Ulysses S. Grant has been shafted and misunderstood throughout the century since his passing. This book rectifies that slight. I've exhaustively examined the author's interviews and notes for this book and can attest that his scholarship is unparrelelled. Garland truly and completely understood his subject in his many nuances. This is the premier Grant biographty, unsullied by the passage of 100 years since its publication. If you seek to know Grant as he really was, Garland's bio is a MUST HAVE.

A veritable time machine, this book picks you up and drops you down in the middle of the 19th century where the you will be treated to the most incisive and unbiased view of Grant this reviewer has ever seen. Garland interviewed people who actually knew Grant and the immediacy of his observations shines through. You'll never get this kind of a portrait through the filter of a century of history. One of a kind.

This Dover edition makes available an important though almost never read collection of short stories and novellas by Hamlin Garland. Written at a time when his "Realist" and "Naturalist" compatriots were filling their work with grossly caricatured Indian characters (or leaving them out entirely, e.g. Henry James, WD Howells), this book of Garland's not only presents complex Indian characters, but in many cases has them speaking in their own voices. The finely realized novella "Silent Eaters," for which this collection is the only current source, is a fictionalized biography of Sitting Bull told through the voice of an Indian boy named Iapi. All historical events are drawn from interviews Garland conducted with associates of Sitting Bull, not derived from white histories. By today's standards, these stories are probably "colonial." After all, they are written by a white male who co-opted Native stories for his own profit and who also tended to adopt a somewhat paternalistic attitude toward the newly defeated (1890-1920) tribes. But in the context of the almost genocidal rhetoric coming from Mark Twain, Frank Oz, and others during this period, Garland's work becomes more noteworthy. The original edition (Harper Bros., 1923) included very disturbing racist illustrations by Frederick Remington (Garland disliked both the man and the illustrations), and I hope that this Dover edition retains them, for historical reasons if for nothing else. Highly recommended for students of Garland, naturalism, realism, veritism, or "local color." Also a must for students of Native representations in Anglo literature. James Atkinson 10-5-97

Christmas in the Midwest! the very best of all! From Chicago's Miracle Mile with its myriad of gaily colored lights and its blazing store windows - to the small midwest cities with their downtown lampposts festooned with evergreen and silvery tinsel - to the small towns with their Season's Greetings bannered across the intersection of Main and Elm Streets - to the farm scenes with strings of red and green bulbs entwined round the spindly legs of long-unused windmills and the picture window curtains drawn back to let the tree lights gleam out over the new fallen snow.

And Christmas Eve in little frame and brick churches with "readings" and songs by the children - a decorated tree and some rosy-faced neighbor in a Santa Claus costume - Christmas mornings with families round the tree and the gaily wrapped gifts with their promises waiting to be unwrapped.

And then go over the hill to Grandma's house where all the aunts, uncles and cousins gathered for a gala Christmas feast!

These are images and recollections that M idwesterners and exiled Midwesterners share. You will find these memories and more in the pages of Christmas in the Midwest. Here is a rich assortment in poem, picture, and story, all done by the best of midwest writers and artists such as, Hamlin Garland, Bess Streeter Aldrich, James Whitcomb Riley, John Muir, Marjorie Holmes, Paul Engle, Hartzell Spence, Phil Stong and Susan Allen Toth. They share stories about the Midwest's very first Christmases, Christmases of the pioneers, and Christmases in this changing twenty-first century. Wether the stories and poems are real or imagined, or mixtures of memory and "might-have-been," this collection is guaranteed to stir heartwarming memories of Christmas in the Midwest, and the spirit of the season everywhere.

An invaluable and delicious reference for any lover of English history, specifically of the Regency Period (1811-1820). Unlike the Victorian era following it, the Regency era was quite wicked--a time of serious partying, mistresses and lovers, and gambling into the night. This books provides a wealth of information and covers just about every aspect of the era as it pertains to the beau monde or those of the upper class or aristocracy. In detail, the book explores what a gentlemen or lady of the time would have worn, what they would have eaten, how they decorated their houses, how they were brought up, how they would marry, and most importantly, all the hedonistic pleasures they would indulge in. This book also provides a section on the most famous people of the era and a dictionary of popular slang. Great fun. Also recommend: Regency London by Stella Margetson and An Elegant Madness by Venetia Murray.

This is easily in my top ten list of books. Wonderful account of growing up in the upper Midwest after the War Between the States. Hamlin Garland writes with a great sense of place and a love of the land.

Garland is an expert at capturing local color. This collection of short stories shows the brutal reality of farm and rural life in the Midwest. His characters are thrown around in the cruel world and have no real way of escaping. His women characters are strong and hold their own in world dominated by hard working men. This book shows how it was like to live in the West one hundred years ago.

Garland captures the American West as it was at the end of the 19th Century. This collection of shorts stories is a slice of life in rural America. Garland is a true local colorist who portrays real, hard working farmers and the struggle to survive in the harsh landscape of the Midwest. Who is a true Naturalist who shows the brutal reality of American life and the lack of control people had on the conditions of their lives. These stories take you into the hardships of the countryfolk of one hundred years ago.

Hamlin captures the essence of American Realism. The vividly painted scenes full of grit and labor keep this book moving. The characters are solid and provide the reader with a painfully honest view of life and love at the turn of the century. A necessary book for any decent collection of American Realism. Escape into the main traveled roads of humanity!