In this wonderful parody from 1940, W.C. Fields announces his candidacy for America's highest office. He offers sound advice on a number of topics in classic Fields-style humor in his attempt to win votes. "Campaign resolutions are no better than New Year's resolutions," he writes. "They are thrown together hastily at the last minute, with never a thought as to how they may be gracefully broken. Now, I am a candidate with years of experience breaking New Year's resolutions, and what I can accomplish with those, I can certainly accomplish with campaign resolutions."

One day Roger Welsch ventured to ask his father a delicate personal question: "Why am I an only child?" His father's answer is one of many examples of the delightful and laughter-inducing ribald tales Welsch has compiled from a lifetime of listening to and sharing the folklore of the Plains. More narrative than simple jokes, and the product of multiple retellings, these coarse tales were even delivered by such prudish sources as Welsch's stern and fearsome German great-aunts. Speaking of cucumbers and sausages in a toast to a newly married couple, the prim and proper women of Welsch's memory voice the obscene and unspeakable in stories fit for general company. Why I'm an Only Child and Other Slightly Naughty Plains Folktales is Welsch's celebration of the gentle and evocative bits of humor reflecting the personality of the people of the Plains.

"There's never been a talk show to equal Dick Cavett's... It's a pleasure to relive much of it in this wonderful book."--Woody Allen

For years, Dick Cavett played host to the nation's most famous personalities on his late-night talk show. In this humorous and evocative book, we get to hear Cavett's best tales, as he recounts great moments with the legendary entertainers who crossed his path and offers his own trenchant commentary on contemporary American culture and politics. Pull up a chair and listen to Cavett's stories about one-upping Bette Davis, testifying on behalf of John Lennon, confronting Richard Nixon, scheming with John Updike, befriending William F. Buckley, and palling around with Groucho Marx. Sprinkled in are tales of his childhood in Nebraska in the 1940s and 1950s, where he honed his sense of comic timing and his love of magic.

Cavett is also a wry cultural observer, looking at America today and pointing out the foibles that we so often fail to notice about ourselves. And don't even get him started on politicians. A generation of Americans ended their evenings in Dick Cavett's company;" Talk Show" is a way to welcome him back.

John Neihardt, celebrated for his cycle of epic poems about the American West and for Black Elk Speaks, was in his nineties when he wrote this engaging book about growing up in the Midwest. "All Is But a Beginning" describes the people and events instrumental in shaping his later distinguished career as a poet; historian, and authority on Indians.