Tom’s Blog

Eric Hoffer Prize — Winner in the Art Book category!

Just learned the terrific news last night that A Journey Through Literary America has won the Eric Hoffer Award in the category of Art Book.

From the award notice for the art category: Titles in this category capture the experience, execution, or demonstration of the arts, including art, fine art, graphic art, architecture, design, photography, and coffee table books.

Winner

A Journey Through Literary America, Thomas R. Hummel, photographs by Tamra L. Dempsey, Val De Grâce Books – This unique literary tour spans the country to highlight the life and work of America’s best-known writers. From Washington Iriving (1783-1859) to Richard Ford (1944- ), both the essays and photos delve into the writer’s biographies and major literary achievements. It is a unique point of view and perhaps overdue in literary examinations. Expected elements such as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables and Langston Hughes’ Harlem don the pages. Steinbeck’s Salinas wasn’t missed, but little treats like Sherwood Anderson’s houses, Philip Roth’s Weequahic, and Faulkner’s map of Yoknapatawpha County help bind the collection.”

Best Bookshops in the World

Click here for the Guardian UK’s list of the best bookshops in the world. These were chosen mostly for their architectural magnificence, it seems, and do, of course, exhibit  British…

Happy Birthday, John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born 108 years ago today in Salinas, California, the “Salad Bowl of the World.” His family lived in a Victorian house that still stands on one of…

Happy Birthday Sinclair Lewis!

Sinclair Lewis in a room he rented for his writing On February 7, 2010 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, it is 18 degrees but  “feels like 8 degrees” according to Weather.com.…

The Paris Review Interviews

It is now two decades ago that I got my first job after college: as assistant to the manager of Access Services of Gelman Library, George Washington University. I had…

Midwest Book Review

Lives up to its title. Illustrated with full-color photography throughout, A Journey Through Literary America is a book for book lovers – surveying great American authors from Ralph Waldo Emerson…

The Buckeye Book Fair

Akron-Canton Airport: I knew I was not in California when I opened the driver’s side door of my rented Hyundai Accent and saw, laid across the passenger’s seat like a…

Small Press Reviews

I’ll start this review by admitting that I’m not the easiest guy in the world to shop for, and I really do feel bad for all of the people in…

Binghamton New York to Boston

Hudson to Binghamton was a long stretch of empty highway, often squeezed down to one lane in each direction (though TARP was not officially credited) with some of the tiredest…

Indiana to Ohio

  The next day we saw the most we had seen of Chicago—in our rear view mirror. By mid-morning we had passed Garry, Indiana—the birthplace of Michael Jackson and by…

Omaha to Chicago

Iowa City, Iowa   Smiley Face Water Tower in Iowa     I had the camera ready when we stopped at the bookstore in perhaps the nicest find of a…

Red Cloud, NE to Omaha, NE

What came down had to go back up. We returned from Red Cloud to the Interstate via Hastings, passing a Pony Express Road on the way. We drove by Valentino’s…

Days 1 and 2

We finally left Santa Monica on the eastward journey (on the Christopher Columbus transcontinental highway) as the rain started falling on the windshield of the Dodge Grand Caravan. The storm…

The Book Tour 2009

Happy Columbus Day! One day out of the year which would seem to be a harbinger of a successful journey (though perhaps not success in arriving at the destination you…

Santa Barbara Independent

America’s Places in Literature It’s the Journey, and It Is the Destination Maybe it’s these “tough economic times” we keep hearing about, or Ken Burns’s latest documentary on our country’s…