Born in 1853, Jared Flagg was the black sheep of an illustrious New York family. His father, Jared Bradley Flagg, was a noted portraitist and Episcopalian minister who served as Rector of Grace Church, in Brooklyn Heights. His older brothers were prominent, Paris-trained artists in their own right. A younger brother became a famous architect, while another went on to found a major Wall Street brokerage. One of his younger sisters married publisher Charles Scribner, II; another was a member of the famed "400" Manhattan socialites. Jared, Jr., on the other hand, took to the seamier side of American life, instigating any number of illegal schemes, ranging from leasing furnished flats to facilitate prostitution, to finding chorus line and modeling jobs for pretty but talentless young women, to a phony investment scheme that paid 52% a year, to the sale of worthless bonds backed by heavily mortgaged real estate. Frequently penalized for his criminal and unethical activities by the time of his death in 1926, Jared Flagg barreled his way through Gilded and Jazz Age America, offering a fascinating and heretofore unknown view of how a rising empire evolved at a crucial through crucial eras in its history.

The recollections of a horse soldier in blue
Willard Glazier kept a detailed journal of his time as an officer in the 2nd New York Cavalry during the American Civil War, making immediate notes about his experiences in camp, around the campfire and even during lulls in the fighting. It was that carefully kept resource that is the basis of the two volumes included in this special Leonaur edition of Glazier's memoirs. In the first book he tells of his time on campaign with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia and describes many interesting scenes of action in cavalry skirmishes or full battle and camp life. The second volume continues Glazier's story to the pivotal conflict at Gettysburg and beyond. Shortly after an engagement with Confederate forces at Culpepper Courthouse and Liberty Mills, the good fortune that had seen him safely through the war up to that point abandoned him. In an ambush at Buckland's Mills in 1863, his horse was shot from under him and he was knocked senseless and trampled in an enemy charge. The action was a notable victory for Confederate forces under J. E. B Stuart commanding Wade Hampton's cavalry division and Fitzhugh Lee's division; Union forces under Judson Kilpatrick were routed in a debacle which became known as the Buckland Races. Glazier regained consciousness in Confederate hands as a prisoner of war. He spent nearly a year in prison camps and made a daring bid for freedom which is recorded here in detail.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Rick North has never spent much time on reflection. For twenty-five years, he has immersed his body and soul in the US Air Force as a forward-looking, self-assured officer. Yet in North's early life, there were no absolutes. Now, as he lies in a hospital bed in Southeast Asia, the victim of a futile war, he begins to contemplate his past as he is carried further and further away from the only life he has known. Raised by illiterate Polish grandparents, North develops the independence and insatiable curiosity that eventually leads him on an adventurous journey through World War II, where he flies in the Italian campaign and transforms into a steely-eyed, decorated fighter pilot. As he rises in the ranks to colonel, he edges closer to bureaucracy and some of its leaders, dimming his once idealistic views. But after he reluctantly volunteers for the Vietnam War, he is shot down in Laos and saved in a daring rescue-an event that alters his life forever. Based on a true story, Throw a Nickel on the Grass shares one man's incredible and challenging journey through life and war, and his ultimate discovery of true happiness.

Told with humor, intrigue, and a shrewd eye for detail, this riveting short biography sheds much-needed light on the life of nineteenth-century Russian icon Grigory Rasputin.
Grigory Rasputin, a Siberian peasant turned mystic and court sage, was as fascinating as he was unfathomable. He played the role of the simple man, eating with his fingers and boasting, "I don't even know the ABC." But, as the only person able to relieve the symptoms of hemophilia in the Tsar's heir Alexei, he gained almost hallowed status within the Imperial court.
During the last decade of his life, Rasputin and his band of "little ladies" came to symbolize all that was decadent, corrupt, and remote about the Imperial Family, especially when it was rumored that he was not only shaping Russian policy during the First World War, but also enjoying an intimate relationship with the Empress...
Rasputin's role in the downfall of the tsarist regime is beyond dispute. But who was he really? Prophet or rascal? A "breath of rank air...who blew away the cobwebs of the Imperial Palace," as Beryl Bainbridge put it, or a dangerous deviant?
Writing for historical aficionados and curious readers alike, Frances Welch turns her inimitable wry gaze on one of the great mysteries of Russian history.

After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1969 I was commissioned as an officer in the Marines. I served an interesting 'tour of duty' in Southeast Asia in 1972, during which time I was "in and out" of six different countries...including Vietnam. A greenhorn lieutenant when I landed, I was eventually promoted to captain. Because of my God given 'take charge personality' and a few "very junior officer" notable accomplishments I found myself frequently being handpicked for special assignments. I 'saw action' with seven different units...some good ...some bad...some ugly. I saw men die. I saw capable men withered by fatigue, brave men crippled by fear. Since I served, more than forty years ago now, I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and getting to know hundreds of fellow-Vietnam Vets; short term acquaintances, professional colleagues, neighbors, close friends, family members. Although our individual Vietnam stories are unique and intensely personal, I have come to realize that a common thread runs through most of them. For more than twenty-five years I have been asked to formally speak to sundry civic organizations, history classes, and social gatherings. As a result of fielding thousands of audience questions and listening to their spontaneous reactions to my "talks" I have learned what people are interesting in hearing. I have seen their reactions to my version of America's 'Vietnam experience'. I know what's interesting and what's not; what's important to those who weren't there, ordinary people who merely wonder 'what it was like'. I have enjoyed two "successful careers" and am currently embarked upon my third. I have fired most of life's best bullets, emptied most of my chosen weapon's most precious magazines, drained my fullest canteens, exhausted most of my allotted time on this fair planet we call earth. I want to share a few of the stories of men I served with, men I came to know later in life, men I loved as brothers-in-arms surviving in harm's way; or men who were simply 'Crazy Vietnam Vets' (like me) with a special story to tell. "Men JUST like me...only different " Ours are interesting up and down tales of wonder and weird, of good times and bad. I am happily married to a "seasoned" school nurse, am the father of three college educated sons, and have two fine grandsons. I live in Blanco, Texas about forty miles due west of Austin. I have always viewed life's glass as half full; hope you enjoy our 'Not Ordinary' war stories.

There may not be a more fascinating a historical period than the late fourteenth century in Europe. The Hundred Years' War ravaged the continent, yet gallantry, chivalry, and literary brilliance flourished in the courts of England and elsewhere. It was a world in transition, soon to be replaced by the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration -- and John of Gaunt was its central figure.In today's terms, John of Gaunt was a multibillionaire with a brand name equal to Rockefeller. He fought in the Hundred Years' War, sponsored Chaucer and proto-Protestant religious thinkers, and survived the dramatic Peasants' Revolt, during which his sumptuous London residence was burned to the ground. As head of the Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet family, Gaunt was the unknowing father of the War of the Roses; after his death, his son usurped the crown from his nephew, Richard II. Gaunt's adventures represent the culture and mores of the Middle Ages as those of few others do, and his death is portrayed in The Last Knight as the end of that enthralling period.

Orhei, Moldova (originally Orheyev, Bessarabia) has had a long history of a Jewish presence. Gravestones dating to the early 1700 s have been found in the Jewish cemetery. This Memorial (Yizkor) book has numerous personal accounts of the Holocaust. However, it is much more than that. It contains detailed discussions of the history of the town and the area. Most importantly it discusses the social and political organizations in the town during the early 1900 s, including the people involved in those organizations. This book was written by a committee of former Orhei residents with the hope that their town would not be forgotten. This English translation is an attempt to offer descendants of the inhabitants of Orhei information about all aspects of their ancestors and their ancestral town. Let us honor the memories and wishes of the Orhei victims and survivors by reading this wonderful testimony to the town and inhabitants of Orhei - our ancestors and our ancestral town. This publication by the "Yizkor Books in Print Project" of JewishGen, Inc., serves to provide the English speaking community with these first-hand accounts in book format, so that researchers and descendants of Jewish emigrants from the town can learn this history. 520 pages with illustrations, Hard Cover

When pilots sit around an airport or get together at a hotel lounge for beers or cocktails, they're almost certain to regale each other, and anyone else who will listen, with embellished tales of their greatest aviation exploits. The longer these stories continue, the more the similarities grow between the pilots' war stories and fish stories. As the night wears on, the exploits they share are likely to grow more and more elaborate and outlandish.

In the spirit of those war stories, author Jim Lewis, who has worked as a professional pilot since the mid-sixties, offers his share of stories from his experiences.

Many of these short stories are the result of mistakes in judgment, while others arose from deliberate decisions to proceed made from ignorance. A few were simply experiences that came with being a professional pilot, and two or three were blatant rule breaking. Lewis recalls landing in a soybean field, buzzing a nuclear submarine, flying under a bridge, running low on fuel, and tasting life in the cockpit of a jet liner. Some of his tales are humorous, while others take on a more dangerous nature. All of them, however, offer a lesson for others to learn.

War was no stranger to the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. A small farming community at the outbreak of the Civil War, Sudbury stood ready to support the cause of the Union. Uriah and Mary Moore, a local farmer and his wife, parents of ten children, sent four sons off to fight for the Union. George Frederick Moore was twenty years old when he joined the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment in 1862, along with brother, Albert. Their brother, John, had enlisted in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment and had been serving since 1861. In 1864, a fourth brother, Alfred, joined the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment. The eighty-four letters in this collection span the years from August 1862 to the end of the War and include correspondence to and from Pvt. George Moore and five family members. George's personal diaries from 1863 and 1864 are also included, as well as the 1867 diary of Sarah Jones, the girl he married. Through research the family is traced long after the war, revealing their travels and accomplishments. Explanatory passages that accompany these letters highlight the campaigns of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts through the war years. George Moore took part in battles from South Mountain and Antietam to Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbell's Station, and the Siege of Knoxville. He participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the assault on Petersburg. The letters to and from George Moore and his loved ones provide an intimate glimpse of the trials, not only of the soldiers, but of the family who sent their boys off to war.