Whether you are looking for a gift with local flavor, or just want to hide in a corner and escape the chaos of the season, we suggest checking out one of these regionally authored works.
Historic Photos of Louisville by James C. Anderson (Turner Publishing Company, $39.95)
The curator and guardian of 1.5 million photos in the University of Louisville Photographic Archives has selected a cross section that documents the growth of the city and changes in the commercial and residential urban populations. Cityscape pictures are juxtaposed with strong portraits to capture the social climate of the times — one picture shows people enjoying a keg of beer in the middle of Main Street just before Prohibition in 1920.
Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (Harper Collins, $26.95)
The latest novel by this lauded local author explores the misunderstood historical figure Marie Antoinette in an attempt to capture life as she lived it — as a human with emotions, fears and the courage to face her fate. Told from the protagonist’s perspective in Naslund’s captivating prose, it begins with her immersion into French society as a vulnerable 14-year-old, and follows her through her complicated marriage to Louis XVI to her last words before her beheading.
Andy Catlett: Early Travels by Wendell Berry (Shoemaker & Hoard, $21)
This well-known Kentucky essayist, poet, social critic and documenter of agrarian life has published his newest novel in a series set in the fictional community of Port William, Ky. Set during Christmas of 1943, the story follows nine-year-old Andy’s solo journey to his grandparents’ house, learning lessons along the way about himself and his place in a rapidly changing World War II-era society.
Baseball in Louisville by Anne Jewell (Arcadia Publishing, $19.99)
This photo-rich history follows the development of America’s pastime in Louisville, from the 1875 inauguration of the Louisville Grays in the National League to the current Bats. The turbulent, sometimes scandalous history is segmented by the various baseball stadiums built to house local teams and peppered with amusing facts, including mention of the common practice at games in the 1890s of unhappy fans shooting their guns in the air to intimidate umpires.
Romany Marie: The Queen of Greenwich Village
by Bob Schulman (Butler Books, $23)
Local media critic/journalist/raconteur Bob Schulman transports us back to the 1930s and ’40s in this affectionate portrait of his remarkable aunt, the "Romany Marie" of the title, whose Greenwich Village "centers" served as intellectual and artistic incubators for such luminaries as Buckminster Fuller, Theodore Dreiser, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Will and Ariel Durant, and a host of other mid-century American bohemians.
Louisville Then and Now (Greater Louisville Inc., in partnership with Butler Books and the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, $34.95)
Ever wonder what building used to stand at (pick your favorite downtown street corner)? Using U of L’s extensive photo archives to good advantage, this book displays 1920s, ’30s and ’40s black-and-white shots of Louisville landmarks and scenes alongside contemporary color photos of the buildings and streetscapes that now occupy the same spaces, proving the dictum that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
