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FEDER.AL WORKS AGENCY WORK PROJECTS .Al)MINISTRATIOM 4-2263 ~~or release to afternoon papers Saturday, August 30, 1941. WPA WRITERS ?llAP I~TERESTI NG PROG3AM FOR COMI NG MOlJTHS The W.PA Writers' Program huving substantially completed its major task of producing the 48 volumes of t he .Amorice.n Guide Series, will turn during the present fiscal year to the tr eatment of individual aspects of American life and culture, Mrs. Florence Kerr, As s istant Commissioner in charge of community service activities, announced today. In outlining the program to be followed during fiscal 1942, Mr s. K0rr mentioned particularl~r the Life in America Series which will include a volume on American eating habits, a popular history of the for est conservation movement and six regional books on American arts and crafts; a Nation~l Dof ons o Series which will cover many aspects of civilian defense [1,S well as guides to many military and naval areas, and s everal special additions to the Anorican Guide SGries. ,0 11 The immediate objective of the WP.A Writors 1 Progr am is to bring to the wides t possible reading public socially V<',lid. , si gnificant and i nter es ting facts about the United Stntes, its people and it s i ns titutions," Mrs. Kerr stated. 11 At the same time the skills of uner.i.ployed writers, editors and research workers are preserved and retrained. "The urgencies of t he present decade make mut ual und.ersta.ndi1;.g between communities of the nation a prerequisite to national unity. The ultimate goal of the Writers' Prograr. is to cont ribute to nat i onal unity through presenting .Ar.lerica to Ai:1ericans . 11 . At tho same tine Mr s. Kerr r evealed t hat a bid for hemispher ic good will is being rm.de through the earl;y· -publica tion i n Spanish of a volur.1e to be known as 11 The United States: A Pictorial Study of a Denocracy. 11 Sponsor ed by the State Depa.rtn ent and to be distribu:tod by it i n Centra l an.d South Ar.lorica, the volume is to be published in quarto size uncl will be a graphic presentation in pictures and text of the life and i ns tituti ons of t h is country. An edition i n English nay be published l a ter, she said. The Life in A_merica Series, however, will cons titute the principal effort on a national scale of the Writers' Progr a::i durinc t he next year, Mrs. Kerr pointed out. This undertaking is a loi;ical s1.1ccos sor to t he popul ar Anerican Guide Series which has :presented-for the first tine, in nuny i ns t ances--a conprehensive account of the history, cul ture, econon;r, as well as detailed touring infornation 1 on each of 46 states and two cities • .At l as t reports approxiuately 300,000 copi es of these t~ides had be en sold t hr oubh regular r et a il channels. Headi ng the list of publications i n the Life i n Aue rica Seri es will be six regional volumes bearing the title, "Hands That :Built the Ha tion. 11 These will describe the native ~.rts and cra fts of the people of New Engl and , the Middle Atlantic and Great Lake s Statos , t ho Southeast, the Central States , Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-2263 - 2 - the Southwest an.d the northwest. Each volume will run to api'.lroximatel~r 40 , 000 words in length and ~~11 have some 60 illustrations in color selected from plates made b~r the WPA Index of Americe,n Design. 11 .Amorica Eats" is the title t entatively selected for .::mother book in tho Life in America Series. Each chapt er v!ill describe a comr:m.nity moe.l ty-picnJ of some yhase of American life-a political barbecue, a church supper, a Rotary luncheon, a clam ba.1<:e, breakfast in a largo city cafeteria, a famil~- rou...'1ion dinn or, etc. Tho accounts will describe the people, what they wear, tho ritual n connected ,-.ri th t he preparo..tion n.nd serving of the food and whatever other as pects mclrn it a distinctive occasion. Also, an effort wil l be made to c.iscovor tho source of such gnstronomic traditions as .the allirmco between tc:-.~-.:o d beans c.nd Boston, the identifying of hot biscuits n.nd fried chicken wi tl1. t h o South and why Wostern0rs arc supposed to prefer fried moats to ro.:1sts. Lyle Saxon, well-kno-.,,m New Orleans author ond epicure, h~s been especially designated as tho odi tor of t his volume. He is Director of tho Louisi:.ma WPA Writers• Prog,Tam. Other projected volumes in tho Life in .America Series arc a history of forest consorv n tion in tho United States; an account of the Westo:rn rnngoLmds in terms of the Indians, Spanicrds and. American frontier smen who peop led it, r'nd a contcmrorc,ry and h istoricnl o.ccount of the .American Indian. Two sots cf e;"..li<lcs and a series of State Hoo.1th Almanacs nro the princij_)al publico..tions co!1tcmpl atcd in the National Defense Series. Ono group of guides will :pertc.in to tho 11ili t nry and. naval service ncademics; tho other to tho larger ro gull:'..l' .Amry ~nd Navy posts and reserva tions. The St a te Health Almanacs a.re designed to bring adequate health information into the homos of Amcrico~s of a ll clas s es. Other publications for use in the civilian defense program are :plaaned. While all of the regular State Guides planned for in the }Jneric::m Guide Series have now been published, severa l s pe cial additions to this series are to be produced during t he year. These N'ill include the 11 Uni ted St a tes Travel Atlas, 11 a one-volume resume of the outstanding points of interest covered in the State Guides; several State Pictorial Guidos, which will furnish a q_uicko~and more g ~a:phic perspective of some of the states t han _t ho re gular . St at e Guidos, and full-sized guide volumes on such ci tics as Santa Barbara, Miami, Boston, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, C:inc;i,,_nnati, Nashville and others . A similar volume on the New England coastal watcr~·mys is also planned. In addition to those major projects to be undertaken on a natignal sco:po each State WPA Writcrs 1 Program will continue to produce books and pa'llphlcts on subjects of state and local interest, as they have in tho past . ---oOo--- Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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