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UNIVERSITY PRESS LAUNCHES VIRGINIA BOOK SERIES

        CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 23 -- The University Press of
Virginia will launch in October a series of paperback editions about
the life, landscapes and people of the Commonwealth.
        Called "The Virginia Bookshelf," the series will feature a
wide range of genres including history, fiction, memoir, archaeology,
and nature writing.  The editions will be works considered classics in
their fields.
        Among the first titles to be published will be Garrett Epps's
novel, "The Shad Treatment;" Ivor Noel Hume's "The Virginia Adventure:
From Roanoke to James Towne, An Archaeological and Historical
Odyssey;" and Donald McCaig's essay collection, "An American
Homeplace."
        "The books capture the essence of place that characterizes
Virginia -- books that draw on its unique historical, cultural and
natural landscapes," said Mary Kathryn Hassett, assistant director at
University Press.
        In the 20 years that have passed since its original
publication, "The Shad Treatment" has gained fame as a thinly
disguised portrayal of the 1973 gubernatorial race between Henry
Howell and Mills Godwin -- a campaign that marked the twilight of the
Harry Byrd regime.  The New York Times called Epps's novel "a cranky,
imperfect, and highly readable study of Virginia politics and
politicians."
        In what Publisher's Weekly hailed as "an elegantly written
tour de force of history and archaeology," "The Virginia Adventure"
provides a fascinating portrait of the two earliest English
settlements in Virginia, Roanoke and Jamestown.  Written in the witty
style for which Hume is
known, the new paperback edition will be published in time for the
400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.
OVER
        "An American Homeplace" traces the history of Donald McCaig's
Highland County sheep farm, which he and his wife acquired after
fleeing New York City in 1971.  McCaig, a National Public Radio
commentator and author of "Nop's Trials," describes the area from 1750
to the present and "brings his rural existence poignantly, sweetly,
glowingly to life," as The Washington Post noted when the work was
originally published in 1992.
        The Virginia Bookshelf series "will bring back to life books
of importance that have been somewhat forgotten," Hassett said.
         The Press welcomes ideas for future reprints.  Suggestions
can be sent to:  Boyd Zenner, acquisitions editor, University Press of
Virginia, Box 3608, University Station, Charlottesville, VA 22903.
She can also be reached at (804) 924-1373 or via email at
bz2v@virginia.edu.
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September 22, 1997

         For more information, contact Mary Kathryn Hassett at (804)
924-6064.