University Press of Kentucky’s forthcoming fall titles already are attracting attention from librarians. Library Journal, a leading trade magazine for librarians, has taken notice. In their next issue, as part of their coverage of the American Library Association Annual Conference, which concluded this past weekend, Senior Editor Margaret Heilbrun will announce two books to watch for the upcoming season.
The University Press of Kentucky’s “Cecelia and Fanny: The Remarkable Friendship between an Escaped Slave and her Former Mistress,” by Brad Asher (available in October), joins Yale University Press’s “Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock” as her picks for the season. Cecelia and Fanny is the true story of an escaped slave and her former mistress who immerged from the Civil War to maintain a relationship despite their past. Using a cache of letters discovered in a Louisville archive, Asher documents their relationship and sheds new light on race relations in years following the war.
In addition, Library Journal just announced its Fall 2011 University Press Preview which gives an advance look at the best forthcoming titles from all university presses. “Cecelia and Fanny” joined seven other University Press of Kentucky books on the list (only Harvard University Press had more selections). The other books featured are:
“Beeconomy: What Women and Bees Can Teach Us about Local Trade and the Global Market,” by Tammy Horn (available in November)
Synthesizing the various aspects of hive-related products, such as beewax and cosmetics, as well as the more specialized skills of queen production and knowledge-based economies of research and science, Horn documents how and why women should consider being beekeepers. The women profiled in the book suggest ways of managing careers, gender discrimination, motherhood, marriage, and single-parenting—all while enjoying the community created by women who work with honey bees.
“Thomas Ince: Hollywood’s Independent Pioneer,” by Brian Taves (available in December)
Thomas H. Ince (1882–1924) turned movie-making into a business enterprise. Progressing from actor to director and screenwriter, he revolutionized the motion picture industry through developing the role of the producer.
“Freedom Rights: New Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement,” edited by Danielle L. McGuire and John Dittmer (available in November)
Editors McGuire and Dittmer bring together the best new scholarship on the modern civil rights movement. Their work expands our understanding of the movement by engaging issues of local and national politics, gender and race relations, family, community, and sexuality.
“Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East,” by Stephen G. Fritz (available in October)
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the greatest land assault in history on the Soviet Union. Fritz bridges the gap in scholarship on the German-Russo War by incorporating historical research from the last several decades into an accessible, comprehensive, and coherent narrative.
“Advance and Destroy: Patton as Commander in the Bulge,” by John Nelson Rickard (available in
October)
Rickard explores the Patton’s operational performance during the entire Ardennes campaign. Patton’s day-by-day situational understanding of the Battle of the Bulge, as revealed through ULTRA intelligence and the influence of the other Allied generals on his decision-making, gives readers an in-depth, critical analysis of the commander’s overall effectiveness, measured in terms of mission accomplishment, his ability to gain and hold ground, and a cost-benefit analysis of his operations relative to the lives of his soldiers.
“Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam,” by Thomas P. McKenna (available in
September)
In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in what became known as the Easter Offensive. Almost all of the American forces had already withdrawn from Vietnam except for a small group of American advisers, including McKenna. The 23rd ARVN Infantry Division and its American advisers were sent to defend the provincial capital of Kontum in the Central Highlands.
“A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson,” edited by Alan M. Levine and Daniel S. Malachuk (available in September)
A vocal abolitionist before and during the Civil War, Emerson (1803–1882) was scorned by the South and embraced by the North as one of the nation’s most prominent antislavery activists. After his death, however, the image of Emerson as a political thinker and activist faded from public memory, and he was remembered as a remote literary figure known for his writing on transcendentalism.
