Yesterday was the official publication date of an interesting title for us: Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964-2008.

It’s rare that the University of Nebraska Press publishes a reference book, but this one is an exception. Jim Harrison is a prolific writer who has written thousands and thousands of pages of prose, poetry, essays, screenplays and more. Among his best-known works is Dalva, a novel set in Nebraska that tells the story of a mother searching for the child she put up for adoption years before. His stories are often set in rural America, and evoke a strong sense of place. And we here at the University of Nebraska Press do enjoy a good sense of place. Anyway, the book is a carefully annotated collection of just about everything Harrison has ever published, and was edited by two Harrison collectors: Gregg Orr and Beef Torrey.

While we’re on the subject of reference books, we have one other reference book forthcoming this fall. Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture explores the game and the effect it has had on American society. This blogger (whose interest in football is limited) found the entries on the vernacular of football especially interesting. Look for it this November.