Indiana University Press blog

IU Libraries to host book launch for 'Herman B Wells' biography April 18

In celebration of the man who made Indiana University what it is today, the IU Libraries will host a reception to introduce a new biography by James H. Capshew, Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University, published by IU Press.
 
Held April 18 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library, the event will feature remarks by President Michael A. McRobbie and IU Libraries Dean Brenda L. Johnson. Professor Capshew, who is a faculty member in the History and Philosophy of Science Department, will read a selection from the biography. Wells-themed hors d’oeuvres and Wells cake will be served, and copies of the book will be available for purchase.
 
In researching the biography, Capshew relied primarily on the IU Archives, a department of IU Libraries that maintains the university’s historic records. Wells’s papers and other professional and personal items are part of these extensive collections, which document IU’s origins and development. Selected items from the IU Archives will be on display during the event.
 
“We are so pleased that the IU archives could offer such rich material for this biography,” said Dean Johnson. “Professor Capshew spent years poring over the Wells papers, discovering a great deal of illuminating information about Herman B Wells and his influence on the university. It’s been especially fascinating to learn from Capshew about how and why Wells built the university’s Main Library in 1969. That building is now the Herman B Wells Library, where we are honored to host this exciting event. Professor Capshew has done a remarkable job of portraying Wells not only as a visionary but also as a compassionate person whose presence enriched the lives of so many, and this biography offers an opportunity for the IU community to be reintroduced to this extraordinary man.”
 
The culmination of more than a decade of work, Herman B Wells incorporates Capshew’s firsthand knowledge of the IU president and chancellor as his friend and former employee. Capshew worked as a houseboy for Wells in the 1970s, when Capshew was an IU undergraduate and Wells served as university chancellor.
 
“He really changed my life in all kinds of positive ways,” said Capshew. “He did the same for the university. I’ve tried to make this book a comprehensive survey of his life and career, focusing on his main areas of involvement and what he stood for.”
 
Publishing Capshew’s book holds special meaning for IU Press, as it was President Wells’s idea and initiative to establish a press at Indiana University in 1950. “Throughout the years until his death, President Wells remained a mentor to the Press and a prime supporter of its work, recognizing its importance to Indiana University,” said Janet Rabinowitch, Director of IU Press. “We are proud and honored to publish this book.”
 
Capshew will be available to sign copies of the book and answer questions about his research. In addition, a new paperback edition of Wells’s autobiography, Being Lucky: Reminiscences and Reflections, will be available. The event is free and open to the public. For more information on the event, contact Helene O’Leary at IU Libraries.

Women's History Month interview with Sylvia D. Hoffert

In honor of Women's History Month, I'm taking a closer look at Sylvia D. Hoffert's new biography, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont: Unlikely Champion of Women's Rights.

As a New York socialite, Alva was known to be domineering, temperamental, and opinionated. In the later half of her life, she converted to feminism and became the most generous donor to the National Woman's Party.

I talked with Professor Hoffert about the history of the women's rights, how issues have changed (or, how they haven't), and how Alva became a remarkable promoter of the women's social movement.

This year’s theme for Women’s History Month is “Women’s Education—Women’s Empowerment.” In your personal experience and professional studies, how have you seen women’s education change?

The changes have been dramatic. When I applied for admission to college in 1961, many elite colleges including the University of North Carolina, the University of Virginia, and the Ivy League schools did not admit women as undergraduates. Now they all do. 

One of the accomplishments of second wave feminism was to force the introduction of courses about women across the liberal arts curriculum—in such fields as history, sociology, anthropology, communication, political science. ... And female scholars created programs and departments in women’s studies... Essentially there was a re-evaluation of what constituted an appropriate focus of study. The result was an inclusiveness that was unprecedented. 

That is not to say that those changes came easily or that women were treated well when they invaded what had previously been almost exclusively male professional space. ...Remember, if you will, that within the last ten years Larry Summers, President of Harvard University, was fired partly because he publicly denigrated the ability of women to excel in science.

Continuing with this year's theme, do you believe that women's empowerment is a direct result of education? How else can young women feel empowered?

The only way for women to achieve power in American society is through education and organization. Education provides them the intellectual tools they need to identify the structural barriers that prevent women from achieving justice and equality and from controlling their own bodies and lives. Organizing provides them with the strength in numbers needed to challenge those structural barriers and destroy them.

How has the women's rights movement progressed in the past century?

Originally, feminists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton had a fairly broad agenda for improving the status of women in the United States. The Declaration of Sentiments signed at the 1848 Seneca Falls [New York] Woman’s Rights Convention contained provisions for advancing the status of American women in all aspects of economic, social, political, legal, and religious life. By the time Alva Belmont became a feminist in the early twentieth century the agenda had been reduced to the right to vote.

What issues should modern-day feminists pay attention to?

The issues haven’t changed much. At all levels of society and in all aspects of economic, political, and religious life, women are still second class citizens. Many women are still denied the right to control their bodies. Many women are still the victims of abuse. Many women and their children still don’t have adequate health care. Women are still underrepresented in male dominated fields such as engineering, chemistry, and physics. Most women still make less money than most men. Fortune 500 companies still do not typically appoint women to be their CEOs or to serve on their boards of directors. There are still denominations that refuse to allow women to become full-fledged ministers. Only a few members of congress are female. I could go on and on.

In your book, you discuss how all biographies have a sense of autobiography to them, since the biographer reads their subject’s life through their own lens of personal experiences. Could you expand on this?

It is impossible to spend the time necessary to write a biography and not develop some sort of personal relationship with the subject of your work. You may end up liking or disliking that individual. You may respect or not respect what they did and approve or not approve of the way they did it. It takes years to do the research for a biography and then write it. By the time you have finished, you have an opinion about such matters. 

The point I was trying to make is that we inevitably see the world through our own lens and interpret the actions of others through our own experience. Thus the issue is not whether what we write is true but whether our representation of the life of someone else is based solidly on the evidence available to us. That’s as close to the truth as we are ever going to get.

In addition to her generous financial support to the women’s suffrage movement, Alva’s celebrity status was an important part of the social campaign’s success. Would those donations have been as impactful without Alva’s socialite reputation?

Money, and lots of it, always has an impact whether or not it is attached to a celebrity. Alva’s celebrity was important to the woman’s rights movement because it served as an incredibly important form of free advertising. She was a public relations executive’s dream.

Finally, what words of wisdom do you have for the future generations? Or, what do you suppose Alva would say if she saw the world today?

As for words of wisdom—never assume that women will gain and then maintain their rights without a struggle. There has always been and will continue to be a backlash against women’s progress that is supported and organized by those whose interests are served by women’s subordination. 

I think Alva would still support women’s rights and be willing to give money to women’s causes. And, given her incredible ego, I think she would still be trying to take credit for the advances that women have been able to gain for themselves.

Book review: Starring Madame Modjeska

"[A] fastidiously researched and fascinating portrayal of an actor’s life. ... While theater enthusiasts will enjoy the care and detail that Beth Holmgren took with Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland in America, readers of history will appreciate the role this woman played on the world’s stage. It makes for great drama." —NewPages

Book review: Tirpitz and the Imperial German Navy

"Kelly’s book is a great achievement. Well written and based on new sources, his biography of Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz allows the reader deep insights into the life of a man who played a very important role at the turn of the last century and who shaped German policy in a way few others did." —German History Journal

Sen. Richard Lugar to speak at IU this Friday

Sen. Richard Lugar will speak at an IU symposium this Friday, Nov. 11, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which he co-authored. The symposium, entitled "Loose Nukes: Lessons from 20 Years of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program" is sponsored by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs with the International Public Affairs Association. This free event takes place 2:30-4:30 p.m. in room 167 of the SPEA Building, 1315 E. 10th St. For more information, see the IU News Room press release.

Lugar is the subject of an upcoming book by John T. Shaw, which comes out next spring. In Richard G. Lugar, Statesman of the Senate, Shaw chronicles Lugar’s historic work on nuclear proliferation, arms control, energy, and global food issues, and highlights the senator’s ability to influence American foreign policy in consequential ways. Read more about why Lugar is one of the most widely respected foreign policy experts on our website.

New book traces life of actress Helena Modrzejewska

On this day in 1840, actress Helena Modrzejewska was born in Krakow, Poland. She is the subject of a new biography by Beth Holmgren. In Starring Madame Modjeska, Holmgren traces Modjeska's fabulous life and career from her illegitimate birth in Krakow, to her successive reinventions of herself as a star in both Poland and America, and finally to her enduring legacy.

After enjoying a successful acting career in Poland, Modrzejewska emigrated to southern California in 1876. Within a year she made her debut in the title role of Adrienne Lecouvreur at San Francisco's California Theatre. She changed her name to Modjeska and quickly became a leading star on the American stage, where she reigned for the next 30 years. During this time, she established herself as America's most esteemed Shakespearean actress, playing opposite such celebrated actors as Edwin Booth and Maurice Barrymore.

Read more about Helena Modjeska

Two IU Press authors featured in Railroad History

John H. White, Jr., author of more than a dozen books including the forthcoming Wet Britches and Muddy Boots, is profiled in the Spring-Summer 2011 edition of Railroad History. The 17-page profile, entitled "On the Shoulders of a Giant," documents White's life, from his years exploring Cincinnati's streetcars and railroad stations as a youngster to his later years as curator of transportation at the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History.

The same issue of Railroad History also features an article by William D. Middleton, author of several IU Press railroad books, including "Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take" and Frank Julian Sprague, among others. The article, entitled "The Middle East from Berlin to Baghdad: The Bosporus Crossing," is adapted from his forthcoming IU Press book, On Railways Far Away, which is planned for publication in 2012.

Railroad History can be purchased though a subscription or through the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society's webpage. The oldest railroad journal in North America, Railroad History is printed twice a year and contains original scholarship, photographs and art all pertaining to railroad history.

Book review: Edwin Rogers Embree

"Extensively annotated and indexed, this book is recommended for those interested in Embree and the history of philanthropy in the United States." —Nonprofit Literature Blog

Book review: Rolling Away the Stone

"The book includes a great deal of fresh research and honest scholarship ... [F]or the individual wanting to sink his or her teeth into a serious study of Eddy ... you have a lot to look forward to in reading this book." —The Christian Science Journal

In memoriam: Bill Cook

"I don’t fear death. I have no control over it other than what I’m doing now, to try to keep myself happy, content, working, not overdoing, not be too worried, do my exercises religiously, eat a reasonable diet—all these things I’ve tried to do because I don’t particularly want to give it all up. Now, if I get killed, I’ll sure as hell be mad." —Bill Cook, from The Bill Cook Story

Bloomington businessman and philanthropist Bill Cook passed away on Friday, April 15, at the age of 80. From a humble beginning in his apartment, Cook grew his company into a multi-billion dollar business with locations throughout Indiana and the world. But despite his vast fortune, Bill Cook remained as unpretentious as he was during the early days of his business, when he was building medical devices in his bedroom. In his biography of Bill Cook, Bob Hammel relates several examples of Cook's lack of pretention, including how he sealed the deal to write Cook's life story.

The two of us were not close acquaintances when, in September 2006, we took a ride in his car to the West Baden–French Lick hotel renovation and preservation projects then under way. Doing a biography of Bill Cook had been an ultimate ambition for me in some vague, out-there-somewhere day, but it was not in my mind when I got in the car.

We hadn’t reached the southern limits of Bloomington before he came out of the blue with a question: “How would you like to do my book?”

I thought long and hard, maybe a full second. Then I said, “I’d like to do that.” It isn’t recommended driving procedure, but he kept the car going, controlled the wheel with his left hand, reached his right across, and said, “Fine. Let’s do it.” That quickly I shared one of those legendary Bill Cook handshakes. An ultimate commitment.

After that handshake, Hammel said Cook "never went back on his end of the commitment in any way." His high level of commitment was evident in any project that he took on, and we thank him for all the contributions he made to the Bloomington community and the state of Indiana.

Services for Bill Cook will be held this Saturday, April 23 in the in the front rotunda of Cook World Headquarters, where Cook will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.