Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press [1 ed.] 9780803288997, 9780803288126

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Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved. University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

BIG HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

75 Years of the

Staff of the University of Nebraska Press

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

University of Nebraska Press

UNIVER SIT Y OF NEBRA SKA PRE SS

LINC OLN AND LONDON

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

© 2016 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

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All rights reserved Manufactured in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: University of Nebraska Press, issuing body. Title: Big house on the prairie: 75 years of the University of Nebraska Press / Staff of the University of Nebraska Press. Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2015043310 ISBN 9780803288126 (paperback: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: University of Nebraska Press—History. University presses—Nebraska—Lincoln—History. Scholarly publishing—Nebraska—Lincoln—History. Lincoln (Neb.)—Imprints. | BISAC: HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA IL IN KS MI MN MO ND NE OH SD WI). Classification: LCC Z473.U6285 B54 2016 DDC 070.5/94— dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043310 Set and designed in Lyon by N. Putens.

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

To all those who have contributed to UNP’s success over the course of seventy-five years:

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Thank you.

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved. University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

FOREWOR D University of Nebraska Press 75th Anniversary Commemoration

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HARVEY PERLMAN, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln For most who engage with a university as an undergraduate, the university is a teaching institution with the classroom serving as the symbol that reflects their perception of a university. Most graduate students are focused on and embrace the research mission as a primary university activity. For land grant universities, the long history with cooperative extension supporting first agriculture and now an expanded menu of social and economic activities is taken for granted. Thus the standard formulation of a comprehensive university’s mission is teaching, research, and engagement. I suspect it is less clear to many why a university would administer a natural history museum or an art gallery or a performing arts center, given the number of communities that provide these services without university involvement. Why a university would support a press is even more a mystery, particularly with the number of private sector publishers and now greater access to content in electronic form. Yet, in my view, the University of Nebraska Press is at the core of our land grant mission. Notwithstanding the technological revolution, the printed book is far from obsolete, though technology has made our university press more efficient. If universities are integral to chronicling and preserving our culture—a mission that I believe is critical to our society—then our university press is one of our most important assets. The publication of scholarly works with audiences too small to attract commercial publishers provides an outlet for insights contributing to the social and scientific health of our country. The press has worked to

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University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

preserve and disseminate the works of regional authors, who might be overlooked or lost in the algorithm of a Google search. One might wonder the fate of John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks had it not been for the work of the University of Nebraska Press. The press’s Native American books preserve a culture of critical importance to the sense of place we have about Nebraska and the Great Plains. Who can doubt the historical, long-term significance of publication of the thirteen volumes of The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition or name a commercial publisher willing to take the financial risk of their publication? This university has benefited for seventy-five years by the activities and support of the University of Nebraska Press. It has extended the reach of our mission as a land grant university. It has disseminated and preserved scholarship and research. It has assured that the unique culture and grandeur of this important, but lightly populated, state and region is accessible to the world. It has collaborated with units throughout the university, such as the Sheldon Art Museum, the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, the Center for Great Plains Studies, and the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. And it has brought value and prestige to the university and to its literary and scholarly ambitions. We have been blessed by a series of directors who have understood that while a university press is not a profit- oriented commercial venture, it still requires resources to pursue its objectives. Our press has cleverly combined the publication of small- demand scholarly books with a portfolio of niche publications that attract larger audiences (and revenue). It is fair to say that the University of Nebraska Press is acknowledged as one of the strongest university-associated presses in the country—a reputation it richly deserves. So I am pleased to congratulate the University of Nebraska Press on its seventy-five years of public service—to the university, the state, the region, and the nation. And I look forward to when I may have more time to consume its rich and varied delights.

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FOREWORD

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

IN TRODUCTION

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DONNA SHEAR, Director of the University of Nebraska Press Much has changed in the book publishing industry over the last seventyfive years, and I both lament and appreciate this reality. Many of the most profound changes have to do with technology and its veritable alphabet soup of acronyms: XML, POD, SRDP, ePub, dpi, LSI, and so on. From the very beginning of the production process, technology has changed how we do things. Authors no longer supply us with paper manuscripts; they email them or send us an entire life’s work on a flash drive. Once received, project editors run macros on the manuscript, apply XML tags, and email it to freelancers who edit it electronically. The redlined (computer redline, not the old-fashioned red pencil from days of yore) manuscript is emailed to the author, who responds to edits and queries electronically. Illustrations and photos come to us from authors on a CD, a flash drive, or through an electronic dropbox. The final manuscript goes to our book designers and then to typesetters, who use software to create typeset pages that have, over the years, gone from hot type, lovingly set by hand, to offset cold type, and now to an electronically tagged type that allows for the book—and ebook—to be produced more easily and quickly. Electronic files are uploaded to the printer, where the physical book is manufactured, and to vendors for ebook sales and distribution. While some books are still printed the old-fashioned way, most of UNP’s books are now produced on demand with what is essentially a sophisticated photocopy process. It’s fast, and as technology has improved, the quality is starting to rival the traditional offset printing

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University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

method. It’s a process that allows us to keep very minimal inventory and allows for quicker time to market. And that market has certainly seen huge disruption in the last couple decades as sales have moved from small independent bookstores to huge retail chain stores to online purchasing. Readers have embraced and read ebooks on their Kindles, Nooks, iPads, smartphones, and other reading devices. These changes affect scholarly books, too; scholars and students often prefer to access books electronically through huge library aggregations. Today, libraries buy fewer and fewer physical books and almost no physical journals. As I said, I both lament and appreciate the changes. But let me tell you what has not—and never will— change: the words themselves and those who create them. In so many respects, it doesn’t matter how a book is produced or delivered or read. The words still have to speak to the reader. The scholarly research still has to be important. In other words, the author still needs to produce good content. And UNP still needs editors to sift through the multitude of submissions to find the best works. And once a manuscript is received—albeit, electronically— UNP’s editors still need to develop the book to make it the best it can possibly be. At the end of the day, or the decade, or the century, content is still king. Skilled and talented people are still vital. And readers and scholars seeking knowledge are still crucial to a university press. No machine could have written this:

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But the stained, slippery grass, the darkened mulberries, told only half the story. Above Marie and Emil, two white butterflies from Frank’s alfalfa-field were fluttering in and out among the interlacing shadows; diving and soaking, now close together, now far apart; and in the long grass by the fence the last wild roses of the year opened their pink hearts to die. (Willa Cather, O Pioneers!)

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INTRODUCTION

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Or this: Sweat dripped off the roan like rain from the eaves of a house, and his sides pumped in and out like bellows. I could see the whites showing around his eyes, and it was a look of fright, not of meanness. . . . I watched the quiver in his withers grow less and less. (Ralph Moody, Little Britches) Or these:

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I don’t remember if I called him. Maybe he just happened to be calling the house at the time. . . . When I heard my father’s voice, I immediately said, Dad, but then my heart sank. . . . My voice felt thin, like a piece of crumpled paper that kept needing to be smoothed. Or a wafer dissolving on the tongue. I could feel it all disappearing, my voice especially, but not before I told him her head had been hurt, that it had opened some. This last part made him cry, I started crying too, because I had made my father cry. I was a boy who had made his father cry . . . there is so much I will never know and my father, in some small corner of memory, continues on with his weeping, and it is not for me, his oldest son, to stop him. (Jon Pineda, Sleep in Me) All winter the wind had torn at the fire-bared knolls, shifting but not changing the unalterable sameness of the hills that spread in rolling swells westward to the hard-land country of the upper Niobrara River, where deer and antelope grazed almost undisturbed except by an occasional hunting party. . . . From the plains of Texas a hundred thousand head of cattle came, their feet set upon the long trails to the free range lands. In the deep canyons of the Niobrara, wolves and rustlers skulked, waiting, while the three or four ranchers already in the hills armed themselves for conflict. And out of the East came a lone man in an open wagon, driving hard. (Mari Sandoz, Old Jules)

INTRODUCTION

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Or these:

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My grandfather will have suffered enough death in his long life that by the end of his days he will be completely at ease with it and ready to let it gather him into its arms. He will outlive his parents, all of his brothers and sisters, his infant son, his wife, one of his daughters, and one son-in-law. When he is in his mid-nineties, my mother and I will take him with us to the cemetery one Memorial Day. His wife and daughter are buried there. . . . When we return to the car and are ready to drive away, an old man, one of the sextons at the cemetery, comes up and peers into the side window. “That you, John Moser?” he asks in a cracked voice. “That’s me, all right, Clarence,” answers my grandfather. “Well, how are you, John?” “Well, Clarence, I’m ninety-four years old. I can’t see too good, I can’t hear too good, and I can’t walk too good. You keep your shovel sharp!” (Ted Kooser, Lights on a Ground of Darkness) I am a Lakota of the Ogalala band. My father’s name was Black Elk, and his father before him bore the name, and the father of his father, so that I am the fourth to bear it. . . . I was born in the Moon of the Popping Trees on the Little Powder River in the Winter When the Four Crows Were Killed and I was three years old when my father’s right leg was broken in the Battle of the Hundred Slain. From that wound he limped until the day he died, which was about the time when Big Foot’s band was butchered on Wounded Knee. He is buried here in these hills. (John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks) Mindful that after our seventy-fifth year, this anniversary book may not be pulled out, dusted off, and read again until the press celebrates its centenary in 2041, I am somewhat amused at what a reader twenty-five years hence might think of my lamenting this “cutting-edge” technology. I imagine that the electronic version of this will long be so old-fashioned

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INTRODUCTION

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that it will have morphed many times into different forms. Ironically, only the physical book will remain unchanged. I can’t even imagine what the publishing world will look like then, but this I do know: authors will still be driven by their desire—indeed, their need—to write; editors will take these words and skillfully and surgically edit them to reflect the authors’ true intentions; designers will help bring the books alive in the available formats; marketers will find new ways to connect the books with their audiences; business professionals will help facilitate the process; university presses will still exist and will still be publishing the scholarship and creative works that these authors write; and the University of Nebraska Press will still be one of the finest university presses in the country, still publishing—in whatever form books and journals are published a quarter century hence—some of the best writers and scholars of the twenty-first century. What an honor—to be the director of the University of Nebraska Press during its seventy-fifth anniversary year, its “platinum jubilee” year. We cannot let this milestone pass without expressly thanking and acknowledging the unending support of Chancellor Harvey Perlman and Vice Chancellor Prem Paul. The traditional gift for a seventy-fifth anniversary: diamonds. Well, we’ve got a few of those, if even in the metaphorical sense. Many of UNP’s books have gone on to become diamonds in the publishing world: Black Elk Speaks, The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, many of our Bison Books, and so on. Throughout these pages you’ll get to see our top seventy-five books, as well as seventy-five of our most iconic book covers, so I won’t list any more of them here. Read and enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

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1951

1961

1965

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1941

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1971

jps 1991

1996

2001

2011

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1981

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2016

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BUILDING THE BIG HOUSE, 1941–2016

Fortuitous timing has long been a hallmark of publishing; knowing what to publish and when and how are central to the success of a publishing house. In November 1941, the University of Nebraska, under Chancellor Chauncey S. Boucher’s guidance, hired a young, relatively unknown assistant editor from Fordham University Press to create a press in the heartland. Emily Schossberger arrived on the plains with little idea of what awaited her, limited knowledge of the expectations Boucher and the university had for her, and no concept that in a few short weeks Japan would attack Pearl Harbor and rent asunder all normality as her adopted country then knew it. Fortuitous timing and a fortuitous appointment as it would turn out. Four years after its own inception, the Association of American University Presses boasted thirty-one members in 1941. After a slow buildup in the Northeast, between the two world wars, eighteen presses formed at universities across the country as these institutions began to see the benefits afforded by publishing works of scholarly interest. By the time Schossberger sat down at her desk in Lincoln, six midwestern universities had started publishing programs: University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, Iowa State University, and University of Michigan. Despite the coming of war, the University of Nebraska Press quickly moved into gear and began searching for books worthy of publication. By the end of 1941, the press published E. B. Schmidt’s An Appraisal of the Nebraska Tax System. It did not become a best seller and did not pass

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through a peer review system, but even the most successful and large businesses must start somewhere, and it is that book that holds pride of place in Nebraska’s proud legacy as the first. Schossberger published James C. Olson’s biography of J. Sterling Morton in 1942, and it is this book that merits consideration as the first recognized book of Nebraska’s list. Morton—a Nebraska newspaper editor and President Grover Cleveland’s secretary of agriculture—made a perfect topic, of an ilk that would be followed by many other successful and acclaimed biographies of Great Plains luminaries over the course of the next seventy-five years. As with most university presses starting out, the production of new titles crawled along. Hampered by a lack of financial support from its parent institution, the press relied on income from sales to publish new books. A tiny staff and small revenues meant that in Schossberger’s seventeen years as editor in chief only ninety-seven books made it to publication. Even so, by the time Schossberger resigned her post in 1958, the University of Nebraska Press had grown from a sod shanty to a modest but solidly built starter home. Schossberger saw the potential for the fledgling press. She and her staff focused on regional titles predominantly, but by 1950 the press already counted authors of such standing as Louise Pound, Karl Shapiro, and George Norris. Shortly after the end of World War II, the press and the English Department came together for a time to co-publish Prairie Schooner, the esteemed literary quarterly. In 1956 Schossberger convinced Virginia Faulkner to join her team as assistant editor. Faulkner had returned to Lincoln and was teaching English at the University of Nebraska and working as an editor for Prairie Schooner after having established a literary career and reputation in radio and film on the coasts. This providential hire was Schossberger’s last major contribution to the solid foundation she built. Within two years Schossberger resigned to take a position at the University of Chicago Press, Bruce Nicoll began his nearly twenty-year tenure as the first official director of the University of Nebraska Press, and Faulkner became the editor in chief. With the university finally offering significant financial support, Nicoll quickly moved the press from publishing ten new books in 1959

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Left to right: Mrs. Howard S. Wilson (née Louise Baker), Emily Schossberger, Virginia Faulkner, and Louise Pound at a publication party for Faulkner’s book Roundup: A Nebraska Reader. This photo was published in the Lincoln Star on July 8, 1957. Courtesy Nebraska State Historical Society.

to sixty-two just seven years later. Nicoll did not come from a publishing or academic background. A journalist by training, he believed that a university press should publish books that people of all backgrounds and interests would read, not simply monographs for and by scholars. The starter home no longer had enough room within its four solid walls. With Nicholl directing his team of artisans and craftspeople, additions were made and the starter home took the shape of a more stately prairie foursquare. The most significant addition housed Bison Books. When Nicoll and Faulkner drew up plans to publish quality paperbacks, they broke new ground for university presses. Up to this point, paperbacks held little value for university presses. New scholarship demanded cloth originals,

BUILDING THE BIG HOUSE

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Bruce Nicoll (left), press director from 1958 to 1973, and James C. Olson, author of History of Nebraska and Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

not cheap, mass-produced paperbacks. More than thirty years earlier, Penguin Books revolutionized publishing through its production of cheap paperbacks sold widely. The idea caught on rapidly in the quick-to-imitate book publishing world, but university presses largely resisted the tide. Nicoll saw an opportunity to expand the business model of the press and formed Bison Books in 1960, publishing the first Bisons (as they soon became fondly known) in 1961. Bisons cost between $1.00 and $1.50 each, and readers could find them in drugstores, gas stations, truck stops, and other non-traditional retail points. As Frederick M. Link wrote in 1973, when he was acting executive director of the press, the Bisons reflected the press’s view that “its mission is not simply the publication of narrowly conceived academic scholarship, but also a wide variety of books intended for

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As noted in a Nebraska Alumnus feature article on the press published in 1960, “UNP’s director and editor frequently meet with their advisory editors to evaluate manuscripts. Left to right: UNP director Bruce Nicoll, Professor James C. Olson, Professor Marshall Jones, UNP editor Virginia Faulkner, and Professor Bernice Slote.” Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

everyone who likes to read and enjoys the pursuit of new ideas.” Fifty-five years after Nicoll and Faulkner created the Bison Books imprint, many others—including customers, the media, authors, and scholars—hold it up as an example of forward thinking and as a model for the many other general-interest imprints now belonging to university presses throughout the country. Not only did Nicoll and Faulkner conceive of something new for a university press, they also chose the earliest Bison Books extremely well. Seeking out cloth books that were out of print or for which rights could be easily and inexpensively purchased, as well as new works that Nicoll and Faulkner believed should be accessible to as wide an audience as possible, the pair soon published classic books such as Mari Sandoz’s Crazy Horse and Old Jules, George Armstrong Custer’s My Life on the

BUILDING THE BIG HOUSE

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Plains, and Wright Morris’s The Home Place. Willis “Bill” Regier, director of the press from 1987 to 1996, recalled that Nicoll’s innovation extended beyond even the idea for Bison Books and the titles he soon published. Nicoll, Regier said, also introduced new methods of marketing and selling Bisons, even going so far as to have a drugstore salesman include them in his offerings alongside aspirin and cold medicines. In 1961 the press’s all-time best-selling title made its first appearance on Nebraska’s list as a Bison Book: John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks, which has become synonymous with UNP. It is a staple in classes on Native American history. It enjoys a special place on the shelves of spiritualists, scholars, students, book sellers, and serendipitous seekers of books. Black Elk Speaks symbolizes all for which UNP stands. While Neihardt’s book had been available for many years, it had never been a best seller despite UNP’s marketing efforts, and the slow sales continued. Everything changed for Black Elk Speaks the moment Dick Cavett interviewed Neihardt on his television show in April 1971. Almost overnight sales surged, and UNP had its first true best seller on the list. After then losing the paperback rights to Pocketbooks, Dave Gilbert was able to secure the cloth rights in 1979, and Bill Regier won back the paperback rights in 1988. Since then, Black Elk Speaks has surpassed all other UNP books in sales, and in 2016 it will reach the one million copies sold mark. Years later, Cavett interviewed Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Cavett recalled Brown telling him, “If you could only preserve one book about the American Indian, it would have to be Black Elk Speaks.” Nicoll’s regime oversaw continued growth, mostly on the back of the flourishing Bison imprint. The paperbacks dominated the press’s output, but they encompassed so wide a variety of subjects and styles that UNP maintained its standing within the AAUP community and solidified its spot as a preeminent publisher of scholarly works in spite of its unusual strategy. In 1966 the University of Nebraska Press celebrated twenty-five years of this good standing. Looking back at that time, the press could proudly point to great success and rapid growth. In just a quarter century the little

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BUILDING THE BIG HOUSE

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sod shanty had developed into a grand edifice. But as with most anniversary celebrations, twenty-five years was not only an opportunity for the press to look back but to look forward as well. During the celebration year, UNP published the first book of what became many from Nebraska author Roger Welsch; he is still publishing with the press fifty years later. Over the next few years, UNP added many distinguished authors such as Hartley Burr Alexander and Willa Cather to its list. New series took flight, including a trio launched by Virginia Faulkner—Regents Renaissance Drama, Regents Restoration Drama, and Regents Critics—well outside of the press’s traditional genres but which became successful and esteemed and continue to be used in classrooms across the country to this day. Not content with regional dominance, the press used the late sixties to establish an international presence as well. Shoring up distribution in Europe and beyond added luster to the house and confirmed the intent of Nicoll, his staff, and the university to ensure the future success of the press. Nicoll retired in 1973 and Fred Link succeeded him in an interim position. Link’s first duty was to present a report to the Board of Regents setting out the importance of the press to the university. Link took his responsibility seriously because the press stood at a crossroads where choices had to be made in order to maintain its place in its parent institution and beyond. Two years after Link defended the press, Dave Gilbert was named director. Gilbert arrived at UNP with a wide-ranging background in publishing and academics. At the University of Texas Press—his position prior to coming to Lincoln—he had been associate director, and prior to that his career spanned spells at Holt, Rinehart, and Winston as both a sales rep and an editor, as well as time as an English professor. Gilbert, a sound businessman, saw the potential that Nicoll had created. Bisons remained at the forefront of the press’s mission, but Gilbert established far more structured and sensible pricing systems and publishing plans for these books. He increased the number of titles published annually, emphasized the western nature of the press in terms of region and subject matter, and pushed the press into the black year after year,

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David Gilbert, press director from 1975 to 1986. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, January 21, 1979.

achieving significant budget surpluses for the first time in the press’s history. These changes required new approaches to staffing, as well. For the first time, UNP boasted employees in all the typical publishing departments: business, editorial, production, and marketing. Gilbert’s time as director of the publishing house on the prairie included many notable innovations. Until his time, UNP had sold the vast majority of its books at trade discounts; Gilbert initiated a short discount schedule for most of the scholarly titles on the list. This seemingly small decision had lasting impact, not least on the bottom line as it moved UNP more in step with most other university presses. A landmark of its own was the start of the Landmark Editions. Gilbert’s intention for these books included small print runs for the library market and the expectation that each edition must be of enduring and important scholarship. The first five Landmark Editions fit the bill perfectly:

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Richard Eckersley at work. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

literary criticism of William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, classic English literature, essays from Arthur Schopenhauer, and a study of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on search and seizure. Even with the move to use short discounts, trade paperbacks still accounted for more than 60 percent of the press’s sales, but titles such as Mari Sandoz’s Crazy Horse sold more than ten thousand copies a year, improving the bottom line to which so much of Gilbert’s time and energy went. Profits beget financial stability with which to engage in ambitious new projects. Gilbert helped set in motions two of the most prized works in the press’s history: the highly acclaimed publication of The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1983–2004), edited by University of Nebraska–Lincoln history professor Gary Moulton, and Karl Bodmer’s America (1984), a joint publication with the Joslyn Art Museum. These two publications showcased UNP’s prowess in western history and cemented the press as a leading publisher in every right.

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The design of the Journals, in particular, drew plaudits from far and wide. Gilbert hired Richard Eckersley in 1981 as the press’s first full-time designer. Eckersley and his wife, Dika, who joined the press in 1985, created a design ethic previously unseen at a university press. The esteem with which UNP is held in today is traced back to Eckersley and, at least in part, to his designs on Karl Bodmer’s America and the Journals. The seamless series design of the Journals featured innovative interiors and a motif of the Missouri River that ran across the spines of all thirteen volumes. Gilbert called it Eckersley’s first truly great design, but many more would follow, and Eckersley would prove Gilbert’s radical decision to bring all book design in-house a triumphant one. In the spring of 1979 Virginia Faulkner began her retirement process, going part-time. In 1980 Faulkner retired completely and died just a few months later in September. Gilbert appointed Steve Cox as editor in chief. Cox’s promotion came on the back of five years’ success as the press’s first full-time acquisitions editor. And Cox quickly filled his own empty slot with the hiring of Bill Regier. New hires, departures, and retirements did not distract Gilbert from his continued drive to improve the bottom line. In 1980 the University of Nebraska Press started distributing for the Buros Center for Testing. The press’s success, as well as increased sales representation and overseas partnerships convinced Buros to end its distribution deal in New Jersey and head to the plains. The Buros Center agreement represented the first distribution client for UNP, adding another line of revenue and allowing the press to boast annual sales of more than $1 million for the first time. Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

During the eighties UNP grew into a significant and sizable publisher; a larger full-time staff, vastly more books published each year, new software and warehousing systems put in place, and the formation of a Press Advisory Board added gravitas to the edifice. On top of the new operating systems and staff, the press’s output exceeded eighty new books a year and by the mid-eighties sales surpassed $2 million. At that same point, UNP celebrated twenty-five years of Bison Books.

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Kay Graber, press managing editor, proofreading a manuscript. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, January 21, 1979.

Tom Sheehan, press production manager, and Darla Beckman, press marketing manager. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, January 21, 1979.

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Ralene Cerveny does billing and order fulfillment using the IBM 6400. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, January 21, 1979.

Brad Gilbert packs books in the basement of Nebraska Hall, where the press’s shipping department was once located. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, January 21, 1979.

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The innovative imprint filled its first quarter century with books that have become classics. More than five hundred Bisons filled the backlist in 1985, including the fiftieth anniversary edition of Old Jules published that year. UNP numbered each Bison, but it became clear that at the rate at which books joined the Bison list it would not be long before the one thousandth title came along, at which point numbering seemed less relevant. As such, the practice ended. Those early numbered editions have since become collectors’ items. Stability and reflection tend to precede change, just as the storms that sweep across the prairie are often preceded by calm. By 1986 Gilbert had achieved all he had set out to at UNP. His house was in order, the repairs and updates had all been completed, and should unforeseen expenditures arise or opportunities present themselves to build on to the imposing structure, money existed in the coffers to do so. When a new challenge at Cornell University Press came forth, Gilbert accepted it, leaving behind a press in splendid shape. Gilbert just had time before he left to see to fruition the publication of Che Guevara’s Guerilla Warfare. He had earlier steered the press through a small controversy over this book when UNP proposed to publish the classic treatise from the Argentine Marxist as a standard Bison. University administrators showed concern about the institution publishing the work of such a controversial historical figure. When administrators refused to countersign the contract for the book, some UNP staff threatened to resign. Gilbert, on vacation at the time, called the office for a quick check in and discovered his staff about to mutiny. The brokered solution—a new edition of the book with critical essays that satisfied all parties—was published just before the longtime director took up his post at Cornell. Within a year, Nebraska had only its third official, full-time director. Bill Regier moved up from editor in chief, ably stepping into the director’s spot and providing continuity in the stewardship of “the Big House on the Prairie” as the Wall Street Journal fondly named UNP within a year of Regier’s appointment. David Schribman’s October 1988 article pointed the national publishing spotlight firmly on the center of the country for something other than football. As Schribman wrote, “This

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university is becoming as well known for its backlist as for its backfield.” But Schribman’s article also pointed to Regier’s immediate impact, one that continues through to the present day. “We want to maintain our image for being a major publisher of books about the American West, but we don’t only want to be that,” Schribman quoted Regier. Under the new director, UNP moved into foreign translations and literature, particularly from France and Scandinavia. The move proved prescient with Nobel prizes coming many years later for three authors for whom UNP published translations. National attention such as the Wall Street Journal feature story drew attention, built the press’s reputation, and helped improve the fiscal position of the house as well. When UNP celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1991, the big house on the prairie stood tall and proud, second in size only to the University of California Press, among state university presses. UNP celebrated fifty years with two thousand books in print, one hundred new books each year, nearly $4.5 million in annual sales, and more than forty staff. Each staff member enjoyed the use of a networked computer. Typesetting, design, and production management had been brought in-house. Ads and reviews appeared in major national media such as the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and Publishers Weekly. In short, at fifty, the press truly deserved the grand stature given it by the Wall Street Journal. Moving into its second half century, the press continued relatively serenely through the nineties. A steadily increasing staff acquired, edited, designed and typeset, marketed, and sold ever more books each year, and by 1995 annual sales of books surpassed $6 million. In just fifteen years, UNP’s sales had increased 600 percent. A year earlier, in 1994, the press found room under its roof for its first peer-reviewed journal. American Indian Quarterly fit the western and Native publishing program perfectly, and its addition to the fold represented the first step into article-length publishing. UNP’s reputation for beautifully and functionally designed books remained unabated. Three new in-house designers joined the team in the early nineties, but even before those additions, Richard Eckersley

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Hilda Neihardt Petri, daughter of late Nebraska Poet Laureate John G. Neihardt, and Bill Regier, press director from 1987 to 1995, celebrate the return of the paperback rights of Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks to the press. The cake decoration says “Welcome Back Flaming Rainbow” because Flaming Rainbow was the name given to John Neihardt by Oglala elders when he and his daughters were adopted into the tribe. Courtesy Lincoln Journal-Star, February 16, 1988.

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

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produced one of the most iconic designs on the list. The 1990 publication of Avital Ronell’s Telephone Book took university press design to levels more commonly associated with that of trendsetting independent and big East Coast publishers, with Designers & Books magazine calling it a “breakthrough work within the universe of academic publications.” Richard and Dika Eckersley built the design shop onto the big house and, ever since, UNP has been noted for its innovative and beautiful book designs. Regier continued Gilbert’s work, turning the press into one of the foremost publishers in the academic world, and just as with Cornell and Gilbert, the bigger university presses took note. Johns Hopkins University Press knocked on the front door in 1995, and Regier left the plains to take the directorship at one of the oldest and largest university presses in the country. It seemed as though the education provided in this house and the success garnered in trade and scholarly publishing proved perfect for moves east. Editor in Chief and Assistant Director Dan Ross received the appointment to replace Regier. Ross had been at the press since 1989 and represented more continuity rather than upheaval or dramatic change. Even so, Ross stamped his own aesthetic on the house. With more than two thousand books now on the backlist, Ross initiated a new distribution program, offering other presses the facilities, technical know-how, and national and international reach of UNP so that they, too, might benefit. Ross, from his time as editor in chief, knew how to acquire successful books and how to start new series. Using this talent, he began a new collaboration with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to co-publish a new series, Comprehensive History of the Holocaust, on the Jewish perspective of the Holocaust. The first volume appeared in 2004 and the series has received critical acclaim as well as strong sales. Ross also saw potential in the newly developing journals wing. After acquiring a second journal, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, in 1997, Ross looked into the feasibility of publishing journals on a larger scale. The findings of the exploratory committee came out in favor of doing so, and in 1999 UNP acquired four more journals. The distribution program, collaborations such as that with Yad Vashem, and the rapidly expanding

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journals division highlighted the press’s excellent reputation within the publishing community. When Ross joined UNP he had seen an opportunity to add new genres to the Bison Books list. Slowly at first but with growing frequency, Ross published sports books, primarily those about baseball and ideally with cultural relevance beyond the batting averages and memoirs of famous players. By the time he took over as director, UNP’s baseball books formed a significant part of the Bison list. These books drew the attention of baseball writers and organizations, including the preeminent Society of American Baseball Historians (SABR). As part of the new push into distribution agreements, Ross signed a deal with SABR in 1999, ensuring ever-closer ties to sports writers and sports historians. Just a few short years later, Ross’s successor, Paul Royster, hired Rob Taylor to acquire and publish new works in the field of sports history due to the high volume of manuscript submissions. Although Nebraska is known for its college football tradition and some questioned the wisdom of publishing baseball books, Taylor’s efforts have led to sports being one of the largest and most successful components of the UNP list. Baseball titles regularly performed beyond all expectations, racking up sales and becoming some of the press’s best sellers. Such was the attention on UNP’s bullpen that in 2012 the New York Times ran a feature story entitled “Football-Loving Nebraska Nurtures Baseball Books,” noting that a number of the baseball books had recently been named in many top-ten lists. Ross served as director for five years, departing in 2001 for the University of Alabama Press. Under Interim Director Stephen Hillard, UNP launched the American Lives Series, edited by Tobias Wolff; received a $250,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to make The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition available online; published Ted Kooser’s Local Wonders; and committed fully to its nine journals with the hiring of a permanent journals manager and assistant editor. For a time of upheaval, perhaps one of the first notable sustained periods when continuity briefly suffered, these four occurrences represented significant landmarks.

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Conceived by Humanities Editor Ladette Randolph, the American Lives series has featured numerous notable memoirs, and appointing Wolff as the series editor brought increased attention to UNP’s burgeoning works in this field. The 2002 publication of Kooser’s memoir, Local Wonders, continued a long and fruitful relationship with the U.S. poet laureate (2004– 6) and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (2005) that started when UNP published his first book of poems in 1969. The NEH grant came on the back of the University of Nebraska’s position as the premier publisher of the Lewis and Clark journals and showcased how university presses could collaborate with outside partners to help spread the scholarly works they publish to the widest possible audiences. The resulting website, replete with new technologies (such as audio and video) and search capabilities allowed scholars and the general public to gain access to the journals in ways never before thought possible. Coordinating with the Center for Great Plains Studies, the UNL Libraries Etext Center (now the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities), and UNL vice chancellor for research Prem Paul, Hilliard conceived the idea for the Journals of Lewis and Clark digital project. Paul’s office provided funding in 2002, and a team of scholars, librarians, and press staff developed a pilot site featuring two hundred pages of the Nebraska edition of the Journals edited by Moulton. In 2003 the digital project was awarded the grant from the NEH to make the Journals available online. In a bicentennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1803– 6), the press published a seven-volume paperback set, The Definitive Journals of Lewis and Clark, making the writings of seven core volumes written by Lewis and Clark, plus additional scholarship, available in a more affordable format for students and other readers. The press also published a single-volume abridged edition, The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery. In 2015 the NEH lauded the Journals as one of its top fifty projects in fifty years: “Although the last volume, a comprehensive index, was published in 2001, the ripples of this definitive edition are still propagating. . . . Together, the complete journals and the projects they inspire are ensuring that one of the most important expeditions in American

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Editor Gary E. Moulton signs copies of The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery, published in 2003 to coincide with the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

history continues to excite the spirit of scientific exploration that Lewis and Clark possessed in such abundance.” In 2002 Paul Royster, the production manager at Yale University Press, was hired as the press’s new director. In the first year under Royster’s stewardship, the press partnered with Prairie Schooner to inaugurate the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. The two prizes have fostered numerous leading works of fiction and poetry in the years since.

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Shortly thereafter two milestone publications also reached the reading public. In 2003 the University of Nebraska Press published historian Colin Calloway’s One Vast Winter Count, the first book in the new History of the American West series, edited by Richard Etulain. One Vast Winter Count almost instantly achieved classic status, winning a number of prestigious awards and receiving reviews that highlighted its contribution to Native Studies and American history. In 2004 UNP published The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, the decadelong work of David J. Wishart, a geography professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His position as editor had involved working with more than a thousand scholars to produce over thirteen hundred entries covering the entire Great Plains region. UNP partnered with the Center for Great Plains Studies to publish Wishart’s work, producing another fruitful collaboration for the press. But the early 2000s also witnessed troublesome storms for UNP. Some of these storms swept westward from the general publishing industry. Book sales dropped steadily after the halcyon days of the eighties and early nineties as not just the general economy but the industry of book publishing dealt with change and financial turmoil. Manjit Kaur took the position of journals manager and immediately added titles to the list, expanded the program into digital offerings, and looked for ways to increase the profitability of this new revenue stream for the press. UNP’s house had always survived unscathed from such storms. But in truth, the publishing world had never experienced such a combination of turbulent times, and the tornadoes that now plunged from the sky toward the grand house threatened UNP in an unfamiliar manner. Online book selling changed the traditional bookstore market, a general malaise (before the crash) in the financial markets took their toll on nonessential purchases such as books for many readers, and early indicators pointed toward changes in the stalwart college library market.

The Bison Books logo appeared on the 9th Street side of the Press warehouse in the Haymarket District in the 1990s and early 2000s, giving it high visibility for traffic entering Lincoln from the north. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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In other words, book selling faltered. The storms obscured past-yearly sales of $6 million and more, and it began to seem as though the house might be too large to maintain. Just eighteen months after he took the job, Royster left the press for the library on the UNL campus. Editor in Chief Gary Dunham took an interim appointment as director (later becoming full director) and was charged with a careful assessment of the state of the press. What he found concerned Dunham enough to make sweeping changes. By this time, the house staff had reached more than sixty people. Dunham determined that with the changes within the publishing industry UNP needed a different approach to the setup. He announced a reorganization of departments, combining marketing and development and reconfiguring the business, production, customer service, and warehouse departments. Dramatic interventions such as this are never popular, but the downsizing, while painful, was much needed. A second reorganization followed in 2006. Downsizing did not alter the inherent nature of the press, though, and new additions such as the Flyover Fiction series, the introduction of one of the first blogs among university presses, and further collaborative efforts such as that with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes indicated that UNP would take advantage of opportunities coming out of adversity. On Easter weekend 2006, Richard Eckersley died unexpectedly. One of the most influential employees in the press’s history had left an indelible mark on the reputation and production qualities of UNP. In a fitting tribute to his legacy, the first volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James was published shortly after he passed away, with his design—as well as the editing and production—for this massive series receiving rave reviews. For years the internal systems of the press had remained much as they had been. Two employees had developed a presswide database using Microsoft Access in the mid-nineties, and although this improved efficiency it still proved difficult to meet some of the specific needs of the book publishing business in a general-use database. In 2006 UNP adopted the Title Management Module (TMM) as a complete, presswide

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Humanities Editor Ladette Randolph with Norman Geske, former director of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, at an event for Geske’s book, Beyond Madness: The Art of Ralph Blakelock, 1847–1919 (2007). Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

system to house all books-in-print information. No system is perfect, of course, but the move to modern, purpose-built software helped efficiency and workflow. The press’s website enjoyed the benefits of TMM, with a complete redesign unveiled in the summer of 2007. Having guided UNP through extremely difficult times, Gary Dunham left the press in 2008 to become director of the State University of New York University Press. Ladette Randolph served as the press’s interim director until she accepted the editor in chief position at Ploughshares, and UNL dean of libraries Joan Giesecke stepped in as interim. During this time, the city of Lincoln’s revitalization of the Haymarket District made the land upon which the press’s warehouse sat attractive real estate. After careful consideration the press shut down the warehouse in late 2009 and moved to a third-party vendor. Historically, university presses established warehouses to inventory their books, but modern thinking and the costs of maintaining a full warehouse contributed to

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UNP’s decision to close the doors and move warehousing and order fulfillment to Longleaf Services, Inc., in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. UNP appointed Donna Shear as the eighth full-time director of the press in 2009. Shear arrived in Lincoln with a long career in publishing, most recently at Northwestern University Press. She brought with her a business-centric approach, and the university charged her with righting the foundations of the old house and looking for new revenue streams. About to celebrate its fiftieth year, Bison Books had become a little weighty around the middle, and Shear strove to redefine the role and purpose of the imprint. Old-fashioned production models remained in place with large print runs coming off the presses in order to keep down unit costs and therefore retail prices. Print on Demand (POD) provided the right production model; fewer out-of-house paperbacks with a focus on quality titles within the core publication areas of UNP provided the right acquisition model. UNP refocused Bison Books to solely represent the West once again, trimming the fat from the overweight animal it had become. Under the new director’s hand, the journals department grew ever larger. By 2011, a marketing manager, a typesetter, project supervisors, and a fulfillment coordinator had been added to the team, all in order to produce, market, and sell the twenty journals that made up the list at that point. Shear encouraged Kaur to build the journals wing into the best and biggest journals program it could be, to challenge for highly prized journals, and to spread the scholarship within their pages as widely as possible. Shear also identified opportunities in distributions and partnerships to significantly boost revenue. New distribution deals increased income, but a new alliance based on old relationships proved crucial in patching up the cracks that had appeared in the walls. Earlier in her career, Shear worked at the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia, one of the preeminent Jewish Bible publishers in the country. When the society began contemplating other publishing models in 2011, JPS director Rabbi Barry Schwartz chose to partner with UNP. The partnership provides full editorial, production, and marketing services for JPS while allowing Rabbi Schwartz and his staff to acquire new projects.

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Shortly after the new JPS wing was built, UNP considered a second addition to the house. University presses are simply not known for buying other publishers, but with full support from the university administration, the University of Nebraska Press forged a bold new path in 2013 with the purchase of Potomac Books, Inc., formerly located near Washington DC. Potomac’s backlist of military history, sports, politics, international affairs, and current events melded nicely with UNP’s publishing program. With the new additions, in 2015 UNP surpassed $7 million in sales for the first time in its history and moved from group three status in the AAUP community to become the twelfth member of group four, the largest university presses. Over the course of Shear’s directorship, UNP has not only taken on new residents, it has also undertaken many new ventures and has been recognized for its publishing program in a variety of ways. Since Shear’s tenure began in 2009, two Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded to authors of UNP books to add to the one awarded in 2008. UNP has picked up two Bancroft Prizes—the highest honor awarded to a history book in the United States— during this time, making UNP one of the most decorated university presses. But perhaps the biggest success to date under the stewardship of only the second permanent woman director in the press’s seventy-five years was the return of the press’s most prized possession. The Neihardt Trust, seeking a national platform for Black Elk Speaks, moved its publication rights to an East Coast university press in 2008. Believing that the works of John G. Neihardt belonged at UNP, Shear worked with the Neihardt family to regain their confidence, and in 2013 Black Elk Speaks came home. With one million sales of the book visible on the horizon, the press developed a ten-year plan to promote the book, as well as Neihardt’s important other works. In early 2014 UNP published Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition. In 2016 UNP celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary. Not many businesses survive for three-quarters of a century in the modern world. The Big House on the Prairie has thrived because of the solid foundations on which Emily Schossberger established the little soddie in 1941, but also because those stewards, craftsmen, and laborers who followed in

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her footsteps have built a publishing house that stands tall on the prairie. More than four thousand new titles have made their way through the halls and out the front door since 1941. As of 2016, the press publishes 150 new books a year, employing fortyeight people plus students and freelancers to make those books possible. With all its imprints, UNP publishes trade and scholarly works in Native studies, history, sports, anthropology, American studies, cultural studies, creative works, Biblical studies, Jewish history and culture, military history, military affairs, and current and political affairs. The journals program currently adds thirty titles to the list in a mix of print and digital combinations. Many of those publications complement the subjects in which books are published, but some spread the press’s sphere of influence even further. In 2014 the journals program was renamed Journals: Management and Publishing Solutions to reflect its expanding array of services beyond the publication of scholarly journals. The broad range of subjects and types of books and journals reflect the longevity of the press, the varied influences that come from every direction toward the center of the country, and the drive of a succession of directors to make the University of Nebraska Press a publishing house of the highest regard. The house has changed much since 1941: rooms added and redecorated; stewardships long and short; outbuildings erected and razed; tenants welcomed and maintenance conducted. Seventy-five years into its life, the house is strong, ready to rebuff storms and welcome visitors, ready for its next lick of fresh paint or a new addition should one be necessary. Those editors, designers, marketers, business people, and all others who played a role in the first seventy-five years should be recognized for their hard work. But equally, the house is built to stand tall and proud on the prairie for at least another seventy-five years, and it will be the current and next group of residents who take what their predecessors have bequeathed them and surge on toward the century mark and beyond. —History by Martyn Beeny, UNP marketing manager

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The press staff in 2015. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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The contents of a Press hurt book sale. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the Press held hurt book sales out of the warehouse to help reduce inventory. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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Author Christopher R. Browning (seated) signs copies of his book The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939–March 1942 at the Press offices in conjunction with an event announcing the book’s publication in 2004. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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Press employees (left to right) Kate Salem, Kim (Rutledge) Mahrt, and Wendi Foster pose with author Lynn Stegner (second from left) in front of the Press’s booth at Book Expo America in 2007. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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The Press’s booth display at the 2010 Book Expo America, a convention that the Press attends annually. The 2010 meeting was held in New York City. Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press.

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EMILY MARIA SCHOSSBERGER

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(1905–1979)

Austria-born Emily Schossberger came to the United States in May 1940. She worked for a year as assistant to the director at Fordham University Press. In 1941 University of Nebraska chancellor Chauncey S. Boucher hired her, unseen and without interview, to become “University Editor and Secretary to the Board” of University Publications. Schossberger’s classical education in Europe prepared her to be a language teacher. Fluent in five languages and proficient in others, she taught in Vienna, wrote and translated short stories, and was the first woman reporter to cover soccer in Central Europe. She traveled with the Austrian team, covering matches in major cities throughout Europe. In her travels she met people engaged in industry, business, politics, and society and she started writing features about them for the Vienna newspapers. Eventually she became a full-time correspondent and a member of the Foreign Press Association in Vienna. In 1938 she went to Bologna, Italy, and within two years witnessed Italy being taken over by Germany. She came to the United States on the last ship to leave Italy before the county entered World War II. Her first duties at the University of Nebraska included working with Prairie Schooner, the university’s award-winning literary magazine, and supervising all institutional publications such as bulletins, course

Emily Schossberger, the first leader of the University of Nebraska Press, in 1941. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

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catalogs, and scholarly studies. The Board of Regents chartered the press in November 1941 as a “non-incorporated agency of the board” under the director of a faculty administrative committee. Schossberger became known for her critical analysis and keen sense of style in editing and book production. Among the first books published that inaugural year was a biography of J. Sterling Morton (the doctoral dissertation of James C. Olson, who became an eminent historian and president of the University of Missouri) and a handbook for procedures for school custodians. The latter, a best seller, paid the press’s bills. The former helped establish the press as a serious, scholarly publisher. The press received no appropriation and lived a hand-to-mouth existence. Schossberger’s high standards meant the press gained reputation and stature even as it was starved for resources. With her staff of four, Schossberger “created a press out of thin air and she had a right to be proud of her accomplishment, even if her accounting was a bit irregular and her records rather chaotic,” wrote Robert Knoll in his 1995 history, Prairie University. In a speech given at UNP’s fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1991, Olson said that while Schossberger was handicapped by tight budgets, “She published a substantial number of volumes in a variety of fields, all of them characterized by strict adherence to the canons of good scholarship, tasteful design, and careful attention to detail. She is too little appreciated for her role in the history of the university. As founding director, she established the University of Nebraska Press as a significant participant in the world of scholarly publishing.” Schossberger resigned in 1958 to become senior editor/foreign editor at the University of Chicago Press. A Nebraska news release said her duties would include scanning the production of French, German, Italian, Austrian, and other European scholars for possible translation and publication for the American scholarly market. During her tenure the University of Nebraska Press published ninetyseven books. The press’s fifteenth anniversary included the publication of Roundup: A Nebraska Reader, compiled and edited by Virginia Faulkner. While the press was polishing its credentials as a publisher of regional

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and western scholarship, Schossberger also focused on foreign translations, her first love; later in her career several of her translations were published. In 1957 Schossberger hosted the national convention of the Association of American University Presses in Lincoln. In 1970 she was elected to the association’s board of directors and was the first woman to serve in this capacity. And she was the first woman to receive the Republic of Austria’s Cross of Merit in 1968. Knoll described Schossberger as being a large woman with a Viennese joie de vivre. Amy Mitchell Tuttle, who worked as a production editor at the press, remembers Schossberger “rode a bicycle around town while they were still considered a children’s toy. It was very European. She would wear a hat and gloves while riding.” While in Lincoln, she won seven city tennis championships in women’s singles and several mixed- doubles championships. She was the state women’s singles champion in 1944. She was president of the Holy Family Altar Society, having converted to Catholicism from Judaism. A member of the Lincoln Artists Guild, she organized an art show during her last year in Lincoln in which women recreated famous paintings through live poses. In September 1960 Schossberger was appointed director of the University of Notre Dame Press. The May 5, 1978, edition of the Notre Dame Scholastic says Schossberger was the first woman executive at Notre Dame. She and her staff raised Notre Dame Press’s stature by increasing its output in English literature, humanities, and social sciences, including two volumes of Chaucer criticism. During her first five years, she grew Notre Dame Press’s output by threefold, and by 1970 the press was publishing about sixty titles a year, although a budget crisis severely reduced the press’s output the following year. Schossberger retired from Notre Dame Press in 1973. She died in South Bend in May 1979 and is buried there. The following year, Notre Dame established the Emily Schossberger Award, given annually to members of the Notre Dame community for outstanding support of scholarly publishing.

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VIRGINIA FAULKNER

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(1913–1980)

The daughter of one of Lincoln’s most prominent citizens—Dr. Albert O. Faulkner, a leading businessman who founded Modern Woodmen Accident Company, now Assurity Life Insurance Company—Virginia Faulkner was a bit of a wild child and a witty and brash woman. Early in life she forged a career as a writer in the emerging radio and film industries before returning to her hometown, where she worked at the University of Nebraska Press from 1956 until shortly before her death in 1980. Faulkner’s colleagues remembered her as a genius, an intellectual powerhouse, an eccentric, a tough-minded but outstanding editor with high standards. Others called her a “liberated woman” who published her first novel, Friends and Romans, when she was twenty-one. An obituary in the Omaha World-Herald quoted a review of that novel, which asserted Faulkner was known in high school for driving a rainbow-striped roadster one-handed, while flashing a cigarette in the other hand. Amy Mitchell Tuttle, who worked with Faulkner at the press, said Faulkner loved telling a story about smoking a cigar in the Miller & Paine Tea Room. “Of course that was kind of ghastly and unseemly,” Tuttle said. Faulkner graduated with honors from Lincoln High School in 1928 and attended the University of Nebraska, where she joined Alpha Phi.

Virginia Faulkner, editor in chief from 1959 to 1980. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

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She also attended the Moxley School in Rome, Italy, and Radcliffe College; she joked, however, that she “never achieved past the status of sophomore.” She never earned a college degree, but her native intelligence and intuitive ability to spot talent, write, and edit were all she needed to be successful. As a young woman, she worked in New York City for Town and County magazine, the Washington Post, Mademoiselle, and other publications. Tuttle said Faulkner was a member of the Algonquin Table in New York, famed for attracting celebrities, bon vivants, and writers. “She had a Dorothy Parker type of wit,” Tuttle said. Television pioneer Ron Hull counted Faulkner as a friend, and she encouraged him to write a memoir. He eventually did, and Backstage: Stories from My Life in Public Television was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2012. In it, he tells of Faulkner writing radio scripts for popular national programs like Duffy’s Tavern and The Fred Allen Show while in New York. She moved to California, worked for MGM, and contributed to scripts for two Greta Garbo films. In 1947 she and friend Dana Suess wrote a well-received Broadway musical comedy, It Takes Two, which starred Vivian Vance. She later ghost-wrote A House Is Not a Home, the autobiography of Polly Adler, who ran a famous bordello in Manhattan. Her two other novels were My Hey-Day and The Barbarians. Faulkner began teaching English at the University of Nebraska, worked as an editor for Prairie Schooner, and joined the press in 1956 as an assistant editor. She was elevated to editor in chief in 1959, a position she held until her retirement. Her long-standing relationship with University of Nebraska English professor Bernice Slote proved to be an excellent intellectual and personal partnership. Former UNP director Bill Regier said Slote and Faulkner were “100 percent responsible for reviving interest in Willa Cather as a major American writer.” Cather’s work had slipped from the public’s mind by the mid-fifties; Slote and Faulkner’s scholarship rescued Cather from the backwater. For the press’s fifteenth anniversary Faulkner compiled and edited Roundup: A Nebraska Reader, a collection of articles and works about

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or by Nebraskans. It included pieces by Cather, Robert Burlingame, John Gunther, Bruce H. Nicoll, W. F. Cody, Louise Pound, Addison E. Sheldon, Mari Sandoz, Bess Streeter Aldrich, and others. It was a best seller for the press and won numerous awards. Faulkner was co- editor, with Slote, of The Art of Willa Cather and helped write Out to the Wind, a musical drama based on Cather’s story “Edward Hermannson’s Soul,” with University of Nebraska music professor Robert Beadell. In 1959 UNP published Hostiles and Friendlies, Faulkner’s edited collection of Sandoz’s stories, essays, and vignettes. Hull said Sandoz called Faulkner the “best editor with whom she ever worked.” After Faulkner started the Bison Books imprint with University of Nebraska Press director Bruce Nicoll, she acquired the paperback rights to two of Sandoz’s biggest books, Old Jules and Crazy Horse. “She was remarkably kind,” Tuttle said. “She was very helpful to all sorts of people who just wanted to improve their writing.” In 1979 Faulkner received the Mari Sandoz Award from the Nebraska State Library Association and the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Award for scholarly research and the promotion of Cather’s works. Both Hull and Tuttle said Faulkner abhorred pretense of any sort. She spoke rapidly with an enhanced and facile command of language. Regier shared an office with her when he joined the press as a young graduate student until her death a few years later. “I was terrified at first. She was a formidable woman who spoke her mind easily,” he remembers. “She eventually warmed up to me, and she would joke. We would laugh until we cried.” Faulkner had a relentless work ethic and spent countless hours on the job. Her exceptionally high standards lifted the press to a level of quality that earned national regard. According to Hull’s memoir, Faulkner died peacefully and unexpectedly while watching Monday Night Football on September 15, 1980.

V I R G I N I A FA U L K N E R

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BRUCE NICOLL

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(1913–1983)

The press’s second director, Bruce Nicoll, was a native of Wyoming who came to the University of Nebraska in the early thirties to study journalism. Nicoll picked up a slew of writing awards before graduating in 1935 and joining the staff of the Lincoln Star where he burnished his reporting credentials enough to win a spot on the front-page index, along with other Nebraska journalist luminaries like Barney Oldfield and Cy Sherman. Nicoll served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and was attached to bomber and fighter wings in the European theater, according to his son, Douglas Nicoll, of Omaha. The younger Nicoll finds his father’s duties as a military police officer to be out of character for his peaceful temperament. He remembers his father as steady, loyal, and dedicated—traits that served him well when he returned from the war. Bruce Nicoll had intended to rejoin the newsroom ranks, but University of Nebraska public relations director George Round recruited him to the university’s public relations office. Soon, Nicoll had become a trusted adviser to the chancellor, essentially serving as chief of staff. When Emily Schossberger left in 1958, the press directorship sat empty until Chancellor Clifford Hardin named Nicoll to the post later that year. In a 1991 speech, historian James C. Olson said Nicoll was at

Bruce Nicoll, press director from 1958 to 1973. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska– Lincoln Libraries.

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first considered a surprising choice but soon proved inspired. Hardin, said Olson, had an instinct for recognizing talent and taking a chance on it. Olson surmised that Nicoll required the university to place the press on surer financial footing, which allowed Nicoll to take risks as well, including elevating the supremely talented Virginia Faulkner to editor in chief. Robert Knoll, in Prairie University, wrote of the pair: “His enterprise and her editorial acumen brought international attention to the press and the University.” Nicoll immediately began to expand the press’s list, specializing in history of the American West, a particular area of interest to him, but also an area in which Nebraska stood to shine. The press had for years hoped to outpace the University of Oklahoma as the premiere publisher of quality scholarship in western history and literature. And while Nicoll may not have achieved the goal in his tenure, Olson noted that his successors did. Nicoll’s big idea was to combine the emerging popularity of paperback books with the republishing of out-of-print or public domain works of literature and history. Thus was born Bison Books, whose distinctive logo was found on inexpensive paperbacks sold at hotels, drugstores, motels, grocery stores, tourist traps, and bookstores. Bill Regier, press director from 1987 to 1995, said that for years South Dakota’s Wall Drug sold more Bison Books than any other outlet. Bison Books developed into a line that reached beyond the American West. They were promoted to teachers and faculty who might be attracted to the lower- cost editions, a strategy that worked. During Nicoll’s tenure the press began to increase its sales; a November 1963 article in the Sunday Lincoln Journal and Star noted that sales in 1963 were up 40 percent over the previous year, which had topped $120,000 on sales of 72,000 books. Since its founding, the article said, the press had published 244 works and sold books in 1,200 locations worldwide. “Nicoll tries to steer an equitable course in the popularity of new titles,” wrote reporter Dick Herman. “Less than half of UNP’s output

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.

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BRUCE NICOLL

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is Americana, he reports, although it is precisely this half with which the non-University reader may be most acquainted.” Nicoll’s son remembers his father as being studious and detail oriented. After family dinner, at which the senior Nicoll usually wore his dress shirt and tie, he would retire to his upstairs study to write and read for three hours, until rejoining the family for ice cream before bed. “He was very steady. He was of his era. The greatest generation. He had a tremendous work ethic,” Doug Nicoll said. Bruce Nicoll and his wife, Pat, enjoyed playing bridge; Bruce was adept at crossword puzzles and relished a good pun. Doug remembers his parents liked classical music, and his father would often conduct along with records played on a large hi-fi set prominent in the family living room. He remembers his father as being a loyal Cornhusker who enjoyed football games even during the dismal losing seasons of the pre-Devaney era. Nicoll’s daughter, Kathryn Nicoll Larimer, remembers meeting press authors John Neihardt and Mari Sandoz. Pat Nicoll, who died in 1971, had managed a bookstore and often hosted book signings. Although not a conventional scholar, Nicoll was a student of history and archeology, a founding member of the Western History Association, and a respected writer. He co-wrote, with University of Nebraska public relations colleague Ken Keller, a biography of Sam McKelvie, Nebraska’s nineteenth governor. He wrote Nebraska: A Pictorial History, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1967; the book won an award of merit from the American Association for State and Local History in 1968. In the mid-sixties he wrote the libretto for an opera written by UNL music professor and composer Robert Beadell. Bruce Nicoll took early retirement from the press in 1973. His son and daughter believe their father suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Nicoll died December 23, 1983, in Lincoln.

BRUCE NICOLL

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RICHARD ECKERSLEY

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(1941–2006)

What do writers, editors, designers, and colleagues do when a beloved and talented friend dies? If the friend is Richard Eckersley, they write achingly beautiful remembrances and publish a lovely small book, trying to capture, somehow, his essence. Such is Remembering Richard, more than a hundred pages of breathtaking essays that try, with much success, to describe and memorialize Richard Eckersley—an attempt to hold onto this quiet man who made such a powerful impact. The facts are these: Richard Eckersley was a Brit of immeasurable talent who joined the University of Nebraska Press in 1981 and worked there until his untimely death. The New York Times ran an obituary. As did the Guardian in London. And the Irish Times. During his tenure, he designed hundreds of books, jackets, covers, layouts, catalogs, posters, and all nature of items associated with scholarly publishing. He started his career in the era of hot type; he ended having been dragged into the world of desktop publishing. In fact, his tour de force, a masterpiece design for Avital Ronell’s Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech in 1989, was his first grudging foray into the new world of Aldus PageMaker. He never looked back. His design esthetic was precise, spare, elegant, subtle, restrained, exacting, deliberate, intentional. He knew that the difference between an eighteen-point headline and a twenty-point headline could ruin Richard Eckersley takes a break in front of the press offices located in Alexander Hall. Photo by Keith Jacobshagen.

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or perfect a composition. That leading was important. As was white space. His colleagues remember that he could instantly seize upon why a coworker’s design wasn’t working, and he would offer a gentle suggestion that righted all of it. His hiring was deemed “brilliant,” by Bill Regier, former press director. “Probably the most brilliant hire in the history of university publishing anywhere,” Regier said. In Remembering Richard, former UNP director David Gilbert, who hired Eckersley, wrote that the press determined that hiring a designer of first rank, who had stature and reputation, would help the press attract writers of similar caliber. Eckersley was working at a small art school in Pennsylvania, and his visa was expiring. Gilbert eventually enlisted Nebraska’s U.S. senator to smooth the visa process. Gilbert was correct: important authors came to Nebraska hoping to win the imprimatur of a Rickard Eckersley design. Eckersley was born in London during World War II; his father was also a graphic designer. Richard and his siblings were sent to the north of England to escape the blitzkrieg. There, living with his Methodist minister grandfather, Richard learned to revere books as nearly sacred objects to be approached with clean hands and to be handled gently, a habit he retained throughout life. After he graduated from Trinity College Dublin with degrees in English and Italian literature, he studied graphic design at the London College of Printing. His father was head of the graphic design department and both of his brothers also matriculated. There, he met and married Dika Lagercrantz with whom he had three children. A graphic designer, she eventually also joined the press. They came to the States after leaving the innovative Kilkenny Design Workshop in Ireland in 1980. Among his many accolades: the Carl Herzog Prize for book design in 1994; exhibits of his work in museums, including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York; innumerable publishing awards; and raving critical reviews. In 1999 he was named Royal Designer for Industry by the English Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; his father had won the same award in 1963.

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Although he excelled at producing designs for modern writers such as Ronell, Jacques Derrida, and L. C. Breunig, his work in producing an oversized art book, Karl Bodmer’s America, in partnership with Omaha’s Joslyn Museum, and the thirteen-volume Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were exceptionally noteworthy projects. Colleagues remember the details of Eckersley the person. He was reticent until his tongue was loosened by alcohol and then the stories unfolded, often in hilarious detail. He wore blue corduroy pants most often with a tweed jacket over a woven shirt, buttoned to the top. No tie. He had a sloped posture and walked silently with his hands clasped behind his back, head down. He wore round, wire-rimmed glasses. He had an enviable head of brown hair. He was generous with his time. He loved jazz piano and English football. He routinely rode a bicycle to work, even in the coldest of winters. He was never intentionally cruel; although when perturbed, a single sharp barb could end a conversation. His quiet ways and his reputation and stature intimidated new hires, but they soon learned of his gentle nature. He had a special coffee mug that no one was to use. He effaced the definition of melancholy. Richard died in his sleep on April 16, 2006. His ashes were spread over a favorite river in Ireland, where he loved to fly-fish.

RICHARD ECKERSLEY

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DIKA LAGERCRANTZ ECKERSLEY

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(1939–2015)

Generous. Kind. Quirky. Teacher. Designer. Traveler. Humane. A proponent of joy. Dika Eckersley’s colleagues and friends remember her as a woman who loved costume parties; saved and reused wrapping paper; made delicate ginger pig cookies at Christmas, tying each pig’s tail with a pink ribbon; and who made everyone around her a better person for having known her. Eckersley came to Nebraska in 1981 when her husband, Richard, was hired as the University of Nebraska Press’s senior designer. Herself a publications designer, Dika taught design and typography in the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Art Department and soon was doing contract design for the press. Among her notable projects was designing Prairie Schooner, UNL’s distinguished literary magazine. She joined the press staff in 1985 and retired in 2005. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, she moved to England at twentytwo to study graphic design at the London College of Printing. There, she met and later married Richard. They and their three children lived in Bath, England, and Kilkenny, Ireland, before moving to the United States when Richard took a job in Pennsylvania a year before coming to Nebraska. Because they had no car, the Eckersley family came to Lincoln on the train, colleagues said. “That just seemed so Willa Catheresque,” one Dika Eckersley. Courtesy of the Eckersley family.

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said. Both Dika and Richard were avid bicyclists, and although they did add a car to their transportation modes, both rode bicycles their entire lives. After her retirement, Dika purchased a brand-new bicycle for herself after years of functional, second-hand rides. Dika was known for her hand- drawn flip-books and often would include flip-books in the margins of her publications. Like all good designers, she instinctively knew that the tiny, almost imperceptible details were of critical importance to the overall success of a publication. She could home in on an overarching theme that others might miss, making it the centerpiece of a Prairie Schooner cover that would in one breathtaking moment exemplify an entire edition. Said a former colleague: “Dika was a designer, but she also was a reader, and she recognized the intimate connection that a magazine’s cover should have with the narrative created from the stories, essays, and poems within. In Dika’s world, books should—and could—be judged by their covers.” She was a generous and encouraging colleague—always the teacher who never failed to make a positive comment about a coworker’s efforts. She was not judgmental; her criticisms came in the form of gentle redirection and urging a second look with a possible new way to approach a problem. Her quiet speaking voice made her powerful; she did not yell. But she commanded respect because of her thoughtful words, grace, and tone. “When you were in a meeting with her, no one could be a jerk,” a coworker remembered. “It was just impossible to be a jerk around her.” The Eckersleys kept odd hours at the press— coming in late and leaving late. Dika often napped on her office floor, which sometimes unnerved new employees or the cleaning staff, who feared the worst upon encountering her there. Artistry permeated her life. She was a painter, a weaver (making fabric for her colorful and eclectic clothing), a sculptor, a photographer, and a printmaker. Two of her sculptures were included in the 2003 Tour de Lincoln public art project and another was featured in a project championed by the YWCA.

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An activist for human rights, women’s and children’s issues, literacy, recycling, and the environment, she lived her values. She was a volunteer tutor for English-language learners; she mentored refugees from China, Afghanistan, and the Sudan and especially enjoyed watching the children of immigrants new to the United States play soccer and other activities. In 2011 she became an American citizen and immediately registered to vote. She loved to travel and did so extensively, back to her native Sweden but also to Egypt, Japan, and China. She sent postcards filled with her careful observations of the people she met. Her habit of writing lovely, heartfelt notes was remembered by many. She handcrafted beautiful cards from the piles of wrapping paper, fabric, and other items she “artistically hoarded.” Nothing went to waste, and even after retiring from the press, she regularly popped in to assist in efforts to recycle. The Eckersley family was known for elaborate costumed theme parties, a love of jazz and storytelling. Dika enjoyed and practiced yoga before it was a trendy thing; she was a spirited cross-country skier. She was a citizen of the world who chose Lincoln as her home and shared her international viewpoint freely. She died in the spring of 2015 after a period of declining health.

DIKA LAGERCRANTZ ECKERSLEY

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WILLIS REGIER

Willis “Bill” Regier’s career seemed destined for a professorship in the English or Classics Department of a major university. But a graduate school job with his alma mater’s literary magazine, Prairie Schooner, opened doors that led to the less traditional but deeply rewarding field of academic publishing. Regier directed the University of Nebraska Press from 1987 to 1995, but before that, he was the press’s humanities editor (1979–83) and then its editor in chief (1983–87). Regier came to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln on an academic Regents Scholarship, granted only to Nebraska’s brightest high school graduates. And, he said, “They kept giving me scholarships, so I kept going to UNL.” He earned his BA in English (after leaving the Philosophy Department), then his MA and PhD, all from UNL. His dissertation, “Ezra Pound and E. E. Cummings: Confrontations between Tradition and the Avant-Garde,” offered a glimpse of his scholarly leanings, as did graduate student positions teaching Sanskrit, literature in translation, and literature of surrealism. As book review editor at Prairie Schooner (while also serving as an instructor in both the English and Classics Departments), Regier worked for Bernice Slote, who was a colleague and friend of the press’s editor in chief, Virginia Faulkner. When the press’s national search for a

Bill Regier displays some of his recent acquisitions, ca. 1988. Courtesy University Communications, Publications and Photos, Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

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humanities editor failed, Slote and others recommended Regier, who was hired by Director Dave Gilbert. Regier cannot praise Gilbert enough, noting that Gilbert became the first press director to be elected president of the Association of American University Presses (1982– 83). Gilbert understood the importance of marketing, leveraged the power of Bison Books, and expanded UNP’s footprint in publishing series, Regier said. After assuming leadership of the press, Regier continued Gilbert’s trajectory. His own goals for the press included making it more international in scope. Titles in the areas of European women writers, a Scandinavian writers series, and, in particular, French modernists began to attract the attention of East Coast media and critics. In a 1988 story, the Wall Street Journal dubbed the press “The Big House on the Prairie.” Regier said the press’s goal of surpassing the University of Oklahoma Press was realized as UNP further strengthened its publishing in western history and Native American studies. “We decided to become the major press of the West, and we did it,” Regier said. “We jumped in and grabbed all of the geography between Nebraska and California, looking for major authors who were out of print and also focusing on Native America history and literature.” During his tenure as director Regier developed a music list, he initiated the Willa Cather Scholarly editions, and acquired Avital Ronell’s Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, which was published to critical acclaim for Richard Eckersley’s complex and groundbreaking graphic design. Regier also secured the paperback rights to most of the works of Mari Sandoz and Nebraska’s first poet laureate, John G. Neihardt, and significantly boosted Nebraska’s reputation in translated literature. “The staff was loaded with Nebraska talent,” Regier said. “Jay Fultz, Kay Graber, Pam Hanson, Michael Jensen, Sandra Johnson, Alison Rold, Debra Turner, Diane Wanek. They helped attract others from every direction.” Regier left Nebraska in 1995 to head Johns Hopkins University Press. He said at the time that the size of that press was an intriguing challenge.

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More recently, Regier said the “contempt for Nebraska elsewhere in the United States also motivated me. I hated that they thought of us as regional hicks. I really wanted to show them that many important and intelligent people are Nebraska-born. When the right people are put together with adequate resources, great things can be achieved.” He left Johns Hopkins in 1998, was a visiting scholar at Harvard for a year, and then became director of the University of Illinois Press in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, he was president of the Association of American University Presses. Regier retired from Illinois in 2015 and now teaches in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program at the University of Illinois. Regier strongly supports the concepts of scholarly publishing and particularly the efforts of presses like Nebraska and Illinois. “There is a need to find and develop new authors, to mentor and to encourage them. There is a big difference between those who self-publish and those who are smart enough to work with others to improve their work,” Regier said. “Why not publish in Nebraska or Illinois? Do you want everything to be published out of New York? Nebraska and Illinois and others do real and important work. We represent our part of a big country, and we encourage scholarship about it and in it.” He deeply admires the University of Nebraska Press and considers it to be the bright star of the Big Ten. “Well, the Big Ten is fundamentally an athletic conference, but there is academic competition. The University of Nebraska Press is far and away the leader in the conference in a number of metrics.” Indeed, UNP has published four of his own works: Masterpieces of American Indian Literature, Book of the Sphinx, In Praise of Flattery, and Quotology. Regier is editing a volume on the collected works of Erasmus with the University of Toronto Press. —Profiles by Kim Hachiya

WILLIS REGIER

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75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

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As the largest and most diversified press between Chicago and California, the University of Nebraska Press is best known for publishing works in Native studies, history, sports, anthropology, geography, American studies, cultural criticism, and creative works. In celebration of the press’s seventy-fifth anniversary, the staff has selected seventy-five of the four thousand books UNP has published since 1941 to represent what is most distinctive and significant about our list. We have included books we originally published under the Nebraska imprint, the Bison Books imprint, the Potomac Books imprint, and the Jewish Publication Society collaborative agreement. When we have selected a book series we have listed the year the first book in the series was published.

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1. Roundup: A Nebraska Reader Compiled and edited by Virginia Faulkner (1957) 2. Nebraska Folklore Louise Pound (1959) 3. Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux John G. Neihardt (1961) 4. Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas Mari Sandoz (1961) 5. The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees Weldon Kees, edited by Donald Justice (1962)

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6. A Cycle of the West: The Song of Three Friends, The Song of Hugh Glass, The Song of Jed Smith, The Song of the Indian Wars, The Song of the Messiah John G. Neihardt (1963) 7. The World of Yesterday: An Autobiography Stefan Zweig (1964) 8. A Primer for Poets Karl Shapiro (1965)

9. Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays Translated and introduced by Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis (1965) 10. American Indian Life Elsie Clews Parsons (1967) 11. Left Handed, Son of Old Man Hat: A Navaho Autobiography Left Handed, recorded by Walter Dyk (1967) 12. The Home Place Wright Morris (1968) 13. A Pictographic History of the Oglala Sioux Amos Bad Heart Bull and Helen Blish (1968) 14. A Bride Goes West Nannie T. Alderson and Helena Huntington Smith (1969) 15. The Omaha Tribe, 2-volume set Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche (1972) 16. Pretty-shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows Frank B. Linderman (1974) 17. My People the Sioux Luther Standing Bear, edited by E. A. Brininstool (1975)

75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

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18. The Life of Hon. William F. Cody: Known as Buffalo Bill, The Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide William F. Cody (1978) 19. Saga of Chief Joseph Helen Addison Howard (1978) 20. The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation Charles A. Eastman (1980) 21. Lakota Belief and Ritual James R. Walker, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Elaine A. Jahner (1980) 22. Mormon Country Wallace Stegner (1980)

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23. I, Pierre Riviére, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, and my brother: A Case of Parricide in the Nineteenth Century Edited by Michel Foucault, translated by Frank Jellinek (1982) 24. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition series Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, edited by Gary E. Moulton (1983)

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25. Lord Grizzly Frederick Manfred (1983) 26. Bang the Drum Slowly Mark Harris (1984) 27. The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, 2-volume set Francis Paul Prucha (1984) 28. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann (1984) 29. Karl Bodmer’s America Annotations by David C. Hunt and Marsha V. Gallagher, artist’s biography by William J. Orr (1984) 30. The Kingdom of God Is within You Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett (1984) 31. The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk’s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt Edited by Raymond J. DeMallie (1984)

75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

32. Guerrilla Warfare Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1985) 33. Old Indian Legends Zitkala-Ša (1985) 34. Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream John E. Carter (1985) 35. Glas Jacques Derrida, translated by John P. Leavey Jr. and Richard Rand (1986) 36. Those of the Gray Wind: The Sandhill Cranes Paul A. Johnsgard (1986) 37. The Writing of the Disaster Maurice Blanchot, translated by Ann Smock (1986) 38. Mad Love

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André Breton, translated by Mary Ann Caws (1987) 39. The American Painting Collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery Compiled and edited by Norman A. Geske and Karen O. Janovy (1988)

41. The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech Avital Ronell (1989) 42. Coyote Stories Mourning Dove (Humishuma), edited by Heister Dean Guie (1990) 43. Eyewitness at Wounded Knee Richard E. Jensen, R. Eli Paul, and John E. Carter (1991) 44. Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers Ralph Moody (1991) 45. Nebraska Quilts and Quiltmakers Edited by Patricia Cox Crews and Ronald C. Naugle (1991) 46. Willa Cather Scholarly Editions series Willa Cather, selected by Guy J. Reynolds, John J. Murphy, Kari A. Ronning, David Stouck, Mary Weddle, Richard C. Harris, Ann Romines, Robin Schulze, Martha Nell Smith, Steven Kirk Trout (1992) 47. Winter Wheat Mildred Walker (1992)

40. Waterlily Ella Cara Deloria, biography by Agnes M. Picotte (1988)

75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

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48. Covered Wagon Women, volumes 1–11 Edited by Kenneth L. Holmes (1995) 49. Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska Robert E. Knoll (1995) 50. The Night Country Loren Eiseley (1997) 51. This Death by Drowning William Kloefkorn (1997) 52. Onitsha J. M. G. Le Clézio, translated by Alison Anderson (1997) 53. Out of the Dark Patrick Modiano, translated by Jordan Stump (1998)

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54. Family Farming: A New Economic Vision Marty Strange (1988) 55. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life, and the Expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, 3-volume set Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz (1999)

57. Brave Men Ernie Pyle (2001) 58. The Circus of Dr. Lao Charles G. Finney (2002) 59. Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps Ted Kooser (2002) 60. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark Colin G. Calloway (2003) 61. In the Shadow of Memory Floyd Skloot (2003) 62. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Edited by David J. Wishart (2004) 63. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939–March 1942 Christopher R. Browning (2004) 64. The Summer Game Roger Angell (2004) 65. Yonnondio: From the Thirties Tillie Olsen (2004)

56. Nadirs Herta Müller, translated and with an afterword by Sieglinde Lug (1999)

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75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

66. Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game David Block (2005) 67. The Complete Letters of Henry James series Henry James, edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias (2006) 68. The Meteor Hunt: The First English Translation of Verne’s Original Manuscript Jules Verne, translated and edited by Frederick Paul Walter and Walter James Miller (2006) 69. The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman Margot Mifflin (2009)

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70. White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880–1940 Margaret D. Jacobs (2009)

72. In Sun’s Likeness and Power: Cheyenne Accounts of Shield and Tipi Heraldry, 2-volume set James Mooney, transcribed and edited by Father Peter J. Powell (2013) 73. Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture, 3-volume set Edited by Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman 74. Witness: A Húŋkpapȟa Historian’s Strong-Heart Song of the Lakotas Josephine Waggoner, edited and with an introduction by Emily Levine (2013) 75. Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of BigTime College Sports Jay M. Smith and Mary Willingham (2015)

71. Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West, 1800–1860 Anne F. Hyde (2011)

75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

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UNP’S JOURNALS (CURRENTLY PUBLISHED)

American Indian Quarterly (1994) Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers (2000) Nineteenth-Century French Studies (2000) symplokē: a journal for the intermingling of literary, cultural, and theoretical scholarship (2000)

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Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture (2000)

Studies in American Indian Literatures (2004) Journal of Sports Media (2006) Women in German Yearbook (2007) Anthropological Linguistics (2008) Collaborative Anthropologies (2008) Native South (2008) Qui Parle (2008)

French Forum (2001)

Studies in American Naturalism (2008)

Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (2001)

Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies (2009)

NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture (2001)

Nouvelles Études Francophones (2010)

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University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

Journal of Austrian Studies (2012) Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies (2012) Great Plains Quarterly (2013)

The Undecidable Unconscious: A Journal of Deconstruction and Psychoanalysis (2015) Hotel Amerika (2016)

Great Plains Research (2013) Theoretical and Applied Ethics (2013) Gettysburg Magazine (2014) Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships (2014)

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Middle West Review (2014) Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities (2014) Western American Literature (2014)

75 SIGNIFICANT BOOKS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

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Copyright © 2016. Nebraska. All rights reserved.

75 NOTEWORTHY BOOK COVERS

The majority of the 75 noteworthy book covers we have chosen to highlight were designed by Richard Eckersley, an extraordinary colleague and distinguished University of Nebraska Press senior designer from 1981 to 2006. During his tenure the press name was identified with Eckersley’s graphic style and its national reputation was in part solidified because of it. As Steven Heller said in Eckersley’s obituary in the New York Times, “Through consistently meticulous compositions, a preference for bright, flat color, matte paper, and minimal ornament, he created a visual identity for the University of Nebraska Press.” These seventy-five covers were chosen using several criteria. The initial list was compiled from press covers that were chosen as winners in the annual Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal show competitions held over the last three decades. Several were winners in the American Institute of Graphic Arts Book Show competitions during the same time frame. Some were picked for the quality of the typography or composition combined with the quality or uniqueness of the idea illustrated. Others were chosen based on the concepts that were used to represent the book’s content in a unique, unexpected, or memorable way. A few of the covers were chosen because of their importance to the legacy of the University of Nebraska Press. Consider the crucial role of the cover in prompting a potential reader to further engage with the author or with the text. While you can’t judge a book by its cover, still, the link between the two nevertheless endures.

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1. Comedy and the Woman Writer: Woolf, Spark, and Feminism (1983) Judy Little Design by Richard Eckersley U

3. Walking to Work: Tramps in America, 1790–1935 (1984) Edited by Eric H. Monkkonen Design by Richard Eckersley U

2. Karl Bodmer’s America (1984) Annotations by David C. Hunt and Marsha V. Gallagher, artist’s biography by William J. Orr Design by Richard Eckersley UAWO

4. Old Jules: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition (1985) Mari Sandoz Design by Richard Eckersley

Key to awards: U AAUP A AIGA

5. The Underground Reservation: Osage Oil (1985) Terry P. Wilson Design by Richard Eckersley U

O Chicago Book Clinic W George Wittenborn

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6. Mad Love (1987) André Breton, translated by Mary Ann Caws Design by Richard Eckersley U A 7. The Archeology of the Frivolous: Reading Condillac (1987) Jacques Derrida, translated by John P. Leavey Jr. Design by Richard Eckersley U 8. Glas (1987) Jacques Derrida, translated by John P. Leavey Jr. and Richard Rand Design by Richard Eckersley U

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“A small typographic joke (meant to be discovered and enjoyed, I’m sure) is the use of Milton Glaser’s Photolettering design, Glaser Futura Stencil—the first four letters of which make a rather neat title.”—Paul Bacon

9. Glassary (1987) John P. Leavey Jr. Design by Richard Eckersley U 10. Stravinsky Retrospectives (1987) Edited by Ethan Haimo and Paul Johnson Design by Richard Eckersley U A

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11. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Volume 2: August 30, 1803–August 24, 1804 (1987) Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, edited by Gary E. Moulton Design by Richard Eckersley 12. The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation (1988) Jacques Derrida, edited by Christie McDonald, translated by Peggy Kamuf and Avital Ronell Design by Richard Eckersley

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13. Adam’s Diary (1988) Knut Faldbakken, translated by Sverre Lyngstad Design by Richard Eckersley U “A provocative illustration.”—Noel Martin “Another montage, like the House of Babel jacket, and equally restricted in the number of elements it employs— just two disparate images in combination.”—Richard Eckersley

14. House of Babel (1988) P. C. Jersild, translated by Joan Tate Design by Richard Eckersley U “Montage is a good technique for jacket design—the medium encourages one to work spontaneously with strongly defined shapes that have a poster-like directness. It probably doesn’t matter that few people see the visual pun on the title—the closed eye is a repetition of the mouth. The visual impact is more important.”—Richard Eckersley

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15. Human Rights and World Politics, 2nd edition (1989) David P. Forsythe Design by Dika Eckersley U 16. The Panther Woman: Five Tales from the Cassette Recorder (1989) Sarah Kirsch, translated and introduced by Marion Faber Design by Richard Eckersley U 17. Death to the Pigs and Other Writings (1989) Benjamin Péret, translated by Rachel Stella and Others Design by Richard Eckersley U

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18. The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech (1989) Avital Ronell Design by Richard Eckersley U A O “This is a book that, although designed in a very untraditional way, works because the design is consistent with the subject and with the intent of the book.”—Dana Levy

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19. Powhatan’s Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast (1989) Edited by Peter H. Wood, Gregory A. Waselkov, and M. Thomas Hatley Design by Mary Mendell U

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

20. The Mexican Empire of Iturbide (1990) Timothy E. Anna Design by Richard Eckersley U “Striking, original, beautiful use of color. Can’t tell if the effective blindfold is important to contents, but it is effective.”—Doris Grumbach “Very powerful concept with perfect follow-through in choice of colors and paper.”—Krystyna Skalski

21. Communicating Vessels (1990) André Breton, translated by Mary Ann Caws and Geoffrey T. Harris Design by Richard Eckersley

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22. Warfare in Antiquity: History of the Art of War, Volume 1 (1990) Hans Delbrück, translated by Walter J. Renfroe Jr. Design by Dika Eckersley 23. The Origins of Writing (1990) Edited by Wayne M. Senner Design by Mary Mendell U “Both colorful and original.”—Doris Grumbach “Atypical choice for this subject matter adds interest to an already intriguing illustration. Paper and finish enhance this handsome jacket.”—Krystyna Skalski

24. Treatise on Style (1991) Louis Aragon, translated by Alyson Waters Design by Richard Eckersley

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25. The Book of Promethea (1991) Hélène Cixous, translated by Betsy Wing Design by Richard Eckersley U

29. Beethoven Forum series (1992) Edited by Christopher Reynolds, Lewis Lockwood, and James Webster Design by Richard Eckersley U

“A classic book handled with a lively, fresh approach. This jacket is bold yet delicate. The colors work very well.”—Marjorie Anderson

“Classic typography and classic colors combine with a refreshing boldness and disposition of elements that somehow add up to a sense of musicality, and even Beethoven. However, too many typographic swashes for my taste. On the front cover the ‘R’ and the ‘L’ swashes might have been enough.”—Fred Marcellino

26. Cinders (1991) Jacques Derrida, translated and edited by Ned Lukacher Design by Richard Eckersley U

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“Strong image, clear metaphor, contemporary styling.”—Dietmar R. Winkler

27. The Youngest Doll (1991) Rosario Ferré Design by Richard Eckersley 28. O Pioneers!: Willa Cather Scholarly Edition (1992) Willa Cather, edited by Susan J. Rosowski and Charles W. Mignon with Kathleen Danker Design by Richard Eckersley

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30. Modernities and Other Writings (1992) Blaise Cendrars, translated by Monique Chefdor and Esther Allen, edited by Monique Chefdor Design by Richard Eckersley U “Bold constructivism with a nice twist—the addition of script. Elegant use of an elemental palette—red, yellow, black—the small white type within black bars on a vast expanse of chrome yellow background seems almost fluorescent.”—Fred Marcellino

7 5 NOTEWORTHY COVERS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

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31. The Soul of Wit: Joke Theory from Grimm to Freud (1993) Carl Hill Design by Richard Eckersley U “A witty use of Poetica in the display type, playfully echoed on the jacket.”  —Eleanor M. Caponigro

32. Cottonwood Roots (1993) Kem Luther Design by Dika Eckersley and Andrea Shahan U “These computer-generated photos work well in combination.”—Mario J. Furtado “For me, this is quite beautiful. Elegant, appropriate, and meaningful—the designer adds immeasurably to the author’s work.”—Robert Appleton

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33. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies (1993) Maynard Mack Design by Richard Eckersley U “A very strong and beautiful woodcut. The colors work well together, and leaving just the eyes white allows just enough light to pass through. This type is sturdy and holds up well to this illustration.”—Mario J. Furtado “A strong, colorful, and very well integrated jacket.”—Robert Appleton

34. A History of Norwegian Literature (Histories of Scandinavian Literature Series) (1993) Edited by Harald S. Naess Design by Dika Eckersley

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35. Mimologics (1994) Gérard Genette, translated by Thaïs E. Morgan Design by Richard Eckersley 36. Gertrude Stein Remembered (1994) Edited by Linda Simon Design by Dika Eckersley U “The photograph of Gertrude Stein was so beautiful that I put forward the idea of no type on the front. That suggestion was accepted by the editors, and the author had no complaints!”—Dika Eckersley “A picture is worth a thousand words!—if it’s the right picture.”—Sara Eisenman

37. Sojourners: The Return of German Jews and the Question of Identity (1995) John Borneman and Jeffrey M. Peck Design by Richard Eckersley

7 5 NOTEWORTHY COVERS

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

38. The Cubist Poets in Paris: An Anthology (1995) Edited by LeRoy C. Breunig Design by Richard Eckersley 39. You’ve Always Been Wrong (1995) René Daumal, translated by Thomas Vosteen Design by Richard Eckersley U A “You’ve Always Been Wrong is a collection of prose and poetry by the French writer René Daumal, who was closely associated with the Paris of André Breton and the surrealists in the late 1920s and the 1930s. It appeals to the sophisticated general reader as much as to the student of French culture. . . . The jacket features a sculpture by Daumal’s contemporary in Paris, Man Ray, an image that is forceful as well as ambiguous.”—Richard Eckersley

40. Bach Perspectives series (1995) Edited by Russell Stinson Design by Dika Eckersley U “Works both backward and forward. Simple solution makes for an elegant design.”—Judges’ comments

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41. Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence series (1996) Translated and edited by Theodore Albrecht Design by Richard Eckersley

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42. Why I Have Not Written Any of My Books (1996) Marcel Bénabou, translated by David Kornacker Design by Richard Eckersley U “A big, funny idea delivered confidently.” —Michael Bierut “Why mess with trying to decorate or color such a great title? This design makes concrete the apparent effort and frustration the author faces when he sits down to type. It’s as if the title is writing its own uncertain self, right before our eyes.”—Bethany Johns

43. The Brahms-Keller Correspondence (1996) Edited by George S. Bozarth in collaboration with Wiltrud Martin Design by Richard Eckersley U “A solid piece of production.”—Robin Kinross

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44. The Lost Steps (1996) André Breton, translated by Mark Polizzotti Design by Richard Eckersley U “The eye staring at you from the sole of Richard Eckersley’s left shoe on the jacket of this volume demands that you pay attention.”—Ed King

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45. Smart Jews: The Construction of the Image of Jewish Superior Intelligence (1996) Sander L. Gilman Design by Richard Eckersley U

University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.

46. The Trickster and the Troll (1997) Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve Design by Dika Eckersley U 47. Guerrilla Warfare (1998) Ernesto “Che” Guevara Design by Richard Eckersley

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48. Lives and Letters of an Immigrant Family: The Van Dreveldts’ Experiences along the Missouri, 1844–1866 (1998) Kenneth Kronenberg Design by Richard Eckersley 49. Break of Day (1999) André Breton, translated by Mark Polizzotti and Mary Ann Caws Design by Richard Eckersley U “Simple, smart, strong—perfect!”  —Rymn Massand

50. The Land That Time Forgot (1999) Edgar Rice Burroughs Design by Ray Boeche

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51. Never to Return (1999) Esther Tusquets, translated and with an afterword by Barbara F. Ichiishi Design by Dika Eckersley U “A very arresting combination of imagery with strong type and great use of space. The book is satiric and yet emotionally complex, and the cover mirrors all that in a whimsical and extremely humorous way. Refreshing, new, unexpected, and dead on.”—Rymn Massand

52. Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (2000) Joan Acocella Design by Richard Eckersley U 53. Manifesto: A Century of Isms (2001) Edited by Mary Ann Caws Design by Richard Eckersley 54. Feathering Custer (2001) W. S. Penn Design by Richard Eckersley U 55. The Museum of Useless Efforts (2001) Cristina Peri Rossi, translated by Tobias Hecht Design by Dika Eckersley U

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“It looks like someone had a lot of fun creating this clever and minimal design. The modernist approach to the composition works beautifully and the white border holds it all together. A striking cover made by the simple manipulation of an everyday object. One of our favorites.”—Judges’ comments

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56. The Passion of Martin Fissel-Brandt (2002) Christian Gailly, translated by Melanie Kemp Design by Richard Eckersley U “The decision to bleed this fuzzy image and shift type makes this cover very active. Touches of blue add to the mystery.”— Cedomir Kostovic “Clear evidence that Jan Tschichold was right the first time.”—Daniel Pelavin

57. An American Cycling Odyssey, 1887 (2002) Kevin J. Hayes Design by Richard Eckersley U A “Finally: a book with a sense of humor!”  —Kathy Fredrickson “Richard Eckersley is consistently one of the most imaginative book designers anywhere.”— Carl Zahn

58. My Big Apartment (2002) Christian Oster, translated by Jordan Stump Design by Richard Eckersley U “This paperback cover is perfect for its subject.”— Carl Zahn

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59. The Journal of a Civil War Surgeon (2003) J. Franklin Dyer, edited by Michael B. Chesson Design by Richard Eckersley 60. What Is There to Say? (2003) Ann Smock Design by Dika Eckersley

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61. Cock and Bull Stories: Folco de Baroncelli and the Invention of the Camargue (2004) Robert Zaretsky Design by Roger Buchholz 62. The Untouched Minutes (2004) Donald Morrill Design by Richard Eckersley 63. Devil’s Dance (2006) Gisèle Pineau, translated by C. Dickson Design by Richard Eckersley U “A jalapeno pepper as a candle? Now that I have your attention, read the blurb. Brilliant.”—Cameron Poulter and John Gall

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64. Corkscrewed: Adventures in the New French Wine Country (2008) Robert V. Camuto Design by Ashley Muehlbauer U 65. Valentines (2008) Ted Kooser Design by Andrea Shahan U “It is just so lovely and delicate.” —Deb Wood and Henry Sene Yee

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66. The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession (2009) Ken Alder Design by Joel Gehringer 67. Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964–2008 (2009) Gregg Orr and Beef Torrey Design by Ray Boeche U 68. Sting Like a Bee: The Muhammad Ali Story (2009) José Torres, with Bert Randolph Sugar Design by Ashley Muehlbauer U “Uniquely Muhammad Ali. Strong title.”  —Audrey Meyer

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69. Four Years in Europe with Buffalo Bill (2010) Charles Eldridge Griffin, edited and with an introduction by Chris Dixon Design by Roger Buchholz 70. Mondo and Other Stories (2011) J. M. G. Le Clézio, translated by Alison Anderson Design by Nathan Putens

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71. My Nebraska: The Good, the Bad, and the Husker (2011) Roger Welsch Design by Nathan Putens U “I’m a sucker for wonky illustrations like this, but I don’t think the cover would have worked without the naive quality that really exaggerates this idea.”— Christopher Brand “The use of white space presents a spacious, wide-open landscape.”—Karen Horton

72. The Geometric Unconscious: A Century of Abstraction (2012) Edited by Jorge Daniel Veneciano Design by Nathan Putens U

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73. Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem and Misbehavior (2013) Brandon R. Schrand Design by Andrea Shahan U 74. Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History (2014) Tim Grove Design by Jesse Vadnais 75. Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition (2014) John G. Neihardt Design by Andrea Shahan

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University, of Nebraska Press. Big House on the Prairie : 75 Years of the University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska, 2016.