Islomanes of Cumberland Island

Review\n"From the Timucuan Indians to Civil War heroes to steel magnates and beyond, the challenges and triumphs of the island come to life in page after page of discovery. [...] Islomanes of Cumberland Island is an easy read and one to get lost in. [...] Through this book, you will come to know for sure why Cumberland was saved for future generations and the meaning of this preservation for all Americans." 
-Barbara Ryan Harris, St. Marys Magazine\n"Islomanes of Cumberland Island is more than a history. It's a love story. 
It's the story of the love of a woman and her daughter for Cumberland Island—its seclusion, its unspoiled beaches, even its wilderness, in which the relics of its past are inexorably vanishing. They love Cumberland Island also for its fabled wild horses. The horses, which are the island's principal attraction for most tourists, represent in all their wild beauty both the glory and the precariousness of nature, for in their freedom to roam, the horses are a disaster to the fragile ecosystem of the island and may someday have to be removed from the island. 
And the history I was looking for? Bourke's telling of the history of Cumberland Island evolves naturally from the discoveries, during her and her daughter's annual, adventurous visits, of the remnants of its glory days. And as it turns out, it is in this gradual unveiling of the mysteries of the island's remarkable and poignant history that much of the book's fasciation lies. [...] 
Islomanes of Cumberland Island is a charming book. It captivates, fascinates, and enchants." 
-Cynthia Williams, Writer and Independent Journalist\nLucy Carnegie, wife of industrialist Thomas Carnegie, dreamed of creating on Cumberland Island a home where her children would be safe from the smoke and soot-filled skies over Pittsburgh. Protected by the waters of the Cumberland Sound, the estate she built encompassed nearly the entire island. It was a perfect world, until the outside world intruded. Stone by stone it all came tumbling down. Wild horses now crop the grass around the burnt-out mansion. Rattlesnakes nest among the ruins.\nA century later, another family comes to Cumberland to walk among the horses and to accept what gifts the island has to offer: solitude, unspoiled wilderness, and wildlife free to roam undisturbed. Returning year after year, Rhamy and her parents explore the island and swim in the ocean. They picnic on the beach where servants once served champagne, shrimp cocktails, and crab cakes to the Carnegie family and their guests. They gaze at the chimneys surrounding Stafford house, all that remain of slave quarters that once housed plantation field hands. They mourn for Zabette, daughter of a plantation owner and his black servant, sold to a man who fathered her six children, then abandoned her. Always, everywhere on the island, the horses graze nearby, unaware of efforts by environmentalists to remove them from the island where they have lived for centuries.\nTraveling to the north end of the island, the family sits for a quiet moment in the church where JFK Jr. married Carolyn Bessette. Across the pasture is the shack where naturalist Carol Ruckdeschel has lived for fifty years and the porch where her lover lay dead, shot through the heart.\nIn the campgrounds, on the beach, at the Dungeness dock, wild horses graze. For now, they are safe.\nRita Welty Bourke is the author of Kylie’s Ark: The Making of a Veterinarian. She’s a regular contributor to literary magazines, including The Southwest Review, Shenandoah, Black Warrior Review, and The North American Review. Married to songwriter Rory Michael Bourke, she’s the mother of three daughters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.\nFrom the Author\nMy family has been visiting Cumberland Island every spring for the last 15 years. That's what the book is about. That, and the wild horses, the Carnegie family (Thomas and Lucy, not Andrew) who once owned nearly the entire island, the biologist who

Literature & Fiction

Bourke, Rita

Genre Fiction

Histria Fiction

Lafayette: Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757-1777

In June 1777, nineteen-year-old Marquis de Lafayette landed in the American colonies to fight in their revolution, and the rest, as they say, is history. But over time many truths have been stretched, including, most recently, a singing role in a hit Broadway musical. Still, the great historical mystery remains: how did the character of the young Gilbert de Lafayette develop? Lafayette wrote his own words about his early life serving as an elder statesman in the French Chamber of Deputies, and, as such, they were shaded both to the heroic, as well as to the political climate of the day.\nS.P. Grogan writes a fascinating fictional narrative about Gilbert Lafayette and his coming-of-age in the mid-1770s amidst the decadence of Queen Marie Antoinette’s French court. The story begins with young Gilbert swearing to avenge his military father’s death at the hands of the British. The reader will track how a country boy of Auvergne became the richest orphan in France, and how forces behind the throne, trying to gain control over his fortune, seek to marry him off to a twelve-year-old girl to support one of the most powerful military castes in France.\nLafayette – Courtier to Crown Fugitive is an ‘action’ story of highway robbers, spies, and court intrigues. The reader can see the developing psychological make-up of Lafayette: his search for a father-figure, his need for supportive love, and his blind passion for glory and fame. What is revealed is a young boy in the throes of transformation under the influences of Queen Marie Antoinette’s lifestyle of spoiled privilege, his attitude toward his young wife in a forced marriage, the secrets of the Masonic fraternity, the writings of Voltaire, the Encyclopédistes, and the voice of the anti-slavery Abbot Raynal. All come together to transform his mindset, as Gilbert, blinded by class liberté idealism, seeks to run away to join the American revolutionary army. In doing so, he becomes a fugitive from the King’s edicts, and his ensuing flight and pursuit climax in a showdown on the beaches of Spain.\nAuthor S.P. Grogan is a best-selling author specializing in historical fiction. His other books include Vegas Die: A Quest Mystery.

Grogan, S. P.

United States

In June, 1777, nineteen-year old Marquis de Lafayette landed in the American colonies to fight in their revolution, and the rest, as they say, is history. But over time many truths have been stretched, including, most recently, a singing role in a hit Broadway musical. Still, the great historical mystery remains: how did the character of the young Gilbert de Lafayette develop? Lafayette wrote his own words about his early life serving as an elder statesman in the French Chamber of Deputies, and, as such, they were shaded both to the heroic, as well as to the political climate of the day.S.P. Grogan writes a fascinating fictional narrative about Gilbert Lafayette and his coming-of-age in the mid 1770s amidst the decadence of Queen Marie Antoinette''s French court. The story begins with young Gilbert sworn to avenge his military father''s death at the hands of the British. The reader will track how a country boy of Auvergne became the richest orphan in France, and how forces behind the throne, trying to gain control over his fortune, seek to marry him off to a twelve-year old girl to support one of the most powerful military castes in France.Lafayette - Courtier to Crown Fugitive is an ''action'' story of highway robbers, spies, and court intrigues. The reader can see the developing psychological make-up of Lafayette: his search for a father-figure, his need for supportive love, and his blind passion for glory and fame. What is revealed is a young boy in the throes of transformation under the influences of Queen Marie Antoinette''s lifestyle of spoiled privilege, his attitude toward his young wife in a forced marriage, the secrets of the Masonic fraternity, the writings of Voltaire, the Encyclopédistes, and the voice of the anti-slavery Abbot Raynal. All come together to transform his mind-set, as Gilbert, blinded by class liberté idealism, seeks to run away to join the American revolutionary army. In doing so, he becomes a fugitive from the King''s edicts, and his ensuing flight and pursuit climax in a showdown on the beaches of Spain.In June, 1777, nineteen-year old Marquis de Lafayette landed in the American colonies to fight in their revolution, and the rest, as they say, is history. But over time many truths have been stretched, including, most recently, a singing role in a hit Broadway musical. Still, the great historical mystery remains: how did the character of the young Gilbert de Lafayette develop? Lafayette wrote his own words about his early life serving as an elder statesman in the French Chamber of Deputies, and, as such, they were shaded both to the heroic, as well as to the political climate of the day.S.P. Grogan writes a fascinating fictional narrative about Gilbert Lafayette and his coming-of-age in the mid 1770s amidst the decadence of Queen Marie Antoinette''s French court. The story begins with young Gilbert sworn to avenge his military father''s death at the hands of the British. The reader will track how a country boy of Auvergne became the richest orphan in France, and how forces behind the throne, trying to gain control over his fortune, seek to marry him off to a twelve-year old girl to support one of the most powerful military castes in France.Lafayette - Courtier to Crown Fugitive is an ''action'' story of highway robbers, spies, and court intrigues. The reader can see the developing psychological make-up of Lafayette: his search for a father-figure, his need for supportive love, and his blind passion for glory and fame. What is revealed is a young boy in the throes of transformation under the influences of Queen Marie Antoinette''s lifestyle of spoiled privilege, his attitude toward his young wife in a forced marriage, the secrets of the Masonic fraternity, the writings of Voltaire, the Encyclopédistes, and the voice of the anti-slavery Abbot Raynal. All come together to transform his mind-set, as Gilbert, blinded by class liberté idealism, seeks to run away to join the American revolutionary army. In doing so, he becomes a fugitive from the King''s edicts, and his ensuing flight and pursuit climax in a showdown on the beaches of Spain.

The Lost Diary of Anne Frank

Product Description 
The Diary of Anne Frank is a seminal piece of twentieth-century literature. It recounts the tragic and moving story of a young Jewish teenager faced with the horrors of Nazism. In it, Anne establishes a bond with her readers that transcends both time and space, making them her friends and confidants. Readers feel a connection with each dream she had, each fear she endured, and each struggle she confronted. Her diary ended, but her story did not. 
The Lost Diary of Anne Frank picks up where her original journal left off, taking the reader on a credible journey through the tragic final months of her life, faithfully adhering to her own, very personal, diary format in the process. \nIn 
The Lost Diary of Anne Frank, Anne receives mysterious help from many quarters. A strange lady on the other side of the fence haunts her dreams. Her mom once vilified, becomes a hero. Anne struggles with the existence of God and His presence or absence in all of her ordeals. She contrasts the depravity of man with what she sees as mankind’s evident virtues. Her longing to experience sensual pleasures is numbed by forced over-exposure. She finds that in the Nazi efforts to extinguish the humanity of their victims, a chorus of unity evolves among the captives. Anne’s vaulted dreams for fame and notice are ultimately traded in for the true longings of life, love, and peace. 
The Lost Diary of Anne Frank follows her story to the chilling end. 
 Review 
This much-researched historical novel is anchored in facts as reported by those who were eyewitnesses and camp survivors, along with testimonials and writings of her father, Otto Frank, and others dear to Anne.\nThe Epoch Times, The Epoch Times 
 About the Author 
Dr. Johnny Teague is an author and historian, having earned five degrees, culminating with a doctorate in exposition from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In preparation for writing this book, he interviewed many Holocaust survivors, and studied at the Holocaust museums in Houston, Washington, D.C., and at Yad Vashem in Israel. His studies have taken him to numerous historical sites, including Auschwitz, Dachau, the Corrie ten Boom House, and the Anne Frank House.

Biographies & Memoirs

Teague, Johnny

Community & Culture

Review\n“As someone who holds Anne Frank dear to my heart, this book was a wonderful way to honor her and the way she gave voice to all who perished in the Holocaust. Historical novels like this allow us to not only reconnect with events that occurred long ago but bring them back to us in a new and impactful way.” —D.R., Books a Million\n"The last words in the book are 'Anne’s diary ends here.' That’s where historian and author Dr. Johnny Teague picks up with The Lost Diary of Anne Frank, a unique historical novel built upon an abundance of research. It continues Anne’s would-be diary while imprisoned by the Nazis (even though such journals were hardly available to concentration camp prisoners.) [...] Teague reconstructs how he envisions Anne’s diary might read, ably inserting the tone and feeling of the narrator." —Book Trib\nThe Diary of Anne Frank is a seminal piece of twentieth-century literature. It recounts the tragic and moving story of a young Jewish teenager faced with the horrors of Nazism. In it, Anne establishes a bond with her readers that transcends both time and space, making them her friends and confidants. Readers feel a connection with each dream she had, each fear she endured, and each struggle she confronted. Her diary ended, but her story did not. The Lost Diary of Anne Frank picks up where her original journal left off, taking the reader on a credible journey through the tragic final months of her life, faithfully adhering to her own, very personal, diary format in the process.\nIn The Lost Diary of Anne Frank, Anne receives mysterious help from many quarters. A strange lady on the other side of the fence haunts her dreams. Her mom once vilified, becomes a hero. Anne struggles with the existence of God and His presence or absence in all of her ordeals. She contrasts the depravity of man with what she sees as mankind’s evident virtues. Her longing to experience sensual pleasures is numbed by forced over-exposure. She finds that in the Nazi efforts to extinguish the humanity of their victims, a chorus of unity evolves among the captives. Anne’s vaulted dreams for fame and notice are ultimately traded in for the true longings of life, love, and peace. The Lost Diary of Anne Frank follows her story to the chilling end.\nDr. Johnny Teague is an author and historian, having earned five degrees, culminating with a doctorate in exposition from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In preparation for writing this book, he interviewed many Holocaust survivors and studied at the Holocaust museums in Houston, Washington, D.C., and Yad Vashem in Israel. His studies have taken him to numerous historical sites, including Auschwitz, Dachau, the Corrie ten Boom House, and the Anne Frank House.

Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman Matrona

Based on historical facts, Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman Matrona recounts the demise of the Roman Republic as seen through the eyes and reflections of Cornelia Africana, mother of the Gracchi brothers and a woman at the zenith of power and influence in the Republic.At its peak as the sole superpower in the Mediterranean in the 1st century BCE, internal crisis gripped the Republic of Rome, generated by the breakdown of Senate leadership. The Republic had become a source of self-enrichment for the corrupt elites. Land grabs, financial scandals, corruption, intrigues and electoral fraud plunged the Republic into a constitutional crisis. The Gracchi brothers tried to save the Republic, attempting to reestablish it as a union of free men by reclaiming public land for veterans and restoring the rule of law through an extensive legislative program. In a bold move, the eldest brother, Tiberius, succeeded in having his fellow-tribune impeached to break his veto, an unprecedented political act, which tore the Republic apart.In her final years, an aging Cornelia looks back on her life and that of her sons who tried to save the Republic. The novel gives readers keen insight into the secret life of women who were politically active behind-the-scenes. It recounts a successful women's revolt in 195 BC, with mass sit-downs at the Forum that resulted in greater social freedoms. The reader gets a rich and rare look at the rise of one of the Republic's most politically influential women and the forces that helped to shape her extraordinary life. The story is even more compelling for the parallels it offers with current superpower politics, the rise of strongmen, financial scandals, the shrinking of the middle class, and questions about the future of our democracy.

Douma, Joost

Leaders & Notable People

Living Dangerously: In Sweet Delusions and Datelines from Shrieking Hell

Review\n"Don Tate, whom I knew as a correspondent in the old days in Saigon and have seen many times since, captures the mood, the ethos, and the suffering of the Vietnam War in this saga of love and hate, arrogance and humiliation in the battlegrounds of Vietnam and the social whirl of Saigon. He takes us from "the Continental shelf," the veranda of the legendary Continental Hotel, and the raucous streets of the South Vietnamese capital, then back, again and again, to scenes of life and death in remote jungles and rice paddies. This is an epic of war and love that captures, in fiction, the debacle of Vietnam in the period of the disastrous Tet 1968 offensive and the "second wave" that formed the turning point of the war. On the way, he satirizes the phonies and loonies, from blowhard journalists to chest-thumping generals, all guilty in the tragedy of the war." 
Donald Kirk, one-time Vietnam correspondent, author, "Tell it to the Dead: Stories of a War, " and "Wider War: The Struggle for Cambodia, Thailand and Laos."\nLiving Dangerously: In Sweet Delusions And Datelines From Shrieking Hell is a history-driven story casting a wide net over the Vietnam War, called the most important event of the second half of the twentieth century. It is a story with flashbacks and live action, from the battlefield to the bedroom, politics and the military, to a his-her war of sweet, bitter, and brave love.\nJim Jordan is a war correspondent reporting on the wildest, weirdest, and most impossible conflict ever. Susanna Robinson is a young beauty, more complex than the curvy little beach bombshell she seems. Susanna endures both the shooting war and the grab-and-growlers (chief among them a brilliant English wordsmith and scumbag). This is 1968, a year like no other – riots, protests, assassinations, radical cultural changes, and an array of memorable characters caught in Vietnam’s shattering Tet Offensive.\nShades of soldiers, women, and news-types, including cognac-nipping, Sean Donlan, a fainting French photographer, who’d rather be shooting his bony beauties along the Seine, a passionately anti-war female correspondent, and the old English, America-despising scoundrel by-lined E. Drudgington Blow. Winston Churchill he is not. Tales emerge of courage and puking-in-the-dust cowardice, of gritty-funny realism. Full of fury and fright, tortured rights and wrongs, Living Dangerously captures the essence of great war novels such as The Red Badge of Courage and Catch 22.\nDonald Tate won the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award for his war coverage in Vietnam in 1968. During his seven years as Vietnam war correspondent for Scripps Howard Newspapers in Vietnam, he covered the major actions of the war. He also covered the Indo-Pakistani conflict, the war in Cyprus, the Arab-Israeli war, and various revolutions. Later, with The Stars and Stripes he covered hotspots in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. A native of Memphis, Tenn., he now resides in Panama City, Florida, with his wife and daughter.

Tate, Donald

"Readers of the novel will be impressed with the wisdom that comes from Cornelia's long experience and her well-informed mind.... Without a doubt, Cornelia was a remarkable woman with an absorbing life story and Douma's Betrayal of a Republic acts as a fitting fictional autobiography." - Clare Rhoden, Historical Novel SocietyBased on historical facts, Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman Matrona recounts the demise of the Roman Republic as seen through the eyes and reflections of Cornelia Africana, mother of the Gracchi brothers and a woman at the zenith of power and influence in the Republic.At its peak as the sole superpower in the Mediterranean in the 1st century BCE, internal crisis gripped the Republic of Rome, generated by the breakdown of Senate leadership. The Republic had become a source of self-enrichment for the corrupt elites. Land grabs, financial scandals, corruption, intrigues, and electoral fraud plunged the Republic into a constitutional crisis. The Gracchi brothers tried to save the Republic, attempting to re-establish it as a union of free men by reclaiming public land for veterans and restoring the rule of law through an extensive legislative program. In a bold move, the eldest brother, Tiberius, succeeded in having his fellow-tribune impeached to break his veto, an unprecedented political act, which tore the Republic apart.In her final years, an aging Cornelia looks back on her life and that of her sons who tried to save the Republic. The novel gives readers keen insight into the secret life of women who were politically active behind-the-scenes. It recounts a successful women's revolt in 195 BC, with mass sit-downs at the Forum that resulted in greater social freedoms. The reader gets a rich and rare look at the rise of one of the Republic's most politically influential women and the forces that helped to shape her extraordinary life. The story is even more compelling for the parallels it offers with current superpower politics, the rise of strongmen, financial scandals, the shrinking of the middle class, and questions about the future of our own democracy.

Death Tax

Why do a million hummingbirds descend upon a certain Missouri lake every April 15th, killing one more resident than they did the year before? Once a man with a seemingly limitless future, Lake Tanaka resident Dr. Kevin Cousey struggles to find a purpose in life after a prankster mangled his hand with an M-80 twenty years ago, costing him his career, his family, and very nearly his life. He thinks he has found it in the lethal hummingbird attacks that occur at the lake every year, as well as an ally in small-town newspaper editor Paul Mahr, the only other person who sees a pattern and seeks to connect the pieces of the mystery that haunts the lake. These pieces include a thirteen-year-old French exchange student with a passion for hummingbirds, the Navy diver-turned-corporate millionaire with the mysterious past she was staying with at the time of her disappearance, and the patron saint of birds. The Death Tax is a cross between Hitchcock's The Birds (with a purpose, no less), Nabokov's Lolita in its darkest incarnation, and a murder mystery, tackling such thorny issues as pedophilia, social apathy/intolerance, and religious hypocrisy along the way. Likewise, it is a celebration of nature, from its assuming the mantle of vengeance where man has failed to all the subtle nuances of light and atmosphere that occur on the water and in the sky between the twin glories of sunrise and sunset: no less than an ode to Steinbeck's loving descriptions of the Salinas Valley. The Death Tax is at once nasty, unflinching, unlikely, and beautiful! Just as Hitchcock's Psycho forever changed the way people think about showers and Dickey's Deliverance forever changed the way people think about canoes, The Death Tax will forever change the way people think about hummingbirds. Forever broadened and humbled by four years as a Christian lay missionary in Ghana and seven-plus years as an English instructor/curriculum developer in Thailand, S.A. Hogan has long sought to consolidate his three loves of creativity, travel, and humanitarianism. His long-term goal is to use the proceeds from his literary works to help disabled Ghanaians in a meaningful way, especially in the area of no-interest business startup loans and pay-it-forward business mentorship.

Hogan, S.A.

A Woman of Valor is a monumental family saga that is in effect a history of the Jews in the twentieth century. It centers around a heroine who grows up in Bialystok, survives the Holocaust fighting in the Underground, and rebuilds her family in Israel. This is a unique and profoundly moving story. Rarely has ordinary family life been depicted with such verisimilitude, and certainly not in the shadow of horrendous war. The triumph of the Lefkovitzes is not only the triumph of a family. It is also the triumph of a nation.

A Woman of Valor

Skolnik, Fred

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Books by Histria Fiction

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Histria Fiction publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Islomanes of Cumberland Island

Lafayette: Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757-1777

Lafayette: Courtier to Crown Fugitive, 1757-1777

The Lost Diary of Anne Frank

The Lost Diary of Anne Frank

Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman Matrona

Living Dangerously: In Sweet Delusions and Datelines from Shrieking Hell

Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman Matrona

Death Tax

A Woman of Valor