For a man who liked being called the American, Mark Twain spent a surprising amount of time outside the continental United States. Biographer Roy Morris, Jr., focuses on the dozen years Twain spent overseas and on the popular travel books-The Innocents Abroad, A Tramp Abroad, and Following the Equator-he wrote about his adventures. Unintimidated by Old World sophistication and unafraid to travel to less developed parts of the globe, Twain encouraged American readers to follow him around the world at the dawn of mass tourism, when advances in transportation made leisure travel possible for an emerging middle class. In so doing, he helped lead Americans into the twentieth century and guided them toward more cosmopolitan views. In his first book, The Innocents Abroad (1869), Twain introduced readers to the "American Vandal," a brash, unapologetic visitor to foreign lands, unimpressed with the local ambiance but eager to appropriate any souvenir that could be carried off. He adopted this persona throughout his career, even after he grew into an international celebrity who dined with the German Kaiser, traded quips with the king of England, gossiped with the Austrian emperor, and negotiated with the president of Transvaal for the release of war prisoners. American Vandal presents an unfamiliar Twain: not the bred-in-the-bone Midwesterner we associate with Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer but a global citizen whose exposure to other peoples and places influenced his evolving positions on race, war, and imperialism, as both he and America emerged on the world stage.

The first full account of Whitman's Civil War years sheds new light on the man, his poetry, and the treatment of the war's sick and wounded.

Ambrose Bierce is one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature. A master of the short story, the aphorism and the insult, he is remembered as much for his one-liners, his misanthropy and his enigmatic death as for his published works. In addition to tracing an unusual life, Morris assesses Bierce's Civil War experiences and the writings they spawned. Morris's portrait of Bierce goes beyond chronicling his eccentricities, showing him to be a loyal friend, an heroic soldier, and an often brilliant writer.

History, n. an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools. Marriage, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all two. Self-Esteem, n. An erroneous appraisement.

These caustic aphorisms, collected in The Devil's Dictionary, helped earn Ambrose Bierce the epithets Bitter Bierce, the Devil's Lexicographer, and the Wickedest Man in San Francisco. First published as The Cynic's Word Book (1906) and later reissued under its preferred name in 1911, Bierce's notorious collection of barbed definitions forcibly contradicts Samuel Johnson's earlier definition of a lexicographer as a harmless drudge. There was nothing harmless about Ambrose Bierce, and the words he shaped into verbal pitchforks a century ago--with or without the devil's help--can still draw blood today.

Ambrose Bierce once wrote a review that should be posted in every publisher's office: 'The covers of this book are too far aprt.' Described as 'an eccentric who remains wickedly quotable', Bierce was one of the most celebrated reporters of his eara. He bu8ilt his literary reputation partly on The Devil's Dictionary, a satiric lexicon first published as The Cyni's Word Book in 1906, and later reissued under the author's preferred titled in 1911. The barbed definitions that Bierce began publishing in the Wasp, a weekly journal he edited in San Francisco from 1881-1886 brought this 19th century stock form to a new level of artistry. Bierce lampooned social, professionsl, and religious convention as in his definitions for bore-'A person who talks when you wish him to listen'; architect -'One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money',; and saint-'A dead sinner, revised and edited.'

This is a collection of stories about the Morris family, our loved ones, friends and neighbors. It covers six decades of our efforts to survive, from growing up dirt poor to going out into the world seeking fame and fortune, then returning to our roots. We didn't find what we sought but we had adventures, misadventures and excitement galore. Lessons learned in childhood taught us to face each challenge with determination, perseverance, daring, a sense of humor and a will not only to survive but to succeed relying on ingenuity, skill, a strong work ethic, faith and luck.

DAUGHTER OF THE JAGUAR is an action-adventure/romance involving a former Marine troubled by his uncanny ability to recall events long past and a Mexican girl whom, though she opposes his opinions, he learns to treasure as no other. Laced with life-altering experience, twists of fate and humor, it is rich in revelations about Cortez's conquest of the Aztecs and the magnificent stone heads of the ancient Olmecs. When a Cessna bound for Oaxaca bearing Peter Stedman and two colleagues from THE DENVER POST is forced to land at ancient site in a remote region of the Southern Sierra Madres, its occupants elude would-be bandits to arrive at the idyllic town of Las Minas. Here, Peter meets Leonor, a beautiful woman considered to be a bruja or witch by locals. They share an intense romance, including a remarkable discovery Leonor has made of the ancient Olmecs who claimed descent from the mating of a woman and a jaguar. Uncertain about his ability to sustain Leonor's affection and the gulf between his abiding faith and her lack, Peter Ponders the feasibility of their relationship when he and his companions are forced to flee from a hurricane. Later, returning to Denver, Peter undergoes a painful realization that compels him to find Leonor again--resulting in a death-defying climb up a canyon wall, capture by the same bandits he eluded earlier, a jarring encounter with junkyard jaguars and the discovery of a treasure he is fleetingly allowed to witness dating back to the Spanish conquest.

Memory and Myth is an interdisciplinary study of the Civil War and its enduring impact on American writers and filmmakers. Its twenty-five chapters are all concerned, in one way or another, with creative responses to the Civil War, and the ways in which artists have sought to make sense of the war and to convey their findings to succeeding generations of readers and filmgoers. The book also examines the role of movies and television in transmuting the historical memories of the Civil War into durable, ever-changing myths.