This lost world of stately pomp and unspeakable cruelty, artistic splendor and abysmal ignorance—the seeming opposite of brashly optimistic, commercial, democratic 19th-century America—engaged Twain’s imagination, inspiring a children’s classic, and astonishing fantasy of comedy and violence, and an unusual fictional biography.Twain drew on his fascination with impersonation and the theme of the double in The Prince and the Pauper (1882), which brilliantly uses the device of identical boys from opposite ends of the social hierarchy to evoke the tumultuous contrasts of Henry VIII’s England. As the pauper Tom Canty is raised to the throne, while the rightful heir is cast out among thieves and beggars, Twain sustains one of his most compelling narratives. A perennial children’s favorite, the novel brings an impassioned American point of view to the injustices of traditional European society.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) finds Twain in high satiric form. When hard-headed Yankee mechanic Hank Morgan is knocked out in a fight, he wakes up in Camelot in A.D. 528—and finds himself pitted against the medieval rituals and superstitions of King Arthur and his knights. In a hilarious burlesque of the age of chivalry and of its cult in the 19th-century American South, Twain demolishes knighthood's romantic aura to reveal a brutish, violent society beset by ignorance. But the comic mood gives way to a darker questioning of both ancient and modern society, culminating in an astonishing apocalyptic conclusion that questions both American progress and Yankee “ingenuity” as Camelot is undone by the introduction of advanced technology.“Taking into account … her origin, youth, sex, illiteracy, early environment, and the obstructing conditions under which she exploited her high gifts and made her conquest in the field and before the courts that tried her for her life, she is easily and by far the most extraordinary person the human race has ever known.” So Twain wrote of the heroine of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), his most elaborate work of historical reconstruction. A respectful and richly detailed chronicle, by turns admiring and indignant, Joan of Arc opens a fascinating window onto the moral imagination of America’s greatest comic writer.

    R. Fehrenbach Book Award, Texas Historical Commission Summerfield G. Roberts Award, Sons of the Republic of Texas Honorable Mention, Certificate of Commendation, American Association for State and Local HistoryHardly were the last shots fired at the Alamo before the Texas Revolution entered the realm of myth and controversy. French visitor Frederic Gaillardet called it a "Texian Iliad" in 1839, while American Theodore Sedgwick pronounced the war and its resulting legends "almost burlesque."In this highly readable history, Stephen L. Hardin discovers more than a little truth in both of those views. Drawing on many original Texan and Mexican sources and on-site inspections of almost every battlefield, he offers the first complete military history of the Revolution. From the war's opening in the "Come and Take It" incident at Gonzales to the capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Hardin clearly describes the strategy and tactics of each side. His research yields new knowledge of the actions of famous Texan and Mexican leaders, as well as fascinating descriptions of battle and camp life from the ordinary soldier's point of view.This award-winning book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Texas or military history.

    Levy's colorful cast of characters interact with the real-life people and events of the time, and it's all seen through the eyes and mind of a good-hearted/learning-to-be street smart New Jersey gas-station mechanic named Buddy Palumbo, whom several reviewers have likened to Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. A self-published book that made it big (now in its eleventh printing!), rave reviews everywhere, a true cult classic, and has been used in high school and college-level English Lit classes.

    Gutman Prize and the Gustavus Myers Center for Study of Human Rights Outstanding Book Prize. Publication of this book was supported by a grant from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana.

    An outstanding observer of the American scene, he became one of the world’s best-loved broadcasters, and a foreigner who helped Americans better understand themselves.Here, in print for the first time, is a collection of Cooke’s finest reports that celebrates the inimitable style of this wise and avuncular reporter. Beginning with his first letter in 1946, a powerful description of American GIs returning home, and ending with his last broadcast in February 2004, in which he expressed his views on the United States presidential campaign, the collection captures Cooke’s unique voice and gift for telling stories.Gathered in this volume are encounters with the many presidents Cooke knew, from Roosevelt to Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush, both Senior and Junior. His friends are warmly recollected–among them Leonard Bernstein, Philip Larkin, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, and Katharine Hepburn. We observe a variety of political landmarks–the Vietnam War, Watergate, Cooke’s remarkable eyewitness account of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, through to the scandals that surrounded Clinton and the conflict in Iraq. His moving evocation of the events of September 11 and its aftermath remains essential reading, while his recollections of holidays and sporting events remind us of Cooke’s delight in the pleasures of everyday life.Imbued with Alistair Cooke’s good humor, elegance, and understanding, Letter from America, 1946—2004 is a captivating insight into the heart of a nation and a fitting tribute to the man who was for so many the most reassuring voice of our times.From the Hardcover edition.

    But, despite his success, he was plagued by depression and alcohol and haunted by a sense that he had more to achieve—and a finite amount of time and energy to achieve it.This Library of America volume collects the novels written during this crucial period; defying the odds, Faulkner continued to break new ground in American fiction. He delved deeper into themes of race and religion and furthered his experiments with fictional structure and narrative voice. These newly restored texts, based on Faulkner’s manuscripts, typescripts, and proof sheets, are free of the changes introduced by the original editors and are faithful to the author’s intentions.Go Down, Moses (1942) is a haunting novel made up of seven related stories that explore the intertwined lives of black, white, and Indian inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha County. It includes “The Bear,” one of the most famous works in all American fiction, with its evocation of “the wilderness, the big woods, bigger and older than any recorded document.”Characters from Go Down, Moses reappear in Intruder in the Dust (1948). Part detective novel, part morality tale, it is a compassionate story of a black man on trial and the growing moral awareness of a southern white boy.Requiem for a Nun (1951) is a sequel to Sanctuary. With an unusual structure combining novel and play, it tells the fate of the passionate, haunted Temple Drake and the murder case through which she achieves a tortured redemption. Prose interludes condense millennia of local history into a swirling counterpoint.In A Fable (1954), a recasting of the Christ story set during World War I, Faulkner wanted to “try to tell what I had found in my lifetime of truth in some important way before I had to put the pen down and die.” The novel, which earned a Pulitzer Prize, is both an anguished spiritual parable and a drama of mutiny, betrayal, and violence in the barracks and on the battlefields.

    Scott Weidensaul shows how geology, ecology, climate, evolution, and more than 500 years of human history have shaped one of the continent's greatest landscapes.

    It's 1871, and he's lost his farm, his wife, and his dog to a band of marauding hooligans. With nothing to live on but a desire to recover what is rightfully his, Marder is forced to enlist the help of the best tracker in the West: a black man named Bubba.

    He comes to her in visions--the hard-muscled stranger who promises to save her from certain death. She never dares hope that her fantasy love will hold her in his arms . . . until the virile and magnificent dream appears in the flesh.

    Even during his lifetime, tales of the sharpshooting, skilled woodsman were—to his delight—told, retold, and elaborated on. As a US congressman, the former Creek War militiaman steadfastly opposed President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. As a soldier, he made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for an independent Texas. Nearly two centuries after his untimely demise, he remains a legendary figure in American lore.   In this fictional account of Crockett’s life, author Cameron Judd offers a nuanced portrait of the man behind the myth. He depicts Crockett’s triumphs as a hunter, cattle drover, warrior, and legislator in riveting detail and poignantly illustrates his subject’s hardscrabble youth and complicated relationship with his father. Meticulously researched and rich in vibrant action, Crockett of Tennessee captures the charisma, ambition, and bravery of the man known as the “King of the Wild Frontier.”

    In this enticing collection, he argues convincingly for the things that have mattered in his full and exhilarating life. He and his interviewers cover the range of his engrossing works that stirred obscenity charges, as well as his life as an expatriate, his loves and conquests, his goals, his beliefs, and his probing insights into the culture that produced him and repulsed him.These conversations serve as a retrospective visit with one of America's most distinctively opinionated, most singularly identifiable, and most invigorating authors.

    Failing to take a degree, he struggled for more than a decade to establish himself as a writer, always putting his work first. Eventually he enjoyed an extraordinary period of creativity during which he summoned a powerful vision of the Depression. Books such as Of Mice and Men, The Long Valley, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath became battle cries that aroused international indignation and brought Steinbeck a world audience.Jay Parini explores Steinbeck's love-hate relationship with Hollywood and Broadway, his career as a war correspondent, his difficult first and second marriages, and his often tempestuous associations with numerous celebrities, among them Joseph Campbell, Charlie Chaplin, Lyndon Johnson, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. Drawing on interviews with dozens of people who knew Steinbeck intimately - including his beloved third wife, Elaine - and on published and unpublished letters, diaries, and manuscripts, John Steinbeck is both an important reassessment and a masterful portrait of one of the greatest American novelists.Includes bibliographical references (p. [489-506]) and index

    

    In The Gangster Film, series editor Phil Hardy has created yet again a landmark in film reference.Included in this lavish volume are critical entries on more than 1,500 gangster films, complete with plot synapses and credits, and 650 black and white photographs to capture the look of this exciting genre. Arranged chronologically, The Gangster Film offers deliciously opinionated and detailed descriptions, statistical information, credits and trivia from early classics such as Public Enemy, Key Largo, Dragnet, and On the Waterfront to contemporary blockbusters such as The Grifters, Chinatown, The Godfather, and Pulp Fiction. Essential, authoritative, and entertaining, The Gangster Film is the guide for serious students of film, film buffs, and home viewers.

    New York Times bestselling author Jekel delivers the second spectacular novel in her trio of southern sagas--the stunning story of a family that carves a sensuous and compelling life out of the untamed wilderness of the Carolinas, from the first settlement on Roanoke Island through the Civil War.

    It was a fascinating era which began when Jackie Robinson & Larry Doby pioneered baseball integration; & it ended when the N.Y. Yankees lost their dominance of the game. This was the era of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roy Campanella, &, for the first time, baseball games were televised -- live. The collective voices of 65 ballplayers tell the story of the era: from pitching no-hitters & arguing with managers to alcoholism, groupies, race problems, salary negotiations, & fights on & off the field. This volume tells the real story of a wonderful era of baseball history -- in the words of the only men who could tell it, those who made it live for us. Photos.

    In the retelling of this oft-told saga, Brown has demonstrated once again his abilities as a master storyteller and an entertaining popular historian. By turns heroic, tragic, and even humorous, The American West brings to life American tragedy and triumph in the years from 1840 to the turn of the century, and a roster of characters both great and small: Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Dull Knife, Crazy Horse, Captain Jack, John H. Tunstall, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, Wild Bill Hickok, Charles Goodnight, Oliver Loving, Buffalo Bill, and many others. The American West is about cattle and the railroads; it is about settlers who came to claim a land not originally their own and how they slowly imposed law and order on these wild and untamed places; and it is about the wanton destruction of the Native American way of life. This is epic history at its best and popular history at its most readable. This new work is culled from Dee Brown’s highly acclaimed writings, which instantly established him as one of America’s foremost Western authorities. Fully revised, rewritten, and edited into one seamless account of America’s most famous frontier, this epic narrative, along with the introduction and a chronological table of events, etches an unforgettable and poignant portrait. The American West is at once a tribute to the West and a majestic new peak for a writer whose long and successful career has been synonymous with excellence in frontier history.

    In this collection of stories, love and danger, risk and betrayal are the guides into uncharted territory.

    The region's culinary originality derives from a historic union of native American, European and Mexican cultures, each contributing its own distinctive cooking traditions to produce what we know today as Southwestern fare. This cuisine is sumptuously presented in Southwest the Beautiful Cookbook with more than 200 recipes illustrated with stunning full-color photography. Noted Pheonix-based cooking teacher and food writer Barbara Pool Fenzl has gathered recipes that combine innovative techniques and dynamic food combinations with historic methods and ethnic contibutions to produce dishes as vibrant and exciting as the Southwest itself; shellfish tamales with ancho cream, quail salad with pumpkin seeds, sopiapillas and jalapeño chutney and so much more.Complementing the recipe chapters are informative essays by noted author and Southwest enthusiast Norman Kolpas, along with glorious photography that bring this wonderful region to life on the printed page. The people, geography, and history of the area are skillfully portrayed in scenic photography and richly anecdotal text. Home to such awe-inspiring natural wonders as the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde and the Sonoran Desert, this region is a land of austere beauty, rich culture and a uniquecuisine that is very much alive in this gorgeous addition to the Beautiful Cookbook® series.

    The Refiner's Fire presents a new and comprehensive understanding of the roots of Mormon religion, whose theology promises the faithful that they will become gods through the restoration of ancient mysteries and regain the divine powers of Adam lost in the fall from Paradise. Professor Brooke contends that the origins of Mormonism lie in the fusion of radical religion with occult ideas, and organizes his book around the two problems of demonstrating the survival of these ideas into the nineteenth century and explaining how they were manifested in Mormon doctrine. In the concluding chapter, the author provides an outline of how Mormonism since the 1850s gradually moved toward traditional Protestant Christianity. As well as religion, the book explores magic, witchcraft, alchemy, Freemasonry, counterfeiting, and state-formation. John L. Brooke is professor of history at Tufts University and the acclaimed author of The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1713-1861 (CUP, 1989), which has won, among other prizes, the Organization of American Historians' Merle Curti Award for Intellectual History and the National Historical Society Book Prize for American History.

    Washington III, Greg Cox, Christopher Golden, and many more - here are spectacular new tales of Spider-Man adventure!Each story has a new or classic illustration by a Spider-Man artist from old favorites to today's hot talents, including Steve Ditko, John Romita, Bob McLeod, Ron Lim, Mark Bagley, and Rick Leonardi.

    Bursting with his distinctive, highly detailed, full-color paintings, drawings, sketches, and photographs from his own collection--and embellished by his own verse--Heartland will be a true source of joy and inspiration to his many fans. Like An American Celebration, his best-selling 1985 book, Heartland presents a warm and romantic view of the hard work and quiet pleasures of nineteenth-century American life. But Heartland goes beyond that volume in presenting the artist's creative world--the sources of his inspiration."There is a simple message in my work," Charles Wysocki has always said, "and it is love." As shown within the pages of Heartland, that love infuses all his work. More than an art book, Heartland is the personal chronicle of Wysocki's unique vision. It is a treasure to cherish and appreciate for generations.

    'African American Firsts' is a reflection of that prideful legacy.

    It begins with the Harlem Renaissance, continues through civil rights, the Black Arts Movement, and on into contemporary debates of poststructuralist and black feminist theory. Drawing on a quote from Frederick Douglass for the title of this book, Angelyn Mitchell explains in her introduction the importance for those "within the circle" of African American literature to examine their own works and to engage this critical canon. The essays in this collection—many of which are not widely available today—either initiated or gave critical definition to specific periods or movements of African American literature. They address issues such as integration, separatism, political action, black nationalism, Afrocentricity, black feminism, as well as the role of art, the artist, the critic, and the audience. With selections from Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, W. E. B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Barbara Smith, Alice Walker, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and many others, this definitive collection provides a dynamic model of the cultural, ideological, historical, and aesthetic considerations in African American literature and literary criticism. A major contribution to the study of African American literature, this volume will serve as a foundation for future work by students and scholars. Its importance will be recognized by all those interested in modern literary theory as well as general readers concerned with the African American experience.Selections by (partial list): Houston A. Baker, Jr., James Baldwin, Sterling Brown, Barbara Christian, W. E. B. DuBois, Ralph Ellison, LeRoi Jones, Sarah Webster Fabio, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W. Lawrence Hogue, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, Deborah E. McDowell, Toni Morrison, J. Saunders Redding, George Schuyler, Barbara Smith, Valerie Smith, Hortense J. Spillers, Robert B. Stepto, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, Mary Helen Washington, Richard Wright

    However, we are dealing here with what may eventually be referred to as jazz dance, and we could not think of a more suitable title."The characteristic that distinguishes American vernacular dance--as does jazz music--is swing, which can be heard, felt, and seen, but defined only with great difficulty. . . ."--from the Introduction

    Numerous never before published photos and artifacts.

    With the tenacity of Pinkerton agents, the couple tracks the outlaws and the enigmatic Etta Place through South America, where they fled in 1901. Meadows and Buck rove Argentinian pampas, Chilean deserts, and Bolivian sierras; pore over faded newspapers and musty documents; exhume skeletons with the aid of forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow; unearth eyewitness accounts of Butch and Sundance’s final holdup and the Bolivian shootout; and examine letters by the bandits and interviews by the Argentine police who investigated their activities. Information about William T. Phillips, who claimed to be Butch Cassidy, is also included. While filling in the blanks in the Wild Bunch saga, Meadows explores the nature of truth and discovers how myths are made. She updates the search with a new afterword to this edition.

    Twenty-eight of these men were found dead in a ravine after the fighting ceased. But which ravine? Why couldn't the army find their bones only a few years later? Why didn't archaeological excavations uncover any remains? The answers, finally, are at hand.

    Lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs, paintings, drawings, and artifacts.

    Each letter of the alphabet is accompanied by a phrase and famous piece of art, from aristocrat to Zen via Rousseau's jungle cat and Egyptian cat sculpture.

    Five softcover texts feature short authentic multicultural selections organized by genre, with nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama units in each book, plus an Oral Tradition unit in Plains Native American Literature.Extends the study of American history through multicultural literature.Reading Level: 6-7Interest Level: 6-12

    Lee Pefley, a man who makes misanthropy look benevolent, decides to flee the decay and drudgery of New York City for his childhood home in Alabama. Accompanied by his beloved wife Judy ("short and possibly getting shorter"), $19,000 in hundred dollar bills, a supply of pilfered library books, and a pistol, Lee sets out on a bleakly hilarious tour of the eastern states. A passionate lover of classical literature, an incurable kleptomaniac, an overwrought paranoid, and a hopeless insomniac, Lee looks at the world through uniquely hallucinatory, and definitely not rose-colored, glasses. The view is spectacularly original.