Ohio Books

Valerie Strong is a woman who has seemingly led an enviable life. Her love of plants and nature in general is so evident and well-stated. She has an eye not only for plants, but design, architecture, stonework, and so on. Her love of gardening has allowed her to meet and make friends with interesting poeple who get so much satisfaction in sharing their ideas (and sweat and muscle power) to complete a job that will perhaps allow others to nurture their appreciation for gardening. As I prepare to revamp my Ohio yard this Spring, I will make good use of the practical ideas as well as the gardening philosophy that Valerie espouses in this lovely book.

As a transplant from NY to Alliance, Ohio I shortly realized what I missed most was a sense of history with my new surroundings. This book was so interesting and informative about our new hometown.

Professor Borowiec's photographs are like little delicious desserts for the brain. Each one is to be savored and almost every one of them gave my imagination a complete workout. The photographs of houses and streets made my mind say "Who lives here?", "What is around the corner?", "What would it be like to live here?" "What would I experience looking out of the window of the house on the hill?". I wanted to jump into the photographs to experience the whole body mood and feeling of them. Anyone who likes to study a photograph thoroughly to gain everything it has to offer will love this book. A wonderful experience. Thank you Professor Borowiec!

Excellent, make sure you also read "England, First and Last", the sequel; you will be unable to put these down.

Note: This book was later published in a paperback edition by the University of Oklahoma Press under the title JAMES PATTIE'S WEST: The Dream & the Reality. Why the title was changed is unclear.

James Pattie is remembered solely for a book he published in 1831 entitled THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF JAMES O. PATTIE. The book recounted his experiences as a trapper and wanderer in the Far West between 1825 and 1830, experiences he shared with his traveling companion, his father Sylvester. After trapping throughout New Mexico and Arizona, the men journeyed to California where Sylvester died in [1828]. After continuing on to San Francisco, James boarded a ship for Mexico, across which he walked by way of Mexico City, and then boarded another ship on the Gulf for New Orleans. Destitute, he was able to borrow $40 from Senator Josiah Johnston, a family friend, to pay for passage aboard a steamboat to Cincinnati. It was there that he met publisher Timothy Flint, who published Pattie's narrative.

Since the book was first published it has held the attention of historians and others interested in first-hand accounts of the early West. Often it has been disparaged as a work filled with inaccuracies, half-truths, and tall tales; it was even claimed that Pattie, with Flint's help, made the whole thing up. Richard Batman has taken a fine-toothed comb to the Narrative with the purpose of separating fact from fiction wherever possible. He is able to show that quite a bit of what Pattie wrote is indeed based in fact. His descriptions of the geography he traveled over are often remarkably accurate. Batman wonders if Pattie kept a diary of some kind, since certain details (a rainstorm, for example, that can be verified from other journals that cite the event) are too specifically drawn to be recalled years later from memory. Where he errs the most is in his depictions of his own actions and responses. Zelig-like, Pattie blended in with the background scenery, rarely if ever making an impression on those he encountered (one trapper who spent time with him remembered his horse but not him). Yet in the Narrative he puts himself in the forefront and gives himself all kinds of heroic (at least "manly") qualities. Many of these incidents occurred in California where Pattie felt he was treated with great indignities; Batman is quick to point out where they might have been figments of his imagination. He also fills out Pattie's life, making the book a biography of the man. Unfortunately, but typically it seems, Pattie vanishes from the scene shortly after his book was published, never heard from again. Batman has done a great service with this book, not only helping to clarify a major historical record, but through his own researches adding much information about Pattie and life in the Far West at the end of the 1820s. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this period in American history.

Compiled and edited by Emily Foster, American Grit: A Woman's Letters From The Ohio Frontier is an inherently fascinating collection of correspondence from the first half of the nineteenth century, written by Anna Briggs Bentley, a devout Quaker wife determined not to lose contact with her mother and sister. Filled with emotion, a willingness to work, love for her family and her many children, and a great deal more, American Grit provides contemporary readers with a compelling and enjoyable look through a kind of "window of time" at daily life in rugged terrain. A fine work enhanced with brief annotations for clarity, American Grit is very highly recommended for Women's Studies and American History Studies collections and reading lists.

Reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's Notebooks is a very different experience than reading those of Henry James, Steinbeck, Thomas Mann (Diaries), Robert Musil or even those published by Reynolds Price. The self mannered awareness that the future will prize their "private" thoughts and ideas is absent. These were truly private workbooks. Hawthorne writes in full voice as someone for whom communication is vital and difficult. Open this work anywhere and read what sounds like the inner voice of someone practiced at concealing his thoughts publicly. Expansive, suggestive, and illuminating for all those who would like to know more of the deep thought and artfullness that went into his major works. Some of his working ideas for stories sound absolutely modern. One story idea develops the possibility of having two men talking and discussing their difficulties while waiting and waiting for someone who never comes. They don't know what to do, so they continue to wait and discussing the one who never comes. Sound familar? A little like "Waiting for Godot"? If you love great literature and if you love Hawthorne, then dig deep and buy this expensive but magnificent book.

This is an great book on an amazing building. This building is probably the most famous symbol of democracy and when you see it in person you can't help but feel chills, the way it was sited by Enfant on a slight hilltop with commanding views of the city. This is truly a building that is spectacular both inside and out. This book exhaustively covers the architectural artistry of this famous building and does so in a scholarly manner. The images are nicely produced as well. If you have any interest in American History or just spectacular architecture and artistry then I believe you will be pleased with this book. Well done tribute to an American Icon.

ANAIS NIN OBSERVED is a companion to the 1976 film of the same name. It is 115 pages of dialogue from the movie, text from Anais Nin's diaries, and black-and-white pictures of Anais Nin and the people in her life, as well as her greatest influences (Henry Miller, Antonin Artaud, Martha Graham, etc.). We also get pictures of Nin from her early childhood up to her days in the limelight as a famous diarist, author, and college lecturer. And that is my favorite part of the book: the portrayal of Anais Nin as a popular college lecturer. One of the first pictures we get is a full length portrait of her standing on stage before an audience at UC Berkeley in the late 1970s. This is a woman who began her literary career in the 1930s in a small town outside of Paris. She was ignored by the literary world for three decades. Finally, she got the acclaim she'd always desired. I find that very moving. Oh, how I would have loved to have been one of the dozen or so students who got to visit her home and sit on the plush pillows on her livingroom floor and talk about literature (picture enclosed). The pictures of a solitary Nin in her Zen garden are equally poignant.

Andrew Parodi

Anais Nin came into my life about five years ago in the usual way: via the diaries. A kind lady at the book buyer's counter at Powell's City of Books had given me the entire sent of the expurgated editions (this beat-up set was passed over by the clerk). I had never heard of this woman with the odd name I had no idea how to pronounce, and I had no idea why her diaries had been published. The only diaries I'd been previously exposed to were of people famous for things other than diary writing, such as Andy Warhol, or who lived through horrendous situations, such as Anne Frank. Apparently, neither scenario applied to Anais Nin. I didn't get why she should have published her diaries or why I should read them. But I couldn't see passing up an entire set of books. I took the books home and put them on my self. Occasionally I'd open them and stumble upon a passage beautiful enough to make me wish I could understand the point of it all. Alas, I couldn't. I eventually threw away the entire set because, well, the clerk was right. They were just too beat up (a few volumes were literally falling apart).

A few years later a friend sent me a card that contained a beautiful quote by Anais Nin. My interest was rekindled. I decided to give the diaries a second shot, and I have slowly rebuilt my collection. Only this time I decided I would understand what Anais was talking about. This is where ANAIS NIN: AN INTRODUCTION comes in. Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider, both associates of Anais Nin, provide the linear and straightforward interpretation of the diaries that I had longed for, devoting one entire chapter to each volume. They also take you through all of Anais Nin's most important fiction: HOUSE OF INCEST, WINTER OF ARTIFICE, UNDER A GLASS BELL, LADDERS TO FIRE, CHILDREN OF THE ALBATROSS, THE FOUR-CHAMBERED HEART, A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE, SEDUCITON OF THE MINOTAUR, and COLLAGES. Anais Nin's works of literary criticism are also discussed, as are the books A WOMAN SPEAKS (a collection of interviews and transcripts of lectures Anais Nin gave in the 1970s) and IN FAVOR OF THE SENSITIVE MAN (another book of interviews).

Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider have opened my eyes to a depth in Anais Nin's work of which I had been completely ignorant, and in the process they have given me an education in literature for which I am grateful. And, ironic for a book that has helped me understand the works of Anais Nin, ANAIS NIN: AN INTRODUCTION has made me realize that understanding Anais is not so much the point. Anais Nin simply had a beautiful way with words, a dream-like style and a diction unlike any other I've seen. I suppose the American mind is so geared toward a linear telling of stories that it can be a little intimidating at first when such a thing is not readily detectable (Benjamin Franklin V and Duane Schneider actually write that American audiences, more than Europeans, shy away from works that are not linear and pragmatic in progression).

Andrew Parodi