Used-book sale

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County Public Library's annual summer used-book sale will be held from noon to 4 p.m. June 28 on its plaza, 123 Capitol St. Shoppers should find bargains on books and audiovisual items for all ages. A special collector's corner will feature more valuable books priced individually. Visit www.kanawhalibrary.org for a list of the items in the collector's corner.

Food author to lecture

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Regional food ways expert and author Mark Sohn will speak at 2 p.m. June 28 at MacFarland-Hubbard House. His talk, titled "The History and Culture of Appalachian Food," will conclude the 2009 Little Lecture Series.

Sohn will discuss such foods as well as mountain ingredients, recipes and menus. He will talk about cast-iron cookware, historic phases of mountain food history, food of the Appalachian American Indians, old-timey school lunches, and the mountain farm home place.

Sohn is professor of educational psychology at Pikeville College in Kentucky. He is a foods author, columnist, recipe developer, cooking teacher and food stylist.

Copies of his current book, "Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes," published by University of Kentucky Press in 2005 will be available for purchase at the lecture.

Used-book sale

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County Public Library's annual summer used-book sale will be held from noon to 4 p.m. June 28 on its plaza, 123 Capitol St. Shoppers should find bargains on books and audiovisual items for all ages. A special collector's corner will feature more valuable books priced individually. Visit www.kanawhalibrary.org for a list of the items in the collector's corner.

Food author to lecture

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Regional food ways expert and author Mark Sohn will speak at 2 p.m. June 28 at MacFarland-Hubbard House. His talk, titled "The History and Culture of Appalachian Food," will conclude the 2009 Little Lecture Series.

Sohn will discuss such foods as well as mountain ingredients, recipes and menus. He will talk about cast-iron cookware, historic phases of mountain food history, food of the Appalachian American Indians, old-timey school lunches, and the mountain farm home place.

Sohn is professor of educational psychology at Pikeville College in Kentucky. He is a foods author, columnist, recipe developer, cooking teacher and food stylist.

Copies of his current book, "Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes," published by University of Kentucky Press in 2005 will be available for purchase at the lecture.

Admission is $10 and includes a reception with the speaker following the program at the MacFarland-Hubbard House, 1310 Kanawha Blvd. E. Seating is first-come, first-served. Those interested in attending are encouraged to call the West Virginia Humanities Council at 304-346-8500.

McClain Printing is 50

PARSONS, W.Va. -- McClain Printing Co. is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The Parsons publisher was founded by Ken McClain in 1958, and is now owned by his daughter and son-in-law, George and Mariwyn Smith. Their son, Kenneth, is president and CEO of McClain.

According to a brochure from the company, Ken McClain owned weekly newspaper The Parsons Advocate when he was asked to reprint "Chronicles of Border Warfare" by Alexander Scott Withers, originally published in 1895. Withers' history of Indian warfare in West Virginia is now in its eighth printing.

"Bloodletting in Appalachia" by Howard B. Lee, the history of the mine wars in West Virginia, is in its 14th printing.

Thousands of titles have been printed at McClain including 30 county histories.