Prized in America, Banned in Arabia

Vista, CA, June 12, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Biography of the Year
Benjamin Franklin Awards 2009

Thomas Lippman's Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy USMC and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East was awarded the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Award for biography of the year by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Presented annually, the award represents the best work of the association’s more than 6000 members. Karla Olson of Book Studio accepted on behalf of Selwa Press at the awards ceremony May 28th, 2009 in New York.

Arabian Knight, the story of Colonel Bill Eddy USMC, often called America's Lawrence of Arabia, has been championed by many readers, but few as eloquent as retired General Anthony C. Zinni USMC who wrote,

"This exceptional biography is a must-read for those who want to understand the roots of our relations in this troubled part of the world and the effect one remarkable individual had in building them."

In a related development Selwa Press announced that Arabian Knight has been officially banned by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Information.

Interviewed today at Selwa's offices in Vista, California, publisher Tim Barger noted that this wasn't his first book to be banned in the kingdom. "August 17th 2004, the day after my daughter Khamisah's wedding, I received an email that Out in the Blue had been banned in Arabia - after three years of robust sales. I was disturbed but chose not to publicize the ban. The Saudis have enough detractors without my encouraging them."

Asked to comment on the banning of Arabian Knight Mr. Barger said, "In these days of global satellite TV and the internet, it is almost quaint to think that banning a book could accomplish anything - except embarrassment for the banning authority, be it a school board in Kansas, a commission in Brussels or a ministry in Arabia.

"More than a million Saudis read English; proportionately it would be as if tens of millions of ordinary Americans could read Arabic. To deny these Saudis the opportunity to read in English about the history of their country might be considered a free speech issue, I see it as a restraint-of-trade issue, the trade in ideas, something more valuable than money.

“The foundation of any society is an informed citizen. To discourage the serious reading of history in a country awash in Egyptian soap operas, Bollywood and Hollywood DVDs, slick personality magazines, and disposable popular music is just plain self-destructive.”

Barger said that he wouldn't submit his latest release, Nestor Sander's Ibn Saud: King by Conquest, to the ministry for its approval because, “I know that it’s too factual to meet their standards. Instead we’re offering the book exclusively at www.KingByConquest.com and Amazon." He also noted that the entire Selwa Press catalog will soon be available as Ebooks.

Mr. Barger concluded his remarks by thanking the IBPA for the Benjamin Franklin Award and saying, as Ben might have put it, "Many people will tell you what you want to hear, only your true friends will tell you what you need to know."

Released by www.AramcoExpats.com
8 June 2009
Author: Carolyn Fox

Arabian Knight
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Selwa Press (September 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0970115720
www.SelwaPress.com

Tim Barger was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and spent most of his first 30 years in the kingdom. Selwa Press hosts websites at www.outintheblue.com and www.SelwaPress.com and a You Tube channel at SelwaVideo.

Selwa Press debuted in 2000 with Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940, a best-selling, true story of romance and adventure in the deserts of early Arabia. In 2005 Selwa published The Unfurling by the poet Nimah Nawwab, the first Saudi poet to ever be published in the United States. In 2007, for the first time in America, the company published the lost desert classic, Discovery! The Search for Arabian Oil by Wallace Stegner, introducing thousands of Americans to a way of life rooted in the days of Abraham and biblical nomads.

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