Staff Shelf: Early and Gass

I've been spending some time this weekend with two recently released books with St. Louisans behind them: Best African American Essays (Bantam Books), for which Washington University professor Gerald Early served as Series Editor; and Cartesian Sonata (Dalkey Archive), by Washington University professor emeritus William H. Gass. Post-Dispatch books editor Jane Henderson covered the former, and the fiction-devoted volume it's paired with, in a January article (published as a review at PopMatters). Early and the book's guest editor, Debra J. Dickerson, have brought together a compelling inaugural collection, and it feels current and intentionally non-academic: the subjects range from sexuality and food to education and politics (an Obama speech, and separate pieces on the now-President by Michael Eric Dyson and Andrew Sullivan). 

Cartesian Sonata, a collection of novellas, was first published in 1998 and has now been released by the esteemed Dalkey Archive Press. I think it's the only Gass book I've yet to finish, and it's partly because the edition I had before this one -- a Basic Books paperback -- was irritatingly off: an almost non-existent gutter, slightly slanting text, a small top margin, and a giant bottom one (like 2 1/2 inches). Yes, this type of thing matters to me. I will say that while the new Dalkey cover is sharp (the artwork's by Nicholas Motte), the Basic edition had one of my favorite photographs by St. Louisan Michael Eastman. (You can see that cover here.) So onward, with this new edition.

This reminds me: St. Louis Magazine's April 2009 issue will feature a collaborative project from friends and neighbors Eastman and Gass: the former's photographs of Martin Luther King Blvd., with a companion essay by the latter. Can't wait for readers to take this one in. -- Stephen Schenkenberg