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Connecting curious minds with uncommon, undeniably Northwest reads

New book reveals stories behind Seattle statues, memorials, and markers

Picture of artist Alonzo Victor Lewis in studio, including several busts and a model military statue

Monumental Seattle cover

Beginning with the 1899 installation of a Tlingit totem pole in Pioneer Square and stretching to Safeco Field’s 2017 Ken Griffey Jr. sculpture, Seattle offers an impressive abundance of public monuments, statues, busts, and plaques. Private donors and civic groups commissioned works by prominent national sculptors, as well as local artists James A. Wehn, Alonzo Victor Lewis, and others, to represent diverse perspectives and celebrate a wide array of cultural heroes, dozens of firsts, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, aviation, and military and maritime service. Whether cast in bronze or carved in granite, their longevity is not guaranteed. The newest book from Washington State University Press, Monumental Seattle: The Stories Behind the City’s Statues, Memorials, and Markers, offers Seattle residents and visitors a historical narrative of these public remembrances—accounts that often take unexpected twists and turns.

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How curiosity led to a book

Statue of Reverend Mark Matthews in Seattle's Denny Park
Have you ever wondered why authors write the books they do?

For Robert Spalding, it was a robust sense of curiosity. Driving past Denny Park, he noticed a statue he had seen before, but this time decided to take a closer look. Aware of the park’s name and the Denny family’s significance in Seattle history, he assumed the sculpture would memorialize either Arthur or David Denny. To his great surprise, it didn’t. The bust was of a person Spalding had never heard of—Reverend Dr. Mark Matthews. The incongruity piqued his interest, and he began researching monuments and markers scattered throughout the city.

For three years, Spalding spent his lunch hours at the Seattle Central Library, diligently researching the city’s heritage markers. What he learned—starting with the original totem pole installed in Pioneer Place in 1899—was fascinating. Writing in his spare time for another three years, he completed his manuscript—one that included the story of Reverend Dr. Mark Matthews—and became Monumental Seattle, his second book—available in bookstores soon.

WSU Press title recognized as the best of scholarly nonfiction for women’s stories set in the American West

Author Candace Wellman  Peace Weavers cover

PULLMAN, Wash.—Women Writing the West has announced Bellingham, Washington, author Candace Wellman’s Peace Weavers: Uniting the Salish Coast Through Cross-Cultural Marriages as the 2018 WILLA Literary Award Winner. A team of professional librarians, historians, and university affiliated educators selected it as representing the best of 2017 published scholarly nonfiction for women’s stories set in the American West. Wellman and her book will be honored in Walla Walla, Washington, October 25-27, 2018, at the organization’s 24th annual conference.

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Prominent political authorities probe Washington State political trends

Governing the Evergreen State: Political Life in Washington front cover

Washingtonians sanctioned the first voter-approved state Equal Rights Amendment, and they were the first to elect a woman and a Chinese-American as governor. In this state full of political mavericks, split tickets are a source of pride and independent voters currently outnumber Democrats and Republicans. Sam Reed, Secretary of State from 2001 to 2013, explains in his foreword that voters participate in the most open primary system in the nation—a reflection of Washington’s Populist and Progressive era roots—a heritage that drives its citizens and elected officials to remain a powerful center of regional and national legislative change and policy innovation.

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WSU Press book receives prestigious award

We Are Aztlan with CHOICE Award

PULLMAN, Wash.— A Washington State University (WSU) Press title, We Are Aztlán!: Chicanx Histories in the Northern Borderlands, has been selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. It also received a top community college recommendation from the organization. Focusing on the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, multidisciplinary essays in We Are Aztlán! examine the Chicanx movement and experience beyond the Southwest to illuminate how Mexican Americans have challenged racialization, marginalization, and isolation in the northern borderlands.

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Seattle activists’ dramatic story exposes tactics that threatened citizens’ right to protest, offers lessons for today

Cover image for Protest on Trial

PULLMAN, Wash.— Author Kit Bakke believes that the freedom to organize and protest are crucial to American democracy. But across the nation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, courtroom decisions and the FBI’s utilization of wiretapping, warrantless break-ins, and informants were destroying activist groups and threatening those rights. The Emerald City was no exception. In her new book, Protest on Trial: The Seattle 7 Conspiracy, Bakke chronicles the dramatic story surrounding the arrests and trial of seven Seattle Liberation Front (SLF) leaders.

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Accounts of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage Published for the First Time Almost 250 Years Later

Celebrated mariner Captain James Cook set sail on his third exploratory venture in July 1776, and the British Admiralty produced an official record shortly after the expedition’s 1780 return. Now, just before the 250th anniversary of Cook’s first voyage, the newest book from Washington State University (WSU) Press depicts his final quest. Captain Cook’s Final Voyage: The Untold Story from the Journals of James Burney and Henry Roberts, integrates images by official expedition artist John Webber and makes two previously unpublished eyewitness accounts easily accessible.

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WSU Press Inks Contract with Book Travelers West

PULLMAN, Wash.— Washington State University (WSU) Press has signed a new contract with Book Travelers West. The publisher had maintained a long term relationship with Hand Associates, but that group collectively decided to retire and close the business. Effective January 1, 2018, the current Book Travelers West sales team—Kurtis Lowe, John Majeska, Phoebe Gaston, and Kevin Peters—is representing Washington State University Press to the book trade. The commissioned sales group has been selling books in the thirteen Western states since 1951.

“As a regional press, we were impressed that Travelers West maintains solid relationships with larger bookstores in the West, but also visits many of the smaller booksellers as well. Store owners we asked spoke highly of the sales team. We also felt our list would complement those of other publishers they represent,” WSU Press Marketing Manager Caryn Lawton said.  WSU Press is a nonprofit academic publisher associated with Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, and concentrates on telling unique, focused stories of the Northwest.

Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree—A Forest Specialist’s Perspective

Closeup of branch with pine needles

We invited forest specialist Kevin Zobrist to give us his perspective on Christmas trees:

There’s a reason Washington is the “Evergreen State”

Several western Washington native tree species—particularly Douglas-fir, grand fir, and noble fir—have a national reputation as quality Christmas trees. Grand fir and Douglas-fir grow naturally throughout western Washington, while the noble fir’s natural range is at high elevation in the Cascades from approximately Snoqualmie Pass southward. Each species has different advantages. I have always favored the true firs (as opposed to Douglas-fir) for how they look, their longevity after cutting, and, perhaps most importantly, how they smell. When I teach classes on native trees, I have participants pinch off needles from different samples, break them in half, and sniff. When it comes to grand fir, the response is always “it smells like Christmas.” Other true firs have a similar fragrance—a rich balsam scent that many people associate with the season.

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WSU Press Holiday Book Fair

WSU Press Holiday Book Fair posterWe will host our twenty-sixth annual holiday book fair on Thursday, December 7, 2017 from 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m., in the Terrell Library Atrium on the Pullman campus. The fair highlights books published throughout the year and is open to everyone. Festivities include steep discounts of 20 -50% on all titles, drawings for free books, and complimentary refreshments.

Author and University of Idaho professor Dr. Rodney Frey will be signing copies of his recently released book, Carry Forth the Stories. Intertwining his own as well as stories from interviews, oral histories, and elders, the seasoned anthropologist/ethnographer offers a model for engaging with indigenous peoples as well as personal and professional insights into the power and value of storytelling.

The fair will feature other new titles on a variety of subjects—the 1872 Modoc War; early 1900s polar explorer Ernest Leffingwell; the creation of the North Cascades National Park; the Northwest’s Chicanx history; a regional reporter’s memoirs; the hidden history of Puget Sound’s female Native founders; and the irrigation of Idaho’s Snake River plain.

Founded in 1928 and revitalized in the 1980s, WSU Press concentrates on telling unique, focused stories about the Northwest. For more information about the book fair, contact WSU Press at 509-335-7880 or 800-354-7360. Throughout the Holiday Book Fair week, December 4-8, 2017, sale prices will be valid for phone orders of all titles as well as online orders of the ten titles released since last year.

Award-Winning Journalist’s New Book Challenges Traditional Modoc War History

The 1873 Modoc War was the most expensive Indian conflict in American history, and the only one in which a general—E. R. S. Canby—was killed. Now, utilizing his skills as an award-winning broadcast journalist, author Jim Compton (1941–2014) tells the story in the newest title from Washington State University (WSU) Press, Spirit in the Rock: The Fierce Battle for Modoc Homelands. Following his sudden death, the author’s wife, Carol Arnold, a retired trial attorney, fulfilled his ambitions with a final edit and submission for publication.

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