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“J. Michael Desmond’s book is itself a monument to the architecture of LSU. It is a delightful and engrossing history that delves into the little-known facts about the unique buildings that make Louisiana State University distinctive.”—Charles E. Schwing, former president of the American Institute of Architects

When viewed from the technical vantage point of an architect, the discerning eye of an artist, or sociocultural perspective of a historian, the remarkable buildings of Louisiana State University reveal not only a legacy that goes back to the Renaissance but also a primer of architectural principles that guided the creation of one of the most unique academic environments in the United States.

In The Architecture of LSU, author, professor, and architect J. Michael Desmond traces the university’s development, including a wealth of photographs, plans, drawings, and maps that underscore the contributions of key historical figures and the genealogies of the campus’s architecture and planning. By meticulously detcailing the origins and evolution of LSU’s architectural core and exploring the fundamentals of American college campus design, Desmond shows the far-reaching rewards of public environments that integrate natural and constructed elements to meet both practical and aesthetic goals.

J. Michael Desmond has taught architectural history and design for twenty-five years. An architect, he earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his master’s degree of architecture in urban design from Harvard University, and his bachelor’s degree of architecture from LSU.

May 6, 2013
156 pages, 11 x 9 1/2, 25 color illus., 65 b&w illus., 150 line drawings
978-0-8071-4976-8
Cloth $59.95

LSU Press welcomes Kris Elmore, our new development officer. We look forward to working with her to secure ongoing support for our books and The Southern Review, and we hope you’ll have the opportunity to meet her soon!

From the LSU Foundation magazine, Cornerstone (Summer/Fall 2012)

The Art of Print

LSU Press invites the public to celebrate the publication of Louisiana Aviation: An Extraordinary History in Photographs, by local author Vincent P. Caire, at the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum, 118 Cotten Road, Patterson, LA 70392, on Saturday, May 12 from 2–4 p.m. The event is free and will feature a book talk by Caire, followed by a signing and reception with light refreshments. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

As an aviator who learned to fly at Baton Rouge Downtown Airport, now transformed into Independence Park and State Police Headquarters, it was great to be able to read and see some of the aviation history of Louisiana.  Vincent Caire has given pilots a chance to look back on a different time when we were able to go out to the airport, walk on the ramp and watch airplanes arrive and depart.  On my twelfth birthday, I was given a trip from Baton Rouge to New Orleans on Eastern Airlines.  The flight down was on a DC-3 and the return was on a Lockheed Constellation.  We had dinner on the return flight, served on actual china, on a tray that was balanced on a pillow on your lap.  After learning to fly, I remember flying into Moisant Airport when general aviation actually had a place at the terminal where you could park your aircraft.  I look forward to the launch event for this book, 12 May, at the Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum so I can thank the author for this great “look-back” at an important part of our state.

Alfred T. Spain
Co-founder, JetBlue Airways

Ephemeron, by LSU Press author T.R. Hummer, received this year’s Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) Poetry Prize. The MIAL awards recognize the “artistic achievements of living Mississippians.” Ephemeron was selected as the winner by poet Joshua Weiner, who called the collection “an ambitious, distinctive book.” Ephemeron also recently won the Faculty Achievement Award for Best Performance or Artwork at Arizona State University.

T. R. Hummer is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Infinity Sessions and Bluegrass Wasteland: Selected Poems. He has been editor of Kenyon Review, New England Review, and Georgia Review. A native of Mississippi and longtime devotee and practitioner of jazz, he lives in Phoenix, where he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

Photo by Frank Veronsky

The people at LSU Press and The Southern Review represent everything that is good in the world of literary publication. Their dedication to esthetic quality has been the gold standard in literary publication for over seventy-five years. The Southern Review published my stories when few other literary journals would. LSU Press resurrected my career with the publication of my collection The Convict after I had been out of hardcover print for thirteen years. Then they published my novel The Last Get-Back Boogie after it had been under submission in New York for nine years and had received over 111 editorial rejections (after publication by LSU, it was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize).

My debt to both LSU Press and The Southern Review is one I can never repay. They are extraordinary people and I’m very proud to have my name associated with them.

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