Horizon, Barry Lopez ’66, ’68M.A. (Alfred A. Knopf). Far-ranging and far-reaching, Lopez’s “autobiographical reflection on many years of travel and research” covers the miles and decades of the National Book Award-winning author’s life, as well as the scope of human exploration on Earth. From the Galápagos Islands to the poles, from “Cape Foulweather” on the Oregon coast to the Kenyan desert, Lopez illuminates humanity’s impulse to search both outward and within — and how those quests intertwine.
A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American, Kathleen Sprows Cummings ’95M.A., ’99Ph.D. (The University of North Carolina Press). American Catholics wanted a saint for reasons both holy and wholly apart from their faith. For more than a century, the campaign to include an American in the communion of saints — culminating with the 1975 canonization of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, S.C. — combined the highest religious aspirations and the desire among Catholics to assert their place in a society that marginalized them. Cummings, associate professor of American studies and history and director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, tracks the multifaceted route to sainthood in the United States.
Radio Flyer: 100 Years of America’s Little Red Wagon, Robert Pasin ’91 and Carlye Adler (Harper Design). In the century-plus since manufacturing its first little red wagon, Radio Flyer has become an icon of American childhood. Pasin, the grandson of founder Antonio Pasin, serves as CWO (Chief Wagon Officer) of the family-owned company that has grown into the world’s largest producer of wagons, tricycles and preschool scooters. This illustrated history tracks the evolution of a venerable company that’s still rolling along.
Jason Kelly is an associate editor of this magazine.