Recounts the life of the popular nineteenth-century American novelist, explains his reasons for leaving the ministry, and assesses the influence of his rags-to-riches novels

The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr.

Literature & Fiction

Scharnhorst, Gary

Bales, Jack

United States

Indiana Univ. Pr

The Lost Life of Horatio Alger, Jr. (MIDLAND BOOK)

Biographies & Memoirs

William Weaks Morris was a writer defined in large measure by his Southern roots. A seventh generation Mississippian, he grew up in Yazoo City frequently reminded of his heritage. Spending his college years at the University of Texas and at Oxford University in England gave Morris a taste of the world and, at the very least, something to write home about. This volume is a comprehensive reference work dealing with Willie Morris' life and works. It is also a literary biography based on hundreds of primary sources such as letters, newspaper articles and interviews. The principal focus is on Morris' literary legacy, which includes works such as North Toward Home, New York Days and My Dog Skip.

Willie Morris: An Exhaustive Annotated Bibliography and a Biography

Arts & Literature

McFarland Company

Readers who enjoy American history dramatized as rousing adventure fiction have always been the ideal audience for the novels of Kenneth Roberts, who, from the late 1930s to his death in 1957, was one of the most popular historical novelists in the United States. A globe-trotting journalist for the Saturday Evening Post and many other popular periodicals, Roberts channeled his enthusiasm for American history into eight novels, including Arundel (1930), Oliver Wiswell (1940), and his most famous work, Northwest Passage (1937). Acknowledging a lifetime of literary homage to all that is American - from vivid depictions of some of the grimmest moments in Revolutionary battle to a staunch defense of the merits of Maine all the way down to its cooking - the Pulitzer Committee presented Roberts with a special prize in 1957.In this first book-length account of Roberts's life and letters, Jack Bales thoroughly reviews and analyzes the author's enormous literary output, which has for the most part been ignored by scholarly critics and historians. Following Roberts's career chronologically - and offering a lively assortment of his comments along the way - Bales identifies Roberts's storytelling ability as that which places him at the apex of the genre. The first-person narration Roberts used in most of his novels has, Bales contends, made the fictionalized events of two or three centuries ago seem more real to modern readers.Aside from his interest in the Revolutionary War, sailors and seafaring men of the 1700s and 1800s, and wilderness explorers, Roberts had his passions, which Bales identifies as Benedict Arnold, whom Roberts believed the most famously wronged man in American history (Arundel and Rabble in Arms [1933]), and the strange "science" of water dowsing (Henry Gross and His Dowsing Rod [1951]).Bales explores Roberts's meticulous method of researching his novels and speculates that this constant research and adherence to facts may well have stemmed from Roberts's uncertainty about his abilities as a creative artist. In this vein Bales discusses Roberts's close association with Booth Tarkington, who became somewhat of a mentor to the younger novelist, offering him stylistic advice and constructive critiques for many years.Bales's balanced appraisal notes Roberts's weaknesses as a novelist - primarily in characterization and especially that of women - and some of his gaps in judgment (colleagues and friends have cited his too absolutist championship of both Benedict Arnold and water dowsing). Ultimately, though, Bales's portrait is as affectionate as it is well-reasoned, as much a personality profile as a comprehensive literary analysis - a work that will no doubt spark further interest in Roberts's writing and life.

Kenneth Roberts (Twayne's United States Authors Series)

History & Criticism

Twayne Pub

With such extensively researched books as Arundel, rabble in arms and Northwest Passage , Roberts (1885-1957) established and maintained a reputation throughout his literary career as an author whose books were not only enjoyable to read but also models of historical writing and accuracy. Bales' comprehensive biobibliography will serve a wide audience of literary historians, students, researchers, book collectors. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Kenneth Roberts: The Man and His Works (Scarecrow Author Bibliographies)

Scarecrow Pr

Although scores of authors have written more books than Esther Forbes (1891-1967), few have received as many literary awards or as much widespread recognition.  Jack Bales's comprehensive Forbes bio-bibliography provides a biographical essay largely based on letters, interviews, and other contemporary source material.  The second section of the book is an annotated bibliography of criticism, divided into general criticism and criticism of Forbes as a children's writer. Works covered include book reviews, newspaper and magazine articles, biographical and bibliographic studies, children's literature references, study guides, essays, theses and dissertations, and other critical writings. The other two sections of the book include lists of sources consulted, as well as an author and title index.

Esther Forbes

Teen & Young Adult

Scarecrow Press

In the summer of 1932, with the Cubs in the thick of the pennant race, Billy Jurges broke off his relationship with Violet Popovich to focus on baseball. The famously beautiful showgirl took it poorly, marching into his hotel room with a revolver in her purse. Both were wounded in the ensuing struggle, but Jurges refused to press charges. Even without their star shortstop, Chicago made it to the World Series, only to be on the wrong end of Babe Ruth's legendary Called Shot. Using hundreds of original sources, Jack Bales profiles the lives of the ill-fated couple and traces the ripple effects of the shooting on the Cubs' tumultuous season.

The Chicago Cub Shot For Love: A Showgirl’s Crime of Passion and the 1932 World Series (True Crime)

History

Americas

The History Press

Founded in 1869, the Chicago Cubs are a charter member of the National League and the last remaining of the eight original league clubs still playing in the city in which the franchise started. Drawing on newspaper articles, books and archival records, the author chronicles the team's early years. He describes the club's planning stages of 1868; covers the decades when the ballplayers were variously called White Stockings, Colts, and Orphans; and relates how a sportswriter first referred to the young players as Cubs in the March 27, 1902, issue of the Chicago Daily News. 
 Reprinted selections from firsthand accounts provide a colorful narrative of baseball in 19th-century America, as well as a documentary history of the Chicago team and its members before they were the Cubs.

Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago's First Professional Baseball Team

McFarland

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