30032: Corbett (recommendation) Some lovely books on Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From Bob Corbett

Folks, back in November, just before I began my Grand Jury service, I received
some books from Educa Vision, a major publisher of books on Haiti and in
Haitian Creole.

I had plans then of calling attention to four of them which seemed to me like
very marvelous candidates as Christmas presents for people who are interested
in Haiti.  But, jury duty took over and I got no work of significance done 
for three months.

Now, as I am beginning to work again, I came across this small pile of four
books and I'm still as impressed with them as I was in November, so I 
thought I'd call them to your attention.  One of them, REVOLUTIONARY 
FREEDOMS I will even put on my shelf of potential books to review, but 
that will be some months down the road as I have several which will 
command prior attention.

However, let me begin with this colorful coffee-table-like book.   It's a
large hardbound book about 11 x 9 inches with a battle scene painting.  The
paintings are seeming all by Ulrick Jean-Pierre.

The first 191 pages are a series of essays by many different people are
numerous topics on the Haitian Revolution.  I see names of authors of these
essays who have been contributors to this mailing list and others I don?t
recognize.  There are 30 such essays in categories of:

Beginnings of the "New World"
What is Freedom?
Forgotten Women of Haitian Liberty
Legacies of Vodou
Behind the Mountains Are More Mountains

I haven't read the essays yet, but they look to be quite interesting from 
my quick scan.

Then, in the back are magnificent reproductions of paintings that relate
section by section to the essays above.  These run from page 221 ? 241, at
least 20 of them, seemingly one to a page.  Lovely art representing this
period.

A very lovely book.

The second volume I chose is:  FINE HAITIAN CUISINE:  A BROAD COLLECTION OF
HAITIAN RECIPIES by Mona Cassion Menager.

What a day to be going though this book.  It is bitter cold here in St. Louis,
lots of snow on the ground and last night I finished up all cooked food I had
in my refrigerator.  I simply have to cook today.

The book is another large book, colorful and 446 pages long.  There are
sections on general topics related to Haitian cooking such as:

How to handle lobster
Dealing with plantain, breadfruit and roots
Cured pork
Tritri and pisket
Creole sauce
Sauce Ti Malice
Meat fritters
Cream of malanga
Choux pastry and choux

And on and on and on.  Recipe after recipe after recipe.

Just picking a page at random I come to Herring and Dumplings Soup.

The full page is nicely laid out.  Ingredients and amounts are at the top.
Then full cooking instructions and the serving amounts the recipe will yield.

Despite the fact I just had breakfast my mouth waters as I look through the
book.  However, this is a RADICAL problem for me here in St. Louis that 
won't effect the bulk of you who are on the east coast of the U.S. or in 
Haiti or Canada.  Most of you live in areas where there are significant 
Haitians populations and thus Haitian markets.  Very little possibility of 
that here in St. Louis.  My problem is getting the more exotic 
ingredients.  Oh well, I can be jealous and wish.

The third book I picked out is:  RIRE HAITIEN / HAITIAN LAUGHTER:  A MOSAIC OF
NINETY MINIATURES IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH.  This is by Georges Anglade

Another large hardbound book of nearly 400 pages.  There are many
many "lodyans," each presented in French and English with each page 
divided down the middle longways and the French is one the left and 
English on the right.   There must be between 80-100 of them.  It looks 
like lots of fun, the sort of book you would pick up for a 10-15 minute 
period and read the next lodyans and come back later for more.

The final book I picked, perhaps for the filling out of a variety pack is a
dictionary.  ENGLISH -- HAITIAN CREOLE
HAITIAN CREOLE -- ENGLISH
WORD FOR WORD DICTIONARY by the published himself, Fequiere Vilsaint with Jean
Evens Berret.   This is an oversized paperbound book, heavy with slick pages
and 381 pages with 50 or more words per page.  I don't know the full 
count, but lets see if there are about 190 pages for each language that 
must be between 9,000 -- 10,000 words.

This is the second edition of this well-presented book.


Over the years I've been impressed with the work of Educa Vision's 
publishing and you can see these four books plus others at 
www.educavision.com

I don't intend these remarks as "advertising" for Educa Vision.  That's 
not my purpose in the slightest, nor am I in anyway connected to the 
publishing house..

As you all know I simply LOVE books.  My own library of books that relate to
Haiti (the overwhelming bulk in English) now has around 2000 books and at
least 2500 to 3000 journal articles.  I do have some books in French, Creole,
German, even a few in Spanish, but I've less "collected" those than just
picked them up when it was convenient.    I used to have my library program on
line, but for some reason it just doesn?t seem to want to work on Webster 
U's system and that saddens me since the library program I use, End Notes, 
would serve as an excellent bibliographic resource.

However, as I have time, I'm happy to look up a word or topic in my 
library program and send that bibliography to you by e-mail.  Just drop me 
a note.  I can promise quick service, but I try.

When I read new on Haiti with some care I normally make some comments on them
and place them on my web page and send notice to this list.  But I had
intended to try to encourage you readers of this list to think of presenting
some of these lovely books to yourself or friends/family for Christmas.  When
that plan fell though, I decided to go ahead and bring the books to your
attention.  Just part of my love of books and wanting to share it.

Enjoy.

Bob Corbett