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Letters Written from the Banks of the Ohio (G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects)
by Claude-François de Lezay-Marnésia Benjamin Hoffmann Alan J. SingermanFirst published in French in 1792, Letters Written from the Banks of the Ohio tells the fascinating story of French aristocrat Claude-François de Lezay-Marnésia and the utopia he attempted to create in what is now Ohio. Looking to build a perfect society based on what France might have become without the Revolution, Lezay-Marnésia bought more than twenty thousand acres of land along the banks of the Ohio River from the Scioto Company, which promised French aristocrats a fertile, conflict-free refuge. But hostilities between the U.S. Army and the Native American tribes who still lived on the land prevented the marquis from taking possession. Ruined and on the verge of madness, Lezay-Marnésia returned to France just as the Revolution was taking a more radical turn. He barely escaped the guillotine before dying a few years later in poverty and desperation.This edition of the Letters, introduced and edited by Benjamin Hoffmann and superbly translated by Alan J. Singerman, presents the work for the first time since the beginning of the nineteenth century—and the first time ever in English. The volume features a rich collection of supplementary documents, including texts by Lezay-Marnésia’s son, Albert de Lezay-Marnésia, and the American novelist Hugh Henry Brackenridge. This fresh perspective on the young United States as it was represented in French literature casts new light on a captivating and tumultuous period in the history of two nations.
Letters and Dispatches 1924-1944: The Man Who Saved Over 100,000 Jews, Centennial Edition
by Raoul WallenbergThe best way to hear the story of Raoul Wallenberg is through his own words. Put together from three different collections, Letters and Dispatches is the most thorough book of Wallenberg's writings and letters. With his disappearance behind the Iron Curtain in January of 1945, he became tragically mysterious. While the story of Wallenberg has been told many times over, the best way we can possibly understand and relate to him is through his written word, which Letters and Dispatches has in full.
Letters and Papers from Prison: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works)
by Dietrich BonhoefferOne of the great classics of prison literature, Letters and Papers from Prison effectively serves as the last will and testament of the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a young German pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his part in the “officers’ plot” to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This expanded version of Letters and Papers from Prison shifts the emphasis of earlier editions of Bonhoeffer’s theological reflections to the private sphere of his life. His letters appear in greater detail and show his daily concerns. Letters from Bonhoeffer’s parents, siblings, and other relatives have also been added, in addition to previously inaccessible letters and legal papers referring to his trial. Acute and subtle, warm and perceptive, yet also profoundly moving, the documents collectively tell a very human story of loss, of courage, and of hope. Bonhoeffer’s story seems as vitally relevant, as politically prophetic, and as theologically significant today, as it did yesterday.
Letters from America: Alexis de Tocqueville
by Alexis De Tocqueville Frederick BrownYoung Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in the United States for the first time in May 1831, commissioned by the French government to study the American prison system. For the next nine months he and his companion, Gustave de Beaumont, traveled and observed not only prisons but also the political, economic, and social systems of the early republic. Along the way, they frequently reported back to friends and family members in France. This book presents the first translation of the complete letters Tocqueville wrote during that seminal journey, accompanied by excerpts from Beaumont’s correspondence that provide details or different perspectives on the places, people, and American life and attitudes the travelers encountered. These delightful letters provide an intimate portrait of the complicated, talented Tocqueville, who opened himself without prejudice to the world of Jacksonian America. Moreover, they contain many of the impressions and ideas that served as preliminary sketches for Democracy in America, his classic account of the American democratic system that remains an important reference work to this day. Accessible, witty, and charming, the letters Tocqueville penned while in America are of major interest to general readers, scholars, and students alike.
Letters from Amherst: Five Narrative Letters
by Samuel R. DelanyEntertaining and informative letters written from 1984 to 1991 by the award-winning author and critic. Five substantial letters written from 1989 to 1991 bring readers into conversation with Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Samuel Delany. With engaging prose, Delany shares details about his work, his relationships, and the thoughts he had while living in Amherst and teaching as a professor at the UMASS campus just outside of town, in contrast to the more chaotic life of New York City. Along with commentary on his own work and the work of other writers, he ponders the state of America, discusses friends who are facing AIDS and other ailments, and comments on the politics of working in academia. Two of the letters, which tell the story of his meeting his life partner Dennis, became the basis of his 1995 graphic novel, Bread & Wine. Another letter describes the funeral of his uncle Hubert T. Delany, former judge and well-known civil rights activist, and leads to reflections on his family&’s life in 1950s Harlem. Another details a visit from science fiction writer and critic Judith Merril, and in another he gives a portrait of his one-time student Octavia E. Butler, who by then has become his colleague. In addition, an appendix shares ten letters Delany sent to his daughter while she attended summer camp between 1984 and 1988. These letters describe Delany&’s daily life, including visitors to his upper-west-side apartment, his travels for work and pleasure, lectures attended, movies viewed, and exhibits seen.&“Letters from Amherst is significant and important. Delany provides unseen glimpses into his important familial lineages, personal friendship and partnership, his assessment of universities and their politics, and just a general joy in anything that has to do with intellectual culture.&” —L.H. Stallings, author of Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures&“Letters from Amherst gives readers insight into the personal and professional life and aesthetic assessments of the author, Samuel R. Delany, one of the most important literary figures of our time.&” —Nisi Shawl, author of the Nebula Award Finalist novel Everfair, and the James Tiptree Jr. Award–winning story collection Filter House
Letters from Attica: 50th Anniversary Annotated Edition
by Joshua Melville Sam MelvilleNow presented with a son's thirty years of research to provide new context. In June 1970, Sam Melville pleaded guilty to a series of politically motivated bombings in New York City and was sentenced to thirteen to eighteen years in jail. His imprisonment took him to Attica, where he helped lead the massive rebellion of September 9, 1971—and where, four days later, he was shot to death by state police. During nearly two years in prison, Melville wrote letters to his friends, his attorneys, his former wife, and his young son. To read them is to eavesdrop on a man's soul. Determinedly honest and deeply moving, they reveal much about Sam and evoke the suffering of prisoners in America. Collected after his death, the letters were originally published with material by Jane Alpert, who was living with Sam when both were arrested on bombing charges, and John Cohen, a close friend who visited Sam in jail. Sam's letters begin with despair but end in hope and defiance. He became a leader of the prisoners' struggle for justice and humane treatment. At Attica he fought against and was a victim of the state's brutality. Those who knew Sam found him a man of extraordinary courage and determination, who rather than accede or submit to injustice and racism chose to fight against them.
Letters from Cairo
by Anne SpeakeA woman recounts her adventures in Egypt, the Middle East, and beyond in this absorbing memoir. Imbued with a love of travel and adventure as a child through books her parents bought her during the Great Depression, Anne Speake would eventually go on to journey to many destinations in her adult life, from Paris to Thailand to Greece—but she particularly fell in love with the Middle East, especially the city of Cairo—to which she&’s returned at least thirty times over the decades. This memoir of her times in Egypt, from sailing the Nile to visiting with the Sadats to living for a while in her beloved Cairo—as well as trips to Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Israel and more—is an in-depth, wide-ranging account of a well-traveled life that also provides a close-up view of late-twentieth-century history in the region, as well as the ways the Middle East has changed, and the ways it hasn&’t, over time.
Letters from Hollywood: Inside the Private World of Classic American Moviemaking
by Rocky Lang; Barbara HallRare correspondence from Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Jane Fonda, and other Hollywood luminaries from the silent film era to the 1970s. Letters from Hollywood reproduces in full color scores of entertaining and insightful pieces of correspondence from some of the most notable and talented film industry names of all time—from the silent era to the golden age, and up through the pre-email days of the 1970s. Culled from libraries, archives, and personal collections, the 135 letters, memos, and telegrams are organized chronologically and are annotated by the authors to provide backstories and further context. While each piece reveals a specific moment in time, taken together, the letters convey a bigger picture of Hollywood history. Contributors include celebrities like Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Elia Kazan, Cary Grant, Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Hanks, and Jane Fonda. This is the gift book of the season for fans of classic Hollywood.With a foreword by Peter Bogdanovitch.“This is, quite simply, one of the finest books I’ve ever read about Hollywood.” —Leonard Maltin
Letters from Kimberly: Etewitness Accounts from the South African War
by Edward Spiers'Full of new material, fresh insights and perceptive analysis.' Ian KnightThe defence of Kimberley and the mission to relieve it was one of the great dramatic sagas of the South African War. The actual relief, following a spectacular cavalry charge, represented the first decisive upturn in the fortunes of the British war effort, soon followed by a crushing defeat of the Boers at the battle of Paardeberg. Within Kimberley citizens suffered from dwindling food stocks and enemy shelling, but even more controversial were the tensions that erupted between the siege commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Kekewich, and Kimberley's leading citizen, Cecil Rhodes. In this illuminating new history, Edward Spiers, presents a selection of first-hand accounts of this epic siege. The 260 letters were published originally in British metropolitan and provincial newspapers and they provide crucial insights into the perceptions of civilians caught up in the siege; the desperate and bloody attempts to relieve the town; and the experiences of junior officers and other ranks as they struggled to cope with the demands of modern warfare. Full of human incident, drama and pathos, these fascinating eyewitness testimonies make for compelling reading and add richly to our understanding of the events in Cape Colony.
Letters from Lockdown: A Selection of Covid Chronicles from BBC Radio 4’s PM Programme
by Evan DavisA remarkable collection of 'Covid Chronicles' -- stories from lockdown sent in from listeners to BBC Radio 4 -- making a deeply moving people's history of the pandemic. On 23 March 2020, as the deadly virus spread around the world, the UK went into lockdown. In the following weeks and months, it became clear that in many ways we were all in this together, but the illness and the long period of isolation would hit people in entirely different ways.When BBC Radio 4's PM Programme launched the 'Covid Chronicles' series, listeners from across the country - and beyond - began sending in their lockdown stories to be aired on the show. The results are astonishing: moving, profound, funny, powerful and an invaluable record of our collective experiences. Ranging from the everyday (the thrill of booking a food delivery) to the momentous (a wedding on Zoom), we hear about birth and death, loneliness and loss, community and kindness, as well as remarkable stories from those working in the NHS on the front line.This book is a collection of some of these Chronicles, written in the midst of one of the most unexpected and intense moments in our history. Together they give us an unforgettable portrait of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times, with all the humour and tragedy and uncertainty we've been through. 'It's inspiring that so many people have shared their stories - some everyday, some life-changing, but all very human. This is a wonderful collection of experiences, to record and remember this devastating year' Christie Watson, bestselling author of The Language of Kindness
Letters from Madelyn: Chronicles of a Caregiver
by Elaine SanchezMadelyn Kubin is a 70-year-old Kansas farm wife. She appears to be fragile because of her thinning white hair, macular degeneration, osteoporosis, congestive heart failure, and severe hearing loss. But when her husband Quentin suffers a debilitating stroke, she is forced to summon all of her physical, emotional, and spiritual strengths in order to care for him at home.Madelyn manages her isolation, loneliness, and stress by going to her computer, disengaging her emotional monitor, and writing letters to her daughter Elaine.Madelyn's story of faith, courage, and love is told through her unflinching honest and surprisingly funny letters written in real time over the course of six-and-a-half years. Although she prays ever day that she will be a willing channel for God's love and compassion, there are plenty of days she feels like telling God to go find himself another servant. Madelyn writes unabashedly about her anger, guilt, depression, and grief. When Quentin displays dementia-related inappropriate sexual behavior, Madelyn eventually learns how to handle it with grace and humor. She shows how it is possible, even in the very worst end-of-life situations, to experience mental and spiritual growth.
Letters from Max: A Poet, a Teacher, a Friendship
by Sarah Ruhl Max RitvoA real professor and her student forge a friendship through correspondence as they discuss love, art, life, cancer, and death. In 2012, Sarah Ruhl was a distinguished author and playwright, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Max Ritvo, a student in her playwriting class at Yale University, was an exuberant, opinionated, and highly gifted poet. He was also in remission from pediatric cancer. Over the next four years—in which Ritvo&’s illness returned and his health declined, even as his productivity bloomed—the two exchanged letters that spark with urgency, humor, and the desire for connection. Reincarnation, books, the afterlife as an Amtrak quiet car, good soup: in Ruhl and Ritvo&’s exchanges, all ideas are fair, nourishing game, shared and debated in a spirit of generosity and love. &“We&’ll always know one another forever, however long ever is,&” Ritvo writes. &“And that&’s all I want—is to know you forever.&” Studded with poems and songs, Letters from Max is a deeply moving portrait of a friendship, and a shimmering exploration of love, art, mortality, and the afterlife.Praise for Letters from Max &“An unusual, beautiful book about nothing less than the necessity of art in our lives. Two big-hearted, big-brained writers have allowed us to eavesdrop on their friendship: jokes and heartbreaks, admiration, hard work, tender work.&” —Elizabeth McCracken, author of Bowlaway &“Immediate comparisons will be made to Rainer Maria Rilke&’s Letters to a Young Artist . . . this book is a nuanced look at the evolution of an incredible talent facing mortality and the mentor, never condescending, who recognizes his gift. Their infectious letters shine with a love of words and beauty.&” —The Observer &“Deeply moving, often heartbreaking. . . . A captivating celebration of life and love.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Moving and erudite . . . devastating and lyrical . . . Ruhl draws a comparison between their correspondence and that between poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, and indeed, with the depth and intelligence displayed, one feels in the presence of literary titans.&” —Publishers Weekly
Letters from My Father's Murderer: A Journey of Forgiveness
by Laurie A. CoombsAn extraordinary true story of grace, mercy, and the redemptive power of God.When her father was murdered, Laurie Coombs and her family sought justice--and found it. Yet, despite the swift punishment of the killer, Laurie found herself increasingly full of pain, bitterness, and anger she couldn't control. It was the call to love and forgive her father's murderer that set her, the murderer, and several other inmates on the journey that would truly change their lives forever.This compelling story of transformation will touch the deepest wounds and show how God can redeem what seems unredeemable.
Letters from My Sister: On Life, Love and Hair Removal
by Eve Lederman Faye LedermanEve and Faye's correspondence began with a simple letter about a bad job interview or bad hair day, seeking comfort from hundreds of miles away. As their adult lives unfolded, gender roles, career choices, and family relationships became fair game, subject to both scrutiny and hilarity as the Ledermans lovingly ridicule everyone in their path.In one letter, Faye laments, "Every time I apply mascara before an interview my eyelashes get all clumped together. I'm afraid if the interviewer catches my profile he'll think I'm applying for the position of prostitute." In another, Eve ponders their father's ineptness. "If Mom left for the weekend, she'd return home to find Dad emaciated on the floor, tin cans strewn around with bite marks."Ultimately, the sisters reassure each other that they are not alone in their search for the ultimate man ("a big, buff, macho, kind, sensitive, feminist"), the ideal job, or the perfect hair removal method. The Ledermans emerge as feisty, independent women who confront their femininity but aren't confined by it. Instead, they are able to laugh long and hard at themselves, enticing and empowering readers to do the same.
Letters from Portugal and Spain: Written During The March Of The British Troops Under Sir John Moore
by Sir Rober Ker PorterSir Robert Ker Porter's life was as varied and dramatic as his paintings. A noted author, artist, soldier and diplomat, he was born into a military family in Durham. After developing a reputation for his painting, he travelled extensively in Northern Europe, before accepting commissions for historical paintings from the Tzar of Russia in 1805. He travelled on to Sweden where he met Sir John Moore. Sir John found him congenial company and invited him to accompany the expedition to Spain that he was to lead. Sir John's campaign in 1808 was to be brief, outnumbered by his French opponents by massive odds, and with the weight of British and Spanish hopes encumbering him, he opted for a bold thrust at an isolated French corps under Soult. The British troops were discovered on their approach march and, despite a number of successful small engagements, the imminent danger of the other French corps rushing to surround the small body of British men was obvious to Moore. His only choice was to retreat through some of the roughest country in Europe: through the crags, ravines and gorges on Northern Spain. Fending off successive French attacks, dealing with drunken starving soldiers, and rapidly diminishing supplies, Sir John drove his men on to Coruña, where he fought a sterling defensive battle to ensure that his men could be carried off by the Royal Navy.Sir Robert Porter's work illustrates the hardships and difficulties men and officers of the British force with all of the eye for detail that an artist can summon. His letters are one of the prime sources for the campaign of 1808.Author -- Porter, Robert Ker, Sir, 1777-1842.Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809 Original Page Count - xiv, 320 p.Illustrations -- 7 engravings.
Letters from Portugal, Spain, & France: Written During The Campaigns Of 1812, 1813, And 1814
by S. D. BroughtonAfter studying at St. George's Hospital, the author was appointed assistant surgeon of the 2nd Life Guards and placed in charge of the service squadron's that were to be posted to the Peninsular in 1812. His life in the army was to be much different from the sinecure of London life and his account book presents a very personal view of his campaigning experiences on the march from Lisbon to Boulogne during the Peninsular War against Napoleonic France. The letters contain fascinating details not often found in memoirs concerning this campaign, including descriptions of the local diet and portrayals of contemporary society, festivals, and customs, as well as recording the particulars of the military actions in which the author was engaged. From the balls and dinner-parties in Lisbon via the discomforts of campaign to the splendours of Paris, this is an engaging and elegant narrative of a tumultuous period in European history.Author --S. D. Broughton (1787-1837)Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815.Original Page Count - vi and 412 pages.
Letters from Prague: 1939–1941
by Helga Weinberg Raya C SchapiroCorrespondence documenting a Jewish family&’s personal history of the Holocaust and World War II. Raya Schapiro and Helga Weinberg found a box of letters among their mother&’s effects after her death in 1990. They were written by their grandmother and uncle, trapped in Prague after the Nazi occupation, to the girls&’ parents who had escaped to the United States in May, 1939, leaving behind Raya and Helga, who were five and seven years old at the time. The seventy-seven letters reprinted here span a period of two years, during which the Nazis drew an ever-tightening noose of destruction around the Jews of Prague: each letter is followed by notes of explanation and amplification, as well as notes on Nazi laws and official restrictions and the progress of the war. Each letter has a censor&’s stamp on it; each envelope bears the still-frightening emblem of the Third Reich. The letters dramatically convey the tension, growing daily, of existence under the Nazis, and their tone becomes increasingly desperate as every avenue of escape reaches a dead end. Praise forLetters from Prague: 1939–1941&“This book turns an abstraction into a palpable terror and pity.&” —Chicago Tribune&“A compelling and personal insight into the horrors of the Holocaust.&” —Booklist&“As it turned out, the girls escaped only after months of bureaucratic wrangling, while the grandmother and uncle never obtained permission to leave and were deported to the gas chambers at Treblinka and Auschwitz two years later. Collected here is the moving correspondence between the adults in Prague and the girls&’ parents in the U.S.&” —Publishers Weekly
Letters from Red Farm: The Untold Story of the Friendship between Helen Keller and Journalist Joseph Edgar Chamberlin
by Elizabeth EmersonIn 1888, young Helen Keller traveled to Boston with her teacher, Annie Sullivan, where they met a man who would change her life: Boston Transcript columnist and editor Joseph Edgar Chamberlin. Throughout her childhood and young adult years, Keller spent weekends and holidays at Red Farm, the Chamberlins' home in Wrentham, Massachusetts, a bustling environment where avant-garde writers, intellectuals, and social reformers of the day congregated. Keller eventually called Red Farm home for a year when she was sixteen. Informed by previously unpublished letters and extensive research, Letters from Red Farm explores for the first time Keller's deep and enduring friendship with the man who became her literary mentor and friend for over forty years. Written by Chamberlin's great-great granddaughter, this engaging story imparts new insights into Keller's life and personality, introduces the irresistible Chamberlin to a modern public, and follows Keller's burgeoning interest in social activism, as she took up the causes of disability rights, women's issues, and pacifism.
Letters from Rousseau: Selected Correspondence (Agora Editions)
by Eve Grace Christopher KellyLetters from Rousseau is the first extensive collection of translations of Rousseau's correspondence into English in more than eighty years. Many of the letters have not been translated before, while others address substantive issues in his thought and complement his published writings. Although these letters went through the post as ordinary letters, once Rousseau became famous, he knew that they might be opened by the police and that they were very likely to be circulated and even published. Indeed, he wrote some of them with a view to their ultimate publication.Rousseau's enormous "private" correspondence extends into all periods of his life, including intimate letters to friends, letters to famous individuals, and responses to readers who posed philosophic questions to him. Thus, Eve Grace and Christopher Kelly also share his responses to readers who had been moved by his books. Further, this volume includes letters written to or about major intellectual figures, such as Diderot, Voltaire, Hume, and Mirabeau.
Letters from Russia
by Marquis de CustineThe Marquis de Custine's unique perspective on a vast, fascinating country in the grip of oppressive tyrannyIn 1839, encouraged by his friend Balzac, Custine set out to explore Russia. His impressions turned into what is perhaps the greatest and most influential of all books about Russia under the Tsars. Rich in anecdotes as much about the court of Tsar Nicholas as the streets of St Petersburg, Custine is as brilliant writing about the Kremlin as he is about the great northern landscapes. An immediate bestseller on publication, Custine's book is also a central book for any discussion of 19th century history, as - like de Tocqueville's Democracy in America - it dramatizes far broader questions about the nature of government and society.
Letters from Tove
by Tove JanssonA virtual memoir in letters by the beloved creator of the Moomins Tove Jansson&’s works, even her famed Moomin books, fairly teem with letters of one kind or another, from messages bobbing in bottles to whole epistolary novels. Fortunately for her countless readers, her life was no different, unfolding as it did in the letters to family, friends, and lovers that make up this volume, a veritable autobiography over the course of six decades—and the only one Jansson ever wrote. And just as letters carry a weight of significance in Jansson&’s writing, those she wrote throughout her life reflect the gravity of her circumstances, the depth of her thoughts and feelings, and the critical moments of humor, sadness, and grace that mark an artist&’s days.These letters, penned with characteristic insight and wit, provide an almost seamless commentary on Jansson&’s life within Helsinki&’s bohemian circles and on her island home. Shifting between hope and despair, yearning and happiness, they describe her immersion in art studies and her ascension to fame with the Moomins. They speak frankly of friendship and love, loneliness and solidarity, and also of politics, art, literature, and society. They summon a particular place and time reflected through a mind finely attuned to her culture, her world, and her own nature—all clearly put into biographical and historical context by the volume&’s editors, both longtime friends of Tove Jansson—and, in the end, draw a complex, intimate self-portrait of one of the world&’s most beloved authors.
Letters from Tully: A Woman's Life on the Dakota Frontier
by Estella Bowen CulpA collection of letters from a woman pioneer in South Dakota in early 1900s.
Letters from Verdun: Frontline Experiences of an American Volunteer in World War I France
by Avery Royce WolfeThe dramatic experiences of an ambulance driver in the Great War, told through personal correspondence and photographs. Though the United States was late to enter the Great War, a number of idealistic young Americans wished to take part from the beginning. One of these was Avery Royce Wolf, a highly educated scion of a family in America&’s burgeoning industrial heartland. Volunteering as an ambulance driver with the French Army in the Verdun sector, Royce sent back a constant stream of highly detailed letters describing the experience of frontline combat, as well as comments on strategy, the country he encountered, and the Allies&’ prospects for success. This treasure trove of brilliant letters, only recently discovered, is accompanied by several albums worth of rare, high-quality photos depicting aspects of the Great War in France never previously published. Full of action, including the suspense and terror of the Ludendorff Offensive, and interesting firsthand analyses, such as comparing French and German trench works, Letters from Verdun brings the reader amazingly close to the frontlines of the Great War.
Letters from Vietnam
by Bill Adler"No heroes, everyone did their part, and everyone was scared to death." They are the words of soldier Mark W. Harms in 1968, summing up his combat experience during the Vietnam War. His stunning letter home is just one of hundreds featured in this unforgettable collection, Letters from Vietnam. In these affecting pages are the unadorned voices of men and women who fought--and, in some cases, fell--in America's most controversial war. They bring new insights and imagery to a conflict that still haunts our hearts, consciences, and the conduct of our foreign policy. Here are the early days of the fight, when adopting a kitten, finding gold in a stream, or helping a local woman give birth were moments of beauty amid the brutality ... shattering first-person accounts of firefights, ambushes, and bombings ("I know I will never be the same Joe."--Marine Joe Pais) ... and thoughtful, pained reflections on the purpose and progress of the entire Southeastern Asian cause ("All these lies about how we're winning and what a great job we're doing ... It's just not the same as WWII or the Korean War." --Lt. John S. Taylor.) Here, too, are letters as vivid as scenes from a film--Brenda Rodgers's description of her wedding to a soldier on the steps of Saigon City Hall ... Airman First Class Frank Pilson's recollection of President Johnson's ceremonial dinner with the troops ("He looks tired and worn out--his is not an easy job") ... and, perhaps most poignant, Emil Spadafora's beseeching of his mother to help him adopt an orphan who is a village's only survivor ("This boy has nothing, and his future holds nothing for him over here.") From fervent patriotism to awakening opposition, Letters from Vietnam captures the unmistakable echoes of this earlier era, as well as timeless expressions of hope, horror, fear, and faith.
Letters from a Distant Shore
by Marie Lawson FialaTragedy shattered Marie Lawson Fiala's life as wife, mother and lawyer when her 13-year old son, Jeremy, was felled by a massive hemorrhage from a ruptured artery deep in his brain. Within an hour, Jeremy was in a coma, sustained only by machines. This memoir of a mother's ferocious care, devastating loss and prayerful transcendence focuses on bringing her son back from the edge. The suspense is relentless and the author's observations as sharp as a scalpel.