UA Press Fall 2005 Catalog Showcases Art, History, Poems, Foreign Lands

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — From the 19th century musings of a Muslim man on democracy to the memoir of a Confederate guerilla, from the voices of poets speaking about poetry to artwork commemorating the Trail of Tears, the University of Arkansas Press fall 2005 catalog addresses themes far away and close to home.

Although the books cover a wide range of topics, UA Press director Larry Malley points out that all the books have one thing in common.

“The books are consistent with the press and its missions,” he said.

The first book of the fall catalog, “Stone Songs on the Trail of Tears: Journey of an Installation,” takes a new approach to aspects of Arkansas and American Indian history by showcasing a commemorative journey taken by artist Pat Musick, her husband Jerry Carr and historian Bill Woodiel. Musick created an art installation, which traveled to 22 stops along the Benge Route of the Trail of Tears across northern Arkansas, the route taken by some of the Cherokees in 1838. The 70 photographs in the book, some taken by Carr, are accompanied by poems written by Musick in the voice of a young Cherokee mother making the journey. The book includes essays by Donald Harington, author and University of Arkansas professor of fine arts, and Jack Baker, president of the National Trail of Tears Association.

Because it addresses history through installation art, the book captures a different audience than a simple historical text might, Malley said.

“It addresses the Arkansas portion of the Trail of Tears in a way that people all over the world will be interested in,” he said.

The next book in the catalog also addresses history in its own unique fashion. “Autobiography of Samuel S. Hildebrand, the Renowned Missouri Bushwhacker” chronicles the life of one of the Confederate army’s most notorious guerillas.

“He was one of the toughest guys to come out of the Civil War,” Malley said. Hildebrand was one of the few guerillas who survived the war to have his story written, giving a rare first-person account of how guerrilla conflict shaped the Civil War.

The book was edited by author and historian Kirby Ross and is part of the ongoing series Civil War in the West, edited by University of Arkansas history professor Daniel Sutherland. The book originally appeared in 1870 and has long been out of print. This version includes annotations to give modern-day readers context for some of Hilbebrand’s stories.

The next book switches topics from war to words. “Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics,” edited by Deborah Brown, Annie Finch and Maxine Kumin, features more than 100 selections of work by poets through the ages as they contemplate the musing, making and mapping of poetry. The poets featured draw on the ancient Greeks and Romans, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Shelley, Poe, Pound, Rilke and Rukeyser as they discuss issues of inspiration, craft and the role of poetry and the poet in life.

“This will be a book of interest to people who like to read poetry or people who teach poetry,” Malley said.

The next two books from the catalog are both part of the Arkansas Poetry Series, edited by Enid Shomer, which publishes four new collections of poems each year by emerging and midcareer poets. The first book, “Here and Hereafter: Poems by Elton Glaser,” features the prize-winning poet’s sixth collection, a mix of travels and seasons and moods. The second book, “Becoming Bone: Poems on the Life of Celia Thaxter” (1836-1894) by award-winning poet Annie Boutelle, delves into the life of a 19th century woman poet, now mostly forgotten. Through poems, Boutelle chronicles Thaxter’s childhood, Victorian marriage, her struggle to invent herself as a writer and painter, and the serenity of her last decade.

The next two books address a different mission for the press: Middle East studies. The first book is the winner of the 2005 Arabic Literature in Translation Prize, a $10,000 award given by the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas Press. The book, “Consult them in the Matter: A Nineteenth-Century Islamic Argument for Constitutional Government,” was written in the 1860s by Ahmad ibn Abi Diyaf and translated by L. Carl Brown, professor emeritus at Princeton University and long-time chairman of the department of near-Eastern studies. Bin Diyaf penned a multi-volume history based on his long career as an official in the Tunisian government from the 1820s to the 1860s.  In it, he argues that his country and the Ottoman world would benefit from adopting representative forms of government like those that existed in Europe.

“This is particularly timely as the Middle East is wrestling with notions of democratic reform,” Malley said.

The second book, a finalist for the prize, is a continuation of an autobiography of a writer who lived in Baghdad during its heyday. “Princesses’ Street: Baghdad Memories” by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was translated from the Arabic by Issa J. Boulatta, who won the prize in 1995 for his translation of the first book of Jabra’s autobiography, “The First Well: A Bethlehem Boyhood.” “Princesses’ Street” continues the story of Jabra’s life — he was one of the leading novelists, poets, critics and translators of his time. The book chronicles Jabra as a writer and a man, but also paints a portrait of post-World War II Baghdad, a time of creativity in the literature and the arts in that city. The book not only chronicles his intellectual life, but describes his lengthy love affair with a young Muslim woman he met near Princesses’ Street and whom he eventually married.

The final book, “Divided Power: The Presidency, Congress and the Formation of American Foreign Policy,” features eight original essays written for the Fulbright Institute of International Relations that focus on the complex relationship between the executive and legislative branches in the formation of foreign policy. The essays, edited by Donald R. Kelley, director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations, offer a snapshot of how the division of powers first outlined in the Constitution functions in the political realities of the post-Cold war, post September 11 world.