UA Press Spring 2006 Catalog Reflects Diversity of Topics, Voices, Eras

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas Press spring 2006 line-up showcases diverse voices ranging from Iranian women living abroad to one of the only popular Southern authors to pre-date the Civil War.

The spring 2006 catalog includes a biography of the first African boxer to win a world championship, a book of writing by Iranian women living abroad, a re-issue of a poet laureate’s first volume of poetry, a memoir of a Southern Unionist, a crime novel dating back to the 1800s, two new volumes of poetry and the autobiography of President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff when Clinton was governor.

This diversity continues within the works themselves, according to Larry Malley, director of the UA Press.

“The work is based in scholarship, but the authors have written books on subjects of general interest,” Malley said.

He points to the book “Battling Siki: A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race and Murder in the 1920s” by Peter Benson as an example. The book chronicles the rise and fall of the first boxer from Africa to win a world championship. It is the first biography of this historical figure.

“It’s a book about murder, race and celebrity in the 1920s,” Malley said. “In the 1920s, Battling Siki’s name was on everybody’s lips,” he said.

He points to quotes from the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, George Bernard Shaw and Ho Chi Minh on Battling Siki as examples of the influence the man had on his times.

Another book that combines general and scholarly interest takes a totally different path: It is an anthology of writing by contemporary Iranian women. “Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora,” edited by Persis M. Karim, includes poetry, fiction and nonfiction by women whose lives have been shaped by history, exile and immigration.

The poetry collections in the current catalog represent both the history of the UA Press in the field of poetry and its contemporary place in the genre. After almost 20 years, the press is issuing a new edition of “The Apple That Astonished Paris,” the first book of poems written by Billy Collins, the U.S. poet laureate from 2001-2003. It includes a new preface by the author that recalls how this book of poems came into being.

The other two collections in the catalog continue the poetry publishing tradition. The books are part of the Arkansas Poetry Series edited by Enid Shomer, which publishes four collections of poetry each year by emerging and mid-career poets. The two selections for spring include “Walking Through the Horizon: Poems” by Margaret Holley, and “The First Inhabitants of Arcadia: Poems” by Christopher Bursk.

The next several books in the spring catalog address another UA Press specialty: Southern studies. “A Thrilling Narrative: The Memoir of a Southern Unionist” by Captain Dennis E. Haynes, edited by Arthur W. Bergeron Jr., recalls the life of a union supporter’s life in Louisiana and his experiences with his Confederate neighbors. The second book is a new edition of the first novel written by William Gilmore Simms, an author Malley calls “the John Grisham of the mid-19^th century.” Edited by John Caldwell Guilds, a retired UA distinguished professor in the humanities, “Martin Faber: The Story of a Criminal, with Confessions of a Murder” is considered to be a pioneering example of criminal psychology in fiction.

The next two books are memoirs of important Arkansans. “The Boy from Altheimer: From the Depression to the Boardroom,” by William H. Bowen, is an autobiography of the life of a man who grew up in one of the most impoverished areas in the country during the Depression to become then-Gov. Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, and later dean of the law school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“The Bookmakers Daughter: A Memory Unbound” is a memoir by Shirley Abbott, who grew up in Hot Springs in the 1940s and 50s. In this book, Abbott recalls her relationship with her father, Alfred “Hat” Bemont Abbott, a gambler who taught her to love literature. The UA Press is republishing this book in paperback. It originally appeared in 1992 and was a Book of the Month Club selection.

“We continue to look for books to bring back into print,” Malley said.

The last two books include a new edition and a reprint of two books that Malley says typify the work that university presses publish.

“They are books about people and events in our state,” he said.

The first, “Bearing Witness: Memories of Arkansas Slavery Narratives from the 1930s WPA Collections,” is a second edition, edited by folklore professor emeritus George Lankford. In this new edition, Lankford has added more testimonials from former Arkansas slaves that were originally recorded in the 1930s as part of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project. The second book, “Sawmill: The Story of Cutting the Last Great Virgin Forest East of the Rockies,” has returned to print after its original appearance 20 years ago. Written by Kenneth L. Smith, “Sawmill” records the history of logging in the Arkansas and Oklahoma Ouachita Mountains from 1900 to 1950. Smith interviews more than 300 people to develop the history of the cutting of these virgin shortleaf pine forests.

“Both of these books represent keeping in print and bringing back to print the scholarly work that university presses are meant to be about,” Malley said.