front cover of Ann Arbor Observed
Ann Arbor Observed
Selections from Then and Now
Grace Shackman
University of Michigan Press, 2010
Twenty-five years ago Grace Shackman began to document the history of Ann Arbor’s buildings, events, and people in the Ann Arbor Observer. Soon Shackman’s articles, which depicted every aspect of life in Ann Arbor during the city’s earlier eras, became much-anticipated regular stories. Readers turned to her illuminating minihistories when they wanted to know about a particular landmark, structure, personality, organization, or business from Ann Arbor’s past.

Packed with photographs from Ann Arbor of yesteryear and the present day, Ann Arbor Observed compiles the best of Shackman’s articles in one book divided into eight sections: public buildings and institutions, the University of Michigan, transportation, industry, downtown Ann Arbor, recreation and culture, social fabric and communities, and architecture.

For long-time residents, Ann Arbor expatriates, University of Michigan alumni, and visitors alike, Ann Arbor Observed provides a rare glimpse of the bygone days of a town with a rich and varied history.

Grace Shackman is a history columnist for the Ann Arbor Observer, the Community Observer, and the Old West Side News, as well as a writer for University of Michigan publications. She is the author of two previous books: Ann Arbor in the 19th Century and Ann Arbor in the 20th Century.
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front cover of A History of Ann Arbor
A History of Ann Arbor
Jonathan Marwil
University of Michigan Press, 1991

"I found it filled with many interesting things . . . ."
---Arthur Miller

"For those of us who have admiration and affection for the university and the city of Ann Arbor, it is fascinating reading."
---Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States

"Marwil clearly documents the great impact of the University of Michigan in shaping the town's history, but succeeds in portraying Ann Arbor's own character and identity. . . . a delightful book."
---Robert M. Warner, Dean Emeritus, School of Information and Library Studies, University of Michigan, and former Archivist of the United States

Jonathan Marwil is a historian and the author of The Trials of Counsel: Francis Bacon in 1621 and Frederic Manning: An Unfinished Life.

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The Michigan Murders
Edward Keyes
University of Michigan Press, 2010

"True crime devotees won't want to miss this one!"
---Publishers Weekly

"Very engrossing . . . in the finest you can't put it down tradition."
---Hartford Courant

 "This factual account of each murder, through the conviction of the killer, has all the excitement of a first-rate work of fiction, and is told straight, without the usual sociological jargon. Keyes collaborated with Robin Moore on The French Connection; The Michigan Murders is his first solo effort, and it is a good one."
---Miami Herald

"The Michigan Murders is the ultimate True Crime classic, unfolding like great mystery fiction while still delivering the powerful charge of real life." 
---Jamie Agnew, Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop

With a new prologue by Mardi Link and a new epilogue by Laura James

The true story of the savage coed killings---by the boy who could have lived next door!

Southeastern Michigan was rocked in the late 1960s by the terrifying serial murders of young women, whose bodies were dumped in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. In each case, few clues were left at the scene, and six separate police agencies were unable to end the horror. Then, almost by accident, a break came. The suspect: John Norman Collins, a young, quiet, all-American boy.

Collins was caught, went to trial, and, on August 19, 1970, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. He is now in his sixties and is serving his sentence in Marquette, Michigan.

Collins was one of the first serial killers exposed in the region, and his crimes had many in the area locking their doors for the first time. Edward Keyes's harrowing The Michigan Murders covers every step of the case. It fell out of print for more than a decade before being revived for this special edition.

Mardi Link, author of the new prologue, is the author of two regionally best-selling true crime books based in northern Michigan, When Evil Came to Good Hart and Isadore's Secret.

Laura James, author of the new epilogue, is a trial lawyer, crime historian, and true crime author who blogs about the true crime genre at her Web site CLEWS (www.laurajames.com).

Edward Keyes, now deceased, spent several years in the early 1970s investigating the Michigan murders. He also authored the works Double Dare and Cocoanut Grove. The Michigan Murders was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime in 1977.

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front cover of Party Conflict and Community Development
Party Conflict and Community Development
Postwar Politics in Ann Arbor
Samuel J. Eldersveld
University of Michigan Press, 1995
Through an in-depth study of Ann Arbor politics, Party Conflict and Community Development addresses fundamental questions of the relationship between partisan politics and municipal government. Since a large majority of middle-sized American cities operate with nonpartisan government, Ann Arbor's fiercely competitive, two-party system provides an essential counterpoint to other urban studies. Moreover, political activity at this local level gives unique insight into the relative strength and performance of American political parties. Samuel J. Eldersveld examines in detail how this increasingly competitive system has led to innovative policy change. Finally, he offers comparisons to other American and European cities.
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World War II Front Line Nurse
Mildred A. MacGregor
University of Michigan Press, 2008

In late 1942, along with so many others who signed up to support the war effort, thirty-year-old Mildred Radawiec left a comfortable position as a nurse at the University of Michigan Hospital and postponed her marriage to a soon-to-be doctor to volunteer as a surgical nurse in the major battle theaters of the war. Radawiec was one of thirty volunteers from the hospital surgical staff that comprised the University of Michigan Unit, the 298th General Hospital, as the University of Michigan Hospital was called.

Radawiec's first-person history recounts her wartime experience with sharp detail and grace and sets the stage for a you-are-there experience---from the thrill of signing up and shipping out; to the harrowing ocean crossing and the arduous trip through the Sahara; to dangerous air raids and moving at a moment's notice, often at night with the lights off to avoid attacks. Radawiec was near Omaha Beach in France soon after D-Day, June 6, 1944, and details stories of marathon stints assisting the injured on the front lines as they poured in by the hundreds. Radawiec also traveled to Belgium and Germany and set up in the area near Aachen in the fall of 1944. In Germany she experienced Buzz Bombs---pilotless flying bombs---and even witnessed the death of a fellow nurse in a bombing attack in which medics brought in wounded soldiers by the truckload. Radawiec also leavens her story with uplifting tales of heroism and courage and intersperses the narrative with poignant letters from her family and fiancé.

This stirring personal account of war will mesmerize anyone interested in World War II history and women's too-often-overlooked role in it.

Mildred A. MacGregor is ex. Lieutenant Mildred A. Radawiec, Army Nurse Corp. She was part of the Third Auxiliary Surgical Group in World War II and was stationed in England, North Africa, France, and Germany. She is 95 and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is her first book.

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front cover of Writing Ann Arbor
Writing Ann Arbor
A Literary Anthology
Laurence Goldstein, Editor
University of Michigan Press, 2005
Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan have always been natural settings for the writing life, offering perennial inspiration to the many artists, poets, locals, and students who have called the city and the classroom home. Writing Ann Arbor collects fiction, essay, poetry, memoir, and drama by Max Apple, Charles Baxter, Sven Birkerts, Donald Hall, Robert Hayden, Tom Hayden, Jane Kenyon, Thomas Lynch, Ross Macdonald, Frank O'Hara, Marge Piercy, Dudley Randall, Ruth Reichl, Elwood Reid, Bob Ufer, Wendy Wasserstein, and Nancy Willard, among many others.

The anthology is eclectic and engaging, with many wonderful surprises: an essay on the Underground Railroad in Ann Arbor; one on basketball legend Cazzie Russell; an essay by Arthur Miller; an excerpt from Joyce Carol Oates's All the Good People I've Left Behind; a selection from Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by food writer and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl; and much more.

This is more than a series of portraits of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan; it is a miniature time capsule, a look into the shifting cultural currents of the last two centuries from some of the greatest thinkers and writers of those times.

Poet and literary scholar Laurence Goldstein is Professor of English at the University of Michigan and Editor of the Michigan Quarterly. He is the author of three books of poetry and several books of literary criticism, including The American Poet at the Movies.
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