St. Martin’s Press edition (1962). Design: Tom O’Brien.
Pictured here is the cover to the 1962 St. Martin’s Press edition of Fisherman’s Beach by Wisconsin writer George Vukelich (1927-1995). Vukelich reprinted the novel in 1990 under his own North Country Press imprint, with a new cover, but using what appear to have been either the original printer’s plates of the inside pages or, more likely, newly shot photo-offset reproductions from the earlier edition. Cambridge Book Review Press is currently preparing an ebook edition of Fisherman’s Beach for release in spring 2012. The ebook will include a new introduction (by a Madison notable and Vukelich friend who we’re keeping a surprise for a while longer). Also included will be photos of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, where the novel is set, by fine arts photographer Thomas J. King. There’ll be additional supplemental material in the ebook, as well, such as a biographical sketch of George Vukelich by James P. Roberts, and a study guide that should make Fisherman’s Beach perfect for reading groups and classrooms.
Here’s the inside jacket copy from the 1962 edition:
Old Man LeMere was dying upstairs. He was a tough old gull, but nobody lives forever. Downstairs, Roger, his second son, was waiting to inherit the fisherman’s beach. He could not afford to wait long. The lamprey eels from the ocean were destroying the trout of Lake Michigan, and the fishermen were powerless to stop them. Also he was afraid of Germaine.
Germaine was the eldest son. He had left the family and the Church. He was a major, stationed in Europe, who had come home for the first time in many years when he heard of his father’s illness. The Old Man wanted Germaine to take over the beach. Roger—ambitious, brutal, suspicious—knew it and would not believe that Germaine wanted no part of the inheritance. Nor would Roger believe that Germaine had not come home to reclaim Ginny Dussault, Germaine’s high school sweetheart who, despairing of Gemaine’s return, had allowed Roger to become her lover.
From these elements George Vukelich has woven a first novel of astonishing power. He is a poet and his descriptions of the changing seasons on the lake shore of his native Wisconsin are woven with a lyricism too seldom found in contemporary writing. He is also a keen student of humanity—its frailties and its strengths. Fisherman’s Beach gives an unforgettable picture of a family of strong characters, closely united yet at war among themselves.
And here’s the back cover author’s photo and bio:
Author photo of George Vukelich from 1962. No photographer credited.
Mr. Vukelich is best known in Wisconsin as “Papa Hambone,” a disc jockey with the top rated night-time program in the Madison area. He writes “I’ve become a split personality to further a writing career. ‘Papa Hambone’ buys the groceries, meets the mortgage payments and maintains the menage; George Vukelich simply tries to write the best first novel of which he is capable.” George Vukelich also spent a year as a creative writing instructor at the University of Wisconsin, and another as a merchant seaman. His poetry and short stories have been published in many magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly and Botteghe Oscure.
Title page: North Country Press 1990.Title Page: St. Martin Press 1962.
Cover to the 1990 reprint edition published by Vukelich’s North Country Press.
Cambridge Book Review Press is delighted to announce that digital rights have been secured to publish a Kindle ebook edition of Fisherman’s Beach, the masterful novel by the late Wisconsin author and long-time Madison newspaper columnist and radio-host George Vukelich (1927-1995). Originally published in 1962 by St. Martin’s Press, Fisherman’s Beach is a remarkably assured debut novel charting the postwar struggles of a Catholic fishing clan in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The family is headed by a dying patriarch, Old Man LeMere. Often at odds with his Irish wife, his five sons, not to mention his doctor and his priest, LeMere represents a tradition and moral force that seem to be breaking down around him. Writer August Derleth, with whom Vukelich studied following a stint in the Merchant Marine during the Second World War, said that Fisherman’s Beach is “one of the best family novels of our time—not the family novel that moves from one generation to another … but the novel that is the portrait of the family seen at a time of crisis.” Vukelich’s sturdy naturalism has kept the novel’s style timeless and fresh. And in its depiction of a family business battling state politicians over fishing rights, Fisherman’s Beach touches on an all-too-contemporary Wisconsin theme: political power and its abuse.
Watch for Fisherman’s Beach in ebook format coming in spring 2012 from Cambridge Book Review Press.
[Update 10/9/11: Read Doug Moe’s Wisconsin State Journal column about CBR Press and the origins of the Fisherman’s Beach ebook project.]
[Update 4/10/12: Fisherman’s Beachebook now available!]
First published in 2000 by Cambridge Book Review Press, Rod Clark’s Redshift: Greenstreem is now available in a 2011 second-printing, and as a Kindle ebook. Not one word has been changed from the book’s first edition. Clark eerily predicted much of our collective fate since the turn of the millennium. Redshift: Greenstreem is visionary science fiction that has come frighteningly true in the decade since it was written. The future is now. Here are the facts.
∞
News Item (4/9/09): Greenspan’s reputation continues to decline: “He’s a historical relic at this point” [1].
Redshift: Greenstreem (p. 47): “Greenspan’s predictions and admonitions were taken seriously by many millions of important people and actually influenced economic history, just as prophecies plucked from the entrails of chickens by the Oracles influenced the destinies of city states in ancient Greece. His power declined, however, in the wake of the economic crises that erupted during the first decade of the new millennium. Shortly thereafter, modern theories of greenflow gained ascendancy, and the power of the Federal Reserve rapidly faded away.”
∞
News Item (7/18/11): The Tea Party National Committee / The Sins of Federal Debt: “This is the horrifying consequence of America’s sinful addiction to federal debt: Young Americans are waking up into adulthood to the heart-stopping realization that they have been sold into debt to such organizations as the Communist Party of China …” [2].
Redshift: Greenstreem (p. 20): “Smiling, sincere, so very, very Christian Gary [Bauer] who had ridden smugly into the White House in the year 2016 on the slogan ‘DEBT IS PUNISHMENT FOR OUR SINS.’ ”
∞
News Item(6/19/11): China’s ghost towns: New satellite pictures show massive skyscraper cities which are STILL completely empty [3].
Redshift: Greenstreem(pp. 29-30): “Upstairs, outstairs, into the endless night, leviathans folded and unfolded on distant moons, carving labyrinths in inanimate rock, unrolling real estate plats on ancient asteroids, inexplicably building airless condominiums by the thousand on the uninhabitable wastes of Uranus and the moons of Jupiter, constructing skyscrapers on Saturn and vast complexes on Venus that had no known purpose, and often did not function at all—only to rip them down, and start again.”
∞
Spencer Walts illustration from “Redshift: Greenstreem.”
News Item (8/30/11): Suitcase Nuclear Reactors to Power Mars Colonies [4].
Redshift: Greenstreem(p. 49): “The first experimental macroset was created by Engineer Jack Dougal McCool in 2042. He called it a ‘factory in a suitcase’ or FIS …”
∞
News Item (8/30/11): Clive Thompson on the Problem with Online Ads: “Consider Facebook: Each year, it redesigns its site to gradually nudge users to make more and more of their material public. This is partly because CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to think publicness is inherently good—but it’s also a rational response to the demands of the ad market, which needs as many people looking at as many things as possible” [5].
Redshift: Greenstreem(p. 15): “ … [D]reemwaves … bathed the planet since early in the 21st century when the triple ‘M’ (mesmeric microwave merchandizing) consortiums had begun inserting microscopic holo-projectors and speakers in the texture of virtually every manufactured item in the solar system to leverage the power of advertising.”
∞
News Item(1/8/10): Making Fortunes in Milliseconds: “It’s called high frequency trading (HFT), but it’s also described as algorithmic trading or quant trading” [6].
Redshift: Greenstreem (p. 31): “A positive rivulet of solvency could only be generated by anchoring vats of biosentient or AI investment software to the arcane task of constantly buying assets every fraction of a second, letting their value amplitude rise microscopically, and then almost instantly selling them, sometimes microseconds before they dissolved into nothingness—reinvesting the profits in commodities or securities that would be (for a few instants at least) of slightly greater value and duration.”
∞
New Item(3/10/11): An Introduction to Hyperinflation: “Imagine taking a road trip. At the start of the day, a can of soda at a convenience store costs exactly $1. By nightfall, that same can of soda costs $3. This sounds impossible, right? … Money can become essentially worthless …” [7].
Redshift: Greenstreem(p. 20): “Glancing down at the bill in his hand through gray-tinted goggles, he saw with dismay that digital monetary decay was already in rapid progress. The inflationary readout on what had been a hundred-dollar bill only a few minutes ago was now down to ninety-six bucks and dropping.”
Using video technology to enhance lives. Supplemental DVD included.
“Lights! Camera! Autism! challenged me with its many rich ideas, clear and compelling examples, and positive and ever-encouraging voice. It is not only a user-friendly guide, it is also a call to action. Throughout the book, the authors quietly suggest that we think differently about autism and about support. They also show us how to calm, support, encourage, teach, and challenge students with this one simple tool and they compel us to use it often and widely.”—from the Foreword, by Paula Kluth, Ph.D., author of You’re Going to Love This Kid!: Teaching students with autism in the inclusive classroom.
“This is an amazing book. The authors do what so many in the autism industry fail to do: they nest their suggestions in a solid understanding of the literature on sensory-movement differences that people with autism tell us circumscribe their experience and their performance. From iPads to iPhones, Flip videos to skyping, social networking to TV shows, they guide us through example after example of ways to use technology to truly personalize supports and accommodate the unique needs of individual learners in real life situations.” —Anne M. Donnellan, Ph.D., Director of the University of San Diego Autism Institute; Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It is essential for self-advocates, professionals and family members to have consistent access to learning technology information that is evolving faster than one can keep up with. This person-centered, wonderful book clearly accomplishes just that. I couldn’t put it down and you won’t either. Lights! Camera! Autism! heralds a new realm of achieving learner participation in the classroom and the community.” —Patrick Schwarz, Ph.D., National-Louis University, Chicago, author of From Disability to Possibility: The power of inclusive classrooms, and co-author with Paula Kluth of three books, You’re Welcome, Just Give Him the Whale, andPedro’s Whale.
“A must-have for all who want to work with, rather than work on, people with autism differences, supporting them to be all they wish to be in this world. Lights! Camera! Autism! explains how to use the power of visual technology across environments in an easy to read, pick-up-and-implement format.” —Judy Endow, MSW, author of Making Lemonade: Hints for autism’s helpers, and Paper Words: Discovering and living with my autism.
“Arguably the most extensive, readable, and clearly written book on using video technology for individuals on the autism spectrum.” —Jane Pribek, parent, and Events Coordinator, Autism Society of Wisconsin.
“An invaluable reference tool and guide for anyone wanting to support and empower individuals with autism at home, in school, and in the community.” —Michael D. Shoultz, Ph.D, educational and behavioral consultant with more than 30 years of experience in the field of autism.
We’re proud at Cambridge Book Review Press to have published Judy Endow’s 2006 book, Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers (with wonderful illustrations by Ben Averill and terrific cover and layout by graphic designer Nancy Zucker). Judy has since moved on to Autism Asperger Publishing Company, with whom she continues to publish and to grow her readership. We want to thank AAPC for producing a series of promotional videos for Judy’s books, particularly the video posted here for Making Lemonade. The production is first-rate and it’s a joy to see and hear Judy read one of the poems from her book.
Cambridge Book Review Press author Judy Endow (Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers) was recently profiled in the New York Times. Story includes photos and an audio interview. Congratulations, Judy!
A significant article in the latest issue of Disability Studies Quarterly, “Rethinking Autism: Implications of Sensory and Movement Differences” by Anne Donnellan, David Hill, and Martha Leary, cites two of our Cambridge Book Review Press titles: Walk Awhile in My Autism (2005) by Kate McGinnity & Nan Negri, and Making Lemonade: Hints for Autism’s Helpers (2006) by Judy Endow.
Coffee Spew 