmet that frames her narrative. He was notoriously abusive, sexually harassing Dorothy on a daily basis. Still, when he neared his end, sad and alone, Dorothy had no hatred toward him—only a strange kind of loyalty. Carvello reveals here how she flipped the script and showed Ertegun and every other man who tried to control her that a woman can be just as willing to do what it takes to get a hit. Featuring never-before-heard stories about artists like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Steven Tyler, Bon Jovi, INXS, Marc Anthony, Phil Collins, and many more, this book is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what it's really like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry. 

“Carvello’s memoir is wild, sexy, bold, honest, and brave. If you don’t know about the music business it is illuminating, if you do, it is sure to be revelatory. It is an amazing testament to her experience as a woman in the complicated, fast-moving, abusive, and compelling world of business and rock ’n’ roll. An important read in today’s climate in the workplace.” Maury Sterling, actor, Homeland

“Dorothy’s book lays out the music industry from a woman’s eyes. I applaud her courage and humor. It is a must-read for any woman thinking of entering the business.” Don Lenner, former chairman, Sony Music

“The music industry is long overdue for its #MeToo explosion, and this memoir seems ready to light the fuse  . . . . No matter how sleazy you might have heard the music industry is, this memoir suggests that it was worse.” Kirkus Reviews

Photographs.

John McEuen,The Life I've Picked(Chicago Review Press). “John McEuen is one of the founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, NGDB. Now 50-years strong, the band is best known for its evergreen bestselling album Will the Circle Be Unbroken and for its gorgeous version of the song “Mr. Bojangles.” McEuen is one of the seminal figures who conceived and originated the fusion of folk, rock and country, a unique sound still hugely popular today. In addition to performing on tour with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and on dozens of bestselling NGDB albums (many of which went platinum and gold), McEuen also has a successful solo performing and recording career. And as a music producer, he won the Grammy Award in 2010 for producing The Crow, a music album by Steve Martin, John’s lifelong friend. McEuen writes candidly and movingly about the ups and downs in his life. Among the highs was NGDB’s tour of  the Soviet Union in 1977, they were the first American group to perform there. Among the downs was the breakup of his family in the 1980s. McEuen is a born storyteller, and his tales of working with everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Willie Nelson to Johnny Cash to the Allman Brothers to Bob Dylan to Dolly Parton to, of course, Steve Martin will thrill every fan of folk, rock, and country music alike. 

“5.0 out of 5 stars fun, unlikely experiences along the way.

As a longtime NGDB and John McEuen fan I was eager to read this book. But his life has crossed paths with such interesting people, including many, many very well-known artists in the music industry, and he has had such crazy, fun, unlikely experiences along the way, that I think just about anyone, fan or not, would have a hard time putting it down. Aside from being a great musical talent with a storied career, John is a wonderful story-teller, and his story was one worth telling. I love this book.” SneffelsClimber, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, index.

Susan Whitall’sJoni on Joni: Interviews and Encounters with Joni Mitchell (Musicians in Their Own Words) (Chicago Review Press) “is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of some of Mitchell’s most illuminating interviews, spanning the years 1966 to 2014. It includes revealing pieces from her early years in Canada and Detroit along with influential articles such as Cameron Crowe’s never-before-anthologized Rolling Stone piece. Interspersed throughout the book are key quotes from dozens of additional Q&As. Together, this material paints a revealing picture of the artist— bragging and scornful, philosophical and deep, but also a beguiling flirt. Few artists are as intriguing as Joni Mitchell. She was a solidly middle-class, buttoned-up bohemian, an anti-feminist who loved men but scorned free love, a female warrior taking on the male music establishment. She was both the party girl with torn stockings and the sensitive poet. She often said she would be criticized for staying the same or changing, so why not take the less boring option? Her earthy, poetic lyrics (“the geese in chevron flight” in “Urge for Going”), the phrases that are now part of the culture (“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”), and the unusual melodic intervals traced by that lissome voice earned her the status of a pop legend. Fearless experimentation ensured that she will also be seen as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century.”

Susan Whitall was a writer/editor at Creem magazine in Detroit in its 1970s heyday and a music and feature writer at the Detroit News. Her previous books are Women of Motown and Fever: Little Willie John’s Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul.

“5.0 out of 5 stars. As a native Detroiter who became a percussionist who got my ‘Eat Some Vegetables’ song mentioned on The Tonight Show, I've always been aware of Joni Mitchell's songs and respect what she's done for music, however, as someone who came to music later in life, I really appreciated the perspectives on the industry and its realities within her expert context. Also, I enjoyed the boxed-in comments that dovetailed each chapter/interview. Further, since I've always been on the outside of the Joni Mitchell fishbowl, I enjoyed the editor’s set-up, author notes, and detail.” Brian Shell, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, index.

Leonard CohenThe Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “is the final work from Leonard Cohen, the revered poet and musician whose fans span generations and whose work is celebrated throughout the world. Featuring poems, excerpts from his private notebooks, lyrics, and hand-drawn self-portraits, The Flameoffers an unprecedentedly intimate look inside the life and mind of a singular artist. A reckoning with a life lived deeply and passionately, with wit and panache, The Flame is a valedictory work.

“This volume contains my father’s final efforts as a poet,” writes Cohen’s son, Adam Cohen, in his foreword. “It was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing purpose at the end.” Leonard Cohen died in late 2016. But “each page of paper that he blackened,” in the words of his son, “was lasting evidence of a burning soul.”

“If you felt Leonard Cohen’s death in 2016 as a personal assault, this book is a posthumous balm . . . All of Cohen’s work has a raw, straight-to-the-heart intensity―reach for this the next time you need inspiration for a wedding toast that will leave them gutted, or any other moment you need a little sustenance for the soul.” Chloe Schama, Vogue

“Cohen’s final volume shows his poetic soul. If you know the man only because of ‘Hallelujah’ or ‘Suzanne,’ pick up The Flameand warm yourself within its pages.” Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post

Drawings, index.

Ethan Mordden’sOn Streisand: An Opinionated Guide(Oxford University Press) “begins with a broad year-by-year outline of the landmark achievements and a few of her more whimsical escapades, as when Rex Reed apologizes for an oafish interview piece and she responds with "I had more respect for him when he hated me." This is followed by a long essay on how Streisand's idiosyncratic self-realization marks her as a unique national treasure, an artist without limits. Then comes the major part of the book, a work-by-work analysis. This section is broken down into separate chapters, each organized chronologically: the stage shows, then the television shows and concerts, then the movies, and last (because longest) the recordings. Throughout, Mordden follows Streisand's independence, which he sees as her central quality. Throughout all of the chapters on Streisand's shows, concerts, films, and recordings, Mordden illustrates how she was exercising individualistic control of her career from her very first audition, and how the rest of her professional life unfolded from that point. A book written by an opinionated expert whose prose is consistently full of flair and wit, On Streisand: An Opinionated Guide will appeal to general readers in all aspects of American life that Streisand has touched, from film to television to popular music to stardom.”

Ethan Mordden is a recognized expert on American musical theatre and the author of When Broadway Went to Hollywood, Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre, Beautiful Mornin', Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s,andOn Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide, all published by Oxford University Press. His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, andThe New Yorker. His numerous books include friendly introductions to opera and film, as well as five collections of short stories chronicling gay life in New York City. He lives in Manhattan.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, chronology, index.                            

Peter Doggett’sCSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young(Atria Books) is “The first ever biography focused on the formative and highly influential early years of ‘rock’s first supergroup’ (Rolling Stone) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—when they were the most successful, influential, and politically potent band in America—in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock and the formation of the band itself. 1969 to 1974 were true golden years of rock n’ roll, bookmarking an era of arguably unparalleled musical power and innovation. But even more than any of their eminent peers, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young channeled and broadcast all the radical anger, romantic idealism, and generational angst of their time. Each of the members had already made their marks in huge bands (The Hollies, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds), but together, their harmonies were transcendent. The vast emotional range of their music, from delicate acoustic confessionals to raucous counter-culture anthems, was mirrored in the turbulence of their personal lives. Their trademark may have been vocal harmony, but few—if any—of their contemporaries could match the recklessness of their hedonistic and often combative lifestyles, when the four tenacious, volatile, and prodigal songwriters pursued chemical and sexual pleasure to life-threatening extremes. Including full color photographs, CSNY chronicles these four iconic musicians and the movement they came to represent, concentrating on their prime as a collective unit and a cultural force: the years between 1969, when Woodstock telegraphed their arrival to the world, and 1974, when their arch-enemy Richard Nixon was driven from office, and the band (to quote Graham Nash himself) ‘lost it on the highway.’ Even fifty years later, there are plenty of stories left to be told about Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—and music historian Peter Doggett is here to bring them to light in the meticulously researched CSNY, a quintessential and illuminative account of rock’s first supergroup in their golden hour for die-hard fans, nostalgic flower-children, and music history aficionados alike.”

Peter Doggett has been writing about rock music and interviewing rock stars for more than thirty years. He is the author of You Never Give Me Your Money, the definitive story of the Beatles’ break-up and its aftermath, chosen as one of the Best 10 Books of the year by the LA Times. His other books include his panoramic history of popular music, Electric Shock; The Man Who Sold the World; There’s a Riot Going On; andAre You Ready for the Country.”

“A must for CSNY fans and anyone who remembers the era when it ruled the pop charts." Starred KirkusReview

“Plenty of nuggets for the diehard fan...a more than welcome addition to the band’s bookshelf.” Houston Press

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

David Browne’sCrosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup(Da Capo Press) “presents the ultimate deep dive into rock and roll's most musical and turbulent brotherhood on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Featuring exclusive interviews with David Crosby and Graham Nash along with band members, colleagues, fellow superstars, former managers, employees, and lovers-and with access to unreleased music and documents--Browne takes readers backstage and onstage, into the musicians' homes, recording studios, and psyches, to chronicle the creative and psychological ties that have bound these men together--and sometimes torn them apart. This is the sweeping story of rock's longest-running, most dysfunctional, yet pre-eminent musical family, delivered with the epic feel their story rightly deserves.”

"Few rock and roll sagas are as genuinely epic as this one, in which, over nearly five decades, four enormous talents/egos come together, find musical perfection, and fall apart in seemingly unlimited ways. With unparalleled skill and wry insight, David Browne chases down the details of CSNY's unique collaboration, uncovering larger truths about creativity and collaboration, debauchery and recovery, and a generation's harmonizing heart.” Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

John Doe andTom DeSavia, More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk(Da Capo Press) “explores the years 1982 to 1987, covering the dizzying pinnacle of L.A.'s punk rock movement as its stars took to the national -- and often international -- stage. Detailing the eventual splintering of punk into various sub-genres, the second volume of John Doe and Tom DeSavia's west coast punk history portrays the rich cultural diversity of the movement and its characters, the legacy of the scene, how it affected other art forms, and ultimately influenced mainstream pop culture. The book also pays tribute to many of the fallen soldiers of punk rock, the pioneers who left the world much too early but whose influence hasn't faded. As with Under the Big Black Sun, the book features stories of triumph, failure, stardom, addiction, recovery, and loss as told by the people who were influential in the scene, with a cohesive narrative from authors Doe and DeSavia. Along with many returning voices, More Fun in the New World weaves in the perspectives of musicians Henry Rollins, Fishbone, Billy Zoom, Mike Ness, Jane Weidlin, Keith Morris, Dave Alvin, Louis Pérez, Charlotte Caffey, Peter Case, Chip Kinman, Maria McKee, and Jack Grisham, among others. And renowned artist/illustrator Shepard Fairey, filmmaker Allison Anders, actor Tim Robbins, and pro-skater Tony Hawk each contribute chapters on punk's indelible influence on the artistic spirit. In addition to stories of success, the book also offers a cautionary tale of an art movement that directly inspired commercially diverse acts such as Green Day, Rancid, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilco, and Neko Case. Readers will find themselves rooting for the purists of punk juxtaposed with the MTV-dominating rock superstars of the time who flaunted a "born to do this, it couldn't be easier" attitude that continued to fuel the flames of new music. More Fun in the New World follows the progression of the first decade of L.A. punk, its conclusion, and its cultural rebirth.”

Photographs, index.

Elton John,Me: Elton John(Henry Holt and Co.). “In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend. Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with Aida, The Lion King, andBilly Elliot the Musical.All the while Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend.

“A uniquely revealing pop star autobiography. . . . Meis essential reading for anyone who wants to know the difficult road that [Elton has] walked.” Rolling Stone

Photographs, index.

Mark Slobin’sMotor City Music: A Detroiter Looks Back(Oxford University Press) “is the first-ever historical study across all musical genres in any American metropolis. Detroit in the 1940s-60s was not just "the capital of the twentieth century" for industry and the war effort, but also for the quantity and extremely high quality of its musicians, from jazz to classical to ethnic. The author, a Detroiter from 1943, begins with a reflection of his early life with his family and others, then weaves through the music traffic of all the sectors of a dynamic and volatile city. Looking first at the crucial role of the public schools in fostering talent, Motor City Music surveys the neighborhoods of older European immigrants and of the later huge waves of black and white southerners who migrated to Detroit to serve the auto and defense industries. Jazz stars, polka band leaders, Jewish violinists, and figures like Lily Tomlin emerge in the spotlight. Shaping institutions, from the Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers through radio stations and Motown, all deployed music to bring together a city rent by relentless segregation, policing, and spasms of violence. The voices of Detroit's poets, writers, and artists round out the chorus.”

“Motor City Musicis a loving portrait of one person's experience with the history of musicmaking in the D. Mark Slobin does not limit himself to one or two styles or genres, thus giving the reader valuable insight into the variety of sounds coming into and out of Detroit.” Leonard Slatkin, Music Director Laureate, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

“What at first reads like a loose memoir of growing up Jewish in Detroit ends up being a very detailed and widely comprehensive portrait of what makes Motor City's music so special and multifarious. There is no easily-drawn metaphor to stand for this sprawling, often-terrifying, still-volatile metropolis, no cliche to invoke Detroit in a few words as one might find for Chicago or New York. Mark Slobin's youthful life was exposed to an enormous number of ethnic musics derived from the many peoples throughout the world and America who jostle each other in Detroit, this has collided into an eclectic matrix which has influenced and alimented our whole nation's music.” William Bolcom, composer

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Marianne Preger-Simon’sDancing with Merce Cunningham(University Press of Florida) “offers a rare account of exactly how Cunningham taught and interacted with his students. She describes the puzzled reactions of audiences to the novel non-narrative choreography of the company’s debut performances. She touches on Cunningham’s quicksilver temperament―lamenting his early frustrations with obscurity and the discomfort she suspects he endured in concealing his homosexuality and partnership with composer John Cage―yet she celebrates above all his dependable charm, kindness, and engagement. She also portrays the comradery among the company’s dancers, designers, and musicians, many of whom―including Cage, David Tudor, and Carolyn Brown―would become integral to the avant-garde arts movement, as she tells tales of their adventures touring in a VW Microbus across the United States. Finally, reflecting on her connection with Cunningham throughout the latter part of his career, Preger-Simon recalls warm moments that nurtured their enduring bond after she left the dance company and, later, New York. Interspersed with her letters to friends and family, journal entries, and correspondence from Cunningham himself, Preger-Simon’s memoir is an intimate look at one of the most influential companies in modern American dance and the brilliance of its visionary leader.”

“A cross between personal memoir and cultural history―an insider’s look at a pivotal moment in American dance history.” Elizabeth Zimmer, dance critic, Village Voice

“Charming and moving. A delightful memoir of a woman’s 60-year relationship with perhaps the most important and innovative figure in dance in the second half of the twentieth century and a privileged introduction to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”Jay Caplan, Amherst College

Photographs, notes, index.

Bettijane Sills, with Elizabeth McPherson,Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir(University Press of Florida). “In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years. Sills recounts her years as a child actor in television and on Broadway, a career choice largely driven by her mother, and describes her transition into pursuing her true passion: dance. She was a student in Balanchine’s School of American Ballet throughout her childhood and teen years, until her dream was achieved. She was invited to join New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet and worked her way up to the level of soloist. Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers peek behind the curtains to see a world that most people have never experienced firsthand. She tells stories of taking classes with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, working with a number of the company’s most famous dancers, and participating in the company’s first Soviet Union tour during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. She walks us through her years in New York City Ballet first as a member of the corps de ballet, then a soloist dancing some principal roles, finally as one of the “older” dancers teaching her roles to newcomers while being encouraged to retire. She reveals the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine’s complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine’s insistence on thinness in his dancers and her own struggles with dieting. Her fluctuations in weight influenced her roles and Balanchine’s support for her―a cycle that contributed to the end of her dancing career. Now a professor of dance who has educated hundreds of students on Balanchine’s style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by fear of failure and fear of success―by the bright lights of theater and the man who shaped American ballet.” 

“A lively and valuable read for dance fans, particularly Balanchine enthusiasts. It provides not only a trajectory of Bettijane Sills’s career―from child actor to hardworking ballerina to dedicated teacher ―but also a candid view of the talented, complicated Mr. B.” Yaël Tamar Lewin, author of Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins

“A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the fascinating and challenging world of New York City Ballet under Balanchine. It is also a compelling portrait of a dancer’s career and a testament to the many places a love of dance can take you.” Suzannah Friscia, former assistant editor, Dance Magazine and Pointe

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Ruth Feldstein’sHow It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement(Oxford University Press) “examines celebrated black women performers, illuminating the risks they took, their roles at home and abroad, and the ways that they raised the issue of gender amid their demands for black liberation. Feldstein focuses on six women who made names for themselves in the music, film, and television industries: Simone, Lena Horne, Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, and Cicely Tyson. These women did not simply mirror black activism, their performances helped constitute the era's political history. Makeba connected America's struggle for civil rights to the fight against apartheid in South Africa, while Simone sparked high-profile controversy with her incendiary lyrics. Yet Feldstein finds nuance in their careers. In 1968, Hollywood cast the outspoken Lincoln as a maid to a white family in For Love of Ivy, adding a layer of complication to the film. That same year, Diahann Carroll took on the starring role in the television series Julia. Was Julia a landmark for casting a black woman or for treating her race as unimportant? The answer is not clear-cut. Yet audiences gave broader meaning to what sometimes seemed to be apolitical performances.”

“By placing black female musicians and actors at the center of Civil Rights history, Ruth Feldstein has written a tremendously important study that challenges readers to consider the imaginative activism of artists who performed progressive representations of black womanhood. How It Feels to Be Free takes readers on a critical journey across the mid-twentieth century freedom struggle by way of women performers who rehearsed, remixed, and renegotiated civil rights and black power politics, as well as emergent feminisms...Feldstein places their lives and careers in conversation with one another and, in doing so, recuperates the crucial role that black women of music, film and television played in transforming our contemporary world.” Daphne Brooks, Princeton University

Photographs, notes, index.

Rethinking Reich, edited by Sumanth Gopinath andPwyll ap Siôn(Oxford University Press).

“Described by music critic Alex Ross as ‘the most original musical thinker of our time’ and having received innumerable accolades in a career spanning over fifty years, composer Steve Reich is considered by many to be America’s greatest contemporary composer. His music, however, remains largely under-researched. Rethinking Reichredresses this imbalance, providing a space for prominent and emerging scholars to reassess the composer's contribution to music in the twentieth century. Featuring fourteen tightly focused and multifarious essays on various aspects of Reich’s work--ranging from analytical, aesthetic, and archival studies to sociocultural, philosophical, and ethnomusicological reflections--this edited volume reveals new insights, including those enabled by access to the growing Steve Reich Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation archive, the premier institution for primary research on twentieth-century and contemporary classical music. This volume takes on the timely task of challenging the hegemony of Reich’s own articulate and convincing discourses on his music, as found in his Writings on Music(OUP, 2002), and breaks new ground in the broader field of minimalism studies.

Pwyll ap Siôn is Professor of Music at Bangor University, Wales. He studied music at Oxford University. Ap Siôn has published books and articles in the areas of minimalist and postminimalist music, quotation and intertextuality in music and minimalist music in film and media. He has contributed record reviews and articles for Gramophonemusic magazine since 2007.

Sumanth Gopinath is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He is the author of The Ringtone Dialectic: Economy and Cultural Form(2013), co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies, vols. 1 and 2(2014) with Jason Stanyek, and has published work on Steve Reich, minimalism, new media, Marxism, country music, and other topics. He is the leader of the independent Americana band, The Gated Community.

“This volume ‘rethinks Reich’ both by drawing substantially on unexplored archive materials, and by approaching Reich's varied output from original and unexpected cultural perspectives. It represents a major contribution both to our understanding of Steve Reich and to the broader fields of post-1960 experimental and postmodern music.” Robert Adlington, Professor of Contemporary Music, University of Huddersfield

“A book-length study of Steve Reich is long overdue, particularly one that critically and creatively engages his work -- as this book does, from the title onward -- beyond the bounds of the composer's own exegeses. The contributors' varied approaches constitute some the most exciting and insightful voices in contemporary music scholarship, commensurate with Reich’s own complicated intersections with diverse musics, methods, and media. And because of Reich's ubiquity within contemporary art music as well as his eclectic inroads into popular culture, this volume will likely find its way onto the shelves of musicians, scholars, and fans alike.” Jeremy Grimshaw, Associate Dean, BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, author of Draw a Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young

Photographs, musical scores, Cited Works, index

Alan Walker,Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times(Farrar, Straus and Giroux). “Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker’s monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Timesis the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker’s work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin. Fryderyk Chopin is an intimate look into a dramatic life, of particular focus are Chopin’s childhood and youth in Poland, which are brought into line with the latest scholarly findings, and Chopin’s romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years. Comprehensive and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, the biography wears its scholarship lightly: this is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Liszt, Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity in this magisterial biography, bringing to life one of the nineteenth century’s most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists. 

“For a biographer, there's a lot to untangle. Alan Walker does so brilliantly in Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, a magisterial portrait . . . A polyphonic work that elegantly interweaves multiple strands.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim,The New York Times Book Review

“Adopting the same combination of broad perspective, wealth of telling detail, and musical expertise that he brought to his classic biography of Franz Liszt, Alan Walker has now produced a vast work on Fryderyk Chopin that is likely to remain the most important account of the great Polish master’s life for a long time to come. Walker vividly recounts Chopin’s happy childhood and youth in Warsaw, his unfortunate but artistically prolific adult life in exile from his native country, his loves, and his losing battle with the tuberculosis that killed him at the age of thirty-nine. The book also delves deeply into Chopin’s music. A must for musicians and music-lovers alike.” Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini: Musician of Conscience

Photographs, notes, musical scores, Catalogue of Chopin’s Works, index.

Stephen Walsh,Debussy: A Painter in Sound(Knopf)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was that rare creature, a composer who reinvented the language of music without alienating the majority of music lovers. The creator of such classics as La Mer andClair de Lune, ofPelléas et Mélisande, and his magnificent, delicate piano works, he is the modernist everybody loves, the man who drove French music into entirely new regions of beauty and excitement at a time when old traditions--and the overbearing influence of Wagner--threatened to stifle it. As a central figure at the birth of modernism, Debussy's influence on French culture was profound. Yet at the same time his own life was complicated and often troubled by struggles over money, women, and ill-health. Walsh's engagingly original approach is to enrich a lively account of this life with brilliant analyses of Debussy's music: from his first daring breaks with the rules as a Conservatoire student to his mature achievements as the greatest French composer of his time. The Washington Post called Stephen Walsh's Stravinsky‘one of the best books ever written about a composer.’ Debussyis a worthy successor.”

“Stephen Walsh has followed his magnificent, two-volume Stravinsky biography with this smaller but no less brilliant gem of a book on Debussy. Combining psychological perspicacity about his subject’s life with deep insight into his music, Walsh has made me not only better understand the composer—he has also made me want to re-listen to and re-reflect upon every piece that Debussy ever wrote.” Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini: Musician of Conscience

Stephen Walsh is Emeritus Professor of Music at Cardiff University and author of a number of books on music including Musorgsky and His Circleand the prizewinning biography of Igor Stravinsky, selected as one of the ten Books of the Year by The Washington Post. He served for many years as deputy music critic for The Observerand writes reviews for many journals. He lives in Herefordshire, England.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Alexandra Kieffer’sDebussy's Critics: Sound, Affect, and the Experience of Modernism (Oxford University Press) “explores the music of Claude Debussy and its early reception in light of the rise of the empirical human sciences in Western Europe around the turn of the twentieth century. In the midst of a sea change in conceptions of the human person, the critics who wrote about Debussy's music in the Parisian press-continually returning to this music's nebulous relationship to sensation and sensibilité-attempted to articulate a music aesthetic appropriate to the fully embodied, material self of psychological modernism. While scholarship on French music in this period has often emphasized its affinities with other art forms, such as Impressionist painting and Symbolist poetry, Debussy's Critics demonstrates that a preoccupation with the specifically sonic materiality of Debussy's music, informed by late nineteenth-century scientific discourses on affect, perception, and cognition, was central to this music's historical intervention. Foregrounding the dynamic exchange between sounds and ideas, this book reveals the disorienting and bewildering experience of listening to Debussy's music, which compelled its early audiences to reimagine the most fundamental premises of the European art-music tradition.”

Musical scores,, notes, bibliography, index.

Judith Chernaik’sSchumann: The Faces and the Masks(Knopf) “draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early nineteenth century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism--he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past, he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It details his deep involvement with other composers of his time, such as Chopin and Mendelssohn, Liszt and Brahms, as well as the literary lights of the age--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, E.T.A. Hoffmann--whose works gave inspiration to his compositions and words to his songs. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, as well more established sources of journals, letters, and publications, Judith Chernaik provides enthralling new insight into Schumann's life and his music: his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the facts behind his courtship of Clara Wieck--already a noted young concert pianist--his passionate marriage to her despite the opposition of her manipulative father, his passionate marriage, and the ways his many crises fed into the dreams and fantasies of his greatest works, turning his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart.”

Judith Chernaik was born and grew up in New York City. She graduated from Cornell University and received a PhD from Yale University. She has taught at Columbia, Tufts, and after moving to London with her husband and children, at Queen Mary College, University of London. In 1986 she founded London's popular Poems on the Underground, imitated in cities around the world. Her books include The Lyrics of Shelleyand four novels. Most recently she has published essays on Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin in the English journal Musical Times. She lives in London with her husband Warren Chernaik, emeritus professor at the University of London.

“Chernaik is an enthusiastic student of Schumann’s music and a fine chronicler of his turbulent life. Schumann: The Faces and the Masksis a well-proportioned, highly readable biography for general readers that establishes Schumann as a man thoroughly of his time. The book’s greatest contribution is to situate Schumann in a remarkable fraternity of 19th-century composers.” Michael O’Donnell, The Wall Street Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index of Schumann’s works, index.

Colm Toibin’sMad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce(Scribner) Is “an illuminating, intimate study of Irish culture, history, and literature told through the lives and work of three men—William Wilde, John Butler Yeats, and John Stanislaus Joyce—and the complicated, influential relationships they had with their complicated sons. Colm Tóibín begins his incisive, revelatory Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Knowwith a walk through the Dublin streets where he went to university—a wide-eyed boy from the country—and where three Irish literary giants also came of age. Oscar Wilde, writing about his relationship with his father, William Wilde, stated: ‘Whenever there is hatred between two people there is bond or brotherhood of some kind…you loathed each other not because you were so different but because you were so alike.’ W.B. Yeats wrote of his father, John Butler Yeats, a painter: ‘It is this infirmity of will which has prevented him from finishing his pictures. The qualities I think necessary to success in art or life seemed to him egotism.’ John Stanislaus Joyce, James’s father, was perhaps the most quintessentially Irish, widely loved, garrulous, a singer, and drinker with a volatile temper, who drove his son from Ireland. Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Knowilluminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.”

“Juicy, wry and compelling . . . an entertaining and revelatory little book about the vexed relationships between these three pairs of difficult fathers and their difficult sons.”

Maureen Corrigan, The Wall Street Journal   

Photographs, bibliography, index.

Mary Schmidt Campbell’sAn American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden(Oxford University Press) “offers a full and vibrant account of Bearden's life -- his years in Harlem (his studio was above the Apollo theater), to his travels and commissions, along with illuminating analysis of his work and artistic career. Campbell, who met Bearden in the 1970s, was among the first to compile a catalogue of his works. An American Odyssey goes far beyond that, offering a living portrait of an artist and the impact he made upon the world he sought both to recreate and celebrate. . . . By the time of his death in 1988, Romare Bearden was most widely celebrated for his large-scale public murals and collages, which were reproduced in such places as Time and Esquire to symbolize and evoke the black experience in America. As Mary Schmidt Campbell shows us in this definitive, defining, and immersive biography, the relationship between art and race was central to his life and work -- a constant, driving creative tension. Bearden started as a cartoonist during his college years, but in the later 1930s turned to painting and became part of a community of artists supported by the WPA. As his reputation grew he perfected his skills, studying the European masters and analyzing and breaking down their techniques, finding new ways of applying them to the America he knew, one in which the struggle for civil rights became all-absorbing. By the time of the March on Washington in 1963, he had begun to experiment with the Projections, as he called his major collages, in which he tried to capture the full spectrum of the black experience, from the grind of daily life to broader visions and aspirations.”

Mary Schmidt Campbell is President of Spelman College and Dean Emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts. She served as the vice chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities under former President Barack Obama.

“Meticulously researched and highly readable, this ground-breaking analytical biography of one of the twentieth century's leading figures in painting, collage and other art forms is an immensely important addition to recent art historical literature and biography. It is a pleasure to read and is a necessary addition to our American cultural consciousness.” Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of the History of Art, Institute of Fine Arts (Deputy Director), New York University

Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Carolyn Burke’sFoursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury(Knopf) is “A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art. New York, 1921: Alfred Stieglitz, the most influential figure in early twentieth-century photography, celebrates the success of his latest exhibition--the centerpiece, a series of nude portraits of the young Georgia O'Keeffe, soon to be his wife. It is a turning point for O'Keeffe, poised to make her entrance into the art scene--and for Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancée of Stieglitz's protégé at the time, Paul Strand. When Strand introduces Salsbury to Stieglitz and O'Keeffe, it is the first moment of a bond between the two couples that will last more than a decade and reverberate throughout their lives. In the years that followed, O'Keeffe and Stieglitz became the preeminent couple in American modern art, spurring each other's creativity. Observing their relationship led Salsbury to encourage new artistic possibilities for Strand and to rethink her own potential as an artist. In fact, it was Salsbury, the least known of the four, who was the main thread that wove the two couples' lives together. Carolyn Burke mines the correspondence of the foursome to reveal how each inspired, provoked, and unsettled the others while pursuing seminal modes of artistic innovation. The result is a surprising, illuminating portrait of four extraordinary figures.”

Carolyn Burke is the author of No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf, Lee Miller: A Life(finalist for the NBCC), and Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. Born in Sydney, Australia, she now lives in Santa Cruz, California.

“[A] sharp-eyed group portrait of two artistic couples . . . . [Burke depicts] in rich detail the complex interactions among four vibrant people during a seminal era in American culture—a task she accomplishes in astute, lucid prose.” Wendy Smith, The Washington Post

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Brenda Wineapple’sThe Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation(Rnandom House) “When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became ‘the Accidental President,’ it was a dangerous time in America. Congress was divided over how the Union should be reunited: when and how the secessionist South should regain full status, whether former Confederates should be punished, and when and whether black men should be given the vote. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to restore a pre–Civil War society, if without slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson seemed to share their goals. With the unchecked power of executive orders, Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned rebel leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights, and called Reconstruction unnecessary. It fell to Congress to stop the American president who acted like a king. With profound insights and making use of extensive research, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal period in American history, when the country was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president. And she brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who brought that impeachment forward: the willful Johnson and his retinue of advocates—including complicated men like Secretary of State William Seward—as well as the equally complicated visionaries committed to justice and equality for all, like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant. Theirs was a last-ditch, patriotic, and Constitutional effort to render the goals of the Civil War into reality and to make the Union free, fair, and whole.”

Brenda Wineapple is the author of several books including Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877, named a best book of 2 013 by The New York Timesamong many other publications; White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner for the Marfield Prize for Arts Writing; and Hawthorne: A Life, winner of the Ambassador Award for Best Biography of 2003, as well as Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein, and Genêt: A Life of Janet Flanner.  She's received a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, two National Endowment Fellowships in the Humanities, and most recently a National Endowment Public Scholars Award.  An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, she regularly contributes to major publications such as the New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, andThe Nation.

“The relevance of this riveting and absorbing book is clear enough . . . literary and incisive . . . vivid and perceptive.” Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“Riveting . . . Wineapple has written a stunningly well-timed book on a question ripped from the headlines.  Compulsively readable” John Fabian Witt, The Washington Post

Dramatis Personae, photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Jeffrey C. Stewart’sThe New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke(Oxford University Press) “offers the definitive biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of his life and on interviews with those who knew him personally. He narrates the education of Locke, including his becoming the first African American Rhodes Scholar and earning a PhD in philosophy at Harvard University, and his long career as a professor at Howard University. Locke also received a cosmopolitan, aesthetic education through his travels in continental Europe, where he came to appreciate the beauty of art and experienced a freedom unknown to him in the United States. And yet he became most closely associated with the flowering of Black culture in Jazz Age America and his promotion of the literary and artistic work of African Americans as the quintessential creations of American modernism. In the process he looked to Africa to find the proud and beautiful roots of the race. Shifting the discussion of race from politics and economics to the arts, he helped establish the idea that Black urban communities could be crucibles of creativity. Stewart explores both Locke's professional and private life, including his relationships with his mother, his friends, and his white patrons, as well as his lifelong search for love as a gay man. 

Stewart’s thought-provoking biography recreates the worlds of this illustrious, enigmatic man who, in promoting the cultural heritage of Black people, became -- in the process -- a New Negro himself.”

Jeffrey C. Stewart is a professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizenand 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History.

“Locke represents a biographical challenge of unusual difficulty. Superbly educated, dazzlingly intelligent, psychologically complicated, and a cultural analyst and visionary whose books and essays helped to shape our understanding of race and modern American culture, Locke could also be petty and vindictive, manipulative and cruel. Also stamping his identity was his brave commitment to living fully as a gay man, despite its various dangers. Jeffrey Stewart, rising superbly to this challenge, has given us one of the finest literary biographies to appear in recent years.” Arnold Rampersad, Stanford University 

“Jeffrey Stewart’s long anticipated biography of the enigmatic Alain Locke fulfills its promise-and then some. It is magnificent! A panoramic portrait of one of the great thinkers, teachers, and literary entrepreneurs of the early twentieth century, The New Negro sheds fresh light on the intellectual firmament whose brightest star discovered African American modernism in an era of cosmopolitanism, colonialism, and catastrophe, and the man whose complex and tragic life left him defeated, unfulfilled, and underappreciated. . . . until now.” Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Dave Tell’sRemembering Emmett Till(University of Chicago Press) “gives us five accounts of the commemoration of this infamous crime. In a development no one could have foreseen, Till’s murder—one of the darkest moments in the region’s history—has become an economic driver for the Delta. Historical tourism has transformed seemingly innocuous places like bridges, boat landings, gas stations, and riverbeds into sites of racial politics, reminders of the still-unsettled question of how best to remember the victim of this heinous crime. Tell builds an insightful and persuasive case for how these memorials have altered the Delta’s physical and cultural landscape, drawing potent connections between the dawn of the civil rights era and our own moment of renewed fire for racial justice. Take a drive through the Mississippi Delta today and you’ll find a landscape dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most chilling are those devoted to the murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a beacon in the fight for racial equality. The ways this event is remembered have been fraught from the beginning, revealing currents of controversy, patronage, and racism lurking just behind the placid facades of historical markers.”

Dave Tell is professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas and the principal investigator of the Emmett Till Memory Project.

“Tell, the principal investigator of the Emmett Till Memory Project, takes readers through thickets of politics and commemoration, of fact and fiction, and of local communities trying to leverage civil rights histories to which they may not have strong connections. . . .  A book with broad application to the study of the civil rights movement but particularly useful for students and practitioners of local history and civic tourism.” Kirkus Reviews

“Remembering Emmett Tillsets the bar for future work on memory, civil rights, and the case that arguably gave the movement its legs. With deft archival work and savvy on-the-ground sleuthing, Tell unearths from the unrelenting Delta landscape many secrets locals have longed to keep buried. Accessible, engaging, and a page-turner from the jump.” Davis W. Houck, coauthor of Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press.

Photographs, map, notes, bibliography, index.

Dorian Lynskey, The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984(Doubleday) is “An authoritative, wide-ranging, and incredibly timely history of [the novel] 1984--its literary sources, its composition by Orwell, its deep and lasting effect on the Cold War, and its vast influence throughout world culture at every level, from high to pop. 1984isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5--that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts," anyone?). Its influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid's Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother). The Ministry of Truthis the first book that fully examines the epochal and cultural event that is 1984in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Great Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains history.”

Dorian Lynskey has been writing about music, film, and politics for more than twenty years for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, GQ, Q, Empire, Billboard,and The New Statesman. His first book, 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs(Ecco), was published in 2011.

“A rich and compelling case for the novel as the summation of Orwell’s entire body of work and a master key to understanding the modern world. . . Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984is revelatory.” George Packer, The Atlantic.

Photos, notes, index.

Roy Flechner’s Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland's Patron Saint(Princeton University Press) “draws on recent research to offer a fresh assessment of Patrick’s travails and achievements. This is the first biography in nearly fifty years to explore Patrick’s career against the background of historical events in late antique Britain and Ireland [and] examines the likelihood that Patrick, like his father before him, might have absconded from a career as an imperial official responsible for taxation, preferring instead to migrate to Ireland with his family’s slaves, who were his source of wealth. Flechner leaves no stone unturned as he takes readers on a riveting journey through Romanized Britain and late Iron Age Ireland, and he considers how best to interpret the ambiguous literary and archaeological evidence from this period of great political and economic instability, a period that brought ruin for some and opportunity for others. Rather than a dismantling of Patrick’s reputation, or an argument against his sainthood, Flechner’s biography raises crucial questions about self-image and the making of a reputation. From boyhood deeds to the challenges of a missionary enterprise, Saint Patrick Retold steps beyond established narratives to reassess a notable figure’s life and legacy.”

“This superb and stylishly executed work does a splendid job of surveying the life of Patrick, ending with a helpful overview of later developments of the saint in popular culture. Filling a gap, this impressive work will be gratefully received by historians of late antiquity and early medieval Britain and Ireland, and Celticists, not to mention a large body of general readers.” Mark Williams, author of Ireland’s Immortals

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Marion Turner, Chaucer: A European Life(Princeton University Press). “Uncovering important new information about Chaucer’s travels, private life, and the early circulation of his writings, this innovative biography documents a series of vivid episodes, moving from the commercial wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence and the kingdom of Navarre, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side. The narrative recounts Chaucer’s experiences as a prisoner of war in France, as a father visiting his daughter’s nunnery, as a member of a chaotic Parliament, and as a diplomat in Milan, where he encountered the writings of Dante and Boccaccio. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chaucer’s writings, taking the reader to the Troy of Troilus and Criseyde, the gardens of the dream visions, and the peripheries and thresholds of The Canterbury Tales. By exploring the places Chaucer visited, the buildings he inhabited, the books he read, and the art and objects he saw, this landmark biography tells the extraordinary story of how a wine merchant’s son became the poet of The Canterbury Tales.

“Marion Turner’s ambitious biography is significantly different from others of Chaucer. Its focus on place enables Turner to explore Chaucer’s national and international political and cultural background in more detail than ever before.” Helen Cooper, Cambridge University

“Marion Turner, in this splendid biography, shows us that Chaucer was, to be sure, powerfully inflected by the extraordinary range of places, both English and continental, through which he travelled and in which he lived. She also demonstrates, in lucid and lively prose, that Chaucer was what he read and imagined. Turner enlarges the genre, without for a moment losing her eagle-eyed command of the fascinating empirical detail.” James Simpson, Harvard University

Photographs, maps, bibliography, index.

Lucasta Miller’sL.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated “Female Byron”(Knopf) “tells the full story and re-creates the literary London of [L.E.L.’s] time. She was born in 1802 and was shaped by the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, a time of conservatism when values were in flux. She began publishing poetry in her teens and came to be known as a daring poet of thwarted romantic love. We see L.E.L. as an emblematic figure who embodied a seismic cultural shift, the missing link between the age of Byron and the creation of Victorianism. Miller writes of Jane Eyre as the direct connection to L.E.L.--its first-person confessional voice, its Gothic extremes, its love triangle, and in its emphasis on sadomasochistic romantic passion. Letitita Elizabeth Landon--pen name L.E.L.--dared to say it and made sure she was heard. Hers was a life lived in a blaze of scandal and worship, one of the most famous women of her time.”

Lucasta Miller is a British literary critic who has worked for The Independentand The Guardian, and contributed to The Economist, The Times(London), The New Statesman, and the BBC. She was the founding editorial director of Notting Hill Editions and has been a visiting scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She lives in London with her husband, the tenor Ian Bostridge, and their two children.

“Lucasta Miller's stellar research blows two centuries of accumulated dust off a phenomenon worth knowing ... This book takes biography to a new level . . . . We see the network of manipulations, hypocrisy, commercial evil. Miller's investigation into the corroded promise of one young life opens up an abyss and, holding our gaze, speaks eloquently to the present” Lyndall Gordon (author of Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World),New Statesman

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 

James Grant’s Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian(W. W. Norton & Company) is “The definitive biography of one of the most brilliant and influential financial minds―banker, essayist, and editor of the Economist. During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that―decades later―inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Born in the small market town of Langport, just after the Panic of 1825 swept across England, Bagehot followed in his father’s footsteps and took a position at the local family bank―but his influence on financial matters would soon spread far beyond the county of Somerset. Persuasive and precocious, he came to hold sway in political circles, making high-profile friends, including William Gladstone―and enemies, such as Lord Overstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As a prolific essayist on wide-ranging topics, Bagehot won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson, and delighted in paradox. He was also a misogynist, and while he opposed slavery, he misjudged Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. As editor of the Economist, he offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, and his name lives on in an eponymous weekly column. He has been called "the Greatest Victorian." In James Grant’s colorful and groundbreaking biography, Bagehot appears as both an ornament to his own age and a muse to our own. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.”

The definitive biography of one of the most brilliant and influential financial minds―banker, essayist, and editor of the Economist. During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that―decades later―inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Born in the small market town of Langport, just after the Panic of 1825 swept across England, Bagehot followed in his father’s footsteps and took a position at the local family bank―but his influence on financial matters would soon spread far beyond the county of Somerset. Persuasive and precocious, he came to hold sway in political circles, making high-profile friends, including William Gladstone―and enemies, such as Lord Overstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As a prolific essayist on wide-ranging topics, Bagehot won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson, and delighted in paradox. He was also a misogynist, and while he opposed slavery, he misjudged Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. As editor of the Economist, he offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, and his name lives on in an eponymous weekly column. He has been called ‘the Greatest Victorian’. In James Grant’s colorful and groundbreaking biography, Bagehot appears as both an ornament to his own age and a muse to our own. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.”

James Grant founded Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a financial markets journal, and authored The Forgotten Depression, which won the Hayek Prize. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

“A gem of a book: entertaining, wry, and gloriously eccentric.” Sebastian Mallaby, Foreign Affairs

“Bagehot was a financial journalist with a love of English literature and a facility for clear and cogent prose. So is Mr. Grant. . . . Bagehot is a terrific and efficient survey of the political and economic disputations of mid-Victorian England and a fine narrative of the life of the era’s most brilliant essayist.” Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index.

Anne Frank: The Collected Works(Bloomsbury Continuum) “brings together for the first time Anne's world-famous diary, in both the version edited for publication by her father and the more revealing original, together with her letters, essays and important contextual scholarship. Supported by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, set up by Otto Frank to be the guardian of Anne's work, this is a landmark publication marking the anniversary of 90 years since Anne's birth in 1929. Anne Frank is one of the most recognized and widely read figures of the Second World War. Thousands of people visit the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam each year to see the annex where Anne and her family hid from the Germans before eventually being deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Only Anne's father, Otto, survived the Holocaust.

An essential book for scholars and general readers alike, The Collected Works includes Anne Frank's complete writings, together with important images and documents that tell the wider story of her life. Also included are background essays by notable historians and scholars--including "Anne Frank's Life"; "The History of the Frank Family", "the Publication History of Anne Frank's diary"--and photographs of the Franks and the other occupants of the annex.” 

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main on 12 June 1929 as Annelies Marie Frank, the daughter of Otto and Edith Frank and the younger sister of Margot. She was given a diary as a 13th birthday present and kept it from 12 June 1942 to 1 August 1944, during the period in which she and her family, together with others, hid from anti-jewish Nazi persecution in a small set of rooms above an Amsterdam warehouse. After Anne's arrest and deportation to Auschwitz and later to Bergen-Belsen in 1944, where she would eventually die in early 1945 from typhus, her diary was published by her father, Otto Frank, and became a worldwide bestseller.

“A magisterial edition . . . one of the virtues of The Collected Worksis that it allows readers to track the evolution of the diary across its different incarnations . . . . The Complete Worksthus gives a greatly enriched picture, and, as one reads its pages, one cannot help thinking of what Anne might have become.” Bart van Es, Author of The Cut Out Girl,Guardian

Photographs, chronology, notes, bibliography.

Colin Asher,Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren(W. W. Norton & Company). “For a time, Nelson Algren was America’s most famous author, lauded by the likes of Richard Wright and Ernest Hemingway. Millions bought his books. Algren’s third novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, won the first National Book Award, and Frank Sinatra starred in the movie. But despite Algren’s talent, he abandoned fiction and fell into obscurity. The cause of his decline was never clear. Some said he drank his talent away; others cited writer’s block. The truth, hidden in the pages of his books, is far more complicated and tragic. Now, almost forty years after Algren’s death, Colin Asher finally captures the full, novelistic story of his life in a magisterial biography set against mid-twentieth-century American politics and culture. Drawing from interviews, archival correspondence, and the most complete version of Algren’s 886-page FBI file ever released, Colin Asher portrays Algren as a dramatic iconoclast. A member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, Algren used his writing to humanize Chicago’s underclass, while excoriating the conservative radicalism of the McCarthy era. Asher traces Algren’s development as a thinker, his close friendship and falling out with Richard Wright, and his famous affair with Simone de Beauvoir. Most intriguingly, Asher uncovers the true cause of Algren’s artistic exile: a reckless creative decision that led to increased FBI scrutiny and may have caused a mental breakdown. In his second act, Algren was a vexing figure who hid behind a cynical facade. He called himself a “journalist” and a “loser,” though many still considered him one of the greatest living American authors. An inspiration to writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Martha Gellhorn, Jimmy Breslin, Betty Friedan, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Russell Banks, and Thomas Pynchon, Algren nevertheless struggled to achieve recognition, and died just as his career was on the verge of experiencing a renaissance. Never a Lovely So Realoffers an exquisitely detailed, engrossing portrait of a master who, as esteemed literary critic Maxwell Geismar wrote, was capable of suggesting ‘the whole contour of a human life in a few terse pages.’”

Colin Asher is an award-winning writer whose work has been featured in the Believer,Los Angeles Review of Books,  Boston Globe, andSan Francisco Chronicle. An instructor at CUNY, he was a 2015/2016 Fellowat the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

“Absorbing. . . . [Asher] scrupulously attempts to separate facts from myths . . . as he explores how a writer who produced prose-poetry of such a high order could now be largely forgotten.” Susan Jacoby, New York Times Book Review

Photographs, notes, index.

Armand D’Angour’sSocrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher (Bloomsbury Publishing) is “An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophers. Socrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the foundations of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon--men who met him when he was in his fifties, a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates's story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, classicist Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously portrayed: a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer--and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.”

Armand D'Angour is an Associate Professor of Classics at Oxford and Fellow and Tutor at Jesus College, Oxford. Author of The Greeks and the New(2011), an investigation into ancient Greek attitudes to novelty, he has written widely about Greek and Latin poetry, music and literature, and was commissioned to compose odes in ancient Greek for the Olympic Games in Athens (2004) and London (2012). He was trained as a pianist and cellist as well as a classicist, and has recently reconstructed ancient Greek music from original documents on stone and papyrus.

“Write the name Aspasia on your hearts! History, as told by men, has often erased the role of women. Our new champion Armand D’Angour has pieced together the evidence—that a woman of great intellectual powers helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy. This is a delicious and exhilarating piece of serious scholarship.” Helena Kennedy, author of Eve Was Framed—Women and British Justice

Map, Timeline,notes,bibliography, index. 

Steven Saylor,Roma: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome Series)(St. Martin's Griffin). “Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people.

Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven Saylor gives new life to the drama of the city's first thousand years ― from the founding of the city by the ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus, through Rome's astonishing ascent to become the capitol of the most powerful empire in history. Roma recounts the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and the ultimate death of Rome's republic with the triumph, and assassination, of Julius Caesar.

Witnessing this history, and sometimes playing key roles, are the descendents of two of Rome's first families, the Potitius and Pinarius clans: One is the confidant of Romulus. One is born a slave and tempts a Vestal virgin to break her vows. One becomes a mass murderer. And one becomes the heir of Julius Caesar. Linking the generations is a

mysterious talisman as ancient as the city itself.

Epic in every sense of the word, Romais a panoramic historical saga and Saylor's finest achievement to date.” 

Steven Saylor is the author of the long running Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder. He has appeared as an on-air expert on Roman history and life on The History Channel. Saylor was born in Texas and graduated with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. He divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

“Before the Roman Empire, there was the Roman Republic, and before that, what? If all you recall is Romulus and Remus, here is a more complete story of the founding of Rome, from 1000 B.C.E. to the much more familiar territory of Julius Caesar and his successor in 1 B.C.E. Many customs and legends lingering into the Empire era have their original explanation here, such as the sacred geese or the building of various temples. The city's fictionalized history is likewise full of original source material, which relates, the author notes, ‘uncannily familiar political struggles and partisan machinations.' Class warfare, nepotism, and moral and theological battles dogged the development of this often idealized Roman Republic, and a truly remarkable propensity for cruelty and merciless judgment foreshadows the later Empire. Unlike Saylor's popular mysteries, this work compares more to Edward Rutherfurd's London as it focuses on crucial incidents in the intervening centuries. Two families of ancient origin who pass an amulet onto the next generation provide continuity. This work will attract a different fan base from Saylor's other work but should prove appealing to history and political buffs who enjoy comparing our current events with ancient Rome.” Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Library Journal

Maps, Family Tree.

Julius Caesar and The War for Gaul: A New Translation by James O'Donnell(Princeton University Press). “A new translation that captures the gripping power of one of the greatest war stories ever told―Julius Caesar’s pitiless account of his brutal campaign to conquer Gaul

Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army―a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature―perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists―and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar’s famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor’s dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O’Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the “best bad man’s book ever written”―a great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been. Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic―a book that, as O’Donnell says, “gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.”

“James O’Donnell’s version of The War for Gaulis as gripping and readable as Caesar's itself. Brisk, terse, and potent, the translation captures the meaning of the original. It is a marvelous achievement. I sat, I read, I loved.” Barry Strauss, author of The Death of Caesar

“The War for Gaulis Caesar’s report of his conquest of Gaul, an amoral war and a vastly destructive prelude to political revolution at Rome. O’Donnell does full justice to Caesar’s Latin, giving us an account as terse and understated as the original. The introductions preceding each Commentary give the modern reader a sense of the context that the ancient reader brought to the story and show us Caesar in the process of becoming Caesar.” Cynthia Damon, editor and translator of Caesar’s Civil War

Chronology, Index of Key Terms.

Fred K. Drogula,Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic(Oxford University Press). “Marcus Porcius Cato (‘the Younger’) is most famous for being Julius Caesar's nemesis. His sustained antagonism was in large part responsible for pushing the Romans towards civil war. Yet Cato never wanted war even though he used the threat of violence against Caesar. This strategic gamble misfired as Caesar, instead of yielding, marched on Rome, hurling the Republic into a bloody civil war. Refusing to inhabit a world ruled by Caesar, Cato took his own life. Although the Roman historian Sallust identified Cato and Caesar as the two most outstanding men of their age, modern scholars have tended to dismiss Cato as a cantankerous conservative who, while colorful, was not a critical player in the events that overtook the Republic. This book, in providing a much-needed reliable biography of Cato, contradicts that assessment. In addition to being Caesar's adversary, Cato is an important and fascinating historical figure in his own right, and his career-in particular, his idiosyncrasies-shed light on the changing political culture of the late Republic. Cato famously reached into Rome's hallowed past and found mannerisms and habits to adopt that transformed him into the foremost champion of ancestral custom. Thus Cato did things that seemed strange and even bizarre such as wearing an old-fashioned tint of purple on his senatorial toga, refusing to ride a horse when on public business, and going about barefoot and without the usual tunic as an undergarment. His extreme conservatism-which became celebrated in later ages, especially in Enlightenment Europe and revolutionary America--was actually designed to give him a unique advantage in Roman politics. This is not to claim that he was insincere in his combative promotion of the mos maiorum (the way of the ancestors), but his political manipulation of the Romans' reverence for their traditions was masterful. By providing a new, detailed portrait of Cato, the book also presents a unique narrative of the age he helped shape and inadvertently destroy.”

Fred K. Drogula is the Charles J. Ping Professor of Humanities and Professor of Classics at Ohio University.

“Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republicby Fred K. Drogula is an excellent biography of one of the greatest men of the Roman Republic, who, as the author notes, has been dismissed by historians as an eccentric and ineffective conservative. Even novelists, such as Colleen McCullough in her erudite Masters of Romeseries, dismissed him as a fool and intransigent conservative, who was more guilty than Caesar for the bloody civil war that brought the death knell of the Republic. Yet in his own time, Cato the Younger was recognized as an incorruptible statesman, a political giant, the greatest defender of the mos maiorum (i.e., the status quo based on the traditions of the ancestors), and the most formidable champion of the Republic. Cato was also a great stoic philosopher who followed the teachings in both spirit and practice. It was time for a well written biography of this great Roman to appear in current historiography, and that time has been reached with this excellent tome. This book is highly recommended for laymen as well as historians, especially for those who have loved Plutarch, Polybius, Livy, and the great historians of the past.” Miguel A. Faria, M.D., Associate Editor in Chief in socioeconomics, politics, medicine, and world affairs of Surgical Neurology International (SNI). He is the author of the upcoming book, America, Guns, and Freedom — A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019).

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glossary of terms, index.

Barry Strauss’s Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantin(Simon & Schuster) “examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost. Ten Caesars is essential history as well as fascinating biography.”

“"In a single volume, Barry Strauss delivers the near-impossible: a straightforward, factual, insightful survey of the vast and turbulent history of Rome’s emperors from Augustus to Constantine. Any reader, from novice to expert, will arrive at the final page with a clearer understanding of the men (and sometimes women) who oversaw the shifting fortunes of Rome for over three hundred years.” Steven Saylor, author of The Throne of Caesarand the New York Times bestseller Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 

Maria Popova’sFiguring(Pantheon) “explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists—mostly women, mostly queer—whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the way we understand, experience, and appreciate the universe. Among them are the astronomer Maria Mitchell, who paved the way for women in science; the sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who did the same in art; the journalist and literary critic Margaret Fuller, who sparked the feminist movement; and the poet Emily Dickinson.

Emanating from these lives are larger questions about the measure of a good life and what it means to leave a lasting mark of betterment on an imperfect world: Are achievement and acclaim enough for happiness? Is genius? Is love? Weaving through the narrative is a set of peripheral figures—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman—and a tapestry of themes spanning music, feminism, the history of science, the rise and decline of religion, and how the intersection of astronomy, poetry, and Transcendentalist philosophy fomented the environmental movement.”

“An intricate tapestry in which the lives of these women, and dozens of other scientific and literary figures, are woven together through threads of connection across four centuries . . . In Figuring, we are thrust into a waltz of exquisitely honed minds—most of them belonging to women, many of them sexually queer—all insisting on living to their fullest.” Margaret Werth, The Washington Post

Bibliography, index.

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

Neil Shapiro,The Jazz Alphabet(JazzAlphabet.com), Foreword by Neil Tesser. “Neil Shapiro loves jazz.

And since he can’t play or sing a note to save his life, depicting jazz artists is the best way he knows to honor the music he loves and the musicians who make it. In a previous life Neil was an advertising art director, creating award winning campaigns for national clients such as Gatorade, McDonald’s, and Cap’n Crunch. Since then, he has created scores of editorial and advertising illustrations, and illustrated numerous children’s books. Neil has taught, lectured, and written extensively on illustration and advertising design. His artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Chicago and New York galleries, and he has led the design and creation of a public work of art. Neil lives in Chicago with his wife, Maureen Gorman, and his dog, Ruka. A personal look at 26 Jazz greats from A to Z.” 

“Look closely enough and you can hear the music.” Neil Tesser, author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz. He has composed liner notes for over 400 albums, which have garnered him one Grammy Award and another nomination. Artists for whom Tesser has written liner notes include Blood, Sweat & Tears, John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Gil Scott-Heron, Kurt Elling, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Bill Evans and Patricia Barber.

“Neil is improvising on a form here — the alphabet—taking ideas and inspiration from his ears — sending it all through his hands and into our eyes.” Matt Ferguson, Bassist for Von Freeman

“A blending of portraiture, words, caricature and letterforms into a unique and loving tribute. The ABC’s and the masters of jazz never had a better partner!” Scott Gustafson, Winner, Grand Master Award for Illustration

“5.0 out of 5 stars A delight for jazz lovers

(For starters, I’m no relation to the artist/author.)

If you, like me, were never lucky enough to see these musicians in person, Neil Shapiro’s magical illustrations somehow give you the sense of what that must have felt like. Put on your favorite Django, turn to page 36 and you’ll see what I mean. Also a perfect gift for the jazz lover in your life.” Gary Shapiro, Amazon reviewer.

George Burrows, The Recordings of Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy (Oxford University Press Studies in Recorded Jazz).“Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy came from Kansas City to find nationwide fame in the later 1930s. The many records they made between 1929 and 1949 came to exemplify the Kansas City style of jazz, but they were also criticized for their populism and inauthenticity. In The Recordings of Andy Kirk' and his Clouds of Joy, George Burrows considers these records as representing negotiations over racialized styles between black jazz musicians and the racist music industry during a vital period of popularity and change for American jazz. The book explores the way that these reformative negotiations shaped and can be heard in the recorded music. By comparing the band's appropriation of musical styles to the manipulation of masks in black forms of blackface performance--both signifying and subverting racist conceptions of black authenticity--it reveals how the dynamic between black musicians, their audiences and critics impacted upon jazz as a practice and conception.”

George Burrows is Reader in Performing Arts at the University of Portsmouth, where he has lectured on music and theatre for more than 15 years. His published research focuses on interwar musical theatre and jazz. He founded the Song, Stage and Screen international conference in 2006 and the academic journal, Studies in Musical Theatre(Intellect) in 2007. He is also active as a performing musician and directs the University of Portsmouth Choir. Writing this book inspired him to learn the sousaphone.

Photographs, musical scores, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Sammy Stein’sWomen in Jazz: The Women, The Legends & Their Fight (8th House Publishing). All who are concerned about “the stubbornly misogynistic” (Stein’s assessment, and mine, too) world of jazz—and, most especially, those who should getconcerned about it—should buy a copy of this important book and read it with close attention. It is a thorough update to all previous books on the subject—and, incidentally, to my essay of a decade and a half ago, “Women in Jazz: Some Observations Regarding the Ongoing Discrimination in Performance and Journalism”  (https://wroyalstokes.squarespace.com/blog/women-in-jazz). Sammy Stein and I agree that Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

“[Stein’s book] is about women in jazz. It charts their journeys, celebrates their presence, hears their voices, wonders at their prowess and revels in their being. We hear from female agents, arrangers, composers, musicians, PR people, radio hosts, record label managers, singers, writers and more. These are their stories; their views of jazz and how they see the future. The established performers share their years of experience whilst those newer to jazz reflect on observations and changes they have seen. Containing interviews and first-hand accounts, this book is witness to the generosity, profundity and positivity with which women have responded and the energy they have put into their lives in overcoming challenges.”

“Refreshing perspectives on the challenges of being a female artist. Stein widens her net by including the impressions of record executives, radio hosts and others who have built their lives around jazz. This whole-ball-of-wax (or vinyl) study of women in jazz hits all the major and minor keys with the shiny energy of a live bebop session. It’s an intelligent and highly enjoyable choice for jazz lovers of all stripes.” Debbie Burke, author of Glissando: A Story of Love, Lust and Jazzand Tasty Jazz Jams for Our Times.

Photographs.

Ted Gioia’sMusic: A Subversive History(Basic Books) is “a four-thousand-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how social outcasts have repeatedly become trailblazers of musical expression: slaves and their descendants, for instance, have repeatedly reinvented music, from ancient times all the way to the jazz, reggae, and hip-hop sounds of the current day.

Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, historian Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs. Music: A Subversive History is essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify. Music: A Subversive Historyis essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify.”

Ted Gioia is a music historian and the author of eleven books, including How to Listen to Jazz. His three previous books on the social history of music -- Work Songs, Healing Songs, and Love Songs-- have each been honored with ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Gioia's wide-ranging activities as a critic, scholar, performer and educator have established him as a leading global guide to music past, present, and future.

“In this meticulously-researched yet thoroughly page-turning book, Gioia argues for the universality of music from all cultures and eras. Subversives from Sappho to Mozart and Charlie Parker are given new perspective -- as is the role of the church and other arts-shaping institutions. Music of emotion is looked at alongside the music of political power in a fascinating way by a master writer and critical thinker. This is a must-read for those of us for whom music has a central role in our daily lives.” Fred Hersch, pianist and composer, and author of Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz.

Notes, index.

Gerald Horne’sJazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music(Monthly Review Press) is “A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation. The music we call ‘jazz’ arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the “blues,” which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US—and Black American—contribution to global arts and culture. Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era’s most virulent economic—and racist—exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration.”

Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and has published three dozen books including, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the USA and Race War! White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire.

Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler,RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press). 

“While there have been countless books written about Detroit, none have captured its incredible musical history like this one. This collection of poems and lyrics covers numerous genres including jazz, blues, doo-wop, Motown, classic rock, punk, hip-hop, and techno. Detroit artists have forged the paths in many of these genres, producing waves of creative energy that continue to reverberate across the country and around the world. While documenting and celebrating this part of Detroit’s history, this book captures the emotions that the music inspired in its creators and in its listeners. The range of contributors speaks to the global impact of Detroit’s music scene—Grammy winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and poet laureates all come together in this rich and varied anthology, including such icons as Eminem, June Jordan, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Rita Dove, Jack White, Robbie Robertson, Paul Simon, Nikki Giovanni, Philip Levine, Sasha Frere-Jones, Patricia Smith, Billy Bragg, Andrei Codrescu, Toi Derricotte, and Cornelius Eady.”

Jim Daniels is the author of six fiction collections, seventeen poetry collections, and four produced screenplays, and has edited five anthologies, including Challenges to the Dream: The Best of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Writing Awards. Honors and awards he has received include the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing, the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. A native of Detroit, Daniels is the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

M. L. Liebler is the author of fifteen books and has been on faculty in the English department at Wayne State University since 1980. He is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist, and arts organizer. He received the 2017–2018 Murray E. Jackson Scholar in the Arts Award at Wayne State University, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award in 2010, and the 2018 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. He is currently the President of the Detroit Writers’ Guild.

“So many lines and stanzas emblematic of Detroit’s poetry and music resonate in R E S P E CT, edited by Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler, and Kim D. Hunter’s homage to the late Faruq Z. Bey personifies the collection. His horn, Hunter writes, ‘was just another / way to breathe.’ And this is a breathless assemblage of the city’s most gifted voices.”

Herb Boyd, author ofBlack Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination.

Dr. Regennia N. Williams andRev. Dr. Sandra Butler-Truesdale, Washington, DC, Jazz (Images of America)(Arcadia Publishing). Foreword by Willard Jenkins. This is a splendid compilation of photographs with substantial captions. The compilers have done their research well and present a broad history of jazz in D.C., adding to this an overview of the current scene that includes many young contributors to the art form.

“Home to ‘Black Broadway’ and the Howard Theatre in the Greater U Street area, Washington, D.C., has long been associated with American jazz. Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine launched their careers there in the early 20th century. Decades later, Shirley Horn and Buck Hill would follow their leads, and DC's ‘jazz millennials’ include graduates of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. For years, Bohemian Caverns and One Step Down were among the clubs serving as gathering places for producers and consumers of jazz, even as Rusty Hassan and other programmers used radio to promote the music. Washington, DC, Jazz focuses, primarily, on the history of straight-ahead jazz, using oral histories, materials from the William P. Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress, the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives at the University of the District of Columbia, and Smithsonian Jazz. This volume also features the work of photographers Nathaniel Rhodes, Michael Wilderman, and Lawrence A. Randall.”

I add here a roster of some others who grew up in and performed in D.C. and its environs or impacted its jazz scene in a significant way:

Jelly Roll Morton (mentioned but not depicted, he managed and played at the Jungle Inn on U Street in the late 1930s), Wild Bill Davison (who lived on outer Connecticut Avenue during the 1970s, played Blues Alley and other venues, and used the city as base for world-wide touring), Blues Alley founder, clarinetist, and vibraphonist Tommy Gwaltney, James Yancey, founder of Mr. Y’s, Charlin Jazz Society founders Charles Cassell and Linda Wernick, Manassas Jazz Festival founder Johnson (Fat Cat) McRee, John Eaton, Duke Ellington bassist Billy Taylor Sr. and his bassist son Billy Taylor Jr., John Malachi, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess, George Botts, Steve Jordan, Van Perry, Eddie Phyfe, Wild Bill Whelan, Mason Country Thomas, Wally Garner, Jimmy Hamilton, Walt Combs, Larry Eanet, Robert Redd, Dave Sager, Dave Robinson, Scott Robinson, Allen Houser, Kenny Reed, Al Brogdon, Jamie Broumas, Clea Bradford, Beverly Cosham, Lennie Cujé, Dick Morgan, Ed Fishel, Vicki Garno, Harold Mann, Adolphus (Snooks) Riley, Charlie Rouse, Brooks Tegler, Roberta Washington, Fred Foss, Vaughn Nark, Wallace Roney, Antoine Roney, Deanna Bogart, Pam Bricker, Clement Wells, Linda Cordray, K Shalong, Deater O’Neill, Arnaé Burton, Lisa Rich, Ellen Gross, Sharon Clark, Caron Tate, Mary Blankemeier, Karen Akers, Eleanor Ellis, Sherry Wisda, Julie Moore Turner, Brenda Files, Jamie Broumas, Maura Sullivan, Debra Tidwell, Beverly Cosham, Judy Willing, Sherry Wisda, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

“Within the photo-heavy Arcadia format, the authors have put together an eminently browsable book that will keep readers checking YouTube and Spotify -- or perhaps their own record collection. Each chapter includes vintage photos mixed with portraits of younger musicians working in the DC area, and only the most dedicated local jazz fans will be familiar with all of them.” The DC Line

A scholar, curator, and Fulbright alumna with more than 20 years experience teaching at the post-secondary level, Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the founder and executive director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based nonprofit organization, and a part-time faculty associate and instructor in the Lifelong Learning Institute at Maryland's Montgomery College. 

Rev. Dr. Sandra Butler-Truesdale is the founder and chairperson of DC Legendary Musicians, Inc., music programmer at WPFW FM Radio, and associate minister at Washington's Metropolitan AME Church. A native Washingtonian, she has worked with performers like Ray Charles and James Brown and served as an elected member of the DC Board of Education.

Photographs, bibliography.

Thomas Brothers,Help!: The Beatles, Duke Ellington, and the Magic of Collaboration (W. W. Norton & Company) is “The fascinating story of how creative cooperation inspired two of the world’s most celebrated musical acts. The Beatles and Duke Ellington’s Orchestra stand as the two greatest examples of collaboration in music history. Ellington’s forte was not melody―his key partners were not lyricists but his fellow musicians. His strength was in arranging, in elevating the role of a featured soloist, in selecting titles: in packaging compositions. He was also very good at taking credit when the credit wasn’t solely his, as in the case of Mood Indigo, though he was ultimately responsible for the orchestration of what Duke University musicologist Thomas Brothers calls “one of his finest achievements.” If Ellington was often reluctant to publicly acknowledge how essential collaboration was to the Ellington sound, the relationship between Lennon and McCartney was fluid from the start. Lennon and McCartney “wrote for each other as primary audience.” Lennon’s preference for simpler music meant that it begged for enhancement and McCartney was only too happy to oblige, and while McCartney expanded the Beatles’ musical range, Lennon did “the same thing with lyrics.” Through his fascinating examination of these two musical legends, Brothers delivers a portrait of the creative process at work, demonstrating that the cooperative method at the foundation of these two artist-groups was the primary reason for their unmatched musical success. While clarifying the historical record of who wrote what, with whom, and how, Brothers brings the past to life with a lifetime of musical knowledge that reverberates through every page, and analyses of songs from Lennon and McCartney’s Strawberry Fields Forever to Billy Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge. Help! describes in rich detail the music and mastery of two cultural leaders whose popularity has never dimmed, and the process of collaboration that allowed them to achieve an artistic vision greater than the sum of their parts.”

“Richly detailed and immersive . . . . Fascinating.” Willard Jenkins, DownBeat

“A historically masterly and musically literate unraveling of some of the most-admired credits in 20th-century popular music . . . . This is musicology with taste as well as ears.”

Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Gloria Krolak’sJazz Lines: Free Verse and Photos in the Key of Jazz, photographs by Ed Berger (Gloriajazz.com/StarBooks.biz) “is the expression of music and poetry combined with powerful, expressive photography by the great jazz photographer Ed Berger, you’ll experience unparalleled enjoyment with an abundance of jazz. Part poetry, part music, and completely entertaining, Jazz Lineswill tickle your rhythm bone and bring to memory all the great melodies of jazz. Over 1,000 song titles make up the verses. The song indexes in the back of the book chronicle the author’s vast knowledge and provides you with references to add to your musical repertoire. You’ll enjoy reading and reciting the poems out loud to get the rhythm and cadence of the verses as Gloria Krolak has put them together. Jazz Linesis music in your mouth!”

“What a wonderful, beautiful resource! Reading Free Verse and Photos in the Key of Jazzis like having a wonderful dictionary/glossary of a myriad of verses heard only in the jazz idiom. I really can't imagine how Gloria did this— gathered so much material that I'm sure is not gathered in any other single location. Plus Ed Berger's images are the wonderful companion to this. Thank you, Gloria, for writing such a great book, pretty enough to make it to our ‘cocktail table’ collection!” Sharla Feldscher, Amazon reviewer

Eugene Marlow’sJazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression(University Press of Mississippi) “traces China's introduction to jazz in the early 1920s, its interruption by Chinese leadership under Mao in 1949, and its rejuvenation in the early 1980s with the start of China's opening to the world under Premier Deng Xiaoping. Covering a span of almost one hundred years, Marlow focuses on a variety of subjects--the musicians who initiated jazz performances in China, the means by which jazz was incorporated into Chinese culture, and the musicians and venues that now present jazz performances. Featuring unique, face-to-face interviews with leading indigenous jazz musicians in Beijing and Shanghai, plus interviews with club owners, promoters, expatriates, and even diplomats, Marlow marks the evolution of jazz in China as it parallels China's social, economic, and political evolution through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Also featured is an interview with one of the extant members of the Jimmy King Big Band of the 1940s, one of the first major all-Chinese jazz big bands in Shanghai. Ultimately, Jazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression is a cultural history that reveals the inexorable evolution of a democratic form of music in a Communist state.”

Eugene Marlow, Brooklyn, New York, is an award-winning composer, producer, performer, author, journalist, and educator. He has written eight books dealing with communications, technology, and culture and more than four hundred articles and chapters published in professional and academic journals in the United States, Germany, Greece, Japan, China, and Russia. He is currently a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, where he teaches courses on media and culture.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Katherine Baber’sLeonard Bernstein and the Language of Jazz(Music in American Life) (University of Illinois Press) “investigates how jazz in its many styles served Bernstein as a flexible, indeed protean, musical idea. As she shows, Bernstein used jazz to signify American identity with all its tensions and contradictions and to articulate community and conflict, irony and parody, and timely issues of race and gender. Baber provides a thoughtful look at how Bernstein's use of jazz grew out of his belief in the primacy of tonality, music's value as a unique form of human communication, and the formation of national identity in music. She also offers in-depth analyses of On the Town, West Side Story, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and other works to explore fascinating links between Bernstein's art and issues like eclecticism, music's relationship to social engagement, black-Jewish relations, and his own musical identity.”

Katherine Baber is an associate professor of music history at the University of Redlands.

“While jazz has been discussed as a component in Bernstein’s musical style before, Baber’s focus is more on the potential meanings of Bernstein’s use of that jazz, both in what it might have meant for Bernstein and for the audiences listening to the music. A strong contribution to the field.” Paul Laird, author of Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research.

Musical notations, notes, bibliography, index.

Peter Erskine and Dave BlackThe Musician's Lifeline(Alfred Music) “represents the combined opinions of the authors and their knowledge gained through their lives in music. In addition, it includes advice from 150 of the best musicians---such as Gordon Goodwin, Nathan East, Janis Siegel, Christian McBride, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gary Burton, Kenny Werner, Steve Smith, and so many more---who responded to seven simple questions about topics like sight-reading, travel, warm-ups, networking, preparing for auditions, and general wisdom. The answers will surprise, inform, and confirm what you already know or completely contradict what you've been taught by others. This is a book you can read straight through in one sitting or jump around in . . . and always return to time and again.”

“This book may cost less than $20 but in reality it’s priceless. There’s a world of information for anyone who is looking to make a career in music. I love the section that suggests strategies on how to overcome performance anxiety, but that just scratches the surface! Tons of valuable information here.” Bobby, an Amazon.com commenter. 

Cynthia Sayer,You’re IN the Band: The Real Experience of Playing in a Traditional Jazz/Hot Jazz Band(cynthiasayer.com). 

“This play-along program (book + 2 CDs) (also available with downloads) gives you the real experience of playing in a Traditional Jazz/Hot Jazz Band along with top experts in the genre. Unlike most other play-along programs available, YITBoffers correct melodies, chords, and tempos that are actually used by bands today, as well as inside tips on what you need to know, like hand signals, intros and endings, and more. Enjoy learning and/or practicing with You're IN The Band! NOTE: YITB is also available with downloads instead of 2 CDs -- see separate Amazon listing to purchase.”

It includes classic tunes popularly played in traditional jazz/hot jazz bands, two CDs (or downloads), each tune in 2 speeds: “Gig Tempo” & Practice Tempo”, playing tips & traditions you should know, Lingo & Definitions, lead sheets with lyrics in concert key, B♭, E♭, and bass clef, chord charts, and tune layouts. Also available (as downloads only, $9.99 per set): all tracks minus trumpet & all tracks minus banjo. Here are the play-along tunes: Avalon, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me, China Boy, Darktown Strutters’ Ball, Down By The Riverside, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, My Gal Sal, Some Of These Days, Take Me Out To The Ball Game, The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise, Way Down Yonder In New Orleans, When The Saints Go Marching In, Whispering. The musicians are Cynthia Sayer, banjo, arrangements, Bria Skonberg, trumpet, Mike Weatherly, string bass, Kevin Dorn, drums. 

“This is the only program I've seen that really delivers. It offers many great ways for players to truly grow their skills, and also enjoy the fun process of learning to swing in a band! Get it now - you'll thank me later! Matt Glaser, Artistic Director, American Roots Music Program, and Berklee College Of Music

“A wonderful and helpful work that will instruct young players who are learning about playing traditional jazz. Also a great refresher for musicians already established and playing this style of music.” says bandleader and multi- instrumentalist Vince Giordano.

“You’re IN The Bandoffers the opportunity to develop, hone and master one’s skills for playing jazz by using the best teaching technique known to date, actually playing inthe band. I highly recommend this method,” says trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

“You're IN The Bandis the next-best thing to actual on-the-job training .It's an extremely practical and efficient way to learn how to play in a traditional jazz context.” Ked Peplowski, Jazz Clarinetist and Saxophonist

Bill McBirnie, The Technique and Theory of Improvisation: A Practical Guide for Flutists, Doublers, and Other Instrumentalists(Library and Archives Canada/www.extremeflute.com). “This book is a concise but comprehensive guide to (1) the technique (articulation, vibrato, and breathing) and (2) the theory (rhythm, melody and harmony) that are essential in learning to improvise. The book also addresses how to integrate the technique with the theory using a simple melodic approach, based on small bits that you can develop into bigger bits. In addition, the book examines practical issues such as analyzing tunes, using an idiomatic approach, and transcribing, with plenty of examples and illustrations. As Sir James Galway points out in the foreword, this is a useful and valuable source of reference for the aspiring student and the experienced performer or teacher.”

“McBirnie discusses potentially complex musical ideas with a laser focus on disentangling them in a way that is easy for the reader to follow. This is most helpful when McBirnie delves into difficult topics like theory where he also provides musicians and students with a useful philosophical underpinning they may not have had before reading this text. McBirnie deservers much praise for his ability to reduce important [topics] in a manner that never sounds pretentious or high-handed. The effect is ultimately one of sharing private instruction time with him, and this feeling of intimacy makes the book’s content all the more impactful.” Garth Thomas, The Hollywood Digest

“The reach of this book goes far beyond McBirnie’s chosen instrument. Every novice musician can read it, and glean important guidance, and share the obvious passion McBirnie has for his art. The text often reads as if it is alight with joy. He cuts intimidating propositions down to a manageable size by including a variety chord charts, lists, and snippets of sheet music throughout the text, including lots of listening suggestions. These never overshadow his writing, and they balance the exposition adding immeasurable value to the book. It is genuinely impressive how much knowledge McBirnie packs into such a limited length. . . . McBirnie has written a brief but enduring work that ranks as one of the best contributions to music literature published in recent memory, and his résumé backs him up every step of the way. This is a book suited to endure indefinitely and gain even more lustre over time.” Clay Burton, Independent Music and Arts.

“McBirnie’s book formulates a musically sound approach to improvisation in clear and concise terms that musicians at any level can use.” Jason Hillenburg, Good Reads.

Illustrations

E. Douglas Bomberger,Making Music American: 1917 and the Transformation of Culture(Oxford University Press) “recounts the musical events of this tumultuous year month by month from New Year's Eve 1916 to New Year's Day 1918. As the story unfolds, the lives of these eight musicians intersect in surprising ways, illuminating the transformation of American attitudes toward music both European and American. In this unsettled time, no one was safe from suspicion, but America's passion for music made the rewards high for those who could balance musical skill with diplomatic savvy. . . . The year 1917 was unlike any other in American history, or in the history of American music. The United States entered World War I, jazz burst onto the national scene, and the German musicians who dominated classical music were forced from the stage. As the year progressed, New Orleans natives Nick LaRocca and Freddie Keppard popularized the new genre of jazz, a style that suited the frantic mood of the era. African-American bandleader James Reese Europe accepted the challenge of making the band of the Fifteenth New York Infantry into the best military band in the country. Orchestral conductors Walter Damrosch and Karl Muck met the public demand for classical music while also responding to new calls for patriotic music. Violinist Fritz Kreisler, pianist Olga Samaroff, and contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink gave American audiences the best of Old-World musical traditions while walking a tightrope of suspicion because of their German sympathies. Before the end of the year, the careers of these eight musicians would be upended, and music in America would never be the same.”

E. Douglas Bomberger teaches courses in popular and classical music at Elizabethtown College. He is the author of MacDowell(Oxford University Press, 2013) and four other books.

“A hundred years ago almost everything changed in American music - and we are still living with the after effects today. This important book by E. Douglas Bomberger tells the fascinating story of how the United States found its own musical identity at a time of global crisis and war.” Ted Gioia, music historian and author of The History of Jazz

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Aaron Cohen,Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power(University of Chicago Press).

“Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic’s passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil. Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago’s place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s was more than just a series of hits: it was a marker and a source of black empowerment. In Move On Up, Aaron Cohen tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived. Record producers and song-writers broadcast optimism for black America’s future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions for the Dells and many others. Curtis Mayfield boldly sang of uplift with unmistakable grooves like “We’re a Winner” and “I Plan to Stay a Believer.” Musicians like Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used their music to voice Afrocentric philosophies that challenged racism and segregation, while Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chaka Khan created music that inspired black consciousness. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation: as Chicago’s homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago’s black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation, all against a backdrop of nationwide deindustrialization.”

Aaron Cohen covers the arts for numerous publications and teaches English, journalism, and humanities at the City Colleges of Chicago. He is the author ofAretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace”.

“Move On Upis an extraordinary achievement, packed with deep research and vivid writing, with a backbeat so strong it thumps from every page. Cohen has written the definitive account of an important slice of American popular culture. Cue up the Chi-Lites, open this book, and enjoy!” Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life.

“With a journalist’s clarity, a scholar’s curiosity, and a local’s passion, the incomparable Aaron Cohen affirms why Chicago has always been more than its challenges. Move On Upshows how big-shouldered grit, astonishing talent, and entrepreneurial savvy combined to make ‘the Chi’ a powerhouse center for music and activism back in the days when the world discovered that black was, indeed, beautiful.” Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop.

Photographs, notes, discography, bibliography, index.

Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation(Random House) “explores both famous songs and lesser-known ones, expanding our understanding of the scope of American music and lending deeper meaning to the historical context of such songs as ‘My Country, ’Tis of Thee,’ ‘God Bless America,’ ‘Over There,’ ‘We Shall Overcome,’ and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ As Quincy Jones says, Meacham and McGraw have ‘convened a concert in Songs of America,” one that reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we, at our best, can be. From ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ to ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw take readers on a moving and insightful journey through eras in American history and the songs and performers that inspired us. Meacham chronicles our history, exploring the stories behind the songs, and Tim McGraw reflects on them as an artist and performer. Their perspectives combine to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation. Beginning with the battle hymns of the revolution, and taking us through songs from the defining events of the Civil War, the fight for women’s suffrage, the two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and into the twenty-first century, Meacham and McGraw explore the songs that defined generations, and the cultural and political climates that produced them. Readers will discover the power of music in the lives of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and will learn more about some of our most beloved musicians and performers, including Marian Anderson, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, and more.”

About the Authors

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. The author of the New York Timesbestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Franklin and Winston, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,andThe Soul of America, Meacham holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians.

Tim McGraw is a Grammy Award–winning entertainer, author, and actor who has sold more than fifty million records worldwide and dominated the charts with forty-three number one singles. He is the most played country artist since his debut in 1992, has two New York Timesbestselling books to his credit, and has acted in such movies as Friday Night Lights andThe Blind Side. McGraw is considered one of the most successful touring acts in the history of country music. His last solo project spawned one of the biggest hit singles of all time, “Humble and Kind,” whose message continues to impact fans around the world.

“From hymns that swelled the hearts of revolutionaries to the spirituals that stirred citizens to spill blood for a more perfect Union and the blues- and country-infused beats that aroused change in the 1960s, Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo—connecting us to music as an unsung force in our nation's history. Songs of Americais not just a cultural journey—it strikes our deepest chords as Americans: patriotism, protest, possibility, creativity, and, at the root of it all, freedom of expression enshrined in our founding document.” Doris Kearns Goodwin

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert Christgau,Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading(Duke University Press). “In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that made him a critic—his love for the written word. Many selections address music, from blackface minstrelsy to punk and hip-hop, artists from Lead Belly to Patti Smith, and fellow critics from Ellen Willis and Lester Bangs to Nelson George and Jessica Hopper. But Book Reports also teases out the popular in the Bibleand 1984as well as pornography and science fiction, and analyzes at length the cultural theory of Raymond Williams, the detective novels of Walter Mosley, the history of bohemia, and the 2008 financial crisis. It establishes Christgau as not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, but one of America's most insightful cultural critics as well. 

“For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music” Melissa Engleman Library Journal

“Robert Christgau, writing on books, is enthralling and energetic, and as persuasive and argument-sparking as he is on records. He sees them both as entrances into a thousand subject matters, but also as formal objects—that's to say, books. His stock is his comprehensive confidence, no matter the arena; so often, as declaring The Country and the Cityto be Raymond Williams's essential book—he's stunningly right. Book Reportsmade me glance at my shelf longingly where a run of compilations of his ‘Consumer Guides: Books of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s’ (and beyond) might sit, but alas. If we’re not that lucky, we’re lucky enough to have this generous compendium of his longer-form stuff.” Jonathan Lethem)

Index.

Norman Seeff’sJoni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions(Insight Editions) is certainly the music coffee table book of 2018. Seeff is an award-winning photographer, director, and filmmaker who for over 35 years has defined the look of rock and roll through his dramatic and intensely personal photography and videos. His camera has captured hundreds of public personalities including the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and Fleetwood Mac, for Rolling Stone, Life,Esquire, TIME, American Photographer, and numerous album covers.

“Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessionsis the ultimate celebration of a visionary musician and the artist who captured her spirit on film. It is a creative partnership that has lasted for over 40 years. Joni Mitchell, the artist behind celebrated hits “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi,” and Norman Seeff, a rock-and-roll photographer with a host of legendary subjects in his portfolio, did some of their best work together. Joni was a truly authentic subject, able to surrender herself to the art and express herself freely within his lens. Through over a dozen sessions across more than a decade together, the photographer captured the many facets of her personality in some of her most famous images. Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessionsis the culmination of their partnership. Timed to release on Joni’s 75th birthday, this collection of familiar and rare imagery tracks the pair’s history together through these exclusive moments captured on film. A combination of album artwork and candid shots reveals Joni’s personality in ways few have managed to capture before or since. Featuring commentary from Seeff on the enlightenment into his art that he gained from their sessions, this compilation is a true reflection on mutual creativity between artist and muse.

“There is something truly fascinating in the timeline of this book as both photographer and subject age as the pages are turned. . . . The emotional truth of the portraits pierce deeper with each new session. This truly superb book makes for a great addition to any coffee table or bookshelf” Vinton Rafe McCabe New York Journal of Books.

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones (Cambridge Companions to Music)edited by Victor Coelho and John Covach(Cambridge University Press) “provides the first dedicated academic overview of the music, career, influences, history, and cultural impact of the Rolling Stones. Shining a light on the many communities and sources of knowledge about the group, this Companionbrings together essays by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, players, film scholars, and filmmakers into a single volume intended to stimulate fresh thinking about the group as they vault well over the mid-century of their career. The Rolling Stones are one of the most influential, prolific, and enduring Rock and Roll bands in the history of music. Threaded throughout these essays are album- and song-oriented discussions of the landmark recordings of the group and their influence. Exploring new issues about sound, culture, media representation, the influence of world music, fan communities, group personnel, and the importance of their revival post-1989, this collection greatly expands our understanding of their music.”

“An intriguing prospect for serious Stones fans.” Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock

“A bold attempt to up the intellectual ante around Stones criticism.” Jim Wirth, Uncut

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index of songs, index.

Seth Bovey’sFive Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present (Reverb Series)(Reaktion Books) “tells of a musical phenomenon whose continuing influence on global popular culture is immeasurable. The story begins in 1950s America, when classic rock ’n’ roll was reaching middle age, and teenaged musicians kept its primal rawness going with rough-hewn instrumentals, practicing guitar riffs in their parents’ garages. In the mid-1960s came the Beatles and the British Invasion, and soon every neighborhood had its own garage band. Groups like the Sonics and 13th Floor Elevators burnt brightly but briefly, only to be rediscovered by a new generation of connoisseurs in the 1970s. Numerous compilation albums followed, spearheaded by Lenny Kaye’s iconic Nuggets, which resulted in garage rock’s rebirth during the 1980s and ’90s. Be it the White Stripes or the Black Keys, bands have consistently found inspiration in the simplicity and energy of garage rock. It is a revitalizing force, looking back to the past to forge the future of rock ’n’ roll. And this, for the first time, is its story.”

Seth Bovey is professor of English at Louisiana State University at Alexandria. He is also a musician and played in several garage bands in the 1970s and early ’80s.

“A fine and thorough account, copious in historical detail and explanation of a movement that has survived on sheer, unquenchable fuzztone enthusiasm.” David Stubbs, author of Future Days andMars by 1980.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, recommended listening, online resources, index.

Matthew Collin’sRave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music (University of Chicago Press) “takes stock of [electronic dance music’s] highest highs and lowest lows across its global trajectory. Through firsthand reportage and interviews with clubbers and DJs, Collin documents the itinerant musical form from its underground beginnings in New York, Chicago, and Detroit in the 1980s, to its explosions in Ibiza and Berlin, to today’s mainstream music scenes in new frontiers like Las Vegas, Shanghai, and Dubai. Collin shows how its dizzying array of genres—from house, techno, and garage to drum and bass, dubstep, and psytrance—have given voice to locally specific struggles. For so many people in so many different places, electronic dance music has been caught up in the search for free cultural space: forming the soundtrack to liberation for South African youth after Apartheid, inspiring a psychedelic party culture in Israel, offering fleeting escape from—and at times into—corporatization in China, and even undergirding a veritable “independent republic” in a politically contested slice of the former Soviet Union. Full of admiration for the possibilities the music has opened up all over the world, Collin also unflinchingly probes where this utopianism has fallen short, whether the culture maintains its liberating possibilities today, and where it might go in the future.”

“Fabulous. . . . One of the sharpest books on the topic I’ve read.” Michaelangelo Matos, author of The Underground is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

James Sullivan’sWhich Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs(Oxford University Press) “delivers a lively anecdotal history of the progressive movements that have shaped the growth of the United States, and the songs that have accompanied and defined them. Covering one hundred years of social conflict and progress across the twentieth century and into the early years of the twenty-first, this book reveals how protest songs have given voice to the needs and challenges of a nation and asked its citizens to take a stand--asking the question ‘Which side are you on?’”

“Sullivan's fluid prose and attention to detail serve him admirably in this engaging title, which should awaken nostalgia in those of a certain age and introduce new generations to these musical catalysts for social change.” Library Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Stephen Nachmanovitch’sThe Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life (New World Library) “is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Artof Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.” Yo-Yo Ma, cellist.

“In an age of standardized packages and constrained choices, Stephen Nachmanovitch gives us The Art of Is, a refreshing encounter with how to improvise and be fully alive in the face of deadening habits of mind. The author is a musician and a teacher who has an uncanny ability to see and listen and help others do likewise. We are verbs, not nouns, he tells us, because we are ever in motion — open to change and surprise. Like musicians who improvise together, human beings can break barriers: teaching, playing, creating, and being present to one another. In clear prose, Nachmanovitch effortlessly shows how people discover — in themselves — the sheer power to relate and endlessly adapt.” Jerry Brown, governor of California 1975–1982 and 2011–2018.

“Stephen Nachmanovitch beautifully reveals a world of communication and co-creation that is both new and ancient. To play in this realm of improvisation is to recognize the tenderness with which interdependence knows aloneness, and the way silence defines sound. The stories he tells show us that the complexity and simplicity of life itself exist in our interrelationships. These findings are laid out in this book with grace, humor, and careful articulation. Nachmanovitch makes it clear that the art of being human now is acutely tied into an improvisational way of being: making sense of ourselves, each other, and the natural world in ways that find new offerings within old patterns. It is to feel anew.” Nora Bateson, filmmaker, International Bateson Institute

An improvisational violinist and the author of the classic work Free Play, Stephen Nachmanovitch, PhD, performs and teaches internationally at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology, and philosophy.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

David Rothenberg’sNightingales in Berlin: Searching for the Perfect Sound (University of Chicago Press) “shows in this searching and personal new book, the nightingale’s song is so peculiar in part because it reflects our own cacophony back at us. As vocal learners, nightingales acquire their music through the world around them, singing amidst the sounds of humanity in all its contradictions of noise and beauty, hard machinery and soft melody. Rather than try to capture a sound not made for us to understand, Rothenberg seeks these musical creatures out, clarinet in tow, and makes a new sound with them. He takes us to the urban landscape of Berlin—longtime home to nightingale colonies where the birds sing ever louder in order to be heard—and invites us to listen in on their remarkable collaboration as birds and instruments riff off of each other’s sounds. Through dialogue, travel records, sonograms, tours of Berlin’s city parks, and musings on the place animal music occupies in our collective imagination, Rothenberg takes us on a quest for a new sonic alchemy, a music impossible for any one species to make alone. In the tradition of The Hidden Life of Trees andThe Invention of Nature, Rothenberg has written a provocative and accessible book to attune us ever closer to the natural environment around us.”

David Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the author of many books investigating music in nature, including Why Birds Sing, Survival of the Beautiful, andBug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise.His writings have been translated into more than eleven languages and among his twenty one music CDs is One Dark Night I Left My Silent House, on ECM.

“In David Rothenberg’s unique, beautiful, and vitally important new book, we are dropped into the wonder of a wild musical landscape, where birds have been singing for millions of years before the arrival of humans. In these pages we find our most authentic voice—one that never rises in isolation but in a great intertwining with nightingales, all beings, and the earth itself.” Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Mozart’s Starling

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Nick Collins (editor),The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music(Cambridge University Press). “Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide range of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische Musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. The first edition of this book won the 2009 Nicolas Bessaraboff Prize as it brought together researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology to provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topics and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. This updated and expanded second edition includes four entirely new chapters, as well as new original statements from globally renowned artists of the electronic music scene, and celebrates a diverse array of technologies, practices and music.”

Nick Collins is Reader in Composition at the University of Durham. His research interests include live computer music, musical artificial intelligence, and computational musicology, and he is a frequent international performer as composer-programmer-pianist or codiscian, from algoraves to electronic chamber music.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, chronology, index.

Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays, Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century(Oxford University Press) “Arabic music has spread across the globe, influencing music from Greece all the way to India in the mid-20th century through radio and musical cinema, and global popular culture through Raqs Sharqi, known as "Bellydance" in the West. Yet despite its popularity and influence, Arabic music, and the maqam scale system at its heart, remain widely misunderstood. Inside Arabic Music de-mystifies maqam with an approach that draws theory directly from practice, and presents theoretical insights that will be useful to practitioners, from the beginner to the expert - as well as those interested in the related Persian, Central Asian, and Turkish makam traditions. Inside Arabic Music'sdiscussion of maqam and improvisation widens general understanding of music as well, by bringing in ideas from Saussurean linguistics, network theory, and Lakoff and Johnson's theory of cognition as metaphor, with an approach parallel to Gjerdingen's analysis of Galant-period music - offering a lens into the deeper relationships among music, culture, and human community.”

Johnny Farraj is a Lebanese-born musician and software engineer of Palestinian descent. His main instrument is the riqq; he also plays the 'ud and sings. Farraj is the creator of MaqamWorld, the leading Internet reference on Arabic music theory, and is a frequent Arabic music blogger, teacher and performer, as well as a lifelong listener. 

Sami Abu Shumays is a Palestinian-American musician, arts administrator, and independent scholar, who travelled to Cairo and Aleppo to immerse himself in Arabic Music. After returning to the U.S., he began performing and teaching, founded Zikrayat ensemble, and developed the pedagogical website Maqam Lessons. He is currently Deputy Director of Flushing Town Hall, an arts presenter in Queens, NY.

Musical examples, charts, notes, glossary, bibliography, index.

Richard H. Brown’sThrough The Looking Glass: John Cage and Avant-Garde Film (Oxford Music/Media Series) (Oxford University Press) “examines John Cage’s interactions and collaborations with avant-garde and experimental filmmakers, and in turn seeks out the implications of the audiovisual experience for the overall aesthetic surrounding Cage’s career. As the commercially dominant media form in the twentieth century, cinema transformed the way listeners were introduced to and consumed music. Cage's quest to redefine music, intentionality, and expression reflect the similar transformation of music within the larger audiovisual experience of sound film. This volume examines key moments in Cage’s career where cinema either informed or transformed his position on the nature of sound, music, expression, and the ontology of the musical artwork. The examples point to moments of rupture within Cage's own consideration of the musical artwork, pointing to newfound collision points that have a significant and heretofore unacknowledged role in Cage’s notions of the audiovisual experience and the medium-specific ontology of a work of art.”

“This history asks us to re-engage with Cage’s ideas about listening and perception through the lens of moving-image culture, while also encouraging us to re-read the history of experimental film from a sonic perspective. As a result, this is not just a book about Cage or avant-garde film. It's a book about the nature of collaborative creativity, the rise of audiovisual art and the emergence of new forms of intermedial culture in the Twentieth Century. Required reading for us all!” Holly Rogers, author of Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art Music

Richard Brown earned a PhD in musicology from the University of Southern California. He has published articles on John Cage, experimental music, sound art, film music and copyright in The Journal of the Society for American Music, Contemporary Music Review, Leonardo, and American Music Review.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Mark Wigglesworth’sThe Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters(University of Chicago Press) “deepens our understanding of what conductors do and why they matter. Neither an instruction manual for conductors, nor a history of conducting, the book instead explores the role of the conductor in noiselessly shaping the music that we hear. Writing in a clever, insightful, and often evocative style, world-renowned conductor Mark Wigglesworth deftly explores the philosophical underpinnings of conducting—from the conductor’s relationship with musicians and the music, to the public and personal responsibilities conductors face—and examines the subtler components of their silent art, which include precision, charisma, diplomacy, and passion. Ultimately, Wigglesworth shows how conductors—by simultaneously keeping time and allowing time to expand—manage to shape ensemble music into an immersive, transformative experience, without ever making a sound. The conductor—tuxedoed, imposingly poised above an orchestra, baton waving dramatically—is a familiar figure even for those who never set foot in an orchestral hall. As a veritable icon for classical music, the conductor has also been subjected to some ungenerous caricatures, presented variously as unhinged gesticulator, indulged megalomaniac, or even outright impostor. Consider, for example: Bugs Bunny as Leopold Stokowski, dramatically smashing his baton and then breaking into erratic poses with a forbidding intensity in his eyes, or Mickey Mouse in Fantasia,unwittingly conjuring dangerous magic with carefree gestures he doesn’t understand. As these clichés betray, there is an aura of mystery around what a conductor actually does, often coupled with disbelief that he or she really makes a difference to the performance we hear.”

Mark Wigglesworth is an internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor. He has written articles for the Guardianand the Independentand made a six-part TV series for the BBC entitled Everything to Play For. He is currently the principal guest conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

“An illuminating account of what it means to be [a conductor], how it feels, what’s required and why it’s a misunderstood job that has the potential to enrich and terrify in equal measure. The most fascinating sections are those in which Wigglesworth discusses the relationship between conductor and orchestra, one that can be fraught with struggle and blessed with joys. His later musings on music itself—our relationship with it and how we listen—go way beyond the book’s premise of ‘Why Conducting Matters,’ and you feel all the more enlightened for it. Four stars.” Michael Beek, BBC Music Magazine.

Vanessa Cornett’sThe Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance (Oxford University Press) “offers guidelines to help musicians cultivate artistic vision, objectivity, freedom, quiet awareness, and self-compassion, both on- and offstage in order to become more resilient performers. Contrary to modern culture's embrace of busyness and divided attention, Cornett's contemplative techniques provide greater space for artistic self-expression and satisfaction. With the aid of a companion website that includes audio files and downloadable templates, The Mindful Musician provides a method to promote attentional focus, self-assessment, emotional awareness, and creativity. The first of its kind to combine mindfulness practices with research in cognitive and sport psychology, this book helps musicians explore the roots of anxiety and other challenges related to performance, all through the deliberate focus of awareness.”

Dr. Vanessa Cornett is the Director of Keyboard Studies and Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis - St. Paul. An international clinician, she has presented workshops and masterclasses on six continents. She published book chapters in the fourth edition of Creative Piano Teaching, and papers in the Journal of Transformative Education, American Music Teacher, the MTNA eJournal, the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, College Music Symposium, Clavier Companion, and The Canadian Music Teacher. A certified meditation instructor and licensed hypnotherapist, she received outstanding teaching awards from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Music Academy of North Carolina, an editor's choice award from the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, and a distinguished alumni award from UNCG. A proud native of West Virginia, her most recent obsession is the (mindful) study of wine. She is a Certified Specialist of Wine, American Wine Expert, and French Wine Scholar, and hopes someday to incorporate this very important research into her professional work.

“All musicians must read this book!I found this book to be very helpful! More than just addressing the immediate physical symptoms associated with performance anxiety, this book is helping me understand the underlying causes of stage fright to better manage them and ENJOY the experience of performing. It is very well articulated and clearly written. I love the anecdotes, witty humor and the deep sense of our humanity that permeates every chapter.

Mindfulness is essential on many levels. In a society that is addicted to computer gadgets and reliant on multi-tasking and instant gratification, this book speaks to our compelling need to be present in every moment. I predict that it will open doors to further research in the area of mindfulness. I strongly recommend this book.” Amazon Customer

Bibliography, index.

The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture(Cambridge Companions to Music), Nicholas Cook, Monique M. Ingalls, andDavid Trippett,editors (Cambridge University Press). “Through chapters by scholars at the forefront of research and shorter 'personal takes' from knowledgeable practitioners in the field, this Companionbrings the relationship between digital technology and musical culture alive by considering both theory and practice. It provides a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the place of music within digital culture as a whole, with recurring themes and topics that include music and the Internet, social networking and participatory culture, music recommendation systems, virtuality, posthumanism, surveillance, copyright, and new business models for music production. The impact of digital technologies on music has been overwhelming: since the commercialisation of these technologies in the early 1980s, both the practice of music and thinking about it have changed almost beyond all recognition. From the rise of digital music making to digital dissemination, these changes have attracted considerable academic attention across disciplines,within, but also beyond, established areas of academic musical research.”

Nicholas Cook is Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Music: A Very Short Introduction andMusic as Creative Practice, and won the SMT's Wallace Berry Award for The Schenker Project.

Monique M. Ingalls is Assistant Professor of Music at Baylor University, Texas. Author of Singing the Congregation (2018), she is Series Editor for Routledge's Congregational Music Studies Seriesand co-organiser of the biennial international conference Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives.

David Trippett is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge. Author of Wagner's Melodies, his wide-ranging research has received the Einstein and Lockwood Prizes (American Musicological Society), the Nettl Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology), and an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Deems Taylor award.

Bibliography, index.

Sharon Marcus’sThe Drama of Celebrity(Princeton University Press) “challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the “divine” Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era’s most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebritywill change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.”

Sharon Marcus is the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is a founding editor of Public Books and the author of the award-winning Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian Englandand Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London. Twitter @MarcusSharon

“The Drama of Celebrityby Sharon Marcus is a hybrid of biography and sociological treatise on one of the most important phenomena of modern times . . . why we are attracted to ― or, conversely, repulsed by ― celebrity culture.” Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books.

“[An] insightful and engaging examination of celebrity culture . . . Marcus augments her analysis by drawing on types of sources that are rarely used, such as scrapbooks, letters and life writing produced by fans of celebrities. The inclusion of normally neglected voices adds richness and depth to this work, ensuring it is more comprehensive than most earlier studies of this intriguing subject.” Eleanor Fitzsimons, Literary Review.

Photos, illustrations, index.

Rick Atkinson’sThe British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy)(Henry Holt and Co.) “is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama. . . . From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.”

Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy―An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light―as well as The Long Gray Lineand other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.

“To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing. . . . Historians of the American Revolution take note. Atkinson is coming. He brings with him a Tolstoyan view of war; that is, he presumes war can be understood only by recovering the experience of ordinary men and women caught in the crucible of orchestrated violence beyond their control or comprehension.” Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Joseph J. Ellis, American Dialogue: The Founders and Us(Knopf). “The award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today. The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions—and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice—Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues.” 

Joseph J. Ellis is the author of many works of American history including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife and is the father of three sons.

Notes, index.

John Ruskin: Selected Prose (21st Century Oxford Authors), Richard Lansdown, editor (Oxford University Press) “offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of John Ruskin (1819-1900). The edition represents Ruskin's extraordinary literary output, ranging from lectures, essays, and treatises to reviews, correspondence, and critical notes.Ruskin has been called 'the most powerful and original thinker of the nineteenth century' and yet, like his two fellow Victorian Sages, Thomas Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, his work remains obscure to modern readers. This anthology hopes to remedy this situation by presenting the immense range of Ruskin's interests, from art to politics, museology to ornithology, architecture to geology, and morals to economics--all of which interests were indivisible in his view. Here are rapturous accounts of Turner, the Alps, Renaissance painters, and Gothic architecture; but here, too, are urgently dystopian analyses of the modern culture that we continue to inhabit: vacuousness in communication, callousness in labour relations, amoral sophistication in art, and rationalism in all its various delusory forms in politics, society, and the economy. There are special stresses on cultural preservation and the illusions that it both fosters and depends upon; the status of women in society, which Ruskin reflected on constantly; nature, wilderness, and eco-catastrophism; and the role of artists like the Pre-Raphaelites in a society mostly given over to Philistinism. In short, the nineteenth century continues to cast an interrogatory shadow over the twenty-first, and Ruskin is its most vital and critical antagonist in the English language, inspiring intellectuals as diverse as Tolstoy, Proust, and Gandhi during his lifetime and afterwards. He was, this collection suggests, nothing like a 'sage', but something much more important and much more like those impossible things, a Victorian Renaissance man, an English Rousseau, and a post-religious Jeremiah.

Explanatory notes and commentary are included, to enhance the study, understanding, and enjoyment of these works, and the edition includes an Introduction to the life and works of Ruskin, and a Chronology.”

Richard Lansdown is a graduate of University College London. He is the author of three books on Lord Byron, one with Cambridge, the other two with Oxford University Press, and numerous articles on nineteenth-century literature, from Austen to Ibsen and Hardy to Berlioz and Delacroix. A New Scene of Thought: Studies in Romantic Realism was published in 2016, and Literature andTruth: Imaginative Literature as a Mediumfor Ideas is due in 2018, following on from The Autonomy of Literaturein 2001. He taught in Finland and Australia before moving to The Netherlands in 2017.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert Morrison’sThe Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern(W. W. Norton & Company) is “A surprising and lively history of an overlooked era that brought the modern world of art, culture, and science decisively into view. The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811–1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales―the future king George IV―replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain’s ruler. Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. Science burgeoned during this decade, too, giving us the steam locomotive and the blueprint for the modern computer. Yet the dark side of the era was visible in poverty, slavery, pornography, opium, and the gothic imaginings that birthed the novel Frankenstein. With the British military in foreign lands, fighting the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the War of 1812 in the United States, the desire for empire and an expanding colonial enterprise gained unstoppable momentum. Exploring these crosscurrents, Robert Morrison illuminates the profound ways this period shaped and indelibly marked the modern world.

Robert Morrison, author of The Regency Years and The English Opium-Eater, a finalist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, is Queen’s National Scholar at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He has produced editions of works by Jane Austen, Thomas De Quincey, Leigh Hunt, and John Polidori. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and lives in Brewer’s Mills, Ontario.

“Elegant, entertaining and frequently surprising.” Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review

“Morrison showcases that relatively brief period―less than a decade―as an age of ‘remarkable diversity, upheaval, and elegance.' . . . Given such plenty, what more could one ask from a work of cultural history?” Michael Dirda, Washington Post

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Cassandra L. Yacovazzi, Escaped Nuns: True Womanhood and the Campaign Against Convents in Antebellum America(Oxford University Press). “Just five weeks after its publication in January 1836, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery, billed as an escaped nun's shocking exposé of convent life, had already sold more than 20,000 copies. The book detailed gothic-style horror stories of licentious priests and abusive mothers superior, tortured nuns and novices, and infanticide. By the time the book was revealed to be a fiction and the author, Maria Monk, an imposter, it had already become one of the nineteenth century's best-selling books. In antebellum America only one book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, outsold it. The success of Monk's book was no fluke, but rather a part of a larger phenomenon of anti-Catholic propaganda, riots, and nativist politics. The secrecy of convents stood as an oblique justification for suspicion of Catholics and the campaigns against them, which were intimately connected with cultural concerns regarding reform, religion, immigration, and, in particular, the role of women in the Republic. At a time when the term "female virtue" pervaded popular rhetoric, the image of the veiled nun represented a threat to the established American ideal of womanhood. Unable to marry, she was instead a captive of a foreign foe, a fallen woman, a white slave, and a foolish virgin. In the first half of the nineteenth century, ministers, vigilantes, politicians, and writers--male and female--forged this image of the nun, locking arms against convents. The result was a far-reaching antebellum movement that would shape perceptions of nuns, and women more broadly, in America.” 

Cassandra L. Yacovazzi is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee. Her research focuses on American cultural, religious, and gender history in the nineteenth century.

“More than a fascinating work of cultural history, Escaped Nuns convincingly connects the sexual and spiritual politics that create untenable visions of 'womanhood.' Yacovazzi provides a compelling narrative of how nineteenth-century American nativism, anti-prostitution, abolitionism, and anti-polygamy campaigns collided into a perverse abhorrence for nunsor, really, any woman who operated outside the confines of the Protestant family. This is a must-read to understand the dangerous arguments about women being made today by political and religious leaders on all sides.” Rebecca Sullivan, Professor of English, University of Calgary.

Illustrations, notes, index.

Pamela Nadell’sAmerica's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today(W. W. Norton & Company) is “A groundbreaking history of how Jewish women maintained their identity and influenced social activism as they wrote themselves into American history. What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people―from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity. The twin threads binding these women together, she argues, are a strong sense of self and a resolute commitment to making the world a better place. Nadell recounts how Jewish women have been at the forefront of causes for centuries, fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights, and feminism, and hoisting banners for Jewish rights around the world. Informed by shared values of America’s founding and Jewish identity, these women’s lives have left deep footprints in the history of the nation they call home.”

Pamela S. Nadell is the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and director of Jewish studies at American University. Her books include Women Who Would Be Rabbis, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. She lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Anne Gardiner Perkins, Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant(Sourcebooks). “In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating ‘one thousand male leaders’ each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education. Or was it? The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Womenis the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to resonate today.”

Anne Gardiner Perkins grew up in Baltimore and attended Yale University, where she earned her BA in history and was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. She is also a Rhodes Scholar and completed a BA in modern history at Balliol College, Oxford University. She has spent her life in education, from urban high school teacher to state-level policy maker. She received her PhD in higher education at UMass Boston and has presented papers on higher education at leading conferences. Yale Needs Womenis her first book.

“Perkins makes the story of these early and unwitting feminist pioneers come alive against the backdrop of the contemporaneous civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1970s, and offers observations that remain eerily relevant on U.S. campuses today.” Edward B. Fiske, author of Fiske Guide to Colleges.

“While working on a Ph.D. in history at the University of Massachusetts, the author had a light bulb moment about the first females at historically all-male Yale. The slightly more than 200 women admitted in 1969 as freshmen, sophomores and juniors had become a footnote in history but no one had ever told their stories. So she decided to do it. Yale Needs Womenreminds us of how much has changed over the past 50 years as well as how little essential change has occurred. Those of us who came of age in the bad old days of the 1960s and 1970s will identify with the struggles of the female undergrads at Yale. Despite being eminently qualified for admission and for the most part outperforming their male cohorts, they were treated as ‘lesser than’ and simply ignored by most of the 99% all-male faculty. For the majority of their male classmates they were simply sexual targets.” MaggieG13, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, notes, index.

Peter Moore’sEndeavour: The Ship That Changed the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “is a revealing and comprehensive account of the storied ship’s role in shaping the Western world. Endeavour famously carried James Cook on his first major voyage, charting for the first time New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia. Yet it was a ship with many lives: During the battles for control of New York in 1776, she witnessed the bloody birth of the republic. As well as carrying botanists, a Polynesian priest, and the remains of the first kangaroo to arrive in Britain, she transported Newcastle coal and Hessian soldiers. NASA ultimately named a space shuttle in her honor. But to others she would be a toxic symbol of imperialism. Through careful research, Moore tells the story of one of history’s most important sailing ships, and in turn shines new light on the ambition and consequences of the Age of Enlightenment.”

Peter Moore teaches creative writing at the University of London and the University of Oxford. He is the author of Damn His Blood and The Weather Experiment, which was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s100 Notable Books of 2015 and adapted for a BBC4 documentary series. He lives in London.

“[A] fantastically detailed story . . . a joy of a biography, offering up a blizzard of maritime and political fascinations . . . Moore has written a book that makes the case for [Endeavour] both compelling and irrefutable―and offers up besides an immense treasure trove of fact-filled and highly readable fun.” Simon Winchester, The New York Times Book Review

Photographs, illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, index.

Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity, Thomas Jessen Adams andMatt Sakakeeny, editors(Duke University Press). “Approached as a wellspring of cultural authenticity and historical exceptionality, New Orleans appears in opposition to a nation perpetually driven by progress. Remaking New Orleansshows how this narrative is rooted in a romantic cultural tradition, continuously repackaged through the twin engines of tourism and economic development, and supported by research that has isolated the city from comparison and left unquestioned its entrenched inequality. Working against this feedback loop, the [20] contributors place New Orleans at the forefront of national patterns of urban planning, place-branding, structural inequality, and racialization. Nontraditional sites like professional wrestling matches, middle-class black suburbs, and Vietnamese gardens take precedence over clichéd renderings of Creole cuisine, voodoo queens, and hot jazz. Covering the city's founding through its present and highlighting changing political and social formations, this volume remakes New Orleans as a rich site for understanding the quintessential concerns of American cities.”

Thomas Jessen Adams is Lecturer in History and American Studies, Academic Director of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and coeditor of Working in the Big Easy: The History and Politics of Labor in New Orleans.

Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University and author of Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, also published by Duke University Press.

“This is NOLA unmasked: a brave and unflinching critique of the myth of the Big Easy. In fact, as these essays argue so powerfully, no southern city is less at ease or more pervaded by class and racial tension.” Mike Davis

Bibliography, notes, index.

Laurent Dubois and Richard Lee, Freedom Roots: Histories from the Caribbean(The University of North Carolina Press). “’To tell the history of the Caribbean is to tell the history of the world,’ write Laurent Dubois and Richard Lee Turits. In this powerful and expansive story of the vast archipelago, Dubois and Turits chronicle how the Caribbean has been at the heart of modern contests between slavery and freedom, racism and equality, and empire and independence. From the emergence of racial slavery and European colonialism in the early sixteenth century to U.S. annexations and military occupations in the twentieth, systems of exploitation and imperial control have haunted the region. Yet the Caribbean is also where empires have been overthrown, slavery was first defeated, and the most dramatic revolutions triumphed. Caribbean peoples have never stopped imagining and pursuing new forms of liberty. Dubois and Turits reveal how the region's most vital transformations have been ignited in the conflicts over competing visions of land. While the powerful sought a Caribbean awash in plantations for the benefit of the few, countless others anchored their quest for freedom in small-farming and counter-plantation economies, at times succeeding against all odds. Caribbean realities to this day are rooted in this long and illuminating history of struggle.”

Laurent Dubois, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History andA Colony of Citizens, among other books, is professor of history and romance studies at Duke University. 

Richard Lee Turits, author of Foundations of Despotism, is associate professor of history, Africana studies, and Latin American studies at The College of William & Mary.

Map, notes, index.

Mark Peterson’s The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865(Princeton University Press) is “A groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States. In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary ‘city upon a hill’ and the ‘cradle of liberty’ for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clichés, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston’s overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston’s development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain’s Stuart monarchs and how―through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution―it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States.

Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston’s origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain’s empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, ‘Bostoners’ aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston’s regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitutionundercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state’s vision of a common good for all.

Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Bostonoffers a startlingly fresh understanding of America’s history.”

Mark Peterson is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.

“Mark Peterson’s story of the rise and fall of the city-state of Boston over nearly three centuries is a remarkable achievement. He has told the story in such a rich and extraordinary way that our understanding of Boston’s history will never again be the same.” Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Evan Friss’On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City(Columbia University Press) “traces the colorful and fraught history of cycling in New York City. He uncovers the bicycle’s place in the city over time, showing how it has served as a mirror of the city’s changing social, economic, infrastructural, and cultural politics since it first appeared. It has been central, as when horse-drawn carriages shared the road with bicycle lanes in the 1890s; peripheral, when Robert Moses’s car-centric vision made room for bicycles only as recreation; and aggressively marginalized, when Ed Koch’s battle against bike messengers culminated in the short-lived 1987 Midtown Bike Ban. On Bicyclesilluminates how the city as we know it today―veined with over a thousand miles of bicycle lanes―reflects a fitful journey powered, and opposed, by New York City’s people and its politics.”

Evan Friss is an associate professor of history at James Madison University and the author of The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s. He used to pedal around New York City, but now lives in Virginia with his family.

“In On Bicycles, Evan Friss fills in the missing chapters that bicycles hold in New York City’s near-miraculous transportation history and shows how the city’s streets are finally catching up with them.” Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates, former NYC transportation commissioner.

“Witty and wise, engaged and engaging, surprising, fun and fabulous―I’m running out of adjectives to describe Evan Friss’s wondrous new book. Move over Amsterdam: New York City is a bicycling city too, though with fits and starts, grunts and guffaws, and more than a handful of bike haters (some in high places). A great way to learn about the history of the city that never sleeps―and has never stopped arguing about its bicycles and bicyclists.” David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 20th Anniversary Edition (Sexual Cultures)with a new Foreword by Robert F. Reid-Phar(New York University Press). “The twentieth anniversary edition of a landmark book that cataloged a vibrant but disappearing neighborhood in New York City. In the two decades that preceded the original publication of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Forty-second Street, then the most infamous street in America, was being remade into a sanitized tourist haven. In the forced disappearance of porn theaters, peep shows, and street hustlers to make room for a Disney store, a children’s theater, and large, neon-lit cafes, Samuel R. Delany saw a disappearance, not only of the old Times Square, but of the complex social relationships that developed there.”

Samuel R. Delanybore witness to the dismantling of the institutions that promoted points of contact between people of different classes and races in a public space, and in this hybrid text, argues for the necessity of public restrooms and tree-filled parks to a city's physical and psychological landscape. This twentieth anniversary edition includes a new foreword by Robert Reid-Pharr that traces the importance and continued resonances of Samuel R. Delany’s groundbreaking Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.”

Robert F. Reid-Pharr is Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. He is the author of Archives of Flesh: African America, Spain, and Post-Humanist Critique, Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual, Black Gay Man: Essays, and Conjugal Union: The Body, the House, and the Black American.

Works cited.

The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel into Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion,

byRobert S. Mueller III, Special Counsel's Office U.S. Department of Justice, et alii (Scribner) “is that rare Washington tell-all that surpasses its pre-publication hype  . . . the best book by far on the workings of the Trump presidency. It was delivered to the attorney general but is also written for history. The book reveals the president in all his impulsiveness, insecurity and growing disregard for rules and norms; White House aides alternating between deference to the man and defiance of his ‘crazy s—‘ requests; and a campaign team too inept to realize, or too reckless to care, when they might have been bending the law. And special counsel Robert Mueller has it all under oath, on the record, along with interviews and contemporaneous notes backing it up.” Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

“This is a document that, like the Badlands National Park, one has to visit for oneself. If you rely on the velvet fog of Attorney General William Barr’s Cliffs Notes, you will get an ‘F’ on the exam… So much of what’s in the Mueller report is already known, thanks to what never again should be referred to as ‘fake news,’ that reading it is like consuming a short story collection that’s already been excerpted in every magazine you subscribe to. But its two volumes nonetheless have the power to shock and appall.” Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“It's amazing how many journalistic stories derided as ‘fake news’ over the past few years now re-appear in Mueller's recounting — only this time as documented evidence…. Mueller's contribution to the literature of this period in history will have an expanding readership in the immediate future as well.” NPR

“The Mueller report, Olympian and meticulous, feels like an attempt to wrest back our government on behalf not just of real lawyers but of reality itself.” Laura Miller, Slate

U.S. House Impeachment Report of Trump on Ukraine 

Full Text of the U.S. House Democrats' Report

No Commentary, Spin, or Interpretation 

Preface by Rep. Adam Schiff, Executive Summary by House Intel Committee(Independently Published).

Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump(Random House). “Before Ukraine, before impeachment: This is the never-before-told inside story of the high-stakes, four-year-long investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia ties—culminating in the Steele dossier, and sparking the Mueller report—from the founders of political opposition research company Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who decided to abandon the struggling news business and use their reporting skills to conduct open-source investigations for businesses and law firms—and opposition research for political candidates. In the fall of 2015, they were hired to look into the finances of Donald Trump. What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption—and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion’s research going forward would be Trump’s entanglements with Russia. To help them make sense of what they were seeing, Simpson and Fritsch engaged the services of a former British intelligence agent and Russia expert named Christopher Steele. He would produce a series of memos—which collectively became known as the Steele dossier—that raised deeply alarming questions about the nature of Trump’s ties to a hostile foreign power. Those memos made their way to U.S. intelligence agencies, and then to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. On January 10, 2017, the Steele dossier broke into public view, and the Trump-Russia story reached escape velocity. At the time, Fusion GPS was just a ten-person consulting firm tucked away above a Starbucks near Dupont Circle, but it would soon be thrust into the center of the biggest news story on the planet—a story that would lead to accusations of witch hunts, a relentless campaign of persecution by congressional Republicans, bizarre conspiracy theories, lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, and the Mueller report. In Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch tell their story for the first time—a tale of the high-stakes pursuit of one of the biggest, most important stories of our time—no matter the costs.” 

Glenn Simpson is the co-founder of Fusion GPS. He is a former senior reporter for The Wall Street Journalwho has specialized in campaign finance, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism finance, securities fraud, and political corruption. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family.

Peter Fritsch co-founded Fusion GPS. He is a former reporter and bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, previously based in Mexico City, São Paulo, South and Southeast Asia, and Brussels. He finished his Wall Street Journalcareer as national security editor in Washington, D.C. He lives in Maryland with his family.

“A fascinating read. An extraordinary book.” Andrea Mitchell

“A master class in how Washington works.” The Atlantic

“I hope some talented filmmaker makes a movie out of the new book by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Crime in Progress . . . the best procedural yet written about the discovery of Trump’s Russia ties. It demolishes a number of right-wing talking points, including the claim that the Steele dossier formed the basis of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence inquiry into Trump.” Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

“[Simpson and Fritsch] present a mountain of evidence that Trump’s dealings with corrupt foreign players—particularly those from the former Soviet Union—are both real and go back decades.” Jane Mayer, The New Yorker

“Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch’s Crime in Progressuntangles one of the great mysteries of the Trump era—the full story of the Steele dossier—and provides a fascinating insight into the investigatory mind at work. It’s an indispensable guide to the Russia scandals—and a reminder of the redemptive power of facts over lies.” Jeffrey Toobin

 “We just got a really, really, really, really good new account of how [it] all came together. . . . I feel fairly steeped in this matter and I learned something on every page.” Rachel Maddow

Notes, bibliography, index.

Eric Klinenberg (Editor), Sharon Marcus (Editor), Caitlin Zaloom (Editor), Michelle Wilde Anderson, Lisa Wade, and 31 more, Antidemocracy in America: Truth, Power, and the Republic at Risk (Public Books Series)(Columbia University Press). “Antidemocracy in Americais a collective effort to understand how we got to this point and what can be done about it. Assembled by the sociologist Eric Klinenberg as well as the editors of the online magazine Public Books, Caitlin Zaloom and Sharon Marcus, it offers essays from many of the nation’s leading scholars, experts on topics including race, religion, gender, civil liberties, protest, inequality, immigration, climate change, national security, and the role of the media. Antidemocracy in Americaplaces our present in international and historical context, considering the worldwide turn toward authoritarianism and its varied precursors. Each essay seeks to inform our understanding of the fragility of American democracy and suggests how to protect it from the buried contradictions that Trump’s victory brought into public view.”

“Antidemocracy in Americais essential reading for understanding the deep divisions within American society, which are not new and have led us to this critical moment in U.S. political culture.” Alondra Nelson, author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome

“This provocative book offers an all-star lineup for scholars from multiple disciplines who provide a fascinating analysis of the anti-democratic forces that have gained hold within the United States. As readers try to make sense of the era of Trump, this is a perfect starting point to make sense of the troubling developments we have seen.” Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer, coauthors of Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974

“This book offers readers more than respite from the relentless buzz of tweets, shares, and posts that overcrowd our daily consciousness; it supplies a beneficial point of departure for thinking critically about the direction of our political life in these challenging times. Antidemocracy in America is thoughtfully curated and insightful.” Anthony S. Chen, author of The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 1941-1972

Alex Zamalin’sBlack Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism(Columbia University Press) “offers a groundbreaking examination of African American visions of social transformation and their counterutopian counterparts. Considering figures associated with racial separatism, postracialism, anticolonialism, Pan-Africanism, and Afrofuturism, he argues that the black utopian tradition continues to challenge American political thought and culture. Black Utopia spans black nationalist visions of an ideal Africa, the fiction of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Sun Ra’s cosmic mythology of alien abduction. Zamalin casts Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler as political theorists and reflects on the antiutopian challenges of George S. Schuyler and Richard Wright. Their thought proves that utopianism, rather than being politically immature or dangerous, can invigorate political imagination. Both an inspiring intellectual history and a critique of present power relations, this book suggests that, with democracy under siege across the globe, the black utopian tradition may be our best hope for combating injustice.”

Alex Zamalin is assistant professor of political science and director of the African American Studies Program at University of Detroit Mercy. He is the author of African American Political Thought and American Culture: The Nation’s Struggle for Racial Justice (2015);Struggle on Their Minds: The Political Thought of African American Resistance (Columbia University Press, 2017);andAntiracism: An Introduction (2019).

“Crisply written and compellingly argued, Black Utopiatraces a remarkable genealogy of black utopian and anti-utopian thought from Martin Delany in the early nineteenth century to Octavia Butler in the early twenty-first. A versatile cultural historian and political theorist, Alex Zamalin reveals that the democratic hope for racial equality and social justice has historically overcome dystopian conditions, ranging from slavery to present-day racism, while animating the African American intellectual imagination.” Gene Andrew Jarrett, author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Wendy Brown’sIn the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West (The Wellek Library Lectures)(Columbia University Press) “casts the hard-right turn as animated by socioeconomically aggrieved white working- and middle-class populations but contoured by neoliberalism’s multipronged assault on democratic values. From its inception, neoliberalism flirted with authoritarian liberalism as it warred against robust democracy. It repelled social-justice claims through appeals to market freedom and morality. It sought to de-democratize the state, economy, and society and re-secure the patriarchal family. In key works of the founding neoliberal intellectuals, Wendy Brown traces the ambition to replace democratic orders with ones disciplined by markets and traditional morality and democratic states with technocratic ones. Yet plutocracy, white supremacy, politicized mass affect, indifference to truth, and extreme social disinhibition were no part of the neoliberal vision. Brown theorizes their unintentional spurring by neoliberal reason, from its attack on the value of society and its fetish of individual freedom to its legitimation of inequality. Above all, she argues, neoliberalism’s intensification of nihilism coupled with its accidental wounding of white male supremacy generates an apocalyptic populism willing to destroy the world rather than endure a future in which this supremacy disappears.”

Wendy Brown is Class of 1936 First Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches political theory. Her recent books include Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (2015) andWalled States, Waning Sovereignty (2010).

“Wendy Brown is the great radical theorist of democracy of our time, in the grand tradition of Sheldon Wolin. This book is the best treatment we have of the aftermath of the high moments of our neoliberal age and the descent into antidemocratic darkness. Yet Brown's profound analysis and mature vision give us a glimmer of hope!” Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard University.

Notes, index.

Jedediah Purdy’sThis Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth (Princeton University Press) is “a powerful book about how the land we share divides us―and how it could unite us

Today, we are at a turning point as we face ecological and political crises that are rooted in conflicts over the land itself. But these problems can be solved if we draw on elements of our tradition that move us toward a new commonwealth―a community founded on the well-being of all people and the natural world. In this brief, powerful, timely, and hopeful book, Jedediah Purdy, one of our finest writers and leading environmental thinkers, explores how we might begin to heal our fractured and contentious relationship with the land and with each other. From the coalfields of Appalachia and the tobacco fields of the Carolinas to the public lands of the West, Purdy shows how the land has always united and divided Americans, holding us in common projects and fates but also separating us into insiders and outsiders, owners and dependents, workers and bosses. Expropriated from Native Americans and transformed by slave labor, the same land that represents a history of racism and exploitation could, in the face of environmental catastrophe, bind us together in relationships of reciprocity and mutual responsibility. This may seem idealistic in our polarized time, but we are at a historical fork in the road, and if we do not make efforts now to move toward a commonwealth, Purdy warns, environmental and political pressures will create harsher and crueler conflicts―between citizens, between countries, and between humans and the rest of the world.”

“Showcasing the ideas of one of our finest writers, political commentators, and environmental law scholars, this is a wonderful book filled with insight.” Katrina Forrester, Harvard University

“This is a pragmatic, bracing, and beautiful book about the inextricable connections between ecological health and human justice. Purdy's diagnosis is as persuasive as his call for new kinds of solidarity in pursuit of economic and environmental equality.” Jane Bennett, author of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things

“This is a Thoreauvian call to wake up, to take up the long-forgotten work of building a 'world-renewing ecological commonwealth, ' forging alliances across all that keeps us apart, but that must hold us together if we are to survive the twenty-first century. Don't just read this book--think with it.”Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life.

Index.

Philip K. Howard,Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left(W. W. Norton & Company). 

“Is now really the best time for another jeremiad against regulation’? After years of Reagan rhetoric and Trump diatribes, Howard, a lawyer, obviously believes so. He lays down the foundation for Try Common Sensewith ex cathedra generalizations (‘pretty much everything run by Washington is broken”, ‘bureaucracy is evil’) and then adds a brick-by-brick account of alleged regulatory idiocies: He decries how airport screenings pull people aside ‘if, say, we left a nickel in our pocket’ and highlights the case of an angry public employee who supposedly sued his dry cleaner for $54 million for losing a pair of pants.

Disappointingly, he almost never gets around to explaining why we have regulation in the first place and when it succeeds. Agencies that protect workers, consumers and the environment did not emerge from liberals who ‘want to shackle businessmen,’ but only after public complaints, congressional hearings, majorities in two chambers, the signature of a president and court challenges by corporate interests with deep pockets.

Nor do we learn from Howard that teenage smoking and auto deaths per mile driven have plummeted because of government oversight. Love Canal in upstate New York and the Upper Big Branch Mine collapse in West Virginia are what happen when you fail to regulate. For a recent book that avoids antiregulatory diatribes but explains who such public servants are and how they decide, see Michael Lewis’s engaging The Fifth Risk.

A fairer view of the regulatory structure might be Samuel Johnson’s well-known observation about a dog walking on its hind legs: ‘It is not done well but you are surprised to find it done at all.’” Mark Green, the author or editor of 23 books, including Losing Our Democracy(2006). He was New York City’s first public advocate.

Notes, bibliography, index.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

Robert A. Carol, Working(Knopf). “For the first time in book form, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses; what it felt like to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books. Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences--some previously published, some written expressly for this book--bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work.”

“Caro’s work is the gold standard of deep-dive biography; he has become an almost mythic figure, the Ahab of nonfiction, relentless in the ever-elusive pursuit of truth. In Working, he shares tips on researching, interviewing and writing, showcased in wonderful, revealing, often funny anecdotes . . . Its real theme goes far beyond authorial tradecraft. Caro’s own life has been an epic of human endeavor, a tale of obsession . . . Writing truth to power takes time.” Evan Thomas, The Washington Post

Leah Price,What We Talk About When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading(Basic Books). “Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed. From the dawn of mass literacy to the invention of the paperback, most readers already skimmed and multitasked. Print-era doctors even forbade the very same silent absorption now recommended as a cure for electronic addictions. The evidence that books are dying proves even scarcer. In encounters with librarians, booksellers and activists who are reinventing old ways of reading, Price offers fresh hope to bibliophiles and literature lovers alike.”

Leah Price has taught English at Cambridge University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University, where from fall 2019 onward she will be founding director of the Rutgers Book Initiative. She is the author How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain and the editor of Unpacking My Library.

“No one writes about books-and their bookness-with anything close to the daunting curiosity and dazzling acuity of the inimitable Leah Price. What We Talk About When We Talk About Books is a rags to paper to Amazon Kindle bookshelf of delight and instruction, as entertaining as it is illuminating.” Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States.

Notes, index.

Tom Brokaw,The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate(Random House). “In August 1974, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal could no longer be denied, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office in anticipation of certain impeachment. The year preceding that moment was filled with shocking revelations and bizarre events, full of power politics, legal jujitsu, and high-stakes showdowns, and with head-shaking surprises every day. As the country’s top reporters worked to discover the truth, the public was overwhelmed by the confusing and almost unbelievable stories about activities in the Oval Office. Tom Brokaw, who was then the young NBC News White House correspondent, gives us a nuanced and thoughtful chronicle, recalling the players, the strategies, and the scandal that brought down a president. He takes readers from crowds of shouting protesters to shocking press conferences, from meetings with Attorney General Elliot Richardson and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, to overseas missions alongside Henry Kissinger. He recounts Nixon’s claims of executive privilege to withhold White House tape recordings of Oval Office conversations; the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and his replacement by Gerald Ford; the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; how in the midst of Watergate Nixon organized emergency military relief for Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that required Nixon to turn over the tapes; and other insider moments from this important and dramatic period. The Fall of Richard Nixon allows readers to experience this American epic from the perspective of a journalist on the ground and at the center of it all.”

Tom Brokaw is the author of seven bestsellers: The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks, An Album of Memories, A Long Way from Home, Boom!, The Time of Our Lives, andA Lucky Life Interrupted.A native of South Dakota, he graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in political science. He began his journalism career in Omaha and Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC News during Watergate, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored Today on NBC. He was the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokawfrom 1983 to 2005. In 2008 he anchored Meet the Pressfor nine months following the death of his friend Tim Russert. He continues to report for NBC News, producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise during breaking news events. Brokaw has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including two duPonts, two Peabody Awards, and several Emmys. In 2014, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in New York and Montana.

“A divided nation. A deeply controversial president. Powerful passions. No, it’s not what you’re thinking, but Tom Brokaw knows that the past can be prologue, and he’s given us an absorbing and illuminating firsthand account of how Richard Nixon fell from power. Part history, part memoir, Brokaw’s book reminds us of the importance of journalism, the significance of facts, and the inherent complexity of power in America.” Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America

Photographs, index.

Nicholas Buccola,The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America(Princeton University Press). “On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was ‘the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro,’ and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Usis the first book to tell the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men continues to illuminate America's racial divide today. Born in New York City only fifteen months apart, the Harlem-raised Baldwin and the privileged Buckley could not have been more different, but they both rose to the height of American intellectual life during the civil rights movement. By the time they met in Cambridge, Buckley was determined to sound the alarm about a man he considered an ‘eloquent menace.’ For his part, Baldwin viewed Buckley as a deluded reactionary whose popularity revealed the sickness of the American soul. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin's call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley's unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. A remarkable story of race and the American dream, The Fire Is upon Us reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of a conflict that continues to haunt our politics.”

“Written with marvelous style, The Fire Is upon Usis captivating, provocative, and exciting. Through its deep and thoughtful portraits of Baldwin and Buckley and its readings of American culture, politics, and history, the book casts light on the national past, present, and (one presumes) future.” Susan McWilliams Barndt, editor of A Political Companion to James Baldwin.

“An insightful, thoroughly researched, and well-written analysis of a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in America.” David Leeming, author of James Baldwin: A Biography.

“Drawing deep from archives while reminding us of that classic, grainy video of Baldwin and Buckley squaring off in England, Buccola brilliantly illuminates the American dilemma of race in the context of the early sixties, as well as now. As historian and political analyst, he deftly captures these two iconic wordsmiths at the peak of their divergent powers. How forcefully the past is past, but also so present in the hands of a superb scholar.” David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Sally Roesch Wagner, The Women's Suffrage MovementForeward by Gloria Steinem(Penguin Classics). “Comprised of historical texts spanning two centuries, The Women's Suffrage Movementis a comprehensive and singular volume with a distinctive focus on incorporating race, class, and gender, and illuminating minority voices. This one-of-a-kind intersectional anthology features the writings of the most well-known suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, alongside accounts of those often overlooked because of their race, from Native American women to African American suffragists like Ida B. Wells and the three Forten sisters. At a time of enormous political and social upheaval, there could be no more important book than one that recognizes a group of exemplary women--in their own words--as they paved the way for future generations. The editor and introducer, Sally Roesch Wagner, is a pre-eminent scholar of the diverse backbone of the women's suffrage movement, the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and serves on the New York State Women's Suffrage Commission.”

Sally Roesch Wagner is the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, New York and currently serves as adjunct faculty in the honors program at Syracuse University. She is a member of the New York State Women's Suffrage Commission and a consultant to the National Women's History Project. Author of numerous women's history books and articles telling the "untold stories", her recent publications center on the Haudenosaunee influence on the women's rights movement. Wagner appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthonyfor which she wrote the accompanying faculty guide for PBS, was a historian in the PBS special, One Woman, One Voteand has been interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and Democracy Now.

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. Her books include the bestsellers My Life on the Road, Revolution from Within, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, Marilyn: Norma Jeane, andAs if Women Matter. Steinem has received the National Magazine Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and many others. In 2013, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Bee Wilson,The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World(Basic Books;) “An award-winning food writer takes us on a global tour of what the world eats--and shows us how we can change it for the better. Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion? Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits. Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps. Yet modern food also kills--diabetes and heart disease are on the rise everywhere on earth. This is a book about the good, the terrible, and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how this food revolution has transformed our bodies, our social lives, and the world we live in.”

Bee Wilson is a celebrated food writer, food historian, and author of five books, including First Bite: How We Learn to Eat andConsider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. She has been named BBC Radio's food writer of the year and is a three-time Guild of Food Writers food journalist of the year. She writes a monthly column on food in the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Cambridge, England.

“Bee Wilson has done it again. With a sharp eye and

engaging narrative, Bee chronicles how our current food culture represents the best and worst of times. If you've ever felt conflicted about what to eat, here's the book that untangles the complex story of how we got here and

where we might go, giving us an enlightening account that's as sobering as it is enjoyable. A prescient, important book.” Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and author of The Third Plate

Charts, notes, bibliography, index.

Peter Martin’sThe Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language(Princeton University Press) “recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language. The overwhelming questions in the dictionary wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America’s first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed an American dictionary, like the American language, ought to be informed by the nation’s republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster’s death, when the ambitious Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster’s American Dictionaryand launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Civil War, the dictionary wars also engaged America’s colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at a pivotal historical moment that coincided with rising literacy and the print revolution.

Delving into the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflicts surrounding America’s first dictionaries, The Dictionary Warsexamines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation.”

“Wonderfully told. . . . For a tale of lexicographic intrigue, Mr. Martin’s book is unexcelled.” Bryan A. Garner (author of Garner’s Modern English Usage), Wall Street Journal

“Peter Martin’s highly readable work untangles the surprising plot twists that have resulted in Americans’ popular acceptance of the name Webster as being synonymous with dictionary. The tale is far more dramatic and surprising than many might imagine and this lively account sets the record straight.” Orin Hargraves, past president of the Dictionary Society of North America 

“The level of specific, thorough attention given to a particular period of U.S. lexicography sets The Dictionary Warsapart from other lexicographical histories. It tells a great, human story.” Lynne Murphy, author of The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Anne Harrington’sMind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness(W. W. Norton & Company) “explores psychiatry’s repeatedly frustrated struggle to understand mental disorder in biomedical terms. She shows how the stalling of early twentieth century efforts in this direction allowed Freudians and social scientists to insist, with some justification, that they had better ways of analyzing and fixing minds. But when the Freudians overreached, they drove psychiatry into a state of crisis that a new “biological revolution” was meant to alleviate. Harrington shows how little that biological revolution had to do with breakthroughs in science, and why the field has fallen into a state of crisis in our own time. Mind Fixersmakes clear that psychiatry’s waxing and waning biological enthusiasms have been shaped not just by developments in the clinic and lab, but also by a surprising range of social factors, including immigration, warfare, grassroots activism, and assumptions about race and gender. Government programs designed to empty the state mental hospitals, acrid rivalries between different factions in the field, industry profit mongering, consumerism, and an uncritical media have all contributed to the story as well. In focusing particularly on the search for the biological roots of schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder, Harrington underscores the high human stakes for the millions of people who have sought medical answers for their mental suffering. This is not just a story about doctors and scientists, but about countless ordinary people and their loved ones. A clear-eyed, evenhanded, and yet passionate tour de force, Mind Fixers recounts the past and present struggle to make mental illness a biological problem in order to lay the groundwork for creating a better future, both for those who suffer and for those whose job it is to care for them.”

Anne Harrington is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science and faculty dean of Pforzheimer House at Harvard University. She is the author of four books, including Mind Fixers andThe Cure Within. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“A laudable venture, in which Harrington’s intellectual precision and exacting research cannot be faulted.” Helen Thompson, New York Times Book Review

“Superb . . . nuanced . . . . In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington has written an excellent, engaging guide to what biological psychiatry has accomplished―and not accomplished―so far.” Richard J. McNally, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Pamela Paul andMaria RussoHow to Raise a Reader,

illustrated by Dan Yaccarino, Lisk Feng, Vera Brosgol, andMonica Garwood(Workman Publishing Company) is “An indispensable guide to welcoming children—from babies to teens—to a lifelong love of reading. Do you remember your first visit to where the wild things are? How about curling up for hours on end to discover the secret of the Sorcerer’s Stone? Combining clear, practical advice with inspiration, wisdom, tips, and curated reading lists, How to Raise a Reader shows you how to instill the joy and time-stopping pleasure of reading. Divided into four sections, from baby through teen, and each illustrated by a different artist, this book offers something useful on every page, whether it’s how to develop rituals around reading or build a family library, or ways to engage a reluctant reader. A fifth section, “More Books to Love: By Theme and Reading Level,” is chockful of expert recommendations. Throughout, the authors debunk common myths, assuage parental fears, and deliver invaluable lessons in a positive and easy-to-act-on way.”

Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Reviewand oversees books coverage at The New York Times, which she joined in 2011 as the children's books editor. She is also the host of the weekly Book Reviewpodcast for The Times. She is the author and editor of five books: My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues, The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony, Pornified, Parenting, Inc., andBy the Book. She is a former columnist for The Economist, Worth, andThe New York Times Stylessection. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, Vogue, Psychology Today, Brown Alumni Magazineand other national publications.

Maria Russo is the children’s books editor of The New York Times Books Review. She has been a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times, The New York Observer, andSalon, and holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband and three children. 

Dan Yaccarinois the author of Five Little Pumpkinsand many other children’s books; creator of the Parents’ Choice Award-winning animated TV series Oswald—chosen byTime as one of the top 6 shows to watch on cable—and the Emmy-winning Willa’s Wild Life. His awards include the Bologna Ragazzi, The New York TimesTop 10 Best Illustrated, and an ALA Notable award.

Toni Morrison’sThe Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditation(Knopf) “is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater director Peter Sellars. In all, The Source of Self-Regardis a luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison's oeuvre.”

Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She lives in New York.

“The Source of Self-Regardspeaks to today's social and political moment as directly as this morning's headlines... a call to action... Morrison tackles headfirst the weighty issues that have long troubled America's conscience... profoundly insightful...Is it a collection worth reading? Undoubtedly... Throughout the collection she calls on us to do what she knows, what we should all know, is possible: “To lessen suffering, to know the truth and tell it, to raise the bar of humane expectation.” NPR

“Clearly we do not deserve Morrison, and clearly we need her badly . . . . In this collection of nonfiction written over the past four decades, the revered (and sometimes controversial) author reinforces her status as a piercing and visionary analyst of history, society, literature, language, and, always, race... the book explodes into pure brilliance... despite its overflowing content, the book still inspires the desire for more . . . . The Source of Self-Regardis the definitive statement that Morrison, who has thought as much as anyone about the ways countries, cultures, and people fail and hurt each other and themselves, still believes that we can be better.” The Boston Globe

Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered: A Novel(Harper Collins) “is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future. . . . [A] troubled husband and public servant asks, How can a man tell the truth, and be reviled for it? A science teacher with a passion for honest investigation, Thatcher Greenwood finds himself under siege: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin. His young bride and social-climbing mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his worries that their elegant house is unsound. In a village ostensibly founded as a benevolent Utopia, Thatcher wants only to honor his duties, but his friendships with a woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town’s powerful men.”

New York Timesbestseller

An NPR pick for Best Books of 2018

One of Christian Science Monitor'sbest fiction reads of 2018

One of Newsweek'sBest Books of the year

“Kingsolver’s dual narrative works beautifully. By giving us a family and a world teetering on the brink in 2016, and conveying a different but connected type of 19th-century teetering, Kingsolver creates a sense…that as humans we’re inevitably connected through the possibility of collapse, whether it’s the collapse of our houses, our bodies, logic, the social order or earth itself…In this engaged and absorbing novel, the two narratives reflect each other, reminding us of the dependability and adaptiveness of our drive toward survival.” Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review

“I felt almost bereft closing the cover on this book… With a spellbinding narrative and its exquisitely accurate evocation of two eras, Barbara Kingsolver’s novel is itself a shelter of sorts. One doesn’t want to leave it.” Helen Klein Ross, Wall Street Journal

“Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel, Unsheltered, will make you weep . . . . But Kingsolver is also downright hilarious. . . .Unsheltered is also a sociopolitical novel tackling real-world issues, especially how we humans navigate profound changes that threaten to unmoor us.” O, the Oprah Magazine

I've read all the previous novels (and seen the movies) about Lisbeth Sanders and put the books into my roundups. She truly is "A Heroine For Our Times.

David LagercrantzThe Girl Who Lived Twice: A Lisbeth Salander Novel, continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series (Knopf). 

SPOILER ALERT.I never read the jacket description of a work of fiction. Almost always, it reveals more of the plot than I want to know before reading the book. The account below does exactly that. My advice: Skip it. 

“Lisbeth Salander--the fierce, unstoppable girl with the dragon tattoo--has disappeared. She's sold her apartment in Stockholm. She's gone silent electronically. She's told no one where she is. And no one is aware that at long last she's got her primal enemy, her twin sister, Camilla, squarely in her sights. Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm--a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist's phone number on it. Once again, Salander and Blomkvist will come to each other's aid, moving in tandem toward the truths they each seek. In the end, it will be Blomkvist--in a moment of unimaginable self-sacrifice--who will make it possible for Lisbeth to face the most important battle of her life, and, finally, to put her past to rest.”

David Lagercrantz is an acclaimed Swedish writer and journalist. In 2015 The Girl in the Spider's Web, his continuation of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, became a worldwide best seller, and it was announced that Lagercrantz would write two further novels in the series. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eyewas published in September 2017. He is the coauthor of numerous biographies including the internationally best-selling memoir I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and the acclaimed novel Fall of Man in Wilmslow, on the death and life of Alan Turing.

“A murder mystery inside an espionage conspiracy wrapped in an action thriller—a unique concoction that should leave Salander’s legion of followers clamoring for more.” The Wall Street Journal.

 “A quest for revenge and atonement that plumbs the depths of Russian troll factories and scales the heights of Mount Everest.” TIME.

Janet Malcolm’sNobody's Looking at You: Essays(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “brings together previously uncompiled pieces, mainly from The New Yorkerand The New York Review of Books. The title piece of this wonderfully eclectic collection is a profile of the fashion designer Eileen Fisher, whose mother often said to her, “Nobody’s looking at you.” But in every piece in this volume, Malcolm looks closely and with impunity at a broad range of subjects, from Donald Trump’s TV nemesis Rachel Maddow, to the stiletto-heel-wearing pianist Yuju Wang, to ‘the big-league game’ of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In an essay called ‘Socks,’ the Pevears are seen as the ‘sort of asteroid [that] has hit the safe world of Russian Literature in English translation,’ and in ‘Dreams and Anna Karenina,’ the focus is Tolstoy, ‘one of literature’s greatest masters of manipulative techniques.” Nobody’s Looking at Youconcludes with ‘Pandora’s Click,’ a brief, cautionary piece about e-mail etiquette that was written in the early two thousands, and that reverberates―albeit painfully―to this day.”

“Seeing things differently is the essence of what sets Malcolm apart. Few writers pay attention with the precision, acuity and patience she has exhibited during her career . . . Taking no particular issue with the work of her colleagues, I wish nonetheless to say that Malcolm, line to line, is a more revealing writer, one whose presence in her pieces isn’t meant to advertise the self so much as complicate the subject. And also, line to line, she is a better writer . . . We are fortunate to have Malcolm’s kind of authority, one founded as much on her failures as on her successes at seeing.” Wyatt Mason, The New York Times Book Review

“There are few writers who command the respect of their fellows more than Janet Malcolm . . . Malcolm is always worth reading, it can be instructive to see how much satisfying craft she brings to even the most trivial article . . . a collection that veers between tenderness and asperity.” Phillip Lopate, TLS

Marina MacKay’sIan Watt: The Novel and the Wartime Critic (Oxford Mid-Century Studies Series)(Oxford University Press) “reconstructs Watt's wartime world: these were harrowing years of mass death, deprivation, and terror, but also ones in which communities and institutions were improvised under the starkest of emergency conditions. Ian Watt: The Novel and the Wartime Critic argues that many of our foundational stories about the novel about the novel's origins and development, and about the social, moral, and psychological work that the novel accomplishes can be traced to the crises of the Second World War and its aftermath. Before his masterpiece The Rise of the Novel made him one of the most influential post-war British literary critics, Ian Watt was a soldier, a prisoner of war of the Japanese, and a forced labourer on the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway.”

Marina MacKay is Associate Professor of English and Tutorial Fellow of St Peter's College, University of Oxford. Her books include Modernism and World War II(2007) and The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel(2010). Her articles on mid-century writing have appeared in a range of journals including PMLA, ELH, andLiterature & History.

Bibliography, index.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky(Pantheon Graphic Library) is “A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girlstands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to capture the remarkable spirit of Anne Frank, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world has seen—and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal. Adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky, and authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, this is the first graphic edition of The Diary and includes extensive quotation directly from the definitive edition. It remains faithful to the original, while the stunning illustrations interpret and add layers of visual meaning and immediacy to this classic work of Holocaust literature.

Michael J. Rosen,A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber(Trillium/Ohio State University Press).

“Including some 260 drawings, this collection is the first comprehensive focus on his work as an artist, a cartoonist, and an illustrator. With commentary from a host of preeminent cartoonists and writers, including Ian Frazier, Seymour Chast, and Michael Maslin, A Mile and a Half of Lines celebrates the significance of Thurber’s spontaneous, unstudied, and novel drawing style that not only altered the nature of American cartooning but also expanded the very possibilities of an illustrated line. Coinciding with the first major retrospective of Thurber’s art presented by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2019, A Mile and a Half of Lines showcases both classic Thurber as well as visual material never before seen in print.”

Michael J. Rosen is a writer, an illustrator, and an editor who has collaborated with the Thurber Estate and written about the works of James Thurber for almost forty years. He was the founding literary director of the Thurber House and has edited six volumes of Thurber’s work.

James Thurber (1894–1961), the twentieth century’s most popular American humorist, authored nearly three dozen collections of cartoons, essays, stories, fables, and biographical works—much of which he published as one of the original voices of the New Yorkermagazine—in addition to creating a shelf of classic children’s books, the gem-like autobiography My Life and Hard Times, and two Broadway productions.

“The most wonderful thing about Thurber’s drawings is how they prove the point of a cartoon is not to show off a mastery of perspective or anatomy, or that the cartoonist can render a horse—or a sea—better than anyone else on the planet. Not that I can tell you what the point is, other than it has a lot more to do with being funny than anatomy.” Roz Chast, author of Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?

Chronology, notes, bibliography, index.

Ralph Clare (editor),The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace(Cambridge University Press). “Best known for his masterpiece Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace re-invented fiction and non-fiction for a generation with his groundbreaking and original work. Wallace's desire to blend formal innovation and self-reflexivity with the communicative and restorative function of literature resulted in works that appeal as much to a reader's intellect as they do emotion. As such, few writers in recent memory have quite matched his work's intense critical and popular impact. The essays in this Companion, written by top Wallace scholars, offer a historical and cultural context for grasping Wallace's significance, provide rigorous individual readings of each of his major works, whether story collections, non-fiction, or novels, and address the key themes and concerns of these works, including aesthetics, politics, religion and spirituality, race, and post-humanism. This wide-ranging volume is a necessary resource for understanding an author now widely regarded as one of the most influential and important of his time.”

Ralph Clare is Associate Professor of English at Boise State University, Idaho and specializes in post-45 American literature. He is the author of Fictions Inc.: The Corporation in Postmodern Fiction, Film, andPopular Cultureand is currently at work on a study of emotion and affect in contemporary fiction of the neoliberal era.

Bibliography, index.

Jonathan Rosenbaum’sCinematic Encounters: Interviews and Dialogues (University of Illinois Press) “collects more than forty years of interviews that embrace Rosenbaum's vision of film criticism as a collaboration involving multiple voices. Rosenbaum accompanies Orson Welles on a journey back to Heart of Darkness, the unmade film meant to be Welles's Hollywood debut. Jacques Tati addresses the primacy of décor and soundtrack in his comedic masterpiece PlayTime, while Jim Jarmusch explains the influence of real and Hollywoodized Native Americans in Dead Man. By arranging the chapters chronologically, Rosenbaum invites readers to pursue thematic threads as if the discussions were dialogues between separate interviews. The result is a rare gathering of filmmakers trading thoughts on art and process, on great works and false starts, and on actors and intimate moments.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum was the film critic for the ChicagoReader from 1987 to 2008. He is the coauthor of Abbas Kiarostami: Expanded Second Editionand the author of Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephiliaand Discovering Orson Welles. He archives his work at jonathanrosenbaum.net.

“Rosenbaum is arguably America's greatest living film critic. This stimulating collection forms a kind of essay about the types of dialogues and meditations that one can have about a film or a body of films. It is often absolutely riveting.” Alan Williams, author of Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking

“Given the power and voraciousness of his mind, Jonathan Rosenbaum could dominate and devour everything in his path if he wanted to, like the bullying movies he abhors. But with his openness of spirit, he prefers films that let you question and participate. Those are also his activities in Cinematic Encounters, as he converses with great and good filmmakers he admires and swaps ideas and enthusiasms with his cinephile friends. Open the book and you, too, are welcome to join in.” Stuart Klawans, film critic, The Nation

Index.

Louise Carley Lewisson and Mary Nolan, Mary Nolan, Ziegfeld Girl and Silent Movie Star: A Biography Including Her 1941 Memoir(McFarland). “Mary Nolan (1905-1948), also known as Imogene "Bubbles" Wilson, was the subject of two infamous court cases--one with Frank Tinney and the other with Eddie Mannix--in the 1920s. Like many Ziegfeld Follies girls, she had the beginnings of a promising career, but by the 1930s it had been destroyed by adultery, drugs and physical abuse. This biography follows Nolan's life from the backwoods of Kentucky to her death in 1948. Included is a series of newspaper articles published in 1941 that were to be expanded into her memoir, which she was unable to complete before her death.”

About the Author Louise Carley Lewisson: “I am a huge movie fan, especially stars of the Golden Age, and I love unearthing stories of little known actors and actresses that played a role when the industry was just starting. My next book will be on Agnes Ayres who starred with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, and amassed a fortune in real estate, before losing it in the 1930s in the Depression, and then died in relative obscurity.”

Photographs, notes, filmography, bibliography, index.

Harold Bloom,Falstaff: Give Me Life (Shakespeare's Personalities)(Scribner). “From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes ‘a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spirit of Bloom’s imagination’ (front page, The New York Times Book Review) and an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of Falstaff—Shakespeare’s greatest enduring and complex comedic characters. Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare’s three Henry plays: Henry IV, Parts One and Two, andHenry V. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads, him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him—some innocent, some cruel. Falstaff can be lewd, funny, careless of others, a bad creditor, an unreliable friend, and in the end, devastatingly reckless in his presumption of loyalty from the new King. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom writes about Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal. Just as we encounter one type of Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are young adults and another when we are middle-aged, Bloom writes about his own shifting understanding of Falstaff over the course of his lifetime. Ultimately we come away with a deeper appreciation of this profoundly complex character, and this ‘poignant work’ (Publishers Weekly, starred review) as a whole becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters make. ‘In this first of five books about Shakespearean personalities, Bloom brings erudition and boundless enthusiasm’ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and his exhilarating Falstaff invites us to look at a character as a flawed human who might live in our world. 

“[Bloom’s] last love letter to the shaping spirit of his imagination . . . . An explanation and reiteration of why Falstaff matters to Bloom, and why Falstaff is one of literature’s vital forces . . . . A pleasure to read.” Jeanette Winterson, New York Times Book Review.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, I'd Die For You: And Other Lost Stories(), edited by Anne Margaret Daniel, “is a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories never widely shared. Some were submitted individually to major magazines during the 1930s and accepted for publication during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, but never printed. Some were written as movie scenarios and sent to studios or producers, but not filmed. Others are stories that could not be sold because their subject matter or style departed from what editors expected of Fitzgerald. Some of the eighteen stories were physically lost, coming to light only in the past few years. All were lost, in one sense or another: lost in the painful shuffle of the difficulties of Fitzgerald’s life in the middle 1930s; lost to readers because contemporary editors did not understand or accept what he was trying to write; lost because archives are like that. Readers will experience here Fitzgerald writing about controversial topics, depicting young men and women who actually spoke and thought more as young men and women did, without censorship. Rather than permit changes and sanitizing by his contemporary editors, Fitzgerald preferred to let his work remain unpublished, even at a time when he was in great need of money and review attention. Written in his characteristically beautiful, sharp, and surprising language, exploring themes both familiar and fresh, these stories provide new insight into the bold and uncompromising arc of Fitzgerald’s career. I’d Die For You is a revealing, intimate look at Fitzgerald’s creative process that shows him to be a writer working at the fore of modern literature—in all its developing complexities.”

“A treasure trove for Fitzgerald enthusiasts, scholars, and aspiring writers . . . . an invaluable glimpse into a brilliant but struggling writer's process.” Heller McAlpin, NPR.org.

“His best writing is grounded in a specific time and place, and then propelled by his deep emotional attachment to the subject matter . . . shows curious readers how the author tried to mine an idea . . . . Editor Anne Margaret Daniel’s individual story introductions are highly informative, and her extensive annotations are illuminating.” Dave Page, Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Salman Rushdie,Quichotte: A Novel(Random House). “Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichottesets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand, gallantly braving the tragicomic perils of an age where “Anything-Can-Happen.” Meanwhile, his creator, in a midlife crisis, has equally urgent challenges of his own. Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote to satirize the culture of his time, Rushdie takes the reader on a wild ride through a country on the verge of moral and spiritual collapse. And with the kind of storytelling magic that is the hallmark of Rushdie’s work, the fully realized lives of DuChamp and Quichotte intertwine in a profoundly human quest for love and a wickedly entertaining portrait of an age in which fact is so often indiscernible from fiction.” 

Sir Salman Rushdie is the author of many novels including Grimus, Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown andThe Enchantress of Florence. He has also published works of non-fiction including, The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz and, as co-editor,The Vintage Book of Short Stories. He has received many awards for his writing including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1993 Midnight's Childrenwas judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

“Rushdie weaves together all of his subjects, sharply observed, with extraordinary elegance and wit. . . . Cervantes’s hero, who is eternally modern perhaps because he is essentially anti-contemporary, couldn’t be a more inspired transplant into the mad reality of the present day, which Rushdie sends up in terms both universal and highly specific, tragic and hilarious, strange but hauntingly familiar. . . . At least here’s something worth reading as civilization crumbles around us, before we succumb to our fates. Right?” Entertainment Weekly

Kathryn Davis’The Silk Road: A Novel(Graywolf Press) is “A spellbinding novel about transience and mortality, by one of the most original voices in American literature. Since the beginning of her extraordinary career, Davis has been fascinated by journeys. Her books have been shaped around road trips, walking tours, hegiras, exiles: and now, in this triumphant novel, a pilgrimage. The Silk Road is her most explicitly allegorical novel and also her most profound vehicle, supple and mesmerizing, the journey here is not undertaken by a single protagonist but by a community of separate souls―a family, a yoga class, a generation. Its revelations are ravishing and desolating.”

“[Kathryn Davis’s] writing exists outside of genre and trends and time. . . . For those willing to get lost in its spiritual haze, there is a uniquely un-2019 pleasure to be found: a meditative bewilderment that just might cede to enlightenment.” Nadja Spiegelman, The New York Times Book Review. 

Max Porter’sLanny: A Novel(Graywolf Press) “extends the potent and magical space Max Porter created in his Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award, and was short-listed for The Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. Porter’s brilliant new novel,Lanny, will ensorcell readers with its anarchic energy, with its bewitching tapestry of fabulism and domestic drama. Lannyis a ringing defense of creativity, spirit, and the generative forces that often seem under assault in the contemporary world, and it solidifies Porter’s reputation as one of the most daring and sensitive writers of his generation.”

“It’s hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don’t come along very often. It’s a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart. Every page is a joy. It’s a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this.” Maggie O’Farrell

“Max Porter writes like no one else and it is impossible not to be swept along and astounded. Lannyis a wonder.” Daisy Johnson

“The writing is stunning and deeply affecting. The plot thunders along. This is a book that resolutely refuses to be categorised but to get somewhere close, think: Under Milk Wood meetsBroadchurch.” Nathan Filer

“It takes a special kind of genius to create something which is both so strange and yet so compulsive.” Mark Haddon

“It shouldn’t be possible for a book to be simultaneously heart-stopping, heart-shaking and pulse-racing, but that is only one of the extraordinary feats Max Porter pulls off in this astonishing novel.” Kamila Shamsie

“A powerful yet tender reclamation of the imagination, love, and artmaking―all of it a brilliant defense of the outsider’s tenuous foothold in society.” Ocean Vuong

“Reading Lannyis like going to the back of the garden to find the exact spot where magic and menace meet. It’s delightful and dark, stark and stylish, and as strange as it is scary―I loved it.” Claire Cameron

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses: A Novel(Graywolf Press), translated by Anne Born. “A bestseller and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, now in paperback from Graywolf Press for the first time. ‘We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and one of the first days of July.’ Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day―an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.”

Per Petterson won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for the novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been translated into more than thirty languages and was named a Best Book of 2007 by The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Before publishing his first book, Petterson worked as a bookseller in Norway.

“Petterson’s spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond’s childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy’s perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man.” The New Yorker

Jamel Brinkley,ALucky Man: Stories(Graywolf Press). “In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history. Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class―where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.”

“With equal parts precision and poetry, these nine audacious stories step into the minefields awaiting boys of color as they approach manhood in Brooklyn and the Bronx―testing the limits of relationships, social norms, and their own definitions of masculinity.” O, The Oprah Magazine

Dobby Gibson’sLittle Glass Planet: Poems(Graywolf Press) “transform the everyday into the revelatory. Little Glass Planetexults in the strangeness of the known and unknowable world. In poems set as far afield as Mumbai and Marfa, Texas, Dobby Gibson maps disparate landscapes, both terrestrial and subliminal, to reveal the drama of the quotidian. Aphoristic, allusive, and collaged, these poems mine our various human languages to help us understand what we might mean when we speak to each other―as lovers, as family, as strangers. Little Glass Planet uses lyric broadcasts to foreshorten the perceived distances between us, opening borders and pointing toward a sense of collectivity. ‘This is my love letter to the world,’ Gibson writes, ‘someone call us a sitter. / We’re going to be here a while.’ Elegiac, funny, and candid, Little Glass Planet is a kind of manual for paying attention to a world that is increasingly engineered to distract us from our own humanity. It’s a book that points toward hope, offering the possibilities of a “we” that only the open frequency of poetry can create, possibilities that are indistinguishable from love.”

Tess Gallagher’sIs, Is Not: Poems(Graywolf Press) “upends our notions of linear time, evokes the spirit and sanctity of place, and hovers daringly at the threshold of what language can nearly deliver while offering alternative corollaries as gifts of its failures. Tess Gallagher’s poems reverberate with the inward clarity of a bell struck on a mountaintop. Guided by humor, grace, and a deep inquiry into the natural world, every poem nudges us toward moments of awe. How else except by delight and velocity would we discover the miracle within the ordinary? Gallagher claims many Wests―the Northwest of America, the Northwest of Ireland, and a West even further to the edge, beyond the physical. These landscapes are charged with invisible energies and inhabited by the people, living and dead, who shape Gallagher’s poems and life. Restorative in every sense, Is, Is Not is the kind of book that takes a lifetime to write―a book of the spirit made manifest by the poet’s unrelenting gaze and her intimate engagement with the mysteries that keep us reaching.”

Dobby Gibson is the author of Skirmish, It Becomes You, and Polar, which won the Alice James Award.  His poetry has appeared in Fence, New England Review, andPloughshares,among others. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

“Exuberant, electric, and frank; [Little Glass Planet] is a love letter, despite ― despite the bleakness of late capitalism, the complicated pull of our many devices, our often terrifying political sphere. There is still so much to love in this world, and Gibson recognizes it in small moments of shared humanity and pockets of the natural world. In Little Glass Planet, he invites us to celebrate with him.” BuzzFeed Books

Fanny Howe, Love and I: Poems(Graywolf Press). “Set in transit even as they investigate the transitory, the cinematic poems in Love and Imove like a handheld camera through the eternal, the minds of passengers, and the landscapes of Ireland and America. From this slight remove, Fanny Howe explores the edge of “pure seeing” and the worldly griefs she encounters there, cast in an otherworldly light. These poems layer pasture and tarmac, the skies above where airline passengers are compressed with their thoughts and the ground where miseries accumulate, alongside comedies, in the figures of children in a park. Love can do little but walk with the person and suddenly vanish, and that recurrent abandonment makes it necessary for these poems to find a balance between seeing and believing. For Howe, that balance is found in the Word, spoken in language, in music, in and on the wind, as invisible and continuous lyric thinking heard by the thinker alone. These are poems animated by belief and unbelief. Love and I fulfills Howe's philosophy of Bewilderment.” 

Fanny Howe is the author of The Needle's Eye, Come and See, andThe Winter Sun. Her most recent poetry collection,Second Childhood,was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her fiction has been a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize. She lives in New England.

“[Love and I] hurries to join a long and illustrious career, which, besides poetry, includes novels, stories, memoir, and short films. . . . Howe prefers the clarity of misunderstanding to the blur of certainty. Like stained glass, her poems await illumination, but it is important not to flood them with a klieg light. . . . It is marvelous to think of these works as having been made not in some bower but in the midst of life.” Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker

Fanny Howe,The Needle's Eye: Passing through Youth(Graywolf Press) “is a sequence of essays, short tales, and lyrics that are intertwined by an inner visual logic. The book contains filmic images that subvert the usual narrative chronology; it is focused on the theme of youth, doomed or saved. A fourteenth-century folktale of two boys who set out to find happiness, the story of Francis and Clare with their revolutionary visions, the Tsarnaev brothers of Boston, the poet George Oppen and the philosopher Simone Weil, two strangers who loved but remain strange, and the wild-child Brigid of Ireland: all these emerge ‘from multiple directions, but always finally from the eye at the end.’ As the philosopher Richard Kearney writes, ‘Howe's ruminations and aesthetics are those of the fragmentary, but are unified by world thinkers like Arendt, Weil, Agamben, and Yeats.’ The Needle's Eyeis a brilliant and deeply felt exploration of faith and terror, coincidence and perception, by a literary artist of profound moral intelligence, ‘recognized as one of the country’s least compromising yet most readable experimentalist writers.’ (The Boston Globe).”

“[Fanny Howe’s] experimental tales, mixing poetry and prose, offer little miracles of meaning growing from the darkest detritus of our planet. If there are epiphanies here, they are matches struck in the dark, wonders shining through wounds, intimacies of the banal.” Richard Kearney, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[The Needle's Eye] possesses a liquid quality: fluid and elemental, substantial but not strictly or permanently shaped, like a river, maybe, or better yet like mercury. . . . The pleasures of this book are, like many of their subjects, mystical and itinerant, ricocheting and nonlinear.” Kathleen Rooney, Los Angeles Review of Books.

Claudia Rankine’sThe White Card: A Play(Graywolf Press) is “a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.” 

It is “‘a conversation that is both informed and derailed by the black/white American drama. The scenes in this one-act play, for all the characters’ disagreements, stalemates, and seeming impasses, explore what happens if one is willing to stay in the room when it is painful to bear the pressure to listen and the obligation to respond.’—from the introduction by Claudia Rankine.”

Claudia Rankine is the author of five works of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric, a New York Timesbest seller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a MacArthur Fellow and the Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

“Claudia Rankine’s captivating and seductive provocations about modern life have moved seamlessly in and out of several genres. As a dramatist, her searing mind and sharp sense of humor give us much to debate, ponder, and love about the American race story when we need it most.” Anna Deavere Smith

Ariana Reines,A Sand Book(Tin House Books) “Deadpan, epic, and searingly charismatic, A Sand Bookis at once relatable and out-of-this-world. In poems tracking climate change, bystanderism, state murder, sexual trauma, shopping, ghosting, love, and the transcendent shock of prophecy, A Sand Book chronicles new dimensions of consciousness for our strange and desperate times. What does the destruction of our soil have to do with the weather in the human soul? From sand in the gizzards of birds to the iridescence on the surface of spilt oil, from sand storms on Mars to our internet-addicted present, from the desertifying mountains of Haiti to Sandy Hook to Hurricane Sandy to Sandra Bland, A Sand Bookis both a travelogue and a book of mourning. In her long-anticipated follow-up to Mercury, Ariana Reines has written her most ambitious, visceral, and satisfying work to date.”

Ariana Reines is author of Mercury, The Cow, andCoeur de Lion. Her playTelephonewas produced at the Cherry Lane Theater and won several Obie awards. Reines was 2009 Roberta C. Holloway Lecturer in Poetry at the University of California Berkeley; she has taught master classes at Pomona College, the University of California Davis, and the University of Pittsburgh. She lives in New York, NY.

“Mind-blowing.” Kim Gordon

LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia, edited by Jeff Mann and Julia Watts(West Virginia University Press), “the first of its kind, gathers original and previously published fiction and poetry from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from Appalachia. Like much Appalachian literature, these works are pervaded with an attachment to family and the mountain landscape, yet balancing queer and Appalachian identities is an undertaking fraught with conflict. This collection confronts the problematic and complex intersections of place, family, sexuality, gender, and religion with which LGBTQ Appalachians often grapple. With works by established writers such as Dorothy Allison, Silas House, Ann Pancake, Fenton Johnson, and Nickole Brown and emerging writers such as Savannah Sipple, Rahul Mehta, Mesha Maren, and Jonathan Corcoran, this collection celebrates a literary canon made up of writers who give voice to what it means to be Appalachian and LGBTQ.” 

“A gratifying diversity of multigenerational voices, styles, and attitudes. The theme of loyalty to place paired with queer identity results in marvelous poetry and fiction.”

Felice Picano, author of Justify My Sins.

Joe Malta, inviting contributions to his web site JerryJazzMusician.com, clarifies, “Any creative offerings are considered for publication, including original poetry, short fiction, memoirs, criticism, essays, nonfiction, interviews, fine art, short films, and photographs. Ideally your submission will appeal to readers who have an interest in jazz music and related culture.”

For recently posted collections see:

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/06/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-june-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/05/a-special-collection-of-poetry-devoted-to-mothers-and-fathers/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/04/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-april-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/03/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-march-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/02/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-february-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/01/a-collection-of-poetry-celebrating-the-culture-of-jazz-january-2019/

Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene,Jessica Cory, editor (West Virginia University Press) “features nearly fifty writers from across Appalachia sharing their place-based fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. Moving beyond the tradition of transcendental nature writing, much of the work collected here engages current issues facing the region and the planet (such as hydraulic fracturing, water contamination, mountaintop removal, and deforestation), and provides readers with insights on the human-nature relationship in an era of rapid environmental change. This book includes a mix of new and recent creative work by established and emerging authors. The contributors write about experiences from northern Georgia to upstate New York, invite parallels between a watershed in West Virginia and one in North Carolina, and often emphasize connections between Appalachia and more distant locations. In the pages of Mountains Piled upon Mountains are celebration, mourning, confusion, loneliness, admiration, and other emotions and experiences rooted in place but transcending Appalachia’s boundaries.”

Jessica Cory teaches in the English department at Western Carolina University. She grew up in southeastern Ohio, and her work has been published in ellipsis . . . , A Poetry Congeries, and other journals.

“From the introduction onward, this collection, filled with bright surprises and sharp challenges, engaged my emotions, mind, and senses. Taking in its life-giving poems, heart-piercing stories, and ethically profound essays, night after night I pondered this collection, drank in Appalachia and nature, and felt my sense of wonder and connection renewed.” Chris Green, director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center, Berea College

Contributors bios.

John Koethe,Walking Backwards: Poems 1966-2016(Farrar, Straus and Giroux). “John Koethe’s poems―always dynamic and in process, never static or complete―luxuriate in the questions that punctuate the most humdrum of routines, rendering a robust portrait of an individual: complicated, quotidian, and resounding with truth. Gathering for the first time his impressive and award-winning body of work, published between 1966 and 2016, Walking Backwardsintroduces this gifted poet to a new, wider readership.”

John Koethe has published many books of poetry, including North Point North, The Swimmer, Falling Water, and has received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and the Frank O’Hara Award. He has also published books on Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophical skepticism, and poetry, and is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

“5.0 out of 5 stars. Wonderful selection of poems. John Koethe is a wonderful poet who writes beautifully. The images he presents are moving and remarkable and I can read his poems over and over again, each time discovering something new. While this isn't a complete collection of his work, it is definitely a good selection. The book is divided by his previous works of poetry, from Blue Vents(1968) through The Swimmer(2016). There is a section at the end of New Poems which haven't been published in a book but may have been published online or in various publications. Every poem is worth reading in this collection so there are too many favorites to name. I'd recommend getting his other books to read those poems that were not printed in this collection.” Digitalshores [an Amazon reviewer]

Index of titles ad first lines.

Jeff Jackson’sDestroy All Monsters: The Last Rock Novel(FSG Originals) “has two sides, which can be read in either order. At the heart of Side A, “My Dark Ages,” is Xenie, a young woman who is repulsed by the violence of the epidemic but who still finds herself drawn deeper into the mystery. Side B, “Kill City,” follows an alternate history, featuring familiar characters in surprising roles, and burrows deeper into the methods and motivations of the murderers. An epidemic of violence is sweeping the country: musicians are being murdered onstage in the middle of their sets by members of their audience. Are these random copycat killings, or is something more sinister at work? Has music itself become corrupted in a culture where everything is available, everybody is a “creative,” and attention spans have dwindled to nothing? With its cast of ambitious bands, yearning fans, and enigmatic killers, Destroy All Monsters tells a haunted and romantic story of overdue endings and unlikely beginnings that will resonate with anybody who’s ever loved rock and roll.

“Destroy All Monstershas a distinct pulse―a kind of heartbeat―that comes out of the rhythm of the prose, the inventiveness of the form, and the willingness of Jeff Jackson to engage the mysterious alchemy of violence, performance, and authenticity. This accomplished, uncanny novel is simultaneously seductive and unsettling.” Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document

“Surges with new-century anxiety and paranoia . . . A clear-eyed, stone-cold vision of what’s to come.” Ben Marcus

“Jeff Jackson is one of contemporary American fiction’s most sterling and gifted new masters. Destroy All Monsters. . . is a wonder to behold.” Dennis Cooper

Richard Powers,The Overstory: A Novel(W. W. Norton) “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, a New York TimesBestseller, A New York TimesNotable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, andKirkus ReviewsBest Book of 2018

“The Overstoryis a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.”

“The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.” Ann Patchett

“The best novels change the way you see. Richard Powers’s The Overstorydoes this. Haunting.” Geraldine Brooks

Mark A. Norell,The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour(University of Chicago Press). “Who better to guide us through this ancient world than paleontologist Mark A. Norell? A world-renowned expert in paleontology, with a knowledge of dinosaurs as deep as the buried fossils they left behind, Norell is in charge of what is perhaps America’s most popular collection of dinosaur bones and fossils, the beloved displays at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In The World of Dinosaurs, he leads readers through a richly illustrated collection detailing the evolution of these ancient creatures. From the horns of the Protoceratops to the wings of the Archaeopteryx, readers are invited to explore profiles of dinosaurs along with hundreds of color photographs, sketches, maps, and other materials—all rooted in the latest scientific discoveries—sure to both capture the imagination and satisfy a prehistoric curiosity. The World of Dinosaurs presents an astonishing collection of knowledge in an immersive visual journey that will fascinate any fan of Earth’s ancient inhabitants. Dinosaurs have held sway over our imaginations since the discovery of their bones first shocked the world in the nineteenth century. From the monstrous beasts stalking Jurassic Park to the curiosities of the natural history museum, dinosaurs are creatures that unite young and old in awestruck wonder. Digging ever deeper into dinosaurs’ ancient past, science continues to unearth new knowledge about them and the world they inhabited, a fantastic time when the footprints of these behemoths marked the Earth that we humans now walk.”

Mark A. Norell is Division Chair and Macaulay Curator, Curator-in-Charge of Fossil Amphibians, Reptiles, and Birds, Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. One of the most respected living paleontologists, Norell is a professor at Richard Gilder Graduate School, has held faculty appointments in the Department of Biology at Yale University, and has taught at Columbia University and the City University of New York.

“A publishing season wouldn’t be complete without an oversize full-color dinosaur book, and if such a book isn’t produced under the auspices of the great American Museum of Natural History, it will naturally wish it were. Such a book must be as up-to-date as the breakneck pace of paleontological developments allows; it must be as visually stunning as its subjects; and, if possible, it must be written by somebody with a CV as long as your arm. New from the University of Chicago Press is just such a book: The World of Dinosaursby Mark Norell, the chairman of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History (the only true must-see destination for Manhattan tourists) and one of the specialists who oversees what is surely the most impressive collection of dinosaur bones and remains and artifacts in the world. In this book—extensively illustrated with photos and drawings—Norell takes readers through the whole sprawling story of dinosaurs, organized not by geologic era but by overarching phylogenetic groupings, everything from various ceratopsians to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex and hundreds of their lesser-known kin. This author is well-practiced at conveying vast amounts of complex scientific information in a smooth and accessible narration, and as a result The World of Dinosaursis every bit as much a delight to read as it is to page through.” Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review

Photographs, illustrations, index.

Donald R. Prothero’sThe Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them (Columbia University Press) “tells the fascinating stories behind the most important fossil finds and the intrepid researchers who unearthed them. In twenty-five vivid vignettes, he weaves together dramatic tales of dinosaur discoveries with what modern science now knows about the species to which they belong. Prothero takes us from eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones taken for biblical giants through recent discoveries of enormous predators even larger than Tyrannosaurus. He recounts the escapades of the larger-than-life personalities who made modern paleontology, including scientific rivalries like the nineteenth-century “Bone Wars.” Prothero also details how to draw the boundaries between species and explores debates such as whether dinosaurs had feathers, explaining the findings that settled them or keep them going. Throughout, he offers a clear and rigorous look at what paleontologists consider sound interpretation of evidence. An essential read for any dinosaur lover, this book teaches us to see an ancient world ruled by giant majestic creatures anew.” 

Donald R. Prothero is a paleontology and geology researcher, teacher, and author. He is adjunct professor of geological sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His Columbia University Press books include The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution andThe Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them.

“A grand tour of dinosaurs, from one of our most prolific natural history writers. I've been reading Donald Prothero's books since I began studying geology in college, and here he delivers again, with a romping chronicle of some of the most charismatic dinosaurs and the equally fascinating people who have studied them.” Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.

“This is a highly readable and compelling historical tour of our discovery of dinosaurs, and it focuses on many fascinating stories. It provides equal balance on both human history and the lives and adventures of the people behind the relevant dinosaurs, and scientific thinking on the dinosaurs themselves and adjacent areas of controversy. Darren Naish, author ofDinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved.

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index.

Wesley C. Hogan,On the Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History(The University of North Carolina Press). “As Wesley C. Hogan sees it, the future of democracy belongs to young people. While today's generation of leaders confronts a daunting array of existential challenges, increasingly it is young people in the United States and around the world who are finding new ways of belonging, collaboration, and survival. That reality forms the backbone of this book, as Hogan documents and assesses young people's interventions in the American fight for democracy and its ideals. Beginning with reflections on the inspiring example of Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, Hogan profiles youth-led organizations and their recent work. Examples include Southerners on New Ground (SONG) in the NAFTA era; Oakland's Ella Baker Center and its fight against the school-to-prison pipeline; the Dreamers who are fighting for immigration reform; the Movement for Black Lives that is demanding a reinvestment in youth of color and an end to police violence against people of color; and the International Indigenous Youth Council, water protectors at Standing Rock who fought to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect sovereign control of Indigenous lands. As Hogan reveals, the legacy of Ella Baker and the civil rights movement has often been carried forward by young people at the margins of power and wealth in U.S. society. This book foregrounds their voices and gathers their inventions--not in a comprehensive survey, but as an activist mix tape--with lively, fresh perspectives on the promise of twenty-first-century U.S. democracy.”

Wesley C. Hogan is the director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and author of Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America.

“Hogan provides a way for us to explore the evolution of social justice movements, revealing how activists take what they learn from the 'Movement Decade' of the 1960s and build upon it.” Tracy E. K'Meyer, author of From Brown to Meredith: The Long Struggle for School Desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1954–2007

“An informed, passionate, and hopeful book that considers the cutting-edge movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Hogan introduces us to the multiracial, intergenerational, and intersectional activists at the heart of contemporary freedom movements, noting their own acknowledged debts to the egalitarian spirit of the Black Freedom struggle and its most egalitarian practitioner, Ella Baker.” Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era

“At a time when too many of us are simply cursing the darkness, Hogan has shone the light of history on the often-invisible youth movements that fueled positive change in the past . . . and that continue to energize us today. Judy Richardson, SNCC veteran and coeditor of Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC.

Photographs, map, notes, index.

Simeon Wade,Foucault in California: A True Story―Wherein the Great French Philosopher Drops Acid in the Valley of Death, Foreword by Heather Dundas (Heyday)

“In The Lives of Michel Foucault, David Macey quotes the iconic French philosopher as speaking ‘nostalgically . . . of “an unforgettable evening on LSD, in carefully prepared doses, in the desert night, with delicious music, [and] nice people”.' This came to pass in 1975, when Foucault spent Memorial Day weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade-ostensibly to guest-lecture at the Claremont Graduate School where Wade was an assistant professor, but in truth to explore what he called the Valley of Death. Led by Wade and Wade's partner Michael Stoneman, Foucault experimented with psychotropic drugs for the first time; by morning he was crying and proclaiming that he knew Truth. Foucault in California is Wade's firsthand account of that long weekend. Felicitous and often humorous prose vaults readers headlong into the erudite and subversive circles of the Claremont intelligentsia: parties in Wade's bungalow, intensive dialogues between Foucault and his disciples at a Taoist utopia in the Angeles Forest (whose denizens call Foucault “Country Joe”); and, of course, the fabled synesthetic acid trip in Death Valley, set to the strains of Bach and Stockhausen. Part search for higher consciousness, part bacchanal, this book chronicles a young man's burgeoning friendship with one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers.”

Simeon Wade was born July 22, 1940, in Alabama. After earning his Ph.D. in the intellectual history of Western civilization from Harvard in 1969, Wade moved to California and became an assistant professor at Claremont Graduate School. His early teaching years culminated in his hosting a Death Valley trip for Michel Foucault in 1975, an experience Foucault described as “one of the most important in my life.” Wade later taught at several universities in Southern California and worked as a psychiatric nurse. He died in Oxnard, California, on October 3, 2017.

“At times a gay, psychedelic Divine Comedy and at others a Plato's Symposium for the 1970s.” Andrew Marzoni, The Baffler.

Tom Dalzellet alii, The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley 1969, Foreword by Todd Gitlin, Afterword by Steve Wasserman(Heyday)

“In eyewitness testimonies and hundreds of remarkable photographs, The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley 1969commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People's Park. In April 1969, a few Berkeley activists planted the first tree on a University of California-owned, abandoned city block on Telegraph Avenue. Hundreds of people from all over the city helped build the park as an expression of a politics of joy. The University was appalled, and warned that unauthorized use of the land would not be tolerated; and on May 15, which would soon be known as Bloody Thursday, a violent struggle erupted, involving thousands of people. Hundreds were arrested, martial law was declared, and the National Guard was ordered by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to crush the uprising and to occupy the entire city. The police fired shotguns against unarmed students. A military helicopter gassed the campus indiscriminately, causing schoolchildren miles away to vomit. One man died from his wounds. Another was blinded. The vicious overreaction by Reagan helped catapult him into national prominence. Fifty years on, the question still lingers: Who owns the Park?”

Tom Dalzell is a longtime resident of Berkeley, a union lawyer, a regular contributor to Berkeleyside online newspaper, and the author of the Quirky Berkeley series, published by Heyday.

Todd Gitlin is the author of numerous books, including The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. A former professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, he is currently a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University.

Steve Wasserman is the publisher and executive director of Heyday and, as a junior at Berkeley High School in 1969, helped to build People's Park, participated in Bloody Thursday, and organized several hundred BHS students to protest the military occupation of Berkeley.

“Excellent . . . reads like a gut punch.” Clara Bingham, The Guardian

“This book is a definitive account of the battle for People's Park, a 50th anniversary gem.” Paul Von Blum, Truthdig

“Resplendent. . . . A masterwork of history.” Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

“Dazzling.” Gar Smith, Berkeley Daily Planet.

Photos, illustrations, sources.

Mark Arax,The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California(Knopf). “Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. This is a heartfelt, beautifully written book about the land and the people who have worked it--from gold miners to wheat ranchers to small fruit farmers and today's Big Ag. Since the beginning, Californians have redirected rivers, drilled ever-deeper wells and built higher dams, pushing the water supply past its limit. The Dreamt Landweaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers--the nut king, grape king and citrus queen--tell their story here for the first time. This is a tale of politics and hubris in the arid West, of imported workers left behind in the sun and the fatigued earth that is made to give more even while it keeps sinking. But when drought turns to flood once again, all is forgotten as the farmers plant more nuts and the developers build more houses. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.”

Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction. A former staffer at the Los Angeles Times, his work has appeared inThe New York Times andthe California Sunday Magazine. His books include a memoir of his father’s murder, a collection of essays about the West, and the best-selling The King of California, which won a California Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize from Stanford University, and was named a top book of 2004 by theLos Angeles Times andthe San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in Fresno, California.

“There’s a new history of water use in California that’s fantastic. It’s called The Dreamt Land. It’s like John McPhee-level writing. It’s really worth it for the writing alone.” Linda Ronstadt 

“A mesmerizing new book that examines the nation’s most populous state through the prism of its most valuable resource: water. Call author Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist, historian and native son of the Central Valley, a Steinbeck for the 21st century.” Andy Kroll, Rolling Stone

“Arax narrates this tumultuous history skillfully. . . . Water, land and the conjunction of the two have inspired some of California’s most powerful writing: Didion, Mary Austin’s lyrical The Land of Little Rain, Norris Hundley’s authoritative The Great Thirst, William Kahrl’s gorgeous, shamefully out-of-print The California Water Atlas, and, jumping genres, Chinatown, with its water-crazed Mephistopheles, Noah Cross. The Dreamt Landearns its place alongside them.”

Peter Fish, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Photos, bibliography, index.

Colin Burrow’sImitating Authors: Plato to Futurity(Oxford University Press) “is a major study of the theory and practice of imitatio (the imitation of one author by another) from antiquity to the present day. It extends from early Greek texts right up to recent fictions about clones and artificial humans, and illuminates both the theory and practice of imitation. At its centre lie the imitating authors of the English Renaissance, including Ben Jonson and the most imitated imitator of them all, John Milton. Imitating Authorsargues that imitation was not simply a matter of borrowing words, or of alluding to an earlier author. Imitators learnt practices from earlier writers. They imitated the structures and forms of earlier writing in ways that enabled them to create a new style which itself could be imitated. That made imitation an engine of literary change. Imitating Authors also shows how the metaphors used by theorists to explain this complex practice fed into works which were themselves imitations, and how those metaphors have come to influence present-day anxieties about imitation human beings and artificial forms of intelligence. It explores relationships between imitation and authorial style, its fraught connections with plagiarism, and how emerging ideas of genius and intellectual property changed how imitation was practised. In refreshing and jargon-free prose Burrow explains not just what imitation was in the past, but how it influences the present, and what it could be in the future. Imitating Authors includes detailed discussion of Plato, Roman rhetorical theory, Virgil, Lucretius, Petrarch, Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, and Kazuo Ishiguro.”

Colin Burrow was a Fellow and Tutor and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before he took up a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, in 2006. He has written extensively about classical and early modern British and European literature, and has edited the complete poetry of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and (forthcoming) John Marston. He is an editor of Review of English Studies, and (with Jonathan Bate) General Editor of the Oxford English Literary Historyfor which he is writing the Elizabethan volume. He is a regular reviewer for The London Review of Books. 

Bibliography, index.

Mary Norris’Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen(W. W. Norton & Company) “is a charming account of Norris’s lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English. Filled with Norris’s memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine―and more than a few Greek men―Greek to Meis the Comma Queen’s fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own.”

Mary Norris is the author of Greek to Meand the New York Timesbestseller Between You & Me, an account of her years in The New Yorkercopy department. Originally from Cleveland, she lives in New York.

One of the most satisfying accounts of a great passion that I have ever read.” Vivian Gornick, New York Times Book Review

“Greek to Me[is] an ode to the joy of exercising free reign in one's life . . . . Norris is an uncommonly engaging, witty enthusiast with a nose for delicious details and funny asides that makes you willing to follow her anywhere.” Heller McAlpin, NPR

Pat Barker,The Silence of the Girls: A Novel(Doubleday). “The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, who continue to wage bloody war over a stolen woman--Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and cooly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war--the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead--all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives--and it is nothing short of magnificent.

“An important, powerful, memorable book that invites us to look differently not only at The Iliad but at our own ways of telling stories about the past and the present.” Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey

Caitlín Eilís Barrett’sDomesticating Empire: Egyptian Landscapes in Pompeian Gardens (Oxford University Press) “is the first contextually-oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery in Roman households. Caitlín Barrett draws on case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between representations of Egypt and a particular type of Roman household space: the domestic garden. Through paintings and mosaics portraying the Nile, canals that turned the garden itself into a miniature ‘Nilescape,’ and statuary depicting Egyptian themes, many gardens in Pompeii offered ancient visitors evocations of a Roman vision of Egypt. Simultaneously faraway and familiar, these imagined landscapes made the unfathomable breadth of empire compatible with the familiarity of home. In contrast to older interpretations that connect Roman ‘Aegyptiaca’ to the worship of Egyptian gods or the problematic concept of ‘Egyptomania,’ a contextual analysis of these garden assemblages suggests new possibilities for meaning. In Pompeian houses, Egyptian and Egyptian-looking objects and images interacted with their settings to construct complex entanglements of ‘foreign" and ‘familiar,’ ‘self’ and ‘other.’ Representations of Egyptian landscapes in domestic gardens enabled individuals to present themselves as sophisticated citizens of empire. Yet at the same time, household material culture also exerted an agency of its own: domesticizing, familiarizing, and ‘Romanizing’ once-foreign images and objects. That which was once imagined as alien and potentially dangerous was now part of the domus itself, increasingly incorporated into cultural constructions of what it meant to be ‘Roman.’ Featuring brilliant illustrations in both color and black and white, Domesticating Empire reveals the importance of material culture in transforming household space into a microcosm of empire.”

Caitlín Eilís Barrett is Associate Professor of Classics at Cornell University.

Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Benjamin Sammons,Device and Composition in the Greek Epic Cycle(Oxford University Press). “From a corpus of Greek epics known in antiquity as the Epic Cycle, six poems dealt with the same Trojan War mythology as the Homeric poems. Though they are now lost, these poems were much read and much discussed in ancient times, not only for their content but for their mysterious relationship with the more famous works attributed to Homer. In Device and Composition in the Greek Epic Cycle, Benjamin Sammons shows that these lost poems belonged, compositionally, to essentially the same tradition as the Homeric poems. He demonstrates that various compositional devices well known from the Homeric epics were also fundamental to the narrative construction of these later works. Yet while the ‘cyclic’ poets constructed their works using the same traditional devices as Homer, they used these to different ends and with different results. Sammons argues that the essential difference between cyclic and Homeric poetry lies not in the fundamental building blocks from which they are constructed, but in the scale of these components relative to the overall construction of poems. This sheds important light on the early history of epic as a genre, since it is likely that these devices originally developed to provide large-scale structure to shorter poems and have been put to quite different use in the composition of the monumental Homeric epics. Along the way Sammons sheds new light on the overall form of lost cyclic epics and on the meaning and context of the few surviving verse fragments.”

Benjamin Sammons is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures at Queens College, The City University of New York. He has published widely on ancient Greek literature and teaches at Queens College in the City University of New York.

“While the Epic Cycle has received much scholarly attention in recent years, this book takes a truly fresh and engaging approach to the lost epics about Troy. By considering the evidence in the light of the traditional techniques of early Greek narratives, it succeeds in presenting these poems as different from Homeric epic in some ways, but not simply inferior. Presenting more material much more quickly than the Iliad and Odyssey, the cyclic epics adapted available narrative resources for their purposes. While the analysis can only suggest how these narratives were organized and why, the book's solutions for the many problems of the Cycle are always interesting and often plausible.” Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan

Bibliography, index.

Jennifer T. Roberts,The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece (Ancient Warfare and Civilization)(Oxford University Press). “In 431 BC, the long simmering rivalry between the city-states of Athens and Sparta erupted into open warfare, and for more than a generation the two were locked in a life-and-death struggle. The war embroiled the entire Greek world, provoking years of butchery previously unparalleled in ancient Greece. Whole cities were exterminated, their men killed, their women and children enslaved. While the war is commonly believed to have ended with the capture of the Athenian navy in 405 and the subsequent starvation of Athens, fighting in Greece would continue for several decades. Sparta's authority was challenged in the so-called Corinthian War (395-387) when Persian gold helped unite Athens with Sparta's former allies. The war did not truly end until, in 371, Thebes' crack infantry resoundingly defeated Sparta at Leuctra, forever shattering the myth of Spartan military supremacy. Jennifer Roberts' rich narrative of this famous conflict is the first general history to tell the whole story, from the war's origins down to Sparta's defeat at Leuctra. In her masterful account, this long and bloody war affected every area of life in Athens, exacerbated divisions between rich and poor in Sparta, and sparked civil strife throughout the Greek world. Yet despite the biting sorrows the fighting occasioned, it remains a gripping saga of plots and counter-plots, murders and lies, thrilling sea chases and desperate overland marches, missed opportunities and last-minute reprieves, and, as the war's first historian Thucydides had hoped, lessons for a less bellicose future. In addition, Roberts considers the impact of the war on Greece's cultural life, including the great masterworks of tragedy and comedy performed at this time and, most infamously, the trial and execution of Socrates. A fast-paced narrative of one of antiquity's most famous clashes, The Plague of Waris a must-read for history enthusiasts of all ages.”

Jennifer T. Roberts is Professor of Classics and History at the City College of New York and the City University of New York Graduate Center. She is the author of Athens on Trial: The Anti-Democratic Tradition in Western Thought and Herodotus: A Very Short Introduction, and editor (with Walter Blanco) of The Norton Critical Editions of Herodotus' The Histories and Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War.

"An impressively informed and informative work of exceptionally detailed and documented scholarship, The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greecereads from beginning to end with an inherently engaging narrative that reads with the smoothness of a well tuned novel. While very highly recommended for both community and academic library World History collections in general, and Hellenic History supplemental studies reading lists in particular, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that The Plague of Waris also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.39).” Margaret Lane, The Midwest Book Review

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glosssary, Cast of Characters, index.

Jacques Jouanna, Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context, translated by Steven Rendall(Princeton University Press). “Here, for the first time in English, is celebrated French classicist Jacques Jouanna's magisterial account of the life and work of Sophocles. Exhaustive and authoritative, this acclaimed book combines biography and detailed studies of Sophocles' plays, all set in the rich context of classical Greek tragedy and the political, social, religious, and cultural world of Athens’s greatest age, the fifth century. Sophocles was the commanding figure of his day. The author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone, he was not only the leading dramatist but also a distinguished politician, military commander, and religious figure. And yet the evidence about his life has, until now, been fragmentary. Reconstructing a lost literary world, Jouanna has finally assembled all the available information, culled from inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and later sources. He also offers a huge range of new interpretations, from his emphasis on the significance of Sophocles' political and military offices (previously often seen as honorary) to his analysis of Sophocles' plays in the mythic and literary context of fifth-century drama. Written for scholars, students, and general readers, this book will interest anyone who wants to know more about Greek drama in general and Sophocles in particular. With an extensive bibliography and useful summaries not only of Sophocles' extant plays but also, uniquely, of the fragments of plays that have been partially lost, it will be a standard reference in classical studies for years to come.”

Jacques Jouanna is a member of the Institut de France and professor emeritus of Greek at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne. His many books include Hippocrates and Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen.

“[Jouanna’s} book will give both classicists and general readers hours of pleasure. It is encyclopaedic, detailed, fascinating, readable and tremendous value for money.” Marion Gibbs, Classics for All

“A milestone. . . . This undertaking is by far the most rich and the most learned which exists today on this subject. . . . For educated readers and classicists who wish to learn about Sophocles and Greek tragedy, it offers an exceptional panorama, which combines the pleasure of reading with flawless scholarship. For specialists, it offers a new methodological approach, set in historical perspective. . . . It will no longer be possible to study Sophocles or Greek tragedy without referring to this work by Jouanna.”

Laurent Pernot, Journal of Hellenic Studies

“Everyone, from students to dedicated fans, will find something to interest them in this learned and wide-ranging book. Jouanna’s discussions of whole plays and of individual scenes are invariably thorough, balanced, sensitive, and stimulating; they are also based on scrupulous examination of the sources, backed up by impeccable scholarship. Undergraduates in particular will find this book a valuable resource, since it provides an excellent introduction not just to Sophocles but to fifth-century theatre in general.”

―Matthew Wright, Classical Review

Notes, bibliography.

Mary Lefkowitz,Euripides and the Gods(Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture) (Oxford University Press). “Modern readers find it hard to come to terms with the gods in Euripides' dramas. Readers try to dismiss them as a literary convention. Stage productions leave them out, especially in the cases when they appear ex machina. Instead, they place disproportionate emphasis on the harsh criticisms of the gods uttered by some of the characters in the dramas, and have sought to interpret Euripides ironically, viewing his portrayal of the cruel and capricious gods as a means of drawing attention to the deficiencies of ancient Greek religion. In their view Euripides' dramas seek to question the nature and sometimes even the very existence of traditional Greek gods. In Euripides and the Gods, classicist Mary Lefkowitz sets out to show that the tragedian is not undermining ancient religion, but rather describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, impressing upon his mortal audience the limitations of human understanding. Writing the first extended treatment of these issues for a general audience, Lefkowitz provides a book that deals with all of Euripides' dramas, and argues for a more tolerant and nuanced understanding of ancient Greek religion. Euripides, like Homer, is making a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrifying but accurate. She explains how the idea that Euripides was an atheist derives from ancient biographies that drew their evidence from comic poets, and shows why the doubts about the gods expressed by his characters must be understood in their dramatic context. Euripides and the Gods offers a compelling invitation to return to the dramatic masterpieces of Euripides with fresh eyes.”

Mary Lefkowitz is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, emerita, at Wellesley College. Her many books on classical culture include Women in Greek Myth, Greek Gods, Human Lives, The Lives of the Greek Poets, andNot Out of Africa.

“There are some books that alter the way you think about the world. Before reading this book I thought I understood Euripides, but in fact I was just following the herd, which did not understand either! I think there is an assumption that a playwright so central to Classical studies has been studied so much there is nothing more to say. This book shows how wrong that idea is.” Murray Eiland, Amazon reviewer.

Illustrations, bibliography, subject index, indexlocorum.

Simon Critchley’sTragedy, the Greeks, and US (Pantheon) “argues that if we want to understand ourselves we have to go back to theater, to the stage of our lives. Tragedy presents a world of conflict and troubling emotion, a world where private and public lives collide and collapse. A world where morality is ambiguous and the powerful humiliate and destroy the powerless. A world where justice always seems to be on both sides of a conflict and sugarcoated words serve as cover for clandestine operations of violence. A world rather like our own. The ancient Greeks hold a mirror up to us, in which we see all the desolation and delusion of our lives but also the terrifying beauty and intensity of existence. This is not a time for consolation prizes and the fatuous banalities of the self-help industry and pop philosophy. Tragedy allows us to glimpse, in its harsh and unforgiving glare, the burning core of our aliveness. If we give ourselves the chance to look at tragedy, we might see further and more clearly.”

Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. His many books include Very Little . . . Almost Nothing, The Book of Dead Philosophers, The Faith of the Faithless, and Memory Theater. He is the series moderator of The Stone, a philosophy column in The New York Times, to which he is a frequent contributor.

“Substantial introductory material on tragedy and ancient philosophy; it is energetic, engaging and thought-provoking without too much abstraction and with just enough detail to add flavor . . . It has something of the chatty vigor of a successful seminar discussion. . . infectiously enthusiastic . . . genuinely invigorating . . .” Edith Wilson, New Statesman. Edith Wilson isprofessor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translation ofThe Odyssey is published by W.W. Norton.

Notes, bibliography, index.

F. S. Naiden,Soldier, Priest, and God: A Life of Alexander the Great(Oxford University Press) is “the first religious biography of Alexander. . . . [It] incorporates this recent scholarship to provide a vivid and unique portrait of a remarkable leader. . . . Ancient writers knew little about Near Eastern religions, no doubt due to the difficulty of travel to Babylon, India, and the interior of Egypt. Yet details of these exotic religions can be found in other ancient sources, including Greek, and in the last thirty years, knowledge of Alexander's time in the Near East has increased. Egyptologists and Assyriologists have written the first thorough accounts of Alexander's religious doings in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Recent archaeological work has also allowed scholars to uncover new aspects of Macedonian religious policy. . . . Whatever we may think of Alexander--whether Great or only lucky, a civilizer or a sociopath--most people do not regard him as a religious leader. And yet religion permeated all aspects of his career. When he used religion astutely, he and his army prospered. In Egypt, he performed the ceremonies needed to be pharaoh, and thus became a god as well as a priest. Babylon surrendered to him partly because he agreed to become a sacred king. When Alexander disregarded religion, he and his army suffered. In Iran, for instance, where he refused to be crowned and even destroyed a shrine, resistance against him mounted. In India, he killed Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus by the hundreds of thousands until his officers, men he regarded as religious companians, rebelled against him and forced him to abandon his campaign of conquest. Although he never fully recovered from this last disappointment, he continued to perform his priestly duties in the rest of his empire. As far as we know, the last time he rose from his bed was to perform a sacrifice.”

F. S. Naiden is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the author of Ancient Supplication, and a former New York subway motorman.

“Alexander the Great--man, hero or god? He was all three, in different ways and at different times, but of the countless attempts to nail down ancient perceptions of Alexander's metaphysical status, not least his own, Naiden's richly detailed biography is the most exhaustive, the most sophisticated, and the most illuminating by far.” Paul Cartledge, author of Alexander the Great: The Truth behind the Myth and Democracy: A Life

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glosssary, index.

Katherine Clarke’sShaping the Geography of Empire: Man and Nature in Herodotus' Histories(Oxford University Press) “explores the spatial framework of Herodotus' Histories, the Greek historian's account of Persian imperialism in the sixth and fifth century BC and its culmination in a series of grand expeditions against Greece itself. Focusing on his presentation of the natural world through careful geographical descriptions, ranging from continents and river and mountain networks on a vast scale down to the local settings for individual episodes, it also examines how these landscapes are charged with greater depth and resonance through Herodotus' use of mythological associations and spatial parallels. Man's interaction with, and alteration of, the physical world of the Histories adds another critical dimension to the meaning given to space in Herodotus' work, as his subjects' own agency serves to transform their geography from a neutral backdrop into a resonant landscape with its own role to play in the narrative, in turn reinforcing the placing of the protagonists along a spectrum of positive or negative characterizations. The Persian imperial bid may thus be seen as a war on nature, no less than on their intended subjects: however, as Herodotus reflects, Greece itself is waiting in the wings with the potential to be no less abusive an imperial power. Although the multi-vocal nature of the narrative complicates whether we can identify a 'Herodotean' world at all, still less one in which moral judgments are consistently cast, the fluid and complex web of spatial relationships revealed in discussion nevertheless allows focalization to be brought productively into play, demonstrating how the world of the Histories may be viewed from multiple perspectives. What emerges from the multiple worlds and world-views that Herodotus creates in his narrative is the mutability of fortune that allows successive imperial powers to dominate: as the exercise of political power is manifested both metaphorically and literally through control over the natural world, the map of imperial geography is constantly in flux.”

Katherine Clarke, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and Associate Professor in Ancient History, University of Oxford. She undertook her BA in Classics (Literae Humaniores) at St John's College, Oxford, before going on to obtain her D.Phil. in Ancient History also at Oxford in 1996, where she held a Graduate Scholarship followed by a Junior Research Fellowship, both at Christ Church. In 1998 she was appointed to the Tutorial Fellowship in Ancient History at St Hilda's College, where she has remained ever since. She was the recipient of a Philip Leverhulme Prize for the period 2001-3 and has held various positions of responsibility in both her College and the university's Faculty of Classics including Vice Principal in College, 2013-16, and Chair of the Sub-Faculty, 2015-17.

Bibliography, index. 

Richard Buxton’sMyths and Tragedies in their Ancient Greek Contexts(Oxford University Press) “brings together eleven of Richard Buxton's studies of Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, focusing especially on the interrelationship between the two, and their importance to the Greeks themselves. Situating and contextualizing topics and themes, such as mountains, (were)wolves, mythological names, movement/stillness, blindness, and feminization, within the world of ancient Greece - its landscapes, social and moral priorities, and mental structures - he traces the intricate variations and retellings which they underwent in Greek antiquity. Although each chapter has appeared in print in some form before, each has been thoroughly revised for the present book, taking into account recent research. The introduction sets out the principles and objectives which underlie Buxton's approach to Greek myths, and how he sees his own method in relation to those of his predecessors and contemporaries.”

Richard Buxton is Emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol. He works on ancient Greek literature (especially tragedy), and ancient mythology and religion. One of his main aims is to explore the contexts – for example, social life and the landscape – which can help us to recover the meanings which myths had for their tellers and hearers/readers (see his Imaginary Greece, 1994, and The Complete World of Greek Mythology, 2004). In 1996 he organized a major international conference at Bristol, whose proceedings appeared as From Myth to Reason?(1999) Since 2003 he has been one of the editors of Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum and since 2006 he has been President of the LIMC Foundation. His book Forms of Astonishment: Greek Myths of Metamorphosis was published in 2009. He will next be revising for publication a selection of his papers on Greek myth and tragedy. He has taken part in a number of radio programs about myth. His work has been translated into nine languages.

Notes, bibliography, index. 

Kyle Harper’sThe Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World) (Princeton University Press)“is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s power―a story of nature’s triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome’s pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a ‘little ice age’ and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity’s intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history’s greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature’s violence. The example of Rome is a timely reminder that climate change and germ evolution have shaped the world we inhabit―in ways that are surprising and profound.

“Kyle Harper's extraordinary new account of the fall of Rome is a gripping and terrifying story of the interaction between human behavior and systems, pathogens and climate change. The Roman Empire was a remarkable connector of people and things--in towns and cities, through voluntary and enforced migration, and through networks of trade across oceans and continents--but this very connectedness fostered infectious diseases that debilitated its population. Though the protagonists of Harper’s book are nonhuman, their effects on human lives and societies are nonetheless devastating.” Emma Dench, author of RomulusAsylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 

Jonathan BateHow the Classics Made Shakespeare (E. H. Gombrich Lecture Series)(Princeton University Press). “Revealing in new depth the influence of Cicero and Horace on Shakespeare and finding new links between him and classical traditions, ranging from myths and magic to monuments and politics, Bate offers striking new readings of a wide array of the plays and poems. At the heart of the book is an argument that Shakespeare’s supreme valuation of the force of imagination was honed by the classical tradition and designed as a defense of poetry and theater in a hostile world of emergent Puritanism.

Ben Jonson famously accused Shakespeare of having ‘small Latin and less Greek.’ But he was exaggerating. Shakespeare was steeped in the classics. Shaped by his grammar school education in Roman literature, history, and rhetoric, he moved to London, a city that modeled itself on ancient Rome. He worked in a theatrical profession that had inherited the conventions and forms of classical drama, and he read deeply in Ovid, Virgil, and Seneca. In a book of extraordinary range, acclaimed literary critic and biographer Jonathan Bate, one of the world’s leading authorities on Shakespeare, offers groundbreaking insights into how, perhaps more than any other influence, the classics made Shakespeare the writer he became.

Rounded off with a fascinating account of how Shakespeare became our modern classic and has ended up playing much the same role for us as the Greek and Roman classics did for him, How the Classics Made Shakespeare combines stylistic brilliance, accessibility, and scholarship, demonstrating why Jonathan Bate is one of our most eminent and readable literary critics.

Jonathan Bate is Provost of Worcester College and professor of English literature at the University of Oxford and Gresham Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. His many books include Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeareand an award-winning biography of Ted Hughes. He broadcasts regularly for the BBC, has been on the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is the coeditor of The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works, and wrote a one-man play for Simon Callow, Being Shakespeare. Twitter @provbate ‏

“Jonathan Bate's How the Classics Made Shakespeareis the fruit of wide reading, rich learning, and a lifetime of singularly intelligent reflection on the playwright and his sources. Bate's fresh insights into even the most familiar of plays amply justifies his claim that Shakespeare's imagination had its birth in his Latin lessons in the Stratford-upon-Avon schoolroom and that throughout his career he turned for inspiration to the heritage of Greece and Rome.” Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“This book is a wonderful treat for all. Scholars who thought that they knew all about the influence of the classics on Shakespeare will have to think again. Bate explains with unparalleled synthesis and lucidity why Shakespeare was ‘the Cicero of his age’ and how and why he modeled his lifework on Horace. General readers will not be able to put this book down: it is beautifully written and packed with arresting insights.” Sonia Massai, King’s College London

Notes, index.

Philip M. Napoli’sSocial Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age(Columbia University Press) “explores how and why social media platforms became so central to news consumption and distribution as they met many of the challenges of finding information―and audiences―online. Napoli illustrates the implications of a system in which coders and engineers drive out journalists and editors as the gatekeepers who determine media content. He argues that a social media–driven news ecosystem represents a case of market failure in what he calls the algorithmic marketplace of ideas. To respond, we need to rethink fundamental elements of media governance based on a revitalized concept of the public interest. A compelling examination of the intersection of social media and journalism, Social Media and the Public Interest offers valuable insights for the democratic governance of today’s most influential shapers of news. Facebook, a platform created by undergraduates in a Harvard dorm room, has transformed the ways millions of people consume news, understand the world, and participate in the political process. Despite taking on many of journalism’s traditional roles, Facebook and other platforms, such as Twitter and Google, have presented themselves as tech companies―and therefore not subject to the same regulations and ethical codes as conventional media organizations. Challenging such superficial distinctions, Philip M. Napoli offers a timely and persuasive case for understanding and governing social media as news media, with a fundamental obligation to serve the public interest.” 

Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also a faculty affiliate with the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. His previous books include Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace and Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences, both from Columbia University Press.

Drawing on the history of U.S. media regulation, Napoli offers an insightful framework for reimagining how social media can serve the public interest. Social Media and the Public Interest is an essential text for policy makers and those struggling to reduce the harm of caustic content and misinformation.” Danah Boyd, author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.

“Napoli takes up the daunting challenge of lassoing and taming the wild social media beasts that have wreaked so much havoc in democracies around the world. This book is bold, clear, and necessary. Readers of this book will gain a deep historical understanding of the complex relationship among social media platforms, news producers, citizens, and the state.” Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

Illustrations, notes, index.

   Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals(W. W. Norton & Company). “Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral? In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?,Doughty blends her mortician's knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 35 distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Listeners will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend's skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane. Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it.”

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and the author of the New York Times best-selling Smoke Gets in Your Eyes andFrom Here to Eternity.She is the creator of the Ask a Morticianweb series and founder of The Order of the Good Death. She lives in Los Angeles, where she owns and runs a funeral home, Undertaking LA.

Illustrations.

W. Royal Stokes, a novelist and a former professor of Greek and Latin languages and literature and ancient history, was the 2014 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award. He has been observing the jazz, blues, and popular music worlds since the early 1940s.  He was editor of Jazz Notes (the quarterly journal of the Jazz Journalists Association) from 1992 to 2001, was Program Director of WGTB-FM (D.C.) in the 1970s, and has participated in the annual Down Beat Critics Poll since the 1980s. He hosted his weekly programs “I thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say  . . . .” andSince Minton’s on public radio in the 1970s and ’80s. He has been the Washington Post's jazz critic and editor of JazzTimes and is author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990, Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers in Jazz, and Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers. His trilogy of novels Backwards Over was published in 2017 and his The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Readersaw print in December 2019. Publications he has written for, in addition to the Washington Post and JazzTimes, include Down Beat, Mississippi Rag, Jazz Notes,JazzHouse.org, and JJA News. A founding member of the JJA, he authored, for JJA News, “The Jazz Journalists Association: A 25-Year Retrospective” (http://news.jazzjournalists.org/2013/06/the-jazz-journalists-association-a-25-year-retrospective/). He is currently at work on a memoir.  

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO

I added my review below to my January 12, 2019 Facebook posting of the New York Times obituary of Joseph Jarman, who had died on January 9. 

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO

BY W. ROYAL STOKES

WASHINGTON POST

MAY 5, 1979

The uninitiated were astonished and the cognoscenti reconfirmed Thursday night at the Bayou as the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in a single piece lasting seventy-five minutes, presented an impressionistic musical summary of jazz that began with its roots in West African rhythms and the blues and followed its development to the current avant-garde of the art form.

With some of its members in native African dress and their faces bedecked with paint, the ensemble began in silent prayer, facing the East. Melodica, shell, whistle, gourds, and trumpet provided an intro, followed by a fierce monologue of hoarse growls and strident falsetto by Joseph Jarman. “We ain’t proposin’ no answer—just askin’ a question” was his coda.

Suddenly, we were back in the 1920s with a no-holds-barred polyphonic New Orleans stomp. One could hear Louis Armstrong in Lester Bowie’s trumpet and Sidney Bechet in Jarman’s soprano saxophone, Roscoe Mitchell’s clarinet wove in and out contrapuntally, and Malachi Favors slapped away at his bass while drummer Famoudou Don Moye kept up a driving four/four.

Segments such as this (another took us back to the big band era, riffs and all) were interspersed with passages of all descriptions: Mitchell and Jarman played extended, sometimes unaccompanied, solos that explored the entire range of their instruments; Bowie produced enormous trombone-like growls and squeezed-out shrieks; Favors and Moye played in different tempos.

Then all Hell would break loose—Bowie cutting through the tremolos of the reeds with great foghorn blasts and rapid arpeggios in high register, Favors shaking No. 10 cans, Moye propelling them all with ferocious intensity. Abruptly, Favors rushed to stage front, mallet and Chinese gong in hand, and, with one resounding note, ended the concert.

The Art Ensemble’s music is chaotic, ecstatic, and cumulative in its energy. It is irreverent, even outrageous, yet both a paean to the past and window to the future.

I ADDED A COMMENT TO MY FACEBOOK POSTING, PREFACED BY A CLARIFICATION.

The interview that I excerpted from below was done at the 1982 noon-midnight Kool Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center (in all four theaters plus halls, etc.), which my wife Erika, son Sutton (then 7), and I attended. (Erika was five months pregnant with our son Neale, so he was there too!) I ducked backstage for a half hour or so to tape an interview with Lester. Richard Harrington was upstairs in an office with a huge desk computer he had lugged over from the Washington Post, taking feeds from yours truly and two other Post reviewers and writing the 3000-word review for the paper (which had his byline—our names were also at the head, as contributors to the piece). 

FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH ART ENSEMBLE MEMBER LESTER BOWIE AT THE 1982 KOOL JAZZ FESTIVAL AT WASHINGTON, D.C.’S KENNEDY CENTER, MAY 30, 1982

Lester told me, “I’m going to play trumpet until I’m sixty and on my sixtieth birthday [October 11, 2001] I’m retiring . . . because I’ve learned that I can live exactly the way I want to live and I really don’t want to walk on that stage every night playing for a living. I’ll probably be involved with music and playing somewhat for the rest of my life, in a teaching situation, maybe lecturing, or just writing books or something, but I’m not going to be walking on that stage every night.” Lester died of cancer in 1999.

That interview became the basis of a seven-page profile of Lester in my 1991 The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990, in which he talks of his life and career and about the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s 1969 “triumphant trip to Paris,” alluded to in the New York Times obituary of Joseph Jarman.

BEST NEW RELEASES OF 2018

10 BEST NEW RELEASES OF 2018

Don Byron & Aruan Ortiz: Random Dances & (A)tonalities (Intakt Records) 

 Steve Coleman & Five Elements, Live At The Village  Vanguard Vol. I (The Embedded Sets) (Pi Recordings)

 Diva Jazz Orchestra, 25th Anniversary Project (ArtistShare)

 Stefon Harris & Blackout, Sonic Creed (Motema Music)

 Monika Herzig, Sheroes (Whaling City Sound)

 McClenty Hunter Jr., The Groove Hunter (Strikezone Records)

 Roger Kellaway Trio, New Jazz Standards, Vol. 3 (Summit Records)

Ernie Krivda , A Bright And Shining Moment (Capri Records Ltd.)

 Roberta Piket, West Coast Trio (13th Note Records)

 Joshua Redman, Still Dreaming (Nonesuch)

       3 BEST REISSUE OR HISTORICAL RELEASES

 Gene Krupa Quartet, Live 1966 (Dot Time Legends)

 New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Goin’ to New Orleans (Black Eagle/blackeagles.com)

 The Savory Collection 1935-1940 (Mosaic) 

 BEST VOCAL RELEASE

 Tessa Souter, Picture in Black and White (NOA Records) 

  BEST DEBUT RELEASE

 Mariel Austin Rock-Jazz Orchestra, Runner in the Rain      (Mariel Austin/marielaustin.com) 

             BEST LATIN JAZZ RELEASE

 Dafnis Prieto Big Band, Back to the Sunset (Dafnison Music) 

NOTABLE RELEASES OF 2018

Casey Abrams, Put a Spell on You (Chesky Records)

Cannonball Adderley, Swingin’ In Seattle, Live At The Penthouse 1966-1967 (Reel To Real Recordings)

Alchemy Sound Project, Adventures In Time And Space (Artists Recording Collective)

JD Allen, Love Stone (Savant) 

Rebecca Angel, What We Had (Timeless Grooves Records)

Ethan Ardelli, The Island of Form (Ethan Ardelli)

Allison Au, Wander Wonder (AllisonAu.com)

Tiffany Austin, Unbroken (Con Alma Music)

The Bad Plus, Never Stop II (Leg Breaker Records)

Louise Baranger, Plays The Great American Groove Book (Summit Records) 

Jamie Baum, Bridges (Sunnyside)

The Black Butterflies, Luisa (Mercedes Figueras)

Ran Blake & Christine Correa, Streaming (Red Piano Records) 

Samuel Blaser, Early in the Mornin’ (Outnote Records)

Joe Bonamassa, Black Coffee (J&R Adventures)

Joe Bonamassa, British Blues Explosion Live (J&R Adventures) 

Joe Bonamassa, British Blues Explosion Live (J&R Adventures) DVD 

Andrea Brachfeld, If Not Now, When? (Jazzheads)

Bobby Bradford, Live at the Blue Whale (No Business Records)

Bobby Broom, Soul Fingers (MRI)

Marion Brown, Live at the Black Musicians Conference 1981 (No Business Records)

Brubeck Brothers Quartet, Timeline (Blue Forest Records) 

Sandy Carroll, Blues & Angels (Catfood Records) 

Rachel Caswell, We're All in the Dance (Turtle Ridge Records)

Amy Cervini , No One Ever Tells You (Anzic Records LLC)

Ernesto Cervini's Turboprop, Abundance (Anzic Records LLC) 

Jungsu Choi Tiny Orkester, Tschüss Jazz EraJan (Challenge Records)

Dawn Clement, Tandem (Origin Records)

The Claudettes, Dance Scandal At The Gymnasium! (Yellow Dog Records)

Anat Cohen and Fred Hersch, Live in Healdsburg (Anzic Records LLC) 

 Richie Cole, Cannonball (Featuring Reggie Watkins) (Richie Cole Presents)

John Coltrane, Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album (Verve)

Glenn Crytzer Orchestra, Ain't It Grand? (Blue Rhythm Records)

Eddie Daniels, Heart of Brazil (Resonance Records)

Jon De Lucia Octet + Ted Brown, Live at the Drawing Room (Gut String Records)

Benjamin Deschamps, No Codes (Multiple Chord Music)

Laura Dickinson 17, Auld Lang Syne (Music and Mirror Records)

Mike DiRubbo Quartet, Live at Smalls (SmallsLIVE)

Eric Dolphy, Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions (Resonance Records) 

Matthieu Donarier, Sylvain Lemêtre, Poline Renou Adieu mes très belle (Yolk Music)

Roberta Donnay & the Prohibition Mob Band, My Heart Belongs to Satchmo (blujazz)

Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (Craft      Recordings/ Concord Music) LP

Yelena Eckemoff and Paul McCandless, Desert (L & H  Production)

Gene Ess, Apotheosis (SIMP Records)

The Gil Evans Orchestra, Hidden Treasures (GEO)

Michael Feinberg, Whatever Possessed Me (MFMusic)

Sue Foley, The Ice Queen (Stony Plain Records) 

The Frost Concert Jazz Band Under the Direction of John Daversa, Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Orchestra (ArtistShare)

Satoko Fujii, Gebhard Ullmann and Orchestra Berlin, Ninety Nine Years (Libra)

Hal Galper Quartet, Cubist (Origin Records)

Kelly Green Trio (featuring Alex Tremblay & Evan Hyde), Volume One (kgmusic LLC)       

Mary Halvorson, Code Girl (Firehouse 12 Records) 

Jeff Hamilton, Live From San Pedro (Capri Records Ltd.)

Fareed Haque & Kaia String Quartet, New Latin American Music For Guitar And String Quartet (Delmark)

Allan Harris, The Genius of Eddie Jefferson (Resilience Music)

Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, Black Coffee (J&R Adventures) 

Phil Haynes & Free Country, My Favorite Things (1960-1969) (Corner Store Jazz)

The Heavyweights Brass Band, This City (Lulaworld Records)

Lauren Henderson, Ármame (Brontosaurus Records)

Carlos Henriquez, Dizzy Con Clave: Live From Dizzy's Club Coca Cola (RodBros Music) 

Fred Hersch Trio, Live in Europe (Palmetto)

Alexandra Jackson, Legacy & Alchemy (Legacy and Alchemy) 

Lucia Jackson, You and the Night and the Music (Roni Musik)

Keith Jarrett, After The Fall (ECM)

Keith Jarrett, La Fenice (ECM)

Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis, Featuring Rubén Blades, Una Noche con Rubén Blades (Blue Engine Records)

Phillip Johnston, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Asynchronous Records) 

Phillip Johnston & the Coolerators, Diggin' Bone (Asynchronous Records)

Etta Jones, A Soulful Sunday: Live At The Left Bank (Reel To Real Recordings)

Gayle Kolb, Getting Sentimental (Gayle Kolb)

Julian Lage, Modern Lore (Mack Avenue Records)

Bongwool Lee, My Singing Fingers (Origin Records) 

Jennifer Lee and the Ever-Expanding Universe, My Shining Hour (S.B.E. Records)

Vivian Lee, Let's Talk About Love (Tara Records)

Allegra Levy, Looking At The Moon (SteepleChase)

Matteo Liberatore, Solos (Innova)

Judith Lorick, The Second Time Around (JLJ International)

Hans Lüdemann, Trans Europe Express, Polyjazz (BMC Records)

Roberto Magris, World Gardens (Jmood Records) 

Diane Marino, Soul Serenade: The Gloria Lynne Project (M&M Records)

Marcin Masecki, Ragtime (BMC Records)  

Bill McBirnie with Bernie Senensky, The Silent Wish (ExtremeFlute.com) 

Dave McKenna, Dave McKenna In Madison (Arbors)

Hendrik Meurkens and Bill Cunliffe, Cabin In The Sky (Height Advantage) 

Bob Mintzer Big Band and New York Voices, Meeting of Minds (MCG Jazz)

Roscoe Mitchell, Sound (Delmark)

Modern Art Orchestra, Plays Béla Bartok: 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs (BMC Records)  

François Moutin & Kavita Shah Duo, Interplay (Dot Time Records)

New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Missing Pieces (Black Eagle/blackeagles.com)

Larry Ochs, Mark Dresser, Vladimir Tarasov, A Jones In Time Saves Nine (No Business Records)

Keith Oxman, Glimpses (Capri Records Ltd.)

Jason Palmer, Leo Genovese, Joe Martin, and Kendrick Scott, Fair Weather (Newvelle Records) LP

Emile Parisien Quintet and Joachim Kuhn Sfumato  Live In Marciac (CD+DVD) (ACT Jazz)

Párniczky Quartet, Bartok Electrified (BMC Records)  

Art Pepper, Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. 10: Toronto (Widow’s Taste)

Ted Piltzecker, Brindica (ZoHo Music)

Noah Preminger, Genuinity (Criss Cross)

Noah Preminger and Frank Carlberg, Whispers And Cries (Red Piano Records)

Bobby Previte, Rhapsody (Rarenoise Records) 

Margo Rey, The Roots of Rey/Despacito Margo (Origin Records)

The Rova Saxophone Quartet, In Transverse Time (Les Disques VICTO) 

Jamie Saft Quartet, Blue Dream (Rarenoise Records)

Anne Sajdera, New Year (Bijuri Records)

Bobby Sanabria, Multiverse Big Band, West Side Story Reimagined (Jazzheads)

Dolores Scozzesi, Here Comes The Sun (Cafe Pacific Records) 

Matthew Shipp, Zero (Esp Disk Ltd.) 

Jeff 'Siege' Siegel, London Live (Artists Recording Collective)

Flavio Silva, Break Free (Flavio Silva) 

Soft Machine, Hidden Details (MoonJune Records) 

Kristen Strom, Moving Day: The Music Of John Shifflett (Oa2 Records)

Mátyás Szandai, Bartok Impressions (BMC Records)

Jay Thomas with the Oliver Groenewald Newnet, I Always Knew (Origin Records)

Henry Threadgill, Dirt...And More Dirt (PI Recordings)

Henry Threadgill, Double Up Plays Double Up Plus (PI Recordings)

trio WoRK (Ken Wild, Tom Rizzo, Susan Krebs) (Green Gig Music)

Allan Vache, It Might As Well Be Swing (Arbors)

Andreas Varady, The Quest (Resonance Records)

Dominique Vantomme, Vegir (MoonJune Records)  

Andrés Vial, Plays Thelonious Monk: Sphereology, Vol. 1 (featuring Peter Bernstein, Dezron Douglas, Rodney     Green, Martin Heslop & André White) (Chromatic Audio)

Volcano Radar Featuring Paquito D’Rivera, Paquito Libre (Delmark)

Bill Warfield Big Band, For Lew (Planet Arts Recordings)

Bob Watt and Todd Cochran, I Play French Horn—Music by J. S. Bach, Dave Brubeck, Todd Cochran, Maurice Ravel   and Traditional (MSR Classics)

Kenny Werner, The Space (Pirouet)

Mars Williams, An Ayler Xmas Volume 2 (Esp Disk Ltd.) 

Teddy Wilson Classic Brunswick & Columbia Sessions 1934- 42 (Mosaic)

Miguel Zenón, Yo Soy La Tradición (Miel Music)

Pablo Ziegler, Jazz Tango (Zoho)

A ROUNDUP OF 125 OR SO JAZZ, BLUES, BEYOND, AND OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR OR SO.

1) BIOGRAPHIES

Gary Giddins, Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 (Little, Brown and Company). “Bing Crosby dominated American popular culture in a way that few artists ever have. From the dizzy era of Prohibition through the dark days of the Second World War, he was a desperate nation's most beloved entertainer. But he was more than just a charismatic crooner: Bing Crosby redefined the very foundations of modern music, from the way it was recorded to the way it was orchestrated and performed. 

In this much-anticipated follow-up to the universally acclaimed first volume, NBCC Winner and preeminent cultural critic Gary Giddins now focuses on Crosby's most memorable period, the war years and the origin story of White Christmas. Set against the backdrop of a Europe on the brink of collapse, this groundbreaking work traces Crosby's skyrocketing career as he fully inhabits a new era of American entertainment and culture. While he would go on to reshape both popular music and cinema more comprehensively than any other artist, Crosby's legacy would be forever intertwined with his impact on the home front, a unifying voice for a nation at war. Over a decade in the making and drawing on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to numerous archives, Giddins brings Bing Crosby, his work, and his world to vivid life--firmly reclaiming Crosby's central role in American cultural history.”

“Gary Giddins wrote the Weather Bird jazz column in the Village Voice for over 30 years and later directed the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center. He received the National Nook Critics Circle Award, the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, and the Bell Atlantic Award for Visions of Jazz: The First Century in 1998. His other books include Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams-The Early Years, 1930-1940, which won the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award and the ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Sound Research; Weatherbird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century; Faces in the Crowd; Natural Selection; Warning Shadow; and biographies of Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. He has won six ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Peabody Award in Broadcasting. He lives in New York.

“Gary Giddins may be the best thing to happen to Bing Crosby since Bob Hope. . . . Crosby couldn't have hoped for a finer biographer: elegant writer, informed historian, thorough scholar, and one of America's most eminent jazz critics.” John McDonough, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, discography, filmography, notes, bibliography, index.

Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon (University of California Press), by Maxine Gordon, Foreword by Farah Jasmine Griffin, Afterword by Woody Louis Armstrong Shaw III, “presents the life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon (1923–1990), one of the major innovators of modern jazz. In a context of biography, history, and memoir, Maxine Gordon has completed the book that her late husband began, weaving his ‘solo’ turns with her voice and a chorus of voices from past and present. Reading like a jazz composition, the blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of Dexter’s personal letters reflects his colorful life and legendary times. It is clear why the celebrated trumpet genius Dizzy Gillespie said to Dexter, ‘Man, you ought to leave your karma to science.’ Dexter Gordon the icon is the Dexter beloved and celebrated on albums, on film, and in jazz lore--even in a street named for him in Copenhagen. But this image of the cool jazzman fails to come to terms with the multidimensional man full of humor and wisdom, a figure who struggled to reconcile being both a creative outsider who broke the rules and a comforting insider who was a son, father, husband, and world citizen. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.”

“Who is Dexter Gordon? 1) A great musician of the highest level. 2) A great human being of the highest level.” Sonny Rollins.

 “What began as a solemn promise to Dexter Gordon to finish writing the story of his life is now an extraordinary gift to those of us who are the fortunate readers of Sophisticated Giant.  Maxine Gordon’s rigorously researched, jazz-inflected, genre-bending account of the many dimensions of this prodigious life—from small intimacies, musical and personal, to major social issues, such as racism, drugs, and mass incarceration—is an occasion to appreciate Dexter’s resounding musical genius as well as his wish for major social transformation.” Angela Y. Davis, political activist, scholar, author, and speaker.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Zeke Schein, with Poppy Brite, Portrait of a Phantom: Story of Robert Johnson’s Lost Photograph (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.). “Late one night in 2005, Zeke Schein made an amazing discovery while searching for a vintage guitar on eBay: a grainy, battered photograph captioned Old Snapshot Blues Guitar BB King???? Neither man looked like King, but one seemed to resemble the twentieth century’s most mysterious musician, Robert Johnson. Would others see what he saw? With only three or four known images of the legendary blues guitarist in existence, this single picture was certainly an exceptional link to the past. In 2014, the truth about the photo was finally revealed. Schein details his strange journey in solving this musical mystery and crusade for legitimacy amidst pushback from music historians.”

Notes, bibliography. 

Nichole Rustin-Paschal’s The Kind of Man I Am: Jazzmasculinity and the World of Charles Mingus Jr. (Music/Culture)(Wesleyan) “uses Mingus as a lens through which to craft a gendered cultural history of postwar jazz culture. This book challenges the persisting narrative of Mingus as jazz’s ‘Angry Man’ by examining the ways the language of emotion has been used in jazz as shorthand for competing ideas about masculinity, authenticity, performance, and authority. Nearly four decades after his death, Charles Mingus Jr. remains one of the least understood and most recognized jazz composers and musicians of our time. Mingus’s ideas about music, racial identity, and masculinity—as well as those of other individuals in his circle, like Celia Mingus, Hazel Scott, and Joni Mitchell—challenged jazz itself as a model of freedom, inclusion, creativity, and emotional expressivity.”

“In her fascinating book Nichole Rustin-Paschal examines many aspects of Mingus’ art and influence, from his collaboration with Joni Michel . . . to [his] dark and twisty recollections of growing up in South Central Los Angeles as a shy, light-skinned son of a tough, Caucasian-looking Army father, and his struggles as a black musician.” Eugene Holley Jr., Downbeat

Notes, bibliography, index.

Peter Jones, This Is Hip: The Life of Mark Murphy(Popular Music History) (Equinox). “When Mark Murphy died in October 2015, the world lost one of the greatest jazz singer in history. Murphy was the last of his kind, a hipster of the Kerouac generation, who rejected the straight life of prosperity and numb consumerism. With a catalogue of more than 40 albums under his own name, Mark Murphy was a consummate improviser, who never sang a song the same way twice. He could have enjoyed a successful mainstream career in the vein of Mel Tormé or Jack Jones. But his ambition was greater to be an artist, to rebel against the commercial music industry and to carry the jazz vocal flame wherever it led him. 

Murphy was a master of scat and vocalese, of songwriting and the spoken word. He expanded the jazz singing repertoire, adding his own lyrics to instrumentals like John Coltrane’s “Naima,” Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay,” and Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments.” Unrivalled as an interpreter of ballads, he was able to express longing and regret to a degree lacking in any other jazz singer. 

For years he roamed the world, playing thousands of gigs. Rediscovered in the Eighties by a new audience of jazz dancers, and again in the 21st century by a digital generation who invited him to guest on their recordings, he remains a crucial though unjustly neglected figure in vocal jazz. 

This Is Hip is more than a biography: it also explores Murphy s innovative approaches both to singing and to the teaching of singers. Based on numerous interviews with those who knew him best, the book delves into a performing and recording career that spanned 60 years and earned him five Grammy nominations.”

Photographs, discography, notes, bibliography, index.

Mervyn Cooke, Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984 (Oxford Studies in Recorded Jazz) (Oxford University Press). 

“The guitarist and composer Pat Metheny ranks among the most popular and innovative jazz musicians of all time. In Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984, Mervyn Cooke offers the first in-depth account of Metheny's early creative period, during which he recorded eleven stunningly varied albums for the pioneering European record label ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). This impressive body of recordings encompasses both straight-ahead jazz playing with virtuosic small ensembles and the increasingly complex textures and structures of the Pat Metheny Group, a hugely successful band also notable for its creative exploration of advanced music technologies which were state-of-the-art at the time.

Metheny's music in all its shapes and forms broke major new ground in its refusal to subscribe to either of the stylistic poles of bebop and jazz-rock fusion which prevailed in the late 1970s. Through a series of detailed analyses based on a substantial body of new transcriptions from the recordings, this study reveals the close interrelationship of improvisation and pre-composition which lies at the very heart of the music. Furthermore, these analyses vividly demonstrate how Metheny's music is often conditioned by a strongly linear narrative model: both its story-telling characteristics and atmospheric suggestiveness have sometimes been compared to those of film music, a genre in which the guitarist also became active during this early period. The melodic memorability for which Metheny's compositions and improvisations have long been world-renowned is shown to be just one important element in an unusually rich and flexible musical language that embraces influences as diverse as bebop, free jazz, rock, pop, country & western, Brazilian music, classical music, minimalism, and the avant-garde. These elements are melded into a uniquely distinctive soundworld which, above all, directly reflects Metheny's passionate belief in the need to refashion jazz in ways which can allow it to speak powerfully to each new generation of youthful listeners.”

“The fact that Cooke only illuminates Pat Metheny's ECM years and thus captures only a quarter of the work that has since been released (44 albums) is by no means a disadvantage. Often he looks beyond the horizon, to the years 1985 and following; and draws connecting lines from there to the investigation periodEL The result is a massive accumulation of original compositions to which he can relate to without even the slightest hint of stylistic disagreement.” JazzCity

“What a great book! I was hoping for this to be a Pat Metheny version of Ashley Kahn’s Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpieceand A Love Supreme: The Creation of John Coltrane's Classic Album. But I think that it’s much more! From 1976’s Bright Size Lifeto 1984’s First Circle- 8 years - 11 albums of such diverse creativity. This is a really clear examination of the step-by-step development of PMs early music. I am assuming that it’s a college textbook - there’s a lot of technical analysis of the music. However, since I am a non-musician, I just ploughed-on through those bits enjoying the sound of the words! (maybe I imbibed some music theory along the way!) but I did learn a lot of new stuff about PM’s creative history. For a simple Pat Metheny music fan, the book tells a great story and it is really well told by Prof Cooke.” DBM (an Amazon reviewer)

Photographs, musical notations, bibliography, discography, filmography, index.

Kevin Winkler, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical (Broadway Legacies)(Oxford University Press)

“A fascinating look at the evolution of Fosse as choreographer and director, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical considers Fosse's career in the context of changes in the Broadway musical theater over four decades. It traces his early dance years and the importance of mentors George Abbott and Jerome Robbins on his work. It examines how each of the important women in his adult life--all dancers--impacted his career and influenced his dance aesthetic. Finally, the book investigates how his evolution as both artist and individual mirrored the social and political climate of his era and allowed him to comfortably ride a wave of cultural changes.”

“Having worked with and been fortunate to be trained by some truly great choreographers/directors-Jerome Robbins, Michael Kidd, Peter Gennaro, Gower Champion-I could not have been luckier to learn yet another great style, Bob Fosse's. A style never explored before: sex appeal, innocence and humor in minimal movements. He himself was a great dancer, one who could dance all styles. In Sweet Charity his choreography ranged from explosive to controlled, precise, focused, tiny movements. People have a tendency to speak of the 'Fosse Style' as only small movements, but he had a wide range that fit his directorial talents. It has been rewarding to learn from Bobby through the years. He is one of a kind, and this book says it all.” Chita Rivera  

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index

I cherish Gary Giddins’ words upon presenting me, in New York’s Blue Note on the afternoon of June 11, 2014, that year’s Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award, especially his observation, “Most of us who write about jazz write about jazz, but Royal, what he’s done, which is so exceptional, is that he’s let the musicians speak for themselves. His books are absolutely indispensible because he stays out of the way and allows them the freedom to talk about their music and themselves and their lives in a way that allows them to be as elegant as they can be.” I can say the same about Brian Gruber’s, Six Days at Ronnie Scott’s: Billy Cobham on Jazz Fusion and the Act of Creation (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform/ grubermedia.com), which is both indispensible and, as its publicity description says, “a one-of-a-kind oral history of a legend's life work.” It goes on to say, “From his early days with Horace Silver and Dreams to the epochal Bitches Brew sessions with Miles Davis to the breakthrough Mahavishnu Orchestra and beyond, here is a first-ever deep dive into six decades of musical innovation. The book's setting is six days at iconic London jazz club Ronnie Scott's, as Britain's hottest arranger Guy Barker orchestrates and leads a big band performing Cobham's greatest works. Jazz greats such as Ron Carter, Randy Brecker, and Jan Hammer, family members, club owners, critics and superfans provide colorful insights and remembrances. Readers are given an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look into rehearsals, performances, adjustments and preparations between shows, and the evolution of a sold-out six-day run.”

“The book is a massive undertaking . . . Despite being raised a generation and culture apart from Bed-Sty raised Panamanian born William Emanuel Cobham, Jr., Gruber manages to pull off a remarkable feat of music journalism. . . .  The interviews with Cobham cover a galaxy of subjects; from the cruel realities of the New York public school system, to the rhythmic complexity of a woman sashaying when walking or the sonic intricacies of live performance. . . . There is so much information in this book that any serious student of Jazz, Fusion or music history will reap a bountiful harvest...A nice touch is the Spotify Soundtrack for each chapter of the book that contains some very unexpected musical gems. Hats off to Brian Gruber who accomplished what few could have written with such elaborate authority.” Tee Watts, Cadence Jazz Magazine

“An interesting concept . . . his questions are knowledgeable and penetrating . . . rather than dallying in the kind of film-flam that obfuscates the detail, memories and opinions that make a biography breathe . . . Fast paced with anecdotes pouring from every page, it wraps with Cobham describing his dream line-up to play with. Want to know who? Then go grab a copy.”  Jon Newey, editor-in-chief of Jazzwise, the UK's biggest selling monthly jazz magazine and the leading English language jazz magazine in Europe. 

Discography.

Ethan Mordden, All That Jazz: The Life and Times of the Musical Chicago (Oxford University Press). “In 1975, the Broadway musical Chicago brought together a host of memes and myths - the gleefully subversive character of American musical comedy, the reckless glamour of the big-city newspaper, the mad decade of the 1920s, the work of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon (two of the greatest talents in the musical's history), and the Wild West gangsterville that was the city of Chicago itself. The tale of a young woman who murders her departing lover and then tricks the jury into letting her off, Chicago seemed too blunt and cynical at first. Everyone agreed it was show biz at its brilliant best, yet the public still preferred A Chorus Line, with its cast of innocents and sentimental feeling. Nevertheless, the 1996 Chicago revival is now the longest-running American musical in history, and the movie version won the Best Picture Oscar. As author Ethan Mordden looks back at Chicago's various moving parts - including the original 1926 play that started it all, a sexy silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, a talkie remake with Ginger Rogers, the musical itself, and at last the movie of the musical - we see how the American theatre serves as a kind of alternative news medium, a town crier warning the public about the racy, devious interior contradictions of American society. Opinionated, witty, and rich in backstage anecdotes, All That Jazzbrings the American Musical to life in all its artistry and excitement.

Photographs, discography, bibliography, index.

Tom Ewing’s Bill Monroe: The Life and Music of the Blue Grass Man (Music in American Life)(University of Illinois Press) “sets out to examine [Bill Monroe’s] life in careful detail--to move beyond hearsay and sensationalism to explain how and why he accomplished so much. Former Blue Grass Boy and longtime music journalist Tom Ewing draws on hundreds of interviews, his personal relationship with Monroe, and an immense personal archive of materials to separate the truth from longstanding myth. Ewing tells the story of the Monroe family's musical household and Bill's early career in the Monroe Brothers duo. He brings to life Monroe's 1940s heyday with the Classic Bluegrass Band, the renewed fervor for his music sparked by the folk revival of the 1960s, and his declining fortunes in the years that followed. Throughout, Ewing deftly captures Monroe's relationships and the personalities of an ever-shifting roster of band members while shedding light on his business dealings and his pioneering work with Bean Blossom and other music festivals. Filled with a wealth of previously unknown details, Bill Monroe offers even the most devoted fan a deeper understanding of Monroe's towering achievements and timeless music.”

“An exciting and rewarding read. No one knows the literature about and by Bill Monroe better than this author. He stitches what other readers have seen as fragments into the first deep and coherent narrative of Monroe's early years. They are sewn into a fabric of intense research into the time, place, and people in Monroe's life.” Neil V. Rosenberg, author of Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Jas Obrecht, Stone Free: Jimi Hendrix in London, September 1966–June 1967 (University of North Carolina Press) is “a compelling portrait of rock's greatest guitarist at the moment of his ascendance. Stone Free is the first book to focus exclusively on the happiest and most productive period of Jimi Hendrix's life. As it begins in the fall of 1966, he's an under-sung, under-accomplished sideman struggling to survive in New York City. Nine months later, he's the toast of Swinging London, a fashion icon, and the brightest star to step off the stage at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This momentum-building, day-by-day account of this extraordinary transformation offers new details into Jimi's personality, relationships, songwriting, guitar innovations, studio sessions, and record releases. It explores the social changes sweeping the U.K., Hendrix's role in the dawning of "flower power," and the prejudice he faced while fronting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to featuring the voices of Jimi, his bandmates, and other eyewitnesses, Stone Free draws extensively from contemporary accounts published in English- and foreign-language newspapers and music magazines. This celebratory account is a must-read for Hendrix fans.” 

“Obrecht deftly focuses on Jimi's transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. He tracks Hendrix's movement on virtually a day-to-day basis over ten months when a little-known, uncertain young New York guitarist emerged as the brightest, most powerful new voice in the exploding world of rock music. His research is breathtaking and the fine-point details remarkable.” Joel Selvin, author of Summer of Love

Photographs, notes, index.

Dylan Jones’ David Bowie: A Life (Crown Archetype/Penguin Random House) “is unlike any Bowie story ever written. Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path. Tracing Bowie’s life from the English suburbs to London to New York to Los Angeles, Berlin, and beyond, its collective voices describe a man profoundly shaped by his relationship with his schizophrenic half-brother Terry; an intuitive artist who could absorb influences through intense relationships and yet drop people cold when they were no longer of use; and a social creature equally comfortable partying with John Lennon and dining with Frank Sinatra. By turns insightful and deliciously gossipy, David Bowie is as intimate a portrait as may ever be drawn. It sparks with admiration and grievances, lust and envy, as the speakers bring you into studios and bedrooms they shared with Bowie, and onto stages and film sets, opening corners of his mind and experience that transform our understanding of both artist and art. Including illuminating, never-before-seen material from Bowie himself, drawn from a series of Jones’s interviews with him across two decades, David Bowie is an epic, unforgettable cocktail-party conversation about a man whose enigmatic shape shifting and irrepressible creativity produced one of the most sprawling, fascinating lives of our time.”

“Jones’ Bowie opus serves as the ultimate oral history of the artist’s life and musical journey.” Billboard

“Revelatory and surprising — perfect for the Ziggy completist.” New York Magazine

“Beguiling  . . . the fabulosity of Bowie’s life and times lends itself extraordinarily well to the oral history form.” San Francisco Chronicle

Chronology, dramatis personae.

Seymour Stein’s Siren Song: My Life in Music (St. Martin's Press), with Gareth Murphy, “is about modernity in motion, and the slow acceptance of diversity in America – thanks largely to daring pop music. . . . Seymour Stein is America's greatest living record man. Not only has he signed and nurtured more important artists than anyone alive, now sixty years in the game, he's still the hippest label head, travelling the globe in search of the next big thing. Since the late fifties, he's been wherever it's happening: Billboard, Tin Pan Alley, The British Invasion, CBGB, Studio 54, Danceteria, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, the CD crash. Along that winding path, he discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars: Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Madonna, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, and many others. Brimming with hilarious scenes and character portraits, Siren Song. . . . includes both the high and low points in his life, touching on everything from his discovery of Madonna to his wife Linda Stein's violent death. Ask anyone in the music business, Seymour Stein is a legend. Sung from the heart, Siren Songwill etch his story in stone.”

“Stein’s anecdote-packed memoir tells of his life as a music executive, in what is an entertaining ride though music history. . . . Stein wonderfully captures his obsessive love for the bruising music business and introducing music-lovers to new bands―and not going deaf or broke in the process.” Publishers Weekly

Photographs, index.

In second place on my list of reading preferences is biography. (Fiction, especially novels, has headed the list since the age of ten when I devoured Dickens’ Oliver Twist. My oral report on it held my fifth grade class at Jacobsville School, Maryland, spellbound.) And my favorite biographies are those of fiction writers, e.g., recently read ones of Theodore Dreiser, John Updike, and the first volume of Zachary Leader’s masterful account of one of America’s greatest writers, The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915–1964. Now we have volume 2, The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005 (Knopf), and it is, like the 2015 volume 1, an absorbing read. 

Zachary Leader’s The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife 1965-2005 (Knopf) “opens [when] Bellow, at forty-nine, is at the pinnacle of American letters - rich, famous, critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1, rise; volume 2, fall. Bellow never fell, producing some of his greatest fiction (Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, all his best stories), winning two more National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and the Nobel Prize. At eighty, he wrote his last story; at eighty-five, he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume, his life away from the desk, including his love life, is if anything more dramatic than in volume 1. In the public sphere, he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs, race, religion, education, social policy, the state of culture, the fate of the novel. Bellow's relations with women were often fraught. In the 1960s he was compulsively promiscuous (even as he inveighed against sexual liberation). The women he pursued, the ones he married, and those with whom he had affairs, were intelligent, attractive and strong-willed. At eighty-five he fathered his fourth child, a daughter, with his fifth wife. His three sons, whom he loved, could be as volatile as he was, and their relations with their father were often troubled. Although an early and engaged supporter of civil rights, in the second half of his life Bellow was angered by the excesses of Black Power. An opponent of cultural relativism, he exercised great influence in literary and intellectual circles, advising a host of institutes and foundations, helping those he approved of, hindering those of whom he disapproved. In making his case, he could be cutting and rude; he could also be charming, loyal, and funny. Bellow's heroic energy and will are clear to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost, to himself and others, are also clear.” 

Zachary Leader is professor of English literature at the University of Roehampton in London. Although born and raised in the United States, he has lived in Britain for more than forty years and has dual British and American citizenship. In addition to teaching at Roehampton, he has held visiting profes­sorships at Caltech and the University of Chicago. He was educated at Northwestern University; Trinity College, Cambridge; and Harvard University; and is the author of Reading Blake’s Songs, Writer’s Block, Revision and Romantic Authorship, The Life of Kingsley Amis, a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Biography, and The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915–1964. He has edited Romantic Period Writings, 1798–1832: An Anthology(with Ian Haywood); The Letters of Kingsley Amis; On Modern British Fiction; Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works(with Michael O’Neill); The Movement Reconsidered: Essays on Larkin, Amis, Gunn, Davie, and Their Contemporaries; and On Life-Writing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and General Editor of The Oxford History of Life-Writing, a seven-volume series. 

Philip Roth (1933-2018): “As a friend to Saul and as an awestruck admirer of his astonishing work, I was not always at ease reading portions of this painfully intimate biography. Nonetheless, the book's sweep and majesty—like that of its subject—are not to be denied. All the personal strife is there, the controversies and the disasters, his magical power of observation, that intellect, along with a meticulous record of how, with what labor—the peasant doggedness and the meticulous workmanship and the grinding patience and the hard won inspiration—the great novels came to be written.” 

“A top-notch exploration of one of the most important midcentury writers.” Kirkus Reviews.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Nicholas Frankel’s, Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years (Harvard University Press) “presents a new and revisionary account of Wilde’s final years, spent in poverty and exile on the European continent following his release from an English prison for the crime of “gross indecency” between men. <rem>Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years challenges the prevailing, traditional view of Wilde as a broken, tragic figure, a martyr to Victorian sexual morality, and shows instead that he pursued his post-prison life with passion, enjoying new liberties while trying to resurrect his literary career. After two bitter years of solitary confinement, Frankel shows, Wilde emerged from prison in 1897 determined to rebuild his life along lines that were continuous with the path he had followed before his conviction, unapologetic and even defiant about the crime for which he had been convicted. England had already done its worst. In Europe’s more tolerant atmosphere, he could begin to live openly and without hypocrisy. Frankel overturns previous misunderstandings of Wilde’s relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, the great love of his life, with whom he hoped to live permanently in Naples, following their secret and ill-fated elopement there. He describes how and why the two men were forced apart, as well as Wilde’s subsequent relations with a series of young men. Oscar Wilde pays close attention to Wilde’s final two important works, De Profundisand The Ballad of Reading Gaol, while detailing his nearly three-year residence in Paris. There, despite repeated setbacks and open hostility, Wilde attempted to rebuild himself as a man―and a man of letters.”

“[A] detailed and finely judged account of Wilde’s life after prison.” Colm Tóibín, The Guardian

“[A] fascinating study of the hitherto largely neglected last phase of Wilde’s life. . . . [A] quiet but persuasively revisionist account.” John Banville, New York Review of Books

“[Frankel’s] purpose is to refute the traditional view of Wilde ending as a broken martyr, a victim of hypocritical Victorian morality. . . . While the pages in which Wilde tries to touch for a handout anyone he knew make for painful reading, the rest of Frankel’s history is scintillating enough. The quotes from Wilde’s sayings and writings sparkle, defiantly undimmed.” John Simon, Weekly Standard

Photographs, notes, index.

David Stuttard’s Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens (Harvard University Press) “recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’ celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital charge of impiety, Alcibiades escaped to the enemy, Sparta. There he traded military intelligence for safety until, suspected of seducing a Spartan queen, he was forced to flee again―this time to Greece’s long-term foes, the Persians. Miraculously, though, he engineered a recall to Athens as Supreme Commander, but―suffering a reversal―he took flight to Thrace, where he lived as a warlord. At last in Anatolia, tracked by his enemies, he died naked and alone in a hail of arrows. As he follows Alcibiades’ journeys crisscrossing the Mediterranean from mainland Greece to Syracuse, Sardis, and Byzantium, Stuttard weaves together the threads of Alcibiades’ adventures against a backdrop of cultural splendor and international chaos. Navigating often contradictory evidence, Nemesis provides a coherent and spellbinding account of a life that has gripped historians, storytellers, and artists for more than two thousand years. Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War. Nemesis tells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer.

“Alcibiades will always be remembered as one of the slipperiest statesmen in history…Nemesis is a rich and rewarding biography, as thorough as it is bracing and as measured as it is entertaining. Stuttard is to be praised for capturing the complexity of both the man and the world he lived in with such sensitivity and clarity.” Daisy Dunn, New Criterion

“David Stuttard is a recognized expert at making the ancient Greek world come alive for modern audiences. In Nemesis, he conveys the horror and the glory of the years of Athens’ greatness and decline. Central to these processes was the flamboyant Alcibiades, and Stuttard, wearing his learning lightly, gives us a hugely entertaining biography that is simultaneously an exciting adventure story and a pithy history of the period.” Robin Waterfield, author of Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece

Photographs, notes, timeline, index.

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY, REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

Christopher Hillman and Richard Rains, with Michael Hortig, Foreword by Paul Swinton, New Orleans To Texas (Chris Hillman Books/chbooks.info).

As I have observed in reviews of Chris Hillman’s earlier publications, he and his collaborators are musical archaeologists, adept at unearthing all available information about the subjects of their investigations. This most recent of their numerous publications (see: chbooks.info) is highly recommended for both its text and the accompanying CD, which will provide rewarding repeated listening. Mr. Hillman and his colleagues in research have provided an invaluable service by their delving onto the roots of jazz and blues. It would be well for those truly interested in the history of these two classic idioms—perhaps, most especially, musicians—to look into the works complied by this team (again, check out chbooks.info). As the late great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean said to me in the 1990s, “I tell my students, ‘It’s an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn its language all the way through. How are you going to know what’s new to play, if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?’” 

 “[New Orleans To Texas] covers the connection between those two important areas of African-American jazz and blues development during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. The book is in three sections: the first, Old New Orleans style, covers the recording of both jazz and blues bands and performers, in the Crescent City and on tour, through the twenties and thirties; from Armand Piron to Joe Robichaux both of whom recorded during trips to New York, through all those who were captured in the City itself, a wealth of fine music by bands which entertained the indigenous population both black and white. The second features those artistes who were recorded in Dallas, Texas during the late twenties; artistes who performed for their fellows in ‘Deep Ellum’, the center of black entertainment and who were recorded there in their regular venues performing jazz, blues and hokum of a characteristically unique style, often featuring different combinations of a limited number of individuals including a significant number of emigrants from New Orleans, in a variety of combinations. The third section shows the further interaction between jazz and blues, and Mexican music, in San Antonio, Texas, during the thirties, before the local styles were submerged by the influence of the northern cities, which was spread by the radio and gramophone and by movement of population. Each section is enhanced by a comprehensive Discography and our usual related illustrations and label scans. For the Texas element we are privileged to have the involvement of the distinguished piano blues expert Michael Hortig as well as our regular collaborator Richard Rains and the Foreword is by Paul Swinton, proprietor of Frog Records and editor of the periodical Frog Annual, on whose pages some preliminary research matter relating to our subject   appeared. New Orleans To Texas, as is usual with our publications, is accompanied by a complimentary CD featuring music relating to the subject matter.”

Photographs, illustrations, notes, discography, bibliography, CD.

Jason Berry, City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 (University of North Carolina Press) “delivers a character-driven history of New Orleans at its tricentennial. Chronicling cycles of invention, struggle, death, and rebirth, Berry reveals the city's survival as a triumph of diversity, its map-of-the-world neighborhoods marked by resilience despite hurricanes, epidemics, fires, and floods.

Berry orchestrates a parade of vibrant personalities, from the founder Bienville, a warrior emblazoned with snake tattoos; to Governor William C. C. Claiborne, General Andrew Jackson, and Pere Antoine, an influential priest and secret agent of the Inquisition; Sister Gertrude Morgan, a street evangelist and visionary artist of the 1960s; and Michael White, the famous clarinetist who remade his life after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina. The textured profiles of this extraordinary cast furnish a dramatic narrative of the beloved city, famous the world over for mysterious rituals as people dance when they bury their dead.”

“This is a dream of a book, deftly organized, fluidly written, and compelling.” Garry Wills, author of Venice: Lion City

“Every New Orleanian, including this one, possesses a cultural arrogance that makes us believe our city is more colorful and interesting than your city. We've been taught since we were children that New Orleans has the most rich and nuanced history of any city in the United States. Now that Jason Berry has written this masterful work, I no longer believe my city is more interesting than yours — I know it. Read this book so you can agree with me.” James Carville

Photographs, notes, index.

Val Wilmer, As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957–1977 (Serpent's Tail Classics), Foreword by Richard Williams.

“In this classic account of the new black music of the 1960s and 70s, celebrated photographer and jazz historian Val Wilmer tells the story of how a generation of revolutionary musicians established black music as the true vanguard of American culture. Placing the achievements of African-American artists such as Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra in their broader political and social context, Wilmer evokes an era of extraordinary innovation and experimentation that continues to inspire musicians today. As vital now as when it was first published in 1977, As Serious As Your Lifeis the essential story of one of the most dynamic musical movements of the twentieth century.”

“Val Wilmer is an internationally acclaimed photographer, journalist, author and black-music historian who has been documenting African-American music since 1959. In that time she has interviewed and photographed almost every significant figure in post-war jazz, blues and R&B, from Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk to Sun Ra and Albert Ayler and Muddy Waters to Aretha Franklin. As a photographer, her work features in the permanent collections of the British Library, the V&A Museum and the National Portrait Gallery; as a writer and historian, she has contributed to the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography and the New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz. She lives in London.”

“This book saved me from giving up. Even though the jazz musicians Wilmer wrote about were mostly male, their approach to music making, their passion and their activism resonated with me and showed me a way to move forward musically.” Viv Albertine. “The best of those books that found evidence of a black revolution or resurgence in the musical achievements of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and others.” Guardian. “A very powerful and proud black book . . . it sings the praise-song of the procreators of the new music and their direct descendantsCoda. “An exceptionally illuminating book on jazz now and on music to come. Indeed, it's one of the relatively few indispensable books about America’s classical music.” Nat Hentoff. “A fascinating document, full of the energy of political struggle.”Socialist Review. “A masterpiece of jazz history. It charts the development of the new black music, delving deep into the lives, minds and politics of the people behind it.” BBC Radio 3. 

“Fascinating snapshot.” The Wire. 

“A classic . . . . Jam-packed with gems.” Cerys Matthews BBC Radio 6Music. 

“A social history of the free jazz movement from its beginnings in the late 1950s. As serious, and necessary, as ever.” Village Voice. 

“One of the foremost chroniclers of African-American musical culture Spectator. “One of the most important and exciting books ever written about jazz. It's essential.”Stereogum.

Photographs, notes, “Biographies,” bibliography, index.

Nate Chinen’s Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century (Pantheon) “gives us an invigorating, richly detailed portrait of the artists and events that have shaped the music of our time. Grounded in authority and brimming with style, Playing Changesis the first book to take the measure of this exhilarating moment: it is a compelling argument for the resiliency of the art form and a rejoinder to any claims about its calcification or demise. . . . Woven throughout the book is a vibrant cast of characters—from the saxophonists Steve Coleman and Kamasi Washington to the pianists Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer to the bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding—who have exerted an important influence on the scene. This is an adaptive new music for a complex new reality, and Playing Changes is the definitive guide.”

Nate Chinen has been writing about jazz for more than twenty years. He spent a dozen of them working as a critic for The New York Times and helmed a long-running column for Jazz Times. As the director of editorial content at WBGO, he works with the multiplatform program Jazz Night in America and contributes a range of coverage to NPR Music. An eleven-time winner of the Helen Dance—Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in writing presented by the Jazz Journalists Association, Chinen is also co-author of Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, the autobiography of impresario George Wein. He lives in Beacon, New York, with his wife and two daughters.

“Brilliant. Incisive. Jazz lives on and on and on, folks.” Sonny Rollins

“The 129 Essential Albums of the Twenty-First Century (so far)”, notes, index.

DC Jazz: Stories of Jazz Music in Washington, DC (Georgetown University Press), Maurice Jackson and Blair A. Ruble, editors, “presents a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history, including a portrait of the cultural hotbed of Seventh and U Streets, the role of jazz in desegregating the city, a portrait of the great Duke Ellington'stime in DC, notable women in DC jazz, and the seminal contributions of the University of District of Columbia and Howard University to the scene. The book also includes three jazz poems by celebrated Washington, DC, poet E. Ethelbert Miller. Collectively, these stories and poems underscore the deep connection between creativity and place. A co-publishing initiative with the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the book includes over thirty museum-quality photographs and a guide to resources for learning more about DC jazz.”

Photographs, notes, index.

J. Samuel Walker’s Most of 14th Street Is Gone: The Washington, DC Riots of 1968 (Oxford University Press) “takes an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the Washington, DC riots of 1968. It shows the conditions that existed in Washington, DC's low-income neighborhoods, setting the stage for the disorders that began after Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder. It also traces the growing fears produced by the outbreaks of serious riots in many cities during the mid-1960s. The centerpiece of the book is a detailed account of the riots that raged in Washington, DC from the perspectives of rioters, victims, law enforcement officials, soldiers, and government leaders. The destruction was so extensive that parts of the city were described as "smoldering ruins block after block." Walker analyzes the reasons for the riots and the lessons that authorities drew from them. He also provides an overview of the struggle that the city of Washington, DC faced in recovering from the effects of the 1968 disorders. Finally, he considers why serious riots have been so rare in Washington, DC and other cities since 1968. Walker's timely and sensitive examination of a community, a city, and a country rocked by racial tension, violence, and frustration speaks not only to this nation's past but to its present.”

“Samuel Walker's Most of 14th Street Is Gone details the tick tock of events that occurred during the Washington, DC riots of 1968. . . . Walker painstakingly retraces the steps and missteps, of those days that sent our nation's capital up in flames 50 years ago.” Colbert I. King, Washington Post

 Photographs, notes, index.

Todd S. Purdue’s Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution (Henry Holt and Co.) is “A revelatory portrait of the creative partnership that transformed musical theater and provided the soundtrack to the American Century. They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play. Their songs and dance numbers served to advance the drama and reveal character, a sharp break from the past and the template on which all future musicals would be built. Though different in personality and often emotionally distant from each other, Rodgers and Hammerstein presented an unbroken front to the world and forged much more than a songwriting team; their partnership was also one of the most profitable and powerful entertainment businesses of their era. They were cultural powerhouses whose work came to define postwar America on stage, screen, television, and radio. But they also had their failures and flops, and more than once they feared they had lost their touch. Todd S. Purdum’s portrait of these two men, their creative process, and their groundbreaking innovations will captivate lovers of musical theater, lovers of the classic American songbook, and young lovers wherever they are. He shows that what Rodgers and Hammerstein wrought was truly something wonderful.”

“Affectionate and richly researched. . . . Something Wonderful offers a fresh look at the milieu and circumstances that contributed to the creation of some of the musical theater’s greatest and most enduring treasures. . . . In giving us access to the world that gave birth to them, Purdum’s authoritative and ultimately moving book brings these masterpieces to life with bracing clarity.” Jason Robert Brown, The New York Times Book Review(Editor's Choice)

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Beth Genné, Dance Me a Song: Astaire, Balanchine, Kelly, and the American Film Musical (Oxford University Press). “Dancer-choreographer-directors Fred Astaire, George Balanchine and Gene Kelly and their colleagues helped to develop a distinctively modern American film-dance style and recurring dance genres for the songs and stories of the American musical. Freely crossing stylistic and class boundaries, their dances were rooted in the diverse dance and music cultures of European immigrants and African-American migrants who mingled in jazz age America. The new technology of sound cinema let them choreograph and fuse camera movement, light, and color with dance and music. Preserved intact for the largest audiences in dance history, their works continue to influence dance and film around the world. This book centers them and their colleagues within the history of dance (where their work has been marginalized) as well as film tracing their development from Broadway to Hollywood (1924-58) and contextualizing them within the American history and culture of their era.  

“What this book does is vitally important work in illuminating that uniquely American genre, the movie musical. It shows that the outlaw style of dance at the heart of it was created by freeform borrowings from both so-called highbrow end of the art and so-called lowbrow. In fact, Genné brings together not only styles but artists who don't usually meet in the same book -- like Balanchine and Astaire. With lucid and exuberant prose, she throws new light not only on the great dance-makers like Balanchine, Astaire, Kelly, but on their usually unsung but vital collaborators -- composers, arrangers, assistants, cameramen and a host of others who brought live dance to the big screen.” Elizabeth Kendall, author of Balanchine and the Lost Muse: Revolution and the Making of a Choreographer.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Frank Lehman’s Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema (Oxford University Press) “explores the inner workings of film music, bringing together tools from music theory, musicology, and music psychology in this first ever book-length analytical study of this culturally central repertoire. Harmony, and especially chromaticism, is emblematic of the ‘film music sound,’ and it is often used to evoke that most cinematic of feelings-wonder. To help parse this familiar but complex musical style, Hollywood Harmony offers a first-of-its kind introduction to neo-Riemannian theory, a recently developed and versatile method of understanding music as a dynamic and transformational process, rather than a series of inert notes on a page. This application of neo-Riemannian theory to film music is perfect way in for curious newcomers, while also constituting significant scholarly contribution to the larger discipline of music theory. Author Frank Lehman draws from his extensive knowledge of cinematic history with case-studies that range from classics of Golden Age Hollywood to massive contemporary franchises to obscure cult-films. Special emphasis is placed on scores for major blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Inception. With over a hundred meticulously transcribed music examples and more than two hundred individual movies discussed, Hollywood Harmony will fascinate any fan of film and music.”

“Hollywood Harmonybrings analysis of film music fully into the present. Sophisticated theoretical  modeling of associations and effects in the currently prevalent triadic style of underscore practice combines with  close readings that not only offer fresh insights but also an over-the-composer's-shoulder immediacy.” David Neumeyer, Professor Emeritus of Music, The University of Texas at Austin and co-author of Hearing the Movies.

Musical scores, notes, bibliography, multimedia index, index.   

Katherine Spring’s Saying It With Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema (Oxford University Press) “considers how the increasing interdependence of Hollywood studios and Tin Pan Alley music publishing firms influenced the commercial and narrative functions of popular songs. While most scholarship on film music of the period focuses on adaptations of Broadway musicals, this book examines the functions of songs in a variety of non-musical genres, including melodramas, romantic comedies, Westerns, prison dramas, and action-adventure films, and shows how filmmakers tested and refined their approach to songs in order to reconcile the spectacle of song performance, the classical norms of storytelling, and the conventions of background orchestral scoring from the period of silent cinema. Written for film and music scholars alike as well as for general readers, Saying It With Songsilluminates the origins of the popular song score aesthetic of American cinema.”

“Combining archival research with impressive scholarship, Spring offers a stimulating, provocative, and often paradigm-shifting study of how popular music shaped the very definition of cinema in its transformation from a silent to a sound medium. Lucid and lively, a must-read for anyone interested in the convergence of film and popular song in Hollywood.” Kathryn Kalinak, author of Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywoodand Film Music: A Very Short Introduction.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical (Oxford University Press), editedby Robert Gordon and Olaf Jubin, “provides a comprehensive academic survey of British musical theatre offering both a historical account of the musical's development from 1728 and a range of in-depth critical analyses of the unique forms and features of British musicals, which explore the aesthetic values and sociocultural meanings of a tradition that initially gave rise to the American musical and later challenged its modern pre-eminence. After a consideration of how John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) created a prototype for eighteenth-century ballad opera, the book focuses on the use of song in early nineteenth century theatre, followed by a sociocultural analysis of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan; it then examines Edwardian and interwar musical comedies and revues as well as the impact of Rodgers and Hammerstein on the West End, before analyzing the new forms of the postwar British musical from The Boy Friend(1953) to Oliver!(1960). One section of the book examines the contributions of key twentieth century figures including Noel Coward, Ivor Novello, Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber, director Joan Littlewood and producer Cameron Macintosh, while a number of essays discuss both mainstream and alternative musicals of the 1960s and 1970s and the influence of the pop industry on the creation of concept recordings such as Jesus Christ Superstar(1970) and Les Misérables(1980). There is a consideration of “jukebox” musicals such as Mamma Mia!(1999), while essays on overtly political shows such as Billy Elliot(2005) are complemented by those on experimental musicals like Jerry Springer: the Opera(2003) and London Road(2011) and on the burgeoning of Black and Asian British musicals in both the West End and subsidized venues. The Oxford Handbook of the British Musicaldemonstrates not only the unique qualities of British musical theatre but also the vitality and variety of British musicals today.”

As Professor of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, Robert Gordon established the first MA in Musical Theatre for writers and producers in Europe. He has worked as a playwright, director, actor and critic and is author of Pinter's Theatre of Power, Stoppard: Text and Performance, The Purpose of Playing, co-author of British Musicals since 1950 and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies.

Olaf Rubin is Reader in Media Studies and Musical Theatre at Regent's University London; he has written, co-written and co-edited several books in the area of popular culture, the mass media and musical theatre, both in English and in German, among them studies on the dubbing and subtitling of Hollywood musicals for the German market and a comparative analysis of American, British, German and Austrian reviews of the musicals of Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

“The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical as a whole represents a highly distinguished level of scholarship and acumen. This is a volume that demonstrates the diversity, inherent social awareness, and musical and dramatic distinctiveness of the British musical.” NABMSA Reviews. 

“The editors provide an extensive introduction to help the reader identify trends and patterns within the development of the art form, including the effect that London's West End has had on Broadway (and vice versa). To its credit, the book also explores the development of black musicals, Asian musicals, and experimental works. Of special note are essays about producer Cameron Macintosh, Noel Coward, and marketing trends targeting multiple generations of theatergoers. Though the level of writing varies greatly from essay to essay, the book as a whole provides an excellent examination of a monumental theatrical form.” E.C. Skiles, Lone Star College-Kingwood, Choice.

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index.

Ted Gioia has written half a shelf or so of seminal and essential books on jazz, the blues, work songs, and the American Song Book. Now out in paperback, his 2015 Love Songs: The Hidden History (Oxford University Press) “uncovers the unexplored story of the love song for the first time. Drawing on two decades of research, Gioia presents the full range of love songs, from the fertility rites of ancient cultures to the sexualized YouTube videos of the present day. The book traces the battles over each new insurgency in the music of love—whether spurred by wandering scholars of medieval days or by four lads from Liverpool in more recent times.” 

Notes, bibliography, index.      

Questlovle’s Creative Quest (Ecco/Harper Collins) “synthesizes all the creative philosophies, lessons, and stories he’s heard from the many creators and collaborators in his life, and reflects on his own experience, to advise readers and fans on how to consider creativity and where to find it. He addresses many topics—what it means to be creative, how to find a mentor and serve as an apprentice, the wisdom of maintaining a creative network, coping with critics and the foibles of success, and the specific pitfalls of contemporary culture—all in the service of guiding admirers who have followed his career and newcomers not yet acquainted with his story. Whether discussing his own life or channeling the lessons he’s learned from forefathers such as George Clinton, collaborators like D’Angelo, or like-minded artists including Ava DuVernay, David Byrne, Björk, and others, Questlove speaks with the candor and enthusiasm that fans have come to expect. Creative Quest is many things—above all, a wise and wide-ranging conversation around the eternal mystery of creativity. Questlove—musician, bandleader, designer, producer, culinary entrepreneur, professor, and all-around cultural omnivore—shares his wisdom on the topics of inspiration and originality in a one-of-a-kind guide to living your best creative life.”

“When Questlove says he’s going to do something, he will find out how to do whatever that is, and become a master at it. I can’t think of a person more suited to write a book about being creative.” Jimmy Fallon

Index.

Michael Azerrad, Rock Critic Law: 101 Unbreakable Rules for Writing Badly About Music (Dey Street Books). “One of the finest music writers today, Michael Azerrad has catalogued the shortcuts, lazy metaphors and uninspired prose that so many of his beloved colleagues all too regularly rely on to fill column inches. In 2014, he began his wickedly droll Twitter feed @RockCriticLaw to expose and make fun of this word-hash. Now, he consolidates these ‘Laws’ into one witty, comprehensive and fully illustrated volume. All 101 Rock Critic Laws are accompanied by original illustrations from Ed Fotheringham, beloved Seattle scenester and highly regarded artist who has created album covers for everyone from, well, seminal grunge band Mudhoney to iconic jazz label Verve Records, as well as illustrations for The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and more, making this book a must-have for music lovers everywhere. A unique appreciation of music writing from one of its own, Rock Critic Law irreverently captures all the passion and furor of fandom.”

“Michael Azerradis a music journalist, author, and musician. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and many others.”

Speaking for Ourselves: Conversations on Life, Music, and Autism (Oxford University Press) by Michael B. Bakan, with Mara Chasar, et alii, “engages in deep conversations--some spanning the course of years--with ten fascinating and very different individuals who share two basic things in common: an autism spectrum diagnosis and a life in which music plays a central part. These conversations offer profound insights into the intricacies and intersections of music, autism, neurodiversity, and life in general, not from an autistic point of view, but rather from many different autistic points of view. They invite readers to partake of a rich tapestry of words, ideas, images, and musical sounds that speak to both the diversity of autistic experience and the common humanity we all share.”

“This is ground breaking research that could lead to real improvements in the lives of people with autism.”  Derryck Smith, MD, FRCPC, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia.

Bibliography, index.

Dana Gooley’s Fantasies of Improvisation: Free Playing in Nineteenth-Century Music (Oxford University Press) is “The first history of keyboard improvisation in European music in the postclassical and romantic periods, Fantasies of Improvisation: Free Playing in Nineteenth-Century Musicdocuments practices of improvisation on the piano and the organ, with a particular emphasis on free fantasies and other forms of free playing. Case studies of performers such as Abbé Vogler, J. N. Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Robert Schumann, Carl Loewe, and Franz Liszt describe in detail the motives, intentions, and musical styles of the nineteenth century's leading improvisers. Grounded in primary sources, the book further discusses the reception and valuation of improvisational performances by colleagues, audiences, and critics, which prompted many keyboardists to stop improvising. Author Dana Gooley argues that amidst the decline of improvisational practices in the first half of the nineteenth century there emerged a strong and influential “idea” of improvisation as an ideal or perfect performance. This idea, spawned and nourished by romanticism, preserved the aesthetic, social, and ethical values associated with improvisation, calling into question the supposed triumph of the “work.”

“Classical improvisation is making a comeback, and in timely fashion we can now read its remarkable history. Prof. Gooley has discovered lively contemporary accounts of pianists performing free fantasies on stage for the masses, in salons for elites, and in private for personal inspiration. The big names are all there--Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn--as are dozens of names less well known but hailed as great improvisors in their own day. Through diaries, reviews, letters, and biographies we can gauge the thoughts of both sides of what were by all accounts emotionally powerful interactions between musicians and their audiences.” Robert O. Gjerdingen, Northwestern University.

Musical illustrations, index.

Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina: A Guide to Music Sites, Artists, and Traditions of the Mountains and Foothills (University of North Carolina Press), by Fred C. Fussell, with Steve Kruger. “This updated second edition adds three new music venues, along with updated information on the almost sixty music sites in Western North Carolina profiled in the previous edition. Also included are new full-color photos, two new artist profiles, and a CD of twenty-six classic songs from the mountains and the foothills. The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina are the heart of a region where traditional music and dance are performed and celebrated as nowhere else in America. This guide puts readers on the trail to discover many sites where the unique musical legacy thrives, covering bluegrass and stringband music, clogging, and other traditional forms of music and dance. The book includes stories of the legendary music of the Blue Ridge Mountains, maps, and contact information for the featured sites, as well as color illustrations and profiles of prominent musicians and music traditions. Chapters are organized county by county, and sidebars include interviews with and profiles of performers, information about various performance styles, and a brief history of Blue Ridge music.” 

“For anyone with a taste for traditional song and dance. . . . Included is a CD with more than two dozen songs, representing the diverse styles profiled in the text. It's a fitting soundtrack whether you're sitting back reading or hitting the road.” WNC Magazine.

Index. 

Jack Sullivan, New Orleans Remix(American Made Music Series) (University Press of Mississippi). “Since the 1990s, New Orleans has been experiencing its greatest musical renaissance since Louis Armstrong. Brass band, funk, hip  hop, Mardi Gras Indian, zydeco, and other styles are rocking the city in new neighborhood bars far from the Bourbon Street tourist scene. Even "neotraditional" jazz players have emerged in startling numbers, making the old sound new for a younger generation. In this book, Jack Sullivan shines the light on superb artists little known to the general public--Leroy Jones, Shamarr Allen, Kermit Ruffins, Topsy Chapman, Aurora Nealand, the Brass-A-Holics. He introduces as well a surge of female, Asian, and other previously marginalized groups that are making the vibe more inclusive than ever. New Orleans Remixcovers artists who have broken into the national spotlight--the Rebirth Brass Band, Trombone Shorty, Jon Batiste--and many creators who are still little known. Based on dozens of interviews and archival documents, this book delivers their perspectives on how they view their present in relation to a vital past. The city of New Orleans has always held fiercely to the old even as it invented the new, a secret of its dynamic success. Marching tunes mingled with jazz, traditional jazz with bebop, Mardi Gras Indian percussion with funk, all producing wonderfully bewildering yet viable fusions. This book identifies the unique catalytic power of the city itself. Why did New Orleans spawn America's greatest vernacular music, and why does its musical fire still burn so fiercely, long after the great jazz eruptions in Chicago, Kansas City, and others declined? How does a tradition remain intensely creative for generations? How has the huge influx of immigrants to New Orleans, especially since Hurricane Katrina, contributed to the city's current musical harmony? This book seeks answers through the ideas of working musicians who represent very different sensibilities in voices often as eloquent as their music.”

“Jack Sullivan can do it all. Whether writing about Victorian ghost stories, reviewing modern fiction, tracing the impact of American music on Europe, or analyzing the film scores of Alfred Hitchcock classics, this versatile scholar-critic brings to bear a deep knowledge of his subjects and a prose style of rare suppleness and grace. Yet as important as Sullivan's earlier books have been, this loving history of music in New Orleans, packed with first-person accounts of the contemporary ‘remix’ that began in the 1990s, may be his masterpiece, an irresistible blend of research and reporting that is as entertaining as it is insightful. You will read it with delight.” Michael Dirda, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of Classics for Pleasure, Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, Living with Books, and other books about books.

Photographs, notes, index.

Peter J. Marina, Down and Out in New Orleans: Transgressive Living in the Informal Economy(Studies in Transgression) (Columbia University Press). “In the years since Hurricane Katrina, the modern-day bohemians of New Orleans have found themselves forced to the edges of poverty by the new tourist economy. Modeling his work after George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, the sociologist and ethnographer Peter J. Marina explores this unfamiliar side of the gentrifying “new” New Orleans. In 1920s Paris, Orwell witnessed an influx of locals and outsiders seeking authenticity while struggling to live with bourgeois society. Marina finds a similar ambivalence in New Orleans: a tourism-dependent city whose commerce caters largely to well-heeled natives and upper-class travelers, where many creative locals and wanderers have remained outsiders, willingly or otherwise. Marina does not merely interview these spirited urban misfits―he lives among them. Down and Out in New Orleans follows their journeys, depicting the lives of those on the social fringes of a resilient city. Marina finds work as a bartender, street mime, and poet. Along the way, he visits homeless shelters, squats in abandoned buildings, attends rituals in cemeteries, and befriends writers, musicians, occultists, and artists as they look for creative solutions to the contradictory demands of late capitalism. Marina does for New Orleans what Orwell did for Paris a century earlier, providing a rigorous, unrelenting, and original glimpse into the subcultures of a city in rapid change.” 

“Peter J. Marina provides an outstanding introduction to the sociology of transgression through his fascinating portrayal of life on the edge in post-Katrina New Orleans. His sociological insight, ethnographic ability, and love of the city uniquely position him to write about the sociology of living ‘down and out’ in the Crescent City.” David Gladstone, University of New Orleans.

Photographs, notes, index.

Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs: The Omni-Americans, South to a Very Old Place, The Hero and the Blues, Stomping the Blues, The Blue Devils of Nada, From the Briarpatch, and Other Writings (Library of America), Paul Devlinand Henry Gates Jr., editors. “In his 1970 classic The Omni-Americans, Albert Murray (1916–2013) took aim at protest writers and social scientists who accentuated the ‘pathology’ of race in American life. Against narratives of marginalization and victimhood, Murray argued that black art and culture, particularly jazz and blues, stand at the very headwaters of the American mainstream, and that much of what is best in American art embodies the ‘blues-hero tradition’— a heritage of grace, wit, and inspired improvisation in the face of adversity. Murray went on to refine these ideas in The Blue Devils of Nadaand From the Briarpatch File, and all three landmark collections of essays are gathered here for the first time, together with Murray’s memoir South to a Very Old Place, his brilliant lecture series The Hero and the Blues, his masterpiece of jazz criticism Stomping the Blues, and eight previously uncollected pieces.

“Albert Murray's best nonfiction has been gathered in a plump and welcome volume from the Library of America. . . . His writing about racism can prickle your skin. . . . To paraphrase Murray's praise of Ellison's Invisible Man, reading this book is like watching someone take a 12-bar blues song and score it for a full orchestra.” Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Chronology, notes, index.

Joel Dinerstein’sThe Origins of Cool in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press) “is the first work to trace the history of cool during the Cold War by exploring the intersections of film noir, jazz, existential literature, Method acting, blues, and rock and roll. Dinerstein reveals that they came together to create something completely new—and that something is cool. It was a new word and a new way to be, and in a single generation, it became the supreme compliment of American culture. The Origins of Cool in Postwar America uncovers the hidden history of this concept and its new set of codes that came to define a global attitude and style. As Joel Dinerstein reveals in this dynamic book, cool began as a stylish defiance of racism, a challenge to suppressed sexuality, a philosophy of individual rebellion, and a youthful search for social change. Through eye-opening portraits of iconic figures, Dinerstein illuminates the cultural connections and artistic innovations among Lester Young, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Jack Kerouac, Albert Camus, Marlon Brando, and James Dean, among others. We eavesdrop on conversations among Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Miles Davis, and on a forgotten debate between Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Mailer over the "white Negro" and black cool. We come to understand how the cool worlds of Beat writers and Method actors emerged from the intersections of film noir, jazz, and existentialism. Out of this mix, Dinerstein sketches nuanced definitions of cool that unite concepts from African-American and Euro-American culture: the stylish stoicism of the ethical rebel loner; the relaxed intensity of the improvising jazz musician; the effortless, physical grace of the Method actor. To be cool is not to be hip and to be hot is definitely not to be cool.

Photographs, notes, index.

Robert Christgau’s Is It Still Good to Ya?: Fifty Years of Rock Criticism, 1967-2017 (Duke University Press) “sums up the career of longtime Village Voice stalwart Robert Christgau, who for half a century has been America's most widely respected rock critic, honoring a music he argues is only more enduring because it's sometimes simple or silly. While compiling historical overviews going back to Dionysus and the gramophone along with artist analyses that range from Louis Armstrong to M.I.A., this definitive collection also explores pop's African roots, response to 9/11, and evolution from the teen music of the ’50s to an art form compelled to confront mortality as its heroes pass on. A final section combines searching obituaries of David Bowie, Prince, and Leonard Cohen with awed farewells to Bob Marley and Ornette Coleman.”

“Robert Christgau is music writing’s great omnivore, and his appetite hasn't diminished in the sixth and seventh decades of his life. The twenty-first century has been a tumultuous one in popular music and Christgau brings his gimlet-eyed wit, deep knowledge, and inimitable heart to this era with the same verve he had as a countercultural kid. Long may the Dean live; as this collection proves with ease, we still need him.” Ann Powers

Index.

Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop from Elvis to Jay Z (A Library of America Special Publication), Jonathan Lethe and Kevin Dettmar, editors, “invites the reader into the tumult and excitement of the rock revolution through fifty landmark pieces by a supergroup of writers on rock in all its variety, from heavy metal to disco, punk to hip-hop. Stanley Booth describes a recording session with Otis Redding; Ellen Willis traces the meteoric career of Janis Joplin; Ellen Sander recalls the chaotic world of Led Zeppelin on tour; Nick Tosches etches a portrait of the young Jerry Lee Lewis; Eve Babitz remembers Jim Morrison. Alongside are Lenny Kaye on acapella and Greg Tate on hip-hop, Vince Aletti on disco and Gerald Early on Motown; Robert Christgau on Prince, Nelson George on Marvin Gaye, Luc Sante on Bob Dylan, Hilton Als on Michael Jackson, Anthony DeCurtis on the Rolling Stones, Kelefa Sanneh on Jay Z. The story this anthology tells is a ongoing one: “it’s too early,” editors Jonathan Lethem and Kevin Dettmar note, “for canon formation in a field so marvelously volatile—a volatility that mirrors, still, that of pop music itself, which remains smokestack lightning. The writing here attempts to catch some in a bottle.” 

“Pop writing, at its best, doesn’t know the difference between desire and theory, which is precisely the reason for its power and its persistence. Lethem and Dettmar’s expansive anthology renders this wild, polychrome tradition, and the state of play today, with gusto.” Ben Ratliff, author of Every Song Ever.

Sources, index.

Saul Austerlitz’s Just a Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy with the Rolling Stones at Altamont (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press) “tells the story of “Woodstock West,” where the Rolling Stones hoped to end their 1969 American tour triumphantly with the help of the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and 300,000 fans. Instead the concert featured a harrowing series of disasters, starting with the concert’s haphazard planning. The bad acid kicked in early. The Hells Angels, hired to handle security, began to prey on the concertgoers. And not long after the Rolling Stones went on, an 18-year-old African-American named Meredith Hunter was stabbed by the Angels in front of the stage. The show, and the Woodstock high, were over.

Austerlitz shows how Hunter’s death came to symbolize the end of an era while the trial of his accused murderer epitomized the racial tensions that still underlie America. He also finds a silver lining in the concert in how Rolling Stone’s coverage of it helped create a new form of music journalism, while the making of the movie about Altamont, Gimme Shelter, birthed new forms of documentary. Using scores of new interviews with Paul Kantner, Jann Wenner, journalist John Burks, filmmaker Joan Churchill, and many members of the Rolling Stones' inner circle, as well as Meredith Hunter's family, Austerlitz shows that you can’t understand the ‘60s or rock and roll if you don’t come to grips with Altamont.

“Rough, sickening, blasted, detailed. The focus on Meredith Hunter and his family is heroic.” Greil Marcus

“Austerlitz has written the definitive account of this tumultuous moment in American music history.” Ted Gioia, music historian and author of Delta Bluesand The History of Jazz

Photographs, index.

David Weigel’s The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock (W. W. Norton) is “A deep, detailed, funny and affectionate dive into the history of prog rock.” Edgar Wright, director of Baby Driver“is the definitive story of the extraordinary rise and fall of progressive (‘prog’) rock. Epitomized by such classic, chart-topping bands as Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Emerson Lake & Palmer, along with such successors as Rush, Marillion, Asia, Styx, and Porcupine Tree, prog sold hundreds of millions of records. It brought into the mainstream concept albums, spaced-out cover art, crazy time signatures, multi-track recording, and stagecraft so bombastic it was spoofed in the classic movie This Is Spinal TapWith a vast knowledge of what Rolling Stonehas called “the deliciously decadent genre that the punks failed to kill,” access to key people who made the music, and the passion of a true enthusiast, Washington Postnational reporter David Weigel tells the story of prog in all its pomp, creativity, and excess.

 Photographs, notes, index.

Roger Steffens, So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (W. W. Norton), Introduction by Linton Kwesi Johnson. “With unprecedented candor, these interviews tell dramatic, little-known stories, from the writing of some of Marley’s most beloved songs to the Wailers’ violent confrontation involving producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bob’s intensive musical training with star singer Johnny Nash and the harrowing assassination attempt at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, which led to Marley’s defiant performance two nights later with a bullet lodged in his arm. Readers witness Marley’s rise to international fame in London, his triumphant visit to Zimbabwe to sing for freedom fighters inspired by his anthems and the devastating moment of his collapse while jogging in New York’s Central Park. Steffens masterfully conducts the story of Marley’s last months, as Marley poignantly sings “Another One Bites the Dust” during the sound check before his final concert in Pittsburgh, followed by his tragic death at the age of thirty-six. So Much Things to Sayexplores major controversies, examining who actually ordered the shooting attack on Hope Road, scrutinizing claims of CIA involvement and investigating why Marley’s fatal cancer wasn’t diagnosed sooner. Featuring Steffens’s own candid photographs of Marley and his circle, this magisterial work preserves an invaluable, transformative slice of music history: the life of the legendary performer who brought reggae to the international stage.”

“If Bob Marley is Jesus in these times, Roger Steffens is Peter.” Carlos Santana

Photographs, index.

Bruce Springsteen: From Asbury Park, to Born To Run, to Born In The USA (Rizzoli/Random House), by David GahrandChris Murrayis “An unprecedented look at a very young Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, from the group’s creation and early New Jersey days to their meteoric rise and seminal Born in the USA tour, in photographs almost all not previously published. David Gahr (1922–2008) was tapped by Columbia Records designer John Berg to shoot cover art for Bruce Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. Gahr’s earliest photographs of the musician showcase a youthful Springsteen, not even aged twenty-three, in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on the eve of a career breakthrough. Gahr befriended the rising star, and over a span of approximately ten years he photographed Springsteen, both on- and offstage. Rare captures include Springsteen recording music, performing at the cramped venue Bottom Line weeks before the release of his seminal 1975 album Born to Run, and playing to legions of fans during his Born in the USA tour. Bruce Springsteen 1973–1986is an unprecedented look back at Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on their path to becoming rock legends.”

Rory Stuart, The Rhythm Book: Beginning Notation and Sight-Reading for All Instruments (Hal Leonard). “Rhythms are certainly the largest challenge in reading and writing music. This book makes learning to read and write rhythms easy, teaching you in a step-by-step method starting from the very basics. Supported by recordings of the exercises and worksheets that help you practice the material, you will have all you need to learn quarter note, eighth note, and triplet eighth rhythms, including syncopations. Whether you are an experienced musician who has never learned notation, a total beginner, a vocalist or student of any instrument, or interested in playing or composing any style of music, with The Rhythm Bookyou can build a solid foundation in reading and writing rhythms.”  

Mark Whitaker’s Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance (Simon & Schuster) “is a captivating portrait of this unsung community [black Pittsburgh] and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes readers on a rousing, revelatory journey—and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not all bleak.”

“Smoketown brilliantly offers us a chance to see this other black renaissance and spend time with the many luminaries who sparked it . . . . It’s thanks to such a gifted storyteller as Whitaker that this forgotten chapter of American history can finally be told in all its vibrancy and glory.” The New York Times Book Review

Photographs, notes, index.

Jason Borge’s Tropical Riffs: Latin America and the Politics of Jazz (Duke University Press Books) “traces how jazz helped forge modern identities and national imaginaries in Latin America during the mid-twentieth century. Across Latin America jazz functioned as a conduit through which debates about race, sexuality, nation, technology, and modernity raged in newspapers, magazines, literature, and film. For Latin American audiences, critics, and intellectuals—who often understood jazz to stem from social conditions similar to their own—the profound penetration into the fabric of everyday life of musicians like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker represented the promises of modernity while simultaneously posing a threat to local and national identities. Brazilian antijazz rhetoric branded jazz as a problematic challenge to samba and emblematic of Americanization. In Argentina jazz catalyzed discussions about musical authenticity, race, and national culture, especially in relation to tango. And in Cuba, the widespread popularity of Chano Pozo and Dámaso Pérez Prado popularity challenged the United States' monopoly on jazz. Outlining these hemispheric flows of ideas, bodies, and music, Borge elucidates how "America's art form" was, and remains, a transnational project and a collective idea.”

“Tropical Riffs is a dazzling transnational cultural history destined to galvanize the next generation of both jazz studies and Latin American studies. Erudite, stylish, and every bit as cosmopolitan as its subject, Jason Borge's book brilliantly conceives of Latin American jazz as a thick cultural matrix connecting the music, film, journalism, criticism, and visual art communities of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, and Los Angeles. Few books have taught me so much.” John Gennari, author of Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge

“Elegantly written and insightfully argued, Jason Borge's book considers the shifting local meanings surrounding jazz for Latin American critics and intellectuals of the 1920s and beyond, often framed by larger debates surrounding racial tension, US foreign policy, modernization, and cultural nationalism.” Robin D. Moore, coauthor of Danzon: Circum-Caribbean Dialogues in Music and Dance

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index.

Elena A. Schneider’s,The Occupation of Havana: War, Trade, and Slavery in the Atlantic World (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture/University of North Carolina Press) “offers a nuanced and poignantly human account of the British capture and Spanish recovery of this coveted Caribbean city. The book explores both the interconnected histories of the British and Spanish empires and the crucial role played by free people of color and the enslaved in the creation and defense of Havana. Tragically, these men and women would watch their promise of freedom and greater rights vanish in the face of massive slave importation and increased sugar production upon Cuba's return to Spanish rule. By linking imperial negotiations with events in Cuba and their consequences, Elena Schneider sheds new light on the relationship between slavery and empire at the dawn of the Age of Revolutions.”

“During the eighteenth century, Havana was the crown jewel of the Spanish Caribbean, a place of dazzling wealth and formidable power. Behind this impressive facade, however, lay a more complicated history of war, trade, and slavery that Havana shared with its British neighbors. Elena Schneider brings this entangled Anglo-Spanish history to life as no historian before her has done. The result is a landmark in the history of the British and Spanish Atlantic worlds.” Eliga Gould, University of New Hampshire

Illustrations, index.

Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives (Black Dog & Leventhal), Dana Canedy, Darcy Eveleigh, Damien Cave, Rachel L. Swarns, editors.

Hundreds of stunning images from black history have long been buried in The New York Timesarchives. None of them were published by The Times--until now. Unseen uncovers these never-before published photographs and tells the stories behind them.

It all started with Times photo editor Darcy Eveleigh discovering dozens of these photographs. She and three colleagues, Dana Canedy, Damien Cave, and Rachel L. Swarns, began exploring the history behind them, and subsequently chronicling them in a series entitled “Unpublished Black History,” that ran in print and online editions of The Times in February 2016. It garnered 1.7 million views on The Times website and thousands of comments from readers. This book includes those photographs and many more, among them: a 27-year-old Jesse Jackson leading an anti-discrimination rally of in Chicago, Rosa Parks arriving at a Montgomery Courthouse in Alabama a candid behind-the-scenes shot of Aretha Franklin backstage at the Apollo Theater, Ralph Ellison on the streets of his Manhattan neighborhood, the firebombed home of Malcolm X, Myrlie Evans and her children at the funeral of her slain husband, Medgar, a wheelchair-bound Roy Campanella at the razing of Ebbets Field.

Were the photos--or the people in them--not deemed newsworthy enough? Did the images not arrive in time for publication? Were they pushed aside by words at an institution long known as the Gray Lady? Eveleigh, Canedy, Cave, and Swarms explore all these questions and more in this one-of-a-kind book. 

Unseen dives deep into The Times photo archives--known as the Morgue--to showcase this extraordinary collection of photographs and the stories behind them.”

Darcy Eveleigh is a photo editor The New York Times and the creator and editor of The Lively Morgue, a Times blog and Tumblrseries. Follow Darcy on Twitter @DarcyNYT.

Unseen’s editors:

Dana Canedy is the administrator for Pulitzer Prizes. She is a former senior editor at The New York Timesand was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for “How Race Is Lived in America,” a series on race relations in the United States. She is the author of A Journal for Jordan: A Story of Love and Honor. Follow Dana on Twitter @DanaCanedy.

Damien Cave is the Australia Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He was formerly the Deputy Editor for Digital on the paper's National desk and a correspondent in Mexico City, Miami, Baghdad, and Newark. Follow Damien on Twitter @DamienCave.

Rachel L. Swarns is a journalist and author who writes about race and race relations as a contributing writer for The New York Times. She is the author of American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama, which was published in 2012. Her upcoming book about Georgetown University's roots in slavery will be published by Random House in 2020. Visit Rachel on Facebook (rachel.l.swarns) and follow her on Twitter @RachelSwarns.

“Maya Angelou said that ‘there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.’ Indeed, there is an agony in our nation that the stories, the voices, and the images of Black Americans are so unknown, untold, and unseen in our wider understanding of history. This bountiful collection of once-unpublished photographs both gives expressive voice to their subjects and helps to relieve this agony, bringing to life a more complete picture of the compelling, complex, and beautiful story that is America.” Cory Booker, U.S. senator and bestselling author of United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good.

“Unseen reminds me of a lost black history version of ‘You Are There,’ told through photographs that The Times commissioned but chose not to print. This book is a vivid account of race relations in America, narrated through images that survived between the spaces of stories, in the gaps, silences, and lacuna buried in the paper's archives. They constitute a remarkably vivid parallel text to the last half century of American history, creating an extraordinarily moving visual narrative of the feelings and actions of black Americans in the striking particularity of black-and-white photography. The book simulates what it would have been like to read The Times each day for the last half century, if the full picture of the African American experience had made the cut. If any book proves that it is never too late to publish ‘all the news’--and images—‘fit to print,’ this is it.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author, director of Harvard's Hutchins Center for African American Research, and an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker.

“This book brings the excitement of opening a time capsule, with powerful photographs and searching commentary by an all-star cast that gives us new and original insights into modern African American history.” Michael Beschloss, historian and bestselling author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989.

Photographs, list of photographers, index.

Homer,The Odyssey (W. W. Norton), translated by Emily Wilson. “The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version―the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman―this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer’s sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer’s music. A fascinating introduction provides an informative overview of the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the major themes of the poem, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence. Maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, and extensive notes and summaries of each book make this an Odyssey that will be treasured by a new generation of scholars, students, and general readers alike.”

“Emily Wilson has produced a clear, vigorous, sensitive Odyssey that conveys both the grand scale and the individual pathos of this foundational story. This is the most accessible, and yet accurate, translation of Homer’s masterwork that I have ever read.” Susan Wise Bauer, author of The History of the Ancient World.

Introduction, maps, notes, glossary.

Homer,The Odyssey, translated by Anthony Verity (Oxford University Press World's Classics), Introduction and Notes by William Allan. “Homer's Odyssey rivals the Iliad as the greatest poem of Western culture and is perhaps the most influential text of classical literature. This elegant and compelling new translation is accompanied by a full introduction and notes that guide the reader in understanding the poem and the many different contexts in which it was performed and read. Twenty years after setting out to fight in the Trojan War, Odysseus is yet to return home to Ithaca. His household is in disarray: a horde of over  100 disorderly and arrogant suitors are vying to claim Odysseus' wife Penelope, and his young son Telemachus is powerless to stop them. Meanwhile, Odysseus is driven beyond the limits of the known world, encountering countless divine and earthly challenges. But Odysseus is ‘of many wiles’ and his cunning and bravery eventually lead him home, to reclaim both his family and his kingdom.”

“Verity offers an excellent, clear, traditionally literal but avowedly non-poetic [translation].” Colin Burrow, London Review of Books

Introduction, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 

Vincent Azoulay,The Tyrant-Slayers of Ancient Athens: A Tale of Two Statues (Oxford University Press), translated by Janet Lloyd. “This investigation relies on a rash bet: to write the biography of two of the most famous statues in Antiquity, the Tyrannicides. Representing the murderers of the tyrant Hipparchus in full action, these statues erected on the Agora of Athens have been in turn worshipped, outraged, and imitated. They have known hours of glory and moments of hardships, which have transformed them into true icons of Athenian democracy. The subject of this book is the remarkable story of this group statue and the ever-changing significance of its tyrant-slaying subjects. The first part of this book, in six chapters, tells the story of the murder of Hipparchus and of the statues of the two tyrannicides from the end of the sixth century to the aftermath of the restoration of democracy in 403. The second part, in three chapters, chronicles the fate and influence of the statues from the fourth century to the end of the Roman Empire. These chapters are followed by an epilogue that reveals new life for the statues in modern art and culture, including how Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union made use of their iconography. By tracing the long trajectory of the tyrannicides-in deed and art-Azoulay provides a rich and fascinating micro-history that will be of interest to readers of classical art and history.”

“Vincent Azoulay's work builds on his predecessors. . . . He offers a comprehensive account of the sources, whether literary, iconographic, historical, or epigraphic. . . . Paul Cartledge offers a stimulating and sympathetic foreword, and the concluding notes and bibliography are exceptionally full and detailed.” Lucilla Burn, Times Literary Supplement

“Vincent Azoulay has written an important and thoroughly engaging object biography of one of the most important monuments in the history of Greek art, which stood for centuries in the Athenian Agora. While much has been written about this group, Azoulay's novel approach is to consider the changing ideas, perceptions, and reception of this monument over the long arc of its history. This study makes an important contribution to the history of honorific statuary and the role of public art in the Greek city.” Sheila Dillon, Duke University

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

David Kinston’s In the Orbit of Love: Affection in Ancient Greece and Rome (Oxford University Press) “is about love in the classical world - not erotic passion but the kind of love that binds together intimate members of a family and very close friends, but which may also be extended to include a wider range of individuals for whom we care deeply. The book begins with a discussion of friendship, focusing particularly on the Greek notion that in friendship the identities of two friends all but merge into one. The book then turns to the question of loyalty, and why loyalty seems not to have achieved the status of a virtue in classical thought. The next chapter considers love in relation to generosity, favors, and gratitude. There follows a discussion of grief, which is a symptom of the loss of a loved one. The final chapter treats love as the basis of civic solidarity. In each case, love is at the basis of the relations under examination. In this, the book departs from the more usual analysis of these affective ties in terms of reciprocity, which in one way or another involves an expectation of return. Seen this way, such relationships seem to have a selfish or at least self-centered dimension, as distinct from truly other-regarding attitudes. While it is true that the ancient sources sometimes describe these relations, including friendship, as forms of mutual obligation, there is also a counter strand that emphasizes genuine altruism, and it is this aspect that the book seeks to bring out. A close look at how love drew into its orbit the various relations examined in this book may shed light on some central features not only of ancient habits of thought but also, it is to be hoped, our own.”

“For a long time David Konstan has been our leading interpreter of Greek and Roman friendly love. In this masterful new book, he achieves yet deeper insights, showing how an ideal of disinterested love informs a wider set of values: loyalty, gratitude, grief, and political solidarity. Written with Konstan's sui generis combination of insight, scholarship, philosophical rigor, and grace, In the Orbit of Love simultaneously illuminates and charms.” Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago.

Bibliography, index.

Adrienne Mayor’s Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (Princeton University Press) is “A groundbreaking account of the earliest expressions of the timeless impulse to create artificial life, Gods and Robots reveals how some of today’s most advanced innovations in robotics and AI were foreshadowed in ancient myth―and how science has always been driven by imagination. This is mythology for the age of AI {artificial intelligence]. As early as Homer, Greeks were imagining robotic servants, animated statues, and even ancient versions of Artificial Intelligence, while in Indian legend, Buddha’s precious relics were defended by robot warriors copied from Greco-Roman designs for real automata. Mythic automata appear in tales about Jason and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora, and many of these machines are described as being built with the same materials and methods that human artisans used to make tools and statues. And, indeed, many sophisticated animated devices were actually built in antiquity, reaching a climax with the creation of a host of automata in the ancient city of learning, Alexandria, the original Silicon Valley. The first robot to walk the earth was a bronze giant called Talos. This wondrous machine was created not by MIT Robotics Lab, but by Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention. More than 2,500 years ago, long before medieval automata, and centuries before technology made self-moving devices possible, Greek mythology was exploring ideas about creating artificial life―and grappling with still-unresolved ethical concerns about biotechne, “life through craft.” In this compelling, richly illustrated book, Adrienne Mayor tells the fascinating story of how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese myths envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices, and human enhancements―and how these visions relate to and reflect the ancient invention of real animated machines.”

Oddly, Professor Mayor, a Research Scholar in Stanford University's History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program, is unfamiliar with Alexander Jones’ A Portable Cosmos: Revealing the Antikythera Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of the Ancient World(Oxford University Press), published in early 2017 (and included in my 2017 roundup https://www.wroyalstokes.com/blog/2017/12/26/a-roundup-by-w-royal-stokes-of-140-or-so-jazz-blues-beyond-and-other-books-published-in-the-past-year-or-so). It is not included in her bibliography and the Antikythera, generally referred to as the first known analogue computer, receives only one brief description in her book.

“This brilliant and incomparable book will astonish readers by showing the real technologies that lie behind ancient mythology. Adrienne Mayor presents fascinating and entertaining stories for pondering the deep questions of artificial life. Gods and Robots is a beautiful book.” M. Norton Wise, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“The Greeks [Mayor argues] envisioned . . . advanced technological artifacts driven by internal machinery [and] establishes the engineered nature of androids like Talos and Pandora. [Her] close analysis finds echoes of real historical techniques [and] nicely refutes those critics who might claim that artificial life achieved through engineering was an idea beyond the conceptual horizon of the ancients.” William A. Wilson, Weekly Standard

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Christopher C. King’s Lament from Epirus: An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music (W. W. Norton & Company) is especially fascinating for me, a former classicist (http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs147/1102932454996/archive/1112415778593.html#LETTER.BLOCK35) whose special author was oral poet Homer. The music that author Christopher C. King chased down in Epirus clearly has some of its roots in ancient Greece, perhaps as accompaniment to Homer as he improvised the Iliad and Odyssey to Eighth Century B.C. audiences. The author’s authority in blues, old time country and mountain music, and other genres of American vernacular music lends his book an additional appeal for those interested in those art forms.

“Lament from Epirusis an unforgettable journey into a musical obsession, which traces a unique genre back to the roots of song itself. As King hunts for two long-lost virtuosos―one of whom may have committed a murder―he also tells the story of the Roma people who pioneered Epirotic folk music and their descendants who continue the tradition today. . . . In a gramophone shop in Istanbul, renowned record collector Christopher C. King uncovered some of the strangest―and most hypnotic―sounds he had ever heard. The 78s were immensely moving, seeming to tap into a primal well of emotion inaccessible through contemporary music. The songs, King learned, were from Epirus, an area straddling southern Albania and northwestern Greece and boasting a folk tradition extending back to the pre-Homeric era. To hear this music is to hear the past. . . . King discovers clues to his most profound questions about the function of music in the history of humanity: What is the relationship between music and language? Why do we organize sound as music? Is music superfluous, a mere form of entertainment, or could it be a tool for survival? King’s journey becomes an investigation into song and dance’s role as a means of spiritual healing―and what that may reveal about music’s evolutionary origins.

“This engaging, well-researched, and peculiar book is not only a work of music criticism or a philosophical rumination on the meaning of music―it’s also a travelogue in which the writer goes native.” Andrew Katzenstein, New York Review of Books.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Jennifer Fronc’s Monitoring the Movies: The Fight over Film Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century Urban America (University of Texas Press) “offers the first full-length study of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures (NB) and its campaign against motion-picture censorship. Jennifer Fronc traces the NB's Progressive-era founding in New York; its evolving set of ‘standards’ for directors, producers, municipal officers, and citizens; its ‘city plan,’ which called on citizens to report screenings of condemned movies to local officials; and the spread of the NB's influence into the urban South. Ultimately, Monitoring the Movies shows how Americans grappled with the issues that arose alongside the powerful new medium of film: the extent of the right to produce and consume images and the proper scope of government control over what citizens can see and show.”

“This is an extremely important book, a major, highly readable, well-researched contribution to the scholarship on the history of movie censorship and regulation in the Progressive era. Fronc provides a rich and diverse portrait of the social matrix that informed the shape, success, and limits of the National Board of Review’s efforts to encourage better films and defeat censorship laws.” Matthew H. Bernstein, Emory University, author of Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Thomas Doherty’s Show Trial: Hollywood, HUAC, and the Birth of the Blacklist(Film and Culture Series) (Columbia University Press) “takes us behind the scenes at the first full-on media-political spectacle of the postwar era. [Doherty] details the theatrical elements of a proceeding that bridged the realms of entertainment and politics, a courtroom drama starring glamorous actors, colorful moguls, on-the-make congressmen, high-priced lawyers, single-minded investigators, and recalcitrant screenwriters, all recorded by newsreel cameras and broadcast over radio. Doherty tells the story of the Hollywood Ten and the other witnesses, friendly and unfriendly, who testified, and chronicles the implementation of the postwar blacklist. Show Trial is a rich, character-driven inquiry into how the HUAC hearings ignited the anti-Communist crackdown in Hollywood, providing a gripping cultural history of one of the most transformative events of the postwar era.”

“Doherty is one of the best, if not the best, writers in the American studies world today, and has produced an excellent book that will command a great deal of attention. Show Trial sheds new light on the story of the Hollywood Ten and HUAC and does it in fresh and exciting ways. One of the book’s greatest strengths is that it stays away from familiar academic debates that focus heavily on politics and instead tells a character-driven story using quotes from a wide variety of contemporaneous participants. Doherty places the personalities of the era―left and right―on center stage. This is easily the most comprehensive and comprehensible study of HUAC and the Hollywood Ten to date, and I predict it will become the book to read on this topic.” Steven Ross, author of Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Shawn VanCour, Making Radio: Early Radio Production and the Rise of Modern Sound Culture (Oxford University Press). “The opening decades of the twentieth century witnessed a profound transformation in the history of modern sound media, with workers in U.S. film, radio, and record industries developing pioneering production methods and performance styles tailored to emerging technologies of electric sound reproduction that would redefine dominant forms and experiences of popular audio entertainment. Focusing on broadcasting's initial expansion during the 1920s, Making Radio explores the forms of creative labor pursued for the medium in the period prior to the better-known network era, assessing their role in shaping radio's identity and identifying affinities with parallel practices pursued for conversion-era film and phonography. Tracing programming forms adopted by early radio writers and programmers, production techniques developed by studio engineers, and performance styles cultivated by on-air talent, it shows how radio workers negotiated a series of broader industrial and cultural pressures to establish best practices for their medium that reshaped popular forms of music, drama, and public oratory and laid the foundation for a new era of electric sound entertainment.”

“Of all important sound media, none has been so neglected as radio - especially early radio. That's why Making Radio is so welcome. Based on rarely consulted archival materials, Shawn VanCour's study opens important new territory.” Rick Altman, Emeritus Professor of Cinema and Comparative Literature, University of Iowa. 

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Sam Wasson’s Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art (Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) “charts the meteoric rise of improv in this richly reported, scene-driven narrative that, like its subject, moves fast and digs deep. He shows us the chance meeting at a train station between Mike Nichols and Elaine May. We hang out at the after-hours bar Dan Aykroyd opened so that friends like John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner would always have a home. We go behind the scenes of landmark entertainments from The Graduate to Caddyshack, The Forty-Year Old Virgin to The Colbert Report. Along the way, we commune with a host of pioneers—Mike Nichols and Harold Ramis, Dustin Hoffman, Chevy Chase, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Alan Arkin, Tina Fey, Judd Apatow, and many more. With signature verve and nuance, Wasson shows why improv deserves to be considered the great American art form of the last half-century—and the most influential one today.”

“Improv Nation masterfully tells a new history of American comedy . . . Wasson masters the art of the monograph by locating a sharp argument within a sweeping, messy, compelling history . . . Wasson’s dizzying style drives the point home. Though he jumps around, he never gives a player short shrift, and his conversational tone captivates. The book’s focus tightens as its narrative strands converge, but it maintains a loose unpredictability throughout. It holds the element of surprise — true to the spirit of its subject. Grade: A-” Entertainment Weekly

Sam Wasson's Improv Nation examines one of the most important stories in American popular culture . . . Wasson may be the first author to explain [improv’s] entire history in comprehensive detail. For that reason alone, it’s a valuable book, benefiting from dogged reporting and the kind of sweeping arguments that get your attention.” New York Times Book Review

Photographs, notes, index.

Roger Scruton’s Music as an Art (Bloomsbury Academic) “argues [that], in earlier times, our musical culture had secure foundations in the church, the concert hall and the home; in the ceremonies and celebrations of ordinary life, religion and manners. Yet we no longer live in that world. Fewer people now play instruments and music is, for many, a form of largely solitary enjoyment. As he shows in Music as an Art, we live at a critical time for classical music, and this book is an important contribution to the debate, of which we stand in need, concerning the place of music in Western civilization. Music as an Art begins by examining music through a philosophical lens, engaging in discussions about tonality, music and the moral life, music and cognitive science and German idealism, as well as recalling the author’s struggle to encourage his students to distinguish the qualities of good music. Scruton then explains--via erudite chapters on Schubert, Britten, Rameau, opera and film--how we can develop greater judgment in music, recognizing both good taste and bad, establishing musical values, as well as musical pleasures.”

Musical notations, bibliography, index.

William Logan, Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods: Poetry in the Shadow of the Past (Columbia University Press). “In Dickinson’s Nerves, Frost’s Woods, William Logan, the noted and often controversial critic of contemporary poetry, returns to some of the greatest poems in English literature. He reveals what we may not have seen before and what his critical eye can do with what he loves. In essays that pair different poems―“Ozymandias,” “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer,” “In a Station of the Metro,” “The Red Wheelbarrow,” “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” among others―Logan reconciles history and poetry to provide new ways of reading poets ranging from Shakespeare and Shelley to Lowell and Heaney. In these striking essays, Logan presents the poetry of the past through the lens of the past, attempting to bring poems back to the world in which they were made. Logan’s criticism is informed by the material culture of that world, whether postal deliveries in Regency London, the Métro lighting in 1911 Paris, or the wheelbarrows used in 1923. Deeper knowledge of the poet’s daily existence lets us read old poems afresh, providing a new way of understanding poems now encrusted with commentary. Logan shows that criticism cannot just root blindly among the words of the poem but must live partly in a lost world, in the shadow of the poet’s life and the shadow of the age.”

William Logan is Alumni/ae Professor and Distinguished Teaching Scholar at the University of Florida. He is the author of The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin (2005); Our Savage Art: Poetry and the Civil Tongue( 2009); and Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure: The Dirty Art of Poetry(2012), all from Columbia University Press, as well as eleven books of poems and other works of criticism.

“Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods only confirms and enriches my sense that William Logan is the most outstanding critic of poetry now practicing in America. An extraordinary critical effort.” William Pritchard, Amherst College.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Kevin Young’s Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (Graywolf Press) “tours us through a rogue’s gallery of hoaxers, plagiarists, forgers, and fakers―from the humbug of P. T. Barnum and Edgar Allan Poe to the unrepentant bunk of JT LeRoy and Donald J. Trump. Bunk traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon, examining what motivates hucksters and makes the rest of us so gullible. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice Heth, a black woman whom he pretended was the 161-year-old nursemaid to George Washington, and What Is It?, an African American man Barnum professed was a newly discovered missing link in evolution. Bunk then turns to the hoaxing of history and the ways that forgers, plagiarists, and journalistic fakers invent backstories and falsehoods to sell us lies about themselves and about the world in our own time, from pretend Native Americans Grey Owl and Nasdijj to the deadly imposture of Clark Rockefeller, from the made-up memoirs of James Frey to the identity theft of Rachel Dolezal. In this brilliant and timely work, Young asks what it means to live in a post-factual world of “truthiness” where everything is up for interpretation and everyone is subject to a pervasive cynicism that damages our ideas of reality, fact, and art.”

“[Young’s] scrupulous feel for archival traces ― for the urgent materiality of memory ― is one of the superpowers he brings to both his poems and nonfiction. The newest example is Bunk, Young’s enthralling and essential new study of our collective American love affair with pernicious and intractable moonshine. . . . Bunk is a sort of book that comes along rarely: the encompassing survey of some vast realm of human activity, encyclopedic but also unapologetically subjective. . . . Bunk, a panorama, a rumination and a polemic at once, asks more of the reader. It delivers riches in return. . . . Bunk is a reader’s feast, a shaggy, generous tome with a slim volume of devastating aphorisms lurking inside; it also shimmers with moments of brief personal testimony.” Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review

Photographs, notes, index.

Linda Freedman’s William Blake and the Myth of America: From the Abolitionists to the Counterculture (Oxford University Press) “tells the story of William Blake's literary reception in America and suggests that ideas about Blake's poetry and personality helped shape mythopoeic visions of America from the Abolitionists to the counterculture. It links high and low culture and covers poetry, music, theology, and the novel. American writers have turned to Blake to rediscover the symbolic meaning of their country in times of cataclysmic change, terror, and hope. Blake entered American society when slavery was rife and civil war threatened the fragile experiment of democracy. He found his moment in the mid twentieth-century counterculture as left-wing Americans took refuge in the arts at a time of increasingly reactionary conservatism, vicious racism, pervasive sexism, dangerous nuclear competition, and an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam, the fires of Orc raging against the systems of Urizen. Blake's America, as a symbol of cyclical hope and despair, influenced many Americans who saw themselves as continuing the task of prophecy and vision. Blakean forms of bardic song, aphorism, prophecy, and lament became particularly relevant to a literary tradition which centralised the relationship between aspiration and experience. His interrogations of power and privilege, freedom and form resonated with Americans who repeatedly wrestled with the deep ironies of new world symbolism and sought to renew a Whitmanesque ideal of democracy through affection and openness towards alterity.”

“Linda Freedman is a Lecturer in English and American literature at University College London. She is the author of Emily Dickinson and the Religious Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth century literature. Her work explores the relationship between literature, theology, and the visual arts; transatlantic connections; and the afterlife of Romanticism.”

Illustrations, bibliography, index. 

Joanne B. Freeman’sThe Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn’t happen in a vacuum. Freeman’s dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities―the feel, sense, and sound of it―as well as its nation-shaping import. Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.”

"Given the enormous literature on the Civil War era, it’s difficult for a historian to say something genuinely new, but Freeman has managed to do just that . . . Freeman is a meticulous researcher and a vivid writer, and The Field of Blood makes for entertaining reading.” Eric Foner, The London Review of Books

“An impressive feat of research . . . Freeman's story [. . .] has elements of both horror and slapstick . . . The Field of Blood [. . . ] feels current. The political discourse it documents, if not the level of political violence, is alarmingly familiar in our own time.” Andrew Delbanco, The Nation

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 

Sean Wilentz’s No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding(The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures) (Harvard University Press) “invites fresh debate about the political and legal struggles over slavery that began during the Revolution and concluded with the Confederacy’s defeat. It drives straight to the heart of the most contentious and enduring issue in all of American history. Americans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. Some historians have charged that slaveholders actually enshrined human bondage at the nation’s founding. The acclaimed political historian Sean Wilentz shares the dismay but sees the Constitution and slavery differently. Although the proslavery side won important concessions, he asserts, antislavery impulses also influenced the framers’ work. Far from covering up a crime against humanity, the Constitution restricted slavery’s legitimacy under the new national government. In time, that limitation would open the way for the creation of an antislavery politics that led to Southern secession, the Civil War, and Emancipation. Wilentz’s controversial and timely reconsideration upends orthodox views of the Constitution. He describes the document as a tortured paradox that abided slavery without legitimizing it. This paradox lay behind the great political battles that fractured the nation over the next seventy years. As Southern Fire-eaters invented a proslavery version of the Constitution, antislavery advocates, including Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, proclaimed antislavery versions based on the framers’ refusal to validate what they called ‘property in man’.”

Sean Wilentz is George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books on American history and politics, including The Rise of American Democracy, which won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Politicians and the Egalitarians, chosen as Best History Book of the Year by Kirkus and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wilentz’s writings on American music have earned him two Grammy nominations and two Deems-Taylor-ASCAP awards.

“What does Wilentz know that others have gotten so terribly wrong about the founding connection between slavery and racism? In his revealing and passionately argued book, he insists that because the framers did not sanction slavery as a matter of principle, the antislavery legacy of the Constitution has been ‘slighted' and ‘misconstrued' for over 200 years.” Khalil Gibran Muhammad, New York Times

“Demonstrating that the Constitution both protected slavery and left open the possibility of an antislavery politics, Wilentz’s careful and insightful analysis helps us understand how Americans who hated slavery, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, could come to see the Constitution as an ally in their struggle.” Eric Foner, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

Notes, index.

Hillary Chute’s Why Comics?: From Underground to Everywhere (Harper Collins) “reveals the history of comics, underground comics (or comix), and graphic novels, through deep thematic analysis, and fascinating portraits of the fearless men and women behind them. As Scott McCloud revealed the methods behind comics and the way they worked in his classic Understanding Comics, Chute will reveal the themes that Comics handle best, and how the form is uniquely equipped to explore them.”

“In her wonderful book, Hillary L. Chute suggests that we’re in a blooming, expanding era of the art . . . . Chute’s often lovely, sensitive discussions of individual expression in independent comics seem so right and true.” New York Times Book Review

Illustrations, bibliography, index. 

John B. Boles’ Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty (Basic Books) “plumbs every facet of Thomas Jefferson’s life, all while situating him amid the sweeping upheaval of his times. We meet Jefferson the politician and political thinker--as well as Jefferson the architect, scientist, bibliophile, paleontologist, musician, and gourmet. We witness him drafting of the Declaration of Independence, negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, and inventing a politics that emphasized the states over the federal government--a political philosophy that shapes our national life to this day. Boles offers new insight into Jefferson's actions and thinking on race. His Jefferson is not a hypocrite, but a tragic figure--a man who could not hold simultaneously to his views on abolition, democracy, and patriarchal responsibility. Yet despite his flaws, Jefferson's ideas would outlive him and make him into nothing less than the architect of American liberty.”

“Magisterial . . . perhaps the finest one-volume biography of an American president.” Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

Photographs, notes, index.

Catherine Kerrison, Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America (Ballantine Books/Random House). “The remarkable untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s three daughters—two white and free, one black and enslaved—and the divergent paths they forged in a newly independent America. Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. In Jefferson’s Daughters, Catherine Kerrison, a scholar of early American and women’s history, recounts the remarkable journey of these three women—and how their struggle to define themselves reflects both the possibilities and the limitations that resulted from the American Revolution.

Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris—a hothouse of intellectual ferment whose celebrated salonnières are vividly brought to life in Kerrison’s narrative. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery—apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future. For this groundbreaking triple biography, Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters when they were in their teens, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. She has interviewed Hemings family descendants (and, with their cooperation, initiated DNA testing) and searched for descendants of Harriet Hemings. The eventful lives of Thomas Jefferson’s daughters provide a unique vantage point from which to examine the complicated patrimony of the American Revolution itself.  The richly interwoven story of these three strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies sheds new light on the ongoing movement toward human rights in America—and on the personal and political legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers.”

Catherine Kerrison is an associate professor of history at Villanova University, where she teaches courses in Colonial and Revolutionary America and women’s and gender history. She holds a PhD in American history from the College of William and Mary. Her first book, Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South, won the Outstanding Book Award from the History of Education Society. She lives in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

“Beautifully written . . . .To a nuanced study of Jefferson’s two white daughters, Martha and Maria, [Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings.” The New York Times Book Review

Photographs, illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, index.

The Oxford Companion to the Brontës: Anniversary Edition (Oxford University Press), by Christine Alexander and Margaret Smith, Editors. “This special edition of The Oxford Companion to the Brontes commemorates the bicentenary of Emily Bronte's birth in July 1818 and provides comprehensive and detailed information about the lives, works, and reputations of the Brontes - the three sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, their father, and their brother Branwell.

Christine Alexanderis Emeritus Scientia Professor of English at the University of New South Wales. Her books include the multi-volume Edition of the Early Writings of Charlotte Bronte, Love and Friendship and Other Youthful Writings, and the British Academy prize-winning book The Early Writings of Charlotte Bronte. She has also published widely on gothic literature, Jane Austen, critical editing, literary juvenilia, and landscape gardening, and has co-edited The Child Writer from Austen to Woolf.

Margaret Smithwas formerly Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Research in Arts and Social Science, University of Birmingham, and a Vice-President of the Bronte Society. She has edited many of the Brontes' works, including The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and The Letters of Charlotte Bronte.

“This is a must . . . . A treasure trove of a book.” Irish Times.

illustrations, maps, biographies of contributors, classified contents list, bibliography, chronology, list of abbreviations.

Manuel Pastor’s State of Resistance : What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future (The New Press) is “A leading sociologist’s brilliant and revelatory argument that the future of politics, work, immigration, and more may be found in California. Once upon a time, any mention of California triggered unpleasant reminders of Ronald Reagan and right-wing tax revolts, ballot propositions targeting undocumented immigrants, and racist policing that sparked two of the nation’s most devastating riots. In fact, California confronted many of the challenges the rest of the country faces now—decades before the rest of us.”

“In his book, which is concise, clear and convincing, [Manuel Pastor] contends that the redemptive arc of modern California’s history offers both cautionary and constructive guidance on a vision for the country as a whole. Pastor sets out his story in three acts—rise, fall, and recovery—each of which offers surprising insights for readers outside the state (and many inside as well). ‘America now looks like California at its lowest point,’ Pastor says. He offers a guide to a possible path back up.” James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review

Charts, notes, index.

Miriam Pawel’sThe Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation (Bloomsbury Publishing) “weaves a narrative history that spans four generations, from August Schuckman, the Prussian immigrant who crossed the Plains in 1852 and settled on a northern California ranch, to his great-grandson Jerry Brown, who reclaimed the family homestead one hundred forty years later. Through the prism of their lives, we gain an essential understanding of California and an appreciation of its importance. The magisterial story is enhanced by dozens of striking photos, many published for the first time. This book gives new insights to those steeped in California history, offers a corrective for those who confuse stereotypes and legend for fact, and opens new vistas for readers familiar with only the sketchiest outlines of a place habitually viewed from afar with a mix of envy and awe, disdain, and fascination.”

“Miriam Pawel has written a remarkable book--a generational biography of a political dynasty, ranging from the California Gold Rush to the presidency of Donald Trump. She recounts the pivotal governorship of Pat Brown and the even more significant career of his son Jerry with assured prose and a keen sense of historical context. This is the engrossing saga of complicated family at the center of American political life for the last sixty years.” T.J. Stiles, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Custer’s Trials and The First Tycoon. 

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 

Bettany Hughes,Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities (Da Capo Press). “From the Koran to Shakespeare, this city with three names--Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul--resonates as an idea and a place, real and imagined. Standing as the gateway between East and West, North and South, it has been the capital city of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires. For much of its history it was the very center of the world, known simply as "The City," but, as Bettany Hughes reveals, Istanbul is not just a city, but a global story. In this epic new biography, Hughes takes us on a dazzling historical journey from the Neolithic to the present, through the many incarnations of one of the world's greatest cities--exploring the ways that Istanbul's influence has spun out to shape the wider world. Hughes investigates what it takes to make a city and tells the story not just of emperors, viziers, caliphs, and sultans, but of the poor and the voiceless, of the women and men whose aspirations and dreams have continuously reinvented Istanbul. Written with energy and animation, award-winning historian Bettany Hughes deftly guides readers through Istanbul's rich layers of history. Based on meticulous research and new archaeological evidence, this captivating portrait of the momentous life of Istanbul is visceral, immediate, and authoritative--narrative history at its finest.”

“Brimming with brio and incident. . . life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve.” Justin Marozzi, award-winning author of Baghdad.

“Mesmerizing. . . . Weaves research and insight with understanding and love: here is a book written as much with the heart as the mind.” Elif Shafak, award-winning author of The Bastard of Istanbul.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, timeline, index.

Robert Gottlieb’s Near-Death Experiences . . . and Others (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “features twenty or so pieces he’s written mostly for the New York Review of Books, ranging from reconsiderations of American writers such as Dorothy Parker, Thornton Wilder, Thomas Wolfe (“genius”), and James Jones, to Leonard Bernstein, Lorenz Hart, Lady Diana Cooper (“the most beautiful girl in the world”), the actor-assassin John Wilkes Booth, the scandalous movie star Mary Astor, and not-yet president Donald Trump. The writings compiled here are as various as they are provocative: an extended probe into the world of post-death experiences; a sharp look at the biopics of transcendent figures such as Shakespeare, Molière, and Austen; a soap opera-ish movie account of an alleged affair between Chanel and Stravinsky; and a copious sampling of the dance reviews he’s been writing for The New York Observer for close to twenty years. A worthy successor to his expansive 2011 collection, Lives and Letters, and his admired 2016 memoir, Avid Reader, Near-Death Experiences displays the same insight and intellectual curiosity that have made Gottlieb, in the words of The New York Times’ Dwight Garner, “the most acclaimed editor of the second half of the twentieth century.”

Robert Gottlieb has been the editor in chief of Simon and Schuster; the president, publisher, and editor in chief of Alfred A. Knopf; and the editor of The New Yorker. As a writer, he contributes frequently to The New York Review of Books and is the author of Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, and Avid Reader: A Life. In 2015, Gottlieb was presented the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Peggy Ornstein, Don't Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life (Harper Paperbacks). “Named one of the ‘40 women who changed the media business in the last 40 years’ by the Columbia Journalism Review, Peggy Orenstein is one of the most prominent, unflinching feminist voices of our time. Her writing has broken ground and broken silence on topics as wide-ranging as miscarriage, motherhood, breast cancer, princess culture, and the importance of girls’ sexual pleasure. Her unique blend of investigative reporting, personal revelation, and unexpected humor has made her books bestselling classics.

In Don’t Call Me Princess, Orenstein’s most resonant and important essays are available for the first time in collected form, updated with both an original introduction and personal reflections on each piece. Her takes on reproductive justice, the infertility industry, tensions between working and stay-at-home moms, pink ribbon fear mongering, and the complications of girl culture are not merely timeless—they have, like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, become more urgent in our contemporary political climate. Don’t Call Me Princess offers a crucial evaluation of where we stand today as women—in our work lives, sex lives, as mothers, as partners—illuminating both how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.”

“Known for her wide-ranging feminist writing about everything from princess culture to breast cancer, Orenstein presents a collection of her essays that are both striking and timely.” New York Times Book Review.

Joanne Lipman,That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together(William Morrow). “First things first: There will be no man shaming in That’s What She Said. A recent Harvard study found that corporate ‘diversity training’ has actually made the gender gap worse—in part because it makes men feel demonized. Women, meanwhile, have been told closing the gender gap is up to them: they need to speak up, to be more confident, to demand to be paid what they’re worth. They discuss these issues amongst themselves all the time.  What they don’t do is talk to men about it. It’s time to end that disconnect. More people in leadership roles are genuinely trying to transform the way we work together, because there's abundant evidence that companies with more women in senior leadership perform better by virtually every measure. Yet despite good intentions, men often lack the tools they need, leading to fumbles, missteps, frustration and misunderstanding that continue to inflict real and lasting damage on women's careers. That's What She Said solves for that dilemma.  Filled with illuminating anecdotes, data from the most recent studies, and stories from Joanne Lipman’s own journey to the top of a male-dominated industry, it shows how we can win by reaching across the gender divide. What can the Enron scandal teach us about the way men and women communicate professionally? How does brain chemistry help explain men’s fear of women’s emotions at work? Why did Kimberly Clark have an all-male team of executives in charge of their Kotex tampon line? What can we learn from Iceland’s campaign to ‘feminize’ an entire nation? That’s What She Said shows why empowering women as true equals is an essential goal for women and men—and offers a roadmap for getting there.

That’s What She Said solves for:

·         The respect gap

·         Unconscious bias

·        Interruptions

·         The pay and promotion gap

·         Being heard

·         The motherhood penalty

·        ‘Bropropriation’ and ‘mansplaining’.

·         And more . . . .” 

“It’s great we are talking the talk but Joanne Lipman’s cutting edge research and razor sharp advice will help men and women alike start walking the walk (toward a more equitable workplace).” Katie Couric

“At last! That’s What She Said is so timely—and so needed. It’s the ultimate guide for women (and men) who are determined to close the gender gap. Lively and readable, it’s a game-changer in how we understand gender relations - and how we can break down barriers, right now.” Sallie Krawcheck, CEO, Ellevest

Cass R. Sunstein’s Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America (Dey Street Books/Harper Collins) “explore[s] the lessons of history, how democracies crumble, how propaganda works, and the role of the media, courts, elections, and "fake news" in the modern political landscape—and what the future of the United States may hold.”

“[Trump] is a cult leader of a movement that has taken over a political party – and he specifically campaigned on a platform of one-man rule. This fact permeates Can It Happen Here?. . . which concludes, if you read between the lines, that “it” already has.” Andrew Sullivan, New York Times Book Review

Notes, index.

Allan J. Lichtman’s The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present (Harvard University Press) “gives us the deep history behind today’s headlines and shows that calls of voter fraud, political gerrymandering and outrageous attempts at voter suppression are nothing new. The players and the tactics have changed―we don’t outright ban people from voting anymore―but the battle and the stakes remain just as high.”

“Lichtman’s important book emphasizes the founders’ great blunder: They failed to enshrine a right to vote in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights . . . . The Embattled Vote in America traces the consequences through American history…[Lichtman] uses history to contextualize the fix we’re in today…Growing outrage, he thinks, could ignite demands for change. With luck, this fine history might just help to fan the flame.” James A. Morone, New York Times Book Review.

“The great value of Lichtman’s book is the way it puts today’s right-wing voter suppression efforts in their historical setting. He identifies the current push as the third crackdown on African-American voting rights in our history.” Michael Tomasky, New York Review of Books.

Notes, index. 

Zephyr Teachout, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United (Harvard University Press). “When Louis XVI presented Benjamin Franklin with a snuff box encrusted with diamonds and inset with the King’s portrait, the gift troubled Americans: it threatened to ‘corrupt’ Franklin by clouding his judgment or altering his attitude toward the French in subtle psychological ways. This broad understanding of political corruption―rooted in ideals of civic virtue―was a driving force at the Constitutional Convention. For two centuries the framers’ ideas about corruption flourished in the courts, even in the absence of clear rules governing voters, civil officers, and elected officials. Should a law that was passed by a state legislature be overturned because half of its members were bribed? What kinds of lobbying activity were corrupt, and what kinds were legal? When does an implicit promise count as bribery? In the 1970s the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrow the definition of corruption, and the meaning has since changed dramatically. No case makes that clearer than Citizens United. In 2010, one of the most consequential Court decisions in American political history gave wealthy corporations the right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion treated corruption as nothing more than explicit bribery, a narrow conception later echoed by Chief Justice Roberts in deciding McCutcheon v. FEC in 2014. With unlimited spending transforming American politics for the worse, warns Zephyr Teachout, Citizens United and McCutcheon were not just bad law but bad history. If the American experiment in self-government is to have a future, then we must revive the traditional meaning of corruption and embrace an old ideal.”

“At last someone has written a book that puts a name to what is perhaps the most significant factor shaping American politics today: corruption. In a masterly work of scholarship, Zephyr Teachout. . . . traces the history of American approaches to what was long considered a mortal threat to the republic. She demonstrates that recent jurisprudence, which has whittled down the definition of corruption to encompass only a contractual exchange between briber and public official, represents nothing less than ‘a revolution in political theory. . . . Teachout calls for a return to the Framers’ preference for across-the-board rules to help prevent corrupt acts before they are perpetrated, rather than relying on punishment after the fact.” Sarah Chayes, Wall Street Journal

“In Corruption in America, an eloquent, revealing, and sometimes surprising historical inquiry, Teachout convincingly argues that corruption, broadly understood as placing private interests over the public good in public office, is at the root of what ails American democracy.” David Cole, New York Review of Books

Notes, bibliography, index.

3) MISCELLANEOUS 

Michael Mann’s and Tom Toles’The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy (Columbia University Press) “portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity has changed Earth's climate. Toles' cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books―and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of sound science.”

“Concise and fiercely illustrated . . . . [Toles’] cartoons cut to the core of the issues that Mann untangles in the prose.”

Mark Fischetti, Scientific American

Illustrations, notes, index.

Ken Krimstein’sThe Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth (Bloomsbury Publishing) is “For Persepolis and Logicomix fans, a New Yorker cartoonist's page-turning graphic biography of the fascinating Hannah Arendt, the most prominent philosopher of the twentieth century. One of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century and a hero of political thought, the largely unsung and often misunderstood Hannah Arendt is best known for her landmark 1951 book on openness in political life, The Origins of Totalitarianism, which, with its powerful and timely lessons for today, has become newly relevant. She led an extraordinary life. This was a woman who endured Nazi persecution firsthand, survived harrowing "escapes" from country to country in Europe, and befriended such luminaries as Walter Benjamin and Mary McCarthy, in a world inhabited by everyone from Marc Chagall and Marlene Dietrich to Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. A woman who finally had to give up her unique genius for philosophy, and her love of a very compromised man--the philosopher and Nazi-sympathizer Martin Heidegger--for what she called "love of the world. Compassionate and enlightening, playful and page-turning, New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein's The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt is a strikingly illustrated portrait of a complex, controversial, deeply flawed, and irrefutably courageous woman whose intelligence and "virulent truth telling" led her to breathtaking insights into the human condition, and whose experience continues to shine a light on how to live as an individual and a public citizen in troubled times.”

“Ken Krimstein's deeply moving graphic memoir about the life and thoughts of philosopher Hannah Arendt is not only about Hannah Arendt. It's also, through her words, about how to live in the world, the meaning of freedom, the perils of totalitarianism, and our power as human beings to think about things and not just act blindly. Krimstein explains Arendt's ideas with clarity, wit, and enormous erudition, and they still resonate.” Roz Chast

Albert Murray: Collected Novels & Poems: Train Whistle Guitar, The Spyglass Tree, The Seven League Boots, The Magic Keys, Poems (Library of America), Henry Louis Gates Jr., editor. “One of the leading cultural critics of his generation, Albert Murray was also the author of an extraordinary quartet of semi-autobiographical novels, vivid impressionistic portraits of black life in the Deep South in the 1920s and ’30s and in prewar New York City. Train Whistle Guitar (1974) introduces Murray's recurring narrator and protagonist, Scooter, a ‘Southern jackrabbit raised in a briarpatch’ too nimble ever to receive a scratch. Scooter's education in books, music, and the blue-steel bent-note blues-ballad realities of American life continues in The Spyglass Tree (1991), Murray's ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Tuskegee Undergraduate.’ The Seven League Boots (1996) follows Scooter as he becomes a bass player in a touring band not unlike Duke Ellington's, and The Magic Keys (2005), in which Scooter at last finds his true vocation as a writer in Greenwich Village, is an elegiac reverie on an artist's life. Editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Paul Devlin round out the volume with a selection of Murray's remarkable poems, including 11 unpublished pieces from his notebooks, and two rare examples of his work as a short story writer.”

“An absolute joy to read.” Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Chronology, notes, index.

Karida L. Brown’s Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia(University of North Carolina Press) “offers a much-needed corrective to the current whitewashing of Appalachia. In telling the stories of African Americans living and working in Appalachian coal towns, Brown offers a sweeping look at race, identity, changes in politics and policy, and black migration in the region and beyond. Drawn from over 150 original oral history interviews with former and current residents of Harlan County, Kentucky, Brown shows that as the nation experienced enormous transformation from the pre- to the post-civil rights era, so too did black Americans. In reconstructing the life histories of black coal miners, Brown shows the mutable and shifting nature of collective identity, the struggles of labor and representation, and that Appalachia is far more diverse than you think.”

“In this wondrous and careful work of essential and classic southern sociology, Karida Leigh Brown brilliantly illuminates black subjectivities as lived, realized, and constituted in the overlooked ancestral African American homeland of Appalachian coal country. Traversing time and space, race and region, Gone Home tells about the South in ways heretofore unimaginable.” Zandria Robinson, author of This Ain't Chicago

Photographs, tables, notes, bibliography, timeline, index.

Elena Ferrante’s Frantumaglia: A Writer's Journey (Europa Editions), translated by  >Ann Goldstein>, is just the kind of collection that I love. Frantumaglia—a jumble of fragments—it is, “Consisting of over 20 years of letters, essays, reflections, and interviews . . . a unique depiction of an author who embodies a consummate passion for writing. . . . [It] invites readers into Elena Ferrante’s workshop. It offers a glimpse into the drawers of her writing desk, those drawers from which emerged her three early stand-alone novels and the four installments of My Brilliant Friend, known in English as The Neapolitan Quartet. . . . In these pages Ferrante answers many of her readers’ questions. She addresses her choice to stand aside and let her books live autonomous lives. She discusses her thoughts and concerns as her novels are being adapted into films. She talks about the challenge of finding concise answers to interview questions. She explains the joys and the struggles of writing, the anguish of composing a story only to discover that that story isn’t good enough. She contemplates her relationship with psychoanalysis, with the cities she has lived in, with motherhood, with feminism, and with her childhood as a storehouse for memories, impressions, and fantasies. The result is a vibrant and intimate self-portrait of a writer at work.

Russ Kick,The Graphic Canon of Crime and Mystery, Vol. 1: From Sherlock Holmes to A Clockwork Orange to Jo Nesbø. (Seven Stories Press). “From James M. Cain to Stephen King, from Sophocles to the Marquis de Sade to Iceberg Slim, here are stunning and sometimes macabre visualizations of some of the greatest crime and mystery stories of all time. Rick Geary brings his crisp style to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; C. Frakes resurrects the forgotten novella Talma Gordon," the first mystery written by an African American. Crime finds new life in these graphic renditions of The Arabian Nights, the Bible, James Joyce's Dubliners, Patricia Highsmith, and leading mystery writers of today like Jo Nesbø. Crime and mystery have never been so brilliantly reimagined.

Russ Kick is the originator of the Graphic Canon series [i.e., The Graphic Canon, Volume 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons,  The Graphic Canon, Volume 2: From “Kubla Khan” to the Bronte Sisters to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Graphic Canon, Vol. 3: From Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest(all by Seven Stories Press)], for which he has commissioned new work from over 350 artists and illustrators. NPR described it as ‘easily the most ambitious and successfully realized literary project in recent memory.’ Kick's previous anthologies, You Are Being Lied To and Everything You Know Is Wrong, informed a whole generation of Americans with the hard truths of American politics and created a media frenzy for being the first to publish suppressed photographs of American flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq. The New York Times dubbed Kick ‘an information archaeologist,’ Details magazine described him as ‘a Renaissance man,’ and Utne Reader named him one of its ‘50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.’ His popular website, thememoryhole2.org, is active again and getting national media coverage for archiving documents that the Trump administration has been deleting.”  

Nicole Claveloux’sThe Green Hand and Other Stories (New York Review Comics),translated by Donald Nicholson Smithand with an introduction by Daniel Clowes, “presents the full achievement of an unforgettable, unjustly neglected master of French comics. . . . Nicole Claveloux’s short stories—originally published in the late 1970s and never before collected in English—are among the most beautiful comics ever drawn: whimsical, intoxicating, with the freshness and splendor of dreams. In hallucinatory color or elegant black-and-white, she brings us into lands that are strange but oddly recognizable, filled with murderous grandmothers and lonely city dwellers, bad-tempered vegetables and walls that are surprisingly easy to fall through. In the title story, written with Edith Zha, a new houseplant becomes the first step in an epic journey of self-discovery and a witty fable of modern romance—complete with talking shrubbery, a wised-up genie, and one very depressed bird.”

Nicole Claveloux contributed to the French comics magazines Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal)and Ah! Nanaand drew a popular comic strip called Grabote. Championed by book publisher Harlin Quist, she has also illustrated a number of successful children’s books, including an award-winning version of Alice in Wonderland. She lives in France.

 “Nicole Claveloux’s comics come across as odd, mind-bending ‘What If’s’. . . . The work, certainly, has that air of being created at an inspired moment, with ‘The Green Hand’ in particular presenting as a little-recognized masterpiece.” The Comics Journal

“Illustrated with never-before-seen photographs, cartoons, and drawings,” Cullen Murphy’s Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “brings the postwar American era alive, told through the relationship of a son to his father, an extraordinarily talented and generous man who had been trained by Norman Rockwell. Cartoon County gives us a glimpse into a very special community―and of an America that used to be. For a period of about fifty years, right in the middle of the American Century, many of the nation’s top comic-strip cartoonists, gag cartoonists, and magazine illustrators lived within a stone’s throw of one another in the southwestern corner of Connecticut―a bit of bohemia in the middle of those men in their gray flannel suits. Cullen Murphy’s father, John Cullen Murphy, drew the wildly popular comic strips Prince Valiant and Big Ben Bolt, and was at the heart of this artistic milieu. Comic strips and gag cartoons read by hundreds of millions were created in this tight-knit group―Superman, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith, Rip Kirby, Hagar the Horrible, Hi and Lois, Nancy, Sam & Silo, Amy, The Wizard of Id, The Heart of Juliet Jones, Family Circus, Joe Palooka, and The Lockhorns, among others. Cartoonists and their art were a pop-cultural force in a way that few today remember. Anarchic and deeply creative, the cartoonists were independent spirits whose artistic talents had mainly been forged during service in World War II.”

"Warm and graceful . . . [a] stylishly written and illustrated field guide to the American Cartoonist and his mid-century habitat.” Garry Trudeau, The New York Times Book Review

“A lovingly observed tribute to that magical mid-twentieth-century never-never land (suburban Connecticut), where cartoonists of newspaper strips and magazine gag panels commuted to the top floor or the basement of their homes, or to nearby studios, to turn out a form of art that was, in its day, an integral part of American culture, rivaling today’s TV, cable, or the web. John Cullen Murphy was the illustrator of the classic Prince Valiant Sunday page, and his life, and that of his cartoonist friends, is recorded in anthropological detail in this beautifully composed and delightfully illustrated love letter from his son.” Jules Feiffer, cartoonist and illustrator, author of the noir graphic novel trilogy Kill My Mother.

Notes, index.

Reed Tucker’s Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC (Da Capo Press) is “the first book to chronicle the history of this epic rivalry into a single, in-depth narrative. . . . [It] is the story of the greatest corporate rivalry never told. Complete with interviews with the major names in the industry, Slugfest reveals the arsenal of schemes the two companies have employed in their attempts to outmaneuver the competition, whether it be stealing ideas, poaching employees, planting spies, or launching price wars. The feud has never completely disappeared, and it simmers on a low boil to this day. With DC and Marvel characters becoming global icons worth billions, if anything, the stakes are higher now than ever before.”

“Reed Tucker masterfully dissects the REAL issue dividing us as a nation.” Seth Meyers, host of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers. 

Notes, index.

Joan Murray,Drafts, Fragments, and Poems: The Complete Poetry (New York Review Books Poets), Farnoosh Fathi, editor,‎ Preface by John Ashbery.

“Though John Ashbery hailed Joan Murray as a key influence on his work, Murray’s sole collection, Poems, published after her death at the early age of twenty-four and selected by W. H. Auden for inclusion in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, has been almost entirely unavailable for the better part of half a century. Poems was put together by Grant Code, a close friend of Murray’s mother, and when Murray’s papers, long thought to be lost, reappeared in 2013, it became clear that Code had exercised a heavy editorial hand. This new collection, edited by Farnoosh Fathi from Murray’s original manuscripts, restores Murray’s raw lyricism and visionary lines, while also including a good deal of previously unpublished work, as well as a selection of her exuberant letters.”

“In a letter to novelist Helen Anderson, a resolute Joan Murray wrote, 'I would rather be mad and bad, erratic and incomprehensible, than vulnerably acquiescent to the drab.' Note how the adjectives in her sentence point to the era’s stereotypes about women’s writing. Luckily for us, every single line in this darkly luminous book proves them to be unwarranted. Murray's poems, wise beyond her years, startle the mind in their brave embrace of dissonance.” Mónica de la Torre

“Murray’s book seems to me a startling achievement for a poet who died at an even younger age than Keats, a month short of her twenty-fifth birthday. . . . The improbable poetic adventures her Poems offers have slipped into oblivion, like Eurydice, almost without a ripple.” Mark Ford, Poetry

“Up from the archives come poems that will make you feel you’re just learning to read: if vibration is your vocabulary, if unbelonging is your kind of charisma, if you have ever wanted to be a 'minnow-silver rain' or to fuck an ocean, if you’re prepared for an empathy so direct that you’d be right to call it otherworldly, Joan Murray is your poet.” Christine Hume

Included in my 2014 roundup, Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press) deserves another listing. I found the subject matter, expressed in poetic prose, and the selection of photographs deeply moving. So, evidently, did Publishers Weekly: “Accounts of racially charged interactions, insidious and flagrant, transpiring in private and in the public eye, distill the immediate emotional intensity of individual experience with tremendous precision while allowing ambiguity, ambivalence, contradiction, and exhaustion to remain in all their fraught complexity. . . . Once again Rankine inspires sympathy and outrage, but most of all a will to take a deep look at ourselves and our society.” 

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography.

Graywolf Press has also sent me a batch of new volumes of poetry, namely, the following five entries:

U. S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, in her new collection Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press) “boldly ties America’s contemporary moment both to our nation’s fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith’s signature voice―inquisitive, lyrical, and wry―turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence. Here, private utterance becomes part of a larger choral arrangement as the collection widens to include erasures of The Declaration of Independence and the correspondence between slave owners, a found poem comprised of evidence of corporate pollution and accounts of near-death experiences, a sequence of letters written by African Americans enlisted in the Civil War, and the survivors’ reports of recent immigrants and refugees. Wade in the Water is a potent and luminous book by one of America’s essential poets.”

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time (Graywolf Press), Tracy K. Smith (Poet Laureate of the United States), editor, “presents fifty contemporary poems that explore and celebrate our country and our lives. Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith has gathered a remarkable chorus of voices that ring up and down the registers of American poetry. In the elegant arrangement of this anthology, we hear stories from rural communities and urban centers, laments of loss in war and in grief, experiences of immigrants, outcries at injustices, and poems that honor elders, evoke history, and praise our efforts to see and understand one another. Taking its title from a poem by Robert Hayden, American Journal, the first African American appointed as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress investigates our time with curiosity, wonder, and compassion. Among the fifty poets included are: Jericho Brown, Natalie Diaz, Matthew Dickman, Mark Doty, Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Cathy Park Hong, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Ilya Kaminsky, Robin Coste Lewis, Ada Límon, Layli Long Soldier, Erika L. Sánchez, Solmaz Sharif, Danez Smith, Susan Stewart, Mary Szybist, Natasha Trethewey, Brian Turner, Charles Wright, and Kevin Young.”

Jeffrey Yang, Hey, Marfa: Poems (Graywolf Press). “Situated in the outreaches of southwest Texas, the town of Marfa has long been an oasis for artists, immigrants looking for work, and ranchers, while the ghosts of the indigenous and the borders between languages and nations are apparent everywhere. The poet and translator Jeffrey Yang experienced the vastness of desert, township, sky, and time itself as a profound clash of dislocation and familiarity. What does it mean to survive in a physical and metaphorical desert? How does a habitat long associated with wilderness and death become a center for nourishment and art? Out of those experiences and questions, Yang has fashioned a fascinating, multifaceted work―an anti-travel guide, an anti-Western, a book of last words―that is a lyrical, anthropological investigation into history, culture, and extremity of place. Paintings and drawings of Marfa’s landscapes and substations by the artist Rackstraw Downes intertwine with Yang’s texts as mutual nodes and lines of energy. Hey, Marfa is a desert diary scaled to music that aspires to emit particles of light.” 

Jenny Xie (Winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets)’s Eye Level: Poems (Graywolf Press) “award-winning debut, Eye Level, takes us far and near, to Phnom Penh, Corfu, Hanoi, New York, and elsewhere, as we travel closer and closer to the acutely felt solitude that centers this searching, moving collection. Animated by a restless inner questioning, these poems meditate on the forces that moor the self and set it in motion, from immigration to travel to estranging losses and departures. The sensual worlds here―colors, smells, tastes, and changing landscapes―bring to life questions about the self as seer and the self as seen. As Xie writes, “Me? I’m just here in my traveler’s clothes, trying on each passing town for size.” Her taut, elusive poems exult in a life simultaneously crowded and quiet, caught in between things and places, and never quite entirely at home. Xie is a poet of extraordinary perception―both to the tangible world and to “all that is untouchable as far as the eye can reach.”

“Xie comes across as a magician of perspective and scale. . . . [Eye Level] suggests a kind of Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guide to inner life.” Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker

Tom Sleigh, House of Fact, House of Ruin: Poems (Graywolf Press). “‘I hate to admit it, but even the house of fact is a house of ruin,’ writes Tom Sleigh in the title sequence of this extraordinary new collection. Very much of our present moment, in which fact can so easily be manufactured and ruin so easily achieved by pressing ‘Send’ or pulling a trigger, these poems range across the landscapes of contemporary experience. Whether a militia in Libya or a military base in Baghdad, a shantytown in East Africa or an opulent mall on Long Island, these subjects and locations resonate with the psychic and social costs of having let the genie of war, famine, and climate change out of the lamp in the first place. The book ultimately turns on conundrums of selfhood and self-estrangement in which Sleigh urges us toward a different realm, where we might achieve the freedom of spirit to step outside our own circumstances, however imperfectly, and look at ourselves as other, as unfamiliar, as strange. House of Fact, House of Ruinis Sleigh’s most engaging and virtuosic collection to date.” 

“In Sleigh’s hands . . . moments of ongoingness mix something of the daily with something of the miraculous. . . . Like [Walt] Whitman, Sleigh here plays with what the observer’s notebook can become. He embeds lines of poetry in journalistic essays like a rogue reporter; conversely, he’ll forge a sonnet or rhymed tercets out of reported language.” Tess Taylor, The New York Times Book Review

Tony Hoagland, Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God: Poems (Graywolf Press). “Tony Hoagland’s poems interrogate human nature and contemporary culture with an intimate and wild urgency, located somewhere between outrage, stand-up comedy, and grief. His new poems are no less observant of the human and the worldly, no less skeptical, and no less amusing, but they have drifted toward the greater depths of open emotion. Over six collections, Hoagland’s poetry has gotten bigger, more tender, and more encompassing. The poems in Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of Godturn his clear-eyed vision toward the hidden spaces―and spaciousness―in the human predicament.”

“Hoagland’s verse is consistently, and crucially, bloodied by a sense of menace and by straight talk.” Dwight Garner, The New York Times

New Poets of Native Nations (Graywolf Press), edited by Heid E. Erdrich, “gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power of new Native poetry. Heid E. Erdrich has selected twenty-one poets whose first books were published after the year 2000 to highlight the exciting works coming up after Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie. Collected here are poems of great breadth―long narratives, political outcries, experimental works, and traditional lyrics―and the result is an essential anthology of some of the best poets writing now. Poets included are Tacey M. Atsitty, Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Laura Da’, Natalie Diaz, Jennifer Elise Foerster, Eric Gansworth, Gordon Henry, Jr., Sy Hoahwah, LeAnne Howe, Layli Long Soldier, Janet McAdams, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Margaret Noodin, dg okpik, Craig Santos Perez, Tommy Pico, Cedar Sigo, M. L. Smoker, Gwen Westerman, andKarenne Wood.”

I have been much enjoying poet and Professor of English at Davis and Elkins College Bill King’s new collection The Letting Go (Finishing Line Press). It has recalled my reading in its original Latin decades ago in Yale graduate school of Virgil’s Georgics, in which the Roman master dealt with bucolic themes but interspersed these with such human concerns as love and death, political and social upheaval, and the habits of bees as a model for human society. Bill King also artfully mingles everyday life and topical subjects with his passion for the natural world, in the process providing deeply moving commentary on our relationship to the land as well as to family, creative work, and the burdens of living. 

Alyson Hagy, Scribe: A Novel (Graywolf Press). “Drawing on traditional folktales and the history and culture of Appalachia, Alyson Hagy has crafted a gripping, swiftly plotted novel that touches on pressing issues of our time―migration, pandemic disease, the rise of authoritarianism―and makes a compelling case for the power of stories to both show us the world and transform it. A brutal civil war has ravaged the country, and contagious fevers have decimated the population. Abandoned farmhouses litter the isolated mountain valleys and shady hollows. The economy has been reduced to barter and trade. n this craggy, unwelcoming world, the central character of Scribe ekes out a lonely living on the family farmstead where she was raised and where her sister met an untimely end. She lets a migrant group known as the Uninvited set up temporary camps on her land, and maintains an uneasy peace with her cagey neighbors and the local enforcer. She has learned how to make paper and ink, and she has become known for her letter-writing skills, which she exchanges for tobacco, firewood, and other scarce resources. An unusual request for a letter from a man with hidden motivations unleashes the ghosts of her troubled past and sets off a series of increasingly calamitous events that culminate in a harrowing journey to a crossroads.”

Eula Biss’s Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays (Graywolf Press). “Notes From No Man's Landis the most accomplished book of essays anyone has written or published so far in the 21st century. . . . It is unimpeachably great.” Salon

“Two of the qualities that make Eula Biss’s essays in Notes from No Man’s Land compelling and beautiful are precision and independence―independence from orthodoxies of the right and left and the conventions of literary essays and their displays of sensibility and sensitivity. And whatever topic she takes up she dissects and analyzes with startling insight that comes from deep reading and original thinking. She’s important to this moment, important to opening up what essays can be, important for setting a standard of integrity and insight, and she’s also a joy to read.” Rebecca Solnit

Eula Biss is an American non-fiction writer. She won the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. She is an editor at Essay Press and is the author of On Immunity: An Inoculation, selected as one of the Ten Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. Her essays have appeared in The Believer, Harper’s Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. She lives in the Chicago area.

Annie Ernaux,The Years (Seven Stories Press), translated by Alison L. Strayer. “Considered by many to be the iconic French memoirist's defining work, The Years was a breakout bestseller when published in France in 2008, and is considered in French Studies departments in the US as a contemporary classic. The Years is a personal narrative of the period 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present—even projections into the future—photos, books, songs, radio, television and decades of advertising, headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and writing notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the times, slogans, brands and names for the ever-proliferating objects, are given voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges. Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective. On its 2008 publication in France, The Years came as a surprise. Though Ernaux had for years been hailed as a beloved, bestselling and award-winning author, The Years was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir ‘written’ by entire generations, and a story of generations telling a very personal story. Like the generation before hers, the narrator eschews the ‘I’ for the ‘we’ (or ‘they’, or ‘one’) as if collective life were inextricably intertwined with a private life that in her parents' generation ceased to exist. She writes of her parents' generation (and could be writing of her own book): ‘From a common fund of hunger and fear, everything was told in the ‘we’ and impersonal pronouns.’” 

“The Years is an earnest, fearless book, a Remembrance of Things Past for our age of media domination and consumerism, for our period of absolute commodity fetishism.” Edmund White, New York Times Book Review

Honoré de Balzac,The Memoirs of Two Young Wives (New York Review Books Classics), translated by Jordan Stump, Introduction by Morris Dickstein.

“Two very intelligent, very idealistic young women leave the convent school where they became the fastest of friends to return to their families and embark on their new lives. For Renée de Maucombe, this means an arranged marriage with a country gentleman of Provence, a fine if slightly dull man for whom she feels admiration but nothing more. Meanwhile, Louise de Chaulieu makes for her family’s house in Paris, intent on enjoying her freedom to the fullest: glittering balls, the opera, and above all, she devoutly hopes, the torments and ecstasies of true love and passion. What will come of these very different lives?

Despite Honoré de Balzac’s title, these aren’t memoirs; rather, this is an epistolary novel. For some ten years, these two will—enthusiastically if not always faithfully—keep up their correspondence, obeying their vow to tell each other every tiny detail of their strange new lives, comparing their destinies, defending and sometimes bemoaning their choices, detailing the many changes, personal and social, that they undergo. As Balzac writes, ‘Renée is reason. . . . Louise is wildness. . .  and both will lose.’ Balzac being Balzac, he seems to argue for the virtues of one of these lives over the other; but Balzac being Balzac, that argument remains profoundly ambiguous. ‘I would,’ he once wrote, ‘rather be killed by Louise than live a long life with Renée.’

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), one of the greatest and most influential of novelists, was born in Tours and educated at the Collège de Vendôme and the Sorbonne. He began his career as a pseudonymous writer of sensational potboilers before achieving success with a historical novel, The Chouans. Balzac then conceived his great work, La Comédie Humaine, an ongoing series of novels in which he set out to offer a complete picture of contemporary society and manners. Always working under an extraordinary burden of debt, Balzac wrote some eighty-five novels in the course of his last twenty years, including such masterpieces as Père Goriot, Eugénie Grandet, Lost Illusions, and Cousin Bette. In 1850, he married Eveline Hanska, a rich Polish woman with whom he had long conducted an intimate correspondence. Three months later he died.

Translator Jordan Stump is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln; the author, most recently, of The Other Book: Bewilderments of Fiction; and the translator of some twenty works of (mostly) contemporary French prose by authors such as Marie NDiaye, Éric Chevillard, Antoine Volodine, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint. His translation of Claude Simon’s The Jardin des Planteswon the French-American Foundation’s annual translation prize in 2001.

Morris Dickstein, who wrote the introduction, is a distinguished professor emeritus at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the author, most recently, of Dancing in the Dark, a Cultural

History of the Great Depression, and Why Not Say What Happened, a memoir.

“The 19th century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.” Oscar Wilde

“Balzac stands signally alone, he is the first and foremost member of his craft.  .  . . An imagination of the highest power, an unequalled intensity of vision. . . . What he did above all was to read the universe, as hard and as loud as he could, into the France of his time.” Henry James

“I have learned more [from Balzac] than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians put together.” Friedrich Engels

“In Balzac, every living soul is a weapon loaded to the very muzzle with will.” Charles Baudelaire

“Balzac was both a greedy child and an indefatigable observer of a greedy age, at once a fantastic and a genius, yet possessing a simple core of common sense.” V. S. Pritchett

“Balzac was by turns a saint, a criminal, an honest judge, a corrupt judge, a minister, a fob, a harlot, a duchess, and always a genius.” André Maurois

Henry Green,Doting (New York Review Books Classics), Introduction by Michael Gorra. “The last of Henry Green’s novels, is, as its title would suggest, a story of yearning and lusting and aging in which a wife and a brash young woman run hilarious circles around a hapless hardworking civil servant suddenly seized by long-dormant urges. Like its immediate predecessor, Nothing, it stands out from the rest of Green’s work in its brilliant, experimental use of dialogue. Green was fascinated with the extravagance, ambiguity, absurdity, and unintentional implications and consequences of everyday human communication, and in Doting language slips and slides the better to reveal the absurdity and persistence of love and desire, exciting laughter while troubling the heart.”

“The intelligence, the blazing gifts of imagery, dialogue, construction, and form, the power to feel both what can and what never can be said, give Henry Green’s work an intensity greater . . . than that of any other writer of imaginative fiction today. . . . His remains the most interesting and vital imagination in English fiction in our time.” Eudora Welty

Henry Green’s, Nothing (New York Review Books Classics), Introduction by Francine Prose, “like the closely related Doting, is a book that is almost entirely composed in dialogue, since in these late novels nothing so interested Green as how words resist, twist, and expose our intentions; how they fail us, lead us on, make fools of us, and may, in spite of ourselves, even save us, at least for a time. Nothing spills over with the bizarre and delicious comedy and poetry of human incoherence.”

“Nothing and Doting. . . actually display something close to old-fashioned formal perfection.” Charles McGrath, The New York Times Book Review

Henry Green’s, Blindness( New York Review Classics), Introduction by Daniel Mendelsohn. “Blindness, Henry Green’s first novel, begun while he was still at Eton and finished before he left university, began his career as a master of British modernism. It is the story of John Haye, a young student with literary airs. It starts with an excerpt from his diary, brimming with excitement and affectation and curiosity about life and literature. Then a freak accident robs John of his sight, plunging him into despair. Forced to live with his high-handed, horsey stepmother in the country, John begins a weird dalliance with a girl named Joan, leading to a new determination. Blindness is the curse of youth and inexperience and love and ambition, but blindness, John will discover, can also be the source of vision.”

I found Peter Wolfe’s Henry Green: Havoc in the House of Fiction (McFarland) very illuminating as a guide to Henry Green’s novels. Peter Wolfe is a Curators' Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The author of more than 20 books, he has also taught in Canada, New Zealand, Taiwan, Russia, Poland, and Australia. 

“By mid-career, many successful writers have found a groove and their readers come to expect a familiar consistency and fidelity. Not so with Henry Green (1905-1973). He prefers uncertainty over reason and fragmentation over cohesion, and rarely lets the reader settle into a nice cozy read. Evil, he suggests, can be as instructive as good. Through Green's use of paradoxical and ambiguous language, his novels bring texture to the flatness of life, making the world seem bigger and closer. We soon stop worrying about what Hitler's bombs have in store for the Londoners of Caught (1943) and Back (1946) and start thinking about what they have in store for each other. Praised in his lifetime as England's top fiction author, Green is largely overlooked today. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of his work for a new generation of readers.”

Notes, bibliography, index.

David Szalay’s London and the South-East: A Novel (Graywolf Press), “which won the Betty Trask Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, is both a gloriously told shaggy-dog story about the compromising inanities of office life and consumer culture, and the perfect introduction to one of the best writers at work today. Paul Rainey, the hapless antihero at the center of this “compulsively readable” (Independent on Sunday) story works, miserably, in ad sales. He sells space in magazines that hardly exist, and through a fog of booze and drugs dimly perceives that he is dissatisfied with his life―professionally, sexually, recreationally, the whole nine yards. If only there were something he could do about it―and “something” seems to fall into his lap when a meeting with an old friend and fellow salesman, Eddy Jaw, leads to the offer of a new job. But when that offer turns out to be as misleading as Paul’s own sales patter, his life is transformed in ways very much more peculiar than he ever thought possible.”

“[A] dark, antic satire. . . . Szalay is a barbed observer of office life, and his study is most scathing when inspecting the perils of extracting self-worth from work.” Dwight Garner, The New Yorker

“Watch for many twists and turns in this fiendishly plotted page-turner.” Library Journal

David Szalay’s Spring: A Novel (Graywolf Press) “explores the complex worlds of love and money, each with their surprises and vicissitudes. This novel made me feel in the best way that I was eavesdropping on a series of fascinating conversations. An insightful portrait of contemporary England.” Margot Livesey, author of eight novels, numerous short stories, and essays on the craft of writing fiction.

“David Szalay builds a novel of immense resonance as he cycles though perspectives that add layers of depth to the hesitations, missteps, and tensions as [the protagonist] James tries to win Katherine. James's other pursuit is money, and Spring follows his investments and schemes, from a half share in a thoroughbred to a suit-and-tie day job he's taken to pay the bills. Spring is a sharply tuned novel so nuanced and precise in its psychology that it establishes Szalay as a major talent.”

David Szalay’s All That Man Is: A Novel (Graywolf Press) is “A magnificent and ambitiously conceived portrait of contemporary life, by a genius of realism. All That Man Is traces the arc of life from the spring of youth to the winter of old age by following nine men who range from the working-class ex-grunt to the pompous college student, the middle-aged loser to the Russian oligarch. Ludicrous and inarticulate, shocking and despicable, vital, pitiable, and hilarious, these men paint a picture of modern manhood. David Szalay is a master of a new kind of realism that vibrates with detail, intelligence, relevance, and devastating pathos. In All That Man Is, a Man Booker Prize finalist and the winner of the Gordon Burn Prize and the Plimpton Prize, he brilliantly illuminates the physical and emotional terrain of an increasingly globalized Europe.”

“Szalay’s prose . . . is frequently brilliant, remarkable for its grace and economy . . . [,em>All That Man Is] has a new urgency now that the post-Cold War dream of a Europe of open borders and broad, shared identity has come under increasing question.” Garth Greenwell, The New York Times Book Review

 Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach: A Novel (Scribner) “’makes you forget you’re reading historical fiction at all’ (Elle) and takes us into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men in a dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world.”

Jennifer Egan is the author of five previous books of fiction, including A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. 

“A magnificent achievement, at once a suspenseful noir intrigue and a transporting work of lyrical beauty and emotional heft.” The Boston Globe.

John Banville, Mrs. Osmond: A Novel( Vintage; Reprint). If you’ve always wondered what happened to Mrs. Osmond (née Isabel Archer, heroine of Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady), this is your cup of (English) tea, John Banville’s cloning of the young American woman who took up residence in Italy with one of the singular villains of English literature. “In Mrs. Osmond, John Banville continues the story of Isabel Archer, the young protagonist of Henry James’s beloved The Portrait of a Lady. Eager but naïve, in James’s novel Isabel comes into a large, unforeseen inheritance and marries the charming, penniless, and—as Isabel finds out too late—cruel and deceitful Gilbert Osmond. Here Banville imagines Isabel’s second chapter telling the story of a woman reawakened by grief and the knowledge that she has been grievously wronged, and determined to resume her quest for freedom and independence. A masterly novel of betrayal, corruption, and moral ambiguity, Mrs. Osmond would have thrilled James himself.’

“Banville’s ability to channel James’s style and prose rhythms is astonishing. I can’t imagine anyone who could have done it better.” Jeffrey Eugenides, The New York Times Book Review

Zachary Mason’s, Metamorphica: Fiction (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “transforms Ovid’s epic poem of endless transformation. It reimagines the stories of Narcissus, Pygmalion and Galatea, Midas and Atalanta, and strings them together like the stars in constellations―even Ovid becomes a story. It’s as though the ancient mythologies had been rewritten by Borges or Calvino; Metamorphica is an archipelago in which to linger for a while; it reflects a little light from the morning of the world.”

“Metamorphica is a joy of a book. Mason understands beautifully that traditions are most powerful in their reinvention. Beyond their tremendous lyricism and admirable control, these retellings of Mediterranean myth offer the truest pleasure of all fiction, its immense possibility. Metamorphica brims with imagination and an astonishing empathy that reminds us that even the most ancient of legends can feel urgent to us today, if only we would just listen.” Kanish Tharoor, author of Swimmer Among the Stars.

Maria Dahvana Headley’s The Mere Wife: A Novel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothers―a housewife and a battle-hardened veteran―fight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife. From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildings―high and gabled―and the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outside―in lawns and on playgrounds―wildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall’s periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinner parties, always with her son, Dylan, in tow. Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains just beyond the limits of Herot Hall lives Gren, short for Grendel, as well as his mother, Dana, a former soldier who gave birth as if by chance. Dana didn’t want Gren, didn’t plan Gren, and doesn’t know how she got Gren, but when she returned from war, there he was. When Gren, unaware of the borders erected to keep him at bay, ventures into Herot Hall and runs off with Dylan, Dana’s and Willa’s worlds collide.”

“So: I loved The Mere Wifeand I bet lots of other people will too . . . Everyone should read The Mere Wife. It's a wonderfully unexpected dark/funny/lyrical/angry retelling of Beowulf; what's not to like?” Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey.

“Smart, tough modern flip of Beowulf, told through Grendel's mother.” Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale.

I much enjoyed Debbie Burke’s Glissando: A story of love, lust and jazz( Waldorf Publishing). “Sharp-witted paralegal Ellie Greenberg has a dynamite career at a law firm in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Happily divorced, in the middle years of her life and trying to keep all her plates spinning in the air, she decompresses from the demands of her career by joining the jazz scene at a local college. The instant she sees the very-married new soloist, trumpet player Vincent Keyes, she's speared directly in the heart by Cupid's arrow. Unfortunately, Ellie has also walked straight into the romantic cross-hairs of ace lawyer Stan Feldman. Ellie tries to gain her footing in the emotional tornado, where the ride is thrilling but ultimately unsustainable. She agonizes over choosing between the two men...or changing her life completely.”

“Glissandois fun and feels very real. Ms. Burke knows her stuff.” Michael Levin, New York Times best-selling author and CEO of Business Ghost Inc.

 “A supreme jazz love story that swings with a deep appreciation for the music and its practitioners.” Lezlie Harrison, vocalist and radio announcer at WBGO-FM.

Cyrus Manasseh,The Lead Guitarist (Independently published/Available on Amazon) is a splendid coming-of-age saga in the pop music world. “In London, in the vibrant 1990s some young musicians led by a lead guitarist and his brother head for stardom playing a popular kind of music. However, after they find a relative amount of success, Alex, the lead guitarist discovers that the path he had chosen and had always wanted for himself was not what he wanted for some reason and decides to head off in a different direction.”

Cyrus Manasseh is a novelist, essayist, philosopher, historian, editor and was a musician before he also took up writing. He teaches in universities and privately as a higher education consultant. He is an international scholar and has presented his ideas in a number of countries. Professor Cyrus Manasseh Ph.D. is also a Freelance Researcher and author of books The Lead Guitarist; The Island Library; and The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum 1968-90. He is also author of numerous essays and scientific articles in the field of art history, film, architecture, video, museums, evolving media and theatre-drama. He has presented his research at international academic forums which include those in London, Sydney, Perth, Venice, Prague, and Harvard, where he was session chair, and has lectured and has taught extensively in Australian Universities. He was a finalist for the International Award for Excellence in the Constructed Environment Journal Writers Award Annual Prize for the academic essay “An Inquiry into the Design and the Aesthetics of the Venice Biennale Pavilions and Film.” His novel The Lead Guitarist is currently published here on Amazon. His website is at https://drcyrusmanasseh.academia.edu/

I received, respectively, as Father’s Day and 88th Birthday gifts from my son’s Sutton and Neale, two splendid Library of America collections: Sarah Orne Jewett,Novels and Stories and Wendell Berry, Port William Novels & Stories. And from my daughter-in-law Amy Peter Taylor, Complete Stories 1960-1992 (Library of America). I have much enjoyed dipping into them.

“In her nuanced and sharply etched novels and short stories,Sarah Orne Jewett captured the inner life and hidden emotional drama of outwardly quiet New England coastal towns. Set against the background of long Maine winters, hardscrabble farms, and the sea, her stories of independent, capable women struggling to find fulfillment in their lives and work have a surprisingly modern resonance.”

“For more than fifty years, in eight novels and forty two short stories, Wendell Berry has created an indelible portrait of rural America through the lens of Port William, Kentucky, one of the most fully imagined places in American literature. Taken together, these novels and stories form a masterwork of American prose: straightforward, spare, and lyrical.”

“Born and raised in Tennessee, Peter Taylor was the great chronicler of the American Upper South, capturing its gossip and secrets, its divided loyalties and morally complicated legacies in tales of pure-distilled brilliance. Now, for his centennial year, the Library of America and acclaimed short story writer Ann Beattie present an unprecedented two-volume edition of Taylor’s complete short fiction, all fifty-nine of the stories published in his lifetime in the order in which they were composed.” (I immediately ordered Volume 1, Peter Taylor: Complete Stories 1938-1959.)

Harry Mathews’ The Solitary Twin (New Directions) “is an engaging mystery that simultaneously considers the art of storytelling. When identical twins arrive at an unnamed fishing port, they become the focus of the residents' attention and gossip. The stories they tell about the young men uncover a dizzying web of connections, revealing passion, sex, and murder. Fates are surprisingly intertwined, and the result is a moving, often hilarious, novel that questions our assumptions about life and literature.” 

Harry Mathews (1930–2017) was born in New York. A founding editor of the literary journal Locus Solus, he wrote novels, poetry, short fiction, essays, and translations from the French. His many books include Cigarettes(1987), The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium(1999), and The Human Country(2002).

“The Solitary Twinis the perfect endnote for Harry Mathews and a superb point of entry for new readers, encapsulating his lifelong commitment to formal invention while simply being an excellent novel in its own right.” J.W. McCormack, BOMB Magazine

Helen DeWitt’sSome Trick: Thirteen Stories (New Directions) is “a baker’s dozen of stories all with Helen DeWitt’s razor-sharp genius. For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a reader as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success. ‘Look,’ a character begins to explain, laying out some gambit reasonably enough, even if facing a world of boomeranging counterfactuals, situations spinning out to their utmost logical extremes, and Rube Goldberg-like moving parts, where things prove ‘more complicated than they had first appeared’ and ‘at 3 a.m. the circumstances seem to attenuate.’ In various ways, each tale carries DeWitt’s signature poker-face lament regarding the near-impossibility of the life of the mind when one is made to pay to have the time for it, in a world so sadly ‘taken up with all sorts of paraphernalia superfluous, not to say impedimental, to ratiocination.’”

“If there's any author bookish types trust to take them down the twistiest of rabbit holes with humor and winking unpredictability, Helen DeWitt is it. Take the plunge with these 13 short stories.” Elle Magazine

Clarice Lispector’sThe Chandelier (New Directions), translated by Benjamin Moser and Magdalena Edwards. “Fresh from the enormous success of her debut novel Near to the Wild Heart, Hurricane Clarice let loose something stormier with The Chandelier. In a body of work renowned for its potent idiosyncratic genius, The Chandelierin many ways has pride of place. ‘It stands out,’ her biographer Benjamin Moser noted, ‘in a strange and difficult body of work, as perhaps her strangest and most difficult book.’ Of glacial intensity, consisting almost entirely of interior monologues―interrupted by odd and jarring fragments of dialogue and action―the novel moves in slow waves that crest in moments of revelation. As Virginia seeks freedom via creation, the drama of her isolated life is almost entirely internal: from childhood, she sculpts clay figurines with ‘the best clay one could desire: white, supple, sticky, cold. She got a clear and tender material from which she could shape a world. How, how to explain the miracle.’ While on one level simply the story of a woman’s life, The Chandelier’sreal drama lies in Lispector’s attempt ‘to find the nucleus made of a single instant . . . the tenuous triumph and the defeat, perhaps nothing more than breathing.’ The Chandelier pushes Lispector’s lifelong quest for that nucleus into deeper territories than any of her other amazing works.”

“It's a shaggy stop-motion masterpiece, plotless and argument-less and obsessed with the nature of thought. . . . Every page vibrates with feeling. It's not enough to say that Lispector bends language, or uses words in new ways. Plenty of modernists do that. No one else writes prose this rich.” Lily Meyer, NPR

Rachel Cusk, Kudos: A Novel (Outline Trilogy) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). “In this conclusion to her groundbreaking trilogy, Cusk unflinchingly explores the nature of family and art, justice and love, and the ultimate value of suffering. She is without question one of our most important living writers.”

“Precise and haunting . . . Unforgettable.” Jenny Offill, The New York Times

“[Cusk] has achieved something both radical and beautiful . . . . [Kudosis] a book about failure that is not, in itself, a failure. In fact, it is a breathtaking success.” Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

Nathaniel Rich’sKing Zeno: A Novel (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “is a historical crime novel and a searching inquiry into man’s dreams of immortality. New Orleans, a century ago: a city determined to reshape its destiny and, with it, the nation’s. Downtown, a new American music is born. In Storyville, prostitution is outlawed and the police retake the streets with maximum violence. In the Ninth Ward, laborers break ground on a gigantic canal that will split the city, a work of staggering human ingenuity intended to restore New Orleans’s faded mercantile glory. The war is ending and a prosperous new age dawns. But everything is thrown into chaos by a series of murders committed by an ax-wielding maniac with a peculiar taste in music.”

“The novel, like a city, somehow coheres, as Rich never loses control of the riotous raw material . . . Rich is a gifted portraitist of his three main characters . . . This is a novel with a high body count, but it has far too much energy ever to feel morbid." Chris Bachelder, The New York Times Book Review

“Has anyone written the Great Novel of New Orleans? If not, Nathaniel Rich’s sprawling, funny, tragic, generous new work, King Zeno, comes close. It reminded this reviewer of John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy, with its clever melding of real and fictional events, its snippets of newspaper articles, and astonishingly memorable characters . . . . King Zenois the New Orleans novel we’ve been waiting for.” Arlene McKanic, BookPage

I can’t wait to read the following six books to my grandchildren, now six and eight. 

Franz Brandenberg’sI Wish I Was Sick, Too! (New York Review Children's Collection), illustrated by Aliki, is “A sweet tale about kindness, jealousy, and fairness perfect for reading when a child is sick or well. Edward is sick and Elizabeth is well, and nothing could be more unfair! Edward gets to stay in bed and everyone treats him like a prince. Elizabeth has to get out of bed, get dressed, go to school, come home and do chores, finish her homework and practice the piano. ‘I wish I was sick too!’ Elizabeth complains, and soon, to her dawning dismay, her wish is granted. Jealousy and kindness, fairness and responsibility, the passionate complaints and pleasures of childhood are well represented here by a close-knit and surprisingly intellectual cat family, drawn with good humor and sympathy by the illustrator-author couple, Aliki and Franz Brandenberg. The perfect book to read when you're sick, or when you're well and wish you were sick too.”

Doris Fisher,Jackson Sundown: Native American Bronco Buster, illustrations by Sarah Cotton (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.). “When the U.S. Army Calvary attacked the Nez Perce tribe, Jackson Sundown’s trick riding allowed him to escape. For years afterwards he lived a quiet life, until at the age of 49 he entered his first rodeo. His performance was captivating and the crowds loved him! Sundown dreamed of winning first place at a bronc championship―a feat never accomplished by a Native American. Will he win? Find out in this thrilling biography for young readers. Follow Jackson Sundown on his journey from trick-riding at rodeos to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His courageous story, told in vibrant illustrations, will inspire children to overcome obstacles on the way to their dream!”

Mark Weakland,The West End Treehouse Mystery (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.). “In pursuit of ‘the world’s most awesome tree house,’ best friends Matt and Jerry spend the summer after sixth grade hauling wood up the hillside of their Pennsylvania hometown. The boys’ freedom is tempered by trying to avoid the attention of Trio Diablo, a menacing gang of teenagers. Their summer soon changes when they venture into the hollow on the other side of the hill. The friends stumble upon a sinister witch and her raving captive―but everything is not as it seems! An unsettling discovery forces Matt and Jerry to confront serious adult issues and even real danger. The boys navigate difficult situations and learn to face fear and change in this coming-of-age tale.”

Laurie Knowlton, Monster Cake, illustrations by Chase Jense (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.). “Mariah’s baking a cake for some monsters, and the measurements are all messed up. Who knew that 2 half cups equal 1 whole cup! Mariah is so confused. Does 30 minutes really equal a half of an hour? Brennan tries to help her figure it all out, smirking all the way, but the monsters will be coming over soon! Quick, bake that cake! Soon the cake is finished, smelling perfectly boggish, just like Mariah wanted . . . But, wait, Brennan wonders, why are monsters coming over anyway?

This extra special and delightfully silly story teaches children fractions in a fun, exciting way, all while showing the special power of friendship and the funny way perspective can be skewed. An action packed and sweet tasting activity is included at the end of the story so all little ‘monsters’ can bake along!”

Charles Dickens and Tess Newall, A Guinea Pig Christmas Carol(Guinea Pig Classics)(Bloomsbury Publishing). “The ultimate and timeless Christmas story, with cuddly guinea pigs in the starring roles! Miserable to the core and wholly unwilling to extend a paw to help those in desperate need, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge says ‘bah, Humbug!’ to the festive season. But one night he is visited by three Christmas Spirits who take him on a journey through time, so he can see the error of his ways and learn the true meaning of Christmas. This is Charles Dickens's joyful Christmas tale, retold in an entirely new way.”

Paul Many,Dinomorphosis, illustrations by Stan Jaskiel (Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.). “When Gregory wakes up in the body of a dinosaur on the morning of his big class presentation, he's worried. He's scheduled to talk about the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and he's practiced all week so he won't be scared in front of the class. But he didn't plan for this! As soon as Gregory gets out of bed, everything starts to go wrong. He accidentally spills the orange juice with his clumsy tail, forgets his diorama, and can only speak in ROAR. What will he do when his favorite teacher, Mrs. Anning, calls on him to present his project? In this loose adaptation of the literary classic by Franz Kafka, author Paul Many encourages children not to give up when things get scary. Stan Jaskiel's humorous illustrations show Gregory adapting to his startling new reality and, once he has, how everything changes!”

Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (William Morrow) “masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and newhistory of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaursis a book for the ages. Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. Rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth’s history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a ‘sixth extinction.’

Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research—which he calls “a new golden age of discovery”—and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China. An electrifying scientific history that unearths the dinosaurs’ epic saga, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs will be a definitive and treasured account for decades to come.”

“A masterpiece of science writing.” Washington Post

“The ultimate dinosaur biography. Riveting.” Scientific American

Photographs, notes, index.

David Bainbridge’s Stripped Bare: The Art of Animal Anatomy (Princeton University Press) “brings together some of the most arresting images ever produced, from the earliest studies of animal form to the technicolor art of computer-generated anatomies. David Bainbridge draws on representative illustrations from different eras to discuss the philosophical, scientific, and artistic milieus from which they emerged. He vividly describes the unique aesthetics of each phase of anatomical endeavor, providing new insights into the exquisite anatomical drawings of Leonardo and Albrecht Dürer in the era before printing, Jean Héroard’s cutting and cataloging of the horse during the age of Louis XIII, the exotic pictorial menageries of the Comte de Buffon in the eighteenth century, anatomical illustrations from Charles Darwin’s voyages, the lavish symmetries of Ernst Haeckel’s prints, and much, much more. Featuring a wealth of breathtaking color illustrations throughout, Stripped Bare is a panoramic tour of the intricacies of vertebrate life as well as an expansive history of the peculiar and beautiful ways humans have attempted to study and understand the natural world. For more than two thousand years, comparative anatomy―the study of anatomical variation among different animal species―has been used to make arguments in natural philosophy, reinforce religious dogma, and remind us of our own mortality. This stunningly illustrated compendium traces the intertwined intellectual and artistic histories of comparative anatomy from antiquity to today.”

David Bainbridge is University Clinical Veterinary Anatomist at the University of Cambridge. His books include Curvology: The Origins and Power of Female Body Shape and Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey through Your Brain.

Illustrations, index.

Jaron Lanier,Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (Henry Holt and Co.). “Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms. Lanier’s reasons for freeing ourselves from social media’s poisonous grip include its tendency to bring out the worst in us, to make politics terrifying, to trick us with illusions of popularity and success, to twist our relationship with the truth, to disconnect us from other people even as we are more “connected” than ever, to rob us of our free will with relentless targeted ads. How can we remain autonomous in a world where we are under continual surveillance and are constantly being prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history that have no way of making money other than being paid to manipulate our behavior? How could the benefits of social media possibly outweigh the catastrophic losses to our personal dignity, happiness, and freedom? Lanier remains a tech optimist, so while demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us toward a richer and fuller way of living and connecting with our world.” 

W. Royal Stokes, a novelist and a former professor of Greek and Latin languages and literature and ancient history, was the 2014 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award. He has been observing the jazz, blues, and popular music worlds since the early 1940s.  He was editor of Jazz Notes (the quarterly journal of the Jazz Journalists Association) from 1992 to 2001, was Program Director of WGTB-FM (D.C.) in the 1970s, and has participated in the annual Down Beat Critics Poll since the 1980s. He hosted his weekly programs “I thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say  . . . .” andSince Minton’s on public radio in the 1970s and ’80s. He has been the Washington Post's jazz critic and editor of JazzTimes and is author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990; Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson; Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers in Jazz; and Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers. His trilogy of novels Backwards Over was published in 2017 and his The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Readerwill see print in early 2019. Publications he has written for, in addition to the Washington Post and JazzTimes, include Down Beat, Mississippi Rag, Jazz Notes,JazzHouse.org, and JJA News. A founding member of the JJA, he authored, for JJA News, “The Jazz Journalists Association: A 25-Year Retrospective” (http://news.jazzjournalists.org/2013/06/the-jazz-journalists-association-a-25-year-retrospective/). He is currently at work on a memoir.  

A World War Two Home Front Story

Short of staff because of the war as the summer of 1943 commenced, Maryland’s Gibson Island Club (Gibson Island was connected to the mainland by a tenth-of-a-mile causeway) had so far made no plans to open either the food concession or the men’s and women’s bathhouses at the Point (the swimming area at the juncture of the Chesapeake Bay and Magothy River). Nelson Stinchcomb, my father’s age and in a middle management position at the Club, conceived the idea of hiring this thirteen-year- old as bathhouse attendant. Nelson, I should clarify, was my mentor and an especially simpatico adult. Of all those on the Gibson Island Club staff whom I came into contact with as an employee, he was by far my favorite. His son Tommy, my older brother Turner’s age, daily rode the school bus with us.

Upon completion of my 10-mile newspaper route, two hours by bicycle, I would arrive at the Point and open at 10 a.m. I would sweep both the men’s and the women’s units, clean the basins and toilets, and, as patrons arrived, hand out towels, assign lockers, and receive payment. I would close at 6 p.m. Bookish youngster that I was, I reveled in the opportunity to sit and read paperback detective novels and non-fiction on the war.

One day toward the end of that 1943 summer a photographer from the Baltimore American newspaper turned up at the Point and shot photographs of family dog Handy and me, one of which was included in a Sunday, August 22, spread on Gibson Island’s wartime activities (Victory Gardens, in particular) in the paper’s Smart Set Magazine. The caption to my photo read, “The youngsters have been as busy as the grown-ups most of the time—but youth needs some relaxation and so Royal and Handy, his canine companion, took a little time off for a romp on the beach.” No reference was made to my role as attendant of the bathhouse in the background of the photograph.

My bathhouse attendant pay was twenty-five cents an hour; my paper route paid me $5 a week. The seven-day, 70-hour workweek netted me $19 (I got a Social Security card but was too young for a Work Permit and so my pay was off-the-books and thus untaxed), most of which was banked in a savings account. Some of it was spent on 78rpm jazz and blues records. I also bought two sets of drums, the first in 1944 for $15 from my Glen Burnie High School classmate Russell Maisel (who gave them up), the second in 1945 for $75 from Avery Faulkner (who took up trumpet), older brother of my friend Winnie. (By multiplying my weekly take-home pay by 13.4, an accepted conversion figure, one arrives, in today’s dollars, at $255 a week, or $3.65 an hour, about 40% of today’s minimum wage in Maryland, $9.25 per hour.)

In a letter of the summer of 1943 to my brother Billy, who had enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January and was stationed at the Bainbridge Naval Base, Maryland, my mother writes, “Turner and Royal are working hard and we don’t see much of them,” assuring Billy, “Royal is lending you the six dollars,” and adding, “Don’t be careless with your money. You had better bring your bond home before something happens to it.” 

Tony Pringle (1936-2018) and the New Black Eagle Jazz Band: A Review and a Remembrance

New Black Eagle Jazz Band, The Last Of The First: A Memorial Concert For Chester Zardis, New Orleans Bassist 1900–1990 (Black Eagle)

New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Goin' to New Orleans (Black Eagle)

The video footage of the DVD The Last Of The First is from a November 1990 concert at the Rhode Island School of Design. It featured, along with regular members of the band Tony Pringle, Stan Vincent, Eli Newberger, Bob Pilsbury, Peter Bullis, and Pam Pameijer, special guests Danny Barker, Tommy Sancton, Brian Ogilvie, and remarks by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. The DVD well captures the live concert feeling, 108 minutes of music and talking.

The original plan for the concert was to include Chester Zardis but, as Tony explains in the DVD’s liner notes, “Sadly though, and not long before the concert, Chester passed away and the planned event became a memorial concert for him.”

At some point during The Last Of The First, cornetist and leader Tony Pringle observes, “It’s somewhat impromptu,” and indeed that characterizes this slightly informal, and delightful, tribute to the pioneer jazz bassist Chester Zardis, whose career spanned seven and a half decades. From the mid- 1960s, he was a mainstay at Preservation Hall and toured the world with one or another of its bands. The audience, frequently zoomed in on by one of the RISD Film & Video Department cameras, was clearly captivated by the lively music and charmed by the good time the musicians were obviously having. Scratching his head as the band awaits his announcement of the next tune, which for a moment he cannot recall the title of, Tony alludes to the “very fine wine.”

It was wonderful to receive a review copy of the DVD, for it brought to mind the many times I had seen the band perform. It was also a heartfelt reminder of its late leader, cornetist Tony Pringle. Clarinetist and saxophonist Billy Novick, with the band this past quarter of a century, sent out an email to the band’s e-list:

I have very sad news to deliver—somewhat devastating to the Black Eagles’ musical family. Tony Pringle, our musical leader and cornet player, passed away last Thursday, May 3rd, due to complications from heart surgery. Even though he'd been in the hospital for six weeks in a very compromised physical condition, it was still shocking to us.

Tony had expressed numerous times that he would want the band to keep going if he ever stopped playing, and that we should continue to perform the soulful and uncompromising style of New Orleans jazz that he helped create. We fully intend to do that, for many reasons, not the least of which would be honoring his spirit.

I look forward to sharing brighter news with you sometime soon. In the meantime, thanks for all of your support over the years. We hope to see you at some of our performances in the near future.

The double CD Goin' to New Orleans is of previously unreleased concert material from Holland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, California, and New Hampshire, 1989-2013. The band is of the regular members as listed above with, on some numbers, bassists Barry Bockus or Jesse Williams replacing Newberger and Bill Reynolds in place of Pameijer. Especially gratifying to me is the rendition of “Deep Henderson,” a favorite of mine that I had long awaited a reprise of from the band’s version on their 2000 Hear Me Talkin’ to Ya.

My experience of the New Black Eagle Jazz Band began in the 1970s with their earliest recordings, which I frequently played on my WGTB-FM radio show “I thought I heard Buddy Bolden say . . . .” I wrote the liner note for the NBEJB’s 25th Anniversary CD Skeletons in the Closet. I interviewed Tony Pringle both for it and for my 1991 The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990 (Oxford University Press).

One of my most memorable exposures to the band was in the spring of 1975 when I took the Traditional Jazz Band of São Paulo, Brazil on a three-week tour of the eastern U. S.—my only ever entrepreneurial effort vis-à-vis jazz—and we shared an evening with the NBEJB at the Sticky Wicket Pub in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Upon learning of Tony Pringle’s death, TJB leader and multi-reed player Tito Martino emailed me from São Paulo that he well remembered the gig and that he would never forget Tony Pringle. Upon Tony’ death, The Syncopated Times wrote, “He was the best musical import America ever received from Liverpool. . . . In 1969 he joined The Black Eagle Jazz Band, led by Tommy Sancton. . . . The Black Eagles separated after a final performance at the 1971 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Soon after, a group of former Eagles began appearing as the Boston Bayou Jazz Band. With some additions they would become the New Black Eagle Jazz Band.” (The full obituary plus “Getting Started in Jazz,” an autobiographical essay by Tony Pringle, and a thrilling video of the NBEJB playing “Nothing Blues” is at https://syncopatedtimes.com/tony-pringle- obituary/)

And the rest, as they say, is history, for the New Black Eagle Jazz Band became one of the best known and most respected traditional jazz bands, here and abroad. It recorded forty or so albums and played all over the world at festivals and concert halls, often with historic figures of jazz. The band has had only limited personnel changes in its nearly half-century of activity.

Tony’s friend Ron L’Herault, quoted in The Syncopated Times, said it well:

From the first moment I heard Tony play, I knew I was in the presence of a great horn player. And as I listened to the New Black Eagle Jazz Band more and more, I came to realize that he was an equally gifted leader of the band. He could build incredible excitement without increasing volume, altering tempo, or changing key. By the time he piloted the band to the out chorus, the audience, me included, were about ready to burst with joy. I’ve never heard anyone else do what he did. 

Amen!

Born to Be Blue: Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker

Born to be Blue, a Canadian film directed by Robert Budreau, with Ethan Hawke as jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (1929-1988)

I was introduced to jazz and blues in my teens in the early 1940s via half a dozen 78RPM boogie-woogie records left behind by my older brother Billy, who had joined the WW II U. S. Navy. By 1947, age seventeen, I had amassed a collection of some 500 discs, in the process widening my musical tastes— from Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons, and other classic boogie woogie pianists, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, Bix Beiderbecke, the Chicago and New York scenes of Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell, and Wild Bill Davison, and the 1940s New Orleans Revival —to include Swing Era big bands and combos, Art Tatum, the Nat King Cole Trio, and Jazz at the Philharmonic, which had in its ranks Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and other pioneers of bebop. At some point in the early 1950s, I became aware of and began to like the West Coast Cool Jazz of Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, and Chet Baker.

Over the years, I caught in action some of those alluded to above—e.g., Pops, The Fatha, some members of the Condon Gang, Dizzy, Gerry, Dave— but three decades would go by before I found myself at a performance of Chet Baker, in 1981, several years after I had become the Washington Post’s jazz writer. 

Arriving in time to review the 10 p.m. first set (we reviewers had to meet a 1 a.m. deadline—in this pre-cell-phone era, I called my 200 or so words in from a pay phone), I jotted down some first impressions and then, upon his arrival, assessed Chet Baker’s performance.

“It was all sixes and sevens at the One Step Down Friday night as, first, a substitute bassist arrived unheralded and then word came that a missed train connection in New York had delayed the headliner, trumpeter Chet Baker. But it was worth the wait when the former Gerry Mulligan sideman finally mounted the bandstand ’round about midnight on ‘Broken Wing,’ a brooding instrumental on which he stayed in the lower ranges of his horn, with bassist Tommy Cecil and pianist Armen Donelian.” I went on to observe that Chet played “softly down in the darker octaves, only occasionally ascending for brief flurries of bright notes executed with speed and precision. His singing, largely scatting, as on ‘Just Friends,’ was light and airy, as against his somber and haunting horn. The combination was an effective balance of optimism and despair.”

Chet Baker had not much been on my mind since then when, a year or so ago, I was reading, with much enjoyment, Elvis Costello’s autobiography Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (Blue Rider Press) and came upon the author’s encounter with Chet, in 1983. Costello wanted a trumpet solo for “Shipbuilding” on his album Punch the Clock. As it turned out, Chet, whom Costello had never before met (and Chet had never heard of him), had a gig at the Canteen, “a rather unpromising venue in Covent Gardens,” so Costello dropped by and between sets asked Chet if he could record a solo. Prepared to pay “anything he wanted,” Costello asked what he would charge and was astonished to be told, “Oh, scale.” He offered double scale and Chet agreed to cut the solo that week. “Chet then asked me those things that junkies ask near strangers. When I told him I had no such intelligence, those matters were never spoken between us again.”

Another connection with Chet was my meeting William Claxton (1927-2008), who shot iconic photographs of Chet in the 1950s. Bill and I met in 1999 at his Govinda Gallery, D.C., book signing, at which we traded inscribed copies of my Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson for his Jazz Seen. He wrote me a few weeks later, saying, “Dear, Royal, I finally got around to really reading your book. What a terrific piece of jazz history. Although most of the bands were a bit before my time, it truly is the era that I enjoy most . . . the entire big band scene . . . . I’m envious of you and this great book. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. My book seems boring by comparison!” Okay, that’s not much of a connection. I just wanted to ensure that Bill’s nice words of praise saw permanence.

Born to be Blue with Ethan Hawke as jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (1929-1988) is a Canadian film directed by Robert Budreau, who has made some award-winning short films. Described as a re-imagining of Baker's musical comeback in the late-1960s, the film thus takes place a decade and a half before I caught him at the One Step Down.

The film makes many good uses of flashbacks, for example, from a gig in New York (organized for him by Dizzy Gillespie) to a 1954 scene at Birdland (Miles Davis back then advising Baker to “go back to the beach”). With both Dizzy and Miles in the audience at the later gig (which in reality was at the Half Note, not the film’s Birdland), Chet says to himself, “Hello, Dizzy, hello, Miles. There’s a little white cat on the West Coast gonna eat you up.”

I was moved by the film’s inexorable decline from an insistently proclaimed (by the trumpeter and his management) “clean” Chet on methadone to his inevitable and repeated return to the needle for the real thing. There are many forceful, even gripping, scenes, for instance, a 1960s drug-related street beating that so damaged his mouth and teeth that it deprived him of his embouchure (until he mastered playing with upper dentures), with Jane (Carmen Ejogo as a composite for Baker’s many women) looking on, in horrified helplessness.
Although far from a happy story, Born to Be Blue is, in the words of Australian critic Tony Mitchell, “a welcome reminder of the subtle, muted power of a man who was called the James Dean of jazz.”

Still a junkie living from one fix to the next, Chet Baker spent the final several decades of his life wandering Europe, playing and recording there, only occasionally visiting the U.S. for gigs. French writer Philippe Adler wrote, in 1988, “The European public is stricken with a profound sensitive and respectful love for this eternal wanderer, this voyager without any baggage except his trumpet case.”

In 1988, the 1950s jazz star was found dead in the street below his Amsterdam hotel window. Baker biographer (Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, 2002) James Gavin speculates that Baker was high on dope and took his own life, “opening a window and letting death come to him,” dying “willfully of a broken heart.”