GHF $20,000 “Ike” Gift of Publisher's Profits from First Print Run of "Galveston: A City on Stilts"

“Galveston: A City on Stilts”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2009
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834
molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org

Arcadia Publishing Announces First Book in Partnership with Galveston Historical Foundation is Bestselling 2008-2009 Title

Leading Local History Publisher in U.S. Presents GHF $20,000 “Ike” Gift of Publisher’s Profits from First Print Run of “Galveston: A City on Stilts”

At its 2009 Sally B. Wallace Preservation Award Reception, Galveston Historical Foundation welcomed CEO Richard Joseph and Southwest Publisher Kristie Kelly of Arcadia Publishing, publishers of “Galveston: A City on Stilts.” Joseph presented GHF Executive Director Dwayne Jones and GHF President Tom Schwenk with a check for $20,000, the publisher’s profits from the book’s first print run, which Arcadia pledged to GHF after Hurricane Ike struck Galveston, just weeks before the book was scheduled for release.

Galveston Historical Foundation entered into an agreement with Arcadia in 2007 to publish a series of books focusing on different aspects of Galveston history. “Galveston: A City on Stilts” is the first in that series.

At the presentation, Joseph announced that the book, written by GHF Galveston County Museum curators Jodi Wright-Gidley and Jennifer Marines, has been a blockbuster for Arcadia Press, selling more copies than any other Arcadia title in the publisher’s last fiscal year, despite being released more than seven months into the year.

“Galveston: A City on Stilts” details the story of the island’s reconstruction after the Great Storm of September 8, 1900, and contains 200 vintage photographs from the Zeva B. Edworthy collection that document the decade of rebuilding that followed that storm, an event that killed at least 6,000 people and remains the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Arcadia Publishing, established in 1993, headquartered in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and with staff based in Austin and Houston, is the leading local history publisher in the United States, with a catalog of more than 5,000 titles in print and hundreds of new titles released every year.

Arcadia is best known for its popular Images of America series, which chronicles the history of communities from Bangor, Maine, to Manhattan Beach, California. With more than 200 vintage black-and-white photographs, each title celebrates a town or region, bringing to life the people, places, and events that define the community. Arcadia also publishes other series: Images of Rail, Images of Sports, Images of Baseball, Black America, Postcard History, Campus History, Corporate History, Scenes of America, and Then & Now.

Autographed copies of "Galveston: A City on Stilts," are available for sale through Galveston Historical Foundation for $26.99. To order your copy, signed by authors Jodi Wright-Gidley and Jennifer Marines, click on the "Shop" menu button on the GHF website, www.galvestonhistory.org. To order a personalized copy, call GHF at 409-765-7834.