Best of
Americana

1971

Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970


Richard Brautigan - 1971
    Richard Brautigan is the author of "Willard & His Bowling Trophies", "Trout Fishing in America", "In Watermelon Sugar" & "A Confederate General From Big Sur".Revenge of the lawn --1692 Cotton Mather newsreel --1/3, 1/3, 1/3 --The gathering of a Californian --A short story about contemporary life in California --Pacific Radio fire --Elmira --Coffee --The lost chapters of Trout fishing in America: "Rembrandt Creek" and "Carthage Sink" --The weather in San Francisco --Complicated banking problems --A high building in Singapore --An unlimited supply of 35 millimeter film --The Scarlatti Tilt --The wild birds of heaven --Winter rug --Ernest Hemingway's typist --Homage to the San Francisco YMCA --The pretty office --A need for gardens --The old bus --The ghost children of Tacoma --Talk show --I was trying to describe you to someone --Trick or treating down to the sea in ships --Blackberry motorist --Thoreau rubber band --44:40 --Perfect California day --The post offices of eastern Oregon --Pale marble movie --Partners --Getting to know each other --A short history of Oregon --A long time ago people decided to live in America --A short history of religion in California --April in god-damn --One afternoon in 1939 --Corporal --Lint --A complete history of Germany and Japan --The auction --The armored car --The literary life in California, 1964 --Banners of my own choosing --Fame in California, 1964 --Memory of a girl --September California --A study in California flowers --The betrayed kingdom --Women when they put their clothes on in the morning --Halloween in Denver --Atlantisburg --The view from the dog tower --Greyhound tragedy --Crazy old women are riding the buses of America today --The correct time --Holiday in Germany --Sand Castles --Forgiven --American flag decal --The World War I Los Angeles airplane

The Abortion


Richard Brautigan - 1971
    Life's losers, an astonishing number of whom seem to be writers, can bring their manuscripts to the library, where they will be welcomed, registered and shelved. They will not be read, but they will be cherished. In comes Vida, with her manuscript. Her book is about her gorgeous body, in which she feels uncomfortable. The librarian makes her feel comfortable, and together they live in the back of the library until the trip to Tijuana changes them in ways neither of them had ever expected.

The Will to Change


Adrienne Rich - 1971
    They discover the point where loneliness and politics touch, where the exercise of the radical courage takes its inevitable toll."—David Kalstone in The New York Times Book Review

The Forging of the American Empire (Human Security)


Sidney Lens - 1971
    Yet American leaders continue to promote the myth that America is benevolent and peace-loving, and involves itself in conflicts only to defend the rights of others; excesses and cruelties, though sometimes admitted, usually are regarded as momentary aberrations.This classic book is the first truly comprehensive history of American imperialism. Now fully updated, and featuring a new introduction by Howard Zinn, it is a must-read for all students and scholars of American history. Renowned author Sidney Lens shows how the United States, from the time it gained its own independence, has used every available means - political, economic, and military - to dominate other nations.Lens presents a powerful argument, meticulously pieced together from a huge array of sources, to prove that imperialism is an inevitable consequence of the U.S. economic system. Surveying the pressures, external and internal, on the United States today, he concludes that like any other empire, the reign of the U.S. will end -- and he examines how this time of reckoning may come about.

My Face for the World to See


Liz Renay - 1971
    Then WW II came and she became a "V-girl," attracting servicemen with her beautiful face and voluptuous figure. Thus began her entry into the world of New York high fashion models and Fifty-Second Street strippers. Fate led her into the underworld, where she became a confidante and girlfriend to important mobsters and shady dealers. From New York she went to Hollywood, where she won a Marilyn Monroe look-alike contest and became a national celebrity; meanwhile her paintings were selling for $5,000 each and her poetry was recorded and broadcast. Then came an indictment and three-year probation for her unwillingness to cooperate with authorities by testifying against the mobster Mickey Cohen. A violation of her probation landed her in prison for three years. Married eight times, appeared before thirteen grand juries, with more lovers than any swinger of her generation-Liz Renay tells the story of her compelling and memorable adventures with honesty and candor.

The Twelfth of August: Biography of "Walking Tall" Sheriff Buford Pusser


W.R. Morris - 1971
    

Confessions Of Edward Dahlberg ( Universal Library, Volume 12 )


Edward Dahlberg - 1971
    

Earl Thollander's Back Roads Of California: 65 Trips On California's Scenic Byways


Earl Thollander - 1971
    Featuring charming illustrations and hand-drawn maps. Also available are Back Roads of Washington and Back Roads of Oregon.

Blues and Roots/Rue and Bluets: A Garland for the Southern Appalachians


Jonathan Chamberlain Williams - 1971
    This new, much enlarged edition of Blues and Roots displays all of the above. Williams has tramped the Appalachian Trail for decades, botanizing, jotting down specimens of authentic American speech, graffiti, superstitions, and nostrums—always curious, alert, and affectionately attentive. Blues and Roots focuses on the linguistic horizon of Appalachia in lyrics of wonder and light, of wit and comic incongruity, in found poems of the speech of his mountain neighbors. Publishers Weekly said of the earlier edition, “One of the most beautiful and evocative tributes to the Appalachians and its people yet published.” Blues and Roots is a fine celebration; Wiliams is a joyful ringmaster.