To e-book or not to e-book?

Should the SDSHS Press start publishing some of our backlist in e-book format that can be downloaded from the internet and read on a PC or a portable reading device?

Let us know what you think.

Speeding into the New Year

2008 draws to an end and 2009 dawns, hopefully bright and enervating. There is much pessimism in the book world at the moment, with the big houses laying off staff and cutting back on new books. Additionally, the industry is not sure where the future lies in terms of how people will access readable content. Some clues point to the emergence of an early-style Napster for books, others to a much better control of emerging technologies by the book publishers than the music industry had when illegal downloading took hold. The future may always be bright, but right now, it would seem that no-one in the book world is really sure which light to turn towards.

An article in Publishers Weekly recently, highlighted the increase in sales in used books, describing the practice of people selling on their old books at incredibly low prices. Many buyers see this as a great way to pick up fairly new books for little cost. Of course, unfortunately, there are consequences to such actions. In particular, the person most responsible for that book, the author, doesn’t see a penny from the follow-on sales; no royalties are paid on second-hand books. In addition, the publisher sees no return on its heavy investment. For a small, independent press like the SDSHS Press this is particularly painful. Smaller budgets mean smaller margins, and if someone passes on their read copy for pennies on the dollar, that means one less new sale.

However, it is not all doom-and-gloom for 2009, and certainly not here at the SDSHS Press. We’re extremely fortunate in that we have loyal readers with a fascination for South Dakota’s history. So, as we look forward to 2009 and the new books on our forthcoming list, we see great things for anyone with an inkling for our rich heritage. We hope you’ll enjoy the 2009 offerings as much as you did in 2008 and before.

Stay warm tonight if you need to, enjoy your party or other celebrations, and have fun as the clock chimes 12.

Jumping-Off Place makes best books list

That is probably a slightly deceiving headline, seeing as how it is only one person’s top-12 books of 2008 list. Still, it is nice to get the recognition for bringing The Jumping-Off Place back to modern readers, and it seems to have found favor whenever it has been read.

This book is also reviewed on another blog.

Kind words

I’ve mentioned the joy of good review before. It is always pleasing to read that someone else likes the books that we work so hard on for so long. Of course, the author, most likely receives even more pleasure from such things.

The always intriguing Google Alerts notified me of a new review of Waiting for Coyote’s Call posted on Amazon.com, so I clicked on the link to see what it said. A perfect review is hard to find of course, but this must rank as fairly close. Thanks have to go to the reviewer as he spent time crafting the comments and delved deep into the meaning of the book. So, without further ado, read on:

Excellent, informative, and enjoyable eco-memoir, November 15, 2008
By Dean J. Spader (Midwest) – See all my reviews

Book Review of Waiting for Coyote’s Call:
An Eco-memoir from the Missouri River Bluff by Jerry Wilson
(South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2008)

In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold wrote: “Every farm woodland, in addition to yielding lumber, fuel, and posts, should provide its owner a liberal education. This crop of wisdom never fails, but it is not always harvested.” Leopold’s analogy urges us to harvest the crop of information provided by the specific ecosystem in which we live. Most of us fail miserably at this harvest, and perhaps that explains why humans are the most invasive species on Earth.

Fortunately for us, Jerry Wilson heard Leopold’s admonitions and spent 25 years harvesting this wisdom by daily recording the facts and observations of his bluff habitat in his journal. Now we the readers of this memoir can feast at the banquet that Jerry offers us from his laborious harvest. He serves a multicourse feast (20 chapters) that rivals those offered by his naturalist mentors (Leopold, Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, Candace Savage, and many others). The banquet includes vivid descriptions of wildlife, detailed documentation of plant life, lively stories from his early farm life, and a verbal movie of his family’s ongoing experiment of life on the Missouri bluffs. My favorite course is the chapter in which Jerry details the laborious but inspiring years of successfully restoring prairie on 30 acres. Paradoxically, the chapter on the darkness and befriending the night was most enlightening! In short, all readers, especially Midwestern naturalists and Sierra members, should enjoy many, if not all, the courses in the feast of local knowledge and wisdom served in this book.

The book is divided into five parts with each part containing four chapters. The first part, “Rehomesteading the Prairie,” covers their purchase a bluff site and construction of a solar home using their own skills and labor. In the second part, “Into the Woods,” Wilson relates many “long-treasured images of youth,” (such as climbing trees and exploring forests, learning about water in streams and rivers, and probing how to let “darkness become my friend”) to his beliefs and practices.

In part three, entitled “All My Relatives,” Wilson uses extensive research to document the many human incursions into eastern South Dakota prior to 1858, and to tell engaging stories of past owners of the land since 1858. He ends part three with two informative chapters on the birds and wildlife along the bluff. Part four covers the many tasks of living in a “Prairie Home”—log splitting, removing rocks, gardening and raising food, to mention only a few—to show the concrete means used to achieve their goal of living more sustainably. Part five, entitled, “The Bluff and Beyond,” contains four chapters that follow the traditions of Leopold and Thoreau of critiquing destructive, modern practices, such as mono crop farming and surface mining in the Black Hills. The book’s final chapter, “A Year on the Bluff,” takes the reader through one year of the unique, month-by-month changes in bluff ecosystems that simultaneously point to broad circular and continuous patterns in nature.

Interspersing quotes from Leopold, Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Wendell Berry, Candace Savage, and many others, Wilson reveals a caretaker’s concern for nature’s diverse beauty (“Taking care is our highest calling.”) Though his memoir describes one family’s specific experiences, it contains universal appeal to all who seek a sustainable land ethic. To sustain nature, one must understand nature’s ways—at least enough to allow nature to pursue its own biotic complexity. This book delves into nature’s complex diversity while inviting all readers to imagine and feel its wondrous mysteries still unknown.

We know that nature unleashed becomes nature diversified. Wilson’s goal is to unleash nature and document its growing diversity. He knows that any attempt to describe the complex web of life is a mere snapshot in time, and he often uses the brevity of poetic vividness to add sharpness to his snapshots. But this is not a book of poetry, and he uses mostly a lively prose style to create dynamic verbal images that make his memoir flow like a movie. (A series of color photos in the middle of the book also add the touch of local flavor to his memoir.)

Wilson models the life path of land stewardship that both diminishes invasive footsteps, and labors strenuously to restore nature’s complex diversity. He encourages us to stop, listen and learn as we activate all our senses. He asks us to expand the quantity and quality of our own harvest of nature’s wisdom. Like Leopold, he warns that without both the information to know when to remain passive and when to bring our senses to high alert, we destroy nature’s invisible and interconnected webs.

I greatly enjoyed reading this memoir and profited richly from its intricate details, insightful quotes, stirring memories, critical observations, engaging humor, and lively stories. It is more than a memoir compiled from 25 years of daily journal entries; it is a coherent ethic for sustainable living through ongoing learning and inherent appreciation of nature’s feast of wisdom.
By, Dean Spader, Living River Group, Sierra Club

Christmas in Tripp County, 1910

The following is an excerpt from the recently republished, Newbery Honor book, The Jumping-Off Place by Marian Hurd McNeely.

“Christmas is coming too,” said Becky.
“Swell chance we’ll get of a celebration. If we get a good Christmas dinner I’ll be satisfied.”
“The kids won’t. They’ve been counting on it for weeks. Look at Joan’s list. I found it in her spelling book last Monday.”

Dear Santa Close
Plece dont forget to Give Bronx a preset
What I want for Crismase:
Haingkerches
Doll
Books
Games
A pensl
Candy
A dolls trunk
Rist watch
Past
A litel pelo for the doll

“What’s a pelo?” inquired Dick.
“Something you sleep on, of course. I can provide that, easily enough, and the ‘pensl’ and perhaps the paste, but I’m afraid she can’t count on a trunk, much less the watch.”
“They’ll have to do what I’m doing—count without getting any answer. Six months into $300 doesn’t leave much when you subtract for seed and payment on land and insurance and food.”
Becky bent her eyes on her brother as he went back to his figures. Dick had certainly changed in the last seven months. When he left Wisconsin he had been a careless, happy-go-lucky boy, whose interests were football and skating and the running high jump; who never had a cent in his pocket, nor a worry in his head. And now he was spending the evening over family accounts! He had altered physically, too. His freckles and his rebellious reddish hair were unchanged, but his shoulders had broadened, his merry brown eyes were soberer and steadier, and his mouth was resolute. Tripp County had made Dick a man.
“We’ll we’re going to have a Christmas,” said the girl—“such as it is. I have two blouses for Phil, and two aprons for Joan cut out, for a start, and I’ve already sent Mary Dennison some money for a game and a book apiece. I’ll make some candy and some popcorn balls, and perhaps we can buy a few oranges. That would be a real treat for them. As for you, Dicky, you’ll have to take my blessings and a new pair of suspenders.”
“Cut out the suspenders, and apply the money on the garden seeds next spring. I planned to subscribe to a couple of magazines for you, but you won’t even get the funny page of the Omaha Bee now.”
“Funny how little you care for the unnecessaries out here. In fact, I never knew what the necessaries were until I tries homesteading.”
“Food, clothing, and shelter,” quoted Dick. “And easy on the clothing, too. All you need is enough to keep the heat off in summer and cold off in winter. If I went to town wrapped in mealsacks I don’t think anybody would look at me twice.”
“Four dollars of this month’s salary has to go to the school children,” went on Becky. “I’ve sent for a box of crayons and some candy for each one. I’d have a tree for them if there were evergreens within reach of us. I don’t think one of them, except the Lamberts, ever had a Christmas. You ought to hear the questions they ask about it. Venus asked me yesterday if Santa Claus would come if you wrote to Sears-Roebuck about it. I don’t suppose the Wubbers ever had a Christmas gift in their lives.”
“It’ll be a new thing for Phil and Joan to come down to small pickings. Uncle Jim used to have such a whale of a Christmas for us all.”
Both children were silent. They could see Uncle Jim standing on the step-ladder, fastening the gold start on the treetop; Uncle Jim sawing away down cellar at the toy boats and doll houses he always produced at Christmas time; Uncle Jim coming in on Christmas Eve, with bulging pockets, shining eyes, and flecks of snow powdering his coat. . . . The old Christmases never could back to Becky and Dick. They would do their best for the younger children, but it was Uncle Jim that had made the holiday for them.

A Note from the Past

Vermillion, Dak.
Dec. 21st, 1881
My Dear Joe,:
I have just received your hurriedly written note. The girls are delighted with their picture books and Quinnie says to tell you she likes you now. Father has not yet returned & we are enjoying the quiet which comes from having a small family.
Monday, the day you left, I wrote to your grandmother and sent her one of your pictures. I told her I would drop her a card when I learned of your safe arrival home.
After you left I made up my mind I would take things quite easy and work as much for myself and as little for the rest as I could–one day cured me of that idea and I’ve settled down to doing just the same as I’ve always done.
I haven’t got our (Mother & mine) presents yet but will this afternoon. No, my Dear Joe, I don’t need any admonition such as “Love the giver” to make me love you, and I hope the knowledge that I do truly and earnestly love you will be to you a help and make you happier.
The expression of your face as I saw it last will be with me till I see it again–tender and loving, true and earnest–a face in which I can trust and at the same time know I am trusted.
Excuse this note and I Will write a long letter on Christmas day. . . .
With much love I remain
Your Alice

Excerpted from Sunshine Always: The Courtship Letters of Alice Bower and Joseph Gossage of Dakota Territory.

Warmest Holiday Greetings to You All

As the Holidays draw upon us, the team at the South Dakota State Historical Society Press would like to wish our warmest seasonal greetings to you all.

We hope you have an enjoyable week or so, and that the New Year brings you all prosperity and peace. Hopefully, you will get a chance to sit down with a good book in a favorite spot and read and read and read. That might, just might, be one of the best things about this time of year.

Jumping-Off Place Featured in Christmas Blog

An interesting book blog featuring Christmas descriptions through the ages has added The Jumping-Off Place to its list of books. A nice little review accompanies the short excerpt. Worth checking out!

2008: A Year to Remember

2008 proved to be an excellent year at the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

Full of firsts, continued success, and books galore, the Press has gone from strength to strength in 2008.

We published more books than ever in one calendar year: 7.

We went to the BookExpo America for the first time; great experience.

We exhibited at the Midwest Booksellers Association Trade Show for the first time.

We published the third Prairie Tale for young readers.

We published our first Newbery Honor book…ok, so it won that award in 1930, but still!

Our books received even more awards, including a second Aesop Accolade, a WILLA award, some Mom’s Choice Awards, our first Benjamin Franklin Award…too many to mention now though.

We had our first full-color catalogue…it looks good!

I think you get the idea…2008 was certainly a year to remember for the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

But, we’re not about to sit on our laurels, so we’re looking forward to 2009 now as well. We’ve got some really interesting books lined up for publication. The 4th Prairie Tale, The Raccoon and the Bee Tree will come out, the 3rd book in the South Dakota Biography Series, Seth Bullock: Black Hills Lawman will be published, as will books on tourism in the Black Hills and the history of populism in South Dakota. We’ll keep you up-to-date with all the developments of course!

So, enjoy the holidays and the coming New Year celebrations.

Book Signings Beat the Weather

This past Saturday, three of our authors made book signing appearances.

In Sioux Falls, David Volk and Mark Meierhenry visited Barnes and Noble to sign copies of their book. Considering this store is located at the busiest intersection in South Dakota, it is hardly surprising that they had many visitors to their table looking for signed copies of The Mystery of the Tree Rings, the second book they have co-authored.

Meanwhile, in Pierre, Marshall Damgaard, author of The South Dakota State Capitol had two signings. The first was at Prairie Pages bookstore and the second at the Capitol itself. Both signings were extremely well-attended, and I’m fairly certain Marshall suffered from writer’s cramp at one stage from signing so many books.

The signing at the Capitol was in conjunction with Pie Day, the annual pie handout organized by the Office of the Attorney General. It is amazing how many people will show up at something when there is the prospect of a free piece of pie!