December 7, 2006
Coming UW Press offerings: Seattle bungalows, a Frank Lloyd Wright house, Boris Yeltsin and the return of the Ugyhur language
Invasive Northwest marine species, a house by Frank Lloyd Wright and the bungalows of Seattle are among topics covered by several books by UW faculty or about the Seattle area soon to be published by University Press.
The titles include:
Invasive Species in the Pacific Northwest edited by P.D. Boersma, S.H. Reichard and A.N. Van Buren ($29.95). Researchers Boersma, Reichard and Buren describe 108 invasive species of fish, plants, invertebrates, mammals and birds, each in a two-page spread accompanied by a color photograph and a map showing the species’ presence in the Pacific Northwest. Suggestions for reducing the spread of these species are included along with the World Conservation Union list of the 100 most invasive alien species on the planet.
Boris Yeltsin and Russia’s Democratic Transformation by Herbert J. Ellison ($30). Ellison, a professor emeritus of history and former director of the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, analyzes Yeltsin as Russia’s first popularly elected president. Ellison traces how Yeltsin created the new Russian presidency and got himself elected, then thwarted a counter-revolution, granted independence to countries previously controlled by the Soviet Union and replaced a socialist economy with a market one.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House by Grant Hildebrand with Ann and Leonard K. Eaton ($30). Hildebrand, a UW emeritus professor of architecture, first saw the Palmer House in Ann Arbor when he was a student at the University of Michigan: “It seemed the most beautiful thing I could have imagined,” he writes in the book’s introduction. He eventually came to know only the house but also its owners Billy and Mary Palmer, for whom Wright designed the home.
In a recent interview, Hildebrand mentioned that of his five books, Palmer House is the most personal: “I first saw the house at an impressionable time in my life, have known it 50 years, and got to know the family. This book has a personal dimension that nothing else has.”
In 1950, Wright was 83, and the Palmer house became one of the last he’d give “the full measure of his abilities,” Hildebrand writes. The book includes both photographs and architectural drawings, taking the reader from Wright’s design to construction, landscaping, furnishing and the ways the Palmer family used the house.
The Seattle Bungalow: People and Houses, 1900-1940 by Janet Ore ($24.95). Early 20th-century bungalows were influenced by the ideas of William Morris, a British artist and philosopher who advocated simple, utilitarian designs and individual craftsmanship. But ordinary folks influenced bungalows, too, says Ore, a history professor at Colorado State University.
Bungalows were mass produced because such uncomplicated homes were the way for millions of Americans to become homeowners. Indeed, Sears Roebuck sold house kits which could be delivered to a building site. They included what families in a rising economy wanted: electricity, central heat, basements and fully plumbed bathrooms, all arranged in simple, flexible floor plans.
Ore explains how bungalows accommodated a fast-growing city, how developers and modest-income families planted entire Seattle neighborhoods with bungalows. She also shows how those families used the houses in their daily lives.
Spoken Uyghur by Reinhard F. Hahn ($60)
UW Press “has always had a strong list in Asian languages, literature, and history, and we thought this was a very appropriate book for our list,” said Press Director Pat Soden. Spoken Ugyhur (pronounced ooh-we-GOOR) was issued in October as a paperback version of the original text issued in 1991. The press had received an increasing number of requests for the book, but it had gone out of print, said UW Press Associate Director Mary Anderson.
Xinjiang, the portion of northwest China where Uyghur is spoken, is home to many of China’s Muslims. More than 16 million people live in the region, which shares borders with eight countries, including Afghanistan, Russia, Tibet and Mongolia.
Hahn is a native of northern Germany who emigrated to Australia and later traveled in northwest China, where he began learning Uyghur. He has an undergraduate degree in Chinese with a minor in Southeast Asian Studies from Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. At the UW, Hahn is a program coordinator in UW Dental Public Health Sciences. He also helps teach courses on cultural and linguistic aspects of global health.
