The Printer's Devil: A WVU Press Intern Blog
printer's devil n. (1755-65): an apprentice in a printing establishment
Welcome to The Printer's Devil
Dwight Pavlovic, a WVU Press intern, chronicles the inner workings of our Press and the publishing world in his new blog. Read here and become a West Virginia University Press facebook fan to receive updates and notifications about this publication.
"100 Classic Book Collection" for Nintendo DS
Publishing Perspectives reported this week on the planned March 5th release of Nintendo France's 100 Livres Classiques, a new cartridge for the company's top-selling Nintendo DS. The selection of texts was prepared in cooperation with French publisher Éditions Gallimard, a nearly one hundred year old institution with a well regarded backlist. The new program will make Nintendo France the third national division of the company to prepare this sort of collection for its DS console, after Japan in 2007 and the UK in 2008. The French partners are also planning to make individual interactive titles available for DS, which would make France the fourth nation with such access after Japan, the UK, and the US.
J. McHenry Jones & Hearts of Gold
In the Introduction to Hearts of Gold, the first title published in WVU Press' Regenerations series, editors John Ernest and Eric Gardner identify the years 1877 and 1915 as bounding "one of the most murderously racist periods of American history and... one of the most remarkable periods of determination and achievement in all of African American history." During those thirty-eight years, the rival intellectual polarities of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois - the former "accommodationist" and the latter for the "militant advance" of racial equality - established themselves, overshadowing both the less visibly compromising and the less vocally radical. It is within this group of only recently emergent, but undeniably talented individuals that J. McHenry Jones, the author of Hearts of Gold, is positioned.
Amazon to Open Shops in UK?
Earlier this month, The Sunday Times reported that amazon.com was searching for suitable locations to open "high street shops" in the UK. According to their report, the information came from British landlords, but amazon has yet to give any indication as to the validity of what is at this point only a rumor. Amazon had previously shown no interest in the possibility and the success of their online operations begs the question, why expand into a model that the ongoing implosion of Borders suggests is failing?
Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture
This week I thought I would charge myself with announcing Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture, a new series of titles currently being developed by WVU Press. Edited by John Ernest of West Virginia University and Joycelyn K. Moody of the University of Texas, Regenerations will be devoted to reprinting editions of important African American texts with suitably scholarly introductions and related materials.
Synthesizing Style
So (as all great apologies begins), it's been weeks without any word from The Printer's Devil and you've all probably gone and found your respective selves bigger and better, or at least more consistent, blogs to follow. Bearing that in mind, if you're here reading this, I and I'm sure everyone else at the Press appreciates your continued attention.
Thoughts From Chicago
The weekend before last, I spent a few days in Chicago, ostensibly to visit family. In an effort to expand my itinerary on my behalf, family here and there colluded to schedule interviews at the University of Chicago Press. At times like this you wonder just how important your dignity is to you and how much, at least in the eyes of your family, you must ever have had. I actually contemplated turning the offer down so as not to appear—whatever other impressions might be conveyed—too unprofessional. In the end, the appeal of a visit to the Press overrode any other sentiments and I drove up to their offices rather happy with the situation.
Brevity and Félix Fénéon
Last week I resolved to push myself more forcefully towards greater brevity in my writing. As much fun as the passive voice has been, my growing awareness of its shortcomings no longer permits such frequent indulgence. My development from high school to now has been paralleled by a dynamic conceptualization of language and the idea of communication. Without fully realizing it, I have for years manipulated my writing into conveying not only a particular idea, but my eccentricities, concerns, and interests, at once - often unsuccessfully. Certainly writing should be a reflection of the author, but constructing these things in a vacuum is disingenuous. Having to think about this blog and with what ideas I should populate it has brought this notion into greater clarity. As the above suggests, I have not completely rebelled: I don't see terseness as a legitimate remedy. However, I will be attempting to pare things down. Hopefully blogging will accomodate this. Although I began to experiment with these ideas during my brief flirtation with journalism (I was The Daily Athenaeum's abortive Science & Technology Columnist for less than a month), I'd like to work out the difficulties here.
The Coming Insurrection
This Summer, Semiotext(e) published an English translation of The Coming Insurrection, first published in French by La Fabrique. The book, described by Semiotext(e) as "an eloquent call to arms arising from the recent waves of social contestation in France and Europe," has been at the center of a growing controversy over the subversiveness of its content, the identity of its authors (who sign themselves "The Invisible Committee"), and the consequences of its publication.
Yale Press Vetoes Caricatures in New Book
This November, Yale University Press will publish Danish author Jytte Klausen’s The Cartoons that Shook the World, a 240 page study of the twelve cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad that sparked worldwide protests, embassy bombings, and violence that caused around 200 deaths. Regardless of what moral theorist you follow in assigning blame for these events, it is sufficient to say that the cartoons were controversial beyond all expectation and clarified the extent to which Muslim prohibitions against the visual portrayal of Muhammad can complicate intellectual discourse. Further complicating the tangled constellation of considerations, this month Yale University Press made the decision not to reproduce the twelve offending cartoons in their publication, despite initial plans to do so and the cartoons being widely available elsewhere.
