Campus & Beyond Good Reads: Cornell University Press Is Thriving in the Digital Age Stories You May Like Big Red Books, Perfect for Gifting Cookbooks by Cornellians: Ideas for Tasteful (and Tasty!) Holiday Gifts He Couldn’t Find a Kids’ Book about Ithaca—So He Wrote One You already knew it publishes top scholarly work—but did you know it has released titles on subjects from birding to the Beatles? By Beth Saulnier & Alexandra Bond ’12 As though A.D. White—who co-founded Cornell and served as its inaugural president—didn’t have enough good ideas, in 1869 he came up with yet another. After touring some of Europe’s great universities, he returned to the Hill with a plan for something he’d seen there, but that no American institution had: an official university press. In the intervening century and a half, Cornell University Press (CUP) has come a long way from its humble origins in the basement of Morrill Hall, where students operated a steam-powered printing press. Back then, CUP published few books; its main role was to print student and faculty materials like syllabi and campus newspapers. Today—operating under the motto, “changing the world, one book at a time”—it puts out more than 150 titles a year, releasing them in hardcover, paperback, and ebook format. “The mission of a university press is to foster a culture of broad and sustained inquiry through the publication of scholarship that is engaged, influential, and of lasting significance,” says director Jane Bunker, who has led the press since 2020. “And that is precisely what we do every day.” CUP’s scholarly titles cover a wide variety of topics, from political science to anthropology, medieval studies to labor relations. A sampling of April 2025 releases: Russia’s World Order: How Civilizationism Explains the Conflict with the West; Ghosts and Things: The Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism; and Fighting Toxic Ignorance: Origins of the Right to Know about Workplace Health Hazards. CUP’s 34 staffers include acquisition editors who keep up with the latest scholarship in their fields of specialty; of the book proposals CUP receives each year, only around 5–7% are accepted. Bunker, CUP's first female director, previously spent a decade leading Northwestern University Press. Says Mahinder Kingra, CUP’s editor-in-chief: “Even within the university press world, Cornell is known for the amount of time and effort we put into helping authors shape their manuscripts.” A rotating board of about 20 University faculty has the final say on what gets published, and each scholarly manuscript is vetted by independent experts, who weigh in anonymously to guarantee candor. “It’s about ensuring quality, seeking the truth, and making sure that knowledge can be trusted,” Bunker says of CUP’s exacting editorial process. “And in this day and age, that feels more important than ever.” The mission of a university press is to foster a culture of broad and sustained inquiry through the publication of scholarship that is engaged, influential, and of lasting significance. Jane Bunker, CUP director In recent years, CUP has stepped up its releases of “trade” books—ones that, while thoroughly researched and intellectually solid, can be consumed by general audiences rather than primarily appealing to academic specialists. (Scroll down for a sampling!) CUP—which is now overseen by the University Library—began publishing ebooks in 2010; now nearly all its titles are available for e-readers like the Kindle and Nook. But perhaps surprisingly, print remains its primary product, representing roughly three-quarters of sales. “I think—100%—that rumors of the death of the book are exaggerated,” observes Bunker, who served as president of the Association of University Presses in 2023–24. “That said, individuals make choices every day about how to spend their time—and we are fighting a mighty battle with social media and the algorithms designed to hijack our attention.” cornell universitySage House in Lower Collegetown has been CUP's home since 1993. Among CUP’s all-time biggest hits: Handbook of Nature Study by conservationist (and Cornell building namesake) Anna Botsford Comstock 1885, which has sold more than a million copies in the 114 years since its release. In addition to being the first university press established in the U.S., CUP can claim some other distinctions. In 1955, it was the first university press to release works in paperback; in 1999, it became the first publishing house in the world to print on paper certified as sustainably harvested. Even within the university press world, Cornell is known for the amount of time and effort we put into helping authors shape their manuscripts. Mahinder Kingra, CUP editor-in-chief And since its founding in an East Hill basement, CUP’s accommodations have dramatically improved: in 1993, it moved to a three-story Victorian mansion perched on a terraced hillside overlooking downtown Ithaca. Commissioned in the late 1800s by University benefactor Henry Sage—namesake of the hall and chapel—it boasts stained-glass windows, intricate wood carvings, and elaborate fireplaces. (The mansion also bears traces of its previous life as the University infirmary, such as marks on the conference room ceiling denoting the tracks of vintage X-ray machines.) In 1955, CUP was the first university press to release works in paperback; in 1999, it became the first publishing house in the world to print on paper certified as sustainably harvested. The building’s location—between Seneca and State streets, on the border between campus and downtown—offers some nifty symbolism for one of its newest initiatives: its Three Hills imprint, whose name is an homage to Ithaca’s topography. Since its debut in 2017, it has published fiction and nonfiction about the history, culture, and environment not only of the Finger Lakes region, but of NYC and New York State more broadly. “This is a growth area for many university presses: more and more, we’re finding that we can be a conduit between campus and communities,” Bunker says. “There’s a concept called ‘bibliodiversity’: making sure there are books out there for many different kinds of readers. That’s really in our comfort zone, and we’re very, very good at it.” Book Tour A sampling of CUP’s offerings for general audiences (Click on the title to go to the book’s listing in the online catalog.) Stories You May Like Big Red Books, Perfect for Gifting Cookbooks by Cornellians: Ideas for Tasteful (and Tasty!) Holiday Gifts Handbook of Nature Study Anna Botsford Comstock 1885—a leading scientific illustrator and an early advocate of nature education—was the first woman to be named an assistant professor at Cornell. She and her husband, famed entomology professor John Henry Comstock 1874, founded a publishing company (now an imprint of CUP) devoted to the natural sciences. It released her landmark guide—running nearly 900 pages—in 1911. While the cover has changed over the decades, it’s still in print. As she writes: “Out-of-door life takes the child afield and keeps him in the open air, which not only helps him physically and occupies his mind with sane subjects, but keeps him out of mischief.” Professor at Large Comic actor John Cleese is world-famous for his work with Monty Python and in movies like A Fish Called Wanda. But Cornellians know him in another role: that of an A.D. White Professor-at-Large from 1998–2006. (And he liked the gig so much, he’s since stayed on as a Provost’s Visiting Professor.) His 2018 book, subtitled The Cornell Years, aggregates content from some of his campus visits, including an interview with Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, a lecture on creativity (“Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind”), a talk about the legendary film Monty Python's Life of Brian, and the transcript of a public chat led by former CUP director Dean Smith. Holding the Line Published by CUP’s ILR Press imprint, the 1996 release was the first nonfiction book for celebrated novelist Barbara Kingsolver. (She’d go on to write bestsellers in both genres, including The Poisonwood Bible and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.) It describes the role of women in the 1983 strike against the Phelps Dodge Copper mine in Arizona. “Holding the Line is both clear and emotional, the story of women who try to get a fair shake in their workplace and realize they can stop at nothing short of control over their entire lives,” film director John Sayles says in a blurb. “This is a report from the trenches of where the political meets the personal.” Cornell ’77 The Grateful Dead’s May 1977 show in Barton Hall is widely considered to be one of the band’s finest—if not its all-time best. Peter Conners, a veteran music journalist, conducted myriad interviews for this comprehensive look at the concert, which was released to coincide with its 40th anniversary. “One guy got in with a guitar pick,” Conners writes, noting the shambolic system of entry, which was hardly limited to ticket holders. “Another dude—a gnarled older hippie who had traveled all the way from Tennessee to see the show—got in with a peanut butter sandwich wrapped in tin foil.” Behind the Kitchen Door “For all its talk of organic foods and sustainability, the restaurant industry pays little mind to the health and welfare of its own low-wage employees,” says a Publishers Weekly review. “In this persuasive volume, [Saru] Jayaraman draws attention to servers, bussers, runners, cooks, and dishwashers across the country ‘struggling to support themselves and their families under the shockingly exploitative conditions that exist behind most restaurant kitchen doors.’” The 2014 book, which includes numerous interviews with restaurant workers, has a foreword by Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. Our Lady of the World’s Fair In 1964, one of the most famous works of art on the planet—Michelangelo’s Pietà—was shipped from Europe to be displayed in the Vatican’s pavilion at the World’s Fair in Queens, NY. Art historian Ruth Nelson details how two men in vastly different roles (one a famously ruthless urban planner, the other a Catholic cardinal) teamed up to make it happen. Says a review in the National Catholic Register: “Nelson goes into incredibly well-researched and painstaking detail about all of the logistical, financial, and practical hurdles that had to be overcome to bring the Pietà to American shores.” From Willard Straight to Wall Street In this memoir by one of the organizers of the Straight Takeover in April 1969—released to coincide with its 50th anniversary—Thomas Jones ’69, MRP ’72, not only describes the seminal event, but traces his journey from childhood to civil rights activism to a career in finance. In addition to describing life as one of the relatively few minority students on the Hill in the 1960s, the former Cornell trustee recalls the challenges of climbing the corporate ladder as a Black man in the ’70s and ’80s, when he was an executive at TIAA-CREF, Citigroup, and elsewhere. The Birds of Costa Rica Now in its second edition, the 2014 volume by Richard Garrigues is one of numerous nature guides in CUP’s Zona Tropical series from its Comstock imprint. (Others have focused on amphibians, insects, plants, national parks, and more.) The 440-page guide includes descriptions and illustrations of the nation’s 903 species—including 56 “rarities” not seen within the past two decades. Says Biology Digest: “This is the one field guide the novice or experienced birder needs for identifying birds in the field in the diverse habitats found in Costa Rica.” Solid State The 2019 music history chronicles (in the words of the subtitle) “the story of Abbey Road and the end of the Beatles.” In what Publishers Weekly calls a “fascinating, in-depth look,” Kenneth Womack digs into how the album was written, recorded, mixed, and received by the public. He also contemplates how its sound differed from the group’s earlier work, thanks to technical upgrades—an eight-track mixing desk—at EMI Studios. As Womack writes: “The sound of the Beatles that had thrilled the world—the ‘maximum volume’ that their producer George Martin had coaxed out of EMI’s aging studio gear—had been conspicuously altered by the subatomic particles inherent in solid-state electronics.” Forever Faithful This 280-page coffee table book from 2017 is subtitled Celebrating the Greatest Moments of Cornell Hockey. It does just that, focusing on 24 memorable games that the Big Red men’s and women’s teams have played, from the opening of Lynah Rink in 1957 to the book’s publication six decades later. It includes an early history of playing on Beebe Lake; coverage of traditions and rivalries; and reminiscences of games by players and coaches. Written by Jim Roberts ’71—former editor-publisher of Cornell Alumni Magazine and a longtime hockey fan—with veteran Lynah announcer Arthur Mintz ’71, it boasts a foreword by legendary Big Red and NHL goalie Ken Dryden ’69. My Freshman Year Written under a pseudonym, the 2005 book shares the experiences of an anthropology professor who—seeking to better understand the young people she was teaching—spent a year “undercover” as a fully enrolled student at a state university, “Ms. Nathan learned that being a student in the 21st century is tougher than she had imagined,” says the Chronicle of Higher Education. “After two semesters of scrambling from class to class, juggling assignments, and cramming for examinations, she had more compassion for time-crunched students, many of whom worked part-time jobs to help pay for their education.” Marvel Comics in the 1970s In this in-depth analysis by NYU prof Eliot Borenstein, full-color panels accompany the parsing of a notable decade for the comics publisher. Kirkus calls it a “detailed, wonky examination of a significant period in the history of Marvel Comics.” It was, Borenstein observes, a time when introspection and the rich inner lives of characters like Black Panther, Shang-Chi, and Deathlok began to take their places alongside the action. “Marvel in the 1970s saw a transformation that initially looked seamless on the surface,” he writes, “but proved almost as dramatic as Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk.” The Best Land History alum Susan Brewer, PhD ’91, is a professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point—and a native of Oneida, NY, the subject of her nonfiction book. She contemplates the history of the farmland on which she grew up—a parcel that had been in her family for generations, but which American settlers had stolen from Indigenous people. During her youth in the 1970s, the Native residents’ demand for sovereignty over their rightful land sparked tensions in the community—even leading to the loss of life. As she writes: “How could the people of Oneida live side by side and be so divided from each other?” Kings of the Garden In 1973, the New York Knicks won the NBA championship—the team’s high point for more than a decade, until it got a boost by drafting Georgetown star Patrick Ewing in 1985. And for NYC as a whole, the ’70s were a tough time, marked by financial woes, rising crime, and other ills. Adam Criblez, a history professor at Southeast Missouri State University, explores how the fates of the team and the city were intertwined. But as the Knicks struggled to fill seats in Madison Square Garden, there were positives: some of its star players enjoyed greater visibility, as Black culture blossomed along with the rise of hip-hop. Top: Stacks of CUP books in its offices in Sage House. (Noël Heaney / Cornell University; all other images provided, unless otherwise indicated.) 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