ACRL College & Research Libraries News

Association of College & Research Libraries

Baltimore ’86

Baltimoreans … were complacent beyond the ordinary, and agreed with their visitors that life in their town was swell.”¹

Although the “Sage” was writing about his childhood in the 1880s, we agree with his estimate of Baltimore—and we think that you will, too. To prepare you for the experience during the Fourth ACRL National Conference, April 9-12, 1986, the following books in print have been chosen for you to sample the flavor of “Baltimore…shining on the sea.”

I. Baltimore: A sense of place

Beirne, Francis F. The Amiable Baltimoreans. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984 (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf Series). $8.95 paper.

The classic history of the social life and customs of Baltimore, first published by Dutton in 1951.

Beirne, Francis F. Baltimore: A Picture History. Rev. 3rd ed. by Carleton Jones. Baltimore: Bodine & Associates, 1982. $14.95 paper.

Written originally under the sponsorship of the

Maryland Historical Society, with lots of prints and some paintings reproduced for the early years before photography. Jones has revised and continued through “1970-1982: A Rejuvenated City in an Uneasy Decade.” Bode, Carl. Maryland: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1978 (States and the Nation Series). $14.95.

This is an anecdotal history of the state by an emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland, with emphasis on Baltimore in the 19th and 20th centuries. “Severn Teackle Wallis and

H.L. Mencken, A Choice oj Days. New York: Knopf, 1980), p.48. 19th-Century Life” and “The Mencken Era and Beyond” are two chapters.

Browne, Gary L. Baltimore in the Nation, 1789-1861. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980. $27.50.

This study explains the transformation of Baltimore from a commercial to an industrial economy against the backdrop of the cultural conservatism that informed the behavior of the city’s elite.

Dorsey, John. Mount Vernon Place: An Anecdotal

Essay with 66 Illustrations.Baltimore: Maclay & Associates, 1983. $13.95.

The cultural center of Baltimore is filled with beautiful mid-19th-century buildings, including the Peabody Library. Dorsey is a native of Baltimore, Sun writer, and restaurant columnist.

Dorsey, John, and James D. Dilts. A Guide to Baltimore Architecture. 2nd ed. Revised and enlarged. Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1981. $4.95 paper.

The guide has three introductory chapters followed by five walking tours and nine driving tours, with an appendix of brief biographies of deceased architects who practiced in Baltimore, a glossary, and several indexes.

Elisabeth Stevens' Guide to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor: A Lively Tour oj the Exciting New Downtown Area.Owings Mills, Md: Stemmer House, 1981. $3.50 paper.

Written by an art and architecture critic for the

Sun, this guide includes details about sights, shops, and places to eat in the Inner Harbor, plus points of interest on the periphery.

Graham, Leroy. Baltimore: The Nineteenth Century Black Capital. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1982. $25.75 library binding; $13.50 paper.

This biographical approach to urban history is based upon the accomplishments of four remarkable men: Elisha Tyson, a wealthy Quaker merchant-miller; William Watkins, a minister and teacher and foe of Colonization; George A. Hackett, lay minister and businessman; and Isaac Myers, a middle-class labor leader, businessman, and politician.

Keith, Robert C. Baltimore Harbor: A Picture History. Baltimore: Ocean World, 1982. $9.95.

The Harbor is broadly defined to include the whole Patapsco River estuary. The historical, commercial, recreational, and educational aspects of the Harbor are all described in text and in hundreds of photos, with several maps (such as of sites of shipwrecks).

Kelly, Jacques. Bygone Baltimore: A Historical Portrait. Norfolk, Va.: Donning Co., 1982. $14.95 paper.

A photo history from 1770 to date with good captions, this is compiled by an editorial writer and columnist for Baltimore’s The News American.

Maryland.Photography by Steve Uzzell; text by Carl Bode. Portland, Ore.: Graphic Arts Center, 1983. $29.50.

Lavishly illustrated in color photographs, this book is divided into the “Eastern Shore,” “Heartland,” and “Foothills and Mountains.” Typical scenes from different perspectives are shown in interesting light. Bode talks about Maryland in transition. “Heartland” includes many shots of Baltimore.

Miller, Roger. Baltimore: A Portrait. Baltimore:

Image, 1983. $29.95; $14.95 paper.

A successful Baltimore commercial photographer presents a survey of present-day Baltimore in color; the emphasis is on people in action. Text is by Dennis N. McClellan.

Nast, Leonora H., et.al., eds. Baltimore: A Living

Renaissance.Randallstown, Md.: Historic Baltimore Society, 1982. $25.00.

This anthology of about 75 short articles by Baltimore experts discusses the recent past as a period of vigor and creativity in four categories: “Baltimore Builds,” “Social Perspective,” “The Arts,” and “What Makes Baltimore Baltimore.” Nast is a historian, lecturer, writer, editor, and artist.

Olson, Sherry H. Baltimore: The Building of An

American City.Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins

University Press, 1980. $28.50.

An interesting interweaving of economic, geographic, and social patterns of development is a well illustrated book about Baltimore. It portrays the relationships of Blacks and Jews as two important minorities in the growth of Baltimore.

Paananen, Eloise. The Baltimore One-Day Trip Book: A New View of What to Do in and Around the All-American City. McLean, Va.: EPM Publications, 1985. $8.95 paper.

A thorough guide to the city is presented and then on to Annapolis, the Eastern Shore, Baltimore, Carroll and Howard Counties.

Papenfuse, Edward C., et.al., eds. Maryland: A New Guide to the Old Line State. Baltimore:

The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. $10.95 paper.

Based upon the 1940 WPA guide to Maryland, the staff of the Maryland Hall of Records provide an updated guide, which includes 33 driving tours and then tours of seven cities, including six different tours of Baltimore.

Patterson, Ted. Day By Day in Orioles History.

New York: Leisure Press, 1984. $10.95 paper.

Sportscaster Patterson gives the highlights of Orioles successes from 1954 through 1983, when they again won the World Series. There are several appendices of rosters of players and statistics. The text is liberally sprinkled with action photos.

Rich, Linda G., et.al. Neighborhood: A State of

Mind.Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University

Press, 1981. $27.50; $14.95 paper.

If Studs Terkel were a photographer, this is the kind of book that he would produce about East Baltimore. These many pages of photos of streets and the people who live on them are an outgrowth of a course in social documentary photography given at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, in Baltimore.

Rukert, Norman G. Federal Hill: A Baltimore National Historic District. Baltimore: Bodine & Associates, 1980. $12.95; $6.95 paper.

Federal Hill, just South of the Inner Harbor, is a favorite spot from which to introduce tourists to Baltimore, as it changes day by day. Rukert traces its history from farming, to shipbuilding, to food processing, to the glass industry, and to development of a park, now surrounded by restored housing.

Rukert, Norman G. Fort McHenry: Home of the

Brave.Baltimore: Bodine & Associates, 1982.

$8.95 paper.

This is a lively panoramic history of Fort McHenry, birthplace of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Rukert, Norman G. The Port: Pride of Baltimore.

Baltimore: Bodine & Associates, 1982. $16.95;

$9.95 paper.

From a family that has run waterfront terminals for about 80 years, Rukert writes of the birth of Baltimore as a port in 1750, its adolescence and maturity, during which the City has been intrinsically fused with its port. Many black and white photos illustrate this history. In 1976 Rukert’s 1822 Brown’s Wharf Terminal was opened as a maritime museum.

Sternlicht, Sanford, and Edwin J. Jameson. U.S.F.

Constellation: “Yankee Racehorse”.Cockeysville, Md.: Liberty, 1981. $4.95 paper. Launched in Baltimore in 1797 and serving through both World Wars, the “Constellation’s” near-demise and her restoration that is continuing are described. This ship is a centerpiece of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Warren, Marion E., and Marne Warren. Baltimore: When She Was What She Used to Be, 1850-1930. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. $29.95.

This is a collection of 260 pictures winnowed from thousands by one of the state’s best known photographers and his daughter, now photo archivist for the Maryland State Archives.

Willis, Gwen. Shifra Steins Day Trips from

Greater Baltimore: Getaways Less Than Two

Hours Away.Charlotte, N.C.: The East Woods Press, 1985. $7.95 paper.

Stein’s trips take one to Pennsylvania, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia.

II. Baltimore: Literature and the arts

Baker, Russell. Growing Up. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1982. $15.00. New York: New American Library, 1983. $6.95 paper.

An endearing recollection of American boyhood and youth from the 1920s through the Depression and into the 1940s in Virginia, New Jersey, and Baltimore, this 1982 Pulitzer Prize autobiography was written by a columnist for the New York Times.

Barth, John. The End of the Road. New York:

Doubleday, 1967. $4.95. New York: Bantam, 1969. $3.95 paper.

Jacob Horner becomes a teacher of grammar at Wicomico State Teachers College, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He is befriended by historian Joe Morgan and his wife Rennie. In this world without standards, the triangle leads to comedy, satire, and tragedy. Episodes related to Horner’s therapy take place in Baltimore in this book, originally published by Doubleday in 1958 and revised in 1967 when Barth could overrule his editor.

Barth, John. The Floating Opera. New York: Bantam, 1972. $3.95 paper.

The title is that of a showboat plying the waters of Maryland and staging a play, which is seen by the audience while seated on the shore. Part of the performance is, perforce, missed. One’s imagination must supply action and dialogue. There are scenes set in Baltimore in the 1920s and 30s when Todd Andrews was a student. He decides that the relative values of life are preferable to suicide. Barth is a professor of English and creative writing at The Johns Hopkins University. Appleton published the book in 1956; a revised edition was published by Doubleday in 1967.

Bruccoli, Matthew J. Some Sort of Epic Grandeur:

The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981. $25.00.

Cr: Library of Annapolis

The “U.S.S. Constellation’ in front ofl.M. Pei’s World Trade Center.

This is the definitive biography of Fitzgerald, by a scholar who has spent thirty years on his subject. Fitzgerald’s work and world are revealed in stunning detail, including stays at “La Paix” in Towson (Maryland) in 1932 and 1933 and in Baltimore in 1934.

Creamer, Robert W. Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. New York: Penguin, 1983 (Penguin Sports Library). $6.95 paper.

A senior editor of Sports Illustrated writes the only truly adult biography of Babe Ruth, originally published in 1974 by Simon & Schuster. Part One, 1894-1919, covers Ruth’s childhood as a “Bad Kid” in Baltimore and his early career before reaching the New York Yankees in 1920.

Durkin, Barbara W. Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can’t You Dance the Polka? New York: Morrow, 1984. $14.95.

A former local girl who grew up in Dundalk, a working-class neighborhood just over the county line, wrote this well-received first novel. It is about the 1950s and 60s and Bebe Schmidt, a fat little girl who moved from Wisconsin. The recollection is funny, bittersweet, and catches the lingo of the place and the times.

Kravetz, Sallie. Ethel Ennis: The Reluctant Jazz

Star.Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1984. $11.95 paper.

Baltimore’s famous jazz singer is profiled. She and her husband, Earl Arnett, recently have opened a nightclub, Ethel’s Place, across from the

Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Logan, Thaddeus. Hey Cabbie! Baltimore: Logan

Enterprises, 1983. $11.95.

Eight-year veteran vice-detective turned taxi driver recounts some of the seamier encounters that one could have in Baltimore.

Manchester, William R. The City of Anger. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. $8.95.

Manchester’s first novel, originally published by

Ballantine in 1953, portrays racketeering and political corruption in a Northern seaport city, “Chesapeake.” The geographic and physical descriptions resemble Baltimore, but the sensationalism and cruelty of the story are exaggerated. Or, as one local critic wrote, “It’s Baltimore, all right, but as if viewed murkily from the bottom of the harbor.”

Mencken, Henry L. Happy Days, 1880-1892. Reprint of 1940 ed. New York: AMS Press. $31.00. Newspaper Days, 1899-1906. Reprint of 1941 ed. New York: AMS Press. $29.50. Heathen Days, 1890-1936. Reprint of 1943 ed. New York: AMS Press. $29.50. Abridged as A Choice of Days, ed. and introduced by Edward L. Gal- ligan. New York: Knopf, 1980. $12.95. New York: Random House, 1981. $4.95 paper. Baltimore’s most famous literary figure wrote a delightful and provocative autobiography.

Richardson, Edgar P., Brooke Hindle, and William B. Miller. Charles Willson Peale & His World. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983 (A Barra Foundation Book). $35.00.

This exhibition catalog has 98 color plates and lots of text that describe Peale as an artist, soldier in the Revolution, inventor, watchmaker, farmer, and founder of the first popular museum of natural science—now known as the Peale Museum and mostly devoted to local history of Baltimore.

Rodowsky, Colby. Keeping Time. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983. $10.95. Grades 5 and up.

Drew Wakeman’s family are street musicians who perform the Inner Harbor and live in Fells Point. While the group is performing “Greensleeves” one day, Drew escapes in time to 16th-century England, where he is befriended by Symon Ives, a “wait”, a young musician paid by London.

Skutches, Peter. Diner. Based on the movie written and directed by Barry Levinson. New York: Dell, 1982. $2.75 paper.

Dineris about five youths nearing manhood in 959, who meet at the Diner to swap stories, joke, talk of sex, and dream of love. For the story, the Diner was in East Baltimore; recently it has been moved near the City Hall to serve as a site for culinary trade courses and inexpensive meals.

Symons, Julian. The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life and

Works of Edgar Allan Poe.New York: Harper & Row, 1978. $12.45. New York: Penguin, 1981.

$3.95 paper.

This widely reviewed biography by a respected writer of mystery fiction offers a brisk synopsis of •extant biographical knowledge, leavened by the author’s insights. Symons is very successful in placing Poe’s life against the backdrop of 19th-century America.

Tyler, Anne. The Accidental Tourist. New York:

Knopf, 1985. $16.95.

Macon Leary, author of travel books, after his divorce seeks the quiet of life with his two brothers and a sister in Baltimore. But Muriel Pritchett, who lives a less tidy existence, intrudes upon that domesticity.

Tyler, Anne. Celestial Navigation. New York:

Berkley, 1984. $3.95 paper.

Jeremy, a 38-year-old reclusive Baltimore artistic bachelor who runs a boarding house, becomes even more cushioned from the world after he marries Mary Tell, a new boarder, and then sires five children. Creating Jeremy was a way of Tyler’s investigating her own “tendency to turn more and more inward” in this novel originally published by Knopf in 1974.

Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

New York: Berkley, 1982. $3.95 paper.

Tyler’s ninth novel explores the inner life of the Tulls, an unhappy working-class Baltimore family, through 35 troubled years. Pearl—the matriarch—is 85, blind, and dying and heaps abuse upon her children, because of the bitterness engendered by the desertion of her husband years before. Ezra, the youngest, runs the inner-city restaurant of the title. This is a stunning psychological portrait of a family estranged from itself.

Tyler, Anne. Searching for Caleb. New York:

Berkley, 1983. $3.50 paper.

The Pecks of Baltimore are a wealthy and self- absorbed family with streaks of rebellion. Sixty years after brother Caleb’s departure from the embrace of the family, patriarch Daniel, aided by grandson Duncan and Duncan’s cousin/wife Justine, seeks the rebel. Originally published by Knopf in 1975.

Ward, Robert. Red Raker. Garden City, New

York: The Dial Press, 1985. $14.95.

Ward has written the story of a Baltimore steelworker’s precipitous downward spiral following his permanent layoff from the mill. All kinds of bad things happen to Red and his co-workers in the months following the layoff. The Patterson Park/Highlandtown section of the city is described in flashbacks to his teens in the late 50s and early 60s. The story shows tension between Baltimore’s new Harborplace and the working people of East Baltimore.—Bill Wilson.