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Ely Samuel Parker: The Life and...
Charles River Editors
Despite their own cultural differences, the nations that comprised the Iroquois Confederacy established their political dominance across much of America’s East Coast and Midwest through conquest, and it is that aspect which has perhaps best endured among Americans in terms of the Iroquois’ legacy. European settlers who came into contact with the Mohawks in the Northeast certainly learned to respect their combat skills, to the point that there were literally bounties on the Mohawks’ heads, with scalps fetching money for colonists who succeeded in slaying them and carrying away the “battle prize”. One of the best known of the six nations is the Seneca, and arguably the most famous Seneca chief was Ely Samuel Parker. Over the course of his life, he was a Seneca chief, a civil engineer, a close friend and adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant, an advocate for the Indian peoples, and the first Native American Commissioner of the Department of Indian Affairs. His marriage to a much younger socialite scandalized Washington, and he made a fortune on Wall Street and lost it all. He ended his life in genteel poverty, working for nearly 20 years in an obscure position for the New York City Police Department. Parker was a largely self-taught engineer, who worked on various canal projects, and was hired by the Department of the Treasury to supervise the construction of several buildings in Galena, Illinois, where he met a shy salesclerk named Ulysses S. Grant. At the age of 18, he dined with President Polk, later talked with President Lincoln, and had the commanding general of the U.S. Army as the best man at his wedding. He was the principal source for the first serious ethnological work by one of the first American ethnologists, who dedicated the book to Parker. He was a plaintiff before the U.S. Supreme Court when he was in his teens and was so important in the Seneca’s struggle to retain their Tonawanda reservation that he was made grand sachem.
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A Light So Lovely - The...
Sarah Arthur, Charlotte Jones...
Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has captured the imagination of millions - from literary sensation to timeless classic and now a major motion picture starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Storm Reid, and Mindy Kaling. A Light So Lovely tells the story of the woman at the center of it all - her imagination, her faith, her pattern of defying categories, and what readers today can learn from her legacy. Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery winner for A Wrinkle in Time, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy - too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today. A Light So Lovely paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today. Listen in on intimate interviews with L'Engle's literary contemporaries such as Philip Yancey and Luci Shaw, L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and influential fans such as Makoto Fujimura, Nikki Grimes, and Sarah Bessey, as they reveal new layers to the woman behind the stories we know and love. A vibrant, imaginative read, this book pulls back the curtain to illuminate L'Engle's creative journey, her persevering faith, and the inspiring, often unexpected ways these two forces converged. For anyone earnestly searching the space between sacred and secular, miracle and science, faith and art, come and find a kindred spirit and trusted guide in Madeleine - the Mrs Whatsit to our Meg Murry - as she sparks our imagination anew.
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A Soldier in the Cockpit - From...
Ron Pottinger
In this WWII memoir, a British rifleman turned fighter pilot recounts his frontline experiences, both on ground and in the skies. Ron Pottinger served his country through the entirety of the Second World War. Assigned to the infantry in 1939, he soon became a rifleman in the Royal Fusiliers. Later, he was able to transfer to the Royal Air Force, where he began flying the 7.5-ton Hawker Typhoon. In A Soldier in the Cockpit, Pottinger recounts dozens of dangerous ground attack missions, flying over occupied Europe through bad weather, heavy flak, and enemy fighters. Though he was eventually shot down and taken prisoner, he survived to tell his tale.
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The Hypocrisy of Disco - A Memoir
Clane Hayward
This memoir of girlhood among California’s hippie communities is an “offbeat tale of preadolescence [written] with remarkable honesty and respect” (Publishers Weekly). Born in San Francisco just before the Summer of Love, Clane Hayward grew up on hippie communes throughout the west. Her poignantly funny, sometimes melancholy, and always riveting memoir recounts her extraordinary life up until her thirteenth birthday. School was a particularly happy event—it meant a hot lunch and clothes that matched! But Clane’s mother warned her that schools are just zoos run by the government. From a world of complex relationships, uncertain rules, and constant surprises, Clane forged a childhood. She did it sometimes with, sometimes without, her bong-puffing, Buddha-quoting, macrobiotic mother and her wild-haired, redneck father. Hypocrisy of Disco is an honest, direct, and truly unforgettable tale, and a tribute to the resilience of youth.
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All Hallows' Eve
Smith Gibbs
This charmingly illustrated volume collects classic works of eerie and ghoulish poetry and prose from the 19th and early 20th centuries.All Hallows’ Eve is the perfect gift for readers of all ages who revel in the spooky spirit of Halloween. These ghastly poems, sinister short stories, and curious black and white line illustrations throughout are sure to keep your bones chilled and your imagination ablaze. Included here are timeless works by Thomas Hardy, Hugh Mearnes, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and more.Read aloud by the fire, or read alone—if you dare.
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Lydia Litvyak: The Life and...
Charles River Editors
Altogether, the Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle in the history of warfare, and the Soviets’ decisive victory there is considered one of the biggest turning points in the entire war, and certainly in the European theater. Over the next two years, the German gains in Russia were steadily reversed, and the Red Army eventually began pushing west towards Berlin. Fittingly, the importance of Stalingrad was commemorated in several ways, from Churchill presenting Stalin with a “Sword of Stalingrad” to the Russians’ decision not to rebuild parts of the battle scarred city as a reminder of what happened there. Partly out of dire circumstances and partly from a cultural worldview, it was the Soviet Union who first pressed female pilots into direct combat when Hitler invaded Russia. Ahead of Stalingrad, Stalin publicly declared that “women should be given the right to fly and fight for their country.” As a result, more than 800,000 women served in the Soviet military during the war years in hospitals, communication units, as road troops, anti-aircraft gunners, and snipers. Of the Soviet female fighter pilots who fought the Nazis in the skies, led raids against ground targets, and stopped supply transports, the iconic Lydia Vladimirovna Litvyak stands out as the most distinguished. The most productive and highly decorated of the Soviet Union’s female pilots, Litvyak was an expert aviator by the age of 14 and trained 45 pilots in the years leading up to the war, while still a teenager. She went on to serve in several of the elite air guard regiments, and she would be credited with numerous victories as the Soviets desperately tried to hold off the German onslaught around Stalingrad. The quirky and defiant Litvyak was described as a “silent modest beauty with a blonde shock of hair and blue eyes.” She “walked with a special gait, causing delight among others,” men in particular, and she tended to look neat at all times.
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