Great Lakes Books Series

Great Lakes Books was inaugurated in 1986 to honor Michigan’s 1987 sesquicentennial and to celebrate the state’s history, culture, and natural wonders. The series was established as a separate imprint to give emphasis to the regional nature of the program. Since its inception, this highly successful regional imprint has grown to include over 100 titles.

Editors: Philip P. Mason and Charles K. Hyde, Wayne State University

Freshwater Fury: Yarns and Reminiscences of the Greatest Storm in Inland Navigation

Frank Barcus

Barcus presents vivid eye-witness accounts of the worst disaster in Great Lakes History, the Great Storm of November 1913.

Call It North Country: The Story of Upper Michigan

John Bartlow Martin

Call It North Country recounts the lives of miners, hunters, trappers, and lumberjacks—the hardy breeds who first populated the harsh land of the Upper Peninsula.

The Land of the Crooked Tree

U. P. Hedrick

Hedrick writes of his youth on the Michigan frontier.

Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities

Walter Romig

From Aabec in Antrim County to Zutphen in Ottawa County, Michigan Place Names is a compendium of information on the origins of the state’s geographical names.

Luke Karamazov

Conrad Hilberry

An unusually vivid and detailed portrait of Kalamazoo serial killers Luke Karamazov and Tommy Searl.

The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History

William Ashworth

A compelling history of the Great Lakes from their formation in the Ice Age, to their “discovery” by Samuel de Champlian in 1615, and, finally, to their impending death in our time.