2010 North Carolina Book Awards

The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association (NCLHA), established in 1900, has issued a call for entries for the 2010 North Carolina Book Awards. Several different competitions are now open, including the Hardee Rives Award for Dramatic Arts, the Ragan Old North State Award for Nonfiction (successor to the Mayflower Cup), the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry, the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, and the American Association of University Women Award for Juvenile Literature.

To be eligible for consideration, a work must meet the following criteria:

-- It must be an original book published during the twelve months ending June 30 of the year for which the award is given;

-- Its author(s) must have maintained legal or physical residence, or a combination of both, in North Carolina for the three years preceding the close of the contest period; and

-- Three (3) copies of each entry must be submitted to the Awards Coordinator for the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association.

Additional guidelines are available on the NCLHA web site. The deadline for receipt of nominated books is July 15, 2010.

Other related awards include the Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award, which recognizes significant contributions to the preservation of North Carolina history, and the R. Hunt Parker Memorial Award, which acknowledges literary contributions. At the annual meeting each year the Historical Society of North Carolina presents the R. D. W. Connor Award for the best article to have appeared in the North Carolina Historical Review in the preceding year and the Hugh T. Lefler Award for the best paper by an undergraduate student.

Visit the NCLHA web site for further information about the Association, which is among the oldest of its kind in the nation.

Festschrift for Professor Michael McVaugh

Between Text and Patient: The Medical Enterprise in Medieval & Early Modern Europe brings together essays by an eminent group of scholars who traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2007 to honor the work of UNC Professor Michael R.McVaugh. Like McVaugh’s own publications, the essays vary greatly in their approaches to the healing arts in the medieval and early modern periods, ranging from philological studies of individual texts to paleo-pathological examinations of the spread of disease; from considerations of physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, patients, and unlearned healers, to the contexts in which they functioned: the town, the university, the monastery, the court, and the printing house; and from poly-lingual studies of Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Middle English texts to descriptions of the unstudied riches to be found in modern manuscript collections. As such, Between Text and Patient provides excellent examples of some of the best current research in the field. In addition to the many excellent essays, the volume is valuable for more than a dozen photos of never-before reproduced manuscripts, as well as brief editions and translations of original texts hitherto unavailable to English readers.

Edited by Florence Eliza Glaze and Brian Nance, Between Text and Patient (ISBN 978-88-8450-361-9) will be published this summer as part of Sismel's Micrologus' Library. Through June 30, 2010, the press is offering a reduced Tabula Gratulatoria price of 48 euro (72 euro after June 30). A table of contents and a Tabula Gratulatoria discount order form is available online.

Of related interest, see The MacKinney Collection of Medieval Medical Illustrations, a UNC digital collection.

Call for Manuscripts: University of Pittsburgh Press

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a five-year, $750,000 grant to the University of Pittsburgh for a book publishing initiative in the history of science to be pursued by the University of Pittsburgh Press in a close partnership with Pittʼs Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Department of Historyʼs World History Center. The grant will support publication of innovative work in the history of science. In addition to producing books, the Press and its partners will cooperate in a number of activities in support of this program, including guest lectures, conferences, fellowships, and a book prize. Read more . . . .

Both experienced and new authors are strongly encouraged to submit proposals for new books and book series. If you would like to make a submission, have suggestions, or would like further information on the new initiative, please contact Beth Davis, editor for history and philosophy of science, at jedavis@pitt.edu or 412-383-3174. Guidelines for prospective authors are available online.

Symposium for The First White House Library

The Library of Congress will by hosting a one-day symposium on May 7, 2010 to celebrate the publication of The First White House Library: A History & Annotated Catalogue. [For a detailed program, click here].

At the beginning of the day, visitors may choose one of two optional tours in the Library of Congress. Mark Dimunation, Chief of Rare Book and Special Collections, will give a tour of the new exhibition of Thomas Jefferson’s library [see also the digitized catalog of Jefferson's library; his books on medicine and anatomy are described in volume 1 at pp. 395-455], and John Cole, Director of the Center for the Book, will lead a tour that features the iconography, quotations, and inscriptions of the Library’s Jefferson Building.

The symposium program begins officially at 10:00 a.m. with a plenary address by Catherine M. Parisian, the editor of The First White House Library, followed by the presentation of copies of the book to the National First Ladies’ Library and the White House.

Other conference sessions will focus on books and reading in the White House. Douglas L. Wilson, Co-Director, Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, and Jean Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln’s biographer, will discuss President and Mrs. Lincoln. Other featured speakers on the topic of First Ladies and reading will include the noted first ladies historian Carl Anthony; William G. Allman, Curator of the White House; Nancy Beck Young, biographer of Lou Henry Hoover; and Abigail Fillmore’s biographer Elizabeth Thacker-Estrada. The program will conclude with a plenary address by distinguished historian and author Sean Wilentz. A closing reception will follow.

RSVP: This event is free and open to the public. To assist with preparations, we ask those planning to attend to RSVP to Stacyea Sistare-Anderson, Center for the Book, (202) 707-5221, stsi@loc.gov.

The symposium is sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, and the National First Ladies’ Library.

Fine Books & Collections Back in Print

Fine Books & Collections has now returned to print with the publication of its Spring 2010 issue. Among the items in the latest issue are:

:: Dard Hunter's passion for paper;
:: Biblio 360, a comprehensive guide to book-related events;
:: Edward Stratemeyer's life in New York;
:: Nicholas Basbanes interviews the new archivist of the United States;
:: A look into Baldwin's diary.

Subscription and other information is available on the magazine's web site.

See related post: Fine Books & Collections Returning to Print.

Book Event for New Biography on Hugh Williamson [1735-1819]

The Bullitt History of Medicine Club will be hosting a book event for Dr. George Sheldon, author of the first full-length biography of Hugh Williamson [1735-1819], an illustrious figure in both American and North Carolina history. Entitled Hugh Williamson: Physician, Patriot, and Founding Father, the book recounts the remarkable life of Williamson, who among many other accomplishments was a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

The event will begin at 5:30pm on Thursday, April 15, 2010 in the 5th Floor Conference Room (527) at the UNC Health Sciences Library. Dr. Sheldon will make a brief presentation and entertain questions on Williamson's place in history. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing. Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome. In addition, a small display will be on view in the exhibition cases on the first floor of HSL.

Dr. Sheldon is the Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the Director of the Health Policy Research Institute of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Editor-in-Chief of e-FACS.org, the web portal of ACS. From 1984-2001 he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery at UNC.

See related post: New Biography on Hugh Williamson, Physician and Patriot.

Call for Manuscripts: Rochester Studies in Medical History

The University of Rochester Press is seeking manuscripts for its series Rochester Studies in Medical History (RSMH). The Editor of the Series is Theodore M. Brown, Ph.D., Professor of History, Community and Preventive Medicine, and Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester. He is assisted by a panel of distinguished scholars from a variety of institutions. The editorial board is seeking a mix of titles and formats, ranging from monographs by a single author to edited volumes representing many authors and points of view.

The series has three major foci: the history of public health and health policy; the history of clinical and investigative medicine; and the history of the social and cultural significance of medicine and disease. Special interests include the history of measures aimed at controlling disease in populations, biomedical and epidemiological research and their applications in practice, and the cultural implications of medicine and its institutions.

Anyone interested in making a submission for consideration is requested to send a project proposal or prospectus. The project proposal should include: 1) a brief but detailed synopsis of the work, outlining its intended contribution to the existing literature; 2) an abstract of 300 words or less, summarizing the work's content; 3) a complete Table of Contents; 4) one sample chapter. All scholars with an interest in submitting their work for consideration should contact the Editor.

Theodore M. Brown, Ph.D., Series Editor
University of Rochester

Send proposals to:

University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue
Rochester, New York 14620
E-mail: urpress@mail.rochester.edu
Website: http://www.urpress.com/

New Biography on Hugh Williamson, Physician and Patriot

Dr. George Sheldon, Professor of Surgery and Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has just completed the first full-length biography of Hugh Williamson [1735-1819], an illustrious figure in both American and North Carolina history. Hugh Williamson: Physician, Patriot, and Founding Father recounts the remarkable life of Williamson, who not only was a signer of the US Constitution, but also a polymath who was a member of the University of Pennsylvania's first graduating class, and later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and trained with the renowned surgeon, John Hunter.

A member of the American Philosophical Society, Williamson was politically engaged as well. He was among the planners of the Boston Tea Party, and later became the surgeon general of the North Carolina Revolutionary War Militia. In 1782, Williamson was elected to the North Carolina legislature, and was chosen to serve in the Continental Congress, where he advocated for federalism; on September 17, 1787, he was one of the signers of the Constitution. Later he served in the first US House of Representatives, and was one of the original trustees of the University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the country.

Published by Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books, Hugh Williamson has already garnered praise from reviewers:

No longer can we claim that Dr. Hugh Williamson, a signer of the Constitution, is one of our least known Founding Fathers. Dr. Sheldon's wide-ranging biography clearly reveals the political, educational, and philanthropic activities in which this typical Enlightenment figure played significant roles.

-- Gert H. Brieger, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Physician, surgeon, scientist, rebel, sometime spy, politician, and distinguished Founding Father--Hugh Williamson was all these and more. In this fascinating account of Williamson's multifaceted career, Dr. Sheldon . . . has brought a great American patriot to life, and made him unforgettable.

-- Sherwin Nuland, MD, FACS, Yale University School of Medicine

. . . Sheldon has provided [his readers] with a complete, informative, and satisfying "dissection" of a unique, multifaceted life. There is a parallelism between the author and Williamson in that both are recognized, particularly, for their contributions to their adopted state of North Carolina.

-- Seymour I. Schwartz, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine

Dr. Sheldon is the Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Professor of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the Director of the Health Policy Research Institute of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Editor-in-Chief of e-FACS.org, the web portal of ACS. From 1984-2001 he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery at UNC.

Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-2008

The Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lectureship was established at the UNC School of Medicine in 1985 by its Dean, Stuart Bondurant, MD, to honor some of the School's most accomplished scientists and scholars. The lectureship serves to recognize Norma Berryhill, who with her husband Dr. Walter Reece Berryhill, made substantial contributions to the development and success of the School, which began its four-year curriculum in 1952. Mrs. Berryhill was herself the subject of the 1992 lecture delivered by Dr. George Johnson, Jr.

The lectures have twice been collected and published by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, and to reach a broader audience, each volume has now been made available online, both by individual lecture (Volume I; Volume II) and as complete volumes in PDF (Volume I; Volume II). Each print volume is also held by various UNC Libraries (Volume 1; Volume 2).

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: 1985-1999 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; edited by Drs. William W. McLendon, William B. Blyth, and Floyd W. Denny, Jr. (Chapel Hill: Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc., 2000) [PDF of entire volume]

1985 :: Genetics at Chapel Hill: The Evolution of a Program of Graduate Education and Research
John B. Graham, MD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Pathology

1986 :: Carolina: A Research University -- Genesis and Consequences
G. Philip Manire, PhD, Kenan Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

1987 :: The Growth and Development of Pediatrics in North Carolina and at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Floyd W. Denny Jr., MD, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics

1988 :: A Potpourri of Thoughts Concerning the Development of Scholars and Women Scientists
Mary Ellen Jones, PhD, Kenan Professor of Biochemistry and Nutrition

1989 :: The Department of Surgery: A Historical Perspective
Colin G. Thomas Jr., MD, Byah Thomason Doxey-Sanford Doxey Professor of Surgery

1990 :: Carolina's Contributors to Nephrology
Carl W. Gottschalk, MD, Kenan Professor of Medicine and Physiology

1991 :: Esse Quam Videri: The Essence of the University and the Medical School
William B. Blythe, MD, Marion Covington Professor of Medicine

1992 :: Norma Connell Berryhill: A North Carolina Treasure
George Johnson Jr., MD, Roscoe Bennett Gray Cowper Professor of Surgery

1993 :: Lessons from an Epic
Stuart Bondurant, MD, Dean, School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine

1994 :: Basic Research in a Clinical Department
Judson J. Van Wyk, MD, Kenan Professor of Pediatrics

1995 :: The Magic Continues
Christopher C. Fordham III, MD, Chancellor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, School of Medicine

1996 :: The Leaven of Letters
Frank C. Wilson, MD, Kenan Professor of Orthopaedics and Chief Emeritus

1997 :: Chapel Hill Odyssey: On the Crew and at the Helm, 1965-1997
Joseph S. Pagano, MD, Director Emeritus, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Professor of Medicine and Microbiology

1998 :: From Morbid Anatomy to Pathogenomics: A Century of Pathology at UNC
Joe W. Grisham, MD, Kenan Professor and Chair Emeritus, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

1999 :: The Power of Community
P. Frederick Sparling, MD, J. Herbert Bate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology

:: Norma Berryhill Lectures: Volume II, 2000-2008 / The School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; edited by Drs. William W. McLendon and Elizabeth Dreesen (Chapel Hill: Medical Foundation of North Carolina, Inc., 2009). [PDF of entire volume].

2000 :: The University, the School of Medicine, and the Department of Surgery in the 21st Century: Re-examining the Social Contract
George F. Sheldon, MD, Zack D. Owens Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery

2001 :: Carolina: Lighthouses on the Hill
Edward A. Norfleet, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology

2002 :: Fifty Years as a Bench Scientist
Oliver Smithies, MA, DPhil, Excellence Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

2003 :: The Observations of a Former Student: A Half-Century of Constancy and Change
Harold R. Roberts, MD, Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Medicine and of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

2004 :: Structure and Function: Developing Pulmonary Medicine at UNC
Philip A. Bromberg, MD, M.D. Bonner Professor in Pulmonary and Allied Diseases

2005 :: Medicine's Arrow, Medicine's Cycles
Joel E. Tepper, MD, Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology

2006 :: Great Expectations: The Art of Graduate Medical Education at Chapel Hill
Robert C. Cefalo, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynecology

2007 :: My Brief Sojourn at UNC: The First 40 Years and the Next
H. Shelton Earp III, MD, Lineberger Professor, Director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology

2008 :: Cystic Fibrosis: A Disease of Mucus Dehydration
Richard C. Boucher Jr., MD, William Rand Kenan Professor of Medicine

Note: A video of the 2009 Norma Berryhill Lecture by Dr. Jeffrey Houpt entitled, "What We're Like When We're at Our Best and Today's Realities," is also available online. Dr. Houpt is Dean Emeritus of the UNC School of Medicine.

Medieval Help Desk, or The More Things Change . . .

Originally broadcast in 2001 on Norwegian television, "Medieval Help Desk" was a skit from the show "Øystein og jeg" that has subsequently been viewed several million times on YouTube. The piece is credited to Knut Nærum, and features Øystein Backe as the assistant and Rune Gokstad as the monk. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

The Bicentennial of Louis Braille [1809-1852]

Besides being the bicentennial of the births of such luminaries as Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and Edgar Allen Poe, 2009 is the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille [1809-1852], the creator of the ingenious braille system, which has given countless blind and vision-impaired people the ability to read and write. Braille utilizes a six-dot cell of raised dots to represent letters of the alphabet, numerals, punctuation, and other symbols. Permutations of the six dots permit the representation of 64 different characters, and the system has been adapted to numerous different languages around the world. The compactness of each cell allows individual cells to be read without unnecessary movement of the fingertip—a weakness of earlier systems.

Braille first described his system in a 32-page booklet published in 1829 entitled, Procede pour écrire les Paroles, la Musique et le Plain-chant au moyen de points, a l’usage des Aveugles et dispose pour eux [Method for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong by Means of Points, for the Use of the Blind and Arranged for Them]. Images of this rare work are viewable on the web site of the bookseller, Jonathan A. Hill.

To commemorate Braille’s contributions and promote literacy among the blind, the US Mint is issuing a one-dollar silver coin (pictured above) on March 26, 2009. The obverse of the coin features a portrait of Braille and the reverse depicts a child reading a book in braille with the word "braille" (abbreviated as BRL) above him--the first time a US coin has employed braille--and the word "independence" on a bookshelf behind him.

According to the National Federation of the Blind, only 10% of blind children in the United States are learning braille. Among working-age, legally blind adults, over 70% are unemployed, although among those who are successfully employed, a large majority know braille. For further information, visit the NFB web site, which offers resources on braille literacy and an extensive audio & video selection, including a video on the commemorative coin, Change with a Dollar.

Additional online resources of interest include the National Braille Press and the Louis Braille Bicentennial web site. The National Braille Press has also recently published the biography, Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius, that contains previously untranslated letters by Braille. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, based at the Library of Congress, is a national network that distributes braille and audio materials to eligible borrowers.

New Wendy Moore Biography on Mary Eleanor Bowes

Wendy Moore, journalist and author of The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery, has just published a new biography entitled: Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore.*

Moore delivered a delightful and erudite Bullitt Club lecture on John Hunter on September 23, 2008 (see Bullitt web site for an MP3 recording), and her biography is equally so. The subject of her new book was born 260 years ago, on February 24, 1749, and was a friend and patient of Hunter's. Wedlock opens with a scene of swordplay, and is just as intriguing throughout; as described on her web site:

'Wedlock' tells the remarkable true story of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore, who became Britain's richest heiress on the death of her entrepreneur father when she was 11. After an unhappy first marriage to John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore, who left her a widow when he died of TB, she was lured into marrying an Irish fortune-hunter named Andrew Robinson Stoney. Squandering her money and laying waste her vast estate, Stoney--who adopted the surname Bowes on marriage--reduced Mary to a wretched, starved, petrified shadow of her former self. After suffering eight years of cruelty and torment, Mary Eleanor finally found help in the most unlikely of places. A barely credible tale of survival and triumph against overwhelming odds, 'Wedlock' reveals an eighteenth-century world of sexual intrigue, terrifying adventure and court room drama.

* As a bibliographical note, the American edition of Moore's Hunter biography is entitled: The Knife Man: Blood, Body Snatching, and the Birth of Modern Surgery. The UK edition of the Bowes biography is entitled: Wedlock: How Georgian Britain's Worst Husband Met His Match.

Enduring Editions at UNC Press

UNC Press is launching a new series, Enduring Editions, to bring back into print many titles not currently available. More information is available at the press' blog and website. A list of projected titles can be downloaded here.

Duke University Press has made much of its backlist available electronically, as the e-Duke Books Scholarly Collection, which those affiliated with UNC can access via the UNC online catalog. The collection is described in a press release.

Both presses have published a number of titles on health-related topics; for example, UNC's series, Studies in Social Medicine, and other medical books, and Duke's books on medicine and medical humanities, as well as a few medical journals.