Heartsick and Astonished


Book Description

Heartsick and Astonished features twenty-seven divorce cases from mid-nineteenth century America. More than dry legal documents, these cases provide a captivating window into marital life—and strife—in the border South during the tumultuous years before, during, and after the Civil War. Allison Dorothy Fredette has brought these primary documents to light, revealing the inner thoughts, legal hardships, and day-to-day struggles of these average citizens. In Wheeling, West Virginia, the seat of Ohio County, courtrooms bore witness to men and women from various ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds who shared shockingly intimate details of their lives and relationships. Some tried desperately to defend their masculinity or femininity; others hoped to restore their reputations to the legal system and to their community. In an era of uncertainty—when the country was torn in two, when the Wheeling community became the capital of a new state, and when activists across the country began to push for women’s rights in the household and family—the divorce cases of ordinary couples reveal changing attitudes toward marriage, gender, and legal separation in a booming border city perched on the edge of the South.




Heartsick and Astonished


Book Description

Heartsick and Astonished features twenty-seven divorce cases from mid-nineteenth century America. More than dry legal documents, these cases provide a captivating window into marital life-and strife-in the border South during the tumultuous years before, during, and after the Civil War. Allison Dorothy Fredette has brought these primary documents to light, revealing the inner thoughts, legal hardships, and day-to-day struggles of these average citizens. In Wheeling, West Virginia, the seat of Ohio County, courtrooms bore witness to men and women from various ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds who shared shockingly intimate details of their lives and relationships. Some tried desperately to defend their masculinity or femininity; others hoped to restore their reputations to the legal system and to their community. In an era of uncertainty-when the country was torn in two, when the Wheeling community became the capital of a new state, and when activists across the country began to push for women's rights in the household and family-the divorce cases of ordinary couples reveal changing attitudes toward marriage, gender, and legal separation in a booming border city perched on the edge of the South.




Private No More


Book Description

The John Lovejoy Murray collection of letters contains insights into the experiences of an African American soldier and his regiment during the Civil War. John Lovejoy Murray, a private in Company E, 102nd USCT, died of disease in a Charleston hospital on April 12, 1865. Through John Murray’s letters, readers can experience the war through the eyes of a literate northern Black soldier. His is the story of the soldiers who did not receive accolades for their heroic actions in battle, the ones who spent more time on picket and fatigue duty than on the front lines, the ones who died from disease more than they did of battle-related wounds. Murray’s letters are significant because they are ordinary in some respects yet extraordinary in others. Some of the activities and sentiments portrayed in the letters are hardly distinguishable from those described in letters written by White soldiers. In other ways, the letters represent a perspective distinctly from a Black soldier in the Union army. Although many of his experiences may have been typical, John Lovejoy Murray himself, a literate, freeborn, northern Black man, was atypical among Union Black soldiers.




Calamity's Claws


Book Description

Calamity's Claws is a story about a cat and his owner, a young woman Dannette Harney, whose grandparents had come to Australia as refugees from the Chilean coup d'eìtat in 1973, and a scandalous secret the family had kept from her. Due to unavoidable circumstances she becomes caught up in uncovering the family secret which drags her into life threatening contact with desperate criminals and child kidnappers. Yet in the midst of this she finds love, and is confronted by the reality of God and her fragmented family miraculously discover each other in very confronting circumstances.




A Volunteer with Pike


Book Description

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A Volunteer with Pike" (The True Narrative of One Dr. John Robinson and of His Love for the Fair Señorita Vallois) by Robert Ames Bennet. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.




The Mark of Gnosis


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The Judge's Wife Is Missing


Book Description

Captain Amos "Coop" Cooper of Wichita, now retired from the Wichita Police Department, isn't surprised when he is asked to investigate a case; he is shocked, however, to learn he has been personally requested by Judge Elmo Wells. Coop and the judge never liked each other or got along, so why is Wells asking for him after so many years off the force? It turns out that Wells' wife, Marilou, is missing, having boarded a plane in Wichita without arriving in Boston to meet her mother as planned. Coop sees this as an open-and-shut case: Marilou must have changed planes and arrived at another destination via a connecting flight. The only problem is that Marilou's flight to Boston was nonstop. As Coop looks more closely at the disappearance, he discovers that there are plenty of people who might be angry at the judge, giving him numerous suspects but few leads. What's more, secrets seem to surround Marilou. How did the judge's wife disappear, and who's behind the caper that brought Coop out of retirement?




Lincoln's Mentors


Book Description

A brilliant and novel examination of how Abraham Lincoln mastered the art of leadership “Abraham Lincoln had less schooling than all but a couple of other presidents, and more wisdom than every one of them. In this original, insightful book, Michael Gerhardt explains how this came to be." –H.W. Brands, Wall Street Journal In 1849, when Abraham Lincoln returned to Springfield, Illinois, after two seemingly uninspiring years in the U.S. House of Representatives, his political career appeared all but finished. His sense of failure was so great that friends worried about his sanity. Yet within a decade, Lincoln would reenter politics, become a leader of the Republican Party, win the 1860 presidential election, and keep America together during its most perilous period. What accounted for the turnaround? As Michael J. Gerhardt reveals, Lincoln’s reemergence followed the same path he had taken before, in which he read voraciously and learned from the successes, failures, oratory, and political maneuvering of a surprisingly diverse handful of men, some of whom he had never met but others of whom he knew intimately—Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John Todd Stuart, and Orville Browning. From their experiences and his own, Lincoln learned valuable lessons on leadership, mastering party politics, campaigning, conventions, understanding and using executive power, managing a cabinet, speechwriting and oratory, and—what would become his most enduring legacy—developing policies and rhetoric to match a constitutional vision that spoke to the monumental challenges of his time. Without these mentors, Abraham Lincoln would likely have remained a small-town lawyer—and without Lincoln, the United States as we know it may not have survived. This book tells the unique story of how Lincoln emerged from obscurity and learned how to lead.




Murder in Times Square


Book Description

Many Words Press-and imprint of Able Muse Press-is proud to introduce Murder in Times Square, a Deirdre Mystery, initiating a new series by the author of the popular Jack Colt mystery series: When a young woman in a red designer dress falls twenty-five stories from the roof of Times Square One, the well-known New York fashion model known as Deirdre resolves to unravel the mystery. Capable and determined, Deirdre is relentless in her drive to unravel the mystery and find justice for the victim, while protecting those she loves from looming threats. Baer, who has worked in the New York City's fashion district, showcases not only his depth of knowledge of the fashion industry, but also of New York City and its landmarks and history. He weaves an intricate, fast-paced, and spellbinding narrative that takes us through New York City, Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore, and the Caribbean. In Murder in Times Square, Baer once again proves he is a master of suspense and intrigue. PRAISE FOR WILLIAM BAER'S JACK COLT MURDER MYSTERY SERIES: "William Baer brilliantly mixes all the human emotions. . . . The layers, the depth, the characters, the intrigue, and the references to local settings all captivate and draw the reader in. I love books like this! A rarity! Five stars!" - Robert Leon Davis, Reader Views (Five-star review) "A brilliant debut novel . . . precise prose, perfect pacing, stunning imagery, complex characterization, grand historical and cultural contexts, and a superb sense of place." - Hollis Seamon, author of Somebody Up There Hates You "Not since Donna Tartt's The Secret History have I read a novel as mesmerizing, engrossing, and delectable as William Baer's New Jersey Noir. In prose as fast-moving as a bullet, Baer compels the reader to keep flipping pages more and more rapidly. The writing is taut and gut-wrenching." - Terri Brown-Davidson, author of Marie, Marie, Hold On Tight "With a head for crime and his own set of scruples, Jack moves effortlessly through the seamy underbelly of the state he loves. . . . [T]his is a can't-put-it-down thrill ride." - Publishers Weekly (Starred review) Writing is crisp, sarcastic, and wryly funny. . . . Characters are authentic and realistic. Dialogue is brisk and to the point. - Robin Farrell Edmunds, Forward Reviews (Five-star review) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: William Baer worked briefly in New York City's fashion district after high school. He's now the award-winning author of twenty-five books, including the first three novels in the popular New Jersey Noir mystery series. He's a graduate of NYU, Rutgers, South Carolina, Johns Hopkins, and USC's School of Cinema, where he received the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award. He's also been the recipient of a Fulbright, a Guggenheim, and a Creative Writing Fellowship in fiction from the National Endowment for the Arts.




Mabel Clement


Book Description