"Three desperate people who had fled Mormon persecution were being held prisoner in a lost canyon. Among them was a beautiful lady named Fay Larkin, whom John Shefford was in love with. The secret to the canyon lay in a hidden Mormon village of 'sealed' wives, where the penalty for trespassing was death. And the treacherous half-breed Shad and his murderous crew were blocking the way to the village. The tenderfoot Shefford was desperate to rescue his lady. To accomplish this was no easy task, especially considering he didn't even pack a gun. He would have to fight his way to the canyon, knowing that his efforts might end in bloody slaughter."
"From its beginnings, America has acted out much of its history on the battlefront. Yet for the average American, little is known of the Spanish-American War. The reasons for our entry never seemed compelling-at times, yellow fever seemed more the enemy than did Spanish troops-and the United States was ill prepared for the venture. Nevertheless, this conflict served to unify a country that only thirty years before had been hopelessly divided by civil strife.
This colorful account reveals how every aspect of American life was ultimately touched by the war. War heroes abounded in the Spanish-American War: George Dewey, Richmond Pearson Hobson, Joe Wheeler, William T. Sampson, and of course, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. Rosenfeld strikes a balance between scholarly and popular writing, bringing to life a war that has often been overlooked."
"As a boy in the 1890s, he went looking for thrills in a rural Georgia that still burned with the humiliation of the Civil War. As an old man in the 1960s, he dared death, picked fights, refused to take his medicine, and drove off all his friends and admirers. He went to his deathbed alone, clutching a loaded pistol and a bag containing millions of dollars' worth of cash and securities. During the years in between, he was, according to Al Stump, 'the most shrewd, inventive, lurid, detested, mysterious, and superb of all baseball players.' He was Ty Cobb.
Al Stump has redefined America's perception of one of its most famous sports heroes with this gripping look at Ty Cobb, a man who walked the line between greatness and psychosis. Based on Stump's interviews with Cobb while ghostwriting the Hall of Famer's 1961 autobiography, this account of Cobb's life and times reveals both the darkness and the brilliance of the 'Georgia Peach'."
"Honus Wagner, whose career in baseball stretched from 1895 to 1917, was the first American sports superstar of the twentieth century. One of the first five players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in its first year (1939), he was arguably the best shortstop in baseball history. His great career and the dawn of baseball as a popular entertainment occurred simultaneously, and he has become an icon of the early game; his 1909 baseball card, one of which sold for $451,000, is a holy grail of American memorabilia. This first major biography shows why Wagner was America's favorite image of sport during baseball's transition to the modern era."
"This book recounts the slugger Roger Maris' life before, during, and after his headline season of 1961, when the taciturn North Dakota native topped Babe Ruth's all-time record by hitting sixty-one home runs. From his youth as a star high-school athlete and American Legion baseball player, Maris's went on to play for the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Athletics, the New York Yankees, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Author Rosenfeld argues that Maris's treatment by the press was both shabby and tragic, and that the famous player's Mid-western modesty, need for privacy, and straightforward nature were often wrongly interpreted as arrogance and sullenness—a factor that led many to downplay his claim on the record books. Rosenfeld makes a forceful case for awarding Maris a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame, three decades after his record-breaking 1961 season with the New York Yankees."
"His name is Dan Barry, and they call him 'the Manslayer.' His best friend is a savage wolf-dog no other man can touch. They say his gun is faster than summer lightning and has never missed its mark. They say no bullet yet cast can kill him. His lifeblood is danger, and it flows with the cool recklessness of a surging mountain stream.
Some say he is a wild man, some say he is a ghost. But one thing they agree on: once you cross Dan Barry there are only two things left to do—buy your wife widow's weeds and order a pine box that fits your measurements."
"This explosive book chronicles why and how Ronald Reagan helped to bring down the Soviet Union. Based on exclusive interviews with key participants including Caspar Weinberger, George Schultz, John Poindexter, Robert McFarlane, and William Clark, Peter Schweizer provides the riveting details of how the Reagan inner circle undermined the Soviet economy-and its dwindling resource base-to subvert the Kremlin's hold on its global empire. Using secret diplomacy, the administration dramatically reduced Soviet income while simultaneously driving Moscow to expend an increasing amount of precious assets; they also provided covert aid to indigenous forces in Poland and Afghanistan to roll back Soviet power. In Victory, Schweizer presents a compelling argument for the Reagan administration's calculated strategy that is impossible to ignore."
"Beginning in 1946, a then eight-year-old George Higgins, accompanied by father and grandfather, began taking the long train ride out to Fenway Park to find some truth in immortals like Doerr, DiMaggio, York, and Williams, and later, Yastremski, Marty Barrett, and many more. This is a book about baseball and about the Boston Red Sox; but that is only part of the story. Beyond the games, the book turns on thoughts about family and continuity and, of course, the progress of the seasons. There's a magical moment when Higgins calls on his own mythic Emily to check the all-time lineup with his deceased forebears. By then, you've come to know what the author's values have in common with those in Our Town, and why certain professional athletes achieve immortality and others don't. The Progress of the Seasons confirms what admirers of the author's sparkling accurate prose already know: Higgins is to writing what Ted Williams was to baseball, an all-star."
"To many, Walter Johnson is the greatest pitcher of all time. He was a star second to none throughout the golden age of sports, which spanned the era of such greats as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Lou Gehrig, and Al Simmons. But it wasn't Walter Johnson's blazing fastball alone that placed him on a pedestal. It was Johnson, above all others, who came to personify 'gentlemanly conduct in the heat of battle,' as Shirley Povich put it. One of a small number of stars tempering the game's roughneck reputation in the early years of the century, he was still around to help shepherd it through its darkest hour of the Black Sox scandal. His presence as a role model in the big leagues consoled parents all over the country. Throughout a career as dazzling as any in sports history, Johnson remained unspoiled. This is the grand story of one of the good guys."
