Birth of a National Park in the Great Smoky Mountains
75th Anniversary Edition
Was: $18.95
Now: $15

Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide
Second Edition
Was: $24.95
Now: $15

Encyclopedia of Appalachia
Was: $79.95
Now: $35

Echoes of Thunder
A Guide to the Seven Days Battles
Was: $24.95
Now: $15

Whatever You Resolve to Be
Essays on Stonewall Jackson
Was: $19.95
Now: $15

Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion
Moorman’s and Hart’s Batteries
Was: $45.00
Now: $30

Highway 61
Heart of the Delta
Was: $36.95
Now: $20

The Adventures of Douglas Bragg
A Novel
Was: 29.95
Now: 15.00

Blue Awesome Ascending
A Novel
Was: 29.95
Now: 15.00

In celebration of UT Press’s 70th anniversary and African American History Month, select titles are on sale for 20% to 50% off retail. For details, please visit http://utpress.org/whats-on-sale/.

The University of Tennessee Press this year celebrates 70 years of publishing distinguished books for both scholarly and general audiences.

On February 15, 1940, UT President James D. Hoskins read a statement to the university trustees proposing the establishment of the Press. It became one of many prestigious university presses founded during the first half of the twentieth century, including the University of North Carolina Press in 1922, the University of Georgia Press in 1938, the University of South Carolina Press in 1944, and the University Press of Kentucky in 1949.

After 70 years of growth and change, the University of Tennessee Press has earned a reputation for excellence. Today it publishes 35 to 40 titles a year in many different disciplines and is especially known for its important publications in African American studies, women’s studies, history, anthropology, religion, folklore, Native American studies, architectural history and material culture, and especially Appalachian studies and southern history.

Some of the Press’s most outstanding publications include the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, edited by Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell, winner of the 2007 Weatherford Award; Intellectual Life in the Colonial South by Richard Beale Davis, winner of the 1978 National Book Award in history; The Collected Works of James Agee, edited by Michael Lofaro; and the presidential papers of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk. The Press has published many outstanding works about the East Tennessee area, many from local authors. Popular titles include Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Community by Durwood Dunn, The Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English by Michael B. Montgomery and Joseph S. Hall, and several humor books, as well as works on other topics, by Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Sam Venable. The Press has also reprinted a number of classic works about the South and the Appalachian region, including Horace Kephart’s famed Our Southern Highlanders, one of the very first books to document the culture of the Great Smoky Mountains.

In July 2008, Scot Danforth was named the fourth director of the Press. Among the exciting projects currently in the works under Mr. Danforth’s direction are a 2010 revision of the online Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, an extremely popular Web site maintained in conjunction with the Tennessee Historical Society; the construction of an online edition of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia under a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission; and a textbook imprint, Torchbearer Texts, which will utilize new technology.

Steeped in a rich tradition of bringing important scholarly and regional publications to light, the Press is committed to its mission for the 21st century.

The Press is planning several events in celebration of its anniversary, including a reception in October. Further announcements will follow as plans for these events develop.

James Lee McDonough and Myron King Jr.

UT Press Publicist Tom Post and Carl Kell

Despite a brief evacuation of the War Memorial Plaza on Friday due to weather, the Southern Festival Books was a great success this year. By Saturday the sun was shining again, the temperature was warmer, and the book buying public in Nashville, TN, was out and about. Fourteen UTP authors took part in panel discussions. Please see our previous SFB post for the complete list of authors who participated.

Jack Neely, author of Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth has been busily educating the Knoxville community about the city’s enigmatic Market Square area. Jack recently signed copies of Market Square at Wine on the Water, a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; at the Square Room; at Carpe Librum Booksellers; and on a Pub Crawl that highlighted locations discussed in the book. Jack’s next appearance will be at Knoxville’s Brewer’s Jam on Oct. 24.

Beech Mountain Man: The Memoirs of Ronda Lee Hicks
Tom Burton
A Tennessee Folklore Sampler: Selections from the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 1935-2009
Ted Olson and Anthony Cavender
Voices from the Nueva Frontera: Latino Immigration in Dalton, Georgia
Donald Davis
In the Tennessee Mountains
Bill Hardwig
Yale’s Confederates: A Biographical Dictionary
Nathaniel Hughes
Against the Wind: The Moderate Voice in Baptist Life
Carl Kell
The Atomic Bomb and American Society: New Perspectives
Rosemary Mariner
The Wars of Myron King: A B-17 Pilot Faces WWII and U.S.-Soviet Intrigue
James Lee McDonough
A Backward Glance: The Southern Renascence, the Autobiographical Epic, and the Classical Legacy
Joseph Millichap
Mississippi in Transition: The Role of the Mississippi Humanities Council
Cora Norman
TVA Archaeology: Seventy-five Years of Prehistoric Site Research
Erin Pritchard
Great Things Are Expected of Us: The Letters of Colonel C. Irvine Walker, 10th South Carolina Infantry, C.S.A.
Charles Denny Runion
Reminiscences of an Old Georgia Lawyer: Judge Garnett Andrews
S. Kittrell Rushing

Horace Kephart’s Camping and Woodcraft and Our Southern Highlanders received mention in the Smoky Mountains segment of Ken Burns’s highly anticipated PBS special, National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth
Jack Neely

Market Square District Association is having a book signing and Market Square Pub Crawl with Jack Neely on Saturday, September 12, 2009. Mr. Neely will sign copies of the book beginning at 12 noon on Market Square. At 3 p.m., meet at the bell and he will lead a tour and pub crawl highlighting the history of the Square. Admission for the event is the purchase of a copy of Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event and at the Market Square Farmers’ Market or guests can bring their own copy for Mr. Neely to sign. Market Square is available wherever books are sold.

Other Events (check often, updates frequently)

Wine on the Water, Volunteer Landing
Oct. 2

Brewers Jam, Oct. 24

Randy Norris and Jean-Philippe Cypres were recently at Carpe Librum in Knoxville, talking Delta talk and offering up some top-notch blues harmonica (thanks JP!). Read more about their book, Highway 61: Heart of the Delta, with a Foreword by Morgan Freeman at http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/aug/16/ut-press-book-explores-delta/

Author and columnist Jack Neely (MetroPulse, Knoxville Magazine) discussed his new book, Market Square: A History of the Most Democratic Place on Earth, on this month’s DIALOGUE, WUOT-FM’s monthly call-in show. The podcast will be available Thursday (Aug. 6) at www.wuot.org.