Mississippi Books

This is a very comprehensive listing of steamboats, where they were built, their size, who was Captain if known, etc. It also includes some, but not a lot, very nice photographs of steamboats. The only drawback is that the index is not comprehensive. My gg grandfather had only two listings in the index by his name, but he was actually mentioned in one additional listing for a total of three. So a bit of due diligence is required.

I believe this to be the best riverboat/steamboat reference I have ever come upon. It is the most complete I have ever seen although it is not totally complete. This is a book you cannot be without if interested in river travel history. I will never sell mine.

Way's is an almost staggering achievement. Mr. Way (now deceased) spent approx. 80 years of his life collecting this information. There isn't any other source that comes close to Way's if you need to know about steamboats on the Western Waters (Pittsburgh westwards).

This book gives an excellent account of what life was like in the South during the fight for Civil Rights. I was familiar with the case of the Freedom Summer Civil Rights Activist being murdered in Mississippi. This book goes into great detail about that case and other things that were taking place in the Civil Rights Movement at the time. I think this is book is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil Rights Struggle. I felt as if I were there watching the events as the unfolded. They really did their homework for this. It's a great tribute the Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman and all the others who worked along side them to change ideology of the Deep South during this time.

Every so often we need to refresh our memory of the bad things that happened in our lifetime. That is why I read books about the Holocaust. It is also why I read this book, telling of what Mississippi was like for black people in the early 1960s. The murder of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney on June 21, 1964, is a defining event in the struggle to bring Mississippi to greater respect for the basic liberties guaranteed to Americans. This book tells the story in some detail, and also covers other events leading up to the murders. And there are some pages telling what has happened since (up to 1988, when the book was published). Very worthwhile and carefully done.

Even if you already know the story of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney, this book is very detailed and interestingly put together. The background information on the freedom summer project and other activists is insightful, and this book reads like a story, and not just as boring facts. I recommend this book to everyone.

Crone's portrayal of the South in mid-twentieth century is an authentic, gripping view of dysfunction and perceived reality. Claire's understanding of her parents' world grows as she grows. The use of multiple narrators through time to tell the story draws the reader in, even though the individual stories can stand on their own, complete with power, narrative shape, and characters you care about. Like Larry Watson's view of Montana in his novels, Crone makes no real judgment, simply recites the events from vantage points that bring the reader to her own conclusions. Worth reading and re-reading.

These haunting short stories cover about 50 years in a North Carolina town...each story can stand on its own, but since many of the characters weave in and out of all of them, the book is really more like a novel (similar to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio). The narrators include some of the main characters, so the style of each tale varies; moreover, the people aren't freaks, as many of Sherwood Anderson's characters are----so what happens over the years in this small town is moving and meaningful to the reader in the way that the best literature becomes part of our lives.

Fayton, N.C., is a small town in Moira Crone's imagination, but it will strike a truthful chord with anyone who has experienced small-town life, with all its claustrophobic joys and troubles. The South is familiar territory to this New Orleanian, who teaches at Louisiana State University. In "What Gets Into Us," a story collection that also works as a fragmented novel with varying points of view, Crone depicts the tangled lives of Southern families -- the secrets of the neighbor next door, the waves of change that came with the civil rights movement and feminism and greedy development. Springing out into the world or slouching homeward, Crone's characters are as real as real can be.

In "The Ice Garden," winner of the Faulkner/Wisdom Prize, Crone tells a story of Claire McKenzie, one of the most engaging characters in this collection. Daughter of a troubled mother and a father in denial, Claire has more than her share of difficulties to face, but she does, and head-on, as is often the way with Crone's female characters.

Crone knows the tangled ties of mothers and daughters: "After a while I had the thought that my mother was very brave, compared to other people," Claire says. "Because it was so hard for her to live, knowing all she knew, feeling all she felt, as disappointed as she was, as confused and jealous. My mother needed beauty to keep her going. There was just no other way for her. She could never get enough. I must be just like her, I thought, then I thought, no."

As with Ellen Gilchrist's beloved Traceleen, Crone's African-American domestic workers often provide the most telling perspectives. Sidney Byrd returns to town for her friend Pauline's funeral and has tea with a grown-up Lily Stark, whom Pauline once rescued from a terrible situation. "At the sight of her serving me, I think, well, the time has finally come when Lily and I can talk as if there had been one life in that town in those days, and not two, the one at the front door and the one at the back. But soon I learn."

Crone has a gift for the telling phrase that conjures a time, a shared perception. Remember those parties, 'the kind where there was a huge dance band, white tablecloths, rum and Coke, and dinner"? Or the days when "There were big state hospitals then, with nice grounds, which were peaceful, some of them -- people lived in such places for years, their whole adult lives. Families could take a person there and drop them off." Or consider this description of a desperate woman: "She is old now, but she can still throw herself at strangers." Or "Being a lady is all about ignoring things." Entire eras, types of people, states of mind are summoned in Crone's gorgeous, memorable sentences.

As time works on Fayton and exacts its inevitable toll on human life and spirit, Crone's families -- the Senders, the Starks, the McKenzies, the Cobbs -- experience loss and change, abuse and betrayal and sometimes redemption. The drug of place -- sometimes intoxicating, sometimes poisonous -- gets into the town's inhabitants with its changing architecture, its difficult, sometimes blinding, sometimes obscuring, light. Crone wholly imagines the lives of these people, who might be you or me, in the house next door in any Southern town, with all the lights on and everybody home, dark secrets in every corner.


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Book editor Susan Larson can be reached at slarson@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3457.

if there was ever a book about the great Willie Morris, then Jack Bales has "done it". Jack Bales has put forth a labor of what must be a love, in order to render a result that leaves us all with the greatest Willie Morris book. I will commit in writing that after just a day with Mr. Bales' book, "Willie Morris" I felt the wont to re-read "North Towards Home" and drive up from Jackson, Mississippi along that great black top highway 49 to YAZOO CITY.

I love everything about it. Practically inhaled the narrative going home on the bus last night. Love the pictures, love the way it is put together. And most of all, just as the author intended, re-love Willie's dear heart. Jack Bales has done a magnificent job on this detailed chronicle of the works of Willie Morris.

One of the quotes from a letter to Willie from Bill Clinton, reminded me why Willie's writing is cherished by many Mississippi expatriates. To find that someone so intelligent and articulate could unashamedly announce to the world that it's OK to love poor, conflicted Mississippi, in fact, is even inescapable if you have childhood ties there, not only excuses our chronic homesickness, it validates it, and lets us know we are in great company! Whenever I would see Willie's name appear as the author, my heart would do a little dance, because I knew something wonderful was in store for the reader. Jack Bales has honored him SO well. Beautiful, beautiful book.

This book reflects a phenomenal amount of research into this legendary southern author. It is a must have for anyone who collects Willie Morris, or for any library's reference section (or biography section). My knowledge of the author's life was expanded with the biography. The first night's reading I could not put the book down. The biography itself could have been a book standalone. The biography is scattered with rich pictures from Willie's youth which I had never seen before.

The annotated bibliography shows years of research by Mr. Bales, and is impressive in both content and complexity. I doubt anyone ever knew the amount of work by and about Willie Morris before Mr. Bales took on this quest. This book will become a tool for my collecting obsession similar to Polk's "bible" on the works of Eudora Welty.

This is a quick and thoroughly enjoyable collection of interviews with 15 different artists that worked with Walt Disney at the Studios. Mr. Peri states in the Acknowledgements that he was prompted by Didier Ghez (editor of the Walt's People series) to finally collect the interviews and publish them. Thanks both to Don and Didier! Most of the interviews were conducted in the late 1970's with artists that spent most of their career working at the Disney Studios. What surprised me at first was how the artists were all enchanted with Walt Disney; after reading a multitude of Disney biographies, you do get the sense that Walt was a benevolent dictator--but a dictator nonetheless. A majority of the artists interviewed stuck with Walt during the Animator's Strike of 1941. If you study any work on Disney and animation, the Animator's Strike is often seen as a watershed in the history of the Studio, prompting the mentality that Walt lost a lot of faith in his employees. With the interviews presented by Peri, you get a sense that Walt did favor the artists that stuck by him. I finished Walt's People Volume 1 (Ed. by Ghez) shortly after this title. There are some similarities in the scope of the two books, but they are both valuable resources on their own. The interviews presented by Peri were done at a time when there was not a lot being written about the artists that worked directly with Walt Disney. After reading the interviews, you come away with a sense of what it was like to work with Walt Disney and to work at the Studios. I feel like I have a better understanding of how Walt worked during the early years of the Studios. The artists included animators, designers and voice actors:

* Ken Anderson
* Les Clark
* Larry Clemmons
* Jack Cutting
* Don Duckwall
* Marcellite Garner
* Harper Goff
* Floyd Gottfredson
* Dick Huemer
* Wilfred Jackson
* Eric Larson
* Clarence Nash
* Ken O'Connor
* Herb Ryman
* Ben Sharpsteen

The stories and anecdotes that each artist shares are humorous, wistful and passionate. These artists truly loved their jobs and working with Walt Disney.

"...he didn't think of himself as Walt Disney. He thought of Walt Disney as an entity, an organization, and he spoke of Walt Disney as an organization, for which everybody worked and not the personal part of the name. A lot of people put Walt down because they didn't get along with him or they got canned or they were chewed out by him, and naturally they probably make more or less severe remarks about him and understandably so. He had a great ego, and because of this ego he could overcome a lot of difficulties and obstacles because he believed in himself. He believed what other people didn't believe, and he was proven right time after time after time, even with the bankers. Snow White was called "Disney's Folly," because what--an animated cartoon to run for over an hour? It's Impossible! Nobody will sit through a cartoon that long. Well that was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

--Les Clark (p. 123, Working With Walt)

Bottom Line: This is a wonderful resource to have at hand. It is not for everyone--you really need to have an interest in animation, the studios or what working with Walt Disney was like in order to fully realize the necessity of a title like this. I give it a high Geek Factor rating because of its focus, even though the book is extremely accessible and easy to read. But if you are interested in learning a lot about the artists, the studio and Walt Disney, this is a great place to start or to add to your collection. This book will foster a greater appreciation for the animated films and shorts. It is also one of the few places you can read the actual words of the artists that never received a lot of acclaim outside the arena of animation fans.

As a dedicated Waltphile, I believe there can't be too many books about Walt Disney. Don Peri's excellent collection of interviews with many rarely heard from Disney Legends helps to make that case.

Working with Walt offers these artists their own day in the sun at long last and more fully rounds out the portraits of Walt painted by biographers and authors like Bob Thomas (Walt Disney: An American Original), Howard and Amy Green (Remembering Walt), and Pat Williams (How to Be Like Walt).

In the late 1970s, Don Peri was a young man who happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture so many of these voices, now gone from us forever. He has done a more than admirable job in offering us these priceless interviews. In the book, he hinted that more had been conducted than are in this volume. Hoping that means we can expect a Working with Walt, Volume 2!

Nice job, Don. I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about what made Walt's studio and career so singularly remarkable, as told by those who lived the legend.

How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life (How to Be Like) WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL Remembering Walt

What a wonderful collection of interviews Disney historian Don Peri has assembled in his book Working With Walt: Interviews With Disney Artists. Many of the Disney artists featured in this book are relatively unknown, but highly influential in the development of the incomparable art of Disney animation and entertainment.

Through interviews with the artists who worked directly with Walt Disney, some from the very early days before Mickey Mouse even started talking, this book opens a window into what it was like to work and create with the genius Walt Disney. Fifteen animators, directors, art designers, and voice actors tell their stories of how they first started working for Disney, what it was like to meet the legendary man himself, their (usually) fond memories of Walt, and the joy of creating during the golden age of animation in the 1930s. The artists vivid details of life at the Disney studio, poignantly recalled, bring the reader back in time and place to where the magic happened - Mickey found his voice, Snow White went from a dream to life, and a magic kingdom was built. The darker times are recalled too, the constant financial strains of the early days, the strike that almost ended the studio (and did end many friendships), the strain of working 20 hours a day to create the perfect animation, and Walt's last few weeks.

The author's admiration for Walt Disney and the Disney artists shines through each interview, with his adept interviewing skills used to draw out deep memories and emotions from the Disney artists, many of whom rarely granted interviews, but all of whom spoke candidly about the complexity of Walt Disney, who could be full of praise one moment, and in the next, express disappointment like a "wounded bear" over animation that didn't meet his exacting standards of perfection.

We are granted insights worth many an "E-Ticket" from the voice of Donald Duck, the voice of Minnie Mouse, the great animators from almost the very beginning, the creative story artists, the designers of Disneyland, and even the man who drew the daily Mickey Mouse comic strip for decades. I had never heard of any of these Disney artists before reading this book, but they are all unsung heroes in the Disney phenomenon. This book is sure to be part of every Disney fan's library, and I highly recommend it.

This book is an extremely valuable contribution to the history of American art. Kirschke carefully describes and explains the life of Aaron Douglas----from his childhood in Kansas, to the heights of the Harlem Renassaince, and to his teaching position at Fisk University in his twilight years. Kirschke captures the essense of both the Harlem Renassaince and the life of Aaron Douglas with superb research and excellent prose.

For those who have become interested in Douglas' art, this sets it and his life in a broader context. Very satisfying.

There's a lot written about war and, increasingly, about the lingering effects of war, fighting, and fear on the psyche. Battle trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome have been increasingly well documented. It's not only male writers who've tackled the subject. Pat Barker's painfully luminous novels about the First World War come to mind, and Susan Griffin wrote an outstanding and unclassifiable book, A Chorus of Stones about public and private wars in her family. But Betsy Howell's brave and beautiful memoir of two important American wars through the eyes, words, and memories of her great-great-grandfather, a Union soldier in the Civil War, and her father, a paratrooper in Normandy in WWII, is something special. Not content to just read through her great-great-grandfather's war diary, she donned a uniform herself and became a Civil War re-enactor, toting a musket and even wearing a fake beard for a few battles. These passages of the memoir are hilarious at times; but the book ultimately has a deeply serious task--to come to terms with how war may have affected her father, James Howell, and contributed to his alcoholism. Howell's relationship with her delightful but damaged father as a child and as a young adult are touchingly told. I admired the research that went into backgrounding and shaping this story, and even more admired how Howell isn't afraid to mine her past for the truth about her family. She obviously loves the place she grew up--the Northwest--the Civil War, and her parents, and all that love and curiosity enriches and balances a story about soldiers and what happens to them and their loved ones. I really recommend it.

This is an amazing work of narrative non-fiction. I was riveted from the first page. Ms Howells' prose is elegant without being prosaic; tender without being sappy, and literary without talking above the reader. The most exciting thing about this work is the way she links three different time periods together so seemlessly that you are spirited into each world without hesitation. I have never read a book that captures the impact of war on men, on women and on families in such a personal way. It is a journey anyone who has been impacted by any war should take. Truly hearthbreaking while also breathing hope into the simple experience of memory. A joy on every level.

this book i recomend for standard readers.I liked it alot!
Very interesting about curing warts.Loved it alot, hope
the people that read it liked it too.From my rating from 1-10
i'll give it a 9.Thanks for reading.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures Huckleberry Finn as great book to read. It's way better than the movie, like most books are. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry do things that would give your life such a rush. The adventures they go through and the trouble they get into is just great. Children these days can't do some of the stuff they do without being gounded for life or send to a military camp, but on thing they can do is use there imagination like Tom and Huck do in this book. This is a really good book to read and it feels like your part of the book, which is a cool feeling. This is one of my all time favorite books. I read it once already but I just want to open it and start reading it again. Mark Twain, AKA Samuel Clemens, had a taste for adventure now it's your to taste it. There are many moods to go thrugh in this book happy, sad, angry and etc. Just got to read it. There is excitement around ever corner.Uproariously funny, Tom and Huck even run away awhile, to show you how hard it is to live on your own if your a kid to see how hard it is to support yourself on you own. There is even a murder in this story and it's a cool court case to. But there more not like I'm going to tell you, Oh Ok you pulled my leg hard enough. They also fine buried tresure enough said. I hope you read this book. ENJOY

This is a reprint of a book published in the 19th century. A source book for all other books on the Adena and the Hopewell. A Must have.

Ancient Monuments (more familiarly known as "Squire and Davis") is the undisputed primary reference source on Indian mounds in the eastern US till the mid-1800s. While there were a few others (such as Caleb Atwater's book), Squire and Davis offers the grandest illustrations of what remained of the unbelievable civilizations that inhabited this continent. Even as they published in 1848, hundreds of mounds were being plowed into oblivion; so few are still extant that theirs is the only guide to what was lost. The text is enjoyable on many levels, and can be forgiven for any lapses of scientific accuracy. They trekked over Ohio at a time when we weren't even sure who made the mounds, so everything they recorded is gold. The engineering prowess, the sheer magnificence and scale of some of the works, is astounding.

I have been unable to get my hands on this book. I needed to do research on a particular Andrew Wyeth print - the artist, the subject and the person selling this print. I was able to get all the information from the library and wanted a copy of this book to help explain a "note" from the artist on this print. The book arrived in a timely manner and was in good condition. I will now look to Amazon for future hard to find books.

If you have nearly every Andrew Wyeth book and decided to skip this one, think again! I checked this out by looking at one at the public library and counted over 50 paintings and drawings not found in his other books. It is an absolute must buy for Wyeth fans. The thing that struck me most as an artist and photographer was the many way he found of posing his subjects. It is a textbook on portrait painting, and the reproductions are very good, as good as you are going to get with Wyeth. I find that I go back to this one time and again.