Wilfrid Laurier University Press

 

The 50th Anniversary of WLU Press - 1974-2024

   University presses are often overlooked by book lovers. They shouldn't be as I have illustrated in this series of posts about "University Presses." My tenth one will be about WLU Press which has been around since 1974.

   WLU Press publishes a few dozen titles annually and there about 700 in print. A variety of subjects are covered, ranging from environmental humanities to international politics and the books are available in print, electronic or audio versions. Some of the audible ones are pictured above. If you go to the Wilfrid Laurier University Press website you can search by subject, read their blog or listen to some podcasts. 

   This Cohen cover can serve as a sample indicating the wide variety of titles available. Here, however, I will focus on the ones about the "Waterloo Region." In the nine other university presses I have written about (all American), you can see that, among a number of academic and arcane titles, there usually will be some about the area in which the university is located. Broader in scope than local histories, regional ones often cover large areas and a variety of subjects within them. For example, Penn State's "Keystone Books" and Wayne State's "Great Lakes Book Series" will be of interest to many living in Ontario. The same is true for WLU.

   There are some about cities, The Battle for Berlin, Ontario: An Historical Drama; Kitchener: An Illustrated History and A History of Kitchener, Ontario and there is even one for Elora, The Early History of Elora and Vicinity. There are also a few about higher education in the area: I Remember Laurier, Recollections of Waterloo College, and Recollections of Waterloo Lutheran University, 1960 - 1973.

    This book about Mennonite cooking is probably one of the best selling books published by a Canadian university press:

   "An updated edition of a bestselling book in the food writing genre from award-winning author and journalist Edna Staebler. In the 1960s, Edna Staebler moved in with an Old Order Mennonite family to absorb their oral history and learn about Mennonite culture and cooking. From this fieldwork came the cookbook Food That Really Schmecks.

   Originally published in 1968, Food That Really Schmecks instantly became a classic, selling tens of thousands of copies. Interspersed with practical and memorable recipes are Staebler’s stories and anecdotes about cooking, life with the Mennonites, family, and the Waterloo Region. Described by Edith Fowke as folklore literature, Staebler’s cookbooks have earned her national acclaim. Back in print as part of Wilfrid Laurier University Press’s Life Writing series, a series devoted celebrating life writing as both genre and critical practice, the updated edition of this groundbreaking book includes a foreword by award-winning author Wayson Choy and a new introduction by well-known food writer Rose Murray."

   Readers of MM  will remember that Guelph University close by, has a great culinary collection - see "Food History" for examples of regional cuisine and other food-related collections.

   Sports lovers will even find reading material. This book demonstrates that university presses often produce interesting books for people beyond the shadows of the ivory towers: The Chatham Coloured All-Stars and Black Baseball in Southwestern Ontario, 1915–1958. 

"Although many know about Jackie Robinson’s experiences breaking major league baseball’s colour barrier in 1947, few are familiar with the Chatham Coloured All-Stars, a Black Canadian team from 1930s Ontario who broke racial barriers in baseball even earlier. In 1933, the All-Stars began playing in the primarily white world of organized amateur baseball. The following year, the All-Stars became the first Black team to win a provincial championship.

While exploring the history of Black baseball in one southwestern Ontario community, this book also provides insights into larger themes in Canadian Black history and sport history including gender, class, social justice, and memory and remembrance.

University Presses:
  For your convenience, I will gather here all the posts in MM about this subject in chronological order:

1. Environmental Books - University of Washington - May 13, 2018

2. University Presses - Penn State - Sept. 1, 2018

3. Wayne State -  Sept 21, 2019

4. University of Minnesota Press March 28, 2020

5. Northwestern University Press - Oct. 16, 2021

6. Wolverines, Spartans and Books, (Michigan State) June 10, 2022

7. MIT PRESS - Aug. 10, 2022

8. Princeton University Press - see "Ancient Wisdom..." Dec. 18, 2022.

9. Ohio State University Press - Feb. 20, 2023

10. Wilfrid Laurier Press - Jan. 10, 2024

Old Beatrice & Uncle Tom

 

   It has been two weeks since I last posted and it is raining so I will attempt one now. It will be based, I think, on stories I just read in the Sunday papers. You will be relived to know that they are not "news" stories, since most such stories are rather bad these days.

  I will begin with the benign one about Beatrice. The picture above is from the North Sea off the coast of Scotland where the oil rigs, like the one on the right, are being replaced by the wind turbines on the left. There will be over 80 of them and the 50 square miles will be known as "The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm." Her name was also on the old oil rigs. 

  You will not be surprised that I noticed the name "Beatrice", since I have written often about such names, mostly because they are being replaced. You will also know that I am not generally in favour of such replacements since the history behind them is often more interesting and illustrative than the monikers manufactured by the new toponymic totalitarians among us. 

  Although HRH Prince Charles of Wales reigned over the official opening of the "farm" in the Moray Firth, Scotland, old Beatrice is not British.  She was the wife of old T. Boone Pickens, who has his name all over the campus at Oklahoma State University. Old T. Boone was very rich and his story is more interesting than this post (see below for sources.)

  At this time I don't think anyone is suggesting that Beatrice be removed, but remember that the hummingbird "Anna" is being attacked for being named after the wife of a French naturalist. "Uncle Tom", as in "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"  is causing problems, even in Germany where "Onkel Toms Hütte" is the name of a subway station in Berlin. Blacks would be very much offended by being referred to as an "Uncle Tom" and the one pictured above objects to the station name as do many others. She is not alone and the naming authorities will probably have to re-name a Bauhaus housing development and the street, Onkel-Tom-Strasse. Just as I did not say much about T. Boone, I will say little more about the Uncle Tom controversy in Germany, since it is the type of  "news" story, of which there are already too many. If you can't figure it out, sources are provided, along with some other interesting bits.

Sources:
   For information about Beatrice see: "Giant Wind Farms Arise Off Scotland, Easing the Pain of Oil’s Decline," Stanley Reed, New York Times, Nov. 27, 2022.
   For Boone Pickens see the very interesting Wikipedia entry. The money he has given to OSU could save Laurentian U. and revitalize the entire industry of higher education in all of Canada. If you are a golf fan you will finally understand why so many of the foreign (and domestic) top PGA tour professionals ended up in Stillwater rather than, say in San Diego. 

  Information about the "Onkel Toms Hütte" controversy is found in this article, from which the illustration above was poached: "A Berlin Subway Stop is Called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Some Black Germans Want Change," Meena Venkataramanan, The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2022.

The Bonus:
   There is no doubt that you are still looking for something better to read on this dreary Sunday. Here is a suggestion, which allows me to plug some of my old posts. When discussing the various naming controversies, I have usually mentioned George R. Stewart. His name and book were mentioned in this article which also contains many other good book suggestions: "BY THE BOOK: Douglas Brinkley Would Like to Invite Thoreau to Dinner," New York Times, Nov. 27, 2022. Here is his answer to this question:
"What's the last great book you read?"
"During the pandemic I was transfixed by George R. Stewart’s “Earth Abides,” perhaps the most frightening doomsday thriller of all time. Most of American civilization collapses because of a strange disease, but a Berkeley ecologist is one of the rare survivors of the epidemic. Stewart wrote the book about 75 years ago, but his description of empty cities and the power of nature unleashed seem very contemporary in a world of Covid and climate change. It holds up well, and Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a fine introduction for the 2020 edition."
For more about Stewart and some of his other books see: George R. Stewart (1895 - 1980)
 My last post about geographic name changing is:  "British Columbia or Sasquatchia?" There are many more which surprises me.