OCR Text |
Show WA to Study Eating Habits Writers to Turn Talents To Americana in U. S. Defense S2ries. WASHINGTON. The corps of editors edi-tors and writers employed on WPA Writers projects, having virtually completed the American Guide series se-ries of 50 colorful volumes on 48 states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, are turning now to individual aspects of Americana. The Guide series, presenting a comprehensive account of the history, his-tory, culture, economy and detailed touring inforr- tion of the states and two territoi .es, is to be followed by a volume on American eating habits, a National Defense series, and six regional books on American arts and crafts. Wide Range Covered. The 800 titles turned out by the projects, which now employ about 2,300 persons, soon will be increased by "The United States: A Pictorial Study of a Democracy," which will be printed in Spanish and distributed distrib-uted south of the border in another bid for hemispheric solidarity. An English edition may be published later. The 800 publications range from pamphlets of purely local interest j to the American Guide series. ! Why does the government spend ! money for all of these books? Assistant Works Projects Commissioner Com-missioner Florence Kerr answers: "The urgencies of the present decade make mutual understanding between communities of the nation a prerequisite to national unity. The ultimate goal of the Writers' Program Pro-gram is to contribute to national unity through presenting America to Americans." The list of publications in the Life in America series will be headed by six regional volumes bearing the title: "Hands That Build the Nation." Na-tion." In these books will be described de-scribed the native arts and crafts of the people of New England, the Middle Atlantic and Great Lakes states, the Southeast, the central states, the Southwest and the Northwest. Each volume will contain con-tain about 40,000 words and have 60 or more illustrations in color. Food Tastes Studied. "America Eats" is the title selected select-ed tentatively for another volume in the Life in America series, a book devoting one chapter to a community commu-nity meal typical to some phase of American life a political barbecue, a church supper, a Rotary luncheon, a clam bake, breakfast in a large city cafeteria, a family reunion dinner din-ner and others. The writers also will attempt to uncover the traditions that link baked beans with Boston, and hot 1 biscuits and fried chicken with the South, and to learn why Westerners are supposed to like fried meats better than roasts. v Other projected volumes include a history of forest conservation, an account of the western rangelands in terms of Indians, Spaniards and American frontiersmen who helped carve a great empire out of a' wilderness. wil-derness. A contemporary and historical his-torical account of the Indian also i will be written. Two sets of guides and a series of State Health Almanacs are contemplated contem-plated in the National Defense series. One group of guides will pertain to military and naval academies, acad-emies, the other will be devoted to the larger posts and reservations of the army and the navy. |