Stackpole Classics
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Up Came Hill
The Story of the Light Division and Its Leaders
by Martin Schenck
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The last name spoken on their deathbeds by R. R. Lee and Stonewall Jackson was that of their great subordinate, A. P. Hill. Lee's final words, "Tell A. P. Hill to come up" keynote the story of the Culpeper redhead and his hard-hitting light division. For the Light Division always did come up at the critical moment to save the day for the Army of Northern Virginia.
The gallantry and dash of Powell Hill's Cavalier ancestors characterized his own career and death on the battlefield. He and his officers and men saw more frontline action than most of lee's army. But, their dreadful losses and other vicissitudes of campaigning left a searing imprint on the former U.S. Army captain whose normally friendly spirit had to be, submerged by the stern requirements of combat leadership. In less than three-years, he rose to the rank of corps commander and at the end was Lee's closets adviser.
Hill's officers and men returned the loyalty and esteem, which he game them and, responding to the flame of his unquenchable fighting spirit, gave their utmost in battle.
Hill's Light Division bore the brunt on the Peninsula when Jackson faltered, saved the day at Slaughter's Mountain, withstood formidable assaults on the army's flank at Second Manassas, saved the day at Antietam. It distinguished itself in every major battle from Mechanicsville to Five Forks.
Up Came Hill is more than a combat story.
Up Came Hill will afford deep satisfaction to the many Civil War buffs and others who value a clear account of the overall course of the war in the eastern theater together with a detailed exposition of some phases, which have long been relatively obscure. It constitutes to an admirable and overdue tribute to an outstanding leader and to one of the grandest fighting units, in which Americans have served.
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Dear Young Friend
The Letters of American Presidents to Children
by Stanley Weintraub
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Just a few of the words of presidential wisdom found in Dear Young Friend:
"I rejoice that you have learnt to write,... for as this is done with a goosequill, you know the value of a goose." —Thomas Jefferson, to his granddaughter, Cornelia Randolph
"As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a bit of silly affection if were to begin now?" —Abraham Lincoln to Grace Bedell
"If we are successful [in the election], it will not be handsome behavior for any of my family to exhibit exultation or talk boastingly, or be in vain about it." —Rutherford B. Hayes, to his son "Ruddy"
"The other sixty cents are for my other six grandchildren. They are not born yet." —Theodore Roosevelt, to Marjorie Sterrett, who was collecting dimes to fund a battleship
"The John Birchers are just Ku Klux without the nightshirts." —Harry Truman to David S. McCracken
"If you really believe, you will see them. My [Irish] 'little people' are very small, wear tall black stovepipe hats, green coats and pants, and have long, white beards." —John Kennedy to Mark Aaron Perdue
Presidents since Washington have written to children. Chief executives prior to the overwhelmingly busy present even went through the White House mail themselves, choosing what to answer-a task in the e-mail age now impossible. Some earlier presidents, even as late as Eisenhower, confided opinions to young people that they rarely confessed to their peers. The letters range in subject form the monumental to the immaterial-although almost nothing is insignificant to a child.
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Project Space Station
Plans for a Permanent Manned Space Station
by Brian O'Leary
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
It's happening now-plans are being formulated under the coordination of NASA to launch a permanent, manned space station by the year 1990. Studies surveying user requirements, system attributes, and architectural options have been conducted, and you're on the top of these far-reaching considerations on the next big step taken within space!
Now that the Shuttle and Spacelab are realities, NASA has set sights on a new horizon-a permanent, manned space station in the high frontier. The precedents have been set-Skylab hosted human visits for up to 84 days, and the Soviet's Salyut was and is a temporary base for cosmonaut crew. The differences are the term and scope of space station living and the accomplishments that can be realized with a permanent site and continuous experimentation within its facilities.
Brian O'Leary, writer, astrophysicist, and former astronaut, describes the "tinkermodules" that will be carried to the earth's orbit to be assembled as a space station. His inside track information also lays the groundwork for fascinating disclosures on: Space station history, NASA's studies and plans, space careers and human potential, commerce and homesteading in space, odds of a space war, spacelab, space station architecture, space factories and hotels, soviet space station programs, colonies and exploration.
Here are issues that will likely bear directly on the space station of the not-so-distant future and an expert's interpretation of what that future holds. Unique and timely, Project Space Station gives you a distinctive foretaste of a new era, in which homesteading asteroids, growing huge silicon crystals in weightless factories, and the possibility of real star wars, will be a way of life.
In 1982, NASA undertook the planning of the United States' next major initiative in space: a manned space station program to be, presented for consideration to the Administration and Congress. This painting depicts one possible space station concept based on the earlier Space Platform studies by TRW Space & Technology Group (Redondo Beach, California) as commissioned by NASA's Marshall's Space Flight Center. The rectangular panels extending to the right and left of the main spacecraft would, provide solar energy. The upward extension is a single radiator. Of the three modules on the main space station, two are, manned for habitation and experimentation and the third, unmanned, provides logistics support. A communications antenna extends forward and downward from the spacecraft. (NASA-photo)
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Toward Distant Suns
A Bold, New Prospectus for Human Living in Space
by T. A. Heppenheimer
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The prospectus of humans living, working, and establishing communities in space can no longer be dismissed as the romantic notions of science fiction writers and space buffs. With the launch of the space shuttle human kind will enter a new era in space exploration, one giant step closer to the goal of human colonization. Our understanding of man's role in space is maturing, and the myths of life in space as a slick Buck Rogers episode or a scene from Star Wars must give way to a realistic plan for human life in other part of the solar system. We are ready now for a factual assessment of the challenges ahead: in Toward Distant Suns, the prospects of space exploration and space colonization have come of age.
Here, for the first time, is a realistic look at what humankind must accomplish in order to colonize near space. Based on the most up-to-date research available, Toward Distant Suns tackles the problems of technology and lifestyle that will face those men and women whose mission is to settle space. Here is realistic, in-depth coverage of: space shuttle's role in near space construction, development of new, more versatile rocket fuels and motors, building the large communications platforms, power satellites the "Space Spider," and space colonies, the space workers-how they will be chosen, trained, and transported; life in zero-g-space tourism and space war; "suburbanizing" space earth dwellers; the real future of interstellar colonization
Toward Distant Suns also takes a new look at the tantalizing question: What is our place in the galaxy? It reviews the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence experiments, the latest work on interstellar flight and colonization, and the current scientific information on planetary formation and humanoid development, to reach the startling conclusion: Mankind may be unique and along.
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Forty Years of American Life
1821-1861
by Thomas Low Nichols
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
This autobiographical history of America spans the forty years before the Civil War. America was a different country before the war, which seemed to take over the nation wholly, even after it was finished. It is difficult to imagine the time before the war without the shadow of war and civil unrest looming. When this book was first, re-printed in 1937, the publisher wrote, "The vigorous, endlessly hopeful America before the Civil War is a constant challenge to our writers," and so this book filled the gaps and gave an ideal image. Dr. Thomas Low Nichols was a medical student at Dartmouth, but dropped out to pursue journalism and literature, as well as, women's rights activism. When the war broke out in 1861, he went to England to focus on his work. He didn't want to sully the image he had of his home country, and so, recorded everything he remembered as it was.
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Hitler's Wings of Death
by Otto Lehmann-Russbueldt
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
How big is Germany's Air Force?
Of what is it capable?
Is Hitler preparing for battle?
Will Germany wage and air-war?
These questions, and many more, are, answered in this book. Concisely, employing a lucid style, which will be refreshing to American readers, Herr Lehmann-Russbueldt states the case of Hitler's rapidly growing air corps.
First-hand information is, divulged, unassailable facts are, presented, and everyone-students of international affairs or not-will lay down this book with a greater knowledge and a truer realization of the martial situation prevalent, in Germany under Der Fuehrer.
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The Axis Grand Strategy
Blueprints for the Total War
by Various Authors
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
This startling book reveals the military and political plans of the Axis in the very words of its own generals and admirals.
The advent of Adolf Hitler has Germany's supreme leader marked the inauguration of the deliberate plans for world domination by the Third Reich. These plans were not secret; other nations simply refused to take them seriously. They followed the tradition of one hundred years of German military thinking form Clausewitz to Ludendorff. They were implicit in Mein Kampf. During the years from 1933 to 1939 they were, worked out in detail by those, who today are in charge of the Nazi armies. These writing, in fact, contain the Blueprints for the Total War. Now, for the first time, they have, been assembled, translated and made available to all, who want to understand the nature of the enemy with whom they are engaged in a life and death struggle. The Axis Grand Strategy describes the plan for modern war from the earliest political and psychological preparation to the ultimate campaign of military terrorism and destruction. The book discusses the building of the modern army-an army which will make full use of all modern technical advance and which will develop the strategy of the irresistible, lightning onslaught. The duration of the armed attack, the piercing of modern fortifications, the co-ordination of aircraft and armed forces, the grand strategy of the large-scale offensive, these and many other military subjects are fully discussed here. These discussions provide the chapter-and-verse authority for the actual campaigns as waged in Poland, Belgium, France, Africa, and Russia.
The grand strategy, however is not confined merely to military ends. For total war in the Nazis' scheme of thinking and acting means utilization of political and economic weapons, fifth column penetration and geopolitical strategy that reached far beyond Europe to the lands boarding the great oceans. One writer, in fact, in discussing the Far Eastern strategy actually predicts the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Axis Grand Strategy is a book for all, who as civilians or soldiers are determined to play an intelligent part in the total war, which is now ours.
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Lincoln's Choice
The Repeating Rifle which Cut Short the Civil War
by J. O. Buckeridge
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Herein, for the first time, is revealed the impact and scope of the basic repeating rifle in the Civil War. Well documented, and supported by exciting on-the-spot reports, the author presents convincing evidence that the Spencer seven-shooter was a major factor-possibly the major factor in winding up the war which cost far more American lives than World War II.
Christopher Spencer, the inventor and manufacturer, personally demonstrated the arm to President Lincoln on the White House lawn. Lincoln himself did considerable shooting with it, and he was so impressed by the performance of the seven-shooter that he directed procurement by the Ordnance Department.
Lee is shown losing at Gettysburg, largely through the multiple-firepower of some 3,500 seven-shooters in the hands of the reorganized Federal cavalry. Seven Spencer-armed regiments are described as blasting a path for Grant out of the Wilderness, and a handful of seven-shooting regiments win Cold Harbor for him in a five-minute charge. Much of Sheridan's glory in the Shenandoah Valley and Appomattox campaigns is herein transferred to Spencer's gun and the men who fought with it in the front lines.
Sherman, herein the hero of Atlanta and villain of the march to the sea, is taken to task for his inadequate use of the precious gift from the gods of war. The obscure Wilson is brought into the limelight for doing more damage with Sherman's seven-shooting cavalry in two weeks than Sherman accomplished in four months.
Withal, this is compact, hard-hitting, easy-to-read history of the five main Union campaigns of 1864 and 1865, well-seasoned with the incidents of soldier life which lend a quaint flavor to a fascinating phase of American history.
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Articles of War
Winners, Losers, and Some Who Were Both During the Civil War
by Albert S. Castel
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The American Civil War is, filled with fascinating characters. This collection of biographical essays on the "winners and losers" of the Civil War covers some of the most intriguing: Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, Sam Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and William Clarke Quantrill, to name just a few.
In Articles of War you'll discover:
Some Winners
Ulysses S. Grant, whose brilliant Vicksburg Campaign was a model of military strategy
John A. "Black Jack" Logan, one of the war's few successful political generals
Nathan Bedford Forrest, a natural military genius despite his "Lost Cause"
Some Losers
George B. McClellan, whose lack of eagerness cost the Union two opportunities to win the war
Earl Van Dorn, a victim of sheer bad luck
Theophilus H. Holmes, the little-known incompetent, called "granny Holmes" by his own men
Some Winners Who Became Losers
Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy's "General Who Might Have Been"
Leonidas Polk, whose initial good luck eventually ran out
William Clarke Quantrill, a winner in death, but a loser in life
And Some Losers Who Became Winners
Sam Houston, who, had he lived longer, could have been a winner in Texas
William Tecumseh Sherman, an exceptional man; a capable, but flawed, commander
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History of the U.S. Navy
1942-1991
by Robert W. Love
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
This sweeping recasting of American naval history is a bold departure from the conventional "sea power" approach. Volume Two of History of the U.S. Navy shows how the Navy in World War II helped to upset the traditional balance in Europe and Asia. Days after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Ernest J. King took command of a navy overwhelmed by the demands of war. King devised grand strategies to defeat the Axis and promoted a cadre of fighting admirals-Halsey, Spruance, Hewitt, Kincaid, and Turner-who waged unprecedented in complexity and violence. New sources provide an entirely fresh look at the Battle of the Atlantic, the invasion of Europe, and the great naval campaigns in the Pacific.
This book contains the first comprehensive interpretation of the U.S. Navy's role in the Cold War, when the United States found itself the global bailiff. Love demonstrated that the Navy's abiding priority was to capture and maintain a share of the strategic bombardment mission by building new ships, planes, submarines, and mission to deliver nuclear weapons.
The dawn of the New World Oder found the Navy still on duty as the mailed fist of American foreign policy, standing watch in the Persian Gulf and, at the same time, off the coast of West Africa during Liberia's violent civil war. Fresh challenges, the author argues, call for a newly balanced fleet and continued attention to America's first line of defense.
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Greatest Fishing
Where to Go to Get the Best!
by Joe Brooks
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Joe Brooks takes the reader with him as he fishes the finest places in the world. His life is a series of major trips, followed by sterling accounts of the situations and incidents encountered Greatest Fishing not only divulges the location of superlative spots and pertinent information relative to accommodations, but intermingled throughout is a wealth of applicable fishing know-how.
One wonderful excursion after another passes in review as opportunities are divulged to the ardent angler.
Beach, reef and ocean fishing is Bermuda produces endless variety including bonefish, mackerel, wahoo and many unexpected catches. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island", the Isle of Pines, Cuba, provides the ultimate in fishing for the speed demon bonefish. The word "Panama" means "waters of many fishes" and Joes found that name fitted those fish-filled waters on the Atlantic side of the isthmus.
In the estimation of some anglers, Atlantic salmon provide the ultimate in angling thrills and finesse. One of the famous spots for Solar is the foot of the falls of the Humber River, Newfoundland. Brook trout fishing too, in this youngest Canadian province is spectacular, for when a brook trout goes to see and then returns to his native waters, he is fat, sassy and full of fight.
Great light tackle sport is to be had around the Bahamas. Fishing for snook in the awesome half-world of the vast Everglades swamps of Florida is like angling out of this world. The Florida Keys too, present great opportunities for the angler and they are within easy striking distance of the home of this restless angler.
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History of the U.S. Navy
1775-1941
by Robert W. Love
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
This is the exciting story of the American Navy and its important role in our nation's history from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the New World Order. Presented in two volumes, Robert Love shows how the interplay of international affairs, foreign policy, partisan politics, changing technology, and Navy views has shaped the American fleet and continues to define its missions and operations. This is the exciting story of the American Navy and its important role in our nation's history from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the New World Order. Presented in two volumes, Robert Love shows how the interplay of international affairs, foreign policy, partisan politics, changing technology, and Navy views has shaped the American fleet and continues to define its missions and operations. Robert W. Love, Jr., has taught American naval history and recent military history at the United States Naval Academy since 1976. He earned his doctorate at the University of California at Davis. Love is the editor and co-author of Chiefs of Naval Operations and editor and co-author of Interpretations and New Sources in Naval History. His forthcoming book, Passage to Pearl Harbor, is the first in a multi-volume study of the U.S. Navy in the era of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. Professor Love is editor and co-author of the forthcoming Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Army. He and his family live in Annapolis Maryland. "Love's History of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1941, is the best recent example of military history-literate, thorough, and provocative. He judges and convinces with his command of the facts and writes with the understanding of the navy specialists and the politicians they served. It will be the world standard text on the U.S. Navy." –John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy, 1981-86
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War to the Knife
Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1861
by Thomas Goodrich
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Marching armies, cavalry raids, guerilla warfare, massacres, towns and farms in flames-the American Civil War, 1861-1865? No-Kansas, 1854-1861. Before there was Bull Run or Gettysburg, there was Black Jack and Osawatomie. Long before events at Fort Sumter ignited the War Between the States, men fought and died on the Prairies of Kansas over the incendiary issue of slavery. "War to the knife and knife to the hilt," cried the Atchison Squatter Sovereign. "Let the watchword be 'Extermination, total and complete.'" In 1854 a shooting war developed between proslavery men in Missouri and free-staters in Kansas over control of the territory. The prize was whether it would be a slave or free state when admitted to the Union, a question that could decide the balance of power in Washington. Told in the unforgettable words of the men and women involved, War to the Knife is an absorbing account of a bloody episode soon spread east, events in "Bleeding Kansas" have largely been forgotten.
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The Story of the Little Big Horn
Custer's Last Fight
by W. A. Graham
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
"Custer had been usually effective as an Indian fighter for several years… He was adept in bringing off surprise attacks that crushed and paralyzed resistance. Both his reputation and his experience as an Indian campaigner were second to none; and the Seventh Cavalry…was held one of the best regiments in the service. It was but natural, then, that when the regiment marched proudly away from the mouth of the Rosebud on its mission, Terry could and did feel confident that if he could but catch the recalcitrant braves of Sitting Bull between Custer and Gibbon, he would certainly crush and capture them; and if, perchance, Custer found them elsewhere than was expected, the Seventh Cavalry, under such a leader, would be more than equal to any emergency." From the Story of the Little Big Horn
In June 1876, General George A Custer was detailed to a column under General Alfred H. Terry. After being sent ahead of General George Crook at the Rosebud River, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry discovered a Souix encampment on June 25. Not realizing that he was far outnumbered, Custer divided his regiment into three sections, sending two, led by Major Marcus A. Reno and Captain Frederick W. Benteen, to attack upstream. Custer's section stayed to launch a frontal assault, and every man under Custer was killed.
Soon after the massacre, Custer became a tragic hero in the eyes of the American public, and the event achieved an almost mythological reputation. It was not until fifty years later, however, that the first book-length history of the battle, The Story of the Little Big Horn, was published.
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Davy Crockett's Riproarious Shemales and Sentimental Sisters
Women's Tall Tales from the Crockett Almanacs, 1835–1856
by Michael Lofaro
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Synopsis currently unavailable.
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Attack on Taranto
by Thomas P. Lowry
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
On November 11, 1940, 21 slow, canvas-covered British warplanes, launched from the carrier Illustrious, attacked the harbor at the Italian port of Taranto and put most of the Italian navy out of commission. This all-but-forgotten operation, the authors argue, deserves historical recognition as an inspirational precedent for the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor 13 months later. Taranto demonstrated that battleships in a shallow, heavily defended harbor could be, sunk by a handful of torpedo-bombers. That lesson Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander-in-chief of the Japanese fleet, learned well-while the American military virtually ignored it.
"By this single stroke the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean was decisively altered." -Winston S. Churchill
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The Marne
The Story of a Battle that Saved Paris and Marked a Turning Point of World War I
by Georges Blond
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
One of the decisive battles of the 20th century began on August 29, 1914 with the cry that echoed throughout France: "The Prussians are coming!" It ended on September 10th, that same year. Earlier, more than a million German troops-five massive armies-poured into Belgium and France. The French army began the biggest retreat in its history, and Germany seemed about to triumph. But, the German right wing, instead of wheeling to the east of Paris, as the famous Schlieffen Plan required, crossed to the west of Paris, exposing its banks. The counterattack was, led from Paris, using the city's taxi streets in a famous dash to take soldiers to the front. The German plan was, thwarted and the Kaiser's army was, forced to retreat. It was an astonishing and costly victory: over 300,000 French soldiers died. As stirring as a novel, The Marne is a classic of military history.
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Dear Harry
Truman's Mailroom, 1945-1953
by D. M. Giangreco
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Americans are not particularly shy about letting politicians know what's on their minds, and, in Harry Truman, they believed that they had a president they could level with. He even sometimes responded personally to them-especially on subjects he felt strongly about.
Today, it seems remarkable that a man who described the presidency as "the most awesome job in the world" would take the time to read and respond to White House mail. Truman, however, had an unquenchable thirst for what his everyday Americans" were thinking, yet distrusted opinion polls. For him, the daily stack of troubles and dreams from places like Skull Bone, Kentucky; Boise, Idaho; and Conway, Florida, provided the next best poll after the voting booth.
In Dear Harry, authors D. M. Giangreco and Kathryn Moore include a robust cross section of the thousands of messages sent to Truman. Juxtaposed with informative background essays, these letters provide an undiluted account of the greatest challenges confronting the U.S. during Truman's administration, including civil rights, the Marshall Plan, the formation of Israel, the atomic bomb, the McCarthy hearings, the Korean War, and the General McArthur's dismissal, which alone solicited more than 90,000 missives. While the majority of the letters are from private citizens, a sprinkling also come from the occasional bombastic senator and a few from the world figures, such as Winston Churchill (who liked to offer advice) and Chaim Weizmann. The names of some correspondents, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Upton Sinclair, Gene Tunney, would have been familiar to many of their fellow Americans, While others as diverse as Morey Amsterdam and Barry Goldwater would be better known to future generations.
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Introduction to Rock and Mountain Climbing
To the Top and Down… the Step-by-Step Fundamentals in Learning How
by Ruth Mendenhall
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
For those who would like to climb mountains, and for those who merely like to contemplate the possibility, Ruth and John Mendenhall have written as entertaining and completely instructive a book as have ever been tucked into a rucksack.
Since ascending a peak inevitably beings at the bottom, the Mendenhalls first advice neophytes on where to find proper instruction, how much will be expected of them as beginners, and what to bring on early climbs. Sorted out here is the gear and clothing really needed to get started, and safe ways to get the experience and learn techniques needed to confidently approach later climbs on rock, snow, glaciers, and peaks.
Explicit, authoritative information on what climbers really do on diverse terrain introduced the proper use of rope, belaying the climber below and the leader above, learning to lead, and using pitons in rock or ice. In this step-by-step progression the beginner is introduced to rappels, how to choose sound rappel points, and how to set safe rappels. Details on the functions of ice axe and crampons, and the complex conditions encountered on glaciers, arm the progressing climber with further basic information that builds mountaineering skill.
This uniquely complete coverage advanced from the beginning through intermediate climbing, and includes discussions of advanced and controversial techniques that the less experienced will be curious about. Through it all comes an awareness of what mountaineering really is…the high spirits, good humor, pleasures, and philosophies of those who climb.
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In Enemy Hands
Personal Accounts of Those Taken Prisoner in World War II
by Claire E. Swedberg
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Personal accounts of those taken prisoner during World War II.
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Hartman on Skeet
by Barney Hartman
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Here at last is the definitive book on skeet shooting. The name of its author, Barney Hartman, is already a byword within North America's skeet shooting community. For novices, it's enough to say that during the last twenty-years Hartman has, carried off just about every major skeet shooting trophy on the continent. And now, he tells in simple, easy-to-understand language just how he did it. Step by step in words and pictures he takes the reader through every conceivable aspect of skeet, and then, having covered the fundamentals (which apply to trap shooting as well), he candidly reveals his own personal secrets of success.
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My Old Man
The Dissenting Opinions of a Salty American
by Damon Runyon
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
In a series of essays, Runyon, reflects on the frank, often outrageous opinions of his "old man," who knows a thing or two about just about everything-and even if he doesn't, he'll tell you anyway. Damon Runyon's "old man" is neither a small-time Broadway crook, nor a modest Brooklyn Babbitt... He is a salty old commentator on men, women and manners, who says what he thinks with more force and frequency than tact. My Old Man is a classic collection of humorous observations about life from bankers to windbags, and its as relevant and funny today as it was when it was first published in 1939.
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War to the Knife
Bleeding Kansas, 1854-1861
by Thomas Goodrich
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Marching armies, cavalry raids, guerilla warfare, massacres, towns and farms in flames-the American Civil War, 1861-1865? No-Kansas, 1854-1861. Before there was Bull Run or Gettysburg, there was Black Jack and Osawatomie. Long before events at Fort Sumter ignited the War Between the States, men fought and died on the Prairies of Kansas over the incendiary issue of slavery. "War to the knife and knife to the hilt," cried the Atchison Squatter Sovereign. " Let the watchword be 'Extermination, total and complete.'"
In 1854 a shooting war developed between proslavery men in Missouri and free-staters in Kansas over control of the territory. The prize was whether it would be a slave or free state when admitted to the Union, a question that could decide the balance of power in Washington. Told in the unforgettable words of the men and women involved, War to the Knife is an absorbing account of a bloody episode soon spread east, events in "Bleeding Kansas" have largely been forgotten. But as historian Thomas Goodrich reveals in this compelling saga, what America's "first civil war" lacked in numbers it more than made up for in ferocity.
War to the Knife is a riveting story of blood, fire, and death. It is also a story with an impressive cast of characters: Robert E Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Sara Robinson, Jeb Stuart, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Greeley, Julia Lovejoy, William F. Cody. These and more step forward to tell their tale. And casting his long, dark shadow over al is the strange, haunting figure of John Brown-hailed as a prophet by some, denounced as a madman by others.
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The Twenty-Fourth Michigan
by Donald L. Smith
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
In the tradition of the great regimental histories of the past, this book records the fire which seared the ranks of the Twenty-Four Michigan Regiment of the legendary "Iron Brigade."
Born as the result of a riot, led by a Virginian, met with coldness and hostility by the black-hatted veterans of the brigade, the Twenty-Fourth swore it would win their respect…and so they did with a vengeance.
At Fredericksburg, in "artillery hell" and under a murderous crossfire from the guns of "Stonewall" Jackson and "Jeb" Stuart, they performed the manual of arms to stead the line. The first day at Gettysburg they sparked this remark from the confederate ranks…"That ain't no milishy, there's those damn black hats again." With the immortal First Corps they were ordered west of the town to hold long enough for the army to occupy the strategic heights behind them. They held, and by evening they had lost more men than any of the 400-odd Union regiments engaged in the battle.
Still later they marched down "that crimson strip across the maps," which marked Grant's Wilderness Campaign; they bled at Petersburg and then, their ranks almost decimated, were sent to guard bounty jumpers. The last tribute to their gallant service came as they were chosen the Guard of Honor for Lincoln's funeral.
In a little more than two years of bloody fighting they found their way to nineteenth place on the list of "300 Fighting Regiments." To read this book is to consort with heroes who, 100 years ago, stood watching their world writhe in agony. It gives hope that in matching their courage, our country will emerge from the cauldron triumphant.
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Point!
by Horace J. Lytle
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
In "Point!" the author has, produced something considerably more than merely another book on the hunting of upland feathered game, and the canines that so gloriously help, to make rays afield all that they can be.
It even classifies, we believe, as a great human document, a book that will be valued, all the more, for tis contrast to present world chaos. It is basic in the fundamentals of our American heritage. It should help us all in a calm confident facing of what we do face today.
Horace Lytle has lived 70 years, and in his book, he covers most of them. Starting with the first point he ever saw, and the first quail he ever killed, he fascinatingly carries you with him from Mississippi to Saskatchewan, from Ohio to Florida-for Bob White, Grouse, Wood Prairie Chickens, with Ducks and Geese thrown in for good measure.
Perhaps America's foremost pointing dog authority, he served for 20-years as Gun Dog Editor of Field and Stream. In "Point!" he pulls no punches on himself, but tells frankly of his own problems-even failures-with dogs of his own, some of which are screamingly funny as he tells them.
Yes, this book is as amusing as it is importantly factual. You'll love it, from the very first page to the last. We have no doubt as to that. You'll learn many angles of how to hunt, how to shoot, and how to enjoy it all the more.
A distinctly American book, none published has ever been more so.
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Patton and His Pistols
The Favorite Side Arms of General George S. Patton, Jr.
by Perry Parke
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Intrigued by hints of "the bigger man" behind the war personality of Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., the Curator of History of the West Point Museum and a former "Army wife" studied and compared innumerable legends and stories about him. The resulting profile is the unvarnished Patton, as the public saw him and as his friends and soldiers knew him.
Based solidly on contemporary sources, many of them never before, tapped by historians, Patton's exploited in Mexico, in France in 1918, and during World War II are, strung together by kernels of truth often more startling than the fiction, which has surrounded them. One of America's most famous and controversial generals is, depicted through his attitude toward his famous handguns and uniforms, and the manner, in which he reacted to war and to peace.
Four pistols are, featured in the book, because four pistols were, featured in his life. Sixteen pages of pertinent illustrations, many published for the first time...including the only known photograph of Patton, carrying two pistols...accompany the documented narrative. The pistol expert will find detailed appendixes on General Patton's favorite weapons and their accouterments.
Patton and His Pistols is a book for everyone interested in Patton the leader and Patton the man.
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The Peninsula Campaign 1862
McClellan and Lee Struggle for Richmond
by Joseph P. Cullen
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Here is the detailed story of
• The first serious attempt to capture Richmond
• The struggle that marked the emergence of Robert E. Lee
• The rise and fall of the North's great hope, General George B. McClellan
In this first book on the subject in 50 years, historian Cullen presents incisive evaluations of the men and movements of the Confederate and Union Armies and disputes the long-held theory that interference form President Lincoln caused McClellan's failure. Reporting the campaign from both viewpoints, and then judging from the fascinating omniscience of history, he brings fresh research to an old subject that may be new-in this depth-to many.
From the first skirmish to the concluding, bloody battle at Malvern Hill, Cullen dissects the strategies of both sides, reports the battles and skirmished, examines the character and abilities of the men who made the decisions in this early campaign that tested two newly formed armies, started Lee on his long war and brought ignominious retirement to McClellan.
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Home Book of Cooking Venison and Other Natural Meats
by Bradford Angier
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Once again "Mr. Outdoors" guides the way to really succulent eating after a successful hunt. Home Book of Cooking Venison and Other Natural Meats provides not only recipes for enjoyment straight from nature's banquet table, but also gives tips on their preparation in ways that eliminate waste as well as advice on the best methods of storage for those morsels you save for future feasting.
The flavor of the outdoors on every page is as pungent as the sweet, wafting smoke of a cook fire. Sitting down to your table at home with the product of the corner butcher shop brings a full tummy; sitting down to nature's table with natural meat that you've stalked and prepared yourself brings a freedom comparable only to that of the woodlands itself. Along with that full tummy.
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Just Fishing Talk
by Gifford Pinchot
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The catching of fish, said the Sage of Chocoloskee, is but an incident in fishing. He told the frozen truth. To be out in the open, where fish are; to watch them at their great business of living; to see them in the water or out of the water; to fish for them, and even to hook them and have them get away, all this is wonderfully worthwhile, wonderfully better worthwhile than merely to catch and keep the stiffening fading body of one of the most beautiful forms of life.
Gifford Pinchot, twice governor of Pennsylvania and America's premier fisherman presents twenty-three personal experiences in story form.
From the mountain streams of Pennsylvania to the scented isles of the South Seas, the author weaves a magic web of angling enchantment.
Just Fishing Talk is ideal armchair entertainment for every man or woman, who loves the outdoors.
If you are one of those, who revel in the tang of salt spray or the fragrance of mountain pin and fern, if you can think of no thrill greater than the swift surge of a hooked fish-you will treasure this book.
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Unjust Enrichment
How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes Using American POWs
by Linda Goetz Holmes
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The use of American POW's as slave labor by Japanese companies is the great unresolved issue of the Second World War in the Pacific. Unjust Enrichment provides a forum for American servicemen to tell their own stories, while Linda Holmes gives the reader the historic context to recognize the seriousness of the crimes.
Bio: Linda Goetz Holmes has been interviewing and writing about World War II prisoners in the Pacific for over 30 years. She is the first historian appointed to the U.S. Government Interagency Working Group, formed in 1999 under the aegis of the National Archives to locate and declassify material about World War II war crimes. The use of American POW's as slave labor by Japanese companies is the great unresolved issue of the Second World War in the Pacific. Unjust Enrichment provides a forum for American servicemen to tell their own stories, while Linda Holmes gives the reader the historic context to recognize the seriousness of the crimes.
Bio: Linda Goetz Holmes has been interviewing and writing about World War II prisoners in the Pacific for over 30 years. She is the first historian appointed to the U.S. Government Interagency Working Group, formed in 1999 under the aegis of the National Archives to locate and declassify material about World War II war crimes. Linda Goetz Holmes has been interviewing and writing about World War II prisoners in the Pacific for more than 30 years. She is the first Pacific War historian appointed to the U.S. Government Interagency Working Group, formed in 1999 under the aegis of the National Archives to locate and declassify material about World War II war crimes. Ms. Holmes has presented her findings before audiences at the National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic history, Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War (Admiral Nimitz Museum), and numerous civic groups, veteran's organizations, and classrooms throughout the country.
To date, she has interviewed more than 400 exprisoners of war, their families, American and Japanese military personnel and historians, government and banking officials, and archivists from around the globe to authenticate what happened to our prisoners in Japanese hands, and why. Her 1994 book, 4000 Bowls of Rice: A Prisoner of War Comes Home, about Allied prisoners of the Japanese who built the Burma Railway, was selected for inclusion in the John E. Taylor Collection of military history and intelligence volumes at the National POW Museum at Andersonville, Georgia; and the Australian War Memorial.
Ms. Homes has used her professional career in broadcast and print reporting to bring renewed international attention to the treatment of Allied prisoners by the Japanese during World War II. She is on the Board of Directors of the Society of Silurians, the oldest press club in the United States, and the Overseas Press Club Foundation. She is an associate member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers.
Ms. Holmes was born in White Plains New York, attended Scarsdale schools, and is a graduate of Wellesley College. A triumph of investigative research. --Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
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On Your Own in the Wilderness
by Bradford Angier
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
What Thoreau proved a century ago about returning to nature will still work today. There is an inexpressible thrill in the intimate study of primitive country, the workshop of nature, the appreciation of wilderness technique. Unspoiled regions possess a quiet beauty and peace-no artificiality, no crowds, all woods uncut. There is unbounded satisfaction and pleasure in successfully meeting the challenge of the wilderness. The two requirements for man in the North Country are knowledge and equipment. Colonel Townsend Whelen and Bradford Angier have combined their vast experiences camping and bivouacking to produce the perfect guide to peace and utter freedom. If the wilderness calls you, they invite you to join them and talk together about how to live in it. They explain what from their experience they found to be the best ways of entering wild and unspoiled country, of finding their way through it, and living there in comfort and safety.
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Robert Churchill's Game Shooting
A Textbook on the Successful Use of the Modern Shotgun
by Macdonald Hastings
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
This edition of the standard textbook on its subject has been, revised by Robert Churchill's biographer. Macdonald Hastings, himself well-known in the shooting field (and other fields as well), has incorporated comments on matters which, since Churchill's Game Shooting as first published in 1955, required further enlargement or modification. He has also brought the entire work completely up-to-date.
Macdonald Hastings, who collaborated with the author in the writing of the original edition, was Robert Churchill's own choice to revise the text and this new edition of Churchill's drill book, as the great gun maker and coach himself liked to describe it, may be, regarded as contemporarily definitive. None who read the first edition will want to miss this second one, in which every point of controversy and prejudice has been, underlined with an editorial note to assist the shooting man in improving his own performance.
To those who are still unfamiliar with Churchill's method of teaching game shooting, it is important to add that this books is, aimed to help not merely the experienced shot who wonders why he is missing, but also the novice handling a gun for the first time. It contains complete and always practical advice on all forms of shotgun work for everybody.
Those who make good use of this manual will not only be, welcome guests in any company, but quickly pay the cost of the book out of the saving they make on wasted cartridges.
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The American Deer Hunter
by Francis E. Sell
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
The American Deer Hunter is the result of a great amount of experience in hunting with an extraordinary degree of success. The content represents the determination to set down the hard facts and the effective equipment and means for stalking and shooting the white-tail and his cousins. The book is highly original in its presentation. It is in no sense a rehash of previous discussions or formulae. The author deals at all times with actual problems of locating, maneuvering, and shooting and with the guns employed.
The discussions are based on circumstances of reality in the relationships of deer, environment, hunter and gun, not on preconceived or synthetic situations.
Here are interesting and important data on deer habits and on speeds and gaits.
Here also is an extensive treatment of selection and care of weapons for deer hunting; the killing and dressing of game; and even on clothing for the deer hunter. All told, it has a wealth of material useful to both the veteran hunter and the novice.
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Gone Fishin'
by Charles Elliott
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Master story teller Charlie Elliott says it perfectly in this book for all fishermen: "Whether you are a fresh water Walton or the owner of a yacht, plowing the depths beyond the sight of land for a long-billed monster of the sea, you are seeking out the quiet aquatic spaces of the earth for a reason more, compelling than to satisfy your stomach juices.
"Whenever you assemble your tackler, there are latent questions in your mind. What adventure awaits you just beyond the river bend, or when you beach your boat, where the forest marches down to meet the lake? What delightful memory will you bring home, or what bizarre hair, graying thrill could encounter you unexpectedly where the water trails run out and stop?
"Those are not the only reasons you fish, by any stretch of nylon thread. Whether you are out for salmon or for lunker bass, of grayling or bonefish, your premeditated design of the day calls for out-thinking, out- maneuvering and then out-battling some wary old mossback of the depths or shallows. But, as an adjunct to this high ideal, you are also seeking many other things which add immeasurably more to your day than meant on your table. You're looking for sunshine on the water, the refrigerated glades, the bonds of friendship between strong men. Your diversions of the day include a hundred adventures not listed in a fishing guide."
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Advanced Hunting on Deer and Elk Trails
by Francis E. Sell
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Successful deer and elk hunting goes far beyond luck, it is dependent for the most part upon knowledge and procedure. The man who takes his hunting seriously will be fascinated by the techniques and thinking of the perfectionist, Francis E. Sell. In his first book, The American Deer hunter, the author thoroughly grounds the student of hunting practices in fundamentals. Advanced Hunting, his second book on the subject, is a postgraduate course, detailing the many refinements, which all add up to more action and greater interest. There is not a hunter alive, no matter how broad his experience, who would not glean much from this volume. It will have a tremendous influence on the young enthusiast as a guide to his approach, his attitude, his trend of thought. The book contains the sort of information, which should be read and even studied on occasion by every analytical hunter.
Some of the pertinent subject matter includes: game highways, trail watching, sign reading, habits, food preference, noise and weather, woodland tattletales, woods ranging, shooting ranges, treatment of bagged game and all phases of equipment including: guns, ammunition, binoculars, sportswear and camping necessities.
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55 Men
The Story of the Constitution, Based on the Day-by-Day Notes of James Madison
by Fred Rodell
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
• Highly readable, insightful revelation of what the Founding Fathers intended when they drafted the Constitution
• First published in 1936 The 55 men who traveled to Philadelphia on horse and by stagecoach in the spring of 1787 as delegates to a Convention on the Articles of Confederation had been warned by the states that sent them to do nothing more than make a few changes in the flimsy articles.
But when they went back to their homes, after working and debating through four long months of hot Philadelphia summer, they had done a great deal more: they had set down on paper the foundation of the United States. They had drafted the Constitution.
What happened during the secret Constitutional convention? What did these 55 Founding Fathers actually say in the debates? Fred Rodell bases his book directly on the much neglected day-by-day notes which James Madison took during the Constitutional Convention and on the hastily scribbled papers of a few other delegates. In these frank recordings, the true story of the birth of the Constitution is found. 55 Men, The Story of the Constitution is a stirring drama of the 55 personalities who shaped a crucial moment in our country's history.
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Chasing Villa
The Story Behind the Story of Pershing's Expedition into Mexico
by Col. Frank Tompkins
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
On March 9, 1916 the border town of Columbus, New Mexico was, attacked by forces under the command of the Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa. Eighteen Americans were, killed and a number of buildings were, burned to the ground before the U.S. Cavalry, inflicting heavy losses, drove Villa and his mounted band back into Mexico. Frank Tompkins, a Major in the U.S. Cavalry at the time, led the counter-attack against Villa's mounted men on March 9th, and was with General John "Black Jack" Pershing during the subsequent yearlong "Punitive Expedition" that sought to capture the elusive Villa in Mexico. The Columbus Raid and Punitive Expedition proved to be the last major campaign of the U.S. Cavalry. At the same time, it presaged the more modern military techniques that would soon be, employed by American forces in World War I. First published in 1934 and long out of print, "Chasing Villa" is a sound and literate record of milestone events in Western history, military history, the Mexican revolution, and the last of the horse cavalry.
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Bear!
by Clyde Ormond
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Bear! Is a fascinating volume, which will grip the interest, and fire, the imagination of both the seasoned outdoorsman and the one who must enjoy the thrills of big-game hunting from his armchair reading.
The true, breath-taking field encounters between man and bear, which liberally appear throughout the books' pages, will capture and excite the reader, young or old. Certainly to the big-game hunter-whether he takes to the wooded hills after his black bear, to the remote crags and high basins after his grizzly, to the Coastal regions after his brown bear, or to the Eskimo-land after his great white polar bear-this volume with its wealth of how-to information will prove invaluable reading.
But, beyond this, Bear! is a revealing story of North America's Bears. It delves deeply into their habitat, their wondrous cycle of living, and their natural place in the scheme of wildlife. This book traces those, basic behavior changes, which have been, forced upon our country's great ursines through man's westward movement, his contact with them, and his gradual driving of them to the last wilderness and sanctuaries for survival.
Lastly, Bear! is a documentary of a noble animal's long struggle, in the minds and actions of men, to rise from the lowly status of a pest to that of a grand big-game animal.
Bear! by Clyde Ormond, the renowned outdoorsman, is the result of thirty years of observation, study, hunting, and evaluation of a priceless but little known species. It is "must" ready for any sportsman.
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The World's First Spaceship Shuttle
by Robert M. Powers
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Join the crew of space shuttle Enterprise as they prepare to take the first step into the twenty-first century. Step aboard the world's first reusable space vehicle with science writer Robert M. Powers for a cockpit view of a launch, orbit, re-entry, and return to earth. Preview the scheduled NASA shuttle missions in hundreds of line drawings and photographs of the crew at work in orbit. The shuttle system is the key to unlocking the next era of technology and the forerunner of space transportation systems of tomorrow: The world's first spaceship, the Enterprise, is here!
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Grant's Cavalryman
by Edward G. Longacre
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Born in Shawneetown, Illinois in time to be newly graduated from West Point when the Civil War started, James H. Wilson became a brigadier general by the age of twenty-six. Fueled by boundless ambition and the desire to serve his country, he reorganized the Union cavalry in time to gain the upper hand over the Confederate army. But the story of this brash, young man did not end with the capture of Jefferson Davis, for which Wilson was ultimately responsible. His life after the Civil War was also representative of American tenacity in the midst of explosive growth and change during the late-nineteenth century. He became a military governor in Georgia during Reconstruction, a railroad baron from the start of the Industrial Revolution, and a military advisor during World War I. The story of Wilson's life remains a compelling example for us in these rapidly changing times, and resonates as an excellent account of one man's lasting impression on his century.
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A Shower of Stars
The Medal of Honor and the 27th Maine
by John J. Pullen
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Since 1941, the Medal of Honor has been more often, awarded to dead than to living men. Of all the medals issues by the United States Government, this singular medal has had a particularly solemn glory attached to its meaning. But, a look at its history reveals that, from its inception, it was steeped in controversy, with threats to its integrity swirling in from all sides.
Author John. J. Pullen, during the course of research on the 20th Maine, came across an obscure note indicating that the 27th Maine, a group of nine-month volunteers from York Country, had been issued 864 Medals of Honor-one for every member of the regiment, while the 20th main, having distinguished itself at Little Round Top, garnered only four such medals. Was this discovery, the beginning of an untold story of extraordinary bravery, or was it an outrageous blunder? Civil War literature yielded nothing about this, wholesale "shower of stars" that had rained down upon the little-known regiment. And, as Pullen tracked down its descendants, he found very little information on the whereabouts of those medals. Thus, a mystery was born.
After sifting through piles of War Department documents, as well as letters and diaries found in Maine's "unofficial archives," Pullen begins to pieces together a puzzle that had already ensnared many, from Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to such notable figures as Theodore Roosevelt. The hero of this story, however, is Colonel Mark F. Wentworth, the commander of the 27th Maine and later of the 32nd Maine, who thwarted the forces that threatened ignominy on the Medal of Honor, and revealed the true character of valor.
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Heart Shots
by Mary Zeiss Stange
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Hunting and writing about it have not commonly been, thought of as women's work, but today women are hunting and writing about it in unprecedented numbers. This collection of stories by 46 hunters who happen to be female shows us that in fact some women have always hunted, and some have written dazzling accounts of their experiences. What you'll find in k to nature and basics and to express in narrative, image, and metaphor the complex meaning of being predator, such impulses are ageless and genderless.
There are differences in the way women go about hunting and telling its story. Some are subtle and some are startling. In this marvelous collection a full range of writers from hard-edged realists to contemplative naturalists, express the complex thought and emotion that constitute hunting with intelligence and insight. These women are aware of the fact that they are doing something distinctly out of the ordinary. And, this is a book distinctly out of the ordinary as well, to be enjoyed, pondered, and savored by women and men alike, all who appreciate a good story well told.
Stories and essays written by Mary Jobe Akeley, Kim Barnes, Nellie Bennett, Durga Bernhard, Courtney Borden, and many more.
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Out of the Darkness
The Planet Pluto
by Clyde W. Tombaugh
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
An adventure in scientific discovery Pluto, the farthermost planet in the solar system, some 3,673-million mites from the Sun, was, discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in 1930. The fiftieth anniversary of Pluto's discovery will be celebrated in 1980 and OUT OF THE DARKNESS: THE PLANET PLUTO tells the exciting scientific story of the twenty-five year search for a planet X beyond Neptune, and its discovery-the only planet found in the twentieth century.
The planets Mercury, Venus. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were all, known since antiquity. Then Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, and 65 years later, in 1846, Johann Calle and Urbain le Verner discovered Neptune. Variations in orbital perturbations of the planets and theoretical astronomy were responsible for predicting and discovering the three outermost planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) and so Pluto's story, is also, to some extent, the story of its planetary neighbors.
What kind of world is Pluto? Much is still a mystery (its exact size, for instance), but there are some facts. It takes 247.7 years for Pluto to revolve around the sun. From Pluto's surface, the Sun appears as a star-like point; giving only on-one-hundredth the light Earth receives, although it is still brighter than a full Moon. There is strong evidence to suggest that Pluto is an escaped satellite of Neptune, a sister moon of Triton that wandered off to become the farthermost planet revolving around the Sun. And the recent discovery of Pluto's moon, Charon, and the speculation on a tenth planet beyond Pluto add to the mystery that still prevails 50 years after coauthor Clyde Tombaugh exclaimed "That's it!" when he saw the change of position of a faint object on the photographic plates after examining millions of star images. That evening, the only man alive to discover a planet, went to the movies and saw Gary Cooper in The Virginian. The night sky was cloudy when he came out of the theatre, but his mind's eye still saw the faint image of Pluto.
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Discovering the Rommel Murder
The Life and Death of the Desert Fox
by Charles F. Marshall
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Marshall recounts how he learned the facts from Rommel's widow while delving into the great general's background and death.
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Hunting Big Game
In Africa and Asia
by Col. Townsend Whelen
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Here are the most exciting big game hunting yarns ever written about Africa and Asia. Ten superb stories on hunting lions, elephants, tigers, buffalos, leopards and sheep, with chapters on big game rifles, equipment and knives.
The authors are Selous, Baker, Kirby, Neumann, and Litledale, the most expert and fearless hunters ever to track big game.
These anthologies make fascinating reading for the practical hunter or the armchair outdoorsman. Whelen has dug, deeply into the literature of hunting and has selected what, in his expert opinion, are the best big game hunting stories of all times. They have been, chosen with two points in mind: first for extreme readability and adventure; and second, for the technical hunting information in them. All the stories rank high on both sides.
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A Yankee Spy in Richmond
by David D. Ryan
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
She walked the streets of Richmond dressed in farmwoman's clothing, singing and mumbling to herself. Soon her suspicious and condescending neighbors began referring to her as "Crazy Bet." But, she wasn't mad; she had purpose in her doings. She wanted people to think she was, insane so that they would be, less likely to ask her questions and possibly discover her goal, to defeat the South and to end slavery. Elizabeth Van Lew, of Crazy Bet, was General Ulysses S. Grant's spy in the capital city of the Confederacy.
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Lincoln's Spymaster
Thomas Haines Dudley and the Liverpool Network
by David Hepburn Milton
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
• Details the overseas diplomatic and intelligence contest between Union and Confederate governments
• Documents the historically neglected Thomas Haines Dudley and his European network of agents
• Explores the actions that forced neutrality between England and the UnionThe American Civil War conjures images of bloody battlefields in the eastern United States. Few are aware of the equally important diplomatic and intelligence contest between the North and South in Europe. While the Confederacy eagerly sought the approval of Great Britain as a strategic ally, the Union utilized diplomacy and espionage to avert both the construction of a Confederate navy and the threat of war with England.
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Wernher von Braun
by Erik Bergaust
Part of the Stackpole Classics series
Here is Dr. Wernher von Braun's incredible story, from his early years in Germany, where he gave birth to modern rocketry, to his arrival in the United States and his launching of the first American satellite, the first man on the moon and other stunning space exploration feats.
"Every page of Wernher von Braun's life is a monument to the drama of adventure. Few people have been fighting so hard and, indeed, very few have been subject to so much criticism, so much jealousy, so much defeat, yet, very few have lived to be honored and to harvest the fruits of so many wonderful victories, as has this, man."
Author Erik Bergaust has had the advantage of knowing von Braun as a friend, hunting and fishing companion, space business associate-and biographer-for more than twenty-five years. Thus, he has been able to present a dramatic portrait of an important personality and a 20th century hero.