Hancock County, West Virginia, located in the Upper Ohio Valley, was first settled during the Revolutionary War. Over the next century, it transformed from a frontier forest into rolling fields, pastures, and orchards. In the 1830s, investors began building brickyards in New Cumberland, which would become the county seat. Hancock County was still primarily home to farmers and brickhands until the construction of potteries (including the world's largest pottery, Homer Laughlin China), which gave birth to the towns of Chester and Newell. The location of a steel mill near Hollidays Cove created the town of Weirton. The new industries tripled the county's population and provided employment to three and four generations of county residents. Recently tourism and recreation have become increasingly important to the local economy, evolving from the bygone days of Rock Springs Park to the ever-expanding Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort of the present.

In 1986 Lon Savage published Thunder in the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21, a popular history now considered a classic. Among those the book influenced are Denise Giardina, author of Storming Heaven, and John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan. When Savage passed away, he left behind an incomplete book manuscript about a lesser-known Mother Jones crusade in Kanawha County, West Virginia. His daughter Ginny Savage Ayers drew on his notes and files, as well as her own original research, to complete Never Justice, Never Peace-the first book-length account of the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-13. Savage and Ayers offer a narrative history of the strike that weaves together threads about organizer Mother Jones, the United Mine Workers union, politicians, coal companies, and Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency guards with the experiences of everyday men and women. The result is a compelling and in-depth treatment that brings to light an unjustly neglected-and notably violent-chapter of labor history. Introduced by historian Lou Martin, Never Justice, Never Peace provides an accessible glimpse into the lives and personalities of many participants in this critical struggle.

Millions of people worldwide practice t'ai chi, the most popular form of which was codified beginning in the 1960s by Cheng Man Ch'ing. In this scholarly yet practical book, Professor Cheng shows precisely how the postures and moves of t'ai chi work, with examples from anatomy and physics, both internally as energetic principles and externally on opponents. He clarifies the spheres, triangles, and centripetal and centrifugal forces within physical exchanges such as push-hands. Contrasting Western and Chinese techniques of healing, he also explores the relationships of organs to one another in pathology and the necessary dynamics of treatment. Professor Cheng explains how the practitioner may serve as his or her own doctor and, likewise, as the physician or trainer of an attacker. The martial arts, he says, are not a special case of unusual power, simply an aspect of adapting natural and cosmic law to circumstance. This edition of the classic text contains 13 major essays; oral secrets from Cheng's teacher Yang Cheng'fu; a Q&A with commentary on martial arts classics; the author's application and functions of each of the 37 postures of the short form, with the original photographs of him as a young man; two prefaces; and much more.

A handbook of the classical Chinese literature on which the art of t'ai chi is based. First English translation of the classic texts of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. This is required reading for practitioners of every style.

WINGS OVER PERSIA provides a firsthand account of intrigue and adventure of an American pilot flying in Iran, during the revolution which overthrew the Shah and installed Ayatollah Khomeini as Iran's Islamic dictator.
Lou Martin was an air force pilot for 22 years and a captain for Japan airlines from 1970 to 1975, before joining a small cadre of foreign pilots in Iran hired to fly a variety of aircraft throughout the Middle East.
His passengers ranged from family members of the late Shah of Iran to high-ranking Iranian government officials, and oil field roughnecks. His observations relating to these flights are outlined in thrilling chapter after chapter. He invites the reader to mentally share his cockpit during these exciting flights.
Captain Martin was living and working in Iran during the disturbing days of 1978 when Islamic hard-liners rioted in the streets of Tehran demanding the overthrow of the Shah.
The tempo of the revolution increased to the point where thousands of demonstrators were killed by the Shah's army forcing him and his family to flee to Egypt. His abdication allowed the firebrand leader Ayatollah Khomeini to become Iran's despotic leader, and form a ruthless fundamentalist Islamic government. Several of Captain Martin's friends and colleagues were summarily tried and executed by the Islamic revolutionary guards.
During the peak of the revolution a personal friend was stabbed to death by unknown assailants, and fearing for his own life he hurriedly left Iran. His exodus forced him to abandon thousands of dollars of unpaid salary, a Volkswagen and other personal property.
In the spring of 1979 he was prepared to return to Iran in an attempt to recover lost property, but an extraordinarily lucky event in Rome, Italy, convinced him that returning to Iran would very likely expose him to arrest and confinement. Faced with this dismal probability he returned to the United States to pursue a safer and less exciting life.

"Congratulations on being the 2004 recipient of the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame's Best Aviation writing by a Minnesotan We enjoyed your exciting personal account of your days flying as a captain for an air charter company in Iran. Your book was exciting and personal, definitely the type of aviation writing the MAHOF wishes to honor and encourage with its annual award."
Duane Jacobson - Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame

In 1908, Francis Martin and his wife Margaret moved to the small town of Ladysmith, Wisconsin to open a dry goods and grocery store. Once settled they began raising a family (seven boys and three girls). Their ninth child was a boy born on June 8, 1928 who they named Louie. Unfortunately, a year after his birth the stock market crashed and the U.S. and the world collapsed into The Great Depression. His father, although an educated man, was unemployed during the majority of Louie's early formative years and these difficult times instilled in him an inner desire to excel in life no matter what the odds and with little help from anyone other then himself. When the U.S. entered World War II he helped in the war effort to the extent his young age would allow by delivering telegrams at age 14, working in a hardware store at age 15 and on the railroad at age 16. At age 17, while working in Detroit Michigan, he obtained a pilot's license. After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force Aviation Cadet Program and was commissioned a second Lieutenant and a pilot one-year later. The author relives these exciting times with extraordinary clarity in 261 pages and 161 photos.

Col. Lou Martin, USAF (ret.) obtained his pilot's license at age 17, and for the next 50 years flew aircraft as diverse as the Piper Cub, single-engine jets, and large military and civilian transports. He was an Air Force pilot of 22 years, a Japan Airlines Captain for five, a chartered pilot in Iran for three and an FAA pilot inspector for 19. During his 19,000 hours in the air he experienced many interesting -- and sometimes dangerous -- events that could have ended his exciting flying career. In Close Encounters With the Pilot's Grim Reaper he presents a pilot's true story, in autobiographical format, of close encounters he experienced during sixty years of military and civilian flying, plus encounters, some fatal of aviation colleagues. With 540 pages and more than 80 illustrations. These photos embellish the reader's concept while they accompany Lou as he reminisces, with remarkable clarity, his fascinating life. For those of you who have read his award-winning book, Wings over Persia, you are in for another great read!

In this erudite yet practical book Professor Cheng shares the secrets of his lineage and takes us to the heart of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, presenting it as a martial artm a medicine, and a means of exercise and self-development. With examples from anatomy and physics, he demonstrates precisely how the postures and moves work, internally as energetic principles, and externally on opponents. Professor Cheng always emphasizes that disease (like an attack from an opponent) is an opportunity for training. The practitioner of T'ai Chi Ch'uan may serve as his (or her) own doctor and, likewise, as the physician (or trainer) of an attacker. This special text includes:
-Thirteen essays on his insights into T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
-Oral secrets from his teacher, Yang Cheng'fu.
-Questions and answers giving his commentary to the classics.
-Descriptions and mechanics of push-hands, San Shou, and Ta Lu.
-Prefaces by both Madame Cheng and Bejamin Pang-Jeng Lo.

Este libro consta de dos poemarios llamados:Rimando con la vida y Sigo viviendo. "Rimando con la vida", es un poemario donde los sentidos se unen con la razon, las experiencias y la imaginacion. Se siente, se vive, se fantasea...Son poemas que recorren los dias y momentos intimos del poeta. Sensaciones que acaparan su corazon. Tristezas, amores, recuerdos. La vida se cubre de una rima libre, de versos que nacen del mas puro sentimiento. "Sigo viviendo", es un poemario donde la vida vuelve a asomarse entre sus paginas. Es la inspiracion del poeta, la que hace que afloren sus palabras en cada poema. Son miradas dirigiendose hacia el ayer y el presente; amores imposibles, lluvias de sentimientos, desasosiegos, penas y sinfonias, raices hundiendose en sus recuerdos. En este poemario volvemos a adentrarnos en el camino recorrido, a traves de su universo intimo. Se muestra lo andado y lo que aun le queda a su autora, tal vez por andar, mientras siga viviendo.

"Aromas del atardecer" es un conjunto de narraciones de generos variados. Relatos para reir, para sonar, para pensar, para imaginar, para llorar, para recordar, " para vivir". Porque en definitiva la vida se compone de todas esas sensaciones y sentimientos. Surgen de la imaginacion de la autora que encuentra en su madurez la tranquilidad para plasmar las vivencias de una vida tenida de otono y de las diversas personalidades de la humanidad. De tal manera que encontramos aromas de fantasia, de realidad, de terror, de erotismo, de tristeza o de melancolia...Son relatos construidos con la multitud de estos aromas, que recogen la instantanea de un momento o los recuerdos de toda una vida. Anoranzas que se pierden en un universo colmado de tristes colores, o miedos inventados. Imaginacion y realidad, se mezclan para entretener al lector que quiera aventurarse a leer estos escritos.