Chester Nimitz was an admiral's Admiral, considered by many to be the greatest naval leader of the last century. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Nimitz assembled the forces, selected the leaders, and - as commander of all U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces in the Pacific Ocean - led the charge one island at a time, one battle at a time, toward victory. A brilliant strategist, he astounded contemporaries by achieving military victories against fantastic odds, outpacing more flamboyant luminaries like General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral "Bull" Halsey. And he was there to accept, on behalf of the United States, the surrender of the Japanese aboard the battleship USS Missouri in August 1945. In this first biography in over three decades, Brayton Harris uses long-overlooked files and recently declassified documents to bring to life one of America's greatest wartime heroes.

"I knew that someday I would have to write this book, before the fan-magazine fiction became truth and the myth became history. The only problem is that yesterday I did not know that I would be starting today." Thus, in 1970, narrator Walter Shelton began PICTURE.BOOK--the story behind the production of the most controversial motion picture of a generation, including selected portions of the script, media coverage, and a transcript of the celebrated 1959 Court proceeding. It all started as a ploy to meet a girl he spotted in a restaurant ("Have you ever thought about being in the movies?") and Shelton and a couple of friends--with no experience, no training, and some serendipitous funding--made a full-length commercial movie. About a neophyte prostitute. An ambitious District Attorney, seeking elevation to Mayor, illegally seized the film as "obscene" (it was not) and by so doing, gave it so much publicity that it became, perhaps, the most profitable movie of modern times. And it turned a 19-year-old beauty into a reluctant full-fledged Hollywood movie star. Four years later, ran away and went into hiding while Shelton found his own emotional security as a college professor. Call this, the story of star-crossed lovers who aren't quite sure, how to get it "right." Other players in this satirical romantic comedy: The pampered rich-kid who owned a church. The bartender who managed a string of hookers--and taught the moviemakers the tricks of that trade. The prostitute whose "layaway plan" was a boon to indigent customers. The "Arthur Murray" instructor turned beauty-pageant contestant: "My talent was singing with a little dance step thrown in, because of the Arthur Murray. And to help show the judges how sensible I was, besides just talented, I made my own costume." Read on

WAR NEWS (originally published in 1999 as Blue & Gray in Black & White) is an exploration of the individual and collective efforts of newspaper journalists during the Civil War. As eyewitnesses to one of the most memorable conflicts in history, they left a record that is sometimes brilliant but, at other times, marred by shoddy journalism, sensationalism, and self-serving reporting. They were, however, the American public's primary source of information about the battles that were tearing the nation apart. This book focuses on the personalities, politics, and rivalries of editors; the efforts of newspapers to influence military appointments, strategy, and tactics; advances in printing technology; formal and informal censorship, the suppression of dissident newspapers, and, most of all, the war correspondents themselves.

Shattering long-held myths and misunderstandings, author Brayton Harris traces the development of the submarine through an era in which writers of fiction saw the merits better than most professionals-until the Germans almost won World War I. He covers the professional and political arrogance that delayed antisubmarine development for so long that German submarines almost won World War II as well, and examines post-war progress toward the truly awesome submarine of today.

Along the way, Harris explores the shifting moral issues of "unrestricted" naval warfare, outlines the hundred-year search for an effective underwater power plant that culminated in the nuclear reactor, and raises important questions about the future. A fascinating exploration of the steps and stumbles during development, a rousing tribute to those who fought and died, and a powerful study of the submarine's impact on America, The Navy Times Book of Submarines is an unparalleled source for understanding the great "hunters of the deep.