Alessandro Meregaglia, associate professor and archivist/librarian at Albertsons Library, recently published an article about Toshio Mori in the 2022 issue of the Nanzan Review of American Studies, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal based in Nagoya, Japan. Mori is the first Japanese American to publish a book of fiction.
The article examines Mori’s first book, Yokohama, California, and his life growing up in Oakland as the family’s first American citizen. His book was published in 1949 by Caxton Printers, a Caldwell, Idaho, publisher. The history of the local printing company is part of Meregaglia’s larger research project.
Last year, Meregaglia published an article about Mori in The Conversation. An Israeli publisher read it, and contacted him to write the editorial preface to a new edition of The Chauvinist and Other Stories, Mori’s long out-of-print second collection of short stories. Modern Times Publishing released that new edition in June 2022. Woman from Hiroshima, another out-of-print book by Mori, is also slated to be republished with a new introduction by Meregaglia for this book as well.
Meregaglia will discuss Toshio Mori’s literary life on Thursday, Feb. 16, from 10 am – noon at Boise State’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.