Penn Press Log

St. Louis and the Picture of Dorian Gray

Here's one local reaction to Colin Gordon's Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City.

"Mr. Gordon literally gives us a bird’s eye view of the worst and most intractable civic pathologies that afflicted the St. Louis region: Combining maps and geographically based data he plots this community’s grim and determined 20th Century defense of racial division," writes Eddie Roth in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch blog, The Platform. Roth goes on to compare Gordon's portrait of St. Louis to the bewitched painting in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Gordon spoke at Left Bank Books in St. Louis last night. On Monday, June 2 Gordon will be a guest on KMOX 1120 AM's The Charlie Brennan Show. Later that day, he will participate in a panel discussion at the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. Gordon returns to the radio on Tuesday, June 3 for an interview on KWMU 90.7 FM's St. Louis on the Air.

Inside and Out Weekend for Penn Press

This coming weekend will be an extremely busy one for Penn Press staff. Not only to we host our annual Open House on Saturday, May 17. We'll also be participating in the Philadelphia Book Festival which runs from the 17th to the 18th of May.

University of Pennsylvania Press Open House
Saturday, May 17
4:30 p.m to 6:30 p.m.
University of Pennsylvania
3905 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Please call Ellen Trachtenberg at 215-898-1674 for more information

In the Penn Press Open House tradition, visitors will have the opportunity to meet Press editors, learn about the publishing process, and enjoy refreshments provided by Picnic, all within the restored Victorian mansion that serves as home to the Press. This year, in celebration of the release of Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies by William C. Kashatus, open house guests will have the chance to win tickets to a Phillies game. There will be other give-aways as well. All guests will receive a Penn Press tote bag.

Philadelphia Book Festival
Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
1901 Vine Street Philadelphia, PA 19103
(between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway)

Both Kashatus and Neil Lanctot, author of Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution, will be at the Penn Press tent at the Philadelphia Book Festival to sign copies of their work and discuss baseball history. The Kashatus book signing begins at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 17. Lanctot will be available to sign books beginning at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 18.

"Do not miss 'Chimneys and Towers'"

In the April 7 Critic's Notebook section of The New Yorker, Peter Schjedahl writes:

Do not miss "Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster," at the Whitney, a small, pure, gladdening exhibition of major work by the rhapsodic and droll American modernist who died of diabetes in 1935, at the age of fifty-one.

Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster, the companion book to the exhibition, was written by curator Betsy Fahlman.

Who Will Win the Phillies vs. Mets Game Tickets?

Congratulations to Ron Rosen of Massachusetts, winner of the fourth and final round of the Almost a Dynasty Spring Training Trivia Challenge.

For having his entry drawn from all of the entries that we received, Ron Rosen wins a copy of Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies by William C. Kashatus, and a chance at the grand prize--Tickets for Two to a Phillies vs. Mets Game.

1. What former left fielder played for the Phillies and the White Sox and was a career .276 hitter with 308 home runs and 1,128 RBIs?

Greg Luzinski

2. What four-time All Star and current infield instructor for the Chicago White Sox won the National League Championship Series MVP in 1980?

Manny Trillo

3. Which pitcher for the Phillies, Cubs, Rangers, Indians, Tigers, and Orioles became, in 1987, the second player (after Harry Chiti) in Major League Baseball history to be traded for himself?

Dickie Noles

The grand prize winner will be announced next Monday, March 31st.

Free Tickets to a Phillies vs Mets Game are Still Up for Grabs

If you love the Philadelphia Phillies and would like a couple of Section 109 tickets to a Phillies vs Met game, this is your second to last chance to get in on the Almost a Dynasty Spring Training Trivia Challenge.

Here are the answers to last week's Spring Training Trivia Challenge quiz.

1. What former Phillies player passed Ty Cobb to become baseball's career leader in hits in 1985?
   Pete Rose
2. What stadium was the site of the Phillies' National League pennant victories in 1983 and 1993?
   Veterans Stadium 

Congratulations to John Fea of Pennsylvania, the winner of last week's challenge.

For having his entry drawn from all of the correctly answered entries that we received, John Fea wins a copy of Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies by William C. Kashatus, and a chance at the grand prize--Tickets for Two to a Phillies Game.

For week three of the challenge, we have an even tougher line up of Phillies baseball history questions.

Click here to answer the latest round of Spring Training Trivia Challenge questions.

Fahlman's Writing Casts Demuth Paintings in Another Light

This week The New York Times reviewed the "Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth's Late Paintings of Lancaster" exhibition that recently opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art. According to reviewer Ken Johnson,
the commentary in the companion book for the exhibition, written by its organizer Betsy Fahlman, "casts the Lancaster paintings in another intriguing light."

Read the complete review at nytimes.com.

Marc Sageman on YouTube

Jihad and 21st Century Terrorism
A Discussion with Marc Sageman on Leaderless Jihad
Hosted by the New America Foundation on February 20, 2008

Marc Sageman is the author of Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century and Understanding Terror Networks.

Jarrett Describes the 19th Century "New Negro"

Boston University's BU Today asked Penn Press author Gene Andrew Jarrett to describe the post Civil War ideal of the "new Negro." Jarrett explains:

The “new Negro” was a concept of the second half of the 19th century, after the Civil War, when African-Americans were hoping to represent themselves in new, progressive ways, either in the halls of politics or in culture. There was a movement from the old Negro — that is, the plantation slave — to the new Negro, African-Americans who were considered more refined, educated, sophisticated, and involved in the political process.

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at BU, Jarrett, author of Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature, will join a roundtable of African American studies scholars to discuss the significance of Black History Month. Jarrett listed some of the issues at stake in his BU Today interview:

Blum's Tours Campuses to Discuss Du Bois

This month, Edward J. Blum, author of W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet, will visit campuses across the country to discuss the legacy of the renown scholar and activist.

Tomorrow, February 7, Blum kicks off his tour at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, where he will be giving a talk for the Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence, and Memory.

On February 13, he will be giving a lunchtime talk at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

February 14 brings Blum to the Executive Leadership Center at Morehouse College—also located in Atlanta—for the symposium "Culture, Spiritual Values, and the Pursuit of Excellence in Higher Education" with Dr. Clayborne Carson, Dr. Stephen Carter, Dr. Cheryl Townsend-Gilkes, Dr. Martin E. Marty, and Dr. Harold Bennett.

Blum rounds out his tour with a talk at the University of California, Riverside on February 26. Shortly after the talk, we will make an mp3 recording available for download.

For details on these author appearances, visit the Penn Press Log Events page.

"Human Rights and the 2008 Presidential Campaign" Video

On January 9th, The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the University of Pennsylvania Press cosponsored a program called "Human Rights and the Presidential Campaign." William F. Schulz, coeditor of The Phenomenon of Torture and the forthcoming The Future of Human Rights: U.S. Policy for a New Era, served as moderator.

Video of this event is now available at the Center for American Progress Action Fund website.