Swedenborg Foundation Press, publisher of the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in the U.S. for more than 150 years, is showcasing its newest titles. Despite publishing only 10 books a year, the Pennsylvania publisher sees benefit in attending BEA as part of the Independent Book Publishers Association at booth 3047.
“Because we’re so small, we meet people at BEA we wouldn’t normally be in touch with,” says executive editor Joanna Hill. “It’s a way for us to know what the industry is doing, as well as getting our name out there. It gives us more exposure.”
One of the draws at the booth this year is artwork from the June release Getting into Heaven—and Out Again by Albrecht Gralle. Sally Blakemore’s zany, New Yorker–style cartoons illustrate images of heaven and hell that the book describes. Gralle offers a fresh look at Swedenborg—an 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian—and the afterlife about which he wrote most often.
Swedenborg is giving away a limited number of copies of Getting into Heaven—and Out Again at the booth, and taking orders for full sets of the Blakemore drawings on display in the booth.
The publisher is distributing blads—of two other titles with ties to Swedenborg. The Core of Johnny Appleseed: The Unknown Story of a Spiritual Trailblazer by Ray Silverman (Oct.) explores this American icon’s ties to Swedenborg, including how he’d rip out passages from his books and distribute them along with apple seeds.
Promotional material also is available for Ghost Brother Angel by Grant Schnarr (Oct.), one of the press’s most popular authors. In what is described as a supernatural memoir, Schnarr, a minister, recalls seeing the ghostly figure of a child who aged through the years. When he finally revealed this to his mother, she told him of an older brother who had died before Schnarr was born. The memoir reinforces Swedenborg beliefs about children maturing in the afterlife.
