LemuriaBooks

"Every culture needs beauty," American expatriate photographer Miguel Gavin says. "And every culture defines what ‘beauty’ is."

Jazz Age Beauties: The Lost Collection of Ziegfeld Photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston by Robert Hudovernik is a truly stunning photographic assemblage of the Ziegfeld girls. Indeed, Johnston bewitches, fascinates and enchants the viewer with his subjects- dancers and performers- real beauties of the Jazz Age, trained to reveal a mesmerizing "line of beauty": chin held high and confident, gaze aloof, posture elevating and long.
In addition to scores of photographs, the book also provides the reader with background on the creation of the Ziegfeld Follies as well as stories and captions about the many girls who were trained to embody Ziegfeld’s vision of beauty. Certainly Ziegfeld had his own formula of beauty which cast aside any woman of "ethnic type" and promoted the Anglo-Saxon woman. Furthermore, Ziegfeld forbade suntans and promoted the "protection of whiteness."
Despite Ziegfeld's narrow vision of beauty, one cannot help but admire the craft of these young women. While many of the photographs are nudes, they are not photos exposing skin for the sake of exposing skin. These women were highly trained in their craft, every aspect of the photo--scene drapes, costuming, posture, gaze and poise--designed to present a "cathedral of beauty", dimming the uncertainty, struggle and pain of World War I.

Well things are really coming along at Miss Eudora Welty's house. The staff members have moved their offices to the Education and Visitors Center next door to the Welty House. The Visitors Center will be used to show the orientation film (which is currently being showed in the garage) and many interpretive exhibits are being planned also. Miss Welty was always a great friend to Lemuria and we hope that after you tour the house that you will come on up the highway and visit us! We have a great selection of Miss Welty's work along with some very nice signed first editions. Of course, when Miss Welty stopped by one could always find her perusing the Mystery section which I hope that she would still find up to her specifications!

If you are interested in making reservations to tour The Welty House, call 601.353.7762 and follow this link for a virtual tour.

The Mississippi Historical Society gives the McLemore Prize every year to the best book on a subject related to Mississippi History. The 2007 McLemore Prize was awarded to Joseph Crespino for his book, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution. The book examines how American politics has been shaped by white Mississippians' reaction to modern liberalism.

The prize, which carries a cash award, was established to honor and memorialize Richard A. McLemore, former president of the society and former director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and his wife, Nannie Pitts McLemore, who was also president of the society and together wrote many books and scholarly articles.

Everyone here at Lemuria wants to congratulate Joey on receiving this honor!!!

It's been about a week since I last reminded everyone that Crossroads Film Festival is this weekend in Jackson. So far, I hear that Crossroads has gotten off to a successful start in spite of the Katrina-like weather that hit Jackson and the surrounding areas yesterday. Luckily, the shows have gone on so don't forget to look over the schedule and pick a few quality films to take in instead of sitting around in the dark.

George Rodrigue's new book of Blue Dog prints, George Rodrigue Prints: A Catalogue Raissone, came out last week and we've set up a book signing with Rodrigue,himself, on the afternoon of Tuesday,May 6. We are really excited about it! He may even bring some of his pieces to hang downstairs in the dot.com building for all of us to enjoy during the event. 

Over twenty years after his startling cover photograph for National Geographic seared its image into the minds of the nation, Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl" has retained its cultural importance. The photograph has gained such notoriety that I would venture to guess it is as well known as photographs like Joe Rosenthal's image of the marines erecting an American Flag in Iwo Jima and  that of the "Unknown Rebel," the lone Chinese protester standing in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. Over the years McCurry has continued to accrue awards for his photography, and has published portfolios of these photographs in several books. "Afghan Girl" appears in one of my all time favorite photography books, McCurry's Looking East.

Rock On

Surprise Surprise - here we are talking about Willie King again. It's no secret that we love Willie King, Willie James and the whole band. Next weekend we're going to drive over and catch the 10th annual Freedom Creek Festival. Can't think of a better way to celebrate Harper's first birthday - May 26.

After spending the entire day preparing for a salesperson (boooring) I thought I would recap a bit. Last Thursday night we hosted a very different event. For the first time ever we had a CD release party. Bobby Rush has a brand new CD RAW. It's an acoustic album - with only guitar and harmonica, so we thought our events space would be perfect. We had 65 or 75 people enjoying the king of the chitlin circuit playing acoustic and telling stories from his long career. (over 50 years) Here Bobby is holding Harper - my 8 month old - I'm sure she'll be appearing here frequently.

It's finally here- Ken Murphy's MISSISSIPPI. I was off for the weekend, but I knew the books were supposed to come in - let's just say, a lot of books. Anyway, John called me in to help unload/get a bunch of books signed. It took a couple of hours on my day off, but it's well worth it for a great book. Ken nearly lost these photos in Katrina. These and the photos from his first book, MY SOUTH COAST HOME, were the only personal belongings he was able to save. I personally believe that this is the best comprehensive photo book ever done of Mississippi.