Missouri Books

I've long been a fan of David Swanger's work. I love how the straightforward simplicity of his poems' language and structures releases nuanced emotion. His maturity, as a poet and as a person, results in poems that shimmer with the mysteries of "the big questions," while cloaked in the most ordinary and intimate of interactions.

While thinking about this review, it occurred to me that "Wayne's College of Beauty" can be viewed, in part, as a modern man's journey through the "Seven Stages of Life." Some of the poems reach back to when his children were young, such as "My Daughter's Morning," "her sparkle is as the edge of new/ice on leafed pools, while I/am soggy, tepid; old toast." (This poem, as well as "Patriarch of the Lake," has been featured by Garrison Keillor on "Writer's Almanac.") In "Longer," a teenage daughter struggles with her questions about death as she talks with her father in the middle of the night. "The girl/glistens, a rosy dolphin riding/swells of seamless youth and health,/yet she worries.../If sleep has an opposite, it is/not waking, but the imagination." At the other end of the scale are poems that capture, with equal honesty and perception, the confusion, loss, and tender sweetness of a parent aging. I think of my own mother as I read "The Lessons": "Fathers diminish like fallen snow."

And then there is the voice of "something else" (knowledge? experience? imagination?) present in the very last poem of the book, "What the Wing Says," perhaps Swanger's greatest, and most mysterious. How simply it appears to speak: "Dismiss the grocer of your soul./Nothing important can be weighed." But how far it wants to take us -- I almost said "unimaginably" far, but that's the opposite of what the poem is asking. "Does the future move in only one direction?/Think how roots find their way, how hair spreads/on the pillow, how watercolors give birth to light./Think how dangerous I am, because of what I offer you."

David Swanger may be formally retired from teaching, but his lessons keep coming every time we open his books.

Here is a poet who has not received the acclaim he so deserves. Yes he has some respectable awards... he is, afterall, a professor Emeritus at UCSC ...and a Harvard grad; but why hasnt the poetic community realized his genius and bestowed more honors upon this man; especially when reading this book... I suppose its true that many great poets arent discovered until they die... but if you want to catch him in life... I suggest you read this NOW. Swanger's poems are a gift to us; embrace that gift.

I am a fan of business histories and biographies, and I have to say that out of the hundreds of books I've read over the years, "When You Care Enough" is the best of the bunch. I think the folks at Hallmark should make a movie out of this book. This is one story that needs to be told. I read the book in just a couple of days and plan to read it again in the future. This is one book that will have a special place in my library!

Joyce C. Hall's father left home when Hall was just nine. He was raised by his mother living in poverty and lacking any formal education. To help his mother he began selling perfume door-to-door at age nine.
In 1910, Hall dropped out of high school, jumped a train and headed to Kansas City to seek his fortune and make his mark in the business world. He arrived in Kansas City with two shoeboxes full of scenic picture postcards he hoped to sell to dealers throughout the Midwest. And he prospered.

He was a quiet, serious, highly sensitive young man. He went from jobbing postcards as a teenager to manufacturing and selling his own line in six years. A small room at the YMCA was where he lived and was what he used as his office. He had so little cash he couldn't afford to pay a horse-drawn cab to get him there. But, he had his dream and he had plans to make them happen. His plan...launching a mail-order program using the samples he stored under his bed at the Y. He printed invoices, and started mailing packages of a hundred postcards to dealers throughout the Midwest. Some dealers kept the cards and never paid. Some sent back the unsolicited cards with angry notes. But, about a third of the dealers mailed him a check. In just a few short months, the 18-year-old Hall had earned $200, enough to open a checking account for his promising new business.
In a matter of a few years, his postcard business had grown large enough that he asked his older brothers Rollie and Willliam to join him and open a specialty store, the Norfolk Post Card Company, selling both postcards and stationery. Although they were doing well, he worried that postcards were losing there appeal and thought that selling higher end greeting cards, Valentines and Christmas cards with envelopes might be more profitable. He decided to call the company Hallmark, a play on his name and the word for quality which dated back to the 1300's, where gold and silver were "marked" for quality at Goldsmith's Hall in London. Coins and other items of high quality received a "Hall mark."

In 1912 Hall added greeting cards and as business grew moved to larger facilities. In 1915, a fire destroyed the Hall Brothers' offices and all their cards. The company was left in debt. This did not stop Halls dreams. With a new engraving press, the Hall Brothers opened a new shop just down the street and began printing their own cards with the Hall Brothers insignia.
The first Hallmark card appeared in 1916. It featured the greeting "I'd like to be the kind of friend you are to me."
In 1923, Joyce C., and brothers Bill and Rollie Hall, along with their 120 employees, moved from tiny offices and rental space in four separate buildings into a brand new six-story plant. In 1936, Hall introduced display cases that allowed rows of cards to be displayed, that customers could easily browse on their own. Previously, cards were bought by asking a store clerk to choose an appropriate card for you.
The rest is history. Joyce C. Hall died at age 91 on October 29, 1982 leaving Kansas City a legacy of high quality. It is an old-fashioned success story. When Hall died, his company was worth $1.5 billion. Today, more than 10 million Hallmark cards are sold every year! They coined the phrase "when you care enough to send the very best" in greeting cards. They founded a quality television series know as the "Hallmark Hall of Fame."

Mark Royden Winchell, the leading scholar of the Southern Agrarians of his generation, studied under the last of the Agrarians at Vanderbilt, and was thus perfectly suited to prepare this outstanding bio. Sadly, Winchell died on May 8, 2008 at the young age of 59. This work will stand as a testament.

The lack of attention Donald Davidson has received since his death is scandalous. No doubt it stems in part from his racicialist views and resistance to the civil rights movement. Well Davidson was a flawed man--but to call him a "Racist" ( His old friend Robert Penn Warren's daughter says that his name was never spoken in their house on that account--I find it hard to believe) is simply to miss the measure of the man. He was a fine poet (just a notch below Robert Penn Warren and John Crowe Ransom) and a brilliant literary critic and teacher. His "Attack on Leviathan" is essential reading for those who confuse conservatism with Newt Gingrich, and his poem "Lee in the Mountains" is a tribute not only to a lost cause, but to all lost causes, and should therefore resonate with all but the incurable narcissist. Winchell has done us a great service by presenting the man warts and allto us. If we ever get beyond the name calling that passes for political and literary judgement these days it will be due in large measure to books like this one.

Many are familiar with blackberries, pawpaws, and black walnuts as tasty wild foods. This book covers those and less known edibles like goatsbeard (cook the root like a potato) or honewort (cook the stems like asparagus, put the leaves in a salad).
This excellent guide shows a sketch of each plant with its flowers or berries or nuts. It gives the species, flowering dates, a description, habitat, location in the state, time to collect it, and its uses.
Three or four paragraphs supplement that info with the author's own experience using the plant. In some cases she gives specific amounts such as for making jam from ground cherry. Other times she is brief such as "put the raw early leaves of hollyhock in a tossed salad."
Forty-seven plants get full color paintings by the author. Seventeen plants are listed in a warning section as dangerous or poisonous (wild ginger, pokeweed, etc.). A few recipes (soup, fritter, wild edible biscuits) are attached at the end. The index sorts the edibles by type of use (pies, liquers, teas, salads, etc.)

Wild Edibles of Missouri by Jan Phillips and published by the Missouri Conservation Commission, is a very useful little guide for those who are interested in such things. Each plant addressed and assessed by the author is accompanied by a very well done black and white drawing. In addition to this, there are around fifty color plates of some of these plants. Both drawings and color plates are very well done. The author has given us a very useable text, describing the plant, its habitat, usage, and personal notes from the author as to usage and harvesting time and techniques.

This book, when used, needs to be read quite carefully, and I certainly suggest that you use other works to supplement it. While this actual work as a whole is quite good, this is an area where you certainly should not make any mistakes. Some, and indeed most, of the plants featured here are quite edible, but on the other hand, most can make you quite ill if they are not prepared correctly, harvested at the wrong time or if the wrong part of the plant is used or if too much of the plant is eaten. The author, thank goodness, has emphasized this, but it is sort of human nature to read and see more or less what you want to see...sort of wishful thinking. I have personally been acquainted wiht a number of people who have gotten into big trouble this way. Use this book, but, as I said, read carefully and don't take chances. If there is even the slightest doubt in your mind, DON'T EAT IT! Better yet, if you harvest from the wild, it is best to start, go and be taught by and with someone who absolutely knows what they are doing. I have been dealing with these plants, and eating them, for well over fifty years now. I started learning from old granny women years ago down in the hills, and have added to my knowledge over the years. I still get tripped up now and then!

A personal note: As the author has pointed out in her introduction...do not think for one second that you can go out and live off the wild and save groups of money in doing so. Gathering most of these edible plants are extremely work intensive, and to be quite frank, many of the plants, while indeed edible, simply do not taste all that good, despite what you may have heard. In addition, many of these plants are growing very difficult to find. Due to development, farming and over harvesting, some of them verge on becoming endangered. Don't be greedy! Secondly, remember that with many of these growing things, you are competing with wildlife. Hey, you have a never ending supply of food at stores, the critters just have what they find in their environment...give them a break!

A personal rant! Between food gatherers, and the "craft people," there has been a major impact on our wild areas in Missouri. Always ask permission from the land owner before you go out gathering and pillaging! As an example, we have bittersweet growing in our area. This is a beautiful vine with nice berries. Missouri is known for it. The craft people have pushed this plant to the point of nonexistence in some areas. I had a wonderful fence row growing and it has been completely stripped and is now gone from just people driving by, cutting it, so they can make nice little craft things for their homes or to sell. Another one is the wild grape. We have a large amount of these vines, but fewer now. I actually caught two ladies tromping through my woods ripping vines and cutting. I am a nice fellow, so I did not have them arrested for trespassing, nor did I shoot them, but did give them a verbal lashing. When you buy one of those nice grape vine wreaths at the local craft store, please keep in mind that this practice has had a major impact on wild life in Southern Missouri and has certainly had an impact on the three or four jars of jam I make ever year. And Cattails! I have a small swampy area with a very small pond surrounded by cattails. I have been photographing this area for years, season after season. It took one family with for kids from St. Louis, to completely destroy this wonderful micro-ecco-system, and they did it is just two hours. Hey, I don't begrudge anyone a meal, but did they have to destroy the whole place?

Enough ranting....this is a fine little book. If you are interested in such things, as I am, than it is well worth adding to your library. The book is well done, very informative and the art work is great.

I have had to research this subject. I live about 2 miles from where the massacre occured and it so happens that I started working with a musician that wanted to write an album about it. We have just finished it. We were on tv news and the nephew of the killers called me and they wanted a cd. The children of the siblings were sheilded from the fact that they were part of a family that killed the highest number of officers in a raid in the U.S. for most of their lives. So I sent them a cd and they said that from what they know about it now, the cd is right on the mark. Every song had to be from the point of view of the people who were actually involved... The Sheriff, the family, the officers, the widows and many others. I used this book for most of my research. It was the most facinating thing I've ever done. Full of emotion. Every person had their own great story to tell. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It's a great story.

My grandmother was married to Harry Young. After she passed away is when we really found out about him from letters, pictures, and newspaper clippings that she had. We had alot of questions and finding/reading this book answered alot of them. It is a great book.

I read all of The Younguns books by T.L. Tedrow when they first came out, and eagerly awaited the release of each new title--with one wait being over a decade now (more on that later). The books are about mischievous siblings without a mom, who are pretty much left to their own devices by their father, a well-meaning but busy Reverend.

It has been a huge disappointment that, not only did the series go out of print, but it was never finished. There were even, if I recall correctly, rumors of a television show. It appears that a total of at least eight books were planned, but only four seem to have made it to press. Hopefully one day the books will be republished and the series completed. It remains a mystery as to what caused the demise of what was promising to be an amazingly funny and enjoyable series for all ages. Thanks to Amazon, you can buy used copies of this series and at least enjoy the first four books of this unfinished symphony.

I thought the book "The Younguns of Mansfield was terrific. I always have trouble finding something wrong with the stories about the Youguns, and this time I could not find anything wrong. I thought it was wonderfuly written and had a practically flawless storyline.

This is not only an excellent soldiers account of small unit action in WW1 but is also a very entertaining story. Best book on WW1 I have read. My grandfather was in the 139th (Triplet was in the 140th) and this book lets you feel what it was really like to be in the AEF in France in 1918. Excellent book by an excellent author.

I am the grandson of colonel Triplet. I remember these stories first hand . Beind a vet myself it amazes me how much the army has changed in the last 70 years . Its great reading and I can tell you it is all facts. I read the original unedited memoirs.

One of the more interesting books on the 101 Ranch. Originally written at a time when many of the people involved with the 101 were still alive to give valuable first hand information. For the most part a very easy read and a revealing look at the building of the vast 110,000 acre empire. There are some areas where the story bogs down with financial figures and crop output etc. However it is an amazing story that even today seems unreal. The fact that such names as Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Buffalo Bill and many more were associated with the 101 Wild West Show makes for very interesting reading in addition to the many facets surrounding life at the "White House" and the three Miller brothers themselves.

We are always looking for new outdoor adventures and this has helped considerably!

Statesman Dean Acheson once said, "Always remember that the future comes one day at a time." In reading James Chase's hagiography of the former Secretary of State, I was painfully reminded of this axiom in that the conclusion of his account of Acheson comes very slowly, one page at a time. Chock full of overt flowery adulations, this ode to all things Acheson left me with the lingering urge to read Melville or some other bromide better left relegated to the dusty echelons of my lower bookshelf.

And so, it came pleasing to the palate and with great relish reading John T. McNay's Acheson and Empire, the British Accent in American Foreign Policy in which he presents the dark underbelly of Acheson that Chase leaves covered. Whereas Chase's account reads as a love song to this formative character in the origins of the Cold War, McNay acts as a Woodward and Bernstein tour-de-force, exposing Acheson's prevailing biasness towards the interests of the British Empire in which he often flies in the face of America's own better welfare.

Often referred to as "this pompous diplomat in striped pants, with the phony British accent," by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Acheson's dialect may have been phony but his intentions were anything but. McNay contends Acheson's Ulster Protestant family roots contributed to an unconcealed inclination favoring British colonialism. Harboring a romantic view of British imperialism, Acheson's actions served to undermine the American identity and presence in countries emerging from under British rule such as Iran, India, Egypt, and Ireland.

Mingling a dash of creative writing and a surprising show of subtle wit, McNay's narrative is an engaging read and an important one which offers a never before considered reassessment of Acheson's foreign politics and reconsideration of his dubious legacy as a "Cold Warrior." But not only relevant to those studying the Cold War, McNay's account also offers up a plausible rationale to the continuing hostility of mid-Eastern countries towards the United States.

Documenting his thesis with extensive references to materials gleaned from obvious intense scrutiny and study, McNay strips away the veneer often held of Acheson, presenting an alternate view of the pin-striped exemplar. Acheson and Empire, the British Accent in American Foreign Policy is chronicle well deserving of a place on one's top bookshelf.