A Friend of Dickens

Ackroyd, Peter.  Wilkie Collins.  New York: Nan A Talese/Doubleday, 2015.
          ISBN: 978-0-385-53740-7

Are you interested in early detective tales?  Have you exhausted Poe, grown tired of Dickens, and not wanting to read another Agatha Christie?  Then give Wilkie Collins a try! He wrote the Woman in White and  The Moonstone among several other dramas.  And in this brief biography Peter Ackroyd provides a road map to his work and life.

In less than 300 pages and  twenty short chapters Peter Ackroyd covers the life of William Wilkie Collins from his birth in 1824 to his death in 1889.  And what a life it was.  Each chapter provides information on the books being written and events of his life - where he was living, trips taken and overall flow of his engagement with society or lack thereof.  

His father was a decent painter and was the subject of Wilkie Collins first book.  In spite of passing the bar, Wilkie Collins made his living by writing books, stories, and articles.  He was a friend of Charles Dickens and worked with him on plays and wrote for his periodicals.  He had two mistress and several children, but no wife, so definitely not your typical Victorian.  As the reader of his books discover, his peculiarities and viewpoints were often at odds with Victorian sensibilities.  The reader will also find out that the tales are crafted to keep the reader engaged and reading which fits with most of the tales being published in circulating periodicals before appearing in book form.

In Wilkie Collins, Peter Ackroyd provides a mosaic of the life of a writer in the Victorian age who shaped the melodrama and mystery genres that are read today. 

Science Fiction Author Interviews

Ward, Joy.  Conversations From The Edge: The Galaxy's Edge Interviews.  Rockville, MD:
         Arc Manor Publishers, 2019.

Every reader has their favorite author or multiple favorite authors.  Just like ice cream it is hard to have just one flavor that you want all the time!  Reading about the author can almost be as fun as reading the author.  And when one has the chance to read an interview or listen to an interview with their author(s), who can pass that up?  I can't, can you?  That opportunity to read an interview is what Joy Ward provides in Conversations From The Edge.  She has reprinted extended interviews of 24 authors and 1 editor that originally had appeared in The Galaxy's Edge.

The book opens with a George R. R. Martin interview from May 2016 and closes with a David Drake interview from July 2018.  There are interviews with Peter Beagle, Eric Flint, David Gerrold, David Weber, Connie Willis, and Harry Turtledove.  Toni Weisskope of editor of Baen Books is also interviewed.  My favorite interviews were with Peter Beagle and Harry Turtledove.  The most disappointing interview for was with Larry Niven.  And of all the authors interviewed, only one was new to me.

Conversations From the Edge provide a frank look into how authors got into writing and how they want to be remembered.  So read this book and find out if your favorite author is interviewed.

Details, just the Gorey details

Dery, Mark.  Born to be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey. 
          New York: Little, Brown, and Company, 2018.

How well do you know Edward St. John Gorey?  How many of his little books have you read?  Or are you a fan of his book covers and art work?  Maybe you only know him from the credits to PBS's Mystery program.  But if you want plenty of details, you have the right book in hand.

Mark Dery provides plenty of details in his biography of Gorey.  He starts with his childhood in Chicago, followed by his stint in the US Army which he spent mainly at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.  After his discharge, Gorey used his GI Bill benifits to attend Harvard majoring in French, but mainly spent his time writing and drawing while hanging out with the likes of Frank O'Hara and John Ciardi.  After graduating and haning around Boston for a couple of years and getting caught up in the Poets' Theatre, Gorey moved to New York City to work in the art department of Anchor Books.  There he created book covers, did illustrations, all while working on his own material.  While in NYC, he perfected and published a number of small books and then got the stage-bug when he designed the set for John Wulp's Dracula which got him fame, notice, and royalties!  Then his books started selling and he moved to Cape Cod in 1985.  For the last 15 years, he wrote some, illustrated some and had fun putting on plays until he died in 2000 from a heart attack.

Mark Dery does a good job of documenting Gorey's life and his work.  He also does a commendable job of placing Gorey in context to the society and culture.  He does have a tendency to focus on particular aspects of Gorey's life that tends to distract from Gorey's life rather than explain it.  But overall, a very decent read of Gorey and his work.

Is it a crime?

Chase, Mike.  How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring
          Offender.  New York: Atria Books, 2019.  ISBN: 9781982112516

Have you cut off a mattress tag and sold the mattress to someone?  Have you communicated with pirates?  Or have you drawn too large a mustache on a dollar bill?  If so, you are a Federal criminal! Is Congress not wonderful?  It has provided so many laws that can be broken!  And Mike Chase is here to help you know when, where and how to do it!

In eight chapters, Mike Chase walks the would-be criminal through what you would need to do to be come a Federal criminal.  Chapter 1 discusses becoming a criminal by mail.  Chapter 2 deals with animal criminality.  Chapter 3 concerns money  crimes.  Chapter 4 allows food to be criminalized.  Chapter 5 brings alcohol into the mix.  Chapter 6 sorts through crimes on Federal property.  Chapter 7 entertains thoughts of pirates and the sea.  Chapter 8 is the catchall - i.e.  anything not covered in the other chapters.

Mike Chase actually comes by his knowledge legally since by day he is a white collar criminal defense lawyer while at night he puts out the @CrimeADay Twitter feed.  How to Become a Federal Criminal is his attempt to share the fun he has had in dealing with crime with a wider audience.  So if you have an interest in the law, in crime, in what not to do so you do not get caught as a criminal, or any combination there of, do read this title!   

Monster Gazetteer

Offutt, Jason.  Chasing American Monsters: Creatures, Cryptids and Hairy Beasts.  Woodbury,
          MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.  ISBN: 978-0-7387-5995-1

Are you interested in what might be going bump in the night near you?   Or are you just curious about what folks around the United States claim to have spotted?  Or  maybe you just need something to keep you entertained while it is dark and stormy outside.  Jason Offutt has you covered in Chasing American Monsters no matter what your reason may be.

 Jason Offutt is providing a monster gazetteer of the 50 United States, opening with Alabama and meandering down to Wyoming.  The format is simple - a brief introduction of the state with geographical features and famous people from the state followed by monster sightings from that state.  Also included in each chapter is an illustration of one or more of the monsters found in the state.

Do not read Chasing American Monsters expecting to be convinced by mountains of evidence that monsters are real as that is not provided.  Instead, Jason Offutt writes entertainingly about the accounts he has uncovered from around the country.  So enjoy each brief chapter and wonder what you might see in your neck of the woods, or swamp, or city block.

Indian Wars in New England

Warren, James A.  God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the
         Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England.  New York: Scribner, 2018  ISBN:
         978-1-5011-8041-5

 What do you know about early New England history - say 1635 to 1675?  Were the Puritans the same as the Pilgrims?  Why did folks brave the rough Atlantic to come to a rocky coast and settle?  What did the early settlers do to survive and then thrive? In God. War. and Providence. James A Warren works on shedding light on this little studied history of the relations of English settlers and and their Native American neighbors in the 1600's.

James A. Warren opens the book with a key attack on the Narragansett Indians during King Philip's War.  He then goes back to set the stage by building from 1635 when relations between Indian and Puritan were peaceful to the 1670's when war was waged to crush the local Indians once or all.  Along this journey of exploration comes Roger Williams who plays a crucial role in the evolving relationship of settlers and natives.  The colony of Rhode Island was settled after he was cast out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony for preaching his conscience.  By establishing a colony based on freedom of religion that also cultivated good relations with local Indian tribes, Rhode Island proved an obstacle to the United Colonies plans for dominating New England.  Roger Williams had to make two trips to England to totally secure the rights and boundaries of Rhode Island against the depredations of the Puritans. Roger Williams also did what he could to defuse the brewing conflict between the Puritans and Narragansetts, but ultimately failed.

James A Warren wrote a very readable, yet scholarly examination of early New England history that is skimmed over in most histories.  He skillfully uses the sources available while discussing the shortcomings of each.  So if you are interested in secret or hidden American stories, read God, War, and Providence.

And It was Caught on Film!

Makos, Adam.  Spearhead: The World War II Odyssey of an American Tank Gunner.  New York:
           Ballantine, 2019.  ISBN: 9780804176729

Tank versus tank!  Pershing versus Panther!  And caught on film?  No, this is not a war movie, rather this is a World War II tale worth making into a movie.  Adam Makos met with Clarence Smoyer in 2012 and that launched a journey that led to this book.

Clarence Smoyer was a tank gunner in the 3rd Armored Division lead by General Rose.  He came ashore in France 3 weeks after D-Day as a loader and was promoted to gunner in a Sherman tank in August.  As the book opens, the 3rd Armored Division was laying an ambush for the German army trying to escape France at Mons, Belgium.  A German tank pulled in next to Clarence's tank during the night and the fight was on.  The fight continued through the Battle of the Bulge, receiving a Pershing, the conquest of Cologne which included a one on one between a Panther and a Pershing, and the attack at Paderborn against the German Panzer Training Cadre.

But this is not just the tale of Clarence and his exploits.  It is also the tale of Gustav Schaefer (German tank crewman), Buck Marsh (infantry scout in 3rd Armored Division), and Chuck Miller (officer from 3rd Armored Division).  Their stories are entwined with Clarence during the war and afterwards when in 2013 all four met in Cologne, Germany, to discuss what happened there and the influence that had on their lives since.

In Spearhead, Adam Markos delivers a well written World War II account of action from the 3rd Armored Division illustrated with pictures of the participants and maps of the battles.  the author also researched the details given by the individuals to verify details.  A very interesting read!