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Nonfiction

Postcard Views: A Walk Down Main Street Buffalo, New York, Circa 1910

In 1900, Buffalo was the eighth largest city in the U.S. As the world ushered in the new century, Buffalo celebrated its status as a vibrant center for transportation, commerce, and industry and became home for thousands of immigrants who chose to begin their new lives in this promising City by the Lake. Postcards erupted on the scene around 1907, a short-lived product of the collision of emerging print technologies and existing postal regulations. This lovely book offers a fascinating and historically accurate glimpse of Buffalo’s Main Street at the turn of the last century through postcard scenes. These views of downtown reveal Buffalo as one of the most progressive and vibrant cities of the time. How fitting that postcards, made popular during Buffalo’s heyday, should pave the way through the city’s illustrious past. Perhaps they also provide valuable clues for directions in which Buffalo’s beautiful downtown could and should develop a century hence, rising from the ashes to emerge once again as a vital, vibrant hub for the entire region.

Sights & Sounds of the Pan American Exposition

$4.50

This illustrated, informative booklet offers a bird’s-eye view of the Pan-American Exposition. Review the grounds which were located between what today are Elmwood and Delaware avenues. See the sights that were seen then, when electricity was a novelty. And hear the sounds of the Pan-Am. A delightful CD of the music of the Pan-American Exposition as it was played by John Philip Sousa in 1901 – on player piano rolls – is tucked inside a colorful back pocket. A great way to experience a momentous event, when Buffalo came to be known as the City of Light.

Frederick Law Olmsted’s Point Chautaqua: The Story of an Historic Lakeside Community

$7.50

A well-preserved creation of America’s most celebrated landscape architect, Point Chautauqua’s 1875 Frederick Law Olmsted design is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among Olmsted’s many works, Point Chautauqua stands alone. Only here did the master find a physical setting that conformed to his aesthetic ideal. Moreover, this was his only design for a religious community. Frederick Law Olmsted’s Point Chautauqua richly exhibits Olmsted’s design principles, making it a perfect example of historic landscape architecture that is also a living, working community, and a rewarding laboratory for students of historic landscape architecture.

Tales From Azar’s Attic: A Look Inside a Broadcasting Career

$9.50

Rick Azar. For many, this name evokes a wave of wistful nostalgia. A member of the charismatic trio “Irv, Rick and Tom” on WKBW-TV that dominated the Western New York and Southern Ontario airwaves for nearly two decades, Rick Azar tells engaging stories about so many historical beginnings. His tales chronicle the birth of broadcasting, the contentious start of the Sabres and the beginning of the Buffalo Bills. Azar shares fascinating behind-the-scenes encounters with some of the colorful celebrities he interviewed – and, more often than not, befriended – over the decades. Meet Howard Cosell, Jack Kemp, Joe Namath, Ted Williams, Gil Perreault, Wayne Gretzky, Floyd Patterson, Ilio DiPaolo, Jack Nicklaus, Dizzy Gillespie, and so many more. Azar’s journey from Brooklyn to Buffalo, on the stage and on the air, covering sports and offering commentary, is entertaining and insightful. It also reveals much about Buffalo, his beloved hometown.

Free Speech and Why You Should Give a Damn

$9.50

Written by Jonathan Zimmerman, with cartoons by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson.

Across the political spectrum, Americans have demanded the suppression of ideas and images that allegedly threaten our nation. But the biggest danger to America comes not from speech but from censorship, which prevents us from freely governing ourselves.

In this brief but bracing book, historian Jonathan Zimmerman and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson tell the story of free speech in America: who established it, who has denounced it, and who has risen to its defense.

 

120 pages

5” x 7”

Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-952536-10-6

Discarded Ancestors

$12.50$17.50

Treasure lives amidst the rubble of lost neighborhoods. Mixed-media artist Elizabeth Leader found a discarded family album and transformed it into collages that capture the rise and fall of the Rust Belt, honoring the immigrants and refugees who built America. Discarded Ancestors is a unique and beautiful coffee table book that poignantly illustrates a vibrant era in the nation’s industrial past couched within its decline.

The Polonian Legacy of Western New York: Stories of the Lives, Accomplishments, and Contributions of Four Prominent Polish-Americans

$12.95

Stories of the lives, accomplishments, and contributions of four prominent Polish-Americans: Rev. John Pitass, known as the father of Buffalo’s Polonia; Joseph Eustace Fronczak, a prominent Polonian architect; Mother Mary Simplicita Nehring, considered a model of faith in her time; and Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s enduring friendship with Joseph Eustace Fronczak. Together, these compelling stories paint a vivid picture of Buffalo’s Polonian legacy.

Allentown: A Photographic Journey in the Heart of Buffalo, NY

$14.50$24.50

A photographic journey through Beautiful black & white photographs by Bill Faught capture the essence of Allentown, a neighborhood at the heart of Buffalo, New York. Evocative narrative by illustrious neighbors helps illustrate the sense of community that honors the past while embracing the future and communicates the funky bohemian spirit that pervades these historic streets.

Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award, Gold in the Gift Book category

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra: The BPO Celebrates the First 75 Years

$14.50$24.50

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra came into existence at the height of the Great Depression. Seventy-five years later, it is an internationally renowned, Grammy-winning Orchestra. The story of this amazing trajectory is told through more than 200 images in a beautiful 120-page coffee table book that celebrates music in Buffalo. Follow the BPO from Lajos Shuk to JoAnne Falleta, and meet many of the world’s greatest musicians. Leonard Bernstein to Lang Lang, Johnny Mathis to the Grateful Dead, the BPO has brought the world of music to Buffalo. On tour, it has brought Buffalo to the world. Special sections showcase the BPO’s home, the acoustically perfect Kleinhans Music Hall, the BPO’s many Carnegie Hall appearances and the hundreds of recordings made over the decades.

 

Men of Steel

$15.00

It’s been said that steel built America. From the rails that tied two coasts together to the automobiles that defined the 20th century, steel was the backbone. It’s also the story of immigrants who toiled to build their own lives in a new home. Dr. Rosati’s folksy story of Simonds Saw & Steel not only tells us of the history of the plant, it tells us the history of the families who defined the American Dream. Men of Steel gives us the local flavor for a national movement. It’s hard to put down.

Peaceprints: Sister Karen’s Paths to Nonviolence

$18.95

This beautiful book celebrates the life of Sister Karen Klimczak, SSJ, and helps us cherish the memory of this passionate champion of nonviolence, who dedicated her life to providing sanctuary and hope to ex-offenders. The biographies, stories, essays, interviews, poetry, art, and photographs that grace this book are voices of the community expressing how Buffalo’s Ambassador of Peace touched their lives. Vignettes are interspersed with entries from Sister Karen’s own journals and observations that express hope and forgiveness.

The Emmy-nominated DVD, Apostle of Peace, produced by Daybreak TV Productions, is enclosed in each book. This moving half-hour tribute to Sister Karen that aired a year after her death, includes interviews with some of the people closest to her, along with archival footage of Sister Karen herself.

A Spirituality of Being Human

$19.95$29.95

Hugh Brady’s life’s work has been discovering the divine in the human. He thinks we have it wrong when we apologize, saying: “I am only human.”

A Spirituality of Being Human explores our human nature as a sacred gift, even with its vulnerabilities and weaknesses. In fact, it is through our limitations that we find our way to growth, compassion, and grace. “It is not in escaping our human condition but in its full embrace that we can feel the divine heartbeat within our own human hearts.”

Jesus taught a spirituality of being human when he walked among us. Discover with Brady the fullness of human life as the bridge to transformation and the building of the kingdom of God. Our human home, Earth, is integral to this spirituality.

B is For Buffalo: An Aerial Alphabet

$19.95$29.95

Buffalo, New York is known for its remarkable architecture. Masterpieces by world-renowned architects dot the city. From the ground, these structures are impressive. From the sky, they are breathtaking. Soar high over the Queen City via beautiful drone photography and see the city like you’ve never seen it before. From the sweeping grandeur of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the immense scalloped walls of Temple Beth Zion, discover Buffalo from A to Z.

Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award, Silver in the Gift Book Category
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