jan11b.indd January 2011 53 C&RL News Autobiography of Mark Twain, edited by Har- riet Elinor Smith (736 pages, vol. 1, November 2010), should be on every academic library’s acquisitions list both for its meticulous scholar- ship and its insights into the life, family, friends, politics, and mind of A m e r i c a ’ s most cele- brated author and humor- ist. After sev- eral decades of attempt- ing to write a birth-to- current auto- biography, in January 1906 Samuel Cle- mens (who wrote under the pen name Mark Twain) decided to begin dictating his recol- lections to stenographer Josephine Hobby (while lounging in bed, “propped against great snowy pillows”), inserting relevant extracts from newspaper articles and correspondence, and reaching more than 500,000 words by the time he stopped in December 1909. Earlier manuscripts and dictations are inserted prior to the primary narrative (including reminiscences about his friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, travel notes, and his disastrous investment in a typesetting machine). At first glance, this non- linear format can be confusing, but his intent was to tell interesting stories and move on to a related account when the first was complete or his interest waned. Although a good portion of this material has been published before (see pp. 663–67 for the complete list), the text had either been rearranged or expurgated. In fact, his instructions to his editors were to withhold full publication until 100 years after his death so that no living persons would be slandered George M. Eberhart is senior editor of American Libraries, e-mail: geberhart@ala.org N e w P u b l i c a t i o n sGeorge M. Eberhart or embarrassed by his remarks. The first of three projected volumes, this one has nearly 200 pages of explanatory notes that clarify or expand upon Clemens’s observations and fur- ther identify the people he is writing about. The introduction carefully explains the process that the editors for the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library used to piece together the various versions and elements of this massive work. Unlike other autobiographies, Clemens’s writing can be dipped into and sampled at random with great satisfaction, like a buffet at a fine restaurant—something he remarked on in his dictation of March 26, 1906: “[I] intend that it shall be read and admired a good many centuries because of its form and method . . . whereby the past and the present are constant- ly brought face to face, resulting in contrasts which newly fire up the interest all along like contact of flint with steel.” $34.95. University of California. 978-0-520-26719-0. Culinary Ephemera: An Illustrated History, by William Woys Weaver (299 pages, October 2010), serves up a course of collectible pa- per goods that document the marketing and consumption of food and drink in America from a 1731 tavernkeeper’s business card to 1980 matchbook from a Washington, D.C., gay restaurant and dance palace. The author presents 352 color illustrations of advertise- ments, almanacs and calendars, broadsides and posters, brochures, business cards, labels, match covers, menus, postcards, recipe books, product pamphlets, sheet music, trade cards, valentines, and packaging that evoke our cu- linary history and attitudes. For each, Weaver provides insightful commentary on the item’s design, date and location, and historical signifi- cance. $39.95. University of California. 978-0- 520-25977-5. Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax, by Susan D. Jones (329 pages, Sep- tember 2010), reviews the interactions of ani- mals and humans with the anthrax bacillus, C&RL News January 2011 54 from the infections of French textile workers in the 18th century and Louis Pasteur’s 1881 vac- cine to its weaponization in the 20th century, the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak of 1979, and the 2001 U.S. postal anthrax attacks. Jones, a vet- erinarian, is particularly interested in ways the bacillus became domesticated, as it expanded into new environments and settled into labo- ratories, where scientists and military workers cultivated and isolated various strains. $24.95. Johns Hopkins University. 978-0-8018-9696-5. Historical Atlas of the North American Rail- road, by Derek Hayes (224 pages, October 2010), is another cartographic extravaganza by the author of Historical Atlas of the United States (2007), featuring the same abundance of colorful maps interspersed with commentary. Hayes takes the reader from the earliest local lines in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Mary- land, New York, and New England to modern commuter rail service and Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express in the Northeast Corridor. The 400 reproduced maps can be viewed variously as historical documents, graphic displays of practical information, or works of art. Many maps of the famous railways are here—the Great Central Route, the Canadian Pacific, the B&O, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific transcontinental line, the Great Northern, the Illinois Central, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe—as well as many smaller routes. Its focus on maps provides an excellent supplement to more detailed but less illustrated railroad his- tories. $39.95. University of California. 978-0- 520-26616-2. A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial, by Steve Hendricks (317 pages, October 2010), unravels the complicated maze of intrigue sur- rounding the CIA’s kidnapping of Islamic cleric Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr (known as Abu Omar) in February 2003 from Milan to Egypt, where he was confined for 14 months of ques- tioning under torture on his role in suspected terrorist plots in Italy. The case became one of the best-documented instances of extraordi- nary rendition by the United States because the agents were sloppy with their hotel receipts and cell phone calls, leaving a clear trail for Italian magistrate Armando Spataro to follow in his quest to bring the CIA to trial on kidnap- ping charges. In legal proceedings that lasted nearly four years, 22 known or suspected agents were convicted in absentia by an Italian judge. All of them, including former Milan CIA Station Chief Robert Lady, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, are subject to impris- onment if they ever return to Italy. Hendricks even managed to interview Abu Omar himself in Alexandria in 2007. $26.95. W. W. Norton. 978-0-393-06581-7. Managing the Small College Library, by Ra- chel Applegate (349 pages, September 2010), offers a wealth of practical advice to newly appointed directors of academic libraries with a staff of less than ten professional librarians. Applegate, who served for many years as li- brary director at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, inserts anecdotes that illustrate points she is making about manag- ing people and operations. Well-written and sharply focused on the small institution, this manual will also serve as a useful supporting text for LIS students. $55.00. Libraries Unlim- ited. 978-1-59158-917-4. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead, by J. Gordon Melton (909 pages, 3rd ed., September 2010), is a significant expan- sion of the second edition published in 1999, with updated information on vampires in books, movies, television, and popular culture. Some of the new authors covered are L. A. Banks, Christine Feehan, Charlaine Harris, Ste- phenie Meyer, and Lisa Jane Smith. New sub- ject entries include characters in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, the films Near Dark (1987) and Underworld (2003), silver and vampires, vampire skin, vampires in romance literature, the Twilight books and movies, and zombies. Many of the entries in the previous edition have expanded and the index has im- proved, but the appendix on vampire resourc- es (organizations, Web sites, and a bibliogra- phy) and a color photo insert were dropped. $29.95. Visible Ink. 978-1-57859-281-4.