Book Patrol

Tag: Publishing

International flavor comes to America: Early Ethnic cookbooks

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Chinese-Japanese Cook Book by Sara Bosse and Onoto Watanna [pseud.], Chicago, Rand McNally [c1914]. First Edition The folks at Rare Books Digest have put together an informative list of first appearances of various ethnic cookbooks in America. From the 1828 first American publication of a French cookbook to the first Greek cookbook that, amazingly enough, wasn't published in this country until 1942! Here's a sampling.  El cocinero español by Encarnación Pinedo. San Francisco, 1898. This was not only the first Mexican-American cookbook published in America it was also the first written by a Hispanic in the US and to mention...

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The Pocket Poets Series turns 60

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2015 marks the 60th anniversary of City Lights Publishers and the beginning of the seminal Pocket Poets Series.  It began with a 500 copy letterpress printed edition of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pictures of a Gone World, his first book,  in 1955. In 2011 they published the 60th title in the series, David Meltzer‘s When I Was a Poet.  But it was the 4th book in series that single-handedly changed the course of American poetry and put City Lights on the map for good.  That was Allen Ginsberg's masterwork, Howl and Other Poems. About the series: Inspired by the French poetry series, Poètes d'aujourd'hui, Lawrence...

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It’s time for the ‘oddest book title of the year’ competition

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Another year brings another shortlist of stunning book titles for Bookseller magazine's annual Diagram Prize for “oddest book title of the year.” Created in 1978, with Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice taking top honors, the Diagram Prize has become a yearly hi-spot providing guaranteed entertainment to us book folks. This years nominees are: Nature's Nether Regions by Menno Schilthuizen (published by Viking). Advanced Pavement Research: Selected, Peer Reviewed Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Concrete Pavements Design, Construction, and Rehabilitation, December 2–3, 2013, Shanghai, China edited by Bo Tian (Trans Tech). The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year...

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Harlin Quist: The coolest publisher of children’s books you never heard of

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Harlin Quist just might be the coolest publisher of children's books you never heard of. The brainchild of Harlin Bloomquist, Quist published over sixty children's books between 1966-1984. They featured some of the finest European and American authors and illustrators of the day and helped establish the careers of many young artists.  They are unmistakable in design and offered an original, fresh look in childrens' book publishing. Quist had a background in theater and then worked in publishing, first as an editor at Crowell-Collier, then at Dell, where he worked on the first picture paperback books before going out on his own. Here is what some of the...

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The New Pelican Has Landed

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After a 30 year slumber Pelican Books has returned.  In its heyday it was an essential ingredient to a well-rounded view of the world. Coming from the mind of Allen Lane, who revolutionized the reading experience with the introduction of Penguin paperbacks, it provided affordable non-fiction to the masses: Costing no more than a packet of cigarettes, and aimed at the true lay reader, Pelicans combined intellectual authority with clear and accessible prose. As the first British publisher of intelligent non-fiction at a genuinely low price, Pelican became an informal university for generations of Britons. With books on economics and...

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