The University kills the lights around here for the next ten days or so, and most of us hunker down at home with the books that we’ve piled up over the course of the year. To tide you over until we're back we’ve put together this little list of highlights from the HUP Blog in 2010, just in case you missed anything.
In January, we posted some thoughts on The Condemnation of Blackness, a terrific new book from Khalil Gibran Muhammad, who this fall was named the new Director of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
In March, we offered an interview with Amir Alexander, author of Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics, in which we explored culture’s influence on math and mathematicians.
In April, we announced the creation of the Murty Classical Library of India, a new series dedicated to making the literary heritage of India available to English-language readers, scheduled to launch in 2013.
Also in April, we presented a two-part remembrance of the French philosopher Piere Hadot, from his one-time student and long-time collaborator Michael Chase.
In May, we posted an interview with Karen Daubmann of the New York Botanical Garden, in which we discussed the NYBG’s wonderful reconstruction of Emily Dickinson’s gardens.
Also in May, we shared a one, two, three, four, five part presentation of Greil Marcus’s notes on the making of A New Literary History of America, which we published last autumn.
In July, we conducted an interview with former HUP Art Director Marianne Perlak, who left us to return to the fine arts, where physical books remain her medium.
In August, HUP Executive Editor for the Humanities Lindsay Waters shared his memories of the legendary literary critic Frank Kermode.
In September, we offered an interview with Brandon L. Garrett, author of the forthcoming Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, and also a post in which David Garland explained the approach of his new book, Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition. Both Garrett and Garland later were involved in retired United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Steven’s denunciation of the American death penalty. Garrett’s article “Judging Innocence” was cited in Justice Stevens’ landmark opinion in Baze v. Rees, and a review of Garland’s book this fall was the vehicle for Justice Stevens’ deeper remarks on Baze v. Rees and on the evolution of his own thoughts on capital punishment.
In October, we presented the first in a new series of audio slideshows highlighting the work of our in-house book designers.
Also in October, we posted an adaptation of an address by Susan Wallace Boehmer, our Editor-in-Chief, on what’s changing and what’s staying the same at HUP as we embrace our digital future.
November was busy:
We gave our somewhat blustery take on the value of physical books, on the occasion of our relaunching of The Image of the Black in Western Art.
We shared HUP Humanities Editor Sharmila Sen’s essay on translation, “The Beautiful Infidel,” as we presented the first volumes of the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library.
And, in response to n+1’s What Was the Hipster?, we took a look in the mirror at Hipster University Press.
Finally, this month we told a fun little story about old books and spelling.
We covered a lot of ground here in 2010, and we hope that some of it has been of interest to you. We’ll be back in January to do it all again.
Until then: happy holidays and best wishes for the new year from all of us at Harvard University Press.