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  Exploration of the Valley of the...

  William Lewis Herndon

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  An epic and intimate firsthand account of a true American hero’s daring journey into the heart of the Amazon forest in the nineteenth century.   Captain William Lewis Herndon was memorialized in Gary Kinder’s bestselling book Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, which recounts Herndon’s final acts of heroism as his ship foundered in a hurricane off the Carolina coast in 1857. Seven years before those tragic events, the secretary of the Navy had appointed Herndon to lead the first American expedition into the Amazon Valley, an epic adventure that Herndon immortalized into words.   Herndon departed Lima, Peru, on May 20, 1851, and arrived at Para, Brazil, nearly a year later, traveling 4,000 miles by foot, mule, canoe, and boat. He cataloged the scientific and commercial observations requested by Congress, but he filed his report as a narrative, creating an intimate portrait of an exotic land before the outside world rushed in. Herndon’s report so far surpassed his superiors’ expectations that instead of printing the obligatory few hundred copies for Congress, the secretary of the Navy ordered 10,000 copies in the first print run; three months later, he ordered 20,000 more.   Herndon described his adventures with such insight, compassion, and literary grace that he came to symbolize the new spirit of exploration and discovery sweeping mid-nineteenth-century America. Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon stands as one of the greatest chronicles of travel and exploration ever written.

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  The Brutality of War

  Gene R. Dark

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  A US Marine Corps Vet offers a gripping firsthand account of fighting on the frontlines of Vietnam in this hard-hitting memoir. In 1968, nineteen-year-old Gene R. Dark joined the Marine Corps. It was the height of the Vietnam War, and Dark was assigned to Fox Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines—one of the most decorated companies to be deployed there. A carefree young man when he had entered the service, Dark was soon transformed into a hardened soldier.  Dark recounts his experience in the notoriously dangerous Arizona Territory, humping through the swampy jungles, forging a brotherhood with his fellow soldiers, and watching many of those same comrades die in combat. While Dark found solace in surrendering his fate on the battlefield to God, it took him many years to find peace with his experiences.  A tribute to every man and woman who has served the United States, this moving account demonstrates the exacting price of war on America and her many fallen, forgotten, and heroic soldiers.

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  America’s Favorite Comedy Acts:...

  Charles River Editors

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  There has been no shortage of comedy acts in American history, but the most famous and popular of them all is The Three Stooges, an act that has become synonymous with slapstick. Bring up their name to any American or even ask about slapstick comedy, and invariably, certain images will come to mind, most of which came from the comedy shorts featuring three bumbling but likable fools getting into all sorts of trouble due to their inability to think or behave properly. Moe, Larry and Curly quickly became a hit in comedy shorts on screen, and even as other similar acts like Abbot & Costello went on to make full length films, the Stooges continued to star in shorts, producing the iconic scenes that everyone associates with them, from Larry asking what he did wrong to Moe trying to hit Curly and Curly’s efforts to block him. 
  By the 1920s, English comic Stan Laurel had been in dozens of films and American Oliver Hardy had appeared in hundreds, but it was not until they formed a duo together in 1926 that they began to truly be noticed. Once they did, however, Laurel & Hardy became one of the most famous comedy teams in American history, with a career that spanned 4 decades and included over 100 combined shorts and feature films. Even today, nearly 60 years after their last performances together, Laurel & Hardy are still popular, alongside legends like The Three Stooges and Abbott & Costello, and their routines are still watched across the globe. 
  Ironically, one of America’s most famous comedy duos, and the performers of the country’s most famous skit, came together in part because Lou Costello had already failed to cut it in the film industry. In fact, Costello had appeared in a Laurel & Hardy film in 1927 before meeting his partner, Bud Abbott, on the burlesque circuit in New York City. 

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  Fighting France - From Dunkerque...

  Edith Wharton

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  Fighting France is a collection of essays and articles by Edith Wharton on her time in France during the First World War, together with her visits to the French sectors of the Western Front. The distinct articles were originally published in Scribner's Magazine in 1915. Part of the The War on All Fronts series, the book was published in 1918.

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  Views from the Loft - A Portable...

  Daniel Slager

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  “Packed with inspirational, useful, and thought-provoking essays on the craft of writing from some of the best writers around.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune 
   
  Teachers, exercises, mentors, critiques, humor, and inspiration: these form the fuel all writers need when they get down to work every day. For decades the Loft Literary Center has provided this fuel to an enormous community of writers. Views from the Loft brings together the collected wisdom of that community—its authors, students, and editors—giving anyone the tools and inspiration necessary to thrive in the writing life. 
   
  A who’s who of writers on writing ranging from the National Book Award–winning poet Mark Doty to Newbery Medal–winning children’s author Kate DiCamillo, and touching on issues as delicate as the representation of family in memoir and as hilarious as a “sad-epiphany poem” mad lib for frustrated poets, this book is an essential collection of crucial tips and challenging questions for everyone who puts pen to page. The essays and interviews in this book include superstar writers like Rick Bass, Michael Cunningham, Grace Paley, Jim Moore, Kathleen Norris, Susan Power, Susan Straight, Bao Phi, Marilyn Hacker, Shannon Olson, R.D. Zimmerman, Lorna Landvik, Vivian Gornick, Yehuda Amichai, and many more.

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  Speak of It - A Memoir

  Marcos McPeek Villatoro

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  In Speak of It, Marcos McPeek Villatoro explores how he channeled his Latino roots to come to terms with the childhood sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a relative in his home in Appalachia, and he recounts his ensuing struggle with trauma and mental illness.The son of a Salvadoran mother and Scotch Irish mechanic father, Marcos spent much of his life trying to break away from his Southern Appalachian past and the trauma experienced there and striving to get closer to his Salvadoran heritage. His journey includes steeping himself in the Spanish language and Latin American literature, especially the work of Gabriel García Marquez; a stint in Nicaragua with Witness for Peace, followed by missionary work in Guatemala; and social-justice work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in Alabama. Each experience brought him closer to understanding where he came from and to forging an identity as a whole self in the wake of trauma.Riveting, horrifying, moving, and inspiring, Speak of It is a testament to the healing power of language, books, and identity.

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