ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries

New Publications George M. Eberhart Bucks County: An Illustrated History, by story about how the Mayan glyphs were de Terry A. McNealy (326 pages, June 2001), is a coded. (For that, consult Michael D. Coe’s wonderfully illustrated history of some of Breaking the Maya Code, published by Pennsylvania’s earliest settlements and the Thames and Hudson in 1992.) Rather it is a home of its founder William Penn. Thanks to collection of several centuries worth of hard- its strategic location between Philadelphia and to-find writings on the many attempts at de New York, Bucks County has been an impor cipherment, from the book-burning Diego tant stage in American his de Landa’s misguided dis tory: its original occupation cernm ent of an alphabet in by the Lenape Indians and the 1560s to the “new epig the infamous land grab of raphy” of the 1980s and later, 1737 known as the Walking which combines a systematic Purchase, which set the tone search for phonetic values in for later lopsided Indian real each glyph with an exami estate swindles; the Conti nation of its contextual and nental Army’s deployment in iconographic content. Some the county in the strategic de of the sources are translated fense of Philadelphia during into English for the first time the Revolutionary War; the from the original Spanish or Fries Rebellion of 1798 German, and all are by schol against the seemingly auto ars who have made signifi cratic policies of President cant contributions in the John Adams; the transport field, among them Daniel revolutions of the Delaware Brinton, Cyrus Thomas, Canal and the Philadelphia & Sylvanus Morley, Paul Trenton Railroad; the conflicted sentiments Schellhas, Eric Thompson, Yuri Knorosov, of Bucks County residents toward slavery prior Jean Genet, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, and David to the Civil War; the influence of the Quakers Stuart. An important sourcebook for any seri on the culture of the county; and the Penn ous Mesoamerican collection. $65.00. Univer sylvania Impressionist artists and literary fig sity of Oklahoma. ISBN 0-8061-3204-3. ures of the early 20th century who made Bucks County their home. All this is docu The Encyclopedia o f the Musical Theatre, m ented by historian McNealy, w ho served as by Kurt Gänzl (3 vols., 2d ed., June 2001), librarian for the Bucks County Historical updates the 1994 two-volume edition with Society’s Spruance Library from 1971 to 1993. 500 new and 4,000 revised articles, and many $49-95. Bucks County Historical Society, 84 new photos of performers and productions. South Pine Street, Doylestown, PA 18901-4999. Much o f the new emphasis is on British pro ISBN 0-910302-01-4. vincial theatre and the American stage out side New York, thanks to Gänzl’s painstak The Decipherment of Ancient Maya Writ ing examination of microfilm runs of The Era, ing, edited by Stephen Houston, Oswaldo The Clipper, and New York Dramatic Mirror. Chinchilla Mazariegos, and David Stuart (551 He has also filled in numerous gaps in birth pages, June 2001), is not a grammar or dic and death information in the biographies, tionary of the language, nor is it a detective making this a worthwhile upgrade. The en tries on specific shows are lively and qualita tive, almost review-like, but never skimpy on George M. Eberhart is senior editor o f American facts. $295.00. Schirmer/Gale. ISBN 0-02- Libraries; e-mail: [email protected] 864970-2. 842 / C&RL News ■ September 2001 Place Names: How They Define the O’Sullivan. This provides cast lists and de World— and More, by Richard R. Randall tailed background information on all the (201 pages, February 2001), explains how Tarzan screen adaptations, illustrated with geographic place names are standardized, m any stills. $25.00. ISBN 0-7864-1109-0. used, categorized, and changed. Written by If you missed this publisher’s other a geographer who was executive secretary Burroughs reference books, they are both of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names still in print and worthy chronicles of (BGN) for 20 years, this book serves as a Barsoom, Pellucidar, Caprona, and other se useful introduction to naming conventions, ries: The Burroughs Cyclopaedia, by Clark sources, and disputes. Included are prob A. Brady (1996, $55.00); and Edgar Rice lems with transliteration methods, evolving Burroughs: The Exhaustive Scholar’s and political correctness in the United States, and Collector’s Descriptive Bibliography, by Rob post-Cold War changes. (When Ukraine be ert B. Zeuschner (1996, $46.50). came independent from Russia in 1991, it began to change m ore than 90 percent o f its Victorian Sensation, by Jam es A. Secord place names.) Perhaps most important are (624 pages, February 2001), constitutes an Randall’s insights into how the BGN and the in-depth exam ination o f the vast effects that United Nations Group of Ex one book—a relatively ob perts on Geographic Names scure one to modern read have worked to promote stan ers— had on the beliefs, sen dardization. $35.00. Scare sibilities, writings, philoso crow. ISBN 0-8108-3906-7. phy, and temperament of Victorian society. Published The Tarzan Novels o f Edgar anonymously in 1844, Ves Rice Burroughs, by David A. tiges o f the Natural History of Ullery (298 pages, March Creation was an odd blend 2001), is a reader’s guide to of historical fiction, popular Tarzan the Apeman, other science, phrenology, free wise known as Lord thought, and pre-Darwinian Greystoke, and other inhab evolutionary speculation that itants of the fictional jungles offered its readers a journey dream ed up by Burroughs in from the beginnings of the novels and stories written be universe through the pro tween 1914 and his death in gression of species to the ul 1950. Still bizarrely resonant timate development of hu with som e readers after all man spirituality and reason. these years, this book serves as a guide to a Its author, Scottish writer and naturalist Rob world as complex as anything that Tolkien ert Chambers, m anaged to preserve his ano o r the Star Trek scriptwriters have dreamed nymity for 40 years, a feat that magnified the up. The first part gives a biographical over book’s intrigue enough to sustain it through view of Tarzan, listing the names various 14 editions and 40,000 copies sold. How people called him as well as the many girl ever, Victorian Sensation is much m ore than friends he had (not just Jane for this jungle the biography of a book; Secord only uses boy). Other chapters offer an Ape-English/ Vestiges as a w ell-docum ented case study to English-Ape glossary; descriptions of lost cit demonstrate how popular and scientific read ies, civilizations, and ethnic groups Tarzan ing itself evolved during the mid-19th cen ran into; descriptions o f every major and mi tury. In his own words, it is a “full-length nor character; and summaries of all the books. picture of how a substantial range of con $45.00. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0825-1. temporary readers made meaning from a You may also wish to consider single work.” This volume is erudite, well- McFarland’s softbound July 2001 reprint of footnoted, insightful, omniscient, and always David Fury’s Kings o f the Jungle: Tarzan on interesting (especially to librarians and bib Screen and Television, originally published liophiles). $35 00. University of Chicago. ISBN in 1994 with a foreword by Maureen 0-226-74410-8. ■ C&RL News ■ September 2001 / 843.

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