He became a Texas Ranger, and fought as an American in the Mexican-American War, and roamed the Southwest with other mountain men such as Kit Carson. He belongs to that class of pioneers and trappers, now extinct, of which the famed Kit Carson, who was for many years the companion of the author, has been considered the most perfect type. In addition to his experiences as a hunter and trapper, we have an account of his life as a prisoner among the powerful and warlike Comanches, his adventures as a trader in Mexico, his services as interpreter and guide, under Doniphan, in our war with Mexico, and with the Liberals in the Franco-Mexican war as Captain of artillery, as well as his experience in mining in the days of the “ forty-niners” in California, and elsewhere. Probably no man then living passed through so varied and exciting a life as this one. Hobbs writes: "I was nearly full grown when I found an excellent chance to join a fur company that had just started out from St. Louis, under the lead of Charles Bent, and were going out to a fort and trading-post called Bent’s Fort, some three hundred miles south of Pike’s Peak on Big Arkansas river. The party consisted of about sixty men. The more prominent hunters were Charles Bent, Guesso Chauteau, William Savery, and two noted Indian trappers named Shawnee Spiebuck, and Shawnee Jake." On this expedition, he was captured by the Camanches, with whom he spent four years, marrying the daughter of "Old Wolf". Four years later, was ransomed by Charles Bent, who paid Old Wolf when the Indians had come to trade at Bent's Fort. It was during this time at Bent's Fort that Hobbs went out trapping with Kit Carson, and he became his lifelong friend. Hobbs became one the most famous mountain men, trappers, and fighter, partly due to his years of training in the ways of the wilderness with the Comanche. Hobbs writes: "IN the foregoing pages I have endeavored to give an account of a portion of my adventures in a life of more than usual peril and excitement. I was induced to publish this account by the earnest recommendation of many friends. It has been written out, as I have had time, entirely from memory, as I never kept a diary of events, never thinking that I should publish my experiences. For this reason, I have been unable to give exact dates in all cases; but as the object I had in view, was not to publish a history of the country where I have been, but to relate personal adventures, this will not prove, I hope, any drawback to the interest of the reader. As far as the narrative relates to my transactions, I have confined myself to the literal facts. "In looking back over my life, I find that although I have not, perhaps, always obeyed the Golden Rule, yet it is a great satisfaction to me to think of the numbers of my fellow beings I have been instrumental in saving from death and misery at the hands of savages, and from the horrors of starvation. "And now, that my labors in this direction are completed, I shall probably retire to my California home, and devote myself to stock raising. Hoping that this narrative may prove of interest to the reader, I will say -—GOOD-BYE." Originally published in 1872; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain an occasional imperfection; original spellings have been kept in place.

    Charles Goodnight knew the West of Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, St. Vrain, and Lucien Maxwell. He ranged a country as vast as Bridger ranged. He rode with the boldness of Fremont, guided by the craft of Carson. His vigorous zest for life enabled him to live intensely and amply, and in this book by J. Evetts Haley, himself no stranger to the West, provides a fully readable and important western biography, vividly told, thrilling, witty, and completely authentic.

    He was eager to begin his first practice, but it turned out to be more than he bargained for. In just two years, in September, 1918, the entire village was sickened in rapid succession in the flu pandemic that killed quickly and indiscriminately throughout the world. It was wartime, and Nixon was unable to find help., This story is an up close and personal account of what it was like to be sick with the HINI type virus in 1918. It is a tale of a dedicated doctor whose selflessness, compassion and courage helped the villagers survive in the pandemic that killed more people in a year than the Black Death killed in a century...

    It rejoices in men and women made of the Wrong Stuff: writers who believed in the power of words, but could never quite find the rights ones; artists and performers who indulged their creative impulse with a passion, if not a sense of the ridiculous, an eye for perspective or the ability to hold down a tune; scientists and businessmen who never quite managed to quit while they were ahead; and sportsmen who seemed to manage always to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Like Walter Oudney, one of three men chosen to find the source of the River Niger in Africa, who could not ride a horse, nor speak any foreign languages and who had never travelled more than 30 miles beyond his native Edinburgh; or the explorer-priest Michel Alexandre de Baize, who set off to explore the African continent from east to west equipped with 24 umbrellas, some fireworks, two suits of armor, and a portable organ; or the Scottish army which decided to invade England in 1349 - during the Black Death. Entries include: briefest career in dentistry; least successful bonding exercise; most futile attempt to find a lost tribe; most pointless lines of research by someone who should have known better; least successful celebrity endorsement; least convincing excuse for a war; worst poetic tribute to a root vegetable; least successful display of impartiality by a juror; Devon Loch - sporting metaphor for blowing un unblowable lead; least dignified exit from office by a French president; and least successful expedition by camel.

    Though tragic, it is also a story of triumph that scarcely has an equal. It is one of history's great witnesses of the power of faith and sacrifice. Although this story is one of the most frequently told of all Mormon pioneer accounts, it is also among the least understood. This book provides the most comprehensive and accessible account of these pioneers' epic 1856 journey. In addition to painting a broad perspective of the trek, it includes dozens of personal stories from the pioneers themselves. Woven into the larger story of the journey west, these stories inspire, build faith, recount miracles, and reveal how these pioneers were able to endure such adversity. The book also includes chapters on the lives of many of these pioneers after the handcart trek. Immerse yourself in the challenges and miracles of this astounding odyssey as never before!

    Warring nations came together to honour tradition and celebrate their shared humanity, proclaiming an unofficial ceasefire as they swapped food, sung carols, and even played football matches against one another. It is one of those very rare moments during the bloody twentieth century which provide a glimmer of light. It is in some ways the great overlooked moment of the past century – moving, hopeful and filled with possibility. But how was it viewed at the time? And why did it never successfully happen again? What risks did the men in the trenches run, how did it come about, and did it change their view of the enemy? The Christmas Truce has become a symbol of hope for human beings working together in desperate situations. But historians have argued ever since about its significance, ranging from those who believe it was an irrelevance to those for whom it was a moment of enormous significance – and part of that argument is the question of when - and why - the truce officially ended. This book is designed to tell the story of the truce to a wider audience, as a compelling narrative, stitching together first-hand accounts of the soldiers who lived through it. A hundred years on, it is still a moment that resonates with audiences around the world.

    Baseball Prospectus 2013 brings together an elite group of analysts to provide the definitive look at the upcoming season in critical essays and commentary on the thirty teams, their managers, and more than sixty players and prospects from each team.Contains critical essays on each of the thirty teams and player comments for some sixty players for each of those teamsProjects each player's stats for the coming season using the groundbreaking PECOTA projection system, which has been called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model" (Sports Illustrated)From Baseball Prospectus, America's leading provider of statistical analysis for baseballNow in its eighteenth edition, this New York Times bestselling insider's guide remains hands down the most authoritative and entertaining book of its kind.

    From his first days on the island he came to know and love fishing and the sea. For the next twelve years the famed author called the island his home. His years in Key West became the most crucial and prolific years of his life. During that period he wrote Death in the Afternoon, Green Hills of Africa, numerous important short stories, To Have and Have Not, and began For Whom the Bell Tolls. He also created and became his own living legend, self-consciously constructing the swaggering image known to the world as Papa.In the early 1970s journalist James McLendon seized the opportunity to interview Ernest Hemingway’s Key West friends who remained alive. A Key West resident himself, McLendon wrote this book by combining his knowledge of the island with his conversations and with the extensive Hemingway-related material held by the Monroe County Public Library. McLendon recreates the slow-paced, sub-tropical setting, the island’s Depression years, and the people and places that infused and inspired Hemingway. These were the years that saw his love affair with Martha Gellhorn and the crumbling of his marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer. Beyond letters and legal documents, too little of the Hemingway era in Key West is found in biographical studies. Because this book was first published in 1974, much of what exists in those studies today is derived from this manuscript. This book gives us a penetrating look at the significance of the Key West era in Hemingway’s career. James McLendon was a columnist for the Key West Citizen, a creative writing instructor and a freelance writer. His dispatches and articles appeared in various U.S. newspapers and magazines, including UPI wire services, the Christian Science Monitor and Writers Digest.

    Twenty-two years later, he did. April 1945 – Berlin. The world had been at war for more than five-and-a-half years – approximately seventy million people were dead across the globe. The epicentre of the twelve-year-old Third Reich was now surrounded, enveloped by bitter Soviet forces hardened by Nazi barbarity in the east over the last four years. As the buildings were blasted into rubble, pounded by Russian guns and bombs, before their troops and tanks, Hitler was hunkered down in his last headquarters – the dark and damp bunker under the Reich Chancellery. As the Third Reich began to crumble as fast as the city’s buildings, what was the state of mind of the tyrant? Only his closest and fanatical allies saw the collapse, none more so than Hitler’s servants, Otto Gunsche and Heinz Linge – two individuals which witnessed the final act of their regime. An act tinged over the last ten days in late April with selfish betrayal, increasingly forlorn hope, pleas, desperation and eventually suicide. As the Soviets closed in with impending vigour, in the concrete tomb below ground and under the thunderous booms of the petrifying battle for Berlin, the mind of the dictator disintegrated into drugs, delusion and a determination to die. Not by the enemy bullet but one of his own. This is the story of the people who held a unique place in world history – the ones who were there when the nightmare of Nazism and the horrors which accompanied it was finally banished as a dark chapter in the story of the human race.

    His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him. He has served as model, mentor, supporter, and friend to at least two generations of the world’s most talented and influential singer-songwriters. In songs like “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” L.A. Freeway,” “She Ain’t Going Nowhere,” and “Texas 1947,” Clark’s poetic mastery has given voice to a vision of life, love, and trouble that has resonated not only with fans of Americana music, but also with the prominent artists—including Johnny Cash, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Jeff Walker, and others—who have recorded and performed Clark’s music. Now, in Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, writer, producer, and music industry insider Tamara Saviano chronicles the story of this legendary artist from her unique vantage point as his former publicist and producer of the Grammy-nominated album This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. Part memoir, part biography, Saviano’s skillfully constructed narrative weaves together the extraordinary songs, larger-than-life characters, previously untold stories, and riveting  emotions that make up the life of this modern-day poet and troubadour.

    Along the way, he shares his unique perspective on running, life, religion and spirituality.These essays will motivate and inspire you not only to run but also to test and push your limits, to conquer your fears and above all, to relentlessly pursue your dreams and passion.

    But too often he is viewed as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint alongside the Virgin Mary. Not only does this neglect one of the Bible’s most complex stories of sin and redemption; it also bypasses the gritty life lessons inherent in the amazing true story of David.  Mark Rutland shreds the felt-board character, breaks down the sculpted marble statue, and unearths the real David of the Bible. Both noble and wretched, neither a saint nor a monster, at times victorious and other times a failure, David was through it all a man after God’s own heart.

    Rehder, the man CBS News once described as "America's secret weapon in the war against bank robbers," chronicles the lives and crimes of bank robbers in today's Los Angeles who are as colorful and exciting as the legends of long ago. The mild-mannered antiques dealer who robbed more banks than anyone else in history. The modern Fagin who took a page out of Dickens and had children rob banks for him. The misfit bodybuilders who used a movie as a blueprint for a spree of violent robberies.In a fast-paced, hard-edged style that reads like a novel, Where the Money Is carries us through these stories and more—all within a pistol shot of Hollywood, all true-life tales as vivid as anything on the big screen.

    An extensive subject review covers the following general areas: Foundations of World Civilization (8000 B.C.–1000 A.D.) World Cultures Maturing (1000–1450) World Cultures Interacting (1450–1750) World Cultures in the Modern Era (1750–1914) The 20th Century and Contemporary World Cultures (1914–2009)

    From 'swilling and swirling' to 'Syrah and Chardonnay', The Bluffer's Guide to Wine contains everything you need to know to pass yourself off as an informed imbiber.