Illinois Press Book Blog

The Southern Illinoisan reported over the weekend that Under These Same Stars, an adaptation of Carl Ekberg’s recent book Stealing Indian Women, is being filmed in Alto Pass, Illinois.

“Carl Ekberg, the uncle of the film’s director Dan Johnson of Alto Pass and brother of producer Anne Johnson of St. Louis, spent years researching the history in St. Genevieve, New Orleans and Seville, Spain.”

Peter Dreier blogged yesterday about the new issue of Dissent magazine that includes his piece on the origins of MTA Song.  Bess Lomax Hawes, author of the new memoir Sing It Pretty, was a co-writer of this 1959 hit for the Kingston Trio.

“The ‘MTA’ song is now well-known, sung at summer camps and elsewhere, and frequently parodied, and has been recorded by dozens of artists, as recently as last year. The new subway card in Boston is named the ‘Charlie Card’ in honor of the song. But few people know that the song was originally written as a campaign song for Walter O’Brien’s left-wing mayoral campaign in Boston in 1949 on the Progressive Party ticket, as a way to dramatize his opposition to a fare increase on the city subway system.”

Kathryn Anthony, author of the new University of Illinois Press paperback Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession, was interviewed this morning on NPR about toilets in women’s restrooms.

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) recently sent subscribers of its clipping service a link to an article that appeared in PR Week on the photocopying and distribution of review clippings.

“In August, Knowledge Networks, a research company in California, agreed to settle a $300,000 lawsuit for something that may sound familiar - copying press clips and distributing them internally and to its clients.”

I hope that the quote above is covered by fair use!

Curled Up With A Good Book reviews Bess Lomax Hawes’s new memoir Sing It Pretty.

“Bess’s name never matched the touchstone status of her father or brother, or of Pete or Woody, and that could possibly have been due to the lesser status of women at the time when she was standing beside them. But Bess had brains and children to care for, and she was destined to affect the folk movement with more than simply her voice.”

As reported by the Associated Press via the Chicago Tribune, a postage stamp honoring Frank Sinatra goes on sale next week.  This coincides with the ten-year anniversary of his death and the recent publication of Karen McNally’s new book When Frankie Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity.

Less than a decade ago I was handling publicity for a small New York based record label that would bring its recent signings to town for club performances. One day the label owner called and said, “I have some news that you can’t tell anyone.”
Me: “Uh, OK.”
Him: “You know ‘(insert unknown band here)’ is playing in New York tonight? Well, Patti Smith’s son just joined the band.”
Me: “O-o-k-a-a-y. And, why can’t I tell anyone?”
Him: “Well, he didn’t play on the album and the band doesn’t want him to be the center of attention.” 

At least one prominent music journalist had agreed in advance to attend the show and I thought that this was valuable information that the journalist might want to know.  However, I abided by my clients wishes and didn’t say anything. The next day the first e-mail in my inbox was from said journalist: “Why didn’t you tell me that Patti Smith’s son was in the band?!”
Me: “How did you know?”
Him: “I saw Patti at the show and went up and asked (producer) Lenny Kaye what she was doing there. He told me that Patti’s son was in the band. That would have been good information to have.”

Though the Press doesn’t publish salacious biographies, we occasionally publish biographies that contain the odd, newfound, salacious detail.  Similar to the anecdote above, the authors typically don’t want the publicist to highlight these details. And that’s the conundrum. If an author reveals in the biography of a famous male author from the early 1900s that his estate included a cache of explicit photographs of the author with a variety of women, that might be something that I’d want to include in the publicity material. If I don’t highlight these details, the editors that I am pitching may never get to that part of the story. And if they do get to that part of the story, and assign the book for review, these details will be a major part of the story. I might as well tell them upfront. In fact, isn’t it my job to tell them upfront? It might be good information for them to have.

I met with a new author recently who suggested that the end of his/her forthcoming book contains potentially controversial details. I asked him/her if it would be OK to note this in the publicity materials.  He/she suggested that I could not.

How to balance the wishes of an author against the demands of the marketplace?  I’ll let you know in two years.

William F. Gavin reviews the Joe Evans autobiography Follow Your Heart for the The Washington Times.

“For every Armstrong or Ellington or Charlie Parker, there were countless musicians, their names unknown even to jazz fans, whose skill gave jazz the solid foundation it needed. In Follow Your Heart, jazz journeyman Joe Evans, now in his 90s, presents the story of the sideman, the unsung hero of the golden age of jazz, someone who could read music, learn new tunes quickly, take solos if necessary and swing all the time.”

Inside Higher Ed published a story this morning about a company that might pay professors’ travel expenses to academic conferences to promote its product.

“The company sent out an e-mail message this week to professors at colleges that use the popular service, telling them that if they apply to be on a panel at the conference to talk about plagiarism-detection services, the company will consider paying for them to go.”

Ron Wynn gives Working Girl Blues: The Life and Music of Hazel Dickens a quick read in the City Paper.

“Working Girl Blues puts the spotlight on a magnificent performer whose accomplishments and talents have always been valued by the country, bluegrass and folk audience, but now hopefully will get the same acclaim from the mainstream as well.”