University of North Carolina Press

In the chronology

1. by August 16, 1923 The University of North Carolina Press publishes William C. Coker's book on water molds By mid-August 1923 the University of North Carolina Press had published William C. Coker's The Saprolegniaceae, a scientific study of water molds and the fish they kill. The News called it the first book the Press published and the first of nine volumes in its first catalog, with Coker's study of the Clavarias of the United States and Canada due in September. People: William Chambers Coker The News (Chapel Hill), August 16, 1923, p. 1
2. 1926 Chase keeps the University Press from publishing Collier Cobb's book on evolution Geologist Collier Cobb had a manuscript on evolution in hand at the University of North Carolina Press. Chase wrote him that the book was good but that putting it out under the university's imprint would read to enemies as a challenge while the antievolution fight was still on. It was never published by the press. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Collier Cobb Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 346-352
3. by August 27, 1926 The University of North Carolina Press publishes Odum and Johnson's Negro Workaday Songs By late August 1926 the University of North Carolina Press had published Negro Workaday Songs by Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, a companion to their The Negro and His Songs of a year earlier. Reviews in the Nation and the Saturday Review of Literature praised it, the latter singling out its chapter on John Henry; the songs had been taken down directly from Black singers. People: Guy Benton Johnson The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 27, 1926, p. 4
4. May 1927 Press governors object to Paul Green's introduction to Congaree Sketches Called before Chase and the press's board, assistant editor William T. Couch heard Royster and the others condemn Green's introduction, which said neither race could leave the ditch until whites gave Blacks a hand. Couch pointed out that some 150 advance copies were already out, and the book went out as printed. Six months later, at Chase's order, unsold copies went to a commercial publisher, which reprinted it without Green's introduction. People: William T. Couch, Paul Green, Harry Woodburn Chase, James Finch Royster Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 366-367
5. by October 26, 1928 UNC Press publishes James A. Graham's war letters and the Orange Guards' descriptive book The University of North Carolina Press published, in the James Sprunt Historical Studies, the Civil War letters of James Augustus Graham and the Descriptive Book of the Orange Guards, Company G of the 27th North Carolina, edited by H. M. Wagstaff. The book records each man of the Hillsborough company, almost all born in Orange County, and Wagstaff called it the most complete surviving record of any of the state's units. The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 26, 1928, p. 3
6. Early 1929 The University Press publishes Harriet L. Herring's study of mill villages Herring, a research associate of the Institute for Research in Social Science, had visited 322 of the state's roughly 500 mills after the manufacturers refused formal cooperation. It was the first systematic look at mill communities. Chase mailed copies to leading textile men, including Charles A. Cannon, as a model of social research. People: Harry Woodburn Chase Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 396-397
7. by March 13, 1931 UNC Press publishes M. C. S. Noble's history of the state's public schools The University of North Carolina Press published M. C. S. Noble's History of the Public Schools of North Carolina, which the Weekly said he had finished at 75 after long research. Noble, who came to the University from the Wilmington schools in 1898, was also president of the Bank of Chapel Hill. The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 13, 1931, p. 1
8. By May 1932 William T. Couch becomes director of the University of North Carolina Press By late May 1932 William T. Couch had been elected director of the University of North Carolina Press, succeeding Louis R. Wilson. He served until he resigned in 1945 to direct the University of Chicago Press. Internet Archive: "Historical News", North Carolina Historical Review 24 (1947), p. 276 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 27, 1932, p. 1
9. by September 24, 1937 UNC Press publishes Guion Griffis Johnson's Ante-Bellum North Carolina The University Press published Johnson's 900-page social history of North Carolina from 1800 to 1860, the work of thirteen years in legal records, letters, plantation books, diaries and newspapers, covering class, family, religion, slavery, the free Black population, health and the press. The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 24, 1937, p. 3
10. by May 12, 1939 The University of North Carolina Press publishes Bernice Kelly Harris's novel Purslane The University Press released Purslane, a novel of eastern North Carolina farm people by Bernice Kelly Harris of Seaboard, who had studied playwriting under Frederick Koch in the summer sessions. The Weekly called it the Press's first novel. The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 12, 1939, p. 3
11. by July 21, 1939 The University Press publishes Stella Gentry Sharpe's Tobe Tobe, a children's book told largely in photographs about a Black tenant farmer's young son, by Stella Gentry Sharpe, a former teacher in the Orange County schools, was published by the University of North Carolina Press. Reviewing it for the Weekly, Elizabeth Johnston Patterson urged that it be put in schools and public libraries. The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 21, 1939, p. 3
12. by January 1940 The University Press issues Old Homes and Gardens of North Carolina The University of North Carolina Press issued Old Homes and Gardens of North Carolina, with text by Archibald Henderson and photographs by Bayard Wootten, for the Garden Club of North Carolina in an edition of 1,000 copies at $10, nearly all sold by early January. Governor Clyde R. Hoey wrote the foreword and signed every copy. People: Archibald Henderson, Bayard Wootten, Clyde Roark Hoey The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 5, 1940, p. 6

Open these in the chronology →