Books by Mount Holyoke
Alumnae and Professors: W

Thinking on Screen: Film as Philosophy By Thomas E. Wartenberg Taylor and Francis. 2007. Film enthusiasts and students of philosophy will find Wartenberg's book a thought-provoking examination of the ways specific films, including Modern Times, The Matrix, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind address complex philosophical ideas. Thomas E. Wartenberg is professor of philosophy at MHC and author of Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism.

Philosophy of Film: Introductory Text and Readings Edited by Thomas E. Wartenberg and Angela Curran Blackwell. 2005. The Philosophy of Film draws readings from philosophy, film studies, and film criticism. Organized around a series of philosophic questions about film, it offers an accessible and engaging overview of the discipline. Readings from contrasting angles and points of view discuss the value of film theory, the nature of film narration, the debate on whether films can be socially critical, and the question of what we can learn from film. Thomas E. Wartenberg is the author of Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism and the editor of The Nature of Art, among other books. He is the chair of the philosophy department and teaches in the film studies program at Mount Holyoke.

The Nature of Art By Thomas E. Wartenberg Harcourt College Publishers. 2002. The Nature of Art is a collection of twenty thought-provoking reading selections that emphasize depth rather than breadth on one of the most debated issues in philosophy: What makes an object a work of art? It includes readings in both the analytical and continental traditions, extending from Plato to a recent discussion of digital art. Each reading is introduced by a brief summary of the key concepts presented, showing how they relate to other philosophical writings, past and present. Tom Wartenberg is professor of philosophy and chair of film studies at Mount Holyoke. When he couldn't find a good text to use for Philosophy 290, Meaning, Time and Beauty: Philosophy in Dialogue, he decided to create one.

Unlikely Couples: Movie Romance as Social Criticism By Thomas E. Wartenberg Westview Press. 1999. Wartenberg challenges the view that narrative cinema inherently supports dominant social interests by examining how popular films about "unlikely couples" (a romantic union viewed as inappropriate due to its class, race, or gender composition) explore, expose and criticize social hierarchy. Films examined range from King Kong, It Happened One Night and Some Like it Hot to Pretty Woman, Mississippi Masala and The Crying Game. Tom Wartenberg is professor of philosophy and from 1991 to 1999 was chair of the Film Studies Program at MHC.

Elements of Style By Wendy Wasserstein '71 Alfred A. Knopf. 2006. After writing scores of scripts, essays, and a children's book, Wendy Wasserstein produced this first novel, which examines Manhattan's rich and richest in the post-9/11 city. The protagonist, a pediatrician, is drawn into the world of thoroughbred heiresses, "botoxed" serial lunch ladies, and middlebrow mavens desperate to pry their way into the better classes. It is, said a Booklist reviewer, "a tart tale of excess and retribution in the city." The late Wendy Wasserstein was the author of, among otherworks, The Sisters Rosensweig, An American Daughter, and The Heidi Chronicles, for which she received a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She died of lymphoma in January 2006 at age fifty-five.

Sloth: The Seven Deadly Sins By Wendy Wasserstein '71 The New York Public Library/Oxford University Press. 2005. Part of a multi-author series on the seven deadly sins, Sloth is a rollicking parody of the self-help genre, guiding readers step by step toward a life of noncommital inertia. To help you attain the perfect state of indolent bliss, the book offers a wealth of self-help aids, including the sloth songbook; sloth breakfast bars (packed with sugar, additives, and a delicious touch of Ambien); sloth documentaries (such as the author's twelve-hour epic on Thomas Aquinas); and the sloth network (programming guaranteed not to stimulate or challenge in any way). Discover how to become a sloth in your diet, exercise, work, and even love life - but beware true love, which leads to passion, the biggest enemy of sloth. Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein lives in New York City. Her new play Third opens there this fall (2005).

The Messy Self By Jennifer Rosner Paradigm Publishers. 2007. This edited volume of essays, poems, plays, and short stories challenges the idea of a coherent, harmonious self and offers a diversity of perspectives on creativity, love, and understanding. Originally published as a special edition of The Massachusetts Review, the book includes a previously unpublished play by Wendy Wasserstein '71, who died in 2006. Psyche in Love is examined in a prologue by Jane Crosthwaite, MHC professor of religion. "I chose to read it through a certain kind of ethical lens that saw how Wendy had collapsed time and different eras, had worried about the fickleness and constancy of life and love, and had used her insightful wit to suggest that we could live without confusion and without strictly imposed absolutes," writes Crosthwaite. "Wendy's death has left us all bereft and lost without her good humor - that is, her use of humor for our common 'goodness.'" Jennifer Rosner is a Five College associate and has published numerous articles on the self in academic journals. She has taught philosophy at MHC.

Valenciennes, Daubigny, and the Origins of French Landscape Painting By Michael Marlais, John Varriano, and Wendy M. Watson Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. 2004. This catalogue accompanied a 2004 exhibition held at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. For the show, "a well-chosen selection" of French landscapes was brought together from American museums and private collections to assess the role of the work of Valenciennes and Daubigny in the development of nineteenth-century French landscape painting, a reviewer from the London-based Burlington Magazine wrote. The subject is further explored in the book's "elegant" introductory essays. John Varriano is Idella Plimpton Kendal Professor of Art and Art History at MHC, and Wendy Watson is curator of the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art.

Italian Renaissance Ceramics: The Howard S. and Janet H. Stein Collection By Wendy M. Watson Philadelphia Museum of Art. 2001. This book features the Howard I. and Janet H. Stein collection of Italian Renaissance tin-glazed earthenware (majolica), believed to be America's finest private collection before it was given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Stein collection is brought together with related pieces that also have survived half a millennium. The fascinating history of this decorative art is recounted by specialist Wendy M. Watson. Included in the 208-page book are an essay by Dean Walker on collecting majolica in the United States and a detailed scholarly checklist. Wendy M. Watson is curator of the Mount Holyoke Art Museum and the Skinner Museum.

Summit: Vittorio Sella: Mountaineer and Photographer, The Years 1879-1909 With essays by Ansel Adams, David Brower, Greg Child, Paul Kallmes, and Wendy M. Watson Aperture. 1999. Weighed down by heavy, nineteenth-century camera equipment, Vittorio Sella climbed some of the world's most perilous peaks and photographed them, many for the first time. His elegant photographs established groundbreaking scientific and documentary information. Climbers today still use Sella's pictures to map routes and to comprehend better the challenges in store. Through Sella's images, we witness the grandeur of the Alps, the Caucasus, the Saint Elias range in Alaska, the Ruwenzori in Africa and the Himalayas. His dazzling photographic documentation of these mountains has no predecessors and has few, if any, successors. Wendy M. Watson is curator at the Mount Holyoke Art Museum.

Haunted in the New World: Jewish American Culture from Cahan to the Goldbergs By Donald Weber Indiana University Press. 2005. Drawing on scholarship from a wide range of disciplines, Weber traces the tension for immigrant Jews between nostalgia for the world they left behind and the desire to blend into American culture. James E. Young, professor of English and Judaic studies at the Universityof Massachusetts, called the book the "wisest, most sophisticated exploration of Jewish culture ... to appear in thirty years." Donald Weber is Lucia, Ruth, and Elizabeth MacGregor Professor of English at Mount Holyoke; his essays on Jewish American literature have appeared in numerous periodicals. He also wrote Rhetoric and History in Revolutionary New England.

Living Abroad with Uncle Sam: Foreign Service Days By Helen Weinland '63 AuthorHouse. 2003. During her twenty years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, Helen Weinland discovered that the public held some common misconceptions about diplomats. Living Abroad With Uncle Sam is her effort to dispel the myth that diplomats "run about the world spying and doing all kinds of odd things." Weinland shares her firsthand perspective on events ranging from the failure of the Nigerian democratic government to the fall of the Berlin Wall. In this interesting read for every armchair foreign-policy wonk, she chronicles diplomatic life and how a single, intelligent woman dealt with frequent moves, short-lived friendships, security issues, and loneliness. Helen Weinland retired from the Foreign Service in 1994, and divides her time between Boston and Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The Pudding Hollow Cookbook By Tinky Weisblat '76 The Merry Lion Press. 2004. Pudding Hollow is a real place, a dip between hills in the hamlet of Hawley, Massachusetts. The ties hilltown dwellers feel there, both to the land and to each other, constantly renew valued American rural traditions. The Pudding Hollow Cookbook is not a primer in cookery but instead a culinary tribute to this community and the spirit of community that permeates small-town America. Weisblat shares recipes, memories, and snippets of history that follow the cycle of the year near her hilltown home. The recipes focus on simple yet hearty dishes from good plain cooks that span several generations. Folk artist Judith Russell honors the area and its seasons with paintings and sketches. Along the way, Weisblat and Russell document their belief that sharing food is sharing life. Tinky "Dakota" Weisblat has a doctorate in American studies from the University of Texas and a masteršs degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. When not writing about food, history, or the media, she moonlights as a cabaret singer.

Despite Gravity By Marjory Wentworth '80 Ninety-Six Press. 2007. South Carolina's poet laureate presents a collection of her poems that consider topics from college students affected by 9/11 to her son's diagnosis with Asperger's syndrome. The title poem was written for the dedication of Charleston's dramatic Cooper River Bridge and in honor of a young Mexican man who died during its construction. This is the second collection of poems by Marjory Heath Wentworth. She also teaches poetry to cancer patients and writes a poetry column for the Charleston newspaper.

Noticing Eden By Marjory Heath Wentworth '80 Hub City Writers Project. 2003. The poems in Noticing Eden link the mysteries of the human experience with the power of the sea, the vagaries of the wind, and the brilliance of the sun. Using the South Carolina coast she calls home as her canvas, Wentworth addresses issues such as love, grief, and rebirth with language that evokes the sensual details of nature. Noticing Eden is her first full collection of poems. Marjory Wentworth is South Carolina's poet laureate. She has worked as a poet in schools, hospitals, and art museums across the state.

One Shaker Life: Isaac Newton Youngs, 1793-1865 By Glendyne R. Wergland FP'92 University of Massachusetts Press. 2006. One Shaker Life provides an inside look at the life of a member of the United Society of Believers, better known as the Shakers. He spent most of his life in New Lebanon, New York, home of the society's central ministry. Youngs was a private diarist and official village scribe who kept meticulous records of his own experience and that of the community. More than 4,000 pages of his journals have survived, documenting the history of the Shakers during this period and offering a revealing look at the daily life of a Believer. Wergland has written a deeply researched biography that is a complex portrait of an ordinary man. Glendyne Beemer Wergland is an independent scholar who earned her PhD in US history at the University of Massachusetts in 2001. She lives iwth her husband in Dalton, Massachusetts.

Selling Intervention and War: The Presidency, the Media, and the American Public By Jon Western Johns Hopkins University Press. 2005. Selling Intervention and War explores the competition between Congress and the president in winning the support of the American people when it comes to military intervention.Western looks at how the president and his supporters attempt to obtain public support for their military action. He argues that whether or not the president gains support is based on advantages in information and propaganda, media support, and the length of the intervention.Western uses several cases to support his arguments, including the current war in Iraq, the decision not to intervene in French Indochina in 1954, and the choice to invade Lebanon in 1958. Jon Western is Five College assistant professor of international relations at Mount Holyoke. He has also been on the staff at the United States Institute of Peace.

Letters of E. B. White Edited by Martha White '77 Harper Collins. 2006. Originally collected and published in 1976, Letters of E. B. White has been updated by his granddaughter, Martha, to include letters written between 1976 and 1985, the last decade of his life. Perhaps most celebrated as the author of children's classics Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, White was a masterful essayist, poet, and storyteller. These letters outline his daily habits and routines, which provide a window onto the life path of an exceptional writer. Martha White is a writer and editor whose articles have appeared in the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other magazines and small presses. She is also a longtime contributor to the Old Farmer's Almanac and Yankee Publishing.

Sociability and Power in Late Stuart England: The Cultural Worlds of the Verneys 1660-1720 By Susan Einhorn Whyman '59 Oxford University Press. 1999. Whyman draws a vivid, richly detailed portrait of an English gentry family and its relation to the wider worlds of London and the countryside. Mining a rare archive of over 12,000 letters, she challenges current historical opinion about the period, uncovering strong connections, instead of deep divisions, between country and city, land and trade, sociability and power. Her book undermines established stereotypes of omnipotent male patriarchs, powerless wives and kin, autonomous elder sons and dependent younger brothers. Deftly combining storytelling and historical analysis, the book recreates everyday lives during a time of overseas expansion, financial revolution and political turmoil. A former visiting scholar at Wadham College, Oxford University, Susan Whyman is writing a book on the social and cultural history of letter-writing in England.

Hearing the Internal Trauma: Working with Children and Adolescents Who Have Been Sexually Abused By Sandra Wieland '60 Sage Publications. 1997. Assists therapists in both recognizing signs of abuse and developing effective therapeutic interventions and offers an innovative clinical model for understanding what happens within a sexually abused child. Sandra Wieland is director and clinical association at the Centre for Treatment of Sexual Abuse and Childhood Trauma in Ottawa, Ontario, and assistant clinical professor at the University of Ottawa.

Why Teams Can Fail and What to Do about It By Darcy E. Hitchcock and Marsha L. Willard '74 Irwin Professional Publishing. 1995. This book identifies the most common problems faced by high-performance, self-directed teams and offers specific suggestions for solving them to create teams that truly work. Darcy E. Hitchcock is president of AXIS Performance Advisors, Inc. in Portland, Oregon, and has been a consultant, trainer and speaker in the business community for over fourteen years. Marsha L. Willard is the CEO of AXIS Performance Advisors, Inc. and has fifteen years of consulting and training experience with a variety of public and private sector organizations.

Travel Smart: New York State By Deborah Williams '68 John Muir Publications. 1997. A guide to New York State that advises travelers about the best it has to offer from the island of Manhattan to the far corners of the state. A multitude of maps and suggested itineraries help travelers make the most of their trip. Deborah Williams is a veteran, award-winning travel writer who regularly contributes articles to a variety of newspapers and magazines in the US and Canada. She lives near Buffalo.

Country Roads of New York (1994) By Deborah Williams '68 Country Roads Press. 1994. This guide allows travelers to discover the history, enjoy the scenery, and find the unexpected delights of rural New York. Fourteen chapters outline daylong and weekend drives that take travelers to theatres, museums, wineries, colleges, canals and locks, antique and crafts shops, etc. Deborah Williams is director of public relations for the Greater Buffalo Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Pinstripes & Pearls: The Women of the Harvard Law Class of '64 By Judith Richards Hope Scribner. 2003. Pinstripes and Pearls chronicles the history-making Harvard Law class of 1964, which included fifteen women who became some of the most prominent members of their generation. They include former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder and University of Chicago bioethicist Ann Dudley Goldblatt, as well as Rosemary Cox Masters '61, Barbara Margulies Rossotti '61, and Grace Weiner Wolf '61. The book tells the story of the fifteen pioneering and gutsy women who worked together to overcome discrimination, break into a male-dominated profession, and establish a network of friendships and alliances that survives to this day. Judith Richards Hope, a member of the Harvard's legendary class of '64, became the first female associate director of the White House Domestic Council in 1975. In 1981 she cofounded the Washington office of the Paul Hastings law firm, where she was the first female partner and first female executive committee member.

A Window on Vermont By Marguerite Hurrey Wolf '36 The New England Press. 1998. Amid descriptions and anecdotes about Vermont's weather and natural splendor, the author contemplates her life as an octogenarian in modern society. Her thoughts on aging, independence, technological "advancements," baseball-capped teenagers and many other subjects offer a perceptive and witty view of timeless and timely issues. Maggie Wolf lives and writes in Jericho, Vermont. Her books include Of Cabbages and Kings: And Many Other Things, At Home in Vermont and RFD Vermont

When Esther Morris Headed West: Women, Wyoming, and the Right to Vote By Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge '72 Holiday House. 2001. This picture book tells the tale of a remarkable woman who was a pioneer in more ways than one. Esther Morris, a woman with wide-open ideas, heads out to the Wyoming Territory in 1869. There she meets Colonel William Bright, a man who shares her belief that women should have the right to vote. His efforts influence the legislature to give the women of Wyoming what no other women in the world had: the rights to vote and hold office. Knowing that these rights needed to be more than words on paper, Esther Morris applies to be South Pass City justice of the peace and eventually becomes the first female in the United States to hold a public office. Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge is the author of Wicked Jack, the winner of the Irma S. and James H. Black Award, the North Carolina Junior Book Award, and a School Library Journal Best Book of 1995 award. She lives in Indiana.

Legend of Strap Buckner: A Texas Tale By Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge '72 Holiday House. 2001. When Stephen F. Austin and 300 families arrive in Texas to settle San Felipe, they are greeted by Strap Buckner. Buckner is a man of genius "and his genius was to knock folks down." The settlers quickly grow "plain tired of getting knocked down." Shunned, Buckner leaves San Felipe and travels west, where his adventures begin. The story is based on the life and legends of Aylett C. (Strap) Buckner, a colorful Texas character known not only for being a red-haired giant of a man, but also for his habit of welcoming new colonists with a slap on the back that sent them flying. Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge is the author of Wicked Jack, the winner of the Irma S. and James H. Black Award, the North Carolina Junior Book Award, and a School Library Journal Best Book of 1995 award. She lives in Indiana.

Wicked Jack Retold by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge '72 Holiday House. 1995. Wicked Jack lives in the Great Dismal Swamp. He's exceptionally mean and when he dies, he's refused by both Heaven and Hell. The Devil sends him back to the swamp, where he still wanders with a lump of coal (thus originates the "jack-o'-lantern"). For ages 4-8. Connie Wooldridge has published stories in several magazines. She and her family live in Richmond, Indiana.