SPRING PRESS OFFERINGS FEATURE ARKANSAS HERITAGE

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Lovers of Arkansas history, culture and politics will find a bounty of new titles in the University of Arkansas Press’s 1999 spring catalog, published this week.

The work of architect Fay Jones, the songs of three sisters from Zion, recollections of white alumni from Central High, and the historic journal of a naturalist and explorer appear among the 10 new titles.

"Outside the Pale: The Architecture of Fay Jones," by the Arkansas Department of Heritage with a forward by Robert Adams Ivy Jr., showcases the internationally recognized architect’s work. It follows Jones on his journey from studying under Frank Lloyd Wright to winning the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in 1990.

The book will accompany a special museum exhibit of Jones’s life and work, scheduled to open at the Old State House in Little Rock in June.

Arkansas culture continues to be chronicled in "Singing in Zion: Music and Song in the Life of an Arkansas Family." Robert Cochran, University of Arkansas director of the Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies , records the musical heritage of three sisters - Alma, Helen and Phydella Gilbert - who express their life history through song.

"Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment Across Divides of Race and Time" by Beth Roy, tells stories of a different sort of harmony. Through interviews with alumni of Little Rock’s Central High School who attended school at the time of the famous desegregation, Roy explores the personal issues that surrounded the historic events and how they relate to the people’s lives today.

The Press will also publish another work about the Central High desegregation, "Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in Remembrance and Reconciliation" edited by Elizabeth Jacoway and C. Fred Williams. This work stemmed from a 1997 gathering 40 years after Gov. Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine black children from entering Little Rock’s Central High School. Williams and Jacoway commissioned and edited papers on different aspects of desegregation by noted scholars and authors to create a work that more fully defines this pivotal event in Arkansas history and the Civil Rights movement.

Reaching further back in history, the Press issues a reprint of "A Journal of Travels in the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819" by naturalist Thomas Nuttall, edited by Savoie Lottinville. This work heralds the beginning of the Arkansas Classics series, reprinted works about Arkansas and by Arkansans.

Nuttall’s work chronicles his journey up the Arkansas River, with a side trip up the Red River. The book overflows with detail on the plants, animals and geology of the region. It also comments on the resident native tribes, the military establishment at Fort Smith, the arrival of the first governor of Arkansas Territory and the beginnings of white settlement.

Other titles published by the University of Arkansas Press this spring include "Guerillas, Unionists and Violence on the Confederate Home Front" edited by University of Arkansas history professor Daniel E. Sutherland; "The African-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930," by Bobby L. Lovett; "The Wilderness Within: American Women Writers and Spiritual Quest," by Kristina K. Groover; "The Last Nostalgia: Poems, 1982-1990," by Joe Bolton, edited by Donald Justice; and "Selected Poems, 1968-1998," by John Wood.

The press also features a selected backlist of work including the Carter Collection with books about and by former president Jimmy Carter, winners of the Arabic Translation Award, and the Portraits of Conflict series.

For more information call 1-800-626-0090.