Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Putting a Face to a Name: A Cover for a New Book!

Readers of the blog will recall that I announced my second book project - a collection of invited expert essays on Civil War medicine - way back in November 2007 with an update over the last year or so.

Well, things are moving right along with an expected publication this Fall. Today, my co-editor Guy Hasegawa and I received the cover artwork for the book from our publisher, Dan Hoisington, at Edinborough Press. The title - Guy's inspired brainchild - comes from lines in an Emily Bronte poem, "Remembrance,":

Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!

We thought the title captured the advances made in medicine and surgery during the Civil War, without minimizing the tremendous number of casualties, as well as the pain involved, from the time of the wounding to many years later.

Later this week I will post more specific details about the contributors and contents. To borrow a phrase: "This is not your father's Civil War medicine book." While some very good books on Civil War medicine have been published in recent years, especially Dr. Jay Bollet's Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs [Jay is a contributor to Years of Change and Suffering (YOC&S), by the way], they have necessarily been surveys. The format of YOC&S allows for in-depth analyses of topics from secession to surrender, North & South.

Let us know what you think of the cover - and stay posted for additional details!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

New cover looks great Jim. (And I appreciate you using one of our 'local' photos. :)

Jim Schmidt said...

Michael - Thanks for the kind words about the cover...what till you see what's inside, though, as that will be the real treat. Look for my next blog post to describe in detail the excellent contributions.

Jim