The Levenger Press in Delray Beach has published a lovely hardcover edition of Henry David Thoreau on Cape Cod, which adapts Thoreau’s 1865 book Cape Cod into something new and beautiful.

The volume features illustrations by Mary Bowmar Richmond, and some commentary by John Hessler of the Library of Congress. The book itself involves a typically ruminative Thoreau examining the flora and fauna, and, beyond that, the meaning of oceans and estuaries in much the same free-form way that Glenn Gould examined the idea of north.

I had never read the book before, and found it particularly evocative of Thoreau’s mind, and gift for suddenly beautiful sentences: "Most persons visit the sea-side in warm weather, but I suspect that the fall is the best season. In autumn, the thoughtful days begin."

The book also features facsimile inserts of Thoreau’s copies of maps by Samuel Champlain along with his notes on the same.

All in all, this is a superb example of the bookmaker’s art, not to mention the continued vibrancy of independent publishing.

A different aspect of the same period is offered in the Library of America’s new volume: The Civil War: The First Year, a bountiful – nearly 800 pages – anthology drawn from newspapers, letters and diaries by participants as well as onlookers. It’s a fascinating collection of primary source material that should be in the library of every historian, not to mention Civil War buff.

The best part is that we have four more excellent volumes to look forward to.

In the Pipeline

St. Martin’s Press will publish an authorized biography of the late John Phillips by Chris Campion. The book will be entitled Wolfking, after Phillips’ first album… Jeff Guinn will write a book about Charles Manson for Simon & Schuster.

Fun fact…

Sixty-eight percent of trade-publishing employees read e-books.

Fun Related Fact…

Seventy-four percent of trade publisher s are currently offering e-books.

Mike Browning’s Word of the Week…

hiemal: wintry.

Quote Unquote…

"We are obliged to love one another. We are not strictly bound to like one another."

——— Thomas Merton