University of Nebraska Books

Ohiyesa wrote from his heart about a world for which the western world had no language. Here is a man who was truly caught between two cultures. Raised Lakota, educated as a western physician and fated to be on the Rosebud Reservation during the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, his destiny was to leave a record of what the First Peoples truly believed, and why.
His language swings from simple to more formal. It is obvious that he wants to influence the more well educated western culture of his time. Often, he is awkward. But, always, the soul and integrity of what he is saying shines through.
This book is meant for all who have native blood in their veins and for those who need to understand those that do. It echos the humility that is at the core of all our beliefs. It explains the Integrity of Soul that we have been searching for these many years.

Ohiyesa wrote this book in 1911, and did a masterful job at conveying spiritual truths in simple language that anyone can understand.

Ohiyesa tries to impart that this form of spirituality is more about a state of mind and heart instead of performing ceremonies by rote.

There are many little gems of wisdom in this book, and it would be a great place to start if you wish to explore the American Indian (Sioux) form of spirituality.

Here are a few of those gems I mentioned above.

Page XII "My little book does not pretend to be a scientific treatise. It is as true as I can nake it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals"

Page XIII "We know that the God of the lettered and the unlettered, of the Greek and the barbarian is after all the same God;"

Page 4 "Our faith might not be formulated in creeds, nor forced on any who were unwilling to receive it; hence there was no preaching, proselyting, nor persecution"

Page 4 "He (the indian) would deem it sacriledge to build a house for Him (the Great Spirit) who may be met face to face in the mysterious , shadowy aisles of the primeval forest"

Page 13 "The Indian no more worships the Sun than the Christian adores the Cross"

Page 14 "We believed that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature posesses a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself."

Page 15 "He (The indian) paid homage to the spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings)

Page 45 "In the life of the indian there was only one inevitable duty,--the duty of prayer--the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. His daily devotions were more necessary to him than daily food."

Much wisdom for a book more than 90 years old!

I encourage questions and comments about my reviews; Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

C.A. Eastman, himself a Sioux indian, published this work in 1911.
This is a fascinating look into the old beliefs that were held dear by his people. Passed down from antiquity by tribal elders, and preserved here for all who don't have the benifit of the heritage of old wisdom of the tribes.

The people of the twenty first century would do well to apply what is put forward here.

No psycho-babel. No attempting to convert anyone. Plainly stated for your consideration.
Highly reccommended.

I bought this book on a whim and turned out not to be what I expected. It's a nice easy read but it lacks depth. The text is rather large so the 170 pages would be much less if normal. You definately have to be in the right frame of mind and appreciate the simplicity or you will be disappointed. Overall, a worthwhile read.

I've read several books on Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe and the Challenger tragedy and bought this book because the reviews described it as focusing on the Teacher in Space program. I am mostly interested in how the program came about, how it was announced and promoted, the application process, the selection process, and the training. The book certainly covers those areas but not in as much depth as I hoped. Much of the book is on the life of McAuliffe which is thoroughly covered in Robert T. Hohler's excellent biography "I Touch the Future..." While just over 100 pages with very wide margins, Burgess' work does offer information as well as a more comprehensive look into certain areas than I've found in other books which makes it definitely worthwhile to anyone interested in McAuliffe, Challenger, and the Teacher in Space program.

Burgess describes the lessons McAuliffe was planning to teach in space better than any book I've read so far. This information is found in the chapter "Learning the Ropes." One of the demonstrations involved a screwdriver to show that, in space, the weightless astronaut would turn instead of the screw unless anchored. As to the programs to send civilians into space, Burgess covers the incomplete plans of choosing a journalist to go into space (Walter Cronkite was one of the forty finalists) more thoroughly than elsewhere. While Hohler's book is a better source on the application and selection process of the Teacher in Space candidates, Burgess offers several color photos of the ten finalists I have not seen anywhere else.

Finally, with a publishing date of 2000, Burgess has the benefit of hindsight that most of the other books on Challenger do not have. He gives a brief update on Christa's husband and back-up Teacher-in-Space, Barbara Morgan. I had always thought programs to send civilians into space of any walks of life died with Challenger, but the Teacher in Space program has continued with Morgan taking the lead. She actually completed astronaut training in 1999 with an expectation that she would enter space as an "educator mission specialist." This book was completed before the Columbia disaster, so Burgess sounded very optimistic about her chances. Although delayed, fortunately, Morgan got the chance to live her dream on the space shuttle Endeavour. The book includes a section of color photos, an interesting chapter on "Space Objects Named for the Seven Challenger Astronauts," and a forward by Christa's mother Grace Corrigan.

While much has been written about the engineering and management decisions that lead up to Challenger explosion, the mission, the Challenger crew and the whole Teacher in Space Program have received much less attention. In this book, the author, Colin Burgess, only devotes a few pages to the accident and focuses primarily on the teacher in space program, Christa McAuliffe, her teaching and NASA experiences and of course the aftermath of the accident. Since the book was written well close to fifteen years after the accident, it avoids much of the sadness, anger and the like which dominated many of the early works on this subject. As a result, the author gives us a wonderful book about the life and times of Christa McAuliffe and the Teacher in Space Program. There is also closing chapter on the next Teacher in Space Candidate, Barbara Morgan, who should fly sometime this decade.

As someone who lives across the street from the Johnson Space Center (JSC), it is quite obvious to me that the author spent a considerable amount of time researching her life and experiences at JSC, since all of the places, buildings, etc., are named correctly (using the names in 1986), located in their proper places and the astronaut training she received is as it should be. In other words, not only are you getting a wonderful well written book, it is also well researched.

One final thing to add, the book contains 32 pages of color pictures and all royalties from the book go to the Christa McAuliffe Fund.

As a friend of Colin's, I normally would disqualify myself from reviewing one of his books but I feel that I had to comment on this book.

Colin has done a great job of cutting through the usual American sentimentality whenever the Challenger crew are mentioned and has done a great job in telling us about Christa. However, the book is not just about Christa. The ill fated Teacher in Space program is described in detail as is the launch and the short flight of the Challenger shuttle.

A worthy addition to any space library. Teenagers in particular will like this book.

Kate

This is not the first book written about Christa McAuliffe- but it may well be considered the last word on her. Many previous books have concentrated on the technical aspects of the Challenger explosion that took her life. Others were written about her as a person, but were written so close to the time of the disaster that it was hard for them to be objective and see her life and achievements in their entirety. With the passage of time, it has been possible to set the Teacher In Space Program and Christa's life in their true historical context, and Colin Burgess has here done an admirable job of doing so. The politically-inspired events that led to a teacher being offered a seat on a spacecraft formerly reserved for those with piloting or science tasks to undertake are outlined by Burgess with objectivity and clarity. But what comes through more than anything from this book is the remarkable strength of personality that McAuliffe had, making her the perfect person for a space flight, and how that strength has meant that, even after her death, her plans for space education have gone ahead. It seems that her mission to educate and inspire people to dream about spaceflight and act on those dreams was fulfilled even though she never made it into space. Burgess, having already authored an important body of spaceflight books, has added a work guaranteed to inspire and motivate anyone.

They Cleared The Lane: The NBA's Black Pioneers by Ron Thomas, is an informative and entertaining account of the early Black players and coaches of the NBA.It is obvious Mr. Thomas has done extensive research through interviews, and media archives to examine and clarify the enormous social and athletic impact of the early Black NBA players. As a true basketball fanatic, I enjoyed the opportunity to read and learn about some important individuals who help to shape and define the NBA.

Finally a book that talks about black sports, that's not about just baseball. To know what these pioneers had to go through just to make it, makes me very proud to say that I'm black. But, you ask why such a poor rating. Because the author, Ron Thomas, did a very poor job of getting his facts first hand. He states that he got the idea about this book when alot of these ball players were still alive. But did not have "time" to interview them, so most of his recollections are through magizine or newspaper articles. Alot of these ball players past away before "he could get to them". Their are a couple of times in the book were he leaves you hanging trying to figure out what he's trying to say, for example when he's explaining that "when they got hungry, it didn't make matters easier because they practiced just a few blocks from the Nabisco plant." My question? When they got hungry, then what, did they have to split the dinner, they had no money. What? But nothing was more frustrating then when the old black ball players were explaining to us "that everyone treated us bascically ok", Mr. Thomas still tried to paint an "evil" side to the white owners and management. Making it seem like no one was willing to help. I think someone else should have done this book. And could've probably done a better job.

folks need to Know the Pioneers that Paved the way for Ball today.50-52 Years ago isn't that long ago.alot isn't mentioned of it&hat's really sad to me.but glad to have this Book that speaks on the Past,Present&The Future.A Toast to the Men who Paved the way.

They Cleared The Lane by professional sportswriter Ron Thomas is the amazing story of the people who dared to break the color line in professional basketball. Once, racism dominated this sport in America, but the efforts of the first professional black players and coaches changed all that. Filled with anecdotes, engaging stories, and little-known facts, They Cleared The Lane is informative reading that will appeal to all basketball enthusiasts who want to learn more about the history of this beloved sport. They Cleared The Lane is also highly recommended for Black Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River, written by William Shea and Terrence Winschel, reflects Abraham Lincoln's view that (page 1) "The Mississippi is the backbone of the rebellion. . . .[I]t is the key to the whole situation." And central to the Confederate strategy to hold the Mississippi after 1862 was Vicksburg, "The Gibraltar of the West." This book does a serviceable job of explaining the Vicksburg Campaign and the context in which that campaign took place.

It begins by laying out the Civil War in the West, and the efforts by the Union to assert control over the Mississippi, from the taking of New Orleans to the success of John Pope at Island # 10. Confederate strategists came to realize the value of Vicksburg as Union forces moved upriver from New Orleans and downriver from island # 10 and Memphis. Vicksburg was transformed into a bastion to control the river from high atop the steep hill overlooking the Mississippi River.

The book proceeds by describing Grant's original plan, with him heading to Vicksburg overland and Sherman by the great river. After one of Carl Van Dorn's few great successes in destroying the Union base at Holly Springs, forcing Grant to retreat, Sherman ran into a stout defense alone and was repulsed. Thereafter, the book discusses the various failed "experiments" that Grant carried out, trying to figure a way to get at Vicksburg without what would surely be a sanguinary frontal assault on the bluffs.

Finally, Grant marched down the west bank of the Mississippi, crossed over at Hard Times, and began one of the most well implemented campaigns of the Civil War. First, Grant prevented General Joe Johnston from reinforcing General John Pemberton, Commander of the Vicksburg forces. Johnston was pushed out of Jackson. Thereupon, second, Grant turned to take on a mobile force sent to defeat Grant by Pemberton. At Champion Hill, Grant's forces won the day. After another reverse at the Big Black River, Pemberton's forces retreated to Vicksburg. After a futile attack on the city's works, Grant settled in for a siege. On July 4th, 1863, the defending forces surrendered to Grant. At that point, and with the later surrender of Port Hudson to Union General Nathaniel Banks, Lincoln could note that the Father of Waters flowed unvexed to the sea.

The triumph of Grant was a key turning point in the Civil War. This book does a solid job in describing the events leading up to the opening of the Mississippi River as a Union stream. It provides useful maps to clarify the geography and the nature of the campaign.

The University of Nebraska Press's Great Campaigns in the Civil War Series has become a great boon to period historians. It offers concise overviews and refreshing new perspectives on the conflict written by knowledgable scholars. I have yet to be disappointed with a volume in this fine series, but this entry has become my favorite, so much so that I felt compelled to praise it. Shea and Winschel simply provide the clearest and most useful one-volume history of the war around Vicksburg. I learned quite a bit that soon will find its way into lecture notes, and I'm suddenly yearning to revisit Vicksburg after many years. Highly recommended.

The text notes that General Winfield Scott observed "The Mississippi is the backbone of the Rebellion.... it is the key to the whole situation." The rapid movement of men and equipment from one front to another in the vast western theater was a strategic advantage rivers gave Union military leaders. Conversely, with its seaports blockaded, unhampered ability to move men and supplies eastward on and across the Mississippi River was critical for Confederate survival. Thus, the Mississippi River was of strategic importance to both the Union and the Confederacy.

The text notes that New Orleans was the South's largest, wealthiest, and most industrialized city. However, New Orleans surrendered to Farragut in 1862, only one year after Fort Sumter. The Federals then began the complex/long campaign, not completed until July 1863, to clear the entire Mississippi River. By the spring of 1863, Vicksburg and Port Hudson were the only two Confederate forts blocking the Mississippi River. The authors, William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winschel, present an interesting narration of the campaign of Grant's progress down the river to Vicksburg and General Banks march north to an unfilled union with Grant. In many respects this was a trial and error campaign; Grant found that it was almost impossible to attack Vicksburg from the north or west, and he decided to cross the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg and attack the city from the southeast or east.

Most interesting during this campaign was the successful combined operations of army and navy resources. Admiral Porter made a dramatic run down the Mississippi past the Vicksburg batteries in order to ferry Union soldiers across the river below Vicksburg. In addition, while Vicksburg was under siege, Porter bombarded the city with his naval cannons.

After much bloody fighting east of Vicksburg, in May 1863 Grant's army reached the Vicksburg fortifications. After two unsuccessful direct assaults on the Rebels, a series of thirteen trenches were dug to the very face of the Confederate fortifications bringing Vicksburg under siege and sealing its doom. When completed over sixty thousand feet of excavations, manned by Union troops, were completed. By July Vicksburg's Confederate General Pemberton and his soldiers were hungry, sick and despaired of rescue. On July 3 General Pemberton asked Grant for surrender terms; Grant's answer was "unconditional surrender." Grant rejected Pemberton proposed surrender terms and promised to send amended terms of surrender that night to Pemberton that he accepted early on July 4.

The authors review the question of the lack of Confederate aid for Vicksburg noting that by early June, Richmond had sent Johnston thirty-two thousand troops and urged General Joe Johnston to relieve Vicksburg. Apparently Johnston never intended to save Vicksburg. Grant next moved east to turn on General Johnston. After eight weeks, Johnston abandoned Jackson, Mississippi and fled east eastward away from Grant.

The text concludes with an account of the battle for Port Hudson. Like Grant, Union General Banks, made a direct assault on the Rebel fortifications with disastrous results.Banks next initiated digging the way into Port Hudson; but impatient for results, tried another disastrous direct assault on June 14. Upon receiving word of Vicksburg surrender, Port Hudson surrendered on July 9, and General Banks informed Grant "The Mississippi is open.". On July 16 the steamboat Imperial, eight days out of St. Louis, docked in New Orleans. The struggle for the Mississippi River was over.

This is a readable account. Most interesting is to witness the development of General Grant into a first rate field general. The last chapter in the book is an EPILOGUE that provides a brief account after Vicksburg of several major commanders after Vicksburg.

This slim work actually speaks volumes, and is written in an engaging, fast-moving account that will satisfy either the Civil War buff, historian or general reader. The final chapter on Port Hudson is the only downside. That city's capture was part of the campaign described in this book, but its exclusion from the rest of this work makes it oddly out of place.

The appreciable detail within this book makes it difficult, at times, to follow; and that makes it difficult to construct an overview in our memory. The author uses a narrative style that gives no indication of where the narrative is heading. Unless you already know the history and are familiar with the principal characters, the text can seem overloaded with detail, the value of which may be unclear till further in the story. For example, in chapter 14 we are not told till the final paragraph that the two women we have been reading about, Eliza Spaulding and Narcissa Whitman, "were the first women to cross the North American continent." (286) This new information gives greater value to the details narrated in the chapter than they seemed to have on first reading. The book is written such that we (almost) never know where we're going, only where we are at the moment. It is the first book I've read encompassing the period, and it may not have been the best choice for an initial broad overview.

Using divisions within the bibliography helps us find the organization of the book:


Chapters 1 - 3

Early Explorations, general accounts

Specific Explorations - Charlevoix, La Salle, Verendrye, Carver and Rogers, Upper Missouri River and Mandan Indians


Chapter 4

The Northwest Coast, 1776 - 1800

Explorations Across Canada

Spanish Explorations on the Missouri River


Chapters 5 - 6

Lewis and Clark


Chapter 7

Trading and Trapping Methods

Early American Adventures on the Missouri

Letters, Reports about She-he-ke's Return

Trouble with Blackfeet

Thompson and Pinch-Perch


Chapter 8

The Astorian Adventure


Chapters 9 - 11

Proposals to Occupy Oregon

The Yellowstone Expedition

The Arikara Battle and Aftermath

Opening of Rocky Mountain Fur Trade

British-American Fur Trade Conflict


Chapters 12 - 13

Hall J. Kelley

Bonneville, Wyeth and Jason Lee


Chapters 14 - 16

The Missionaries


Chapters 17 - 18

Emigrations of 1839-40

Emigrations of 1840, 1841, 1842


Chapter 19

Emigration of 1843


Chapter 20

Emigrations of 1844

Emigrations of 1846

Noted historian David Lavender has penned probably the finest single volume on the Oregon Trail ever written. Starting in 1719, 130 years before the trail was formally established, Lavender slowly and concretely builds the story of the United States first claim to this territory by examining similar efforts by the Spanish, French, Russian and English which preceded the American claims.

Incorporating and firmly underscoring the efforts of the Native Americans, the Mountain Men, Hudson's Bay Company and the early missionary efforts, Lavender reveals that these four groups did more to claim the Northwest for the United States than any politician or political party in Washington. Always in the forefront of Western Expansion, the impact of the missionary effort was pivotal to the US claim to this Norwest portion of our nation.

This is a truly fine history and a remarkably excellent piece of writing.

This is an excellent account of the great quest for the Northwest, which eventually culminated in the vast migrations of Americans along the Oregon Trail. From the early exploration efforts of Jacques Cartier (1530's); Jean Nicolet (1630's); Marquette and Joliet (1670's); LaSalle (1680's); Bourgmont (early 1700's); the Verendryes (1730's to 1740's); Jonathan Carver (1760's) and others too numerous to mention, we see how the English, French, Spanish and Americans all had the goal to establish roots in Oregon. When the mountain men came into the picture searching for their beaver pelts in the early 1800's, it was this breed of men that finally opened the routes across the Rocky Mountains which lead the wagon trains through to the Northwest. Lavender then takes us up to the first overland migrations (1840's) of the missionaries and others in search of a better way of life, along with all their sacrifices and perils. This is a great book and very insightful of events leading up to the Oregon Trail.

David Lavender's WESTWARD VISION spans the period from the mid-17th century to 1849 as he chronicles the search for a reliable overland route to, and the subsequent settlement of, what would become known as Oregon, principally that area which borders the Willamette River as it flows into the Columbia (at present-day Portland). As the subtitle of the book indicates, this is "the story of the Oregon Trail".

For the sake of summary, I arbitrarily divide this book into five parts: early exploration of the Upper Mississippi River by French-Canadians seeking a route to the "western sea", the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the subsequent unsuccessful efforts to establish an easy route to Oregon via the Missouri River and its headwaters, the influx of "mountain men" into the area and the discovery of a more southerly route (the Oregon Trail), the early settlement in Oregon of Christian missionary groups sent to proselytize the Indians, and the massive immigration of land-seekers in the 1840's which ultimately resulted in the establishment of a U.S. Oregon Territory.

WESTWARD VISION is the result of extensive research on the part of the author. Its wealth of details is both its strong point and its undoing. Probably the most commendably concise chapters (5 and 6), considering the length of the event, deal with the amazing Lewis and Clark Expedition. Perhaps Lavender thought the history of the two-year trek adequately covered elsewhere. In any case, the following chapters on the exploits and travails of the fur-trapping mountain men and the missionaries are so full of minutiae that it would require the reader to take extensive notes in order to keep track of the various groups and individuals endeavoring to cross the Great Divide into Oregon in the 1820s and 30s. (Reading this book for pleasure, I wasn't prepared to expend that much effort.) Only in Chapter 19, which gives an account of the 1843 journey of the first large immigrant train - almost 1000 persons- over the Oregon Trail, does the narrative regain a concise clarity. A major failing of the the volume is the lack of adequate maps to locate the majority of the named and innumerable places and geographical features: rivers, river forks, buttes, mountains, rocks, forts, mountain passes, river fords, trapper rendezvous, and settlements. Perusing contemporary state highway maps didn't help much. And in a work this extensive, I would have expected a large section of illustrations. Except for several very crude drawings, there were none.

What elevates WESTWARD VISION, and compels me to award four stars, is that the author makes his point magnificently, i.e. that it took many tough people with large reserves of true grit to expand the fledgling United States to the Pacific's shores. The crossing was hard:

"At the rainswept crossing of the North Platte, blue with cold, cramped by dysentery and pregnancy pangs, Mary Walker (an 1838 pilgrim) sat down and 'cried to think how comfortable my father's hogs were' (back home). As for Sarah Smith, Mary sniffed, she wept practically the entire distance to Oregon." And even recreation had a sharp edge, as at the 1832 trappers' rendezvous:

"... a few of the boys poured a kettle of alcohol over a friend and set him afire. Somehow he lived through it, and fun's fun."

Finally, Lavender eloquently suggests the reason so many embarked on the Oregon Trail at all:

"What matters is not whether fulfillment was attainable in reality (at the Trail's end), but rather that at long last in the world's sad, torn history an appreciable part of mankind thought it might be. That was both the torment and the freedom - to go and look."

Raised a woman, Aaron Raz Link became a man - a gay man - at the age of 29. At least, he initiated the hormonal and surgical processes to alter his appearance toward a form closer to the person he had always felt he was inside. Because Link was trained as a scientist - specifically, taxonomy, the science of naming things - he is uniquely fit to analyze his unusual experience. It doesn't hurt that he's a beautiful writer as well as a thoughtful and witty one.

The book is nonfiction, he explains, and a memoir, but not autobiography: "It is a book about pieces that didn't fit the picture. As a result, the most confusing and difficult pieces play the largest roles." Strictly speaking, he writes, there is no such thing as a "sex change operation"; there are rather lots of little surgeries that were developed for other reasons, such as for badly mutilated soldiers, and infants and grownups whose bodies took an odd turn due to misbehaving hormones or cancer.

Link's analysis of his youthful fascination with movie monsters (they "were obviously the good guys"), of the Catch-22 of having to get himself diagnosed as mentally ill in order to qualify for the surgeries (legally speaking, "a mentally healthy person wouldn't want what I wanted"), and the absurdities of psychiatry and people's assumptions about gender roles, are all fascinating and well handled. There's even a kind of punch line: After an early lifetime of hating to be laughed at, following his sex reassignment, Link went to clown school.

Though a professor of English and women's studies who has been writing and publishing much longer than her son, Hilda Raz's less-than-a-third of the book is diffuse and less compelling - which probably reflects her passive and somewhat unwilling role in her son's transformation.

What Becomes You makes a terrific companion to Self-Made Man, lesbian journalist Norah Vincent's 2006 account of her three months dressing and living as a man. They're great food for any reader's thought.

"What Becomes You" is fascinating, moving, educational and revealing. In this book Aaron and his mother examine their lives within the context of their experiences and expectations of gender, what it is and what it isn't, what it means and what it doesn't mean. This book avoids sentimentality and sensationalism---instead it is gentle, intelligent and intimate. Reading Aaron's section, I felt as if I were sitting beside him as he told me the story of his life, his emotions as a child growing up feeling always out of place in a female role, and his struggles as an adult who chose to change not simply his body but his relationship to the world. Reading his mother's section I experienced the roller-coaster of emotions that she felt during the years of Aaron's self-discovery and gender change and, along the way, undergoing her own trials with breast cancer. Throughout the book the authors' love and respect for one another's lives is palpable. This book is not just a "trans" story. It is the story of family, longing, love, loss, society, work, literature, healing and much more.

I remember meeting Sarah many years ago.

Aaron has given me insights that will hopefully allow me to be a better friend to several folks who share her experiences, I plan to recommend the book, not just to these friends, but to their friends and famlies.

As a grandmother and great-grandmother, I share with Aaron the love of a wonderful person, his friend - my son. I thank him for the introduction, not only to Sarah, but now Aaron and the world he lives within. His book has furthered the limited education of this rural midwesterner, and I thank him so much for that.

And remember, Aaron, when you dig in the sand, fingers and flippers often bear a striking resemblance! But that doesn't mean a crime has been committed. Keep exploring, and keep writing.

At first I was little reticent, fearing a lot of gay/anguished person trapped in the wrong body kind of stuff. Instead, I found the author's viewpoint startlingly original, and very much angst and dogma free. Aaron writes with a clear voice, and the little asides, and various characters he meets, and situations he ends up in...are seen from a wry and humorous point of view. Which is not to say there are not depths. Indeed, this book will definetly set you mind spinning as to just how we perceive ourselves, and how we let the world shape us. While the book is very good, I would love to see the author use this writing style to take on other projects. I think he has great potential. If you have any friends who are going thru big changes, this is a book I think they will like. I will definetly be buying it for some friends of mine. I rarely write reviews, but I think this is a very worthy book, and applaud the author's, honesty, and style.

"Yellowstone Kelly" is an autobiographical account of the life of a trapper and scout in the Dakota and Montana territory in the 25 years after the Civil War. It is well written (with the help of M. M. Quaife) and is easily read. For those who live in the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and, to a lesser extent, Colorado, this book might be more appealing. It offers a glimpse at life in this area over 100 years ago and many a name or landmark little known to others will catch your attention. For example, as one who lives in NW North Dakota, I found it interesting to discover who Red Mike was (there's a golf course nearby with that name). For people who enjoy hunting, there are many pages of the hunting excursions that Kelly frequently took in the area. For people who enjoy the history of the American West, there are accounts of some of the lesser battles in the area's history.

The book, copyrighted in 1926, is the recollections of Kelly at a time when there were not many of his type still around. I would have liked to have read more about his later life but I got the impression that he stopped his tale at the point when civiliztion finally took control. I guessed that a man like him would have eventually gone to Alaska and, wouldn't you know, that was one of the few things he said about his later life.

Of the many interesting chapters, the one that might impress the general reader the most is his account of a trip to the Yellowstone Park in the late 1870's. Amidst his tale of the grandeur of the area, we also read about an encounter with hostile Indians. This was not the sort of travel log we're used to reading these days. The only fault that the book seems to have is its' brevity. However, what it does cover is worth the little time it takes to read it.

I am going to buy this book as my direct relative, William Frederick Schmalsle, was with Yellowstone Kelly. Schmalsle was an Indian Guide, Scout, Guide, and Courier for Lieutenant Baldwin and General Miles. All were involved in the Red River Wars and the rescue of the Germaine (German) sisters.

Luther "Yellowstone" Kelly was one of the men that helped open up the post-Civil War West. He was as interesting, fearless, intelligent and resourceful as Daniel Boon, David Crockett, Kit Carson or William Cody. He loved the romance of the frontier and appreciated the beauty and grandeur of nature. He was well educated, fond of good books, quiet, gentle and brave; a great hunter, scout, and excellent rifleman. For the student of the post-Civil War west and Indian War period, this is an excellent historical memoir. Unfortunately, the editor, M. M. Quaife, was more interested on condensing a colorful, interesting manuscript into a facts only history book. While much of the excitement has been removed, the interested reader will understand the interesting life Luther Kelly lived. Kelly was, at various times, an explorer, scout, rancher, ambassador, and always a friend of men, red or white. He walked the country from St. Louis to California, scouted under General Nelson A. Miles whom wrote the forward for this book, and was instrumental in opening up the Yellowstone Territory to become our first National Park. The Warner Brothers movie of the same name was, unfortunately, a quickly made western to feed the appetite of the late 1950's. The movie covers only one year and one trip to Kelly's Colorado Territory ranch. Even with these shortcomings it is worth a look when it appears on late night television.

In the Forward to these memoirs, published in 1926 and reissued many times since, Nelson A. Miles, who had known Kelly for many years, compared his friend to Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, Davy Crockett, and Buffalo Bill Cody. Certainly Luther Kelly had the hunter/trapper savvy of Boone and Carson and the chutzpah of Crockett and Cody, and these memoirs relate his life in the West most entertainingly.

Kelly was born in New York, joined the army in 1865, and was stationed in South Dakota. He hunted and trapped the Yellowstone country, and for a while was a dispatch rider between Fort Union and Devil's Lake. He scouted for George A. Forsyth and then for Nelson Miles on many campaigns against the Sioux and the Nez Perce. He led scouting parties through Yellowstone Park, fought the Utes in Colorado, even spent "down" time in Chicago and Washington, DC, before going to Alaska and the Phillipines, adventures that are outside the scope of this book.

Milo Quaife edited these memoirs and claims to have made substantial deletions and to "have freely altered the construction of sentences and paragraphs." The end result is a fascinating account, an informative and lively chronicle of not only Kelly's own life, but a wonderful first-hand record of various Indian campaigns and adventures in the wilds. Interesting and enjoyable.

Whether As For Me and My House can be considered one of the "great Canadian novels" is somewhat questionable, but there is no denying that it is a profound, complex and evocative work of literature.

Set during the Great Depression, the story revolves around the domestic life of the Bentleys, who have come to a small, isolated Saskatchewan farm-community of Horizon, where Philip Bentley has taken on role of being the town's new minister.

Ministering is something that Philip, in fact has little desire to do, and is instead obsessed with painting, to the point where his wife--through whose perspective the story is told--is neglected. There relationship is essentially broken, but the reasons for this are not simple, and this essentially is the focus of the story.

Throughout the novel, Mrs. Bentley--who is never named because the work is written in the form of journal entries--continuously explores their history, their personalities and the effect of their confined lifestyle upon themselves and one another.

Over the course of their residence in Horizon she comes to realize that the break-down of their relationship, is not so much the fault of Philip's conduct, as we are first led to believe, but fact that both have allowed themsleves to become victims of circumstance.

As For Me and My House is definitely a work worth studying, but like I initially stated, I question whether it can really be considered one of the great Canadian novels.

As For Me and My House provides a descriptive tale about a preacher and his wife during the depression. Written by the hand of the wife, who remains nameless, the book incorporates vast imagery to help portray the feeble lifestyle they were trapped within. Mr. Bentley, unable to motivate himself to move beyond his unsatisfying profession as a preacher, lives in unhappiness, bringing his wife into oppression with him. Animal imagery is prevalent, as the town and its people are described in such terms. They all cower and protect themselves; with the exception of Judith, who "scales the wind" at the beginning until she discovers her own sexuality and becomes the earth....Can air continue to have 'life' when submersed into the ground?

Through the journal entries of Mrs. Bentley, we are given a beautiful and complex novel of great importance in Canadian Literature. As a story of life during the depression, this book perfectly captures the trials of prairie life during this era. As Mrs. Bentley describes events in her journal entries, we are given a chance to not only accept the text at face value, but to read between the lines. Mrs. Bentley tends to say more by what she doesn't write than what she does. All in all, an incredible book and one which everyone should read.

The text is an intimate engagment with a question of relation. Perhaps it is not in anyone's (including Blanchot's...) interest to somehow portray a more "accurate" picture of the world, to write a "better" narrative or récit, rather, perhaps there is something more fundamental at stake which places even the practice of reading into question. And if this is at all true, it one of the foremost reasons why I hold almost all of Blanchot's texts in the highest regard.

This book is a foray into the deepest heart of relationships, and leaves one unguarded (as few other books have attained) to experience the letting-go that is so difficult for any of us to do, both as singular individuals and in our relationships with our significant others. This *experience* of letting-go is remarkably accessible in this book, and is remarkable for that fact alone, as few books can produce this sort of insight into the human condition of the notion of property, both in our relationships and in our daily experiences. It is an unsettling, uncanny book that stays with you after you have read it. Highly recommended.

Imagine yourself a leading French theorist: here is a recipe for that troublesome new 'recits'- return to an earlier work (in this case, his first, 'Death Sentence'/L'arrete de Mort')- find a germane incident within that book- rip those pages out. Now set up two charatcters in a situation that mirrors the originary fictional incident- have those two characters try to analyze the event's 'implication' from within the same setting. Digress frequently. Sound a little too Stoppardian for you? Not sure you'll find the Godot-like intertextual rib-tickles very compelling? For fiction his short-stories 'The last word', or 'The idyll' are easily a thousand nights more lucid; for heavy theory, 'The Writing of Disaster' is detonative. This work sadly's just oblivious...

As a museum director in Livingston, Montana, and teacher of a class on the history of the Yellowstone basin, this book is my foremost recommendation as an introductory survey to the breadth and depth of the regions history. Material covers only the "White European" history of the area with the early la Verendrye and Lewis and Clark explorations. Then there is the fur trade, Bozeman and Bridger Trails, Northern Pacific Railroad surveys, Sioux Wars including the Battle of Little Big Horn, founding of Yellowstone Park, early settlement, cattle industry and rustling including the Johnston County Wars developments and the demise of the Native way of life and open country, all of which are enticingly explored.
Numerous characters of intrigue are mentioned. There is a mention of contributing works at the end. Drawn maps are helpful for orientation. The one criticism is that the book has no footnotes. Also, some very significant books have recently been published that cover smaller areas of the story in greater depth. Several are: Jay Cook's Gamble by Lubetkin, Calamity Jane by McLaird, The Lance and the Shield by Utley and Frederick Billings by Winks.
Again, it is a great starting point and highly recommended!!

This is one of the best books I have read on the history of the Yellowstone basin. My interest in this area is fanned by the fact that my great grandfather was a mining engineer and Sherrif at Virginia City, MT prior to the turn of the Century.

this is a must read for anyone who is going to travel to South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, etc.