Hermie Medley
BEING HUMAN
ISBN 978-0-9773070-3-6 Poetry, memoir, family history.
Cover art by Samantha Green; book design by Kate Hitt.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007923141
92 pp 8.5" x 5,5", paperback.
Many Names Press, March 2007
Price: (U.S.)$15.00

Hermie is a delightful poet; I published her first book of poems, “Too Young to Be Wise” in 1998, when she was only 80 years old. Her joy in life, her cheery but not sappy style of writing, is crisp and wise. I saw she met with grief and family loss, both a long and a short time ago. But mostly I can see her at her typewriter, a wicked-sweet little grin upon her face. When she reads in public, she reminds me of a young spelling bee contestant — I hold my breath for her simple response to a purplexing and complex word.

Generation Gap
Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d never dreamt before. I dreamed
I took my parents
to an open mike poetry reading
at the Santa Cruz Public Library.
I was eighty-three, which made my father
113, my mother 112. They were visiting,
and I thought they might enjoy
the poetry of the twenty-first century.
After half an hour of poems
with no punctuation and no form,
some of which sounded like a grocery list,
my father raised a palsied hand.
“You call this poetry?” he demanded.
“Where’s the rhythm? Where’s
the rhyme? Where’s the story?”
He pulled himself up unsteadily
and worked his way to the podium,
his hair unkempt as a haystack.
“’T'was the 18th of April
in ’75,” he intoned. “Hardly a man
is now alive who remembers
that famous day and year.”
He proceeded to recite the whole story
of how Paul Revere alerted his countrymen
that the British were coming. One
if by land and two if by sea
and all that malarkey. It had rhythm;
it had rhyme; it told a story. Everyone
was happy, I guess, though I’ll never
know. Just as my father finished, I fell
out of bed and woke up in a heap on the floor.

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Leba Wine
STITCHES IN TIME
ISBN 978-09773070-2-9 Fiction, biography, memoir, Jewish family history.
Quilt by Katie Friedman Reiter & Liebe Friedman-Gross; book design by Kate Hitt
Library of Congress CIP data 2006029833
312 pp 9" x 6", paperback
Many Names Press December, 2006
Price: (U.S.)$16.50

A memoir, biography and fiction based on stories around Leba Wine's great grandmother in Bohemia around 1870; her grandmother who was forced to America at twelve years old; life and education in McKeesport and Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The quilt in the novel and on the cover now resides in the American Folk Art Museum, in New York City.

“I was of the last generation to hear first-hand Jewish Eastern European immigrant history from the lips of those who had made the trip to America. My head was full of tales told to me by my grandmother. I had my mother’s diaries full of stories. Best of all, I had the quilt made by my grandmother and great-grandmother. The imagery sewn on it would come to represent the history of hope and hardships that accompanied my ancestors to this land. I wanted my children to know the hearty stock they came from, and I began by writing the stories on three-by-five cards for them to read. After ten cards, I knew that my children would never curl up with them to while-away a rainy afternoon, so I decided to write a novel, a biography, of the quilt itself.”

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Margarite Tuchardt
WINDOW TO WESTFIR
AN OREGON SAWMILL TOWN
ISBN 0-9773070-0-X Poetry, memoir, fine art, family history.
Illustrated with art & photos throughout by Margarite Tuchardt; book design by Kate Hitt.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005937883
112 pp 8.5" x 5,5", paperback.
Many Names Press, March 2006
Price: (U.S.)$15.00

Margarite Tuchardt, a native of Westfir, Oregon, lived with her pioneering family on the forested west slope of the Cascades, along the wild North Fork of the Willamette River during woolly times in a logging company town once booming with prosperity, now no more.

“One starlit night Joyce and I skate down the curved road into Westfir, past the sawmill dam, past the red hot sparking burner. I wonder now if she will remember skating on frozen snow, past the slough, past the covered bridge and into downtown. We arrive at the company office near the market and saloon giggling and wobbling. Everything is covered in magic and moonlight. I want the night to go on forever.”

Comanche Court
Friend of my youth, you are wild forest, rushing river
Autumn leaves big enough to cover my head
Where did you go, strong legs and eagle eyes
That carried me to the roar of ice water, into my future
Friend of my youth, I see you in a child’s face
Now when I need you most-—you elude me
I think I lost you on a cul-de-sac in South San Jose

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Maude Meehan
AS IF THE WORLD MADE SENSE
0-9652575-9-2 Poetry, Memoir.
Cover art “A Question of Balance” by James Aschbacher; book design by Kate Hitt.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003109946
198 pp 9" x 6", paperback with dust jacket
Many Names Press, October 2003
Price: (U.S.)$17.95

Reflective poems on grandchildren, aging, relatives and news by the octogenarian “geriatric diva” and much loved poet laureate of Santa Cruz, California. Maude died in her sleep August, 18, 2007.

“By turns tender and tough, the poems in Maude Meehanís new collection are deeply etched by the acids of experience. Her poems celebrate the triumph of gratitude over sorrow, and vivifying memory over solitude. Meehan writes eloquently about the vicissitudes of age, but age has not slowed this poet, it has only made her more impatient with anyone who would waste a single second of our time on earth, where 'everything is an emergency.'” - Gary Young.

At a Conference for Women
Many years ago
the guest speaker, prim
in suburban matron drag,
blue-white coiffure,
knit suit and Gucci bag,
stepped to the podium.
Typecast, the perfect
corporation wife, who
with her opening sentence
changed my life.

I once had forty tits
and someone dragging
on each one.
I now have two,
they both belong to me,
and life is much more fun.

The rest of her remarks
remain a blur,
but I am down to three.
Blue-haired deceptive lady,
I’m almost running free.

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Bill Stipe
SAM HERGO, CIRCUS STRONGMAN
ISBN 0-9652575-0-9 Illustrated children's fiction, fine art.
40 pp, 8.5" x 7" cardstock, wire-bound, with title clearly visible on spine
Printed by Kate Hitt at Many Names Press, 1996 (after the original 1941 manuscript)
Price: (U.S.)$15.00 Numbered Limited Edition of 370.

This is the story of Sam Hergo, the gentle, kind-hearted strongman of the circus, named after SAMson, HERcules, and GOliath, the three strongest men in all history. Sam is the invention of Bill Stipe, American fine artist and professor at Northwestern in Chicago -- wrote and illustrated the book, but World War II broke out and Bill was drafted. SAM HERGO re-emerged in 1995; was completely restored and printed in a limited edition of 370 copies by niece Kate Hitt at Many Names Press.

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Andrea Rich
THE WOODCUTS OF ANDREA RICH
ISBN 0-9652575-2-5 Fine art, artist descriptions of plates.
96 pp., 10" x 13", Fine hand casebinding by Peggy Gotthold
36 color tipped-in plates, composition monotype from M&H Typefoundry
Original woodcut print by the artist (suitable for framing)
Poem “The Deer” by Mary Oliver
Design, letterpress printing of text & cover, hand typesetting by Kate Hitt at Many Names Press 1997
Price: (U.S.)$300.00 very limited edition, signed & numbered by the artist.

The seed for this artistic collaboration between printer and artist sprouted some years ago when, impressed by the quality of Santa Cruz artist Andrea Rich's woodcuts, publisher Kate Hitt printed a colorful offset reproduction of a bird Andrea had carved. They agreed to produce a book showcasing 36 woodcut prints, and embarked on what would become the incredibly involved adventure of making a hand-made book.

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Mr. A.,
THE BONNY DOON BEACH COLORING BOOK, VOLUME I
0-9652575-5-X Illustrated Adult Fine Art.
36 pp, 11" x 8.5" saddle stapled
Printed by Kate Hitt at Many Names Press, 1998
Price: (U.S.)$10.00

(PLEASE NOTE: Even though this is good fun, and a real coloring book,, this book contains nudity. It is meant for adults 18 years of age and over.)

I was approached by Mr. A. (nonymous) who wanted me to print a beautiful coloring book. I have a passion for life drawing so I took on this project with great glee and gusto - the clothing-optional, Pacific Coast, Bonny Doon Beach really exists: I know, I've been there. According to Mr A., however, all the characters on the beach in the book are made up out of his head....

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Amber Coverdale Sumrall
LITANY OF WINGS
0-9652575-3-3 Poetry.
Cover art by Elizabeth Williams
96 pp. 8.5" x 5.5", paperback w/dust jacket
Type design by Annie Browning, printed by Kate Hitt at Many Names Press 1998

A poem was read on Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac" Aug.2, 2005 on NPR.

“Litany of Wings” is an amazing and complex book of poems. Amber Coverdale Sumrall has created a masterpiece: a book overflowing with sensual images of birds, plants, animals, people and life. It is a book devoid of superficiality, cycling through life and death, full of irony, humorous at times, serious and binding at others. She seems to test the true mettle of life's worth, making us feel human and full. Always true to the memories and testimonies of the living and dead, no one is forgotten.

"These are beautiful poems." —Grace Paley

"Amber Coverdale Sumrall's poems are deeply felt and will touch many with their evocation of love and possibility and wings." —Lucille Clifton

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Patrice Vecchione
TERRITORY OF WIND
0-9652575-4-1 Poetry.
Cover art by Nanda Currant
96 pp. 8.5"x5.5" paperback w/dust jacket
Type design by Annie Browning, printed by Kate Hitt at Many Names Press 1998

At the heart of the striking beauty of these poems, with their mindful surroundings, is writing at its most impeccable.

Patrice Vecchione's poems, like life itself, show and tell us-in astonishing ways how much we are, indeed, members of one another. She explores and celebrates the quivering, fragile web of relationships that thread together the many-sided meaning of love. . . —- Al Young

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In 1962, César Chávez initiated a movement to empower farm workers with a labor union. Hundreds of middle-class supporters joined him as the workers struggled for social justice. On his staff was a mother of two, Susan Samuels Drake. The first memoir published by a woman who worked closely with César Chávez, it offers a unique and poetic perspective of the Mexican-American visionary whose contagious determination bettered the quality of life for millions of people

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