People's Histories

In From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore, Daryl Cumber Dance (Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women's Humor) celebrates rumors, riddles, recipes, song lyrics, sermons, art objects and stories. The anthology offers a compendious assortment folklore and commentary on African-American culture by the eminent likes of Frederick Douglass, Jelly Roll Morton and Jacqui Malone. Zora Neale Hurston's fashion sense is assessed by her contemporaries; nursery rhymes and clapping games are recounted by experts; quilts and tramp art are pictured; and superstitions are repeated. Dance, a professor at the University of Richmond, has assembled an impressive, diverse array of African Americana, including 30 b&w photos and 16 pages of color photos. (Norton, $35 760p ISBN 0-393-04798-9; Feb.)

The artistic and intellectual output of many talented downtown denizens is featured, in chronological order, in The Greenwich Village Reader: Fiction, Poetry, and Reminiscences, edited by June Skinner Sawyers (Celtic Music: A Complete Guide). The multifarious but distinct flavor of the district shines through in selections (some presented in full but many of them excerpted) as varied as a Djuna Barnes article on some downtown hotspots, Sinclair Lewis's short story "Hobohemia," Willa Cather's Washington Square short story "Coming, Aphrodite!," a Lionel Trilling piece on Edmund Wilson, Howard Smith's Village Voice article on Jack Kerouac, Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters and poems by Frank O'Hara. Though not comprehensive, the anthology allows readers to skim the neighborhood's rich literary history. (Cooper Square [National Book Network, dist.], $35 808p ISBN 0-8154-1148-0; Dec.)

For a while in the late 1980s, it seemed as if all of Duke University's English Department had gone public with the complications and heartbreaks of the life of the star academic. After Duke's mainly white English Department finished telling their stories, the confessional narratives of academics have had a continued, and much more important, role as a genre where those marginalized by the academy for reasons of race or ethnicity tell about their complicated entry and then incorporation into the university system. In Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios, the 18 women of the Latina Feminist group, formed in 1993 and including Ruth Behar and Eliana Rivero, discuss immigrant and working class childhoods, developing a love of reading, an avoidance of K—12 teaching in order to partake of the larger promises of the (mostly literature-based) university positions. (Duke Univ., $19.95 paper 400p ISBN 0-8223-2765-1; Nov.)

Love and War

Most readers know about same-sex romance in ancient Greece and Rome. Fewer may be aware of its prevalence among soldiers in those societies, and even fewer will know of such relationships in modern-day militaries. In Gay Warriors: A Documentary History from the Ancient World to the Present, B.R. Burg (Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition), Professor of History at Arizona State University, presents records of gays and lesbians on the battlefield from the Amazons through U.S. soldiers in the Gulf War. John Boswell discusses "the association of homosexuals with democracy and the military" circa 300 B.C.; Anne Gilmour-Bryson explores "Sodomy and the Knights Templar," a medieval religious and military order; and in 1952 the U.S. Army delivered a "Lecture for the 'Indoctrination of WAVE Recruits on Subject of Homosexuality.' " (New York Univ., $19.95 paper 436p ISBN 0-8147-9886-1; Jan. 1)

In The Harvey Milk Institute Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Internet Research, editors Alan Ellis, Liz Highley, Kevin Schaub and Melissa White offer an invaluable resource for academic, social and political research. Observing that pursuing information on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues is still somewhat difficult today, the editors provide two chapters on Internet research practices and tools (including a discussion of determining the credibility of electronic information), and then several more based on different professional fields including Queer Studies, Human Sexuality Studies, Social and Biological Sciences, Law and Philosophy, etc. Each of these later chapters lists numerous Internet sites and some non-Web resources. (Haworth/Harrington Park, $39.95 188p ISBN 1-56023-352-4; $14.95 paper -353-3; Nov.)

Craig A. Rimmerman (The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service) looks at sociopolitical triumphs, setbacks and future plans in From Identity to Politics: The Lesbian and Gay Movements in the United States. Rimmerman, a professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a former Capitol Hill staffer, draws on eight years worth of interviews with activists, scholars, journalists and politicos to investigate the historical divide between scholarship, activism and mainstream political processes. Rigorous but accessible, this poli-sci take on the struggle for gay and lesbian rights offers a blueprint for those readers interested in actively linking identity-driven movements with broader progressive agendas concerning class, race and gender issues to forge a coalition for social and political change. Illus. (Temple Univ., $69.50 272p ISBN 1-56639-904-1/-905-X; $19.95 paper -905-X; Jan.)

After heady doses of history and theory, readers can turn to more book-based pursuits with a title from Kevin Bentley (Sailor: Vintage Photos of a Masculine Icon): Afterwords: Real Sex from Gay Men's Diaries. Whether it's love or lust or power games, the scenarios are always hot. Oral sex with Croatian hustlers in back allies, orgies in French bars, anonymous encounters in cemeteries and bath houses, three-ways, s&m and every other variety of gay sexual encounter is recounted in detail. Many contributors take pains to describe their emotional and physical reactions, the milieu, the sky, the city streets. This top-drawer erotic anthology from a well-known and well-respected house will sell like hotcakes. (Alyson, $14.95 paper 264p ISBN 1-55583-656-9; Dec.)

Interiors and Exteriors

The meeting of two great 20th-century architectural minds is recorded in Frank Lloyd Wright & Lewis Mumford: Thirty Years of Correspondence, edited by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Archives Director at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and Robert Wojtowicz, chair of the Art Department at Old Dominion University. Wright first wrote to Mumford in 1926, when he was in his 50s and already renowned, and Mumford was in his 30s and making his name in cultural criticism. Mumford, who focused much of his writing on architecture and urban planning, greatly admired Wright's work as "the exemplar of organic design, built in accordance with the rhythms of modern life"; the two men shared ideas and interests, though Mumford resisted getting too intimate in order to preserve his critical integrity. Their friendship weathered political, aesthetic and personal disagreements (including a 10-year rift regarding U.S. intervention in WWII), but up until Wright's death in 1959 they maintained fondness and admiration for one another. B&w photos. (Princeton Architectural, $27.50 320p ISBN 1-56898-291-7; Dec.)

In a tried-and-true pop-scholarly format, writer and photographer Susan Gray (Writers on Directors) presents Architects on Architects. The essays include Mario Grandelsonas on Mies van der Rohe, Cesar Pelli on Eero Saarinen, Diana Agrest on Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein, Charles Gwathmey on Louis Kahn and Der Scutt on Paul Rudolph. The contributors discuss the impact of their heroes and teachers on their own work, and many pieces convey nostalgia, admiration and gratitude. Arata Isozaki discusses Le Corbusier's death by drowning in relation to his vision: "the sea was the substance of motive force that provoked all of his imagination by permeating every detail of his body." Ricardo Legorreta describes studying under José Villagrán at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. With 200 elegant photos and illustrations of work by both mentors and mentees, architects and enthusiasts will delight in this moving, erudite collection. (McGraw-Hill, $39.95 236p ISBN 0-07-137583-X; Nov.)

In The World of Biedermeier, interior designer Linda Chase (coauthor, In the Romantic Style) and German antiques maven Karl Kemp explore "the first great flowering of the haute bourgeois," a German era and style named for a cartoon character, Gottlieb Biedermeier, a schoolteacher and poet from small-town Germany invented by the publishers of a satirical magazine. This period, also known as the Pre-March Period, the Restoration, the Age of Goethe, etc., was an extremely difficult time to be living in Europe; stagnant, depressed times were replaced by bloody, frightening times after Napoleon crowned himself emperor. Here, the authors and photographer Lois Lammerhuber present a lavish tribute to the castles, table settings, "austere and simple" furniture and master Biedermeier craftsmen such as Karl Friedrich Schinkel. This lovely collection will be devoured by art historians and interior designers as well as by the House and Garden crowd. 200 color illus. (Thames & Hudson, $95 416p ISBN 0-500-51055-5; Nov. 2)

Finding, Buying and Making Art

International and domestic tourists will appreciate Suzanne Loebl's America's Art Museums: A Traveler's Guide to Great Collections Large and Small. Organized by state, the book covers everything from Arizona's Fleischer Museum, specializing in the California School of American Impressionism, and Harvard's Arthur M. Sackler Museum, featuring Asian art, to the Studio Museum in Harlem, with important African-American, African and Caribbean work, and the Toledo Museum of Art, with an impressive glass collection from the ages. New York's, Chicago's and the universities' heavyweights of course receive their due. Each entry includes all necessary practical information, including activities for children and, in several friendly but pithy paragraphs, Loebl offers her impressions of the collections, services and facilities. Many entries include a photograph of a museum or artwork. (Norton, $18.95 paper 416p ISBN 0-393-32006-5; Jan.)

For a less site-specific and more monetarily focused tour of art history, Art: A Field Guide covers more 770 painters in 700 full-color illustrations, noting how many of their works sold between 1999 and 2000 (with figures on lowest and high prices achieved), along with the highest price paid at auction prior to December 31, 2000—or the record price. Robert Cumming, formerly of London's Tate Gallery and Christie's auction house, is now an independent writer and curator. He explains key forms, techniques, movements and styles, and puts his eye to serious yet entertaining use in this romp through the trade. Readers addicted to Antiques Roadshow will get a similar thrill, with or without the cash to put the book to use. (Knopf, $27.50 flexibinding 480p ISBN 0-375-41312-X; Nov. 18)

For those looking to produce world-class art rather than sell it, and to produce it in a world-class city, there's An Artist's Guide—Making It in New York City by Daniel Grant (The Artist's Resource Handbook). Optimistic but realistic, Grant knowingly takes novices through all the steps of emigration, from "Testing the Waters by Visiting First" to "Looking for Lofts in All the Wrong Places" and "The Art World's Cutthroat Competition" with plenty of addresses, Web sites, case studies, money-making schemes and some horror stories, such as when critic Clement Greenberg called Jules Olitsky "the best painter living," leading to a serious Olitsky backlash. (Allworth [Watson-Guptill, dist.], $18.95 paper 280p ISBN 1-58115-195-0; Nov.)

Facture and Fauna

Accompanying an exhibit at New York's Asia Society, Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China explores this busy region in the period between the Han and Tang Dynasties, the third through seventh centuries C.E. Annette L. Juliano, Professor of Chinese Art at Rutgers University, and art historian Judith A. Lerner present detailed looks at 120 objects (375 illustrations, 232 in full color), including bronze belt buckles excavated from the tomb of a sixth-century husband and wife, a five-stone beige sandstone pagoda with relief carving from the fifth century and a gilt bronze seated Buddha with parasol from circa 400 C.E. The authors describe the pivotal role played by the Silk Road as a site for commerce and cultural exchange with the West, carried out by Buddhist monks, foreign missionaries and nomadic tribes. (Abrams, $65 352p ISBN 0-8109-3478-7; Dec.)

Philippe Germond, a professor of Egyptology at the University of Geneva, has created An Egyptian Bestiary, highlighting, in 280 lavish color illustrations, the Egyptian perception of animals as representations of divine creativity, from the secular and mundane world of craftsmen to the sacred realm of priests, pharaohs and gods. The ancient Nile Valley boasted a diverse, sometimes bothersome and even dangerous array of wildlife and domesticated animals. Though the Egyptians used animals for labor and nourishment, they also viewed them as "the visible signs of primeval forces that it was necessary... to propitiate." (Thames & Hudson, $65 224p ISBN 0-500-51059-8; Nov.)

Books That Help

In Divorce Poison: Protecting the Parent-Child Bond from a Vindictive Ex, Richard A. Warshak (The Custody Revolution) offers guidance to parents whose exes portray them to their children in a negative light, whether it's mild, off-the-cuff badmouthing or systematic character assassination. Common psychological wisdom, besides recommending that parents avoid fighting fire with fire, suggests doing nothing. But Warshak has witnessed the feelings of powerlessness and the increasing difficulties that come from doing nothing. So he provides "a blueprint for an effective response grounded in a solid understanding of the techniques and dynamics of parents who poison their children's relationships with loved ones." After describing numerous nuances of inter-parental malignment (brainwashing, false abuse accusations, revisionist history, etc.), Warshak moves on to "Poison Control," both independently and with the help of professional counselors. This book will seem a godsend to the many divorcés who are bashed by their ex-spouses. (Regan Books, $26 304p ISBN 0-06-018899-5; Jan.)

Three Rivers presents two related self-help titles in December. In Order from Chaos: A 6-Step Plan for Organizing Yourself, Your Office, and Your Life, Liz Davenport offers specific practical suggestions to those who feel overwhelmed by physical and mental clutter. Davenport, owner of an organizing business with the same name as the book, teaches readers how to distinguish trash from necessities, organize their desktops (a Desktop File, an In Box, a To Read box, a To File box), keep their planners manageable and many more time- and mental health—saving devices. ($13 paper 256p ISBN 0-609-80777-3; Dec.)

Work from the Inside Out: 7 Steps to Loving What You Do, by Nancy O'Hara (Find a Quiet Corner), a former publishing executive and a practicing Buddhist who now conducts corporate seminars and retreats on mindfulness, applies the Zen precept of doing things for their own sake, as opposed to for an end, to our work lives. Her seven broad steps include "Understanding and Acceptance" and "Disciplined Attention." She suggests specifics such as asking ourselves at the end of each day if we blamed someone else for something we didn't accomplish, or making a list of the aspects of our work situations we don't like and then assessing if it's within our power to change each one. ($14 paper 272p ISBN -80592-4)

For those scared off by the seemingly endless self-help road and amenable to New Age philosophy, Gloria Arenson, a psychologist specializing in energy and power therapies, presents Five Simple Steps to Emotional Healing: The Last Self-Help Book You Will Ever Need. Arenson practices and ardently recommends Meridian Therapy, a technique stemming from acupressure that allows people to decrease their levels of stress without professional help. By tapping on eight different spots on their bodies, practitioners can alleviate anxiety, the impacts of trauma, compulsive behaviors and any number of other difficulties. (Fireside, $13 paper 272p ISBN 0-7432-1387-4; Dec.)

November Publication

Health officials as far back as the 1930s were aware of a sometimes deadly disease suffered by textile workers called "brown-lung," or byssinosis, that was caused by prolonged exposure to cotton dust. But it was not until 1978 that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) paid attention, estimating that 35,000 people had the disease and 100,000 more were at risk, and imposing a standard on textile factories to protect workers from contracting the disease. In The Cotton Dust Papers: Science, Politics, and Power in the "Discovery" of Byssinosis in the U.S., Charles Levenstein and Gregory F. DeLaurier, with Mary Lee Dunn, draw on many primary sources and other research to follow the disease's 50-year path from being ignored by officialdom to recognition as a high priority by OSHA. Labor scholars and readers interested in occupational health will appreciate this conscientious account. (Baywood [www.baywood.com], $32.95 156p ISBN 0-89503-265-1; Nov. 15)

October Publications

New York University Department of Journalism students and professors and Blue Ear editors speedily marshaled their forces after the September 11 attacks to prepare 9/11 8:48 am: Documenting America's Greatest Tragedy, an anthology of accounts by survivors, first-hand witnesses and people less directly affected. A Ugandan high school student, an airline pilot, photographers, writers and people of all stripes offer their personal, wide-ranging reactions to the tragedy. (Booksurge.com and BlueEar.com, $14.99 336p ISBN 1-59109-011-3; Oct.)

In The Price of Terror: Lessons of Lockerbie for a World on the Brink, Allan Gerson, a former prosecutor of Nazi war crimes, currently a professor of international relations at George Washington University, and Jerry Adler (High Rise), a senior editor at Newsweek, reconstruct the struggle for justice for the bomb victims and their families after the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Gerson, an expert in international law, took up the cause of pursuing the Libyan suspects, even when the U.S. government did little and lawyers told the victims' families that there was no precedent for suing Libya. Gerson and Adler track the tragedy from the moment the bomb exploded, killing 270, through the trial in Scotland. In the aftermath of September 11, this timely account of the legal, political and emotional aftermath of international mass murder will be of interest to many. Photos. (HarperCollins, $25.95 322p ISBN 0-06-019761-7; On-sale: Oct. 24)