The golden fields and fragrant wheat of Alamo, North Dakota, were as new and different as the Westgaard family with whom she would live.Teddy Farm life in 1917 was hard and bitter—but tiny, spirited Linnea was determined to brave its challenges. And as World War I threatened to take those she held dear, Linnea grew to womanhood in the arms of Teddy Westgaard, a man who thought he'd never find love.YearsA story of passion. A story of heartache. A story of a way of life that will long be remembered—with people and places as real as the emotions of the heart.

    It is a glorious story of how God can bring life out of death.

    In this new biography, based on a reexamination of Thoreau's manuscripts and on a retracing of his trips, Robert Richardson offers a view of Thoreau's life and achievement in their full nineteenth century context.

    First published in nine volumes from 1889 to 1891, this classic work was out of print for several decades until The Library of America reissued it in two volumes: the first volume on the years of Thomas Jefferson's presidency and the second devoted to those of James Madison.With a cast of characters including Aaron Burr, Napoleon Bonaparte, Albert Gallatin, John Randolph, Toussaint L'Ouverture, and the complex, brilliantly delineated character of Thomas Jefferson, the first volume is unrivaled in its handling of diplomatic intrigue and political factionalism. Upon assuming office, Jefferson discovers that his optimistic laissez-faire principles--designed to prevent American government from becoming a militaristic European "tyranny"--clash with the realities of European war and American security. The party of small government presides over the Louisiana Purchase, the most extensive use of executive power the country has yet seen. Jefferson's embargo--a high-minded effort at peaceable coercion--breeds corruption and smuggling, and the former defender of states' rights is forced to use federal power to suppress them. The passion for peace and liberty pushes the country toward war.In the center of these ironic reversals, played out in a Washington full of diplomatic intrigue, is the complex figure of Jefferson himself, part tragic visionary, part comic mock-hero. Like his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, he is swept into power by the rising tide of democratic nationalism; unlike Bonaparte, he tries to avert the consequences of the wolfish struggle for power among nation-states.The grandson of one president and the great-grandson of another, Adams gained access to hitherto secret archives in Europe. The diplomatic documents that lace the history lend a novelistic intimacy to scenes such as Jefferson's conscientious introduction of democratic table manners into stuffily aristocratic state dinner parties. Written in a strong, lively style pointed with Adams's wit, the History chronicles the consolidation of American character, and poses questions about the future course of democracy.

    This was the push-button age when the flick of a finger promised the end of domestic drudgery and was also described as the Jet Age when cars sprout ed tail-fins.

    It tells the story of one man drifting through America, east coast to west, main stem to side street, endlessly searching for "three hots and a flop"--food and a place to sleep. Kromer scans, in first-person voice, the scattered events, the stultifying sameness, of "life on the vag"--the encounters with cops, the window panes that separate hunger and a "feed," the bartering with prostitutes and homosexuals.In "Michael Kohler," Kromer's unfinished novel, the harsh existence of coal miners in Pennsylvania is told in a committed, political voice that reveals Kromer's developing affinity with leftist writers including Lincoln Steffens and Theodore Dreiser. An exploration of Kromer's proletarian roots, "Michael Kohler" was to be a political novel, a story of labor unions and the injustices of big management. Kromer's other work ranges from his college days, when he wrote a sarcastic expose of the bums in his hometown titled "Pity the Poor Panhandler: $2 an Hour Is All He Gets," to the sensitive pieces of his later life--short stories, articles, and book reviews written more out of an aching understanding of suffering than from the slick formulas of politics.Waiting for Nothing remains, however, Kromer's most powerful achievement, a work Steffens called "realism to the nth degree." Collected here as the major part of Kromer's oeuvre, Waiting for Nothing traces the author's personal struggle to preserve human virtues and emotions in the face of a brutal and dehumanizing society.

    African American Studies. Back in stock in limited quantities. "Eroding Witness" was selected by Michael S. Harper as one of five volumes published in 1985 in the National Poetry Series. "I wake up mumbling, I'm / not at the music's / mercy think damned / if I'm not, but / keep the thought / to myself" ("Capricorn Rising"). Nathaniel Mackey, a native of Miami, Florida, currently teaches at UC Santa Cruz. He edits the magazine Hambone which is available from SPD. Many other publications by Mackey are also available from SPD, including Whatsaid Serif (City Lights), Djbot Baghostus's Run (Sun & Moon) and the CD Strick: Song of Andoumboulou 16-25 (Spoken Engine).

    He reveals the fraught foundations of Hemingway's persona: his father's self-destructive battle with depression and his mother's fierce independence and spiritualism. He brings Hemingway through World War I, where he was frustrated by being too far away from the action and glory, despite his being wounded and nursed to health by Agnes Von Kurowsky—the older woman with whom he fell terribly in love.

    Ernie Mickler’s much-imitated sugarsnap-pea prose style accompanies delicacies like Tutti’s Fancy Fruited Porkettes, Mock-Cooter Stew, and Oven-Baked Possum; stalwart sides like Bette’s Sister-in-Law’s Deep-Fried Eggplant and Cracklin’ Corn Pone; waste-not leftover fare like Four-Can Deep Tuna Pie and Day-Old Fried Catfish; and desserts with a heavy dash of Dixie, like Irma Lee Stratton’s Don’t-Miss Chocolate Dump Cake and Charlotte’s Mother’s Apple Charlotte.

    For several months he drove the empty highways of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, transfixed by the vastness of a country saturated with light and color and energized by the American cowboy mystique. Even in the twentieth century, it was a landscape that had lost none of its evocative, mythic power. This collection of lush, colorful photographs magnificently displays what Wenders' practiced eye sought out: dramatic and visually arresting images, haunting vistas, and the poetic dilapidation of a country touched by man but ruled by nature. An enlightening interview with the photographer reveals the many ways that Wenders, a European traveling in a distinctly American landscape, was both moved by and bemused by what he considers the heartland of the American Dream. It is this sensibility, along with Wenders enormous photographic talents, that lend this collection a unique quality, and that allow us to experience the West in a whole new, brilliantly colorful light.

    He calls us at once to affirm our own identity, but also to look beyond that identity to that which we have in common with all of life.

    As novelist Richard Ford has said, "Dubus is a patient, resourceful and profound writer who never gives in to convention--although his situations are our situations, and imminently recognizable. The great, addictive pleasure of reading him arises from our anticipation that he is always going to say something interesting."

    In Going to the Territory, Ellison provides us with dramatically fresh readings of William Faulkner and Richard Wright, along with new perspectives on the music of Duke Ellington and the art of Romare Bearden. He analyzes the subversive quality of black laughter, the mythic underpinnings of his masterpiece Invisible Man, and the extent to which America's national identity rests on the contributions of African Americans. Erudite, humane, and resounding with humor and common sense, the result is essential Ellison.

    Sears ready-to-assemble houses were ordered by mail and shipped by rail wherever a boxcar or two could pull in to unload the meticulously precut lumber and all the materials needed to build an exceptionally sturdy and well-designed house. From Philadelphia, Pa., to Coldwater, Kans., and Cowley, Wyo., Sears put its guarantee on quality bungalows, colonials and Cape Cods, all with the latest modern conveniences--such as indoor plumbing. Houses by Mail tells the story of these precut houses and provides for the first time an incomparable guide to identifying Sears houses across the country. Arranged for easy identification in 15 sections by roof type, the book features nearly 450 house models with more than 800 illustrations, including drawings of the houses and floor plans. Because the Sears houses were built to last, thousands remain today to be discovered and restored. Houses by Mail shows how to return them to their original charm while it documents a highly successful business enterprise that embodied the spirit and domestic design of its time. After decades of obscurity, Sears houses have become chic. --Wall Street Journal These were . spacious, solidly built homes. --Parade Don't be surprised if your own cozy bungalow turns up [in the book].--Philadelphia Inquirer A nostalgic and informative look at the tastes of Americans in the years before World War II.--Publishers Weekly The bible to researchers of Sears' ready-cut homes.--Saturday Evening Post

    Short Stories by Ann Beattie, Ethan Canin, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff, Alice Munro, Thomas McGuane, Lord Tweedsmuir, Donald Barthelme, Raymond Carver, and many others.

    Narrator Buster Fogg's family is wiped out by a twister in an early sequence described with surreal verve. Buster hitches on with Billy Bob Daniels, a patent-medicine pusher and trick shooter who claims to be the illegitimate son of Wild Bill Hickock, joining an entourage consisting of a kindly ex-slave named Albert, and Rot Toe, the wrestling ape. Adventures on the road, which include swiping the mummified remains of Billy Bob's "pa" and swindling settlers with their concoction of watered-down whiskey, stoke personal tensions that only aggravate troubles when their wagon rolls into Mud Creek and Billy Bob is called out by Texas Jack, a dime-novel desperado who, legend says, intimidated even Wild Bill.Lansdale's affection for the classic western is never in doubt, although he spends much of the novel skillfully deflating the romance of heroic reputations made as much by luck and exaggeration as by skill with a gun. The true charm of the story, though, is in its telling, which melds laconic humor, colorful colloquialisms and outrageous figures of speech into a Twainesque tall tale. This novel endures as a modern western classic. Published in a small print run with limited distribution.- From Publisher's Weekely

    This definitive history of Arlington National Cemetery is told with the dignity, respect, and pageantry that are due one of America's most honored and deeply revered sites.This all-new fourth edition of In Honored Glory brings the history of Arlington up to date, with expanded coverage of ceremonial units, including the caisson platoon; the dedication of the Women in Military Service Memorial; the identification of the Vietnam Unknown; the impact of September 11; the war on terrorism; the war in Afghanistan; the war in Iraq, the Columbia; and other developments since the publication of the third edition.In Honored Glory brings to life the history, happenings, people, and highlights that have combined to make Arlington National Cemetery a uniquely American institution.Topics covered include: A thorough history of the development of the cemetery over time The origins of Memorial Day The construction of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the subsequent history of interments A chapter on the Kennedy gravesites Current burial requirements

    Illustrated with 60 historical duotone photographs.

    Her first novel, the ever-popular The Friendly Persuasion, was conceived as short stories. Among her nineteen books, Love, Death, and the Ladies’ Drill Team and Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell were collections of her independent stories. They, with the addition of eight others never before assembled, make up the thirty-six stories in this vibrant, compelling volume.The variety is breathtaking: a tale of suspense, a romantic idyll, a touch of the supernatural, a young man’s pursuit of a lost love, a glorious awakening in the wilderness, a chilling portrait of sexual torment, the joys and agonies of the young—these are the merest clues to the content. Comedy mingles with tragedy, tenderness with irony. The most ordinary human being is seen as remarkable. And daily existence is touched with magic.Jessamyn West rings changes in time, presents a startling sweep of personalities and moods. Her themes span a breadth of experience from the bite of misery to the balm of delight. Her achievement, taken totally, is a spectrum of living, a haunting, rewarding experience that attests to her consummate skill and extraordinary vision of the worlds before us and within us.

    Edited and with an Introduction by Natalia Danesi Murray; Index; photographs.

    Madison, which he says gives shaky support to judicial review, and concludes with the school desegregation cases of 1954, which he uses to show the extent and limits of the Court’s power.  In this way he accomplishes his stated purpose: “to have the Supreme Court’s exercise of judicial review better understood and supported and more sagaciously used.”  The book now includes new foreword by Henry Wellington.Reviews of the Earlier Edition:“Dozens of books have examined and debated the court’s role in the American system.  Yet there remains great need for the scholarship and perception, the sound sense and clear view Alexander Bickel brings to the discussion…. Students of the court will find much independent and original thinking supported by wide knowledge.  Many judges could read the book with profit.” –Donovan Richardson, Christian Science Monitor“The Yale professor is a law teacher who is not afraid to declare his own strong views of legal wrongs… One of the rewards of this book is that Professor Bickel skillfully knits in quotations from a host of authorities and, since these are carefully documented, the reader may look them up in their settings.  Among the author’s favorites is the late Thomas Reed Powell of Harvard, whose wit flashes on a good many pages.” –Irving Dillard, Saturday ReviewAlexander M. Bickel was professor of law at Yale University.

    Using a multi-disciplinary approach--including analysis of rhetorical style and concept of identity and community--Stout examines more than two thousand sermons spanning five generations of ministers, including such giants of the pulpit as John Cotton, Thomas Shepard, Increase and Cotton Mather, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Mayhew, and Charles Chauncy, as well a numerous lesser-known preachers. Stout reconstructs the full import of the colonial sermon as a multi-faceted institution that served both religious and political purposes, and explained history and society to the New England Puritans for one and a half centuries.

    Its publication in 1902 made clear how much the fur trade was "indissolubly connected to the history of North America." Chittenden brought to this enduring work an appreciation of geography and a feeling for the lives and times of colorful trappers and mountain men like Manuel Lisa, William H. Ashley, the Sublette brothers, Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, and Kenneth McKenzie. He provided a comprehensive view of the fur trade that still remains sound.Volume 1 of the Bison edition includes the organization and financing of the fur trade and a detailed history of the major American companies operating in the trans-Mississippi West to the year 1843.

    with 329 illus. (233 in color) & 56 maps, 4to.

    Families, homes, lovers, marriages -- the safe havens they have been taught to depend on no longer guarantee shelter or stability.ONE WAY OR ANOTHER introduces Peter Cameron as an extraordinary writer, one distinguished not only by his prose, which is always abundantly witty and pitch-perfect, but also by a rare generosity of heart.Included in this book are two stories that were selected for the O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES: "Homework," first published in The New Yorker, and "Excerpts from Swan Lake," first published in The Kenyon Review.

    

    One follows geological research that challenged the scientific paradigm of the early 20th century, and the other chronicles the result of that research: the discovery of powerful prehistoric floods that shaped the Pacific Northwest. The cataclysms at the end of the last Ice Age left a scabland of buttes, dry falls, and rocky gorges, but it took the detective work of geologist J Harlen Bretz to prove it to the world. His lifetime of research and unshakeable belief changed geology forever.