University of Missouri Books

When I first read Michael Meyerhofer's poems, I immediately saw him as poetry's modern messiah: a poet that could save poetry from being regarded solely as "high art," or too confusing for modern readers. The poems in Cardboard Urn do not intimidate us with esoteric language; nor are his poems timid or pretentious. While many poems in this collection approach sensitive subjects with barefaced conviction, Meyerhofer tapdances on the line between the tragic and the humorous. He writes not of the mind, but of the physical world, and in such a way that we feel enriched by language instead of burdened by it. Meyerhofer's poems are purely luminous in their simplicity and touching in their sincerity.

One of my favorite books of poetry, hands down.

Mike Meyerhofer's book, Cardboard Urn, manages to cultivate a trustworthy level of sentiment while remaining objectively analytic al to such an extent that the reader truly begins to "understand" Meyerhofer's personal experiences and the effects that they have had. Brilliant use of language, form, register and aesthetics. Get this book and read "Digger", which is my personal favorite

I am just kicking myself. I had the chance to see this wonderful poet read, and I missed it. The poems in Cardboard Urn are pure, elegant, and moving. Meyerhofer's work covers a variety of subjects, but is consistent throughout in quality. Get this book!

This book honors the struggle of St Louis Chinese in the past 150 years for the hardship, struggle, discrimination and harassment, whether in the laundry or restaurant busines. However, the past 25 years, the old Hop Alley Chinatown image being long gone, there arises a group of Chinese-Americans in the main stream as lawyers, doctors, professors, engineers, architects, accountants, bankers, entrepreneurs, insurance agents, real estate agents, librarians and TV reporters in the cultural Chinatown. There were two Community Service Commissioners appointed by Governor Holden since 2001. Prof. Ling did a fine job in bringing forth this wonderful book even with a section on cemetry Chinatown of Vahalla. She shows Chinese-Americans contributing in society culturally, politically, economically and religiously, make St Louis our home.

For those interested in the immigration of Chinese to America should definitely take a look at this book. It gives much information on situations that many Chinese immigrants faced. The depth interviews give an interesting perspective about immigrating to a new country. It is good to be able to know about the Chinese immigration experience from those that went through it. I liked the focus of the book just on the Chinese of St. Louis. You learn a lot more intimate details when targeting a specific group in a specific area rather than a Chinese immigrants in general.
The book even mentions the development of certain areas of downtown including the building of Busch Stadium.

The author, Huping Ling, did a really good job with her research and her analysis of the growth of the Chinese Cultural Community in St. Louis. The book is very well written and sheds a lot of insight in the evolving role of Chinese Americans in the U.S., both from a social and political standpoint. For anyone seeking more knowledge or is curious about how Chinese Americans have adapted their culture and way of life in America, I would recommend this book

Marilyn Kallet's work has been around for decades now and that richness, that patina of time, shines through in this latest book. With an engaging mix of sly humor and eloquent recollections, she brings readers into her thoughts. Ms. Kallet has learned to see life in everything and face the world on her own terms. Gone is her youthful reticence and propriety, back when she was a young "Great Poet":
I was a great poet, composed,
understated, subdued.
Never let personality leak
into a syllable.
I wrote psalms with my silences.

But with age came wisdom. Reality set in, as in this charming excerpt from "Heartland, Revisited":
I'm old enough to be your Meemaw.
You chase me like a puppy yapping after a car.
If I turned around? Some crush
you'd have then. Honey, I'm taking
hormone replacement therapy.
You're pure testosterone.
I can't take you.

Her thoughts of death and holocaust are simple and poignant, as in this excerpt from "To My Poem of Hope":
Dear poem, if we look again,
and we must,
we will find scraps,
scrawled words, secret histories,
the cry between the lines....

Ms. Kallet says with humor that her signature poem is "No Makeup" and I can understand why that would be true. This poet disguises nothing. Lust, regret and sorrow share time equally with laughter and a peaceful acceptance of self:
"I'll have to rely on poetry,
won't I?"
And how, at fifty, I love
nakedness
in my face and lines,
and in your hands, dear reader.

As I read the poems in this book, the word "elegant" came to mind more than once. Marilyn Kallet is a strong, courageous, compassionate, humorous woman who writes her humanity in elegant ways.

The author of ten previous books and currently the editor of "New Millennium Writings" and holder of the Hodges Chair for Distinguished teaching, University of Tennessee--Knoxville, Marilyn Kallet's poetry has appeared in hundreds of publications. Her latest (and enthusiastically recommended!) anthology is Circe, After Hours and clearly documents her abilities as a wordsmith and her mastery of creative writing. Mezuzah: In the doorpost of her house, a hollow/where the mezuzah used to hang,/I press my hand against the indentation,/my way of speaking to the past.//Tough the hollow where the mezuzzah/used to hang. In Horeb, Nazis renamed her street/Hitlerstrasse. My way of speaking to the past/is to listen, press the old men for answers.//1941, Jews were packed into Hitlerstrasse./Now it's a winding picture postcard road,/Jew-free, pleasant as it seemed/before Nazis pressed my family into Judenhausen.//I press my hand against the indentation./Over Horb, a hundred doorposts echo, hollow.

Kallet's collection is rich with edgy humor and lyric force. Her elegant weave of the personal with the historic and with the idiosycracies of us all reminds me more of Penelope weaving her shroud and unraveling it each night. But the Circe reference is apt for this lament whose heart sparks with life.

I saw Mrs. Burroughs give a quick interview on CSPAN during a book fair back in November. From that I decided to purchase this book of her husband's photographs. I must say I wasn't disappointed. There are some real gems within, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest in presidential history and/or photography.

Fabulous narration and photographs. Very intelligent and informative and also humorous at times. This book makes you long for news the way it used to be.

This book gives us a marvelous peek at history via these wonderful photos, complete with the photographer's own impressions of each incident. It couldn't be more like being there.

After reading (and enjoying) "A Youth in the Argonne," I decided to pick this one up. I like Triplet's writing style. He has a self-effacing sense of humor and is pretty witty. Besides that, he was a good soldier and a respected troop commander. This book provides an interesting look into his experiences as a field-grade commander in both training and combat. I noticed a few minor mistakes in the footnotes and picture captions (as one of the previous reviewers commented), but overall, I enjoyed the book.

Tripp, as I am told he was called, wrote a wonderful triology of his military life from WW2 through the post ww2 period. He paints a wonderful picture of life in the army, and my regret is that it looks like some of the mid-war material may have been left out. (Oh yeah, and there are some errors in the footnotes - oh well.) other than that just a wonderful set of books. I am told by men that served with him, "Yup, he was like that, a great guy!"

"A Colonel in the Armored Divisions" by William S. Triplet, Edited by Robert H. Ferrell, sub-titled, "A Memoir, 1941-1945". University of Missouri Press, 2001.

Robert H. Ferrill, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, has again taken the writings of William S. Triplet, of Sedalia, Missouri, edited the writings and produced an excellent first person history of an Army colonel's experiences in the Second World War. William Triplet had served as a sergeant in the First World War, began West Point in 1920 and graduated with the class of 1924. This book is really a professional diary of the years from December 1940 up to the cessation of hostiles in Europe, May 1945.

The front half of the book is devoted to Triplet's experiences in weapons testing and in developing amphibious craft for the many beach invasions by General MacArthur. At the command for testing the effectiveness of various weapons and devices, Triplet recorded his efforts in examining the effects of the Molotov Cocktail, (ineffective against armor), the prototype for the Jeep and various forms of sleeping bags. With the amphibious craft, Triplet discovers that many (most) Navy personnel do not understand the effects of ocean waves and tells us, quite a few times, that the Navy makes strong coffee. "I sipped the black brew and got it down without wincing. ... tough people these navy types". P. 64. Again, no love is lost between Col. Triplet and "Admiral Buships", who questioned the veracity of Triplet's reports on the seaworthiness of the M8 howitzer-turret on the LVT(A-1) hulls. P. 84. The Admiral even "Declined my offer of a cup of coffee, which is the lifeblood of the navy". P. 84.

Perhaps of greater interest to World War II buffs is the last half of the book, recording the Colonel's combat experiences. Triplet appears to be one of the few higher-grade officers to actual go up to the front line during combat. For example, he recounts his surprising an Army sentry who calls back that there is a chicken colonel up here. Unexpected! Triplet mildly disguises his impatience with privates, or generals!, who are reluctant to advance or who appear to be bordering on incompetence. In many cases, he does not record the names of the offending parties. He received one excuse so often that it is used for the title of a chapter: "They've Got a lot of Stuff in There". At the very end of the book, Triplet recounts, in a matter of fact fashion, the gunfight he had with two German soldiers. After being blown out of his jeep, Triplet draws his .45 Automatic Pistol and shots at two Germans who thought they had finished everybody. Triplet is wounded in the thigh, but escapes and limps back to his command.

Professor Ferrell's editing is so unobtrusive that you are only aware, once in awhile, that you are reading the corrected and revised words almost fifty years or so after Triplet had been written down. For example, Prof. Ferrell will italicize the word "illegible" to denote that he could not decipher what Col. Triplet wanted. An excellent job of editing.

This book is for anyone who craves a deeper
comprehension of Morrison's seminal work. In
fact, it's indispensable for the "active" reader or
student who wants to observe how Morrison has seamlessly
interwoven myth and folklore into a complex
tapestry which reflects the afro-american experience
in America. CROSSING BORDERS deftly unravels each thread
for the reader, but paradoxically and exquistely leaves the
tapestry in tact. Kudos to Dr. Brown!

In "Crossing Borders" Dr. Billinglsea-Brown gives the reader an in-depth analysis of the components that surround borderlines. Anyone who reads this book will become enraptured with Dr. Billinglsea-Brown use of language to convey the ideas that surround a complex identity such as the African American woman. Her book is reflective of historical, cultural, and social movements. Through this book I have gained the knowledge to come to a point where I can understand part of the meaning and significance of folklore and its connection to the Afrcian American literary tradition. I enjoyed this book not only for its light language but the author's ability to weave the reader into the world of Morrison, Satyr, and other African American women writers that influenced our history and cultural outlook.

Folklore--"the boiled down juice of human living," as the writer Zora Neale Hurston defined it--has always been employed by displaced African people to reaffirm their identity within the dominant culture. In the 1960s, when the separation of the black and white worlds was challenged, black artists began to use folklore as a means of "crossing the borders" that maginalized African Americans. By embracing folk idioms (legends and tales, quilts and dolls, and even archetypes and steretypes like Aunt Jemima and Sambo), these artists, who were frequently women, devised a new aesthetic that reclaimed and redefined their multiple identities. In this study, Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown, an associate professor of English at Spelman College, takes a close look at how four African American female artists--writers Toni Morrison and Paule Marshall and visual artists Faith Ringgold and Betye Saar--have mined folklore for the evocative images that have enabled their work to transgress social, cultural, and political borders from the 1960s until today.

This very personal look at young Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) should be of interest to history buffs and fans of our 33rd President. The book is primarily a collection of letters that Truman sent to his girlfriend (and later wife) Bess Wallace (Truman), the letters being found in her home shortly after she passed away at age 97 in 1982. Most of these letters were written by young suitor Harry Truman prior to the First World War, when he was a struggling farmer and she a desirable beau from a prosperous (if dysfunctional) city family. Sadly, Harry didn't save Bess' letters to him, and those are lost to history. In these letters Truman comes across as decent, honest, and intelligent - if slightly prejudiced against immigrant workers in Kansas City. If his presidential talent isn't evident in these letters, his sturdy Missouri roots clearly are.

First of all, the potential buyer of this book should know that it will throw you back to the years when Harry, the lower-middle-class farmer's boy from outer Jackson County, was courting Bess Wallace, a moderately rich girl and young woman (albeit from a very dysfunctional family) from prosperous Independence. In the 1910s this was done, as it is done in every generation, but only with great difficulty and some soul-searching on both sides.

So buy and read this book if you want to read about young Harry's epic quest. Bess' letters to Harry are lost, but Harry Truman's letters are so vivid that their contents can be partly reconstucted. The two were real soul mates in the end - in the true sense of this most over-used phrase. They could actually converse by letter. How many of us are so lucky?

Buy and read this book if you want to see these two attractive people in the vanished world of 1910s Missouri. If you're looking for President Harry Truman, you won't find much of him here. By 1945 this pair had been married and living together for 25 years and were no longer writing daily letters to each other. But if you are one of those people who think that Truman was one of our greatest Presidents because he never forgot who he was and where he came from, you may want to know where he came from. He came from here, in this book.

The courtship of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace, is *the* over-looked love story of the century. Dear Bess is the most romantic book I have ever read. Harry's simplicity and honesty is a joy to read, and Bess would have been a fool to turn him down a second time.

From a historical standpoint, this book is a glimpse into the everyday, pre-presidential life of HST. The respect and dignity this Missouri farmer had for the Office of the President is refreshing. I come away from the book feeling like I know Harry. Coupling Dear Bess with David McCullough's Truman gives a picture of the man and his times in a very compelling fashion.

Dear Bess is a must-read for anyone who wants to know what love and responsibility are.

This book is based on a diary which the author began in 1927, when she was 15 and a farm girl in North Dakota, and covers the years from 1927 ro 1937. She worked very hard and lived in grinding poverty. She went to college and then taught school and fended off marriage proposals, and never in the book says a good word for the man she married--who was courting her thru the last years she was keeping her diary. This I found to be quite a book, unpretentious as it holds itself out to be. A most moving account of a time and place one seldom hears about. I recommend it unreservedly.

I absolutely adored this book. It was powerful for me because it gave me an honest, often humorous, but vivid account of a reality I craved knowing more about...the depression years in the Great Plains states. I think I know more about my mother, who grew up a poor tenant farmer's daughter, just a little better. I look forward passing it on to others, and even using it as a wonderful book to read to some of my older friends.

Wonderful narrative of a difficult time in America. Such perspective of events from close to home. I recommend this to anyone who appreciates history unrevised and truthful.
T. Addison

From desciptions of the Durfee and Peck traders to the health conditions at the fort, the construction of the fort itself...a work to be enjoyed. You can feel yourself sliding back in time, to the shores of the Missouri, when there was little west of you except open land and Indians. I relished this book, enjoyed each and every page.

Fort Union And The Upper Missouri Fur Trade by Barton H. Barbour (Assistant Professor of History, Boise State University), is a comprehensive history of the city of Fort Union, one of the most important and enduring fur-trading posts of the nineteenth century. Historian and author Barton Barbour transport the reader to a yesteryear teeming hub of communication and activity between pioneers, Native Americans, trappers, traders, and more. An involving discussion of the legal, political, and sociocultural influence this trading hub had upon American history, Fort Union And The Upper Missouri Fur Trade is an impressive work of deftly presented scholarship which has clearly earned its finalist ranking for the 2002 Western Writers of America Spur Award in the Best Western Nonfiction-Historical category.

When I found that I would be moving to Williston, ND, (25 years ago) I checked to see what all was in the area. I was pleased to notice that the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was in the next county. I also noticed that there was a National Historic Site nearby as well. The National Park is nice but I have been to the Fort Union National Historic Site far more often. I discovered that a significant chapter in our nation's history took place at the nearby confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Thanks to this scholarly work by Barton Barbour, I have been able to read the most focussed, well-written, engrossing book ever published on this local monument.

When I came to this area, the site was comprised of a trailer home Ranger office/Visitor's Center and a roped out layout of where the various parts of the fort used to be. The subsequent reconstruction of the site (which was financed, in part, by significant local contributions) has resulted in a site that looks as impressive as its' history. Much of the local focus seemed to be about the many "celebrities" who came here during the fort's heyday. While there are many well-researched work about the Fur Trade, Barbour's book elevates the level of discourse to an analysis of significant issues. He presents a compelling theory that the fur-trading communities of the Upper Missouri exemplified a society of diversity that was well ahead of its' time. While there were hierarchies involved, there was also a recognition that all parties were interdependant of each other. The resulting respect and cooperation was well beyond the societal norms of the rest of European-settled America. Ironically, this existed at the same time the rest of the USA was fighting the Civil War over, in part, issues of racial equality.

There are chapters that examine the nature of the fur-trading industry and its' relationship to other industries as well as to the US Government and its' various agencies. These 2-3 chapters in particular do tend to slow the reading down a bit but Barbour offers a good overview of the Fur Trade's position in the American Economy and legal structure of the times. The political change that arose from the Civil War are stikingly presented by the author.

Mr. Barbour also offers a look at the effect that the Fur Trade had on the Native American Culture as well as its' impact on the Arts and Science of an emerging nation. He shows how the needs of trader and Indian alike created a market place that was respectful of each. The overhead may have been high but the quality was very good. His conclusions challenge many of the more recent stereotypes of European-American interaction with Native societies.

Barton Barbour has succeeded in creating a much-needed overview of the Upper Missouri Fur Trade. His analysis of Fort Union as the most significant site of its' kind is well-presented. It is much appreciated by those of us in the Missouri/Yellowstone Confluence area who knew that Fort Union was always more than just another fort on another river.

To the author: I can't tell you how fantastic I think it is that all of your hard work on this book really paid off. To me, it wasn't merely a history book; it was an opportunity to stand beside the men you described and to watch them be who they are. I could see the wear and tear on their clothes and almost smell the baked-in odors of days and months without baths.

From Home Guards to Heroes is a thoroughly researched, creative, and engaging history of the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry and the primary location from which its members came, Adams and York Counties, Pennsylvania. (Reviewer's disclosure: my great-great-great uncle, Daniel P. Reigle, was a member of Company F of the 87th, leading to my personal interest in this unit.)

The foundation of this book is Brandt's extensive research: U.S. census records, nearly 2000 Compiled Military Service Records, and over 1000 pension files for 87th Pennsylvania members, in addition to those records for over 800 men from the Adams/York areas who enlisted in other units in 1861. This study yields descriptive data on the 87th and comparative data relative to men in other units on factors such as their professions, age, physical characteristics, age at death, life expectancy, American-born and foreign-born, and their personal worth in personal property and real estate at the time they enlisted. The data on 1861 enlistments (both 87th and other units) is presented with the 1860 Lincoln vote for each of the fifty-five townships and boroughs in the two counties.

The quantitative research is complemented by extensive use of newspapers, including not only major city newspapers, but the local newspapers in the Gettysburg, York, and Hanover, important for understanding the political landscape and personalities in the area. For example, in addition to the rich contemporary information yielded by those newspapers, this research also yielded the valuable recollections by Michael Heiman in the York Gazette in 1891-1892. Further, Brandt has made use of any available manuscript sources, such as the George Blotcher papers at the excellent library of the York County Historical Trust, the Thomas Crowl papers at the U.S. Army Military History Institute and Penn State University libraries, and other materials provided by 87th descendants. He uses this information to create "sketches" of each company in the 87th, and the primary officers who were instrumental in its formation and its four years of service. I have seen many of these names "on paper" in years of reading about the 87th, but I found Brandt's sketches to provide an entirely new level of perspective on the men themselves.

This is a "real people" approach to the regiment's people and history, and it does not hesitate to share information that is delicate or uncomplimentary. For example, in the unit's rush to organize, there was no attempt to make any pre-enlistment physical examination of the potential enlistees. Brandt presents data to show that this resulted in more than 11% of the 1861 enlistees leaving the service for illness or injury; by comparison, the 7th PA Reserves' Company H, recruited in the same area, conducted full physical exams and experienced less than half that level of attrition. At another level that paints a less-than-heroic picture of some of the 87th's men, the unit was chartered and recruited primarily to provide security on the important Northern Central Railroad between Harrisburg and Baltimore. Although this was critically important to the Union effort in the first year of the war, such duty was not expected to involve major combat, long marches, or significant hardships at great distances from home. As a result, there was significant consternation among some parts of the 87th when their mission changed to becoming a fighting unit in the Union Army. Brandt examines the subject of desertions in detail, both real and on paper only, especially those occurring in the aftermath of the 87th's loss of 293 men captured at 2nd Winchester during the prelude to Gettysburg in June 1863. Drawing on Ella Lonn's classic Desertion During the Civil War for perspective, he provides many details on the individual cases of some men who intended to desert and did so, but also includes cases that illustrate how men could be tagged as "deserters" unfairly due to cumbersome administrative processes,. Finally, the chapter on "South-Central Pennsylvania and Race" will undoubtedly leave readers with roots in the 87th's home territory with a better understanding of the complex views of the community on race, slavery, emancipation, and the meaning of citizenship, but also with some embarrassment in accepting in our 21st Century the opinions of our ancestors in the 19th Century. These are difficult subjects to tackle objectively and fairly, and I commend the author for doing so. It provides additional perspective for the 87th's solid performance as part of the VI Corps in 1864 and 1865.

A difficult choice for the author of any regimental history is how much detail to include on the battles in which the unit participated. Brandt made the choice to not attempt to relate in detail the battles at 2nd Winchester, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, 3rd Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek, the Petersburg Campaign including the Breakthrough on 2nd April 1865, and the Appomattox Campaign. He does include a more extensive analysis of Monocacy because of the 87th's pivotal role there in slowing down Early's advance on Washington D.C. This is clearly the right choice, in my opinion, because it enables Brandt to use the space of his book to focus on the 87th, while the reader interested in more depth on the 87th at the major battles can readily turn to other excellent studies.

This book will be of value to anyone studying the genealogy or local history of the York/Adams County area. However, I also believe this book to be of significant value to anyone interested in an indepth understanding and history of a Union infantry regiment. Although the 87th was, of course, a set of specific individuals and events, the themes, dynamics, and patterns likely have a high degree of similarity in other units. I will not only be re-reading this book more than once, but will use it as a valuable reference in my own Civil War genealogy and history research.

If you are looking for a Civil War story that is new and different this is the book for you. I was held captive from start to finish. Dennis Brandt tells, after 10 years of research, the story only he can tell. The story of the 87th Pennsylvania. It is a story about the lives of the boys from York and Adams county. Yes, Gettysburg is in Adams County but this is not another tired tale of that great story. It is instead about how the boys started their Army life rather dull, guarding railroads ect. as many battles raged on in other parts of the U.S.A. But our boys get taken captive, they escape, they die and in the end we ponder over whether The Grand Old Flag would still fly over those states south of Mason-Dixon if not for these HEROS.