Esoterica from McFarland

I received a “New Books Spring 2007” McFarland catalog in the box with my copy of the I Spy book. Full of books you wished would exist, but never expected to (like Marc and Linda’s I Spy book). I see the western stars encyclopedia Aujouret. The complete title is “Television Western Players of the Fifties: A Biographical Encyclopedia of All Regular Cast Members in Western Series, 1949-1959”. Say that three times fast while drinking a glass of water! There are many show biz biographies including: Joan Crawford, Jimmy Durante, Ingmar Bergman, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Elliot, James Garner, Pete Duel(!), Sid and Marty Kroft, and most interestingly, “An Illustrated History of Trigger: The Lives and Legend of Roy Rogers’ Palomino”. There are highfalutin sounding tomes like “The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture” and “Culture, Identities and Technology in the Star Wars Films”. And more “down to earth” books like “Super Bitches and Action Babes” and “Slapshtik: Essays on the Three Stooges.” And there are books for which the audience may be small, such as “The Birth of the Banjo” and “The Supreme Court Opinions of Clarence Thomas, 1991-2006” and, amazingly, one called “Florida Paper Money: An Illustrated History, 1817-1934”. There’s a critical history and episode guide for “Hawaii Five-O” as well. I wouldn’t expect it to be nearly as interesting as “our” I Spy book, though I understand that Jack Lord was hell on wheels.

It’s all really cool stuff and I think I’ve found a couple of books that I’ll be giving as birthday and Christmas gifts down the road (I know someone who is deeply into “Hawaii Five-O”). Also, I think I now know where to submit my manuscript: "The Chico Marx Syndrome: Pro-Social Reconstruction and Compromise of Anarchic Comic Figures in American Commercial Entertainment." In any case, I’m well into the I Spy book and it is all I could have hoped for.

Jimmy