Author: Judy Randle; Book Editor

Article Text:

Nationally recognized historian and former Tulsan John Hope Franklin has been selected as the 1996 recipient of the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award given each year by the Oklahoma Center for the Book in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.

Franklin, who was born in Rentiesville in 1915 holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. He has received prestigious Guggenheim fellowships and is James B. Duke Professor emeritus of history at Duke University.

The body of work for which he is being recognized includes "George Washington Williams: A Biography" (University of Chicago Press, 1985), "Racial Equality in America" (University of Chicago Press, 1976), "Color and Race" (Houghton Mifflin, 1968), "The Color Line" (University of Missouri Press, 1992) and many other books.

Franklin will be honored along with finalists in other categories at the seventh annual Oklahoma Book Award Ceremony scheduled March 9 at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. For ticket information call (800) 522-8116.

Franklin will be in Tulsa March 10 for a program at 2 p.m. at Rudisill North Regional Library, 1520 N. Hartford Ave., to meet friends and sign copies of his books. He also plans to do the same at Steve's Books and Sundries, 2612 S. Harvard Ave., following the library program.

Previous Oklahoma Book Award winners include Librarian of Congress Emeritus Daniel Boorstin; former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Carl Albert; Newbery award winner Harold Keith; Savoie Lottinville, who served as director of the University of Oklahoma Press for 30 years; Kiowa poet, novelist and illustrator N. Scott Momaday, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969; and mystery novelist, Tony Hillerman.

The Center for the Book also is announcing category finalists for the 1996 Book Awards. The works must be books by or about Oklahomans. Finalists are:

Fiction

"Double Jeopardy," William Bernhardt of Tulsa, Ballantine Books; "The Way We Know in Dreams," Gordon Weaver of Stillwater, University of Missouri Press; "Where the Heart Is," Billie Letts of Durant, Warner Books; "Forged in Honor," Leonard B. Scott of Edmond, Ballantine Books; "On Second Thought," Maurice Kenny of Saranac Lake, N.Y., University of Oklahoma Press; "The White Gryphon," Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon of Claremore, DAW Books; and "Seven Black Stones," Jean Hager of Tulsa, Mysterious Press.

Non-Fiction

"Beyond the Hills: The Journey of Waite Phillips," Michael Wallis of Tulsa, Oklahoma Heritage Association; "A Very Small Farm," William Paul Winchester of Collinsville, Council Oak Books, Tulsa; "T.C. Cannon: He Stood in the Sun," Joan Frederick of San Antonio, Northland Publishing; "Indian Territory and the United States, 1866-1906," Jeffrey Burton of Hampshire, England, University of Oklahoma Press; "Cherokee Outlet Cowboy: Recollections of Laban S. Records," Ellen Jayne Maris Wheeler, Oklahoma City, University of Oklahoma Press; "Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota," Renee Sansom Flood of Hill City, S.D., Scribner; "Seeking Pleasure in the Old West," David Dary of Norman, Knopf; "Land of Plenty; Oklahomans in the Cotton Fi elds of Arizona, 1933-1942," Marsha L. Weisiger of Madison, Wis., University of Oklahoma Press; "Aunt Carrie's War Against Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant," Carrie Barefoot Dickerson of Claremore, Council Oak Books, Tulsa; and "The Osage and the Invisible World," Garrick A. Bailey of Tulsa, University of Oklahoma Press.

Children/Young Adult

"It's the Fourth of July," Stan Hoig of Edmond, Cobblehill Books; "Gingerbread Days," Joyce Carol Thomas, Ponca City native, HarperCollins; "The Book of North American Owls," Helen Roney Sattler, deceased, native of Bartlesville, Clarion Books; "Watchdog and the Coyotes," Bill Wallace of Chickasha, Pocket Books; "The Pumpkin Man from Piney Creek," Darleen Bailey Beard of Tuttle, Simon & Schuster; "Black Women of the Old West," William Loren Katz, Atheneum; "Graveyard Girl," Anna Myers of Chandler, Walker; "Moontellers: Myths of the Moon from Around the World," Lynn Moroney of Oklahoma City, Northland Publishing; "Princess Nevermore," Dian Curtis Regan of Edmond, Scholastic; and "The Puppy sister," S.E. Hinton of Tulsa, Delacorte Press.

Poetry/Playscript

"A Gathering of Bones," Audrey Streetman of Oklahoma City, published by the author; "A Paleontologist's Notebook," Susan Smith Nash of Norman, Left Hand Books; "Boom Town," Diane Glancy of St. Paul, Minn., Black Hat Press; "Circle of Light," Charles Levendosky, formerly of Lawton, High Plains Press; and "The Trouble With Voices," Francine Leffler Ringold-Johnson of Tulsa, Council Oak Press.

Design/Illustration

"Songdog Diary: 66 Stories from the Road," designed and illustrated by former Tulsan Carol Stanton, Council Oak Books; "Gingerbread Days," illustrated by Floyd Cooper of West Orange, N.J., HarperCollins; "Green Snake Ceremony," illustrated by Kim Doner of Tulsa, Council Oak Books; "Doesn't Fall Off His Horse," written and illustrated by Virginia Stroud of Muskogee, Dial; and "How the Turtle's Back Was Cracked," illustrated by Murv Jacob, Tahlequah, Dial.

Signings

Tulsa author Eddie Faye Gates will be signing copies ofher book "Miz Lucy's Cookies," from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at B. Dalton, Woodland Hills Mall.

Gates' book is a heart-warming recounting of what it was like to grow up in segregated rural Oklahoma in a poor but supportive family with a single goal: an education.

Rita Crompton will be autographing copies of her mystery, "Death by Association," from 1-3 p.m. Sunday at Steve's Books and Sundries, 2612 S. Harvard Ave.

The book, which is set in Tulsa, has several scenes at the Doubletree Hotel and features longtime bellman Bob Guida.

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Caption: Franklin