St. Ignatius of Loyola

Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. In celebration of this special feast day (Georgetown University is a Jesuit institution), we wanted to share this selection from Saints and Feasts of the Liturgical Year that highlights St. Ignatius.

St. Ignatius of Loyola was born in his family’s castle, near Azpeitia, in Spain’s Basque country, sometime before October 23, 1491. As a youth, he served (1506?-17) as a page to Juan Velazquez de Cuellar, King Ferdinand V’s chief treasurer, and there he learned his courtly manners. In 1517, he entered the service of the Duke of Najera, Viceroy of Navarre, and while defending the fortress at Pamplona was wounded (May 20, 1521) by a cannon shot. He convalesced at Loyola Castle, and by reading a life of Christ as well as those of the saints, he experienced a conversion and resolved to visit the Holy Land and serve the Lord.

On his way to the Holy Land, he stopped at the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat, and there he made a night’s vigil (March 24-25, 1522) before the Black Madonna. He then went on to nearby Manresa and spent about eleven months in prayer and penance. After a brief visit to Rome to request papal approval for his pilgrimage, he left Venice and arrived in Jerusalem on September 4, 1523. Less than a month later, he left to return to Venice. He then made his way to Barcelona to begin his studies “in order to help souls.” After studies in Barcelona (1524-26), Alcala (1526-27), and Salamanca (1527), Ignatius went to the University of Paris (1528-35), and there he gathered a group of six like-minded men. On August 15, 1534, in a Montmartre chapel, the small band of seven took a vow to go to Jerusalem within a year after their studies, if this were possible, and work for the conversion of the Turks. After their arrival in Venice (1537), they learned that they could not sail for the Holy Land because of imminent war; hence, they went (November 1567) to Rome and offered (November 18-23, 1538) their services to Pope Paul III.

After Ignatius and his first companions decided to form a new religious congregation, their plans received Paul III’s approval (September 27, 1540), and thus the Society of Jesus was born. Ignatius was then elected general and accepted the office on April 19, 1541; on April 22, in a ceremony at St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, the six pronounced their vows as Jesuits. As a general of the new order, Ignatius remained in Rome, wrote its Constitutions, and supervised the Society’s growth, not only in Italy, but in the other countries of Europe as well. He likewise sent missionaries to India. Because of the excessive acts of penance he had practiced while at Manresa, his health had been severely impaired. St. Ignatius died in Rome on July 31, 1556, and was canonized by Pope Gregory XV on March 12, 1622. His Spiritual Exercises had been first approved by Pope Paul III on July 31, 1548, and on July 25, 1922, Pope Pius XI named him heavenly patron of all Spiritual Exercises.

Interested in learning more? As Georgetown University is a Jesuit institution, St. Ignatius of Loyola’s order features importantly in the three-volume A History of Georgetown University. Another book by Georgetown University Press that reflects on the Society of Jesus is Reverse Mission, a work that looks at religious orders’ influence on US foreign policy.

The Passion of the Indies

By John Warren, Marketing & Sales Director, Georgetown University Press

Last week I had the pleasure of attending George Washington University’s 5^th Annual Conference on Ethics and Publishing, an event with the theme of “Preserving, Protecting and Enhancing the Publishing Ecosystem” and featuring some of the bright minds of academic and general publishing. My friend Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Company, who writes the essential publishing blog The Shatzkin Files, had alerted me to the conference, but I was pleased to see some other familiar names and faces in the day’s line up.

Niko Pfund, President of Oxford University Press, offered a glimpse into Oxford’s strategy and some great case studies in e-book marketing. Shatzkin ran through a sobering summary of the Department of Justice’s case against the big six publishers and Apple, and discussed the possible unintended and negative consequences of the settlement for publishers, and by extension, for the diversity and health of publishing. (Shatzkin is quoted prominently in Ken Auletta’s recent New Yorker article about the case.) An in-depth look at higher education and K–12 publishing was provided by Al Greco, a professor of marketing at Fordham University. I had a hard time, however, discerning the connection to ethics through most of these presentations.

The highlights came from two speakers on the indie side of the equation: Lissa Muscatine, who passionately described her and husband Bradley Graham’s decision to purchase, just over a year ago, the iconic Washington, DC, bookstore Politics and Prose; and Dennis Loy Johnson, president of Melville House, who quite eloquently articulated the passion, potency, and peril of independent publishing in the Kindle age.

The day following the conference, I was able to spend some time with Dennis. We’d met ten years ago, when we had neighboring booth space at Book Expo America, the nation’s annual publishing confab. That was shortly after he and his wife, sculptor Valerie Merians, had become publishers, a decision that emerged from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Then, I couldn’t help but admire his fervor, which the intervening decade has not dissipated. Among other things, he told me about the remarkable story of publishing Hans Fallada’s novel, Every Man Dies Alone.  Dennis described how the novel, originally written shortly after World War II and overlooked for forty years hence, became a phenomenon largely due to the enthusiastic support of independent booksellers, stores such as Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC.

The amazing backstory of Every Man Dies Alone, and how the book came to be published, reminded me of a nonfiction work which Georgetown University Press will be publishing in early 2013: Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State. Melville House’s book is a novel, based on a true incident, while Georgetown’s is nonfiction, but both describe amazing acts of resistance, of passion and heroism in the face of Nazi oppression, and both are works being brought to new audiences in the digital age. Karski, a member of the Polish Underground, was one of the first people who tried to warn the West about the Holocaust. (Karski was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, on May 29, 2012.) I just finished reading the manuscript, and look forward to helping to bring Karski’s story, relatively unknown in the United States, the attention it deserves.

Georgetown University Press to Publish the American Association of Teachers of Arabic’s Al-cArabiyya Journal

Georgetown University Press is delighted to assume the publication of Al-^cArabiyya, the annual, peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA). Volumes 44 and 45 (2011-2012), a joint issue edited by Dr. Reem Bassiouney of Georgetown University, will be the first issue, and it will be available in December 2012. Al-^cArabiyya is the only scholarly journal with a focus on Arabic language, linguistics, literature, and pedagogy.

“We are thrilled to work with the AATA to produce the leading journal for teaching Arabic language,” says Hope LeGro, Director of Georgetown Languages at GU Press. “GU Press is committed to serving the field of Arabic language learning, as we have been for nearly fifty years. This journal partnership is a natural evolution of our shared mission with AATA.” The press publishes the Al-Kitaab Arabic Language Program, as well as Arabic dictionaries and other Arabic textbooks.

This year, the AATA celebrates fifty years of serving the scholars of Arabic around the world. Dr. Elizabeth M. Bergman, Executive Director of AATA, praises the new relationship saying, “The AATA has demonstrated its commitment to scholarship on Arabic language, literature, and pedagogy through publication of Al-^cArabiyya and through other activities for nearly fifty years. Our partnership with Georgetown University Press is a fitting commemoration of these years of service. It is also a wonderful way to more forward, and serve the growing number of those who study and teach Arabic language and literature.”

Two GU Press Books Win Catholic Press Association Awards

Two GU Press books have won awards in this year’s Catholic Press Association Book Awards: Christianity in Evolution: An Exploration by Jack Mahoney won third place in the theology category, and The Social Mission of the U.S. Catholic Church by Charles Curran won third place in the social concerns category. Congratulations to all involved!

We have one of “The 50 Coolest Book Covers”

Shortlist.com recently did a feature of “The 50 Coolest Book Covers.” Our book Kidney for Sale by Owner designed by David Drummund was one of the books named. This cover just so happens to be one of our favorites at the press. We’re quite pleased by the (well-deserved, if we say so ourselves) notice!

Georgetown University Press to Publish Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State

Georgetown University Press is proud to announce that we will be the US publishers of a new edition of Jan Karski’s Story of a Secret State. Jan Karski was recently posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work as a former officer in the Polish Underground during World War II, who was among the first to provide eye-witness accounts of the Holocaust to the world. When announcing the award, President Obama remarked, “We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen—because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts; because so many others stood silent. But let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations. Among them was Jan Karski—a young Polish Catholic—who witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself.”

With the publication of his book Story of a Secret State in 1944, Jan Karski became known as one of the first people who tried to warn the West about the Holocaust. The book was a bestseller with over 400,000 copies sold. Today, Karski’s remarkable account of wartime resistance and the activities of the Polish underground government still stands as a major contribution to history and literature. We at Georgetown University Press feel honored to have the privilege to contribute to Karski’s legacy by making this important story available once again to an American audience.

Spying in America Coming in Fall 2012

GalleyCat just announced our contract to publish former director of the National Clandestine Service Michael Sulick’s new book Spying in America. The book details a history of more than thirty espionage cases inside the United States. These cases include Americans who spied against their country, spies from both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War, and foreign agents who ran operations on American soil. Some of the stories are familiar, such as those of Benedict Arnold and Julius Rosenberg, while others, though less well known, are equally fascinating. GalleyCat also mentions rumors of a possible TV show based on the book. Is there any truth to these conjectures? Let’s just say that GU Press has learned well from our authors of the covert services, and for the time being, our lips are sealed