Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota receives the Benjamin Franklin Gold Award ™ from the Independent Book Publishers Association

The 2013 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award in Cover Design –Small Format was presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association to the South Dakota State Historical Society Press for Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota by Fraser Harrison.

Gold awards are given to the best publishers in specific categories of the Benjamin Franklin Awards™.  The Independent Book Publishers Association recognizes excellence and innovation in print publishing with these awards, named after America’s most cherished publisher/printer.

This Gold Award represents the first received by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. In 2008, the Press title Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip, edited by Cathie Draine, was a Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winner for the Autobiography/Biography/Memoirs category.

Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota is a travel memoir written from the perspective of Englishman Fraser Harrison who grew up with the tales of the old West. Harrison visits well-known locations and sites less-traveled in the state, giving detailed insight into what makes these locations important to South Dakotans and a unique experience for those who visit South Dakota.

“Fraser Harrison is among the best truth-tellers. He has written a thoughtful, tender, and funny guide, a book that is an arresting journey at the center of a nation and goes deep into the human heart.” —Tim Dee, Chief Producer, BBC Radio

Visit the Press’s Tumblr blog to see our award certificate, http://sdshsp.tumblr.com/.

To see other award finalists and categories, please visit the IBPA website, https://www.ibpa-online.org/benefits/benjamin-franklin-awards/2013-benjamin-franklin-award-finalists/.

Searching the US Census for a Cowboy’s Memories

History is not just about places, dates, and famous people. It’s also about the rest of us. Back in 2006, as South Dakota State Historical Society Press prepared to publish Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip, we realized we could add a great deal of information about the people mentioned in his letters by searching the U.S. Census.

George Philip had an excellent memory for names, and his letters often included other bits of information about the cowboys, ranchers, and other individuals he encountered. Once we had a name and a town or county, we searched the census using the online service Ancestry.com. Sometimes names were spelled a bit different between the census and Philip’s letters, and some people were not listed at all. Searching the census can require a little creative thinking and a certain amount of patience, but it was exciting to find the person we were looking for.

Using the South Dakota Death Index, which is also available on Ancestry.com, we could usually learn the date the person died and in what county. Then we headed to the newspaper index at the South Dakota State Archives to see if we could find a newspaper that might have an obituary. Obituaries are a great source of information such as where the individual was born, names of family members, and an overview of the person’s career. The State Archives has an extensive collection of newspapers on microfilm, and we frequently found what we searched for.

Readers of Cowboy Life can see the results of our searches in the book’s notes. George Philip wrote about real people who helped settle and develop South Dakota. Historians often overlook such people, but they deserve our attention, too.

Cowboy Life is now also available as an ebook!

History and Heritage Book Club

The History and Heritage Book Club met for the first time last night, at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre. 12 people attended, having read Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends by James D. McLaird, published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

The conversation was lively and stimulating, and with the author joining the group via conference call, everyone was able to really dig beneath the surface and ask some interesting questions.

The History and Heritage Book Club meets the second Tuesday of each month. The next meeting will be May 12 at 7pm. Those who attended the first meeting chose Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip as the next book to be read. H and H members receive a 10% discount on the price of the book at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Store. It is hoped that Cathie Draine, editor of Cowboy Life will attend the meeting via conference call.

Sanctity of a man’s bedroll

“A man’s personal belongings were denied to the curious if he packed them in his bed. In every roundup bed was a ‘war sack,’ usually a wheat sack or so-called seamless sack, in which he kept his clothes and any little personal belonging he had with him. The Anglo-Saxon maxim that ‘A man’s home is his castle’ was fiercely true in the cowboy’s case, but, as such, the only home he had was his bed. That was why Jimmie Harrell threatened to shoot me for raiding his bed and stealing his itch medicine. The law of privacy, the law of the range, called for complete sanctity of a man’s bedroll.”

Taken from the award-winning Cowboy Life: The Letters of George Philip, edited by Cathie Draine, illustrated by Mick B. Harrison, published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press.

If you found this interesting, the SDSHS Press has many more good books on South Dakota history, just visit our main website.

Out-of-date news

You have to love the internet, and particularly Google Alerts. I just received an alert about one of our authors, Cathie Draine, who edited the award-winning Cowboy Life: Letters of the George Philip. The link on the alert takes you to an interesting little news piece, but its from 2002! Still, click on the link to learn more about Cathie.