Virginia book notes

Books recounting the histories of Virginia's counties crop up with regularity, but few achieve the beauty and breadth of Martha W. McCartney's Nature's Bounty, Nation's Glory: The Heritage and History of Hanover County, Virginia (376 pages, Heritage and History of Hanover County Inc., $49.95).

Among the county's notable residents were Patrick Henry, who practiced law at the still-standing historic courthouse; Dolley Madison, one of the nation's most popular first ladies; Henry Clay, a native of Hanover who went on to fame as a senator from Kentucky; and Edmund Ruffin, who some believe fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.

"Nature's Bounty, Nation's Glory" begins with the story of the county's American Indians and concludes in the 20th century, when Interstate 95 opened the county to new development, including the massive Kings Dominion theme park.

Handsomely produced, lavishly illustrated and blessed with a detailed index, the book surpasses most similar efforts and would grace any coffee table.

McCartney, a Virginia native whose roots extend into Hanover, is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and worked as a historian for the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission.

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Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" -- a collection of stories rightly considered an American classic -- earned a place on a list of transformative works of literature.

But Anderson himself has proved elusive to biographers. Now, Welford Dunaway Taylor, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Richmond, has come perhaps as close as possible to elucidating the writer by editing Sherwood Anderson Remembered (305 pages, The University of Alabama Press, $42.50).

Taylor collects the reminiscences of such literary luminaries as Anita Loos, Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller, Ben Hecht, Lionel Trilling and William Faulkner, as well as other friends and acquaintances of Anderson, to provide a well-rounded and illuminating portrait of his subject. It can be equally rewarding when read in its entirety or sampled in small doses.

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Coaches everywhere expound about the value of sports in teaching life lessons, and Sam T. Chambers and Dr. Bob Rotella take the words to heart in Head Case: Lacrosse Goalie (104 pages, Bright Sky Press, $9.95).

A short novel written for ages 9 to 12, "Head Case" tells the story of Max Speyer, a 10-year-old with a passion for lacrosse who becomes the youngest-ever starting player and then blows his chance.

Rotella is a nationally known sports psychologist who directed the graduate program in his field for 20 years at the University of Virginia. Chambers received his master's degree in sports psychology from U.Va. and now lives in Houston.

The authors emphasize the concept of how to play well while still having a good time and furnish a set of principles outlined after the story.

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Novelist Robert Bausch received the 28th John Dos Passos Prize for Literature from Longwood University on Thursday.

Bausch, the author of six critically acclaimed novels and one collection of short stories, teaches literature and creative writing at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College.

The Dos Passos Prize, which includes a $2,000 cash award and a medal, is sponsored by Longwood's Department of English and Modern Languages. The prize is awarded annually to a writer whose works demonstrates one or more of these characteristics: an intense and original exploration of specifically American themes, an experimental quality, and a wide range of literary forms. The first recipient was Graham Greene, and other winners include Tom Wolfe, Shelby Foote, Annie Proulx and Lee Smith.

-- Jay Strafford