State of the Press Fall 2013

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS

• • •

•

•

•

•

• • • •

WAS FOUNDED in 1974 and falls under the administration of Chad Wootton, Associate Vice President for External Affairs, Office of the Provost operates in the John H. Lindsey Building, named for an early benefactor of the press and located on the south side of campus across from the band hall is a medium-sized university press (or Tier 2 in the parlance of our business), with peer presses such as Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, Michigan, and others whose revenue is $1.5–3 million annually publishes 50 to 60 new books a year in: o Texas history, art, and culture o Military, environmental, Western, women’s, and political history o Borderlands, Mexican American, and immigration studies o Natural history, natural resource science, and agriculture o Archaeology, nautical archaeology, and physical anthropology o Sports, health, digital humanities, and literature and the environment currently publishes series in collaboration with six system campuses: o TAMU–Corpus Christi (Gulf Coast Books, Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies Series) o TAMU–Kingsville (Perspectives on South Texas) o TAMU–Commerce (Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life) o TAMU–Texarkana (Red River Valley Books) o Tarleton State University (Southwestern Studies in the Humanities) o West Texas A&M (American Wests) o TAMU at Galveston (Marine, Maritime, and Coastal Books) publishes book series in collaboration with o Texas State University (River Books, Conservation Leadership, Texas Music History) o University of Texas at Arlington (Webb Lecture Series) o Sam Houston State University (Integrative Natural History) distributes books for eight other university and small presses in Texas: o Texas State Historical Association Press o TCU Press o UNT Press o SFA Press o State House Press o Texas Review Press o Winedale Publishing o Shearer Publishing publishes books simultaneously in print and ebook for Kindle, iBooks, Google Books, ProQuest, and many other library and commercial ebook vendors sells books all over the world through direct sales, commissioned international sales representatives, and amazon.com and other online vendors hosts and gives editing and publishing seminars and workshops for faculty and graduate students on campus and off offers a gift service that includes personalized bookplates and mailing

AWARDS

Texas A&M Press has won more than 500 book awards including major scholarly awards in all fields in which we publish; all major Texas books awards; and nationally prestigious awards from Garden Writers Association, National Outdoor Book Awards, American Library Association Best of the Best, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, National Book Foundation, Western Writers of America, PEN American Center, Army Historical Foundation, and others. Recent awards include:

The Material Culture of German Texans, by Kenneth Hafertepe. 2016 Book Award, Southeastern Chapter of the Society for Architectural Historians.

Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas, by Light Townsend Cummins. Publication Award, Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art.

Border Sanctuary: The Conservation Legacy of the Santa Ana Land Grant, by M.J. Morgan. Jim Parish Award, Webb County Heritage Foundation

Dutch East India company Shipbuilding, by Wendy Van Duivenvoorde. John Lyman Book Award, North American Society for Oceanic History.

The Ship That Held Up Wall Street, by Warren Reiss. John Gardner Book Award, Mystic Seaport Library.

Texas Master Naturalist Statewide Curriculum, by Michelle Haggerty and Mary Pearl Meuth. 2016 Educational Materials Award, Alliance of Natural Resource Outreach and Service Programs.

Paul Johnston (author of Shipwrecked in Paradise: Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawai’i). 2016 Secretary’s Research Award, Smithsonian Institution.

Caddo: Visions of a Southern Cypress Lake, by Thad Sitton and Carolyn Brown. 2016 Mixed Media Artistic Book Award, East Texas Historical Association.

Tejano West Texas, by Arnoldo De Leon. 2016 Tejano Book Prize, Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS

SPONSORED AND NAMED BOOK SERIES

Book series may be named and/or sponsored by individuals, institutions, foundations, corporations, or centers and are usually defined by the subject matter that most clearly reflects, honors, and perpetuates the ideals and interests of the funding sponsor. These series are supported in a variety of ways, depending on the wishes of the sponsor:

Supported by endowments:

Hugh and Eugenia Stewart Series on Eastern Europe Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Texas Photography Series Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Life Series

Supported by revolving funds:

C. A. Brannen Series Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students Ed Rachal Foundation Nautical Archaeology Series Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest Joe and Betty Moore Texas Art Series Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities W. L. Moody Jr. Natural History Series Wardlaw Books Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series

Supported by per-title subvention funds:

Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies Series, sponsored by the

Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M–Corpus Christi John and Robin Dickson Series in Texas Music, sponsored by the Center for Texas

Music History, Texas State University Myrna and David K. Langford Books on Working Lands Peopling of the Americas Publications, Center for the Study of First Americans,

Texas A&M University River Books, sponsored by The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment,

Texas State University Swaim-Paup-Foran Spirit of Sport Series, sponsored by James D. ’74 & Debra

Parchman Swaim, Nancy & T. Edgar Paup ’74, and Joseph Wm. & Nancy Foran Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Service Series Women in Texas History Series, sponsored by the Ruthe Winegarten Memorial

Foundation for Texas Women’s History

SPONSORED BOOK TITLES Individuals, foundations, institutions, and others may sponsor particular books in which they have an interest, or to honor or memorialize a friend or family member. Recently sponsored books include:

•

A Hundred Years of Texas Waterfowl Hunting, Anita and George H. Rau Jr. ’60 for their son George H. Rau III

•

Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas, T. Edgar Paup ’74 to honor Nancy Paup

•

Feeding Wild Birds in America, the James, Margery, Leon, and Gayla Eppright Fund to honor their families

•

Explore Texas, Nancy and M. Leroy Shafer ’67 to honor conservation professionals

•

The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, C.C. Taylor ’51 and the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets Publishing Fund

•

Building an Ark for Texas, The Summerlee Foundation

Some sponsors choose to place their logos on the series page that appears in the front of each book:

ED RACHAL FOUNDATION NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SERIES

Peopling of the Americas Publications

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS

REVIEWS

Texas A&M Press publicity manager Christine Brown creates a “review list” for each title, which includes media and academic review venues geared toward the audience and subject of the book. She also works with authors to solicit endorsements, which may appear as blurbs on the book jacket or in other promotion of the book. A few recent raves:

“Minson’s book [Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Age Gracefully and Escape with Your Dignity] presents its arguments with humor and clarity. It may not need to be a book you wish to read, but it is a book you should read before you need it.”—Mark Lardas, Galveston County Daily News “Pedaling the Sacrifice Zone . . . includes both thorough chapter notes and a complete index, making this book a valuable resource for scholars, while his own clear and engaging writing (Guignard is a masterful storyteller) makes the book also accessible to the general public.”—ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment “Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas brings renewed energy and information to our knowledge about an American artist living in Dallas.”—Texas Heritage “. . . take possession of this awesome compendium of underwater photographs [in Glorious Gulf of Mexico] featuring the waters off Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. The teeming blue waters are breathtaking and reassuring that all is not lost.”—Foreword “Border Sanctuary is a beautifully illustrated local history of one of the state’s most important ecological sites . . . Morgan’s account of the Santa Ana Land Grant provides a model of how to combine social and environmental history of a particular place.”— Southwestern Historical Quarterly “Not only are the essays in [Contested Empire: Rethinking the Texas Revolution] wellwritten and persuasively argued, the ideas that emerge from this work add a new dimension to the Texas revolutionary experience . . . This important study will surely stimulate new works on the Texas Revolution for years to come.”—Southwestern Historical Quarterly “The Ground on Which I Stand compiles oral histories of 15 families, from those whose trace their lineage in Tamina for seven generations to relative newcomers. Resilience and pride in Tamina are common threads throughout the book, tying together family stories into a wonderful tribute.”—Mother Jones “It’s obvious that Beesley wants to help gardeners succeed, and [Landscaping with Edible Plants in Texas] is the first seed of knowledge on how to select a plant and grow a lovely, functional edible garden as part of your Texas landscape design. Start digging!”—Killeen Daily Herald “Thanks to Baicich, Barker, and Henderson, the tens of millions of people who feed wild birds in the U.S. now have a book that richly describes the history of one of America’s favorite hobbies.”—The Condor

“[The Material Culture of German Texans] likely will take its place [as] a foundational study of Lone Star life in the 19th century.”—Houston Chronicle

Endorsements:

“The state of Texas represents a vast region of contrasting landscape and cultures, one that can easily be daunting to travelers seeking specific areas in which to spend a weekend or vacation.

Explore Texas offers an excellent preview of essentially all major locations where one might embark on a venture to see a little of everything in the Lone Star State!”—Wyman Meinzer, official photographer for the State of Texas “Dr. Cummins's book explores the development of Allie Victoria Tennant as an artist and sculptor in the context of the evolving art scene in Dallas and Texas . . . This book is a must read for anyone interested in Texas art.”—D. Jack Davis, professor emeritus and former dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design, University of North Texas “I lived it, covered it, wrote about those times, and kudos to Bob Jacobus for his masterful recreation of the role the Houston Cougars played in changing the realms of sports and race in the ’60s and forever.”—Mickey Herskowitz, author and sports journalist