"The Best Holocaust Novel Ever"

Tablet Magazine ("A New Read on Jewish Life") has just named Godine's new translation of Franz Werfel's classic The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, about the Armenian Genocide, "The Best Holocaust Novel Ever".

From the piece by Liel Leibovitz:

More, perhaps, than any other writer in recent memory, God and the Devil seemed to have jointly guided Franz Werfel’s life. The former gave him a keen eye and a tremendous sense of style, driving his dear friend Kafka, Prague’s other famous native Franz, to state that when he read Werfel’s first collection of poems, “I was going off my head with enthusiasm.” The latter cursed him with a sulfurous personality that led him to betray friends, abandon ideologies, denounce his Judaism, reject his family, marry the blatantly anti-Semitic Alma Mahler, seek to sidle up to the Nazis, and, only when the jackboots came too close, flee to Hollywood and write silly screenplays until his early death. But all of Werfel’s sad apostasy is dwarfed by his singular achievement, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a novel about the Armenian holocaust that Werfel wrote in 1933 and that is available now in a new English-language translation from the publishing house of David R. Godine. In nearly 1,000 pages, it tells an adventure story of Armenian partisans fending off the Turks, but it also delivers a stunning breadth of Armenian folklore, history, language, customs, and politics. The Nazis, freshly in power in Berlin, were quick to grasp that the book wasn’t only a work of historical fiction about one genocide but also a clear allegory about the impending murder of the Jews, which would soon cause Werfel to flee Europe for America.

. . .

Franz Werfel

Musa Dagh is, to the contemporary reader, a curious book. At times it reads like one of those Karl May adventure tales for boys Werfel adored as a child, with fast-paced scenes of battles and bravery under fire. At others, it slows down and devotes long passages to detailed ethnographic descriptions of Armenian mourning customs or the traditions of village life. Its protagonist is Gabriel Bagradian, an Armenian who had left his community, moved to Paris, and married an elegant French woman who was not altogether pleased with her husband’s ethnicity; he, in other words, is Werfel himself. The author also cast many of his family members and old friends from Prague as villagers with whom Bagradian, visiting his native country on vacation with his wife and son, reconnects. Surrounding these fictional manifestations are historical figures: Djemal Pasha, Enver Pasha, and Talaat Pasha, the leaders of the Young Turks Revolution, make an appearance, as does Johannes Lepsius, a real-life German missionary on whose historical accounts of the Armenian massacre Werfel strongly relied.

. . .

Werfel died as he had lived, on the cusp between cultures, religions, and ideologies, a human seismograph registering the turbulence that devastated his continent and his people. We should remember him for exploring, in his life as well as in his art, the full register of human emotions, from the merciless to the sublime. Most of all, we should remember him for Musa Dagh, his sadly forgotten work of genius. And we should see book and author alike as an omen, warning us that as history’s travesties are being written as novels, they are frequently also reborn as news.

Fall 2012 catalog!

Woohoo! Just in time for Book Expo America in NYC next week here is a link to our brand new fall 2012 catalog!

Enjoy and do stop by our booth, #4167, if you're at BEA to say hello.

Never Back Down by Ernest Hebert

We're very proud to publish Ernest Hebert's latest novel, Never Back Down. Publishers Weekly has already offered wonderful praise:

"New England novelist Hebert (The Dogs of March) offers a stirring tale of two young boys and their lifetime friendship in this coming-of-age tale that begins in the summer of 1953 in rural New Hampshire. Young French-Canadian Jack Landry, son of a WWII veteran (and the novel’s narrator) befriends fatherless Elphege Beaupre, and the pair’s varied teenage adventures take them through baseball camp, a summer job at a textile mill, and first love—all while reinforcing their fearless credo to 'never back down, never instigate.' Through the ’50s and ’60s, Jack excels in baseball, with a rookie stint with the Boston Red Sox; becomes distant from Elphege; and loses it all when he helps troubled girlfriend Alouette escape from a mental hospital. Time in the Army and a few odd jobs somehow reunite the two friends and Jack’s old flame Olympia, but nothing is ever the same again. Hebert’s homespun storytelling is a wonder to behold; the author’s measured prose, tender language, and universal themes of atonement and the bittersweet lessons of maturity shine through. His evocation of New England is spot-on, and his character development of the searching adolescence of two teen boys having the time of their lives creates wonderful reading that will cross generations as well as please Hebert’s many fans."

Ernest has two upcoming events in New Hampshire, both on Saturday, June 2nd:

11am - The Toadstool, Keene, NH
2pm - The Toadstool, Peterborough, NH

In addition, Saturday, September 8th, is "Ernie Hebert Day" in Keene, NH! We're already excited to see what festivities will be planned.

Hebert lives in New Hampshire and teaches writing at Dartmouth College. His other novels in­clude The Old American and the acclaimed six-volume Darby series.

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Cynophobia n The morbid dread of dogs. Condition of cats and postmen.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Cynophobia appears in the Third.

The Last Englishman - NYTBR

The Sunday New York Times Book Review has a review by Ken Kalfus of our new Godine title, The Last Englishman: The Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers:

Arthur Ransome is a beloved if minor figure in 20th-century letters. Generations of British readers have grown up with his “Swallows and Amazons” series of young adult novels, the first of which was published in 1930. In these 12 books, children on holiday in the Lake District of England and elsewhere occupy themselves sailing, camping, fishing and playing at pirates. Contemporary readers raised on blood sport in Panem may find the series tame, but the novels are charming and well told. In the few weeks that I’ve contemplated the story of Ransome’s life, every mention of his name to a British acquaintance has elicited a fond smile; from every American it has drawn a blank.

Ransome began “Swallows and Amazons” at the age of 45 after concluding a career as a foreign correspondent. Writing for several British papers, he spent 11 years in and out of Russia during World War I, the revolution and the civil war that followed. Among the ranks of journalists who covered these events, including overt partisans like John Reed, he again cut a minor figure, one who found revolutionary ferment less exhilarating than taxing. “Russia is all very well,” he told his mother, “but too much Russia makes men mad, besides wearing them out.” Even when chasing the big story, he longed for the lush green English landscape and a place to cast his line. 

The enduring affection for “Swallows and Amazons” has ensured a readership for several biographies of Ransome, his own memoir and a 2003 study, “Ransome in Russia,” by Ted Alexander and Tatiana Verizhnikova, that covers very much the same ground as “The Last Englishman.” In this new volume, Roland Chambers, a British author of children’s books, wonders whether Ransome served as a double agent, working on behalf of the Bolsheviks as well as for British intelligence. Although Chambers doesn’t find new evidence of treachery, the old evidence of a confused and compromised journalist is damning enough.

David R. Godine, Publisher is proud to be the US publisher for the entire "Swallows and Amazons" series.

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Diamantiferous a Yielding diamonds. "I don't care what you say—I still prefer Julian. Craig may be younger and more handsome, and unmarried for that matter; but Julian is diamantiferous." 

A diamond-studded car (one of thirty-eight cars belonging to Prince Al-Walid of Saudi Arabia)

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Diamantiferous appears in the Second.

How a book is born

Mariah Bear over at the Weldon Owen (publisher of beautiful books in San Francisco) blog has created a great infographic, "how a book is born":

Have you ever wondered how a great idea becomes a book? Or even how a really crummy one does? Did your mother try to make you stop asking by telling you a story that starts, "Well, when an author loves an editor very, very much . . ." or just blushing and handing you a copy of Our Chicago Manuals, Ourselves?

We're not so shy. Here's the heartwarming, only slightly messy, and roughly 74 percent accurate story of how an idea churns through the publishing process just like—as a publisher we once knew put it—a rat travels through an anaconda. Don't think too much about that analogy. Just enjoy this flowchart that takes you from a brilliant idea to a best-selling trade book. And stop asking your mother embarrassing questions.

World's largest scrimshaw exhibit!

Scrimshaw experts, collectors and fans from around the world will gather for the 23rd Annual Scrimshaw Weekend at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, MA from May 11–13. The event will feature three days of activities including the opening of a new permanent exhibit on Sunday, May 13th at 2:00pm of the world’s largest scrimshaw collection, titled “Scrimshaw: Shipboard Art of the Whalers.”

Godine is very proud to publish the 400-page, large-format book associated with the collection, Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum by Dr. Stuart M. Frank. For more information on the weekend and exhibition, please visit the museum's website.

Treasure Room: Dr. Stuart M. Frank (right) and Richard Donnelly, photographer of the more than 700 photographs in Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved, examine a whale bone banjo, one of hundreds of rare scrimshaw treasures in the major new exhibit to be unveiled during Scrimshaw Weekend.

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Deipnosophist n A wise conversationalist at the dinner table. Unfortunately, the two elements of he definition rarely go together. The author, for example, claims to meet one of the two criteria (he refuses to say which) but not the other.

 

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Deipnosophist appears in the Third.

Philip Levine on Naomi Replansky

Philip Levine gave his last lecture as the US poet laureate at the Library of Congress on May 3rd. His 40-minute address entitled "My Forgotten Poets" included a mention of one of our own. He fell in love with a poem by New York writer and Black Sparrow poet Naomi Replansky four years before she published her first book.

We're very proud to have just released Replasnsky's latest, Collected Poems, the collected work of a lifetime by a writer hailed as "one of the most brilliant American poets" by George Oppen. Here is a poem from the collection, for you now:

Nostalgic Memory
of New York

When you come back to,
Come back to the city,
Do not stand and wonder
    —Will it take me back?

It will take you back.

When you look down the
Streets you deserted
They will not rise up
To shake you off,

You, the unfaithful.

The wild automobiles
Will not rear in anger
Nor the gears clash
And their teeth be broken

Just to behold you.

The buildings that never
Bowed down in grief
To see you depart
Will take you back

With their heads high.

And the rush-hour crowd
Will sweep you off your feet
And the short-order cook
Will sizzle you in fat.

Be proud of your welcome.   

1946

Jane Jacobs Walk 2012

This past weekend Jane Jacobs walks took place in over thirty cities across the United States. The Jane Jacobs Walk is a program of the Center for the Living City created by people who knew Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) and wish to celebrate her legacy by helping people organize walks in their communities around the time of Jane's birthday in early May.

Jacobs was a community organizer who helped save her neighborhoods from destruction. She invited everyone to see how cities actually work through experience, to go out and see what makes a neighborhood thrive, or to see what makes a neighborhood struggle. Jacobs's book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States, greatly affected city planning and architecture and the way we think about how life is lived in densely packed urban centers.

Godine is proud to publish Genius of Common Sense: Jane Jacobs and the Story of the Death and Life of Great American Cities by Glenna Lang and Marjory Wunsch, the first book for young people about this heroine who never attended college whose observations, determination, and independent spirit led her to far different conclusions than those of the academics who surrounded her. This title has a far greater range than the young adult audience and will interest people of all ages looking for a good introduction to Jacobs and her work. The hardcover is available now and the paperback will be released in June 2012.

For our architectural buffs out there . . .

William Morgan, author of Godine's Monadnock Summer: The Architectural Legacy of Dublin, New Hampshire, is an architectural historian and contributing writer to Design New England. He's just won first place for "Best Home and Design" feature which was awarded by the magazine for his story on Box Office (pictured below, located in Providence, RI) which ran in their March/April 2011 issue. Congrats, William!

Literacy posters

Awesome. The Denver, Colorado nonprofit literacy group Burning Through Pages has gone viral with these very cool black and white posters encouraging reading (both designed by Mike Anderick):

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Bradykinectic a Moving very slowly. Alternative sense: one who jumps up dynamically to switch off the TV when The Brady Bunch comes on.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Bradykinectic appears in the Second.

Mark Doty in Granta

Granta magazine's new issue focuses on sex:

"Sex is our oldest obsession. For as long as we’ve been doing it, it has been used as a mark of decline and a measure of progress. It has been at the centre of rituals and responsible for revolutions. We make money from it, hide behind it, prohibit and promote it. It relaxes us, revolts us, hurts us and helps us. But whatever we think about it, however we do it, it defines us."

Beloved Godine poet Mark Doty contributes a personal essay, "The Unwriteable: A Married Man's Affair." The video below was made by Granta based on his essay about the affair with a man that ended his marriage to his wife. The film is part of a multimedia push Granta's making, which will include a forthcoming iPhone app.

Doty was also recently interviewed by Jason Boog and Matt Van Hoven on mediabistro.com's blogtalkradio. He comments on how poetry might mix with other media in our digital age: ”I think the idea of offering the perspective of a visual image, a little music, makes a wonderful invitation into a work of literature—be it a poem, a memoir, whatever. Why not use every medium we can find to connect with the audience? I love that the people at Granta are about to put out a smartphone app around this same issue. You will be able to access some media related to the Sex issue on your smartphone very shortly.”

Listen to the entire blogtalktadio interview here.

Back when we were both very young, Godine had the honor of publishing the first two poetry books of Mark Doty, who has since gone on to considerable and deserved fame and fortune, winning the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008, as well as honors from the National Book Critics Circle, the LA Times Book Prize, a Whiting Award, and (as the first American in its history) the T.S. Eliot Prize. We just published Paragon Park, a new collection with the complete texts of Doty's Turtle, Swan and Bethleham in Broad Daylight along with almost two dozen poems that have appeared in small magazines but have never before been collected.

Catie Copley and the Pet-Friendly Fairmont Hotels

Catie Copley, the inspiration for one of our most beloved children's books series, is a very happy Black lab that lives at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel. Catie and the series was recently featured in Advertising Age in a news piece, "Going to the Dogs: Pet-Friendly Hotels Raise the Welcome Sign." For those of you who love to travel with your pets, do take note:

All Fairmont hotels are pet-friendly, but a third have specific services and menus. They range from the Santa Monica Fairmont Hotel's PAW Program, which offers spa services such as "blueberry facials and nail grinding," to the Vancouver Fairmont, which provides a bed, bowl and treat.

"We've seen more and more people that have traveled with pets," said Suzanne Wenz, Fairmont's regional director-public relations. "They're considered, for many people, a part of the family. I think that will increase over time."

As part of its KimptonPets program, the group's hotels accommodate all companion animals (including rabbits, birds and mice) and offer an array of services, including a referral for a pet massage while travelers enjoy their own massage at the hotel spa.

Word-of-mouth and PR appear to be the marketing devices for these services. Neither Fairmont nor Kimpton have dedicated promotional budgets for them, and information is spread through community services and pet-service partnerships.

Though there's still uncertainty about the growth of pet-friendly hotels and the ability of pet travelers to provide meaningful business, Mr. Vetere at APPA said he's hopeful. The improving economy will play the biggest role, he said.

Travelers "want to keep their own active lifestyle while making their pets happy," Mr. Vetere said. "All these services contribute to making that happen." After following these trends, APPA has identified hotels as potential future partners in promoting pet ownership and travel.

What about guests who leave their dog at home or are otherwise "pet-deprived"? Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel offers the Canine Adventure package, built around Catie Copley, the resident black Labrador who plays a role similar to that of Eloise at The Plaza in New York. It includes a stuffed Catie Copley Dog and a copy of children's book Catie Copley's Great Escape.

"A lot of people take Catie for a walk, maybe five walks a day, whether or not they're on the package," said Ms. Wenz.

Pics from The Lonely Phone Booth play!

The Lonely Phone Booth play is now up and running at the Manhattan Children's Theatre! Performances will run from April 7–29th, 2012 on Saturdays and Sundays at 12pm and 2pm.

Here are some pics from opening night:

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Hygeiolatry n Fanaticism about health. More useful, these days, would be a word for fanaticism about fitness—an increasingly prevalent condition, judging by the thousands of goggle-eyed whirling dervishes of our time bounding about in aerobics classes and jogging their way doggedly around what, but for their presence, would be scenic tracks and pathways.



Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Hygeiolatry appears in the Second.

Book designer Chip Kidd @ TED

Carolyn Kellogg over at Jacket Copy shared this talk. It's worth a listen:

Book designer Chip Kidd spoke at the main 2012 TED conference; his speech was posted online Wednesday. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have devoted the past 25 years to designing books," he says when he gets to the substance of his talk. Above him a slide reads, "Yes, BOOKS. You know, the bound volumes with ink on paper. You cannot turn them off with a switch. Tell your kids."

He brings that irreverence – and interactivity – to his talk, which highlights what a print book can do.

Eddie Chuculate @ 2012 Indigenous Book Festival

Black Sparrow author, Eddie Chuculate, will be a panelist for the "Celebrating Fiction" event at the 2012 Indigenous Book Festival hosted by the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM. The festival will take place on April 12th and 13th and has a rich schedule planned which includes presentations on "Environment and Sustainability Initiatives" and "Cultural Revitalization for the 21st Century", Indigenous Storytelling, creative writing workshops, and poetry-focused events.

Chuculate is a Creek/Cherokee Indian from Muskogee, Oklahoma and we're proud to publish Cheyenne Madonna, his debut collection of gritty, deceptively simple stories that recall Junot Diaz and Jim Harrison. From Jennifer Levin at The Santa Fe New Mexican: "Chuculate presents a profound disconnect between the mythology of Indian art and the present-day reality of Indian artists, who rarely get to be artists without the cultural qualifier. He also lays bare the effects of wide-spread multi-generational addiction without making excuses for the way his characters treat each other. There are no saints in here, and no demons, either. Cheyenne Madonna is a fantastic debut."

For more information on the festival and the full program please click here.