According to a Scottish saying, There is no good flock without a good shepherd, and there is no good shepherd without a good dog. Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men is the story of Donald McCaig's search through rural Scotland for just the right sheepdog to bring back to his farm in West Virginia. McCaig delves into the mysterious pact between dog and man, which involves trust and deep communication. Traveling the countryside, to competitions and farms, meeting shepherds and trainers, McCaig introduces us to unforgettable animal and human characters. A must for dog lovers, and anyone interested in the relationship between animals and humans.

"Nop's Trials held me in fascinated suspense to the last page. It is poignant, authentic, and beautiful. This story of a man's dedication to his dog is as gripping as any thriller."--James Herriot "An adult novel for animal lovers that does justice to both its human and canine characters . . . with crispness and authenticity."--New York Times Book Review "The best dog book I've read since Jack London's White Fang." --San Diego Union "Destined to become a classic. . . . Anyone who loves dogs should make a beeline for this book."--John Barkham
It's Christmas Day when we meet Lewis Burkholder, a West Virginia livestock farmer and sheepdog trainer, and his -talented young border collie, Nop. The usually happy holiday is shattered when Nop is stolen from his owner. Nop's Trials is the story of Nop's fate, the abuse and brutality he suffers, and his incredible resiliency. It's a touching tale of a border collie's undying desire to do his job and serve his master, and it explores the depth of love and devotion that a dog and a human can feel toward each other. This stirring novel of courage and love is a modern classic.

Set against the backdrop of the American South from the 1820s until the dawn of the Civil War, this is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbrea, and indomitable will - and a tale that will forever illuminate the reading of Margaret Mitchell's unforgettable classic, Gone with the Wind. On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor: an infant girl. She falls into the hands of two French emigres, Henri and Solange Fournier, who take the beautiful child they call Ruth to the bustling American city of Savannah. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth's life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South: Jehu Glen, a free black man with whom Ruth falls madly in love; the shabbily genteel family that first hires Ruth as Mammy; Solange's daughter Ellen and the rough Irishman, Gerald O'Hara, whom Ellen chooses to marry; the Butler family of Charleston and their shocking connection to Mammy Ruth; and finally Scarlett O'Hara-the irrepressible Southern belle Mammy raises from birth.

"Rhett Butler's People"fulfills the dreams of those whose imaginations have been indelibly marked by America's greatest novel," Gone With The Wind." Here you'll meet Rhett as a boy, a free spirit who loved the marshes and tidewaters of the Low Country, and learn of the ruthlessness of Rhett's father, whose desire for control resulted in unspeakable. Through Rhett's eyes, you'll encounter those who shaped him in other ways: the Overseer's daughter, Belle Watling; Rosemary, Rhett's brave and determined sister; Tunis Bonneau, the son of freed slaves who understood the young Rhett like no one else; and Jack Ravanel, whose name became inextricably linked to heartbreak. And then there's Katie Scarlett O'Hara herself--the headstrong, passionate woman whose life is inextricably entwined with Rhett's: more like him than she cares to admit; more in love with him than either of them will ever know...

The "New York Times"-bestselling author Donald McCaig has established an expansive literary career, founded equally on books about working sheepdogs and the Civil War novels "Jacob's Ladder" and "Rhett Butler's People, " the official sequel to "Gone with the Wind."

In his new book, "Mr. and Mrs. Dog, " McCaig draws on twenty-five years of experience raising sheepdogs to vividly describe his--and his dogs June and Luke's--unlikely progress toward and participation in the World Sheepdog Trials in Wales.

McCaig engagingly chronicles the often grueling experience--through rain, snow, ice storms, and brain-numbing heat--of preparing and trialing Mrs. Dog, June, "a foxy lady in a slinky black-and-white peignoir," and Mr. Dog, Luke, "a plain worker--no flash to him." Along the way, he relays sage advice from his decades spent talking with America's most renowned dog experts, from police-dog trainers to positive-training gurus.

As readers of McCaig's novels will expect, "Mr. and Mrs. Dog" delivers far more than straightforward dog-training tips. Revealing an abiding love and respect for his dogs, McCaig unveils the life experiences that set him on the long road to the Welsh trial fields. Starting with memories of his first dog, Rascal, and their Montana roadtrip in a '48 Dodge, McCaig leads us into his thirties, when he abandons his New York advertising career to move to a run-down Appalachian sheep farm in the least populous county in Virginia. This 1960s agrarian adventure ultimately brings McCaig, Luke, and June to the Olympics of sheepdog trials. In his narration of one man's love for his dogs, McCaig offers a powerful portrayal of the connection between humans and their animal companions.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Title: The Last Enemy, and other poems. With a biographical note.]Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The POETRY & DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Maccaig, Donald; null 8 . 011651.l.9.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Well-known writer Donald McCaig turns his attention in The Dog Wars to the 1990s controversy between the working border collie community and the American Kennel Club. Chronicling a critical turning point in the history of the border collie, The Dog Wars is a must read for anyone interested in the culture of dogs in the United States.

Duncan Gatewood, seventeen and heir to Gatewood Plantation, falls in love with Maggie, a mulatto slave, who conceives a son, Jacob. Maggie and Jacob are sold south, and Duncan is packed off to the Virginia Military Institute he will eventually fight for Robert E. Lee. Another Gatewood slave, Jesse whose love for Maggie is unrequited escapes to find her. Jesse finds his freedom and enlists in Mr. Lincoln s army; in time he will confront his former masters. In his award-winning novel of the interlocked lives of masters and slaves, Donald McCaig conjures a passionate and richly textured story in the heart of America s greatest war."

Canaan fills a vast canvas. Its points of reference are Richmond in the throes of Reconstruction; the trading floors of Wall Street, where men makes fortunes speculating on the war s consequences; a Virginia plantation, where the ruin of the South is written in wrenching detail; and the Great Plains, where the splendidly arrogant George Custer rides to his fate against Sitting Bull s warriors. This is the story of America over twenty years of its most turbulent history. The characters are black, white, red, ex-Union, and ex-Confederate; and the principal narrator is a Santee woman, She Goes Before, who marries an ex-slave. Through her eyes we witness the hanging of her father by whites in the mass execution of 1863, Red Cloud s banquet with President Grant, and that final confrontation on the bluffs above the Little Bighorn. McCaig s extensive research is revealed in the book s rich historical detail and revisionist perspective. Black life in Reconstruction-era Virginia is portrayed particularly well. Library Journal"

In the tradition of Wendell Berry and John McPhee, Donald McCaig wites with a powerful sense of place, and of history of Virginia's Highland County, in An American Homeplace. On the fast track in the New York advertising world, McCaig gave it all up to move to a ramshackle farm in Virginia's upper Cowpasture River Valley.

Enhanced by the author's evident love for his land and for the stories it has to tell, An American Homeplace is an inviting combination of personal memoir and narrative history.