Illinois Press Book Blog

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, author of the new book New Indians, Old Wars, will speak at the University of Illinois on November 6, 2007, at a lecture sponsored by the Native American House. Prior to the speech, Cook-Lynn will be interviewed live on Champaign-Urbana’s NPR station, WILL AM 580.

The Juvenile Instructor, observing that the University of Illinois Press has been at the forefront of Mormon Studies publishing but has recently lost an acquisitions editor in that discipline to retirement, asks, “Where is the future for Mormon history scholarship?”

University of Illinois Press author Len Roberts passed away on May 25, 2007, prior to the publication of his latest book of poetry, The Disappearing Trick. Yesterday’s edition of Morning Call, Len’s local paper, included a feature on the Len Roberts memorial reading that is scheduled for tonight, Monday, October 29.

Three new books just landed on my desk:

-John Cage by David Nicholls is the second volume in our recently inaugurated American Composers series.
-Telling Narratives: Secrets in African American Literature by Leslie L. Lewis
-Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism by Susan Gelfand Malka

The official publication date for all three books is November 26, 2007, but they will be available from the warehouse soon.

We have a blowout launch party planned to celebrate the publication of Diane Diekman’s new book Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story. Nashville’s Ernest Tubb Record Shops have scheduled a whole day of festivities on November 10th culminating in a Midnite Jamboree performance by an all-star cast of Faron’s surviving Country Deputies that will be broadcast live on WSM Radio. Yow!

1:00-3:00 pm – Author Diane Diekman will sign books at the downtown Nashville Ernest Tubb Record Shop on Broadway Avenue.

7:30-10:00 pm – The Faron Young tribute show at the Texas Troubadour Theatre in Music Valley will include all Country Deputies and friends of Faron Young who want to perform. Faron’s son Robyn Young and his band, NEXTAKYN, will open the show. The entire evening is free and open to the public.

12:00 Midnight – The Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, broadcast live over WSM Radio 650 AM, will be a Country Deputy reunion with:

Host – Darrell McCall, Bass – Ray Emmett, Guitar – Richard Bass, Drums – Jerry “Cootie” Hunley, Steel – Stu Basore, Piano – Gene Dunlap, Twin fiddles – Kenny Sears and Hank Singer

Diane Diekman will “call the roll” of the 40-year list of Faron’s Deputies, and she will sign books before and after the Jamboree.

The November 5, 2007, issue of The Nation magazine includes an article about Bettina Aptheker and the alleged abuse that she suffered at the hands of her father, Marxist historian Herbert Aptheker. Eric Foner, noted historian and co-editor of the recently published University of Illinois Press reader Herbert Aptheker on Race and Democracy, comments in the story on the merits of Herbert Aptheker’s writings relative to the charges of abuse.

The New Britain Herald in Connecticut interviewed University of Illinois Press author Robert Dowling about his new book Slumming in New York: From the Waterfront to Mythic Harlem, which explores the underbelly of New York City life from 1880 to 1930. “Anyone interested in New York City’s history and its literature should get a lot out of it.”

The October 17 issue of the Wall Street Journal praised Craig Havighurst’s new book Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City writing, “Havighurst has done a service in preserving the colorful and instructive history of WSM—and in reminding us that giants once lived on the radio dial.” The University of Illinois Press will host a book launch reception for Air Castle of the South in the Upper Lobby of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville from 4:30-5:45 PM on November 1st. The reception will immediately precede the Americana Music Association’s Americana Honors & Awards ceremony.

Stephen Cramer is the author of Shiva’s Drum, a National Poetry Series winner. He teaches in the creative writing program at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. His new book, Tongue & Groove, will be published by the University of Illinois press in November 2007.

Two years ago—and since I wrote Tongue & Groove—my wife, Joanna, and I moved from New York City to Burlington, Vermont. We were absolutely thrilled by our new surroundings: we could kayak on the lake a few blocks away or hike any of the numerous mountains that were visible from our apartment. But because in my first two books I’d gleaned the bulk of my images and metaphors from the city, during the first few months in New England writing came slowly.

One of the first poems I worked on—and this was a good six months after the move—was about Champ, the lake monster that inhabits Lake Champlain. The strange new subject matter was thrilling for me. I began to write about all kinds of news stories (about loggers, for instance) and historical events (the launching of Voyager), things which, for some reason, I wouldn’t have in the city. I found that the move freed me from what I thought I was supposed to write about and opened up my poetry, exactly the opposite of what I’d expected.

My body was affected by the move as well. My breathing slowed, and I could feel my shoulders drop. Poetry, I’ve always believed, but could never, until now, prove, takes cue from your musculature. So my poems were relaxing a bit too, both in their syntax and their diction. I played with the idea of changing some of the more recent poems that I’d written in the city, but it was too late; they’d already gone to print. I take comfort in the fact that they reflect who I was at the time of writing, and leave behind a record of who I was.

Bucky Halker is a songwriter, performer, labor historian, Senior Program Officer of the Illinois Humanities Council, and a Producer of the Folksongs of Illinois CD series that the University of Illinois Press is distributing for the IHC. Folksongs of Illinois, Volume 3 will be released in November 2007.

From the beginning of the song selection process for the Folksongs of Illinois CDs, I was determined to include a Burl Ives song. After all, he’d been a key figure in popularizing folk music, as well as a screen and record star. I also wanted people to know that Ives was an Illinois native. The problem was finding the right Ives song. I was hoping for something more revealing than, say, “Foggy, Foggy Dew” or similar recordings.

I recalled a story a folk singer friend told me in the early 1970s about Lee Hays, a member of the famous group the Weavers. Hays kept a picture from the late 1930s that included several folk singers, including Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Curiously, one part of the picture had clearly been torn off. Burl Ives was that part. Hays recalled how Ives had been a friend, but had gone on to name names before the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Ives went on to stardom, while others in the picture were blacklisted. (This story was verified by Pete Seeger.)
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