Michigan State University Press

Michigan State University Press, founded in 1947, is the scholarly publishing arm of Michigan State University. During the past six decades it has become a vital part of the institution's land-grant mission and is a catalyst for positive intellectual, social, and technological change through the publication of research and intellectual inquiry that make contributions to scholarship in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Located on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, MSU Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

History

Michigan State University Press traces its origins to the late 1940s when the Michigan State Board of Agriculture established a publishing program at Michigan State College (MSC). MSC’s new president, John A. Hannah, made a recommendation on publications to a special committee. In response, the committee members recommended to Hannah that Michigan State College Press be created. The president acted on their advice and on July 1, 1947, the publishing house came into being. Offices for Michigan State College Press were established in the basement of Berkey Hall, on Circle Drive, and James H. Denison, Hannah's administrative assistant, was appointed as the press's half-time director. In 1949, the MSC took the added step of creating a separate, non-profit MSC Press Corporation; Hannah was given authority to appoint a Board of Directors to oversee Press business operations and to advise the Press staff on a variety of editorial matters. Under Denison's careful tutelage the organization prospered. During his eight-year tenure, the first non-textbook title to carry the MSC Press imprint was issued, a work by MSC Graduate School Dean, Ralph C. Huston.

By 1955, the MSU Press, like Michigan State University, had grown dramatically. In that year and at the same time that MSC made its transition to becoming MSU, the decision was made to hire a full-time press director. Dennison stepped down and President Hannah appointed G. Lyle Blair to fill the position. For the next quarter century, Blair would lead the Press, publishing several hundred scholarly titles in the process, many of which received wide critical acclaim. Among the important works issued during this time were Pulitzer Prize-winning author Russel B. Nye's Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830-1860 (1949 and 1963). Despite dramatic successes during its first quarter century, the Press suffered a change of fortune that has affected most university presses in recent years.

Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the mid-1980s, Press stability was undermined by a deteriorating financial situation in the University and exacerbated by a weakened national economy. By 1984, Press staffing levels had declined and resources dwindled to a point where but a single title was published. In retrospect, it became apparent that the corporation established to insulate the Press from financial difficulties could not avert financial distress. As the Press was a non-profit corporation, it was viewed by many as distinct and separate from the University. Its mission and contribution to the roster of University goals and objectives often was not presented and was, thus, not clearly understood by members of the faculty and administration. By the early 1980s, the Council of Deans concluded that MSU should either abandon its press, or else it should support and expand the scholarly publishing endeavor. They commissioned an investigation, which led them to recommend that Michigan State University Press should be revitalized. Such an action was considered essential in light of comparisons made to scholarly publishing operations at other Big-Ten schools and major land-grant research universities throughout the United States. Michigan State University had grown in the second half of the twentieth century to become one of the nation's premiere institutions of higher learning; thus, a scholarly press had to be an integral part of its structure. Based on recommendations made by the Council of Deans, the administration decided, once again, to commit itself to sustaining and developing a quality university press.

In 1987, Dr. Richard Chapin, Emeritus Director of Libraries, was appointed to serve as half-time Press Director on an interim basis; under his guidance, the Press staff began rebuilding MSU's scholarly publishing program. Among Chapin's notable successes was the acquisition of Max De Pree's book, Leadership is an Art; subsequently, the Press sold the title to Doubleday. After Chapin's retirement in 1990, the University appointed Dr. Fredric C. Bohm, former Editor in Chief at Washington State University Press, to serve as full-time MSU Press director. Building on what Chapin began, Bohm and his staff expanded Press operations. Their successes have been highlighted by a number of awards, including: Two American Book Awards: Lotus Poetry Series Editor, Naomi Long Madgett (1993) and Gordon Henry's The Light People (1995); a “1992 Outstanding Book Citation” from the Colonial Dames of America for Marilyn Culpepper's Trials and Triumphs; and The New York Times Book Review's selection of Peter Josyph' The Wounded River as one of its “Notable Books of 1993. In recent years, Michigan State Press has grown to the point where it publishes eleven scholarly journals and issues 40 new book titles annually; the Press has a backlist of more than 600 titles.

Notable publications

Books published by Michigan State University Press span a broad range of academic disciplines. Awards won by MSU Press include the American Book Award; Awards presented by MSU Press include the Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism, the largest and most significant book manuscript award in the field of public rhetoric. Book Series sponsored by the Press reflect international, regional, and topical interests that include Canada, Africa, Native American Studies, African American studies, natural resources, the environment, and North American history with an emphasis on the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes.

MSU Press was R. K. Naryan’s first North American publisher. Press Director Lyle Blair brought the work of one of India’s greatest 20th century novelists to North America in the 1950s, upon the recommendation of Blair's good friend, author Graham Greene. The Press published Narayan’s first five novels. MSU Press also published five works by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Russel B. Nye.

In July 2001, Michigan State University Press inaugurated a landmark book distribution arrangement with The African Books Collective, Oxford (100+ African scholarly and literary publishers) effectively making the Press the largest distributor of African-published books in North America. Furthermore, the Press’s 1993 title Eugenics and the Welfare State led to the Swedish Government’s issuance of a formal apology and reparations payments to more than 50,000 women who had been forcibly sterilized as part of that nation’s national eugenics policy.

Several MSU Press books have received recognition in the national media: Sue Carter's Arctic trek Ordinary Women received national TV coverage from both Good Morning America and NASA; Carl Taylor's Dangerous Society was featured in Time, the Christian Science Monitor, and on Good Morning America.

Notes

External links

• Michigan State University Press