Tennessee Books

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie's house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It thought me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also thought me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Thunder on the Tennessee
By:
G. Clifton Wisler

The main character in the book was Willie Delamer. Willie is a boy who left his house with his dad to go fight the Yankees. He is very brave but also scared in battles.


Willie dreams of honor and glory as he goes to fight the yanks with his dad. Outfitted in a dashing uniform, Willie helps the Second Texas regiment to defend the banks of Tennessee. But Willie never thinks what horror this would bring to his family.


The story takes place all over Tennessee. Its also at Willie house, and the banks of Tennessee river.



The theme was all about the Civil War.


I loved this book. It taught me a lot of things. It thought me that sometimes people have war because of one little stupid thing they said or did. This book also taught me to always love your dad, and appreciate the things he does for you.

Vendler is one of the great critics of the writing of Stevens. In this small work she focuses on shorter works, " Anecdote of the Jar" " The Emperor of Ice Cream" "Postcard from the Volcano" "The Rivers of Rivers in Connecticut" " Of Mere being " "The Dove in Spring" "Somnambulisma". She sees Stevens as tormented by thwarted desire , and gives a certain degree of detail regarding his difficult personal life, including his unhappy marriage.
She writes of his ' sexual loneliness in old age' as reflected in his poem 'The Dove of Spring' of the claims of 'sensual desire against the reasoning mind'(To an Old Philosopher in Rome)of his writing in a posthumous voice about the collected poems, (The Planet on the Table) where "he sees his life work contained in a single object, the potential book lying before him on a table'. She writes of his especially close relation to Keats, another one of the great musical poets.
Vendler's work is filled with profound and arresting insights, though often difficulty and awkwardly expressed.
This small book helped me read and understand Stevens poetry in ways I had not before.
And I suspect it will do so for other lovers of the poetry of Stevens.

This is a collection of four lectures on Wallace Stevens, concentrating on shorter poems, and mostly (though by no means entirely) late poems. She argues for Stevens as a poet of passion, particularly the passion of one who desires but cannot have the object of desire -- or desires to desire but can no longer fulfill his desire, perhaps because of age.

I found this very helpful, very readable, very acute. And definitely a prompt to read some of the intense shorter poems more closely -- I had lately been concentrating on the remarkable long poems. My appreciation for Stevens only grows with each closer reading, and Helen Vendler's work is very helpful in pointing the way to more perceptive reading.

I acquired the book principally because I was baffled by the poem "The Emperor of Ice-Cream." and hoped that Vendler might have something to say on the topic. As was to be expected, she did much more than offer a few clues. Her reading of the poem is extraordinary - spot on so far as I can tell - and a revelation. (I had thought perhaps we were in an Ice cream Emporium.) With her help, one can see Stevens as sane, human, passionate, very intelligent --- a real poet addressing fundamental, and often distressing, issues.

Vendler is clear, lucid, illuminating, and tough minded. An awfully tough combination to beat. On top of that she is concise and accessible to the educated but non-professional academic such as myself.

I was reading yesterday a review in The New Yorker about the recent books on atheism: how good it is and how true, and it struck me how little room there is in our culture's collective mind for independent question. We know all about God, both his existence and his non-existence. We're big knowers of metaphysical things. But really we know next to nothing, and mostly we are not aware enough to even realize that. But if one begins to realize, one finds oneself with very little personal or cultural company, which is why I am so grateful to Helen Vendler for this group of lectures on Stevens.

Her discussions of Emperor of Ice Cream and A Plain Sense of Things in another book were my introduction to Stevens' work, prior to that I had thought he was not worth the trouble. It turns out that he is, to use a phrase he never would have used, an incredible poet - incredible in the sense of astoundingly good, not literally incredible. But incredible because often in his work one all at once recognizes a thought, an intellectual intuition one never expected to find expressed anywhere, let alone a 20th cenury poem. Like an unexpected sequence of chords that tears you apart.

Helen Vendler has a talent for getting to the essence of poems and poets, getting to the question at the core of the words. Poetry isn't really an end in itself, no art is. It is the artifice by which we understand better that of which we are merely moments. Which is to say that great poets and those who introduce them do truly help the angels as they try to save mankind.

Getting back to gratitude, I'm glad that Stevens wrote the way he did, that he was the way he was. I'm glad he insisted on his singular path, this shy, honest, loving being.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BQ4EWXI8X74C This book transcends genre -- it's a good collection of memoirs, entertaining style, nice splash of humor, an extremely detailed travelogue with beautiful photographs, a good description of technology, a touch of Science Fiction (since it is purportedly written by a Artificial Imagination program) and suffused with philosophical musing and last but not the least, a moving love story.

Even though it's obviously written by a Technologist, the book is very human. It is primarily about the immigrant experience, but Kalpanik is extremely observant and has an eye to look for the unusual, notice what stands out and build humorous side of people, places and his own life.

Wonderful! I am specially moved by his bitter-sweet love story at the end.

Here are some poster size photos and calendars from the book:

Scenic City and Boat Photo Poster
University of Washington Photo Poster
Seattle Secenic Sunset Photograph
Thonging At the Beach
San Francisco Scenic Union Square Photo Poster
Nashville Tug Boat on Cumberland River Photo Poster
"Playing Guitar" Photo Poster
Pike Place Market Photo Print
Beach Hotties Poster

This book combines elements from good humor, a memoir, a scenic travelogue, a touching love story, science fiction and philosophy.

Whether you ever wondered about meaning of it all, or you want to read something light amusing, or want to see places like Seattle, San Diego, Nashville from the eyes of the writer, or vicariously live the life of a
student at University of California, this book is for you!

The author, purportedly an Artificial Imagination computer program simualting a life/career journey through the Hi Tech and yet very sdcenic world of California and Washington (Settle) is witty still though down to earth and funny! The book is written in a very conversational style, as if you are reading a letter from a close friend!!

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RH3902RKHGQYG reat book, will make you laugh, smile, giggle, chuckle, giggle, crack up, guffaw and generally have a good time. Extremely nice photos. And it is actually very thoughtful, one can quickly see through the pretended thoughtlessness. Here are some posters and calendars with the high resolution versions of the book:
Scenic City and Boat Photo Poster
University of Washington Photo Poster
Seattle Secenic Sunset Photograph
San Francisco Scenic Union Square Photo Poster
Nashville Tug Boat on Cumberland River Photo Poster
Pike Place Market Photo Print
"Playing Guitar" Photo Poster
San Diego Scenic Waterfront Poster

This book transcends genre -- it's a good collection of memoirs, entertaining style, nice splash of humor, an extremely detailed travelogue with beautiful photographs, a good description of technology, a touch of Science Fiction (since it is purportedly written by a Artificial Imagination program) and suffused with philosophical musings.

Even though it's obviously written by a Technologist, the book is very human. It is primarily about the immigrant experience, but Kalpanik is extremely observant and has an eye to look for the unusual, notice what stands out and build humorous side of people, places and his own life.

Wonderful! one can feel a touch of his bitter-sweet experiences but one is encouraged by his ability to find humor everywhere.

Great book, love it! It's hilarious! I could not stop giggling, I cracked up page after page. Really Nice!

And so many nice photographs. I was traveling with the author, feeling his ambitions, his surprise, excitement and pain. And what a brave soul! He (yes, despite its claims to have been written by an AI program, this book is written by a loving, feeling, breathing human for sure!)--He is able to maintain his sense of humor even as he moves from one place to another, faces one set back after another! He always comes back!

Wow! What a story!!

Oh, And the love story in the end is touching.

Williams's ear for dialogue, his eye for character, his exploration of love, longing and loneliness are as powerful in these short stories as they are in his plays. On occasion, the glimmer of a future work rises out of the text, such as the line, "But the sweet bird of youth had flown from Pablo Gonzales..."

Rarely do we assimilate Williams with short fiction, but Williams rivals Hemingway as being the greatest American short story writer. Never have I enjoyed every story in a collection before. His descriptions are concentrated and explode visions in the mind. The characters are richly unique and completely human and explore all the details of life so many never see. Good for a big time read, a partner on the beach, and as a study guide for society. A must own!!

For a small price you get the best of Tennessee Williams with forty-nine stories packed into 570 pages of crisp oblique dialogue that will keep you awake at night as you laugh in bed with the turn of each page. His characters are so unusual that you can only describe them as cast of freeks that we all recognize at one time or another in our travels. Mr. Williams short stories are a wonderful contribution to his craft and the American reader. The only negative is that I could not buy this in hardcover so I could share it with my yet-to-be-born children and grandchildren!

During his career as one of America's most distinguished playwrights (The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, A Strretcar Named Desire), Tennessee Williams also produced four volumes of short stories. The contents of these volumes are combined with Williams's unpublished stories.

As Gore Vidal, the author of the introduction, notes these stories are "the real autobiography of Williams's art and inner life."

The stories are arranged chronologically, beginning with a vignette about his father and the Williams family. Whether written early or late in his life, the prose is pure Williams, related in his distinctive voice.

Together these pieces form a mosaic of his life and work, splendid dramas and vignettes that puzzle, surprise and enrich us.

- Gail Cooke

Tennessee Williams: Collected Stories (1985) is a highly readable if frequently unpleasant volume by an author who, like the Scottish novelist Muriel Spark, is one of the uncelebrated masters of the short story form. Beginning with Williams' first published work and including stories written just before his death in 1983, most of the pieces, which originally appeared in literary journals, are very much of their time, and thus powerfully reflect the degree to which Williams internalized the shame and self hatred he experienced as a homosexual male in a predominantly heterosexual and anti-homosexual society.

Never less than forthright to the point of bluntness, several of the stories wantonly revel in the repulsive and the grotesque, and thus seem intended not merely to illuminate but to shock and repel. In essence, many of the pieces seem like both acts of revenge and blows against the empire, but Williams was awkwardly wielding a double-edged sword, one which did not by any means only reveal the hypocrisies of those he intended to mock and revile.

In 'Hard Candy,' for example, an obnoxious elderly man who has been a lifelong 'secret' homosexual dies by choking while on his knees during a sexual act with a young drifter he solicits. Thus the story's title refers not to the sweets the man carries in his pocket as a means of establishing an opening dialogue with attractive strangers, but to a portion of the drifter's anatomy. Williams clearly intends the irony of the title to be so blatant as to be unironic, and this doubling, reflexive quality unequivocally establishes 'Hard Candy' as a piece of dark, unabashed camp humor. But such humor will always find only a limited receptive audience, especially since most camp humor today seems like little more than a long and happily outmoded culture artifact.

Throughout Collected Stories, most of Williams' homosexual characters are depicted in caricatural fashion, whether as overly poised, somewhat brittle aesthetes or as shrill, irresponsible merrymakers whose singular goal is continual sexual interaction with as many partners as possible. Those that fit neither of these categories are poorly socialized and isolated, but never developed in other ways so that they become shadow-casting, three dimensional characters for whom homosexual responsiveness is but one factor in their existence.

Not surprisingly, it is the objects of these characters' desire whom Williams depicts sympathetically, but these men, who are usually young, handsome, muscular, and somewhat unintelligent if not brutishly stupid, are typically one dimensional caricatures as well. In his short stories, Williams was at his best when describing those "betwixt and between" men who are ostensibly heterosexual but nonetheless nonchalantly open to passive sexual intercourse with other men, especially if money is involved. Thus, 'One Arm,' the story of a boxer who loses a limb in an automobile accident and then drifts into hustling before finding himself on death row for murder, is one of the most fully realized works in the volume.

Collected Stories also includes a number of powerful stories which revolve around heterosexual characters, such as the Caldwellesque 'Kingdom of Earth' and 'Miss Conte of Green,' but in these, as in the others, brutality, coarseness, and lasciviousness are the order of the day, and qualities such as integrity, respect for others, and fundamental human decency are presented as little more than sham social hypocrisies that have little genuine presence in actuality. Also included is 'The Knightly Quest,' a brilliant, extended piece of sociological science fiction which hilariously examines governmental attempts at cultural control and world domination as Williams perceived it in the Cold War era.

I received this for christmas last year and have really enjoyed it. The pictures are great and it makes a wonderful coffee table book. No one and resist flipping thru it.

Like Amazon's pairing, and featured on National Public Radio, The Encyclopedia of Appalachia and The United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America, are two excellent and landmark books in understanding the history, cultures and social importance of the Southern Mountains to our country. The Encyclopedia is divided into several sections: land, people, economy, culture, and institutions (such as schools, media). Like any encyclopedia, the entries are short but concise, and provide just enough information to inform but not bore you and give a long list of resources for more scholarship. The experts and authors that contributed to the book come from colleges around the South and nation. Just leafing through this opus is rewarding. The richness and diversity of the region come through in every section. The United States of Appalachia is similar in its theme -- that Appalachia has been overlooked and undervalued -- but it provides more in-depth and inspiring portraits of Appalachian Americans who have been on the cutting edge of American innovations and social movements. It is divided into several parts: music, American Revolution, abolitionist movement, labor movements, literature, civil rights movement, and the environment.

Both of the these books are indispensable and highly recommended for all readers interested in history and life from one of our country's most misunderstood regions.

I was priviledged to be at the Appalachian Studies conference where this mammoth work was unveiled, and it achieves it's purpose: it is a tremenous reference for all things Appalachian. I first knew about the encyclopedia when my father was contacted a few years ago to author a few articles for inclusion in the agriculture section. The editors have worked hard to find the most qualified people to write in every section- my dad grew up in Buchanan County, Virginia on a sustenance farm, and is now an agronomist who works for the University of Kentucky. Every contributor is this qualified!

One note: if you are looking for an "introduction" to the Appalachian Region, this is not it. This is more of a reference, reading this cover to cover would be somewhat comparable to reading the dictionary through, I would imagine. If you want an introduction, go for "A Handbook to Appalachia", by University of Tennessee Press, or, for a less scholarly but quite interesting take, the Foxfire series.

When I got my copy of the Encyclopedia, I was very impressed. I can't wait until I have time to sit down with it for a long while and simply browse through its pages and see how many new things I learn. As an undergraduate researcher in Appalachian Religion, I look forward especially to reading the religion section as edited by Howard Dorgan (whom I luckily had the chance to meet at the conference), the premier authority on religion in Appalachia.

For all scholars of Appalachia, this reference is invaluable.

This captures the sense of "being there", and pulls the reader into Appalachia history, like reading a good novel.

Concisely edited for maximum impact, without loss of content.(a fine balancing act by the editors, that took over a decade to compile!)

This is so engaging, tha I have bought several as gifts.

Outstanding documentation, and great storytelling abound.

Reference, coffetable, and personal library uses are a must.

As a undergrad who is finishing up my studies in History with a minor in Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State-I will go on and get my master's in Appalachian & Bluegrass studies .
This is a well-written resource that is full of any information of the Appalachia's. From literature, religion, mountain music, conservation, culture, movies, Foxfire,-more than you can digest in one reading.

The author breaks each catagory down in sections that deal with a specific topic. This is a must for your library. This is a thick volume that should have been broken down into 4 volumes. the book is very bulky and heavy. I guess all the education and reading does weigh a lot!

If Mark Twain comes back from the dead to write a guidebook of the state where he was conceived (in Jamestown, as Bradley explains on p. 196), then buy that. But old Sam Clemens would be wasting his time, because in Moon Handbooks: Tennessee, Bradley's already written the "Life on the Mississippi" of Tennessee travel guides.

Like "Mississippi," Bradley's "Tennessee" is so fascinating in in its details and anecdotes that I kept finding myself reading far more than I "needed" to for the travel at hand. And like Clemens, who clearly wrote from a genuine love of the river and the bygone steamboat days that he wanted to capture on paper, all of Bradley's local lore and country cookery reviews and sidebars on everything from roots musicians to the development of the the atom bomb in Oak Ridge...well, these all swirl together to create a sort of love song to the author's native state.

Bradley isn't afraid to criticize where criticism is due--look at his coverage of the outlandish developments near the Smokies. But even then, it's clear his concerns are not based on some disaffected political agenda, but from a genuine, familial concern for a cousin who has lost his way. Consequently, Gatlinburg doesn't "outrage" Bradley, it breaks his heart because of its failed potential. And even then, Bradley doesn't just sneer and proceed into the pristine National Park, shaking Galinburg's dust from his feet. Just as any good family member will make a point of telling you that old yellow-eyed aunt Ruth used to knock 'em dead at the USO dances and can still cook a mean casserole and belt out a showtune, Bradley lingers and explores Gatlinburg on its own terms. He points out its cherished place in many Volunteer hearts (including his own) as a childhood wonderland, and shows that he's not above enjoying the small simple pleasures of a candy shop, or even the more garish wonders of Ripley's aquarium.
If you don't know Tennessee, you won't find a more comprehensive introduction to the entire state. And if you already love Tennessee...you'll find all of the states most endearing qualities captured between the covers--and in the spirit--of this book.

I have the first edition of this book, and I've raved about it to my circle of friends. I heard this third edition was vastly improved, and I doubted this, but figured I couold always give it as a gift.
This book is going nowhere but to a choice space in my book shelf!
It covers more material, has a format which invites digging deeper into a topic at hand, highlights special topics, has a clearer type face, and is simply loaded with URL's for further cyber digging. I got out my Tennessee Atlas and Gazetteer by Delorme mapping, a topo coverage of Tennesee, my state, and put a "mark" by all the towns and villages Mr. Bradley covered. Not a page without copious markings. What a living history exprience.

He begins in the East as our state did, moves west, and brings out information about people, about the locale, gives historic facts and loads of human interest materal. He covers the Civil War as it progresses in various locations and is in fact more historical than a course or two I've had in Higher Eduction. And READABLE!! His wry, delightful humor graces most every entry. And as you follow this through the topo maps you SEE how history unfolds. Now I know where the Cumberland Gap is, I know where the mysterious Melungeons 'are', I've followed the tragic trail of tears, I know where to find barbeque all across Tennessee etc etc. I know where that terrific meteorite hit Tennessee, where biggie dinosaur fossils are found etc. .
What a book! What a marvelous travel companion, what a history of my state. And I have a store house of "stories and tales" I'll make good use of.
If you have an interest in Tennessee and can get only one book: THIS is it! Hands down. I'm grateful to Mr Bradley for doing it.
Hap Eliason

You don't have to be planning a trip to Tennessee to appreciate Jeff Bradley's book. If you are, don't leave home without it. Bradley not only tells you what you must see if you have the time, but he frankly tells you what might not be worth a visit, or at least what to be prepared for that you might not expect, such as the bumper-to-bumper, big-city-like traffic in the Smokies, especially in the fall when the leaves begin to change. He also provides interesting facts and historical details you won't find in other travel books. I grew up about 50 miles from Bean Station in East Tennessee but didn't know until reading Bradley's book that a tavern there was the best place between Baltimore and New Orleans to get a bottle of wine back in the stagecoach days. Almost every page is enriched with little-known facts, insights and advice, and the book is organized in a way that takes the frustration out of trying to find what you're looking for.

I once had a job that took me to every one of Tennessee's 95 counties, but I moved away several years ago and my children, unfortunately, know little about this beautiful state that is as geographically and culturally diverse as any in the union. I brought the fourth edition of Bradley's book when I began planning a cross-Tennessee-and-back trip my 22-year-old son and I decided to take this summer in a rented convertible. Taking Bradley's advice, we chose many roads now less traveled (since the interstates were built), visiting places like Jonesborough (Tennessee's oldest town, first capital and home of the National Stortelling Festival) in East Tennessee, Lynchburg (exactly like the Jack Daniels' ads portray it, except for the abundance of shops on the town square selling things Gentleman Jack would never have imagined, as Bradley points out) in Middle Tennessee, and Grinders Switch between Nashville and Memphis, which I had always thought was a figment of Minnie Pearl's imagination. Our trip, thanks largely to Bradley's book, was as much one of discovery for me, a native, as it was for my son, who grew up in the Northeast.

You will enjoy Bradley's book not just for its contents but also for his writing style. As the "About the Author" page notes, this Tennessee boy has been a stringer for The New York Times and taught writing at Harvard, so he knows a thing or two about sringing words together. He writes from personal knowledge of the place with respect but also with wit, honesty and a good measure of irreverence whenever he feel so moved, which is often.

Buy the book or you'll never know how far in advance you need to make reservations for lunch at Miss Bobo's Boarding House in Lynchburg, how to get to the Lovelace Motel Cafe outside of Nashville for the best country ham and biscuits, where to find worldclass white water and bluegrass music in East Tennessee, or that the Talbot Heirs Guesthouse is one of the best and funkiest places to stay in the funkiest part of Memphis, a stone's throw from Beale Street, darn good barbecue and sweet potato pancakes you'll never forget.

I'm a lifetime Tennesseean, and I couldn't put Mr. Bradley's book down. I know Middle Tennessee and the Smokies fairly well, but as I got into his marvelous book I couldn't believe one author could capture and capsulate so much in such limited space. I've garnered information about my State- so much new to me- that it just blew me away--some info right at my doorstep, so to speak. About locales I know fairly well his presentation is right on target. I especially value the boxes about history, personalities, buildings etc. Don't hesitate. Buy the book!

We recently completed a trip to Eastern Tennessee and brought along several guidebooks. After a few days, it became apparent that one guidebook was head and shoulders above the others: Moon Handbooks Tennessee by Jeff Bradley. It is both comprehensive and concise. It contains lots of local color without drowning in it. And it is spot on in its evaluation of sights. (We didn't have any occasion to use it for lodging or food.)

Full credit to Jeff Bradley for a writing syle that is one of the best in the business. He keeps things lively without neglecting the basic facts that need to be conveyed. In almost every instance his entries were more interesting and more complete than other guidebooks, while being about the same total number of words. He seems to know just when to insert a clever turn of phrase or an offbeat tidbit while still writing in a very direct style.

The book covers all of Tennessee. It starts with general information about the state's natural history, settlement history, and culture. It then covers each region of the state. He does a good job of conveying which sights are most worth seeing in each area without neglecting second tier sights. He weaves together a complete tapestry that puts everything in the larger context of the region and the state. Throughout, there is a pervasive sense of the joy of travel in this interesting state. This guidebook is the real McCoy!

if you like storys that are true to life w/ a little bit of humor and alot of humanity david hunter is one of the best authors around. if you like this one get trailer trash from tn. or there was blood on the snow i hope to see more of his work

I loved this book better than all the cop story books I've ever read because Officer Hunter keeps it simple and direct. His old fashioned values, positive attitude towards people, and terrific sense of humor make this book a fantastic and easy read. Hunter has a way of grabbing your heart and making you think about life in a new way.

I stumbled across this book somehow. It is by far the best book I have read in a long time. I'm not much of reader but Mr. Hunter has a special way of telling stories. Reading this book was alot like watching the T.V. show COPS. You feel like your really there. Read it for yourself and you'll understand the things our badged hero's take care of. Cant wait to read more of his books!

I read this book years ago, before I became a police officer. I have worked the streets for some time now and recently reread the book. Reading The Moon Is Always Full is truly like looking into a mirror of my life. David Hunter puts into words the things I see and do every day. He portrays the joy and sadness this strange job brings with clarity that only a fellow Officer would know. My thanks to Mr. Hunter for giving me a chance to look in the mirror.

This book was published in 1989 and is long out of print. Except for some of the technological and policy changes in law enforcement (such as to protect the Rodney Kings of this world) it is still timely. People don't really change. It is one of my favorite books, and THE favorite police-related book in my library.

Author David Hunter was a self-described poet/author that happened to be a cop (rather than vice versa which is usually the case). Hunter hired on with the the Knox County Tennessee sheriff's department rather late in life. He had a police officer's heart, but also the eye and voice of a good writer. He gave song to the relatively invisible and silent group of men and women (overwhelmingly men) who roam the streets all night and, simply put, stand between the bad people and the good people.

I have to disagree with the reviewer that described this book as like watching COPS on TV. In COPS, the officer is never really alone . . . he is accompanied by the two-man camera crew and usually a gang of other officeres that want to be on TV. COPS also doesn't really tell you what is going on inside the officer's mind and gut. Fear and/or disgust, or real compassion, doesn't come across accurately on mass market TV.

The book is a non-fictional account of Hunter's observations, thoughts, and experiences. Much is very funny. Much is heartbreaking. There are moments of terror. All is typical of police patrol work. He's not Ernest Hemingway, but he's pretty good and probably a lot more genuine.

I have spent over 90% of my 16 year police career on night patrol. I buy used paperback copies of this book in quantities and give them to younger nightshift guys that I feel have earned the ability to appreciate these stories.

Most highly recommended.

Item was in mint condition, will not hesitate to buy from this seller again.
Keep up the good work

Thornton, Margaret Bradham, ed. "Tennessee Williams Notebooks", Yale University Press, 2007.

A Brilliant Mind

Amos Lassen

What a job it must have been compiling the notebooks of Tennessee Williams. They cover almost every aspect of the playwright's life and Margaret Bradham Thornton has done an amazing job. Through his own words and Thornton's meticulous editing, we get a look into the unique life of an American literary titan. The man who penned such beautiful works for the American theatre led quite a life. He suffered from his only internalized homophobia even though he was himself a gay male--he felt somewhat out of place in a world that did not approve of his sexuality. He was haunted by his sister, Rose, and the guilt he felt about allowing her institutionalization and with these two strikes that he felt he had against himself, still managed to write some of the most endearing drama ever seen on the stage.
Williams' notebooks take us behind the scenes of the man and his writing. Williams tells us, in his own words, so much about himself that at times it is staggering to read. His view of the world fascinates and enthralls.
In reality, this is two books--one, a look at the man's private life and the other a look at the mind of a genius. Thornton provides on each page. The thoughts and the background to those thoughts placed opposite the pages of his journals. To get a glimpse of the mind of such a man of letters is a wonderful treat. The book is filled with notes and photographs, copies of poetry written by hand and entries from the diaries as well as biographies of those people that Williams had contact with. On the right hand side of the book are the notebook entries and on the left hand side are the notes. Also included are Williams' own criticisms of his dairies.
Thornton provides a very readable and detailed narrative and her research is nothing short of amazing. She does not spend a great deal of time oh is sexual proclivities with other men but neither does she ignore them. There is no question whatsoever that Williams' homosexuality influenced his writing and world view and that is all carefully explained by the editor. It is a book that you do not want to stop reading even with its 800 plus pages. And it is more than just a look at the playwright; it is a look into American culture and how all of the worlds of the arts come together.

This is a magnificent book, really two books, as Tennessee Williams' journals are powerfully augmented by Thornton's meticulously researched and engaging annotations. Opposite every page of journal entries, one finds the sources and background on Williams' musings; Thornton gives us a map to Williams thoughts, and her notes enhance the journal entries immeasurably, making this book essential reading. It's tough to put down, and almost impossible to read properly, that is, in order-- no matter where one opens the book you are transported into the private life of this playwright whose works are so much a part of our literary and theatrical heritage. Thornton has also included a fascinating array of photographs which place Williams in the context of his time and his peers, and scribbled illustrations which add a whole other element to understanding this great writer-- this book is not to be missed.

Margaret Bradham Thornton is to be commended for compiling Tennessee Williams' journals with such painstaking attention to detail, in-depth analysis and thorough research. Her efforts afford the reader an amazing, unique glimpse into the life of an American literary giant -- a man whose plays, including The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Streetcar Named Desire, have become classics for the ages, not to mention a man who led an intriguing life in and out of the public eye. There is no shortage of skeletons to be found in Williams' closet; his homosexuality is a particular source of angst to him in a world that did not approve of such a thing. He dallies with male prostitutes, and in one instance gets severely beaten for his troubles. Meanwhile, he is haunted by his sister, who underwent a frontal lobotomy after being institutionalized (it is his guilt over leaving her to pursue his writing that drove him to write "The Glass Menagerie," which features a very Williams-esque young man desperate to escape his dreary life with a crippled sister and needy mother in order to pursue his dreams).

Through his notebooks, Williams provides you with a backstage pass to one of the most thrilling talents Broadway has ever seen, and through extensive footnoting Thornton puts it all into a clear narrative for you to follow along. She also includes countless photographs and pieces of artwork. There are moments when what Williams writes does not match up with what other interviewees recall, forcing Thornton and the reader to speculate as to which version is closer to the truth, but in "Notebooks" Williams does nothing short of bare his soul to the reader. It is utterly fascinating to experience his artist's-eye-view of the world, and I would highly recommend this book.
Grade: A+

This is one of the handsomest books I have read in years. The notes by the author/editor, who has annotated the daily diaries of playwright Tennessee Williams, are spectacularly thorough, covering virtually every actor, director, known and unknown, Williams ever met. Loads of fun reading the notes, and the diaries themselves on facing pages, with marvelous and copious photographs, goofy illustrations, maps - you name it. Williams hasn't much to say about his writing life, but lots to say about his state of mind, which is usually spinning out of control along with his life. Williams was part of that first real jet set, living in a given year in a dozen places. The first and last question on his mind was how to find "trade" by which he meant pick-ups for casual sex. Fascinating and then really boring like most pornography.

If you want to read a book by an author that writes like he probably talks, grab a copy! Not too many authors would even attempt Smith's style of writing. No King or Koontz filler or fantasy. And ultimately, more fact than fiction. "Nothin' Left to Lose" is a must read for any music lover and mafia dissident!

If you like music, intrigue, mystery, romance and powerful endings - this is the book for you. The lyrical writing and skillful handling of characters make it hard to believe this is Carl Smith's first novel. A must for any avid reader's Christmas list.

Carl T. Smith's NOTHIN' LEFT TO LOSE is a breath of fresh air. A good story with an exciting cast of characters and all of the other elements missing in so many other contemporary novels. As he goes from Nashville janitor to a semi-successful performer/songwriter, John Ryan Stone passes all of the high roads and low roads of the music industry. Smith is careful not to make the path easy nor to sew the story up with major stardom and an unrealistically happy ending. The book is a story of people who work and play in the music industry, yet it is not a music novel.Unlike many of the light weight 'sex, drugs and rock and roll (country music?) novels, Smith's characters are real and touchable. The author's style and characters remind me of the works of James Lee Burke. A great read and definitely movie material.

This book was recommended by a friend and I am so glad--I spent the weekend curled up by the fire, listening to Trisha Yearwood and reading this book. One of the best weekends I've ever had. Thank you Carl Smith for a good time.

Nothin' Left to Lose gets an A+. Carl Smith writes in the true Southern tradition. As the Charleston, SC Post and Courier reviewer, John Lyons said--and his review lead me to this book--"Nothin' left to Lose is a southern work through and through". Filled with facile wit and intelligence wrapped a good story, Smith has created a spellbinder. The author's knowledge of the music business, the mob and the struggles one must go through to achieve any kind of sucess could only come from an insider. At times I chuckled and at times I teared-up. The book has everything from suspense, wild and crazy characters that tear your heart out to a romance that is to die for. A great read!

Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite playwrights, and he was one of America's best. I think he was clearly also one of the 20th Century's best. Wonderful poignant tragic storyteller with memorable characters, like the frail southern belle Blanche in his classic play "A Streetcar Named Desire", or Stanley her uncouth brother-in-law who destroys her last shot at happiness. Another great play is "The Glass Menagerie", his first hit, which was an enormous success and catupulted him instantly into the forefront of emerging young playwrights at the time. It's a very entertaining story, very readable, I highly recommend you read it. Another is "The Rose Tattoo"--also see the film of the same name. And Williams' last great play was "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Tennessee Williams is in the top ranks of American playwrights. His works are a MUST for serious students of the American theatre. Moreover, they are wonderful works for actors to read and learn from -- some of the finest characters, most poignant scenes, and brilliant insights on human nature AND theatrical staging that you can find anywhere. Cheerful? No. Uplifting? Usually not. Brilliant, stageworthy and gripping? Always. This collection, both volumes, gives you all the plays, plus some very worthwhile notes and prefaces from Williams himself.

"It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial," Tennessee Williams wrote in the 1948 essay "The Catastrophe of Success," eventually added as a preface to the "memory play" that catapulted him to stardom, "The Glass Menagerie" (1945). Prophetic words of a man who drew heavily on his own experience, on life in the economically depressed South, homosexuality, alcoholism, physical and mental infirmity, violence, passion, desire, love and loss, but most of all his profound sense of humanity and his understanding of the drama of everyday life to create Dragon Country, that uninhabitable and yet inhabited world, that land of unendurable but nevertheless endured pain (also the title of a 1970 collection of plays) of unforgettable pieces such as "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947), "Summer and Smoke" (1948), "The Rose Tattoo" (1951), "Camino Real" (1953), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955), "Orpheus Descending" (1957), "Suddenly Last Summer" (1958), "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959), "The Night of the Iguana" (1961) and "Not About Nightingales" (set in 1938 but only brought to the stage 50 years later).

Born Thomas Lanier Williams to an overbearing, hard-drinking, abusive, frequently absent father and a doting mother, Tennessee acquired the sobriquet he later chose as his first name in university, where his Deep South accent made him an easy target for his classmates. A writer since his youth, he saw his first short story ("Isolated") published in a high school newspaper; and after several other prose publications, his second play "Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!" was produced by a Memphis amateur company in 1935. (His first play, the unstaged "Beauty Is the Word," had been a 1930 University of Missouri drama class assignment which, submitted to the school's Dramatic Arts Club contest, won the first honorable mention ever to be awarded to a freshman). After a stint with his father's shoe company, where he had gone to work at parental insistence, he graduated from the University of Iowa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938. His big breakthrough came with "A Glass Menagerie;" the story of fading Southern belle Amanda Wingfield (who, like many of Williams's most memorable characters, frantically clings to the illusion of a world gone by), her crippled daughter Laura (the owner of the titular glass figurine collection), "gentleman caller" Jim (Laura's suitor), and Amanda's son Tom, Williams's thinly veiled alter ego who, like the playwright, sees his vocation as a poet crushed under his daily job at a shoe factory. Yet, looking back at his struggling life preceding "Glass Menagerie," Williams later came to regard that time as more real than the life made possible by fame and fortune: in fact, "it was the sort of life for which the human organism is created," he wrote in "The Catastrophe of Success."

The present compilation, one of two volumes in the magnificent "Library of America" series, brings together the more significant works of Williams's early years and of his peak as a playwright through 1955, including inter alia his two Pulitzer Prize winners ("A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"), the only recently-rediscovered "Spring Storm" (1938) and "Not About Nightingales," the initial, unsuccessful version of "Orpheus Descending" ("Battle of Angels," 1940), as well as excerpts from the one-act play collection "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" (originally from 1945, augmented and republished 1953), among them the collection's title piece plus "The Lady of Larkspur Lotion," "Something Unspoken," "This Property Is Condemned," and others. The second Library of America volume covers Williams's creative period after 1955. Neither tome is all-inclusive; a fully comprehensive compilation would easily have required three volumes for the plays alone, not to mention his poetry and prose; and a 1955 caesura certainly does make sense. Still: completists will have to look elsewhere in addition. Among the more significant omissions in this first volume are "Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!" (which I would have liked to see included if only because it was his first-ever staged play) as well as the modestly successful "American Blues" (1939) and the remaining one-act plays from "27 Wagons Full of Cotton." Volume 2 similarly focuses on Williams's more significant later plays; omitting, e.g., "Gnaediges Fraeulein," "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel," "The Red Devil Battery Sign," "The Notebook of Trigorin" - his adaptation of Anton Chekhov's "Seagull" - and his infamous "Baby Doll" screenplay, as well as its stage adaptation "Tiger Tail."

Although many of Williams's works reached audiences not only on stage but also on the silver screen, beginning in the 1950s he came under increased scrutiny due to his unconventional lifestyle. Even in his plays' most successful screen adaptations, the more controversial elements, such as Brick's unavowed homosexuality in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and the sexual tension between Stanley and Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire," were either muted or censored entirely; and particularly in later years, criticism leveled against his plays was often truly motivated by objections against the man himself. - "The bird that I hope to catch in the net of this play is ... the true quality of experience in a group of people, that cloudy, flickering, evanescent - fiercely charged! - interplay of live human beings in the thundercloud of a common crisis," Williams wrote in a stage direction in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." But while his own life's thunderstorm did eventually prove fatal (he choked to death on a medicine bottle cap in 1983), over the course of his life he revolutionized Southern drama in a way only comparable to Faulkner's impact on literary fiction, and set a shining example for generations of later playwrights. All-encompassing or not: the Library of America's collection of his works is an excellent place to begin a journey of appreciation into his Dragon Country.

Also recommended:
Tennessee Williams: Plays 1957-1980 (Library of America)
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
The Rose Tattoo
Suddenly, Last Summer
Baby Doll
This Property Is Condemned
Tennessee Williams' Dragon Country (Broadway Theatre Archive)

The plays contained in this volume are wonderful and interesting (especially in terms of his development) to any fan of Tennessee Williams... but I purchased the book believing it was the COMPLETE collected plays 1937-1955, which it is not. It is a group of "selected" plays. I bought it hoping to get more of the one-acts and historical oddities. It contains some of these, but mostly consists of his the more well-known plays, which anyone who would buy this book likely already has (e.g. Cat. Streetcar, Menagerie). Perhaps Amazon.com might want to place a line of explanatory commentary to that effect on the product description.

The new Library of America volume "Tennessee Williams: Plays, 1937-1955" is the first of two volumes. (The second volume covers the plays from 1957 to 1980.) This is a magnificent book, beautifully printed and bound. It is comprehensive (over 1000 pages) and has extensive notes and a complete chronology of Williams's life. Several of the plays are printed with commentaries by Tennessee Williams himself, essays that are very informative. This book belongs in the library of any fan of American theater.

If you have only seen the several movies made in the 1950's from his plays, reading these will prove a revelation for you. Because of the restrictions put on movies in the 50's, most of his works were deeply expurgated, especially any overt references to homosexuality. So reading the original plays here often reveals underlying previously obscure motivations/conflicts of some of the characters: why, for example, Blanche DuBois had fallen from being a privileged Southern Belle to the pathetic wretch who appeared on Stanley and Stella's doorstep.

Unlike many playwrights, Tennessee Williams tended to give long, detailed stage directions. This gives the reader of the plays a novel-like narrative, making them wonderful experiences for readers who do not ordinarily enjoy reading plays. The sensuous atmosphere, the classical -- almost Greek sense of tragedy that looms in almost all of these plays, and the exquisite use of language make this a unique reading experience. The writers who had influence over Williams's style are never named but seem apparent, at least to this reader. For example, when reading "The Rose Tattoo" I was reminded of the great Spanish poet/playwright Garcia Lorca's "House of Bernarda Alba." The cackling, vicious, vindictive neighbors, like some Greek Chorus, echoed many of the women in Lorca's work.

This volume even includes the play "Not About Nightingales", a play never performed in Williams's lifetime, but which was recently brought to Broadway in a Tony-winning run. "Not About Nightingales" is a stark prison drama that is quite different from the style he eventually developed. Among the "great" plays included here are "The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Summer and Smoke", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Like all volumes in the Library of America series, this book has been given first-class treatment. Beautiful bindings, ribboned marker, and fine acid-free paper for permanence. It is meant to be owned and treasured forever. You will love this book....