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Today’s treat (no tricks): A story and a link

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Happy halloween, blog readers! A a tidbit of supernatural (though not especially scary) trivia in honor of Halloween tomorrow…… In 1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), best known as the author of Sherlock Holmes stories but also a devout spiritualist, published a book called The Coming of the Fairies in which he contested that fairies are real. Doyle was convinced of this by a set of photographs apparently showing two young girls from Cottingley in Yorkshire playing with a group of tiny, translucent fairies. Doyle’s book lays out the story of the photographs, their supposed provenance, and the implications of their existence. … Continue reading Today’s treat (no tricks): A story and a link

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Off the Shelf: Into That Silent Sea by Francis French and Colin Burgess

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Into that Silent Sea cover image Read the beginning of Chapter 1, "First to Fly" from Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 by Francis French and Colin Burgess with a foreword by Paul Haney:

"When venturing into the unknown, the first step taken is often the biggest and the boldest. A young Russian pilot named Yuri Gagarin took humankind’s first step into space. He died in his mid-thirties, so his image is fixed: a youthful icon symbolizing the first human journey above our planet. As President Lyndon B. Johnson wrote, “Yuri Gagarin’s courageous and pioneering flight into space opened new horizons and set a brilliant example for the spacemen of the two countries.”

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Seldom Seen author Patrick Dobson in Kansas City Star

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atrick Dobson, author of Seldom Seen, which is new this fall from the University of Nebraska Press, was interviewed in the Kansas City Star earlier this week. The book, for blog readers who are unfamiliar, recounts a trip that Dobson took 15 years ago, on foot, across the Great Plains. The article, a Q&A with the author, deals with how (and why) Dobson came to quit his job at a Kansas City hotel, say goodbye to his beloved young daughter, pack a backpack and set out for Helena, Montana. That trip changed Dobson, and he said he views the Patrick … Continue reading Seldom Seen author Patrick Dobson in Kansas City Star

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Off the Shelf: The Exquisite Corpse edited by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Davis Schneiderman, and Tom Denlinger

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Corpse
Read from the Foreword of The Exquisite Corpse: Chance and Collaboration in Surrealism's Parlor Gameedited by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Davis Schneiderman, and Tom Denlinger:

 
"I. Fold, crease, filter
 
Database aesthetics, collaborative filtering, musical riddles, and beat sequence philosophies don’t exactly spring to mind when you think of the concept of the Exquisite Corpse. But if there’s one thing that I want to you to think about when you read this anthology, it’s that collage-based art—whether sound, film, multimedia, or computer code—has become the basic reference frame for most of generation info. We live in a world of relentlessly expanding networks—cellular, wireless, fiber optic routed . . . you name it. This world is becoming more interconnected than ever before, and it’s going to get deeper, weirder, and a lot more interesting than even the data-stream-driven moment of this writing (NYC, at the beginning of the twenty-first century).

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The real Penhallow Bakery

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The Penhallow Bakery is almost a character in itself in Sherrie Flick’s Reconsidering Happiness. It’s where the two main characters, Vivette and Margaret, spend late nights and early mornings baking scones, cookies, cakes, loaves of bread. It’s where they meet friends and lovers, where they go to celebrate and to mourn. It’s what ties the women to their community, and its recipes are something they take with them when they ultimately move away. And it’s also based on a real bakery where Flick once worked – The Ceres Bakery (on Penhallow Street) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Clara Silverstein wrote about … Continue reading The real Penhallow Bakery

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UNP reprinting Nadirs, and a few words from the translator

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One of the first things I did on Thursday when I learned that Herta Müller, author of UNP title Nadirs, had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, was call translator Sieglinde Lug. Lug, professor emeriti at Denver University, didn’t answer my call. Or the calls of various international media seeking a comment. She was inside a studio, recording audio books for the blind. And by the time she got the news that Müller, who Lug has met, had won the prize, most of the rest of the world already knew. When she called me back on Friday, an exhilarated Lug … Continue reading UNP reprinting Nadirs, and a few words from the translator

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Off the Shelf: Searching for My Destiny by George Blue Spruce Jr.

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Blue Spruce
Read from "Creighton Years" in Searching for My Destiny by George Blue Spruce Jr. as told to Deanne Durrett:

"Many years before my high school graduation and the Elks banquet, my parents had vowed that their children would go to college. They acted on faith that there would be a way for me to achieve a college degree and began making definite plans for my education during my junior year of high school. Knowing of my strong desire to become a dentist, the Christian Brothers at St. Michael’s spoke to my parents and recommended Creighton University, a Roman Catholic university with a dental school. In the Brothers’ opinion, there were no better educators than the Jesuit priests. Daddy had great respect for the Christian Brothers, and once they had made their recommendation no other colleges were considered. I was going to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

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University of Nebraska Press author winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (again!)

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Longtime readers of our blog may remember that last year, J.M.G. Le Clézio, who has published two translation titles with the University of Nebraska Press, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A year later, it's happened again. Herta Müller, a German writer, is this year's winner, and the University of Nebraska Press published the translation of her first book in 1999. Following is the full press release: LINCOLN, Neb. (Oct. 8, 2009) – German writer Herta Müller, whose short story collection Nadirs was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1999, is the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize … Continue reading University of Nebraska Press author winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (again!)

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On Montana and Montana writers

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Montana is a wonderful backdrop for a story – it’s beautiful, sparse, romantic, and wild – or at least is perceived as such. The University of Nebraska Press has published many books set in Montana or by Montana authors and in one of the more recent ones, All Our Stories Are Here, a number of Montana authors examine both the way Montana is portrayed in fiction, as well as contributions Montanans have made to the literary community. Among topics covered: representations of the state in popular romances, and the importance of the University of Montana’s creative writing program in fostering … Continue reading On Montana and Montana writers

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Off the Shelf: Football by Edward J. Rielly

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Football cover image
Read the "Wheaties" entry from Football: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture by Edward J. Rielly:

"Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions, was created by accident in 1921 when a health clinician in Minneapolis happened to drop some wheat-bran gruel on a stove. The heat converted the gruel into wheat flakes that, the clinician noted, tasted quite good. The head miller at Washburn Crosby Company (later General Mills) agreed, and a new cereal was born. Initially called Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes, when the cereal was ready to be marketed in 1924 it was renamed Wheaties so that the food itself rather than its name would be the mouthful.

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