From the Editor by Craig Stark #53, 3 October 2005

The plan for the BookThink team was to write about Franz Kafka's mistresses this week. Or Kafka himself. Or something. Catherine Petruccione ably held up her end of the bargain, delivering a fascinating interview with renaissance woman Kathi Diamant, author of Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant. Me? Well, you know how it goes sometimes. I start off on the right track, but before you know it I'm on some side trip looking for a way to kick the topic back to bookselling. Which I readily managed to do. In any case, if you aren't already exploiting the market niche that's showcased in lieu of Franz and mistress Felice Bauer, profits are waiting. Sorry, Cathy!

I'm often reminded that not all of BookThink's traffic is driven by booksellers. It's interesting to note, for example, that one of our most frequently accessed articles is one on, of all things, pigeons.

Common sense tells me that few if any of these browsers are booksellers looking for tips on selling pigeon books. Much more likely they are pigeon fanciers. By contrast, last week I received a letter from a reader who had happened upon one of our least accessed articles, one on Native Americana Picture Books of Change.

Turns out she knew Hoke Denetsosie, one of the artists discussed in the article. Here's her letter:

My name is Barbara Lehman Ames, and I found your site on a search for Hoke Denetsosie, a friend of ours at the Indian School. He was an art student, my mother (Ivy Dent Lehman) encouraged him to paint, and he was at our house many times. Before we left Phoenix he had given my mother a painting in oil of Superstition Mountain. I now have it. It was something that I feel he practiced his oil technique on, and as I was only nearly 11 when we left there, I do not know all the details of the painting, but it has his name printed on it (by him), "H DENETSOSIE."

I am going to be in Phoenix the 26th to the 30th to see the exhibit of the Indian School days at the Heard Museum. I have been wanting to see this exhibit since I first heard of it, and my oldest daughter is treating me to it for last Christmas and my birthday, the 28th of Septenber!

I am going to take along a copy of the picture and show it to the Museum people to see what they think of it. By the way, I read your whole article about education of the Native Americans, and I remember both Mr. Collier and Mr. Beatty. When my family left Phoenix we went to Sequoyah Indian School in Tahlequah Ok, where my father continued to teach for many more years.

I would like to hear from you, and I am going to have my son watch Ebay to see if he can find one of the Little Herder books!

Sincerely, Barbara Ames