- Cuke Press Presents
A Brief History of Tassajara:
from Native American Sweat Lodges to Pioneering Zen Monastery
by
Marilyn McDonald
with a Foreword and
Afterword by David Chadwick
194 pages with 260 images - $20
Official date of publication November 19, 2018
ISBN 978-1-7322877-0-9
Available at the San Francisco Zen
Center's three centers: Tassajara Zen Mt. Center, the City Center Bookstore at
300 Page St. in SF, and Green Gulch Farm in late July.
It can be ordered from the
SFZC Bookstore
or the 3rd printing from any bookstore via Ingram Books.
February 18 2019 -
Cuke Press Amazon.com link
for this book
- at $15
Distributed by Ingram Books
- Foreword to the book by David Chadwick
- On Producing This Book
- Introduction and
Acknowledgments by Marilyn McDonald
Index - with more place names than the one at the back of the book - Some images from the book -
pre ZC photos &
ZC era photos &
historical documents
***
Marilyn McDonald
Those involved in creating this book
text from back cover
The Book Club of California event on Tassajara History
Laura Burges on Jack Novcich who got Marilyn started on her Tass history journey
On Bill Lambert by DC - the great Jamesburg character quoted here and there
Interviews with Bob Beck and with Anna Beck and Nancy Roscoe, former owners of Tassajara
More info on the Mural of an Indian Legend at Tassajara and a painting on a rock
John Morrow's Letters - maybe easier to read here than in the book.
Color postcards that were in black and white in the book
Springs of California by Gerald A. Waring - source of water analysis on pp. 168-69
Fun Facts
The Becks talked about how Phillip Terry who married Helen Myers, and was there in 1949 when the place burned down, had been married to Joan Crawford. I checked up on it. He was Joan Crawford's third husband. She his first. They separated Dec. 18, 1945. There was talk that he burned the hotel down for the insurance money but I learned from Marilyn's book that there was hardly any so that was just a groundless rumor — unless he thought there was lots of insurance on it to be terribly disappointed later. I like the photo of him on p103. - dc
https://www.joancrawfordbest.com/latimesterrydivorce.htm
For the 2nd printing, available on November 19th, the book title, subtitle and author will be on the copyright page, the subtitle will be on title page, and the publisher's logo will be on the back cover — as required by our distributor Itasca for the trades (bookstores and online sources). Also on the copyright page will be a PCIP block which makes the book library-ready.
Errata - 1st printing - The name of Jonathan Latupeirissa on p171 was
misspelled.
Laura Burges name was spelled with two s pp140-1, 175 and will have to be fixed
for the 3rd printing. I'm sorry Laura! - dc
Andrew Main redid the Index for 2nd printing.
Jamie Avera of Photo and Paper Art Restoration <http://www.texasphotorestoration.com>
adjusted 12 images for the 2nd printing: Reservoir -
p26, Plunges & steam room with tent - p31, Telephone Stop - p55, Heading to
Baths - p60, Group Dining under Gossip Oak - p68, Dining under Gossip Oak - p70,
Gossip Oak Hammock - p71, Clown Costume - p80, Chariot Wheel Chair - p80, Stone
bathhouse as living quarters - p111, Tassajara Gate - p131, Tassajara Entry -
pp144 & 173
3rd printing available now via Amazon and Ingram
New Errata - 8-07-19 - Received this note: I believe Foster’s nickname was “Pop”, not “Pat”. He was a friend of older members of my family back in the 30’s. - Dick Hellam
I noticed that one point reads “1894-1896 Harold Arnold leased the springs”. However actually his named was Henry Arnold, my maternal great grandfather. - Keith Cahoon
Proceeds from this book will go to Cuke Archives (after initial costs are covered) - a good deal of Cuke funds went into making it available.
Why there are two pages on Amazon for this book
If you go to the prior Amazon page for this book when it was distributed by Itasca, you'll see it lists for $20 with another ISBN. There is one advantage to them - they're on 80 pound paper. The new listing is $15 with 55 pound paper. Amazon does not take down old pages. Thus when we changed distributors we had to get a new ISBN and a new Amazon page for the book. This is one of Amazon's weirdnesses, not the only one I ran into. They're inflexible sometimes. Also it took me months to figure out why I needed a new ISBN because the tech support people couldn't explain it. They'd just say that the book already had a page. I'd say, yeah, it's our book - Cuke Press and now is printed by Amazon KDP for sale on Amazon. They'd say but it already has a page and they'd refer it to their tech team and there were dozens of emails back and forth till finally one customer support person explained to me they don't take down old pages or have two listings for one ISBN and the only way for us to get the book back on Amazon was with a new ISBN.
June 10, 2019 event for this book at Book Club of California in San Francisco