The History Press<\/a>. Now part of Arcadia Publishing, the 20-year-old imprint is dedicated to regional, statewide and locally focused works, found for sale in bookstores, museums, hotels and other tourist destinations. The mission of The History Press is to explore and unearth \u201cthe story of America, one town or community at a time.\u201d<\/p>\nThe King book stands out if only for its focus on an international celebrity. Most History Press releases arise out of more obscure passions and expertise, whether Michael C. Gabriele\u2019s \u201cThe History of Diners in New Jersey,\u201d Thomas Dresser\u2019s \u201cAfrican Americans of Martha\u2019s Vineyard\u201d or Clem C. Pellett\u2019s \u201cMurder on Montana\u2019s Hi-Line,\u201d the author\u2019s probe into the fatal shooting of his grandfather.<\/p>\n
A HOME FOR HISTORY BUFFS<\/p>\n
Like Kitchens, History Press authors tend to be regional or local specialists \u2014 history lovers, academics, retirees and hobbyists. Kitchens\u2019 background includes writing movie press releases, blogging for the Portland Press Herald and contributing to the Huffington Post. Pellett is a onetime surgeon who was so compelled by his grandfather\u2019s murder that he switched careers and became a private investigator. In Boulder, Colorado, Nancy K. Williams is a self-described \u201cWestern history writer\u201d whose books include \u201cBuffalo Soldiers on the Colorado Frontier\u201d and \u201cHaunted Hotels of Southern Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n
The History Press publishes highly specific works such as Jerry Harrington\u2019s tribute to a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor from the 1930s, \u201cCrusading Iowa Journalist Verne Marshall.\u201d It also issues various series, notably \u201cHaunted\u201d guides that publishing director Kate Jenkins calls a \u201chighly localized version\u201d of the ghost story genre. History Press has long recruited potential authors through a team of field representatives, but now writers such as Kitchens are as likely to be brought to the publisher\u2019s attention through a national network of writers who have worked with it before.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ideal author isn\u2019t someone with national reach,\u201d Jenkins says, \u201cbut someone who\u2019s a member of their community, whether that\u2019s an ethnic community or a local community, and is passionate about preserving that community\u2019s history. We\u2019re the partners who help make that history accessible to a wide audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The History Press is a prolific, low-cost operation. The books tend to be brief \u2014 under 200 pages \u2014 and illustrated with photos drawn from local archives or taken by the authors themselves. The print runs are small, and authors are usually paid through royalties from sales rather than advances up front. History Press books rarely are major hits, but they can still attract substantial attention for works tailored to specific areas, and they tend to keep selling over time. Editions selling 15,000 copies or more include \u201cLong-Ago Stories of the Eastern Cherokee,\u201d by Lloyd Arneach, Alphonso Brown\u2019s \u201cA Gullah Guide to Charleston\u201d and Gayle Soucek\u2019s \u201cMarshall Field\u2019s,\u201d a tribute to the Chicago department store.<\/p>\n
![\"Books](\"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\")
<\/p>\n
Andrew Higgins and Savannah Shealy peruse the biography section of the Green Hand Bookstore on Thursday in Portland. (Robert F. Bukaty\/Associated Press) <\/p>\n
The King guide, which has sold around 8,500 copies so far, received an unexpected lift \u2014 an endorsement by its subject, who was shown the book at Maine\u2019s Bridgton Books and posted an Instagram of himself giving it a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was genuinely shocked in the best possible way,\u201d Kitchens says, adding that she saw the book as a kind of thank-you note to King. \u201cEvery choice I made while writing the book, I made with him in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
GETTING THE STORY RIGHT<\/p>\n
History Press authors say they like the chance to tell stories that they believe haven\u2019t been heard, or were told incorrectly.<\/p>\n
Rory O\u2019Neill Schmitt is an Arizona-based researcher, lecturer and writer who feels her native New Orleans is often \u201cportrayed in way that feels false or highlights a touristy element,\u201d like a \u201ccaricature.\u201d She has responded with such books as \u201cThe Haunted Guide to New Orleans\u201d and \u201cKate Chopin in New Orleans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brianne Turczynski is a freelance writer and self-described \u201cperpetual seeker of the human condition\u201d who lives outside of Detroit and has an acknowledged obsession with \u201cPoletown,\u201d a Polish ethnic community uprooted and dismantled in the 1980s after General Motors decided to build a new plant there and successfully asserted eminent domain. In 2021, The History Press released Turczynski\u2019s \u201cDetroit\u2019s Lost Poletown: The Little Neighborhood That Touched a Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the journalist work that followed the story seemed to lack a sense of closure for the people who suffered,\u201d she said. \u201cSo my book is a love letter to that community, an attempt for closure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kitchens has followed her King book with the story of an unsolved homicide, \u201cThe Murder of Dorothy Milliken, Cold Case in Maine.\u201d One of her early boosters, Michelle Souliere, is the owner of the Green Hand Bookstore in Portland and herself a History Press writer. A lifelong aficionado of Maine history, her publishing career, like Kitchens\u2019, began with an online posting. She had been maintaining a blog of local lore, \u201cStrange Maine,\u201d when The History Press contacted her and suggested she expand her writing into a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State\u201d was published in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy blog had been going for about 4 years, and had grown from brief speculative and expressive posts to longer original research articles,\u201d she wrote in an email. \u201cI often wonder how I did it at all \u2014 I wrote the book just as I was opening up the Green Hand Bookshop. Madness!!! Or a lot of coffee. Or both!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Copy the Story Link<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owner Michelle Souliere, left, chats with a frequent customer Thursday at the Green Hand Bookstore in Portland. (Robert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-55084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}