Posterity Press

Holy Week Sonnets
A Cycle of Sacred Poems
Philip Rosenbaum
Foreword by Joni Eareckson Tada

A rarity in American letters, Holy Week Sonnets offers a cycle of sacred verse. Further, this new collection of twenty-four sonnets by Philip Rosenbaum evokes the last worldly experiences of Jesus Christ and those who knew him, as described in the New Testament. The foreword, by the noted evangelist Joni Eareckson Tada, highlights the importance of this book for active Christians. As she writes, "Poetry may demand our intellect, but these poems command our undivided heart. Holy Week Sonnets speak to our innermost being, revealing the beauty and brilliance of our Savior in the most unexpected way."

Holy Week Sonnets describe such moments as Christ's entry into Jerusalem, Martha's devotion to Jesus, His Passion itself, and Thomas the doubter's conviction. The book, deftly designed by the distinguished graphic designer Kathleen Sims, displays each poem on a right-hand page, with relevant Bible citations printed in red on the facing page. Bible passages appear in an appendix. Hardbound in red and smaller than standard books, the lovely volume sits lightly in the hand and has a ribbon bookmark.

Working in the tradition of 17th century poets John Donne and Andrew Marvell, Rosenbaum admits his sonnets have been more than twenty years in the writing. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised by secular parents, he attended St. Albans School and sang in the choir at the Washington National Cathedral. After graduating from Harvard with honors in English, he became a dedicated Christian in his middle twenties. Rosenbaum was a counselor and director of a wilderness school for delinquent boys before he began writing—mostly prose—for publication. After an evangelical ministry in California, he returned to the east and now works as an art consultant. His previous books, both nonfiction works, are How to Enjoy the Boring Parts of the Bible and The Promise.

(ISBN 1-889274-21-6; Hardbound, 105 pages; $24)

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Meade's Reprise:
A Novel of Gettysburg, War and Intrigue
John Duke Merriam

The Union's doom seems near in June of 1863 as Robert E. Lee invades the North. Desperate, President Lincoln names an obscure major general to lead his broken army and defend Washington. Brilliant but colorless, George G. Meade picks the place for the Union's tattered forces to make their stand: Gettysburg. For two days the armies fight to a bloody deadlock. Then Lee orders his final attack, the Union line holds and Rebels fall or flee. Meade wins the Civil War's pivotal battle, but Lee withdraws to fight another day.... What if Meade counterattacks? He might crush the Confederate army and end the Civil War two years early....

Thus John Duke Merriam retells Gettysburg's uncertain preamble, the struggle that saw heroism on both sides, and a "what-if" aftermath. With fictional inventions like a spy ring of slaves, and exciting characters in blue, in gray, in mufti and in negligees, Merriam describes what might have been: Peace comes sooner; President Lincoln governs to rebuild the South; valiant and villainous characters shape and are reshaped by the nation reborn in liberty. Larger than a novel of the Civil War, Merriam's epic tells what might have been in and after the battle was fought "that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom." But then one April night in 1865, President Lincoln still takes his wife and friends to see a play at Ford's Theatre....

(ISBN 1-889274-18-6. Illustrated, 326 pages. $25.)

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Shetland Breeds;
'Little Animals...Very Full of Spirit'
Andro Linklater, Valerie Russell, Lawrence Alderson, et al

Both charming and informative, this small illustrated book describes what may be the world's richest variety of indigenous farm animals, namely the eponymous livestock and fowl of the Shetland Islands—Shetland Ponies, Shetland Cattle, Shetland Sheep, Shetland Goose, Shetland Duck, etc. (There used to be a Shetland Pig and a working Shetland Sheepdog, but no more.) As this multi-author anthology points out, the evolution/development of these near-subspecies is the remarkable product of natural selection and selective breeding. The book's contributors include British travel author and historian Andro Linklater; Scottish horse authority Valerie Russell; native Shetlander and journalist James R. Nicholson; and Lawrence Alderson, chairman emeritus of Britain's Rare Breeds Survival Trust. The book holds special interest for the "minor breeds community" throughout the English-speaking world, namely breeders, vets and devotees of rare animals.

(ISBN 1-889274-10-0; Illustrated, 178 pages. $24.)

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Church at the Crossroads
A History of St. Alban's Parish, Washington, DC, 1854-2004
By Ruth Harwood Cline, PhD.

When young Miss Phoebe Nourse died of tuberculosis, she left $35 in gold coins—money earned doing needlework and watercolors—to build Washington's first "free" Episcopal church, one that welcomed all comers, on Mount Alban overlooking the capital city. Contributions from family, friends and neighbors enabled St. Alban's first wooden edifice, set amid farmlands, to open for worsip in 1854. Church at the Crosswords recounts that founding and events within St. Alban's parish over the next 150 years.

(ISBN 1-889274-28-7)

Off Soundings:
Aspects of the Maritime History of Rhode Island
Alexander Boyd Hawes

On the shores of its great bay, Rhode Island raised a colony of sailors, then a state of seafarers. With Newport harbour deemed "the finest in all America," the colony was first a haven for pirates, then for their legal successors, the privateers, some of whom became the new American nation's first naval officers. Still others would prosper (or perish) as slavers, while some neighbors led the abolitionist cause and their cousins plied rich trade routes to the fabled Orient. . . . So it was that Rhode Island's history, perhaps more than that of any other colony and state, is a skein of maritime yarns—as this scholarly and prizewinning volume proves. Richly illustrated and exhaustively annotated, this posthumous work was awarded a John Lyman Award by the North American Society for Oceanic History, and two first prizes from Washington Book Publishers for its cover design and interior designs. Praised as a "best read" of the year by the Providence Journal, it was recommended by many Rhode Island reviewers and most recently by the New England Quarterly, journal of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

(ISBN 1-889274-05-4; 324 pages; Illustrated; $39.95)

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The Blacksmith's Tale or Once Upon a Flower
Dana Phillips

This modern/medieval fantasy for children (of all ages) features illustrations by Sheila Waters, the celebrated calligrapher and book "decorator" whose unique rendering of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood is treasured by bibliophiles. The volume was designed and embellished by Julian Waters, America's pre-eminent letter artist and designer. It was the only book honored for both its interior and cover design in Washington Book Publishers' annual competition.

(ISBN 1-889274-07-0; 102 pages; Illustrated; $24.95)

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