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Some 25 years ago Pocahontas Press was still mainly a dream, with only a couple of publications completed: Mary’s father’s autobiography – A Teacher’s Story, plus two manuals on healthy living for third-graders and their parents. But one concept helped fulfill the dream: we believe that the words in most books are enhanced by appropriate illustrations, whether those be pencil or pen sketches or photographs, either black-and-white or in full color. A picture is worth a thousand words, it is said – and while we’ve published many more than a thousand words, we still adhere to that principle. A glance at our poetry section will show not only the work of persons skilled with words – Les Mellichamp, Clyde Kessler, Cecil Mullins, Rita Riddle – but of others skilled with pen and paintbrush – Robert Turner, Victoria Stone, Barbara Ann Capps, Kendall Kessler. Three of our new books in 2009 carry on that tradition: Janene Roberts’ sketches of birds and other spring sights enhance Robins and Other Messengers, Patrick Simpson’s ode to spring; Micah Acord’s light-hearted sketches add to the humor of Ira Jacobs’ Life and Times of Otto K ottO; and Donald Sunshine’s line drawings illuminate his essays in Life’s Moments. Most of the prose works we've published, whether biography or essay, memoir or textbook, have been graced with family photographs and/or other art that enhances the text: Strings of Life and Appalachian Coal Mining Memories are filled with old family snapshots as well as some professional photography; The Long Trek to Solola is graced with eight pages in color of paintings by the Solonevich couple plus family snapshots; Halide Salam’s Between Two Spaces includes 20 pages of full color renditions of her gallery-size art plus family photos; Transylvanian Roots includes drawings of Hungarian crafts as well as family snapshots – well, you get the picture. Perhaps the most moving hand-drawn illustration we’ve ever published is a part of Robert van Luyn’s new autobiography, From Lion to Eagle, a sketch entitled “The dropping of food by Allied air forces to starving citizens of Rotterdam” illustrating an event in Holland in 1945. We’ve added a variety of new titles in several genres this year; we hope you enjoy looking through our website pages for the new ones or for a new take on previously listed books. Mary H. |
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