Bill Wittliff (1940–2019)

Bill Wittliff was himself a publisher long before the University of Texas Press began working with him in 1996 on two series that drew from the Collections he founded at Texas State University. The Southwestern & Mexican Photography Series, for which he served as editor for two decades, included eighteen books, showcasing work from the likes of Keith Carter, Kate Breakey, Rocky Schenck, Graciela Iturbide, Mariana Yampolsky, and Mary Ellen Mark. Wittliff’s Southwestern Writers Collection, also housed at Texas State, was the foundation of a second series with the Press. Also founded in 1996, the series included twenty-nine books with such Texas writers as John Graves, Bud Shrake, Larry L. King, Prudence MacIntosh, and Steve Harrigan, among many others.

A prolific photographer, Wittliff authored or coauthored four books with his images for UT Press: Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy (2004); La Vida Brinca: A Book of Tragaluz Photographs (2006), A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove (2007), and A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove (2012). Late in his career, Wittliff began writing a memoir that evolved into a fictional series of books he called the Papa Stories: The Devil’s Backbone (2014), The Devil’s Sinkhole (2016), and The Devil’s Fork (2018) were inspired by stories he heard as a child growing up in Texas.

In all, Bill Wittliff and the University of Texas Press collaborated on more than fifty books. It is a measure of his contribution to Texas letters that, even if none of those titles had been published, Wittliff would still be an icon, renowned for his collection, his screenwriting, his photography, and his own Encino Press. The Press is deeply saddened by his passing, and forever grateful for the work we did together.

www.utexaspress.com

Mitchell A. Wilder Awards honors Painted Light

Painted Light

by Kate Breakey

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Wittliff Collections honored with 2011 Mitchell A. Wilder Awards
Posted by Jayme Blaschke, University News Service

The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos has been honored by the 32nd annual Mitchell A. Wilder Publication Design Awards Competition, sweeping five awards in all five categories.

The awards are presented by the Texas Association of Museums (TAM). Created to recognize achievement in graphic design and media production and to encourage quality in public presentations, the Wilder Design Competition drew 40 entries from museums of all sizes, regions, and disciplines throughout the state of Texas.

“The Wilder Awards Competition draws the very best examples of graphic design from museums throughout Texas. I am pleased to see that award winners represent museums of many different kinds, both large and small,” said Ruth Ann Rugg, executive director of TAM. “The quality of this year’s field is excellent and I look forward to putting them on view at the TAM Annual Meeting for the membership to see.”

Museums must be institutional members of TAM to enter the competition. Entries are limited to one per category. The five categories include: Invitations and Development Campaign Materials; Newsletters, Brochures and Announcements; Books and Catalogs; Marketing Materials, Supplementary Materials and Posters; and Non-Print Media. Entries must be produced or commissioned by the museum and must relate directly to the museum’s program. Wittliff Collections awards include:

• Book Category: Painted Light- Gold Award (Painted Light by Kate Breakey, designed by Ellen McKie of UT Press, Bill Wittliff, and Kate Breakey, was published October 2010 in the Wittliff’s Southwestern & Mexican Photography Book Series) 

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Huffington Post :: Painted Light

Painted Light

by Kate Breakey

Buy It Now

Amazing Illustrated Art Books And Their Brilliant Publishers (PHOTOS)
by Lena Tabori

Excerpt: "I immediately ordered Painted Light."

At Book Expo America, I was thinking deeply about the role of publishers as I walked the show looking for the new great visual books--gift books, photography books, cookbooks, art books, maybe even a children's book. What is a great publisher and why does America have so few of them in my field? I have been publishing visual books all my life (at Abrams, Stewart, Tabori & Chang and for the last years, Welcome Books). Book Expo is one of the few places you can see books organized by publisher. That is a rare window on a publisher's passion. This is what I found.

It was immediately clear that while certain authors, photographers and artists are truly stars, some publishers have a vision and a passion as strong as any creator. Sometimes, you can recognize their books a mile away - Workman (named for founder and owner Peter Workman), for example. Workman has grown to be the largest privately held American publishing house. One of the ways you observe Peter's genius is in his addition of imprints, each with its own powerful and distinct publisher: for example, Ann Bramson at Artisan, Elisabeth Scharlatt at Algonquin, J.P. Leventhal at Black Dog & Leventhal. In that creatively charged environment, I immediately saw two visual books that will be contenders this fall: The Louvre: All the Paintings (Black Dog, $75, almost 3,000 paintings, in full color, 784 pages, slip cased, plus DVD) and Barbara Kafka's The Intolerant Gourmet: Glorious Food Without Gluten & Lactose (Artisan, $29.95). Winner of the James Beard Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, Kafka is simply a walking encyclopedia. Hands down, every family with a child suffering from gluten or lactose intolerance will conclude that a delicious Kafka solution is their solution.

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