University of Nebraska Books

I'll put this simply: if you are what we in the art world call "artsy-fartsy," you will enjoy this book, as the writing is poetic and full of descriptive emotion. But if you're just looking for a good read, pass this one on by. It will confuse the living daylights out of you. But if you must, do some back ground work on the author and maybe a little on the subject herself. Good luck!

Atemisia Gentileschi, born in Rome in 1598, is one of the most fascinating figures in the history of art, though very little is known about her life. The daughter of a painter herself, Artemisia painted beautiful scenes of the women of Roman and biblical history even though she could neither read nor write.

Artemisia had, to put it mildly, a turbulent personal life. She was discredited in a rape trial, betrayed by her own father and abandoned by her husband. Her professional life, however, was far different. She was the first woman admitted to the prestigious Florentine Academy; she established a successful art school in Naples; she raised her daughter on her own and supported herself financially during a time when a woman's life was defined only by home, husband, children and the Church.

Although the above is about the sum total of all that's known about Artemisia Gentileschi's life, writer, Anna Banti, managed to flesh out these bare bones facts into one of the triumphs of 20th century Italian literature.

"Artemisia" is definitely not a biography or even a fictionalized one. It is not a historical work; in fact, the setting of this book is definitely ahistorical. It consists of an amazing dialogue between the author and Artemisia. There are, as way I see it, three levels in this book: the experiences of Artemisia, the experiences of the author and a blending of the two, to make a very fascinating third.

The very essence of this book consists of Artemisia's travels, all made for the sake of her art. Included are the young Artemisia's traumatic experiences in Rome, her marriage, her years of success in Naples, her long and undoubtedly arduous journey to England and back again to her native Italy.

One of the things that makes this book so powerful is Banti's constant authorial intrusion, a device that would weaken (or destroy) more conventional novels. Moving back and forth from the thrid to the first person, Banti holds fascinating conversations with Artemisia. This leads to a captivating, but very complex, narrative. As the dialogue between author and subject intensifies, Banti complicates matters even further.

In 1944, when the first version of "Artemisia" was nearly complete, events of the war caused it to be destroyed. The "Artemisia" of the first version constantly intrudes on the "Artemisia" of the second version, however. Confusing? No, not really. Banti is far too good a writer for that. Complex? Yes. And lyrical and skillful and fragile.

Despite the fact that this is not a historical novel, it is highly atmospheric. There are no detailed descriptions to weigh down the weightless quality of Banti's lyricism, but there are many vivid images of 17th century Rome, Naples, Florence, France.

No matter how fast you usually read, "Artemisia" is a novel that should be read slowly. This is a demanding book that requires much concentration on the part of the reader, but this concentration will be richly rewarded.

There is a vague, circular quality about this book and, in a sense, it ends where it began. In reality, however, nothing is known about Artemisia Gentileschi's life after her return to Italy from England.

This book is complex, intricate, self-reflective and extremely lyrical. Although it has an ephemeral, gossamer quality, it succeeds wonderfully in bringing Artemisia Gentileschi to life in a vivid and wonderful manner.

Anna Banti's first draft of this work of love and devotion was destroyed in WWII. It concerns Italian painter Artemisia Bentileschi. While few concrete facts are known about her, she has fascinated art historians for centuries. Anna Banti, when she began writing her manuscript for the 2nd time, was influenced by her own experiences, and she elected to challenge the boundaries of traditional biography. Artemisia is fleshed out. Neither true biography (obvious, given the paucity of facts) nor historical fiction, Artemisia dives into spurts of detail to capture the feelings and images of `truth,' rather than to pin down verifiable `facts.' Such is the new genre: creative nonfiction, tho Banti definitely and admittedly takes liberties. Truth With Privileges would be a good description.
Artemisia is a rich, complex, and extremely thought-provoking book that demands the reader's careful attention.
Spectacular, but challenging.

This is an extremely well-written and moving account of Artemisia. It is a modernist novel and is a dialogue between the the narrator and Artemisia. I highly recomend it.

This is a haunting tale of a woman painter on the skirts of history. Anna Banti intertwines not only fiction with history, but also past and present and her own life with that of Artemesia. The story encompases a number of years and is written in a stream of conscious manner. It is not fully understood until the end. The reader becomes wraped up in the mystery that the author has created.

Absolutely deplorable people doing rather hardhearted things. Loved it! Couldn't stop reading it once I had scanned the first couple of lines. What's not to love about a cast of 18th century rogues and lowlifes? I just wish I could see this actually performed-- seems like it'd be extremely entertaining to watch.

The beggar's opera,: And companion pieces (Crofts classics) is good as it includes extra writings from Mr. John Gay, friend of Jonathan Swift (the Irish cleric of The Essential Writings of Jonathan Swift (Norton Critical Edition) and A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works (Dover Thrift Editions) and Gulliver's Travels (Oxford World's Classics)) and collaborator with Alexander Pope in the gathering and editting of Shakespeare's plays. Specifically the Croft edition contains excerpts from Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London.

We would wish very much to find a complete edition of the writings and plays of Mr. Gay, yet we are fortunate to find at least one here in this Regents Restoration Drama edition, the one for which he is most famous, as it was gratefully adapted by Mr. Bertolt Brecht some eighty years ago for the well known The Threepenny Opera (Penguin Classics), whose Kurt Weill music we groundlings know best in the one song Mack the Knife.

Here in the Regents edition we find the original play, with the longest section of this book the collection of sheet music with songs and lyrics, the melodies of which come from traditional airs of that time, as this was the earliest ballad opera. A brilliant introduction by Edgar V. Roberts presents fully the history, context, arguement and effects of this opera, which basically satirizes the felonoius larceny of the London aristocracy in the guise of cheap hoodlums and thieves, as if Dick Cheney's Halliburton ran and protected no more than your city, for a fee.

Read this book. Know your history. See what is happening today under our globalization and free trade agreements. Read this book.

A very helpful chronology completes this volume, setting Gay into the context of his day. This may be all we can hope for, and I certainly would like to read the rest of Trivia, and of Polly, and of The What D'ye Call It.

Life is a jest; and all things show it, I thought so once; but now I know it. - John Gay's epitaph As we sit here, nearly 300 years removed from the debut of The Beggar's Opera, it's hard to recapture the effect that it had on the England of 1728. So look at it this way, John Gay was the Sex Pistols of his day and The Beggar's Opera hit London like Never Mind the Bollocks....

Since Italian opera had first come to London in 1705, it had dominated the British stage. Replete with ornate sets, elaborate costumes, unintelligible plots and imported sopranos and castrati, it was less art than event. Audiences attended to share in the spectacle, as chariots swooped through the air & romantic tales unfolded on stage. Into this artificial world, Gay unleashed an opera about the scum of London society, set in taverns and thieves' dens. He tells the story of Peachum, a fence with a lucrative sideline in informing on fellow criminals. His daughter Polly has secretly married MacHeath, a highwayman. Now Peachum and his "wife" fear that MacHeath will inform on them & inherit their loot when they are hanged. After berating Polly for marrying, & not having sense enough to live out of wedlock, they decide to turn MacHeath in, before he can turn them in. As Peachum prepares his daughter for this turn of events he tells her: "The comfortable estate of widowhood, is the only hope that keeps up a wife's spirits. Where is the woman who would scruple to be a wife, if she had it in her power to be a widow whenever she pleased?" However, to the Peachum's disgust, Polly is actually in love with MacHeath and so, to her great surprise, are several other women, including Lucy Lockit who helps him to escape from prison. So, the stage is set for a madcap farce. Mix in a satiric look at the corrupt administration of justice, some political jabs at the political master of the day, Sir Robert Walpole and songs like the following:

A fox may steal your hens, sir A whore your health and pence, sir, Your daughter rob your chest, sir Your wife may steal your rest, sir, A thief your goods and plate. But this is all but picking, With rest, pence, chest and chicken; It ever was decreed, sir, If lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir, He steals your whole estate.

and you've got Gay's recipe for what quickly became the most popular play of the 18th Century, fathering myriad imitations including Brecht's Threepenny Opera. A delicious romp. GRADE: A

The Beggar's Opera by John Gay is an artful yet honest representation of London in the early 1700s. As the Editor's introduction notes, it is a political satire that brings to life the actions of such notorious figures as Jonathan Wild and Robert Walpole. In the Beggar's introduction the reader is made aware of the author's intent to mock the recent craze of the Italian Opera, which is considered by Gay to be thouroughly "unnatural." Immediately after that we are exposed to the corruption of a city offical, Peachum (whose name means "to inform against a fellow criminal"), as he is choosing which criminals should live, as they are still profitable, and who should not, as they have turned honest. Peachum's character of both an arch-criminal and law man is interesting enough in his daily dealings; add to that his daughter's recent marriage to a highwayman (who the father then plots to send to the gallows). Not to mention what happens when the highwayman runs into an old aquaintance of his, who visibly shows his earlier affection, and you have what makes to be a highly entertaining, emotional, and educational story of 18th century London. The dialogue is well written, and the only problem a modern reader might have is the operatic aspect. I suspect that the mockery of the opera is not felt as much when read but rather when performed. Note to reader: it makes it much easier to understand if you read the introduction. There you will find instances of "real" London that the playwrite is satirizing. For all lovers of period English pieces who enjoy a cynical wit.

From its first performance, January 29, 1728, The Beggar's Opera was an absolute success. In that period a box office hit might be continued for four or five nights. Remarkably, The Beggar's Opera ran sixty-two nights in London, and was produced nearly every year thereafter to 1886. Its popularity quickly spread to Wales and Scotland, France and Germany, and even to the New England colonies (and became a favorite of George Washington).

A London revival in 1920 ran 1,463 performances. A Beggar's Opera Club had membership limited to those that had seen at least 40 performances. Bertholt Brecht's twentieth century version, Three Penny Opera, was immensely successful too. A jazzy rendition of one of Brecht's songs, Mack the Knife, became Number One on the Hit Parade in the early 1960s.

John Gay's innovative musical appealed to the masses with its rollicking, rowdy, English lyrics overlain on old, sentimental melodies. Formal, highly structured, Italian opera was shoved aside by this novel musical form.

The cast was equally original, being comprised of cutthroats, pickpockets, thieves, streetwalkers, highwaymen, and a corrupt jailer. Polly Peachum, the sweet, trusting daughter of the roguish Peachum, was the only honest character in the play. Miss Lavina Fenton, perhaps the best theatrical singer of her day, became immensely popular for her role as Polly and at end of the run - the sixty-two performances - she married the Duke of Bolton and retired from acting.

The audience was quick to associate Newgate Prison with Whitehall; the deceitful, avaricious Peachum (Polly's father) with Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Macheath's band of rogues (Jemmy Twitcher, Crook-Fingered Jack, Nimming Ned, etc.) with aristocratic courtiers, and Macheath's women of the streets (Mrs. Coaxer, Dolly Trull, Mrs. Vixen, Molly Brazen, etc.) with ladies of high society.

This short three-act play has some forty-five scenes, almost all with musical interludes. Gay holds this myriad of scenes together through nearly continuous action, more akin to a modern film than to the conventional eighteenth century play.

The Penguin Classics edition (titled The Beggar's Opera, as might be expected), edited by Brian Loughrey and T. O. Treadwell, is quite good and not difficult to find.

Another good choice (and my favorite) is The Beggar's Opera published by Barron's Educational Series, edited by Benjamin Griffith, and illustrated by Keogh with full page ink-line drawings of the key characters. The lengthy, three part introduction - the playwright, the play, and the staging - is quite helpful. The initial musical notes are presented along with the lyrics.

The Beggar's Opera, Regents Restoration Drama Series, Nebraska University Press, 1969 may be more suitable for English majors as it offers a scholarly introduction by Edgar V. Roberts. An extensive appendix, some 140 pages, is a compilation of the music of The Beggar's Opera with keyboard accompaniments, edited by Edward Smith.

The Beggar's Opera and Companion Pieces, Crofts Classics, 1966, edited by C. F. Burgess is particularly valuable - and somewhat unique - for including Gay's enjoyable poem Trivia (subtitled The Art of Walking the Streets of London), other poems (Newgate's Garland, 'Twas When the Seas Were Roaring, Sweet William's Farewell, Molly Mog, An Epistle to a Lady, and The Hare and Many Friends), and extracts from various letters. A possible drawback may be the absence of musical scores in the text, although the lyrics are embedded within the play itself.

Colonel Loza commanded a unit of M4 Sherman tanks in the Red Army against the Nazis on the Eastern Front in WWII. Much maligned in most accounts, the "emcha", as the Russians called it, served very well for their purposes. The USSR received thousands of Shermans from the US as part of FDR's plan to support the Russian war effort. As told by Colonel Loza, the Sherman had a number of advantages over its German opponents. The Sherman was highly reliable, able to operate for long intervals with minimum maintenance. Complex German tanks, on the other hand, were in need of constant repair and servicing. Also, the Shermans had superior cross-country mobility, allowing them to cover ground that their opponents couldn't cross. This also gave them avenues of approach that the Germans sometimes left open, certain that tanks couldn't negotiate the terrain. Finally, the version of the Sherman that the Russians used had dual diesel engines. By running on only one engine, they had reduced speed, but also a very reduced noise signature. This permitted the Russians to make several successful night attacks on unsuspecting German units, sneaking up to practically point-blank range, where the German tanks' superior armor and firepower were negated.

After Germany's defeat, Colonel Loza's unit was transferred to Mongolia to chase the remaining Japanese units from Manchuria and to accept their surrender. Although they didn't see any real combat, the Shermans were on the road for extended periods covering the vast desert landscape, and their reliability was a real virtue.

This book is written in an engaging first person style, and reads almost like a novel rather than history. WWII fans and history buffs will definitely want to add this to their lists. Enthusiastically recommended.

As a former Armor officer I was captivated immediately. This is a story by a soldier's soldier. The stories are incredible, the action non-stop throughout. Colonel Loza is a true hero and warrior who tells a great story, albeit not in the flowing, perfect prose of the ivory tower historian, but that is what makes if all the more gut wrenching and believable. All tankers should read this one!

During WW2, the United States shipped a whole lot of Lend Lease material to the Soviet Union, and included in this equipment was a total of about 5,000 tanks. Most of those shipped were diesel-powered M4A2 Sherman tanks (emchas to their Soviet crews, after an abbreviation of the Russian pronunciation of M4) and this book is the memoir of the service of an officer who rode several of these tanks from the Ukraine to Czechoslovakia, then across the Gobi Desert to Mukden. It's well-written (not always a hallmark of Soviet war memoirs) and full of wonderful anecdotes, from whiskey bottles in the gun breeches to problems with the rubber-covered tracks and the high center of gravity. Strangely, Loza has more good things to say about the Sherman tank than Belton Cooper, who wrote Death Traps (which I just read). Cooper thinks the tanks were no match for their German counterparts, Loza argues that used properly, emphasizing speed and maneuverability, they could and did stand up to the Panthers and even Tigers tolerably well. The book includes several incredible stories, the sort of thing you wouldn't believe if the author hadn't witnessed the events themselves, and concludes with a bizarre kamikaze attack by Japanese planes on the tank column. My one gripe is that at points you feel you're missing something with regards to the author's private life (at one point he mentions that he has a family now, but you hear nothing of that otherwise; mention of his wounding and the events surrounding it are very sketchy) but that doesn't really merit a drop in my rating from the highest.

I found the book quite entertaining. It is also an answer to the critics who have condemned the Sherman Tank because of inferior armament and armor compared to the heavy Russiann and German tanks. The author confirms as Patton found that if the advantages of the tank, speed, reliability, high fire rate, off road capability and etc. are utilized that it could and did massacre its now more highly regarded counterparts.

I've always been interested as to how the people who used our World War II equpment, (not always the epitome in state-of-the-art), thought about the quality of what they received. It seems that the author had a high regard for the M-4 Sherman Tank, and this was from a national whose nation's specialty was the design and production of great tanks. He gives a fair comparison on the good and poor attributes of the Sherman and the application of that weapon in many battles and locales: from Europe to Asia. (Too bad the M-4 had such a small cannon compared to the German Tigers and Panthers: But precision shooting by the Soviets made up for the discrepancy). I learned a lot and am glad that Mr. Loza helped fill a need for information on this subject. (I was surprised that the Sherman was thought of so highly!) I would have rather had more details and depth in his book...but he wrote it terse, direct, and to the point (like the Romans used to style their military works...notab! ly Caesar). I heartily recommend it to anyone.

Celine once wrote that those who don't imitate him are doomed, that he is Literature's favorite child. He's right. Fable for Another Time is proof. I'm in awe of this novel - it's a lot like the brilliant "Castle To Castle," only denser, perhaps too dense for a mass audience. He's at the peak of his literary talent here, but he's also been driven insane by his time in the Danish prison and the death sentence that hung over him in France, and that insanity hasn't yet settled down to the cranky humor of "Castle." A novel to re-read and re-read for the sheer pleasure, bile and beauty of it all.

Celine is at it again in *Fable for Another Time,* this time spitting and spewing from a Danish prison cell where he's been thrown while the French try to decide what to do with him--pardon him, or execute him for collaborating with the Nazis. For his part, Celine maintains his innocence and shows no remorse for anything--instead he's filled with characteristic disgust and bitterness at the hypocrisy of those who condemn him. The personal vendettas indulged in here in scathing diatribes risk turning *Fable* into a scandalous gossip column about people long dead and who the average reader needs extensive footnotes to even identify. This is always the risk of Celine's later work, especially when he turns his attention from the rottenness of the human race as a whole, and focuses on the rottenness of particular specimens instead.

In *Fable,* Celine attacks his enemies against a refrain of lamentation of the hardships of prison life--the bellowing lunatic in the next cell, chronic constipation ((he hasn't gone in two weeks as he never tires of telling us--so you can only imagine the mood he's in!)), hunger, and constant physical threat, as well as loneliness, hopelessness, and grinding mental and physical collapse. But it's not all gloom and doom from the pit. As Celine himself remarks, he's full of humor--jokes and gags are his specialty, just what the doctor ordered, the way Celine transcends the horror and injustice. He interrupts his pell-mell narrative with periodic sales pitches to an imaginary readership to buy *Fable* --and to buy it often. Three or four copies per reader aren't too many! The general public, though, he sadly acknowledges, reads only mindless garbage. A long soliloquy on a preoccupation with rectal health and a fear of cancer is grimly hilarious, especially poignant if one tends to hypochondria--and tellingly metaphoric: we should all pull our heads out, if you catch my drift. And Celine's antic portrait of an infamously lecherous and legless Montmartre artist who has compromised even Celine's beloved Lili is perhaps the highlight of the entire volume.

Curiously, *Fable* combines what is best in Celine with what is weakest--at least from a contemporary reader's point of view. As a who's who of contemptuous stinkers of a bygone day it's always at the risk of arousing the apathy of old gossip about the largely forgotten. As a comic and picaresque adventure of peculiar characters and outrageous situations it's hugely entertaining. But it's as one man's indignant rant against the crumminess and inhumanity of humanity that it remains both hilarious and relevant. If you look even closer, you also see what is so often missed in Celine: the power of the human will to turn tragedy into comedy and to transmute life, if not into something actually worth living, at least into something a little more bearable. In that, Celine is priceless.

For a novel whose translator takes some pain in all but describing as untranslatable, one wonders what is missed from Celine's original. One suspects a lot--one fears Celine himself. Nonetheless, a text that Celine fans will want to read, *Fable for Another Time* contains enough of what is timeless in Celine to still be rewarding.

Brilliant ! And very relevent to our day and age.

As the preface says - "for animals, for the sick, for prisoners".

Bebert the cat was the most sympathetic figure I could find in the book.

I couldn't book the book down.

I really enjoyed Fable For Another Time. If you are a big fan of Celine's work you will too! The book moves rapidly as the main character tells his tale of time spent in a prison. I think out of all of Celine's novels, the one shows the most about him.

One has to admire the courage of the translator. To tackle Celine's astonishing (poetic) raving and make it come through and together, so that you keep on reading, is quite an accomplishment.
Everything is here, au pair with the best of Celine's book-rants. What madness!
In retrospect, Celine defintely looms like one of the elect few grandmasters of the 20th century writing. Perhaps the greatest 20th centrury French author in the grand tradition going back to Rabelais and over to les poets maudits (Rimbaud, Verlaine, Baudelaire).
What raving genius!

THis is one of the few books dedicated solely to exposing the hoax that is the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' text. This author shows definitevly how it was created by the Czars men to discredit Judaism and cause progroms against the powerful Jews of Moscow and Odessa.

This book is an importnat book in the pnathyon of books that seek to explain anti-semitism. Recently the 'Elder' text has had a comback as it has been reprinted in its most viscous form, with no introduction explasining its fabircation, in Muslim countries like Egypt and Saudi and at least one un-truthful copy can be purchased on this website. Its sad to see these anti-semetic texts are still in circulation and widely beleived to be true by the ignorant and the hateful. This book helps unmask the ignorant and shed light on the fabrication that is the 'Elders' Text

A good read, highly recommended.

Segel's attempt to discredit the Protocols is successful, as is his exposition of its origins and effects on modern society. However, his writing is wrought with sarcasm and fallacious appeals to popularity. His passion is overwhelming at times, distracting the reader from the core points with bombastic remarks. This topic should be required reading due to the serious implications of the fraud of the Protocols, but readers would be best served to find a version by a different author.

Just because Henry Ford got suckered into beleiving the Protocols hoax, doesn't mean you have to be taken for a fool. This book is a well-written, well-researched, clear explanation of the history of the Protocols, demonstrating once and for all that it was a forgery. (If you insist on reading the Protocols anyway, then buy this to go along with it.)

Once while discussing the mythical "Religious Right" on an e-list, Ann Coulter's debunking of the myth in her book _Slander_ came up.

"Of course she'd say it doesn't exist," a young liberal observed. "She belongs to it."

We see the same reaction in neo-Nazis towards attempts to discredit the equally absurd "the Protocols are authentic" myth.

"Of course a Jew would say there's no Jewish conspiracy -- what do you expect from a Jew?"

We live in an age where Holocaust victims are dying, costing us their first-hand information. And at least one member of the House of Representatives (Cynthia McKinney, D-GA) uses the words "Jew" and "Israeli" interchangeably during her antisemitic rants (Ms McKinney has even blamed Jews for causing her to lose a primary in 2002; sadly, she's back in office).

Like books against Communism, we need to have books against antisemitism, too. And this one is a great book.

This is Richard Levy's 1995 translation of Segel's 1926 abbreviated version of his original (1924) longer, more scholarly work, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Critically Illuminated. It is a point-by-point refutation of this fraudulent document, and an indispensable reference. It is indexed, and includes a chronology of the hoax, as well as an updated bibliography. This particular edition includes an introduction by translator Richard S. Levy that would be worth a volume of its own. The following is based on that introduction.

While Segel's work is authoritative, Levy recognizes that logical, scholarly examination of this fraud has had little effect:

"The patent absurdity of the [Protocols] has had little or no bearing on its credibility for a large and varied public. ... devastating and authoritative judgments have failed to put an end to the book."

Perhaps the best example of Levy's point is Hitler's comment in Mein Kampf that Segel denying "the truth of the Protocols was the best proof of their authority." This was precisely argument employed to such effect in 1692 Salem: To doubt an accuser was to open oneself to accusation: Who but a member of the conspiracy denies it?

As outlined in Festinger's 1956 study, When Prophecy Fails, and more recently, in Susan Clancy's Abducted: how people come to believe they were kidnapped by aliens, the allure of conspiracies is well-known: Readers are "invite[d] to join the elite of those in the know." Moreover, "the [Protocols of the Elders of Zion] addresses an audience not thought capable of sustained reasoning. ... For many, the least likely explanation of great events seems the best because it is also the most effortless." Segel's arguments are therefore inaccessible to many for precisely this reason.

Would that the consequences of continued publication and belief in the Protocols were as benign as the copious literature on alien abduction and Doom's Day cults, but it is not. Levy sadly concludes:

"In the world at large, beyond the reach of the Nazis, the Protocols helped render Jews ineligible for rescue by the great majority of their fellowmen."

Words and ideas do have consequence.

There are some books about the women of the old west that are far more interesting. The one overwhelming impression I had from this book is how uncaring her family was and how she herself really was a very selfish woman, even wanting to go to a dance the night her child was deathly ill. I would recommend other books such as Doc Susie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies and also Tomboy Bride. Both of these books are about intellegent, caring individuals in the same parts of the country and in the same time.

With ingenuous humility, Anne Ellis recounts the first phase of her difficult life as if it were a cakewalk. Several passages convey such emotional impact that I remember them months later. A great read for anyone wishing to understand how women really lived in mining towns of the American West around the turn of the century.

Ann Ellis is the real deal! She's raw American...living, working, loving, and raising children in the gruelingly hard world of the mining towns of the Rocky Mountains, years before the amenities that we American women take for granted today...things like running water, ample heating, and doctors always available for very sick children.But Ann is tough and savvy, witty, and has a great sense of fun, even in the toughest of times. Her life is richly-laden with deep emotion.Her descriptive style is pure and simple, but takes us right to her heart. She never complains...only explains.You read the book with a great sense of admiration for these strong women who raised strong families,loved their men, had dreams and joyful aspirations, even in times when they were struggling to find their way in this sometimes brutal world of their husbands' lust for gold and silver.This lady was a true pioneer in every sense of the word. Her story should be shared with anyone who finds strength in true accounts of brave American men and women.

No matter what your own life experience has been you will find things in this great book that you identify with. This true life experience is from a woman who lived a heroic experience from penniless poverty to being elected to public office, rising above all her own expectations, A wonderful book full of comedy, tragedy, drama, supence, you won't be able to put this book down.

In an age when autobiographies are considered fascinating only if the writer survived abuse, rape, incest or murder, Ms. Ellis' account is refreshing because she survives life.

This Cubs Choke is followed on a game by game basis.
I don't know how interesting this story is to folks who were/are not Cub fans or who were/are not White Sox fans.
A fan of the Mets has no need to read this...THEY WON.
This book is fantastic for those of us in Chicago who lived this season.
It jogs the memories. It was an incredible ride. What is fascinating is that this ballclub lives on in mythical proportion and shows what a provincial town Chicago is.

The basis of the book was a synopsis of the 1969 season in review, month by month, until the final depressing month of September when the Cubs ran out of gas. The book did not include any sort of interviews of players, coaches or fans opinions of why the Cubs did not win in 1969 or what they could have done differently to change the final outcome of the season. It basically gave a recap of the results of the games until the final outcome of the season ending failure by the Cubs.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. It gives an in-depth summary of nearly every game of the "season that wasn't" and Mr. Feldman also documents other memorable events that occurred that summer(moon landing, Tate murders, Woodstock, etc.)which further helped to take me back to 1969.

"Miracle Collapse" does a great job in providing a day-by-day description of what happened during the Chicago Cubs' 1969 schedule. It provides great deal on the nuts and bolts of the season--long-forgotten facts on who was starting at certain positions at what point of the season, who was acquired by trade or purchase and for whom, and what rookies were expected to actually make a difference on that veteran team. What it lacks is a lot of human interest, personal interviews, and anecdotes. Rick Talley's "The Cubs of '69" does a better job at the human interest part, but is riddled with errors. "Miracle Collapse" is not and is meticulously researched. For any Cub fan whose scar of '69 will not heal, "Miracle Collapse" and "The Cubs of '69" are a tandem that is a must-buy.

Attn. Cubs fans and history buffs....
This is the book for you. Most books on the Cubs are mundaine, lifeless, and contain the same old things us Cubs fans have heard time and time again. In this book, Doug Feldmann has breathed new life into the team we all know and love. Even though the story highlights its defeat, the lore and lure of the team shines through thanks to the author's uncompromising use of detail. There's so much that Cubs fans have to learn about that fateful year of 1969.

I was a resident of Boulder Colorado for 40 years. Tom Horn is buried in the old Columbia cemetery there. I have seen the pink granite stone with the simple inscription In Loving Memory Of Tom Horn. Everything I have read about the man never disclosed why Tom was buried in Boulder until I read Dean Krakel's book, The Saga of Tom Horn, A Vindication written by Himself. Tom was born in Missouri, not Texas. He left home after his Dad gave him a severe beating for skipping school and chores to go scouting for varmints. Tom had a natural talent to speak other languages. On his way to the Southwest he learned Spanish and later Apache after he was assigned to live with the Apache at San Carlos and Cibecue to keep an eye and an open ear on the Indians. After the Indian wars he became a Pinkerton detective, a miner, and a cattleman's detective. It was in this last capacity that got him into trouble. Tom had a brother, Charles, who operated a freighting business in Boulder. After Tom was hanged his body was sent to Boulder where Charles received him and was buried in the family's cemetery. This was his only connection to Boulder.
I have read microfilmed letters that were sent to Tom by nieces while he waited in jail.The Boulder library has these microfilms,
In 1993, Sept.16th and 17th a new trial was ordered for Horn in the Laramie, Wyoming courthouse. Charles O'Neal was the oldest living descendant of Tom Horn at that time and was gratified that the modern day retrial won Horn a posthumous acquittal.
However the descendant of Willie Nickel, a niece named Viola Nickell Bixler, then 70 years old stated that she didn't think it was wise or reasonable to change history so many years after the fact. This information was taken from an article written by Kevin McCullen and published in Rocky Mountain News.
Another article about Tom Horn and written by William Hafford and published in the May 1996 issue of Arizona Highways is also interesting reading along with a few great photos.

The Saga of Tom Horn is a very good book on the trial of Tom Horn.It recreates the trial that found Tom guilty,and hanged him for the death of a 14 year old boy. A crime a lot of people including me belives he did not do. The book is very detailed on the trial, and about Tom Horn himself. A must read for all western history buffs.

This is a 'must read', for anyone interested in the 'Old West' and 'cattle country'. Mr. Krakel, dis-spells rumor and conjecture about Tom Horn. Through newspaper articles and interviews with the people who were 'around' at the time, Mr. Krakel, unfolds a story of mystery surrounding the killing of a 14-yr. old boy. With actual court transcripts, he relates the trial of a Wyoming 'Stock Detective'and his eventual hanging. This is about as close to the truth as we may ever get on the subject of Tom Horn. This review is in regard to the 'un-expurgated' edition.

I have read more western history than many and while the book is good as far as it goes, it overlooks most of who and what Tom Horn was. He hailed from Texas of German stock and had a very Wild West life - mining, Indian Scout, spoke the Apache language, worked with the legendary Al Sieber and was in on at least one capture of Geronimo. The Apache Chief in whose camp he learned their language called him Talking Boy, his Apache Name (used to describe one's character or most salient trait), and the one that proved his undoing. I believe Tom Horn was a great frontiersman and, like so many, used by the government, discarded without so much as a by-your-leave to either discard all the government had set his life to, or else be brought down. I believe many a Viet Nam Veteran will know whereof I speak on this. What is missing from this book is Horn's early experience, which is nowhere documented properly in print. He, Mickey Free, Al Sieber and a handful of other white and Apache scouts won the Apache Wars. And they were all dropped like hot rocks so soon as the war was over, with lesser men garnering glory and acclaim for what others in fact did. Tom Horn's story, here, shows what happens when a man out-lives his time, when a soldier used to truly vicious conditions plies his trade for his own purpose, and in service of the way of life he thought he was defending. I rate this at 3 stars only because I wanted to more know about Tom Horn from this book, and less about the penny-ante locals. The book's evidence shows pretty clearly, to my mind, that Tom Horn was railroaded to top it all off.

Tom Horn devotees will be enthralled with this book as it uses historical evidence and trial documentation to tell the truth. It is the most comprehensive book on the Wyoming years of Tom Horn.

This historical novel centers on the relationship between white settlers in the West and Indians during the period of the Civil War. The book opens with a horrific massacre. Manfred is extremely descriptive of the violence and, if once was not enough, he returns to it again and again throughout the book.

The opening massacre, and the behavior of various individuals, shapes the story. Scarlet Plume emerges as a one-dimensional heroic character; the one good Indian trying to help Judith, the beautiful white woman, who has been kidnapped by his tribe.

The plot weakens the novel. Judith, who escapes from her slavery with the Indians, longing for her home in Minnesota, ends up romanticizing about the tribe's good qualities and disdainful of her white race. During her journey away from them, she even dresses in settler's clothing she finds in an abandoned cabin, missing her home and all its "civilized" furnishings.

Judith's change occurs because of her relationship Scarlet Plume. Just as Manfred was obsessed with the violence, he seems equally obsessed with describing Scarlet Plume's "phallus" which turns up throughout the book. By the end we are to believe that Judith has forgotten all the horrors and losses she witnessed (and escaped from) and wants to return and live as a squaw.

This was without a doubt the best book I've ever read. I could not put this book down and read it in one day. The book is very descriptive and well written. I highly recommend this book.

I first read this book a number of years ago. I've re-read it now, about five times. It never fails to break my heart.

Although the time prohibited a romance between an American Indian and a white woman, the author made the concept believable and sympathetic. Well written with graphic descriptions. A real page-turner.

I have been reading loads of books on Indians and whites. Lots of them I enjoy. This one I could not put down. I ordered all of Manfred's other books - those that I could - since they are hard to get. You will not regret this book. I recommend it highly! And actually, I hate this day and age --- I would have been much happier as Judith. Carol King - not the singer - East Fallowfield, Pa.

In this works,the author depicted Sherman's temperament and the fighting style.Analyzed the compaigns through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Although Lewis seems to be a Sherman fan, he is very fair and is not patronizing. I am impressed with the number of sources Lewis drew upon in his writing. This is a long book and starts slowly, but picks up speed during the Civil War years. This is the first biography I've read about Sherman, and I feel like I "know him" very well. I think ultimately, this is a very good book that serious Civil War buffs should read.

The author brings you right into the fight with Sherman. He uses excellent language and descriptive terms. I reccomend this to everyone!

THIS BOOK OF LLOYD LEWIS' ON WILLIAM T SHERMAN IS AN EXCELLENT READ. LEWIS MUST HAVE SPENT A LONG TIME RESEARCHING SHERMAN AND HIS FAMILY, HIS LIFE AND TIMES. ANYONE WHO HAS READ THE BOOK WOULD AGREE I AM SURE. SHERMAN WAS AN INDEPENDANT THINKER AND A MAN OF HIGH RESOLVE. HIS CONTRIBUTIONS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO RESTORING THE UNION ARE CERTAINLY EVIDENT IN THIS BOOK. ALTHOUGH I AM NOT AN HISTORICAL EXPERT ON THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, I AM SURE THAT ANYONE WHO READS THIS BOOK WILL BE MORE INFORMED AN EDUCATED ON ITS HISTORICAL ASPECTS AS WELL. LLOYD LEWIS , IN ONE OF THE CHAPTERS REFERS TO "SHERMAN AND HIS INEXHAUSTABLE PEN". AFTER READING THIS NOVEL, YOU WILL FIND ALSO THAT "THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD". AFTER READING "SHERMAN - THE FIGHTING PROPHET", I FELT LIKE HAD KNOW THE MAN. W.MUNRO

This is one of the finest books that I have ever read on the Civil War and I have read dozens. It is insightful, interesting and full of details.
Harl Pike