When Stephen Vincent Benet finished John Brown's Body in 1928 and the critics awaited its issue, the South was most anxious and skeptical that they would be portrayed honestly. They were and Stephen Benet's masterpiece is America's greatest epic poem and a most unappreciated work of literature. But, I love it and always will love it, because it makes those historic figures of so long ago - come alive. Out of the mist, they ride. Come traveler, pick it up, open its pages and from fish hook Gettysburg to the end, watch them ride and try to understand over all the years what was happening and why they were fighting. It was not all about Slavery!

During the Pax Romana the emperor Augustus commissioned Vergil to write an epic history of the Romans. The result, of course, was The Aeneid, a stunning blend of epic poetry and historical fiction that some would argue has yet to be topped. John Brown's Body is the closest thing we have to an epic poem "about" America. And while it takes place during the civil war and makes no claim to be an authoritative history, the book is no less impressive as a literary feat. No book in the history of this country has so artfully depicted our nation's great schism.

Written in the 20s, John Brown's Body redefines the word ananchronism. Its contemporaries are The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Professors widely praise these modern works for their groundbreaking aesthetics, and not without justification. However, it's hard to imagine a more daring or daunting task than the writing of John Brown's Body. Never mind the fact that he pulled it off marvelously. Stephen Vincent Benet remains the only writer to have even _attempted_ to write an American epic poem. Stephen Vincent Benet deserves high scores both for degree of difficulty and final product. Yet conventional education regarding 20th century American books never seems to give him these high marks.

Why Benet and his book don't get the recognition they merit is a terrific question. Is his book canonically superior to Gatsby and Their Eyes? No. And on some level, it's difficult to see what someone living in Taiwan could glean from this document of American struggle and triumph. To wit, the book can also be criticized for being slightly skewed toward a Yankee perspective. But as a whole, the book is outright better than a lot of works revered as American classics.

What does better mean? What it should mean. Simply a more impressive work of art. More entertaining. More provactive. More fun to read. More intellectual depth, conveyed subtly and beautifully, embedded skillfully but not invisibly in an absorbing tale. On these counts, John Brown's Body is vastly superior to classics like The Sun Also Rises; The USA series of John Dos Passos; Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis; and certainly Hawthorne's later novels. Yet John Brown's Body continues to get short shrift, to the point where it's well nigh unfindable in many a book store. One can only hope that the critics and canon-makers of later generations restore the book to its proper place, high atop our shining history of American letters.

This book won the Pulitzer Prize in the '40's. It covers the Civil War principally from the perspectives of a young, small town Connecticutt boy and the heir to a Geogia plantation. It begins with a gripping view of events on a slave ship and ends with two crippled young men and the women they love, beginning to rebuild ther lives. Part poetry, part prose, it all sings.

This is Steve Brown as his best. I would consider this a "Theological Work," but this is certainly a page turner! It is not heavy and difficult. Steve communicates very clearly the Biblical concept of the Grace of God. This book helped me to see that I don't need to live in bondage to my sin, and I don't need to feel guilty anymore. This is one of the greatest books I have ever read, and if you can get your hands on it, READ IT!

Otto Ping was an early 20th century photographer, who did work while secluded in the back hills of rural Indiana. His work is noteworthy not only because of his results that are comparable to the work of the famous Dorothea Lange, but also because he was complely self taught in the art and science of the then emerging art form. He had an instictively unerring eye for images which transcend time. The photos speak directly to the modern reader, comments by the well known art historian Douglas Hartley add depth to the book. A wonderful piece of midwestern history.

Steve Brown really delves deep into the doctrine for prayer! This is an excellent handbook for people who really want to know not only how to approach God, but what it takes to have satisfying and fulfilling interaction with Him.

Rather than trying to tell people what to pray or even what not to, Mr. Brown gets to the root of the problem... getting started. Mr. Brown's theory is "Unbelievers don't pray because they are afraid that God might be there. Believers don't pray because they are afraid he might not be." He asserts that God is interested in developing a relationship with us not just hearing from us when we want or need something. He explains that before we can have this relationship we need to trust God unconditionally. To leap forward or fall back in total faith that God will be there to catch us and sustain us, even in times when He doesn't seem to answer or even refuses our requests. It is his contention that in contrast many of us try to manipulate or bargain with God often by trying to find out what prayer or combination of prayers will get God to give us the things we desire or help us gain control over our lives and the lives of those we interact with in life.

Steve Brown goes even deeper, exposing how our innate need to control or take over control when we feel God is not there for us short-circuits God's plans for us. He relates quite a bit of relevant scripture including how Jesus tried to teach much of this in His parables and testimony while on earth. He examines the Lord's Prayer which was given to us by Christ as an example of how to pray, not what to pray. In doing so Mr. Brown identifies the key concepts behind the prayer millions have adopted as their prayer, when in actuality they are more often than not just lackadaisically repeating words.

Mr. Brown encourages us to open our hearts and minds in prayer and share our doubts, our fears, our pain, our sin, and our shame because, as it is written, nothing is hidden from God anyway. He just wants to hear it acknowledged by us. Through this confession as well as by relinquishing control and listening for God to speak to us, we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and bring about what is good for us and to develop spiritual attitudes and outward manifestations of our salvation and growth as believers.

I find this book easy to read and hard to put down. I've had it for half a day and have already read half of it. It feels like Mr. Brown is sitting in the room talking to me. I have read some other books regarding prayer and how to pray, but this one is the best I've read so far. I'm new to faith and Christianity and this makes me feel more deserving and willing to carry on the every important conversations with God. I highly recommend reading this book to new Christians.

Words can hardly describe! If you are wanting a closer walk, a deeper relationship, but don't know how to go about it, this book is for you! Bravo, Steve Brown! You took the "scary" and the "guilt" out of approaching God, yet the approach is as reverent and worshipful as ever. In light of the WTC bombing, I am ever so mindful of what Steve Brown reminds us in the context of this book; i.e., the victory is already ours! I will keep this book for life. ...

This book does a great job of helping us keep our perspective where it should be. It helps us understand how God sees us. It also helps us understand our flawed, culturally influenced view, of ourselves. I thought the Piano Teacher story was an awesome glimpse at how a loving God desires to relate to us.

This is a great book to read if you're thinking of backsliding due to criticism by the "spirit-filled" members of your church. I read this book in Spanish and it is just as powerful. The book deals with many aspects of daily christian life and how we get caught up with trying to meet with other's expectations. It brings you back to the basics of being a child of God, that feeling you had when you first believed. If you're struggling, like I was because of other people's opinion as to what you should be, then this is the book for you. The first chapter alone will convince you to keep God, and not man, in the right place.

This is one of those rare books that is able to touch people where they are really hurting, heal their wounds, and restore to them a vision of God's grace in their lives. It is designed for Christians who are particularly weary of all the burdensome rule-keeping they encounter in so many churches, and who have been spiritually injured by other Christians. My wife and I read it during a period when we were trying to recover from severe spiritual abuse in a small, cult-like group of Bible-believing Christians. Soon afterward we were priviledged to meet the author, and to share our sad experience with him. Steve Brown is a delightful writer -- but he is even more delightful in person! Now, as my wife and I go back to this book every once in a while for spiritual refreshment, we can hear the voice of the author (it doesn't hurt that we also listen to his "Key Life" radio program), and we know it's the voice of experience, sincerity, and grace. Steve Brown is a thoroughly orthodox, committed Christian who doesn't let that stop him from being gracious and loving, as so many these days seem to do.

I found this book to be extremely well written. I enjoyed every chapter and the lay out of the material made for easy reading. The revelations in the book helped me to understand the quiet part of the Holy Trinity and the work that the Holy Spirit does in my life. I would recommend this book to both the well versed and the new comer to Christianity. You will not feel like you have come to the end of just a book, but will find that there are a lot of questions answered and a lot of thoughts started. Do consider reading this! I found that I was disappointed when I read the last page, only because I was done with the book.
Thank you Steve for a wonderful and insightful look in to the Holy Spirit and His work.

The Holy Spirit, at least to me, has always been hard to get a handle on, but this book has really helped me understand Him a little better - that the Holy Spirit is a person, distinct from the Father and the Son.

Brown goes into the Scripture's portrayal of the Holy Spirit, His function in creation and in the lives of both believers and non-believers, and how He operates (through His gifts, prophecy, and so forth). But the part of this book I find most useful is that Brown is not trying to teach you any techniques or methods you can use to get the Holy Spirit to act in your life - He's already at work in your life, whether you know it or not. Rather, Brown wants to teach you who He is and how to recognize His activity in your life so you can participate in it more fully.

Brown includes some hardcore theology and solid Scripture to back up his study of the Holy Spirit, but he uses normal, "non-religious" language to make this book accessible to all readers. For example, Brown points out that one reason the concept of the Holy Spirit is so hard to grasp is that His "job description" is to point to the Father and the Son, not Himself. The book is easy to read and get through, but it's also the kind of book you'll be likely to pick up time and time again as you go deeper into the subject.

Well worth the money and time.

Detailed and thorough, this book of research has one minor downfall-all of the authors are American, save one. Once again, the US is the centre of the universe as far as marketing academics are concerned.

The first time I became acquainted with this book, a dear friend (a pre-believer) picked it out for himself from the bookstore shelf. His life changed dramatically after reading it. I found it to be an easy but thought-provoking read - it's become a book I have purchased many times to pass on to others anxious to know God. The author has a wonderful way of explaining the nature and attributes of a holy God and the relationship that He desires to have with each and everyone of us. It also dismantles the false and lazy belief that we can live our lives fully now and eternally while ignoring our Creator. Mr. Brown oftens uses quotes by writers such as C.S. Lewis in a very helpful way. I think of this book as sort of a "junior" edition of "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis or "The Attributes of God" by A.W. Tozer. I highly recommend it!

Steve Brown writes as a friend sharing words of comfort gleaned from a life of helping hurting people find hope in God. The pains of life can make us bitter or by opening our lives to God, we can be renewed with God's unbroken promises. God knows and cares enough to be involved with life on earth. Many know about the ancient story of Job, but Steve has brought clarity to the wisdom of comforting truths in Job's encounter with God. God's unconditional love is there for those willing to openly express their deepest needs to God. Anyone struggling, suffering or hurting will find honest words of hope in this book.

The book declares in the introduction that it is not a book for scholars or professional communicators. I wish I had seen this before I bought it. What I was really looking for was some help for my public speaking skills. The book really is a compendium of "common sense" that we should use when we communicate with others. We should have learned most of this through our own life experience while interacting with others, but it is all here in one convenient package so that we don't have to go looking everywhere for this information.

Even though the book is entertaining and it never purports to be the type of book that I was searching for, it really did not tell me anything that I already didn't know. It does give advice on how to "give a speech" for example, but the advice is too vague and not specific enough to be of great help (like, "legitimize your fear"; "illucidate you fear"; "embrace your fear"; "the best way to make an impression is by making the impression that you are not trying to make an impression", etc.) While the book is good so far as it goes and the advice is true, I just did not see that it added much to most readers' knowledge about the subject. If you do need a book with lots of awesome practical tips for public speaking then get Tony Jeary's "Inspire Any Audience".