Bison Books, the trade paperback line at the University of Nebraska Press, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. To share the excitement, the press is offering a prize of 50 books worth $500 in a drawing to be conducted at BEA. The winner gets to choose the books from the full range of the press's titles: backlist, frontlist, hardcover, or paperback. "It's so much more exciting than a preset list," says editor–in-chief Heather Lundine.
Lundine explains the Bison mission as a commitment to publish fine and popular works at affordable prices. "We were one of the first places to do that. That's why we're so proud and excited. We do try to stay conscious of price, though the books cost a lot more than they did in 1961." With more than 900 Bison books currently in print, the herd, as the press refers to the list, continues to grow at a rate of 50 or so books a year.
"A lot of the Bison books have a Western identity," says Lundine, noting, in particular, Mari Sandoz's Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas, which was a One Book, One Nebraska selection, and Sandoz's portrait of her pioneer father, Old Jules, the first Bison title. "Elinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader has been in print since the beginning," she notes. To sum up and celebrate Bison's half century, the press has just published The Golden West: Fifty Years of Bison Books, with an introduction by David Wrobel ("The West and America: The National Significance of Regional Writing") and excerpts from many bestselling titles, including Willa Cather's O Pioneers!, Wright Morris's Plains Song, and David Lavender's One Man's West.
Lundine is also enthusiastic about a new series that deals with the life and legend of Buffalo Bill, being done in conjunction with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and the McCracken Research Library. Under the series rubric the Papers of William F. ‘Buffalo Bill' Cody, one of the first titles to appear will be The Life of Hon. William F. Cody Known as Buffalo Bill the Famous Hunter, Scout and Guide (Oct.), a new edition of Cody's autobiography, edited by Buffalo Bill scholar Frank Christianson. "There is an incredible collection of letters, photos, business records, original texts—anything you can imagine," says Lundine. "The man was an early American celebrity. This new edition of his auto-biography shows his crafting of his persona over time."
To register for the 50-book drawing, pick up a copy of The Golden West, or to find out more about the Buffalo Bill project, stop by booth 2546 anytime during the show. The winner of the drawing will be notified at 2 p.m., Thursday, at the Nebraska booth, and need not be present to win.
