Our Books and eBooks

Here Stands Marshall

Here Stands Marshall perched precariously on the edge of insanity and self-destruction. Set against a backdrop of the turmoil of Vietnam, the changing roles of the sexes, and the growing awareness of environmental destruction, Marshall Rhodes struggles to find happiness and love – for himself and others. It is a harrowing journey that beelines deeply into a troubled human mind.

The son of an abusive father, Marshall abandons his residency in pediatrics and a failing marriage to become a writer. He moves from New Haven, Connecticut to Aspen, Colorado to create fiction that will help "set the world straight." For Marshall there is no shortage of surrounding hate, greed, violence, and stupidity. "No more mollycoddling the American psyche," he pledges.

Success proves elusive. The ink that spills from his pen has the smell of blood. Editors find his work interesting, but his outlook unredeemable.

Haunted by his father's disapproval, Marshall struggles to free himself from a crippling self-image. Will Marshall find the capacity to love himself -- and others? Will he heal the wounds from his past -- or fling himself further into despair? Will he learn that in fighting a monster, he must not become one? Will he find that the loving heart is, as Charles Dickens once wrote, "the truest wisdom"?

Stripah Love

In which our hero (Artie) has achieved success, but then it's withdrawn from him summarily, arbitrarily, and unfairly. The lady of our tale, Shea, has achieved success, only to find that it exists in close proximity to the law of the jungle. Cuzzin, who never bothered, is much closer to being happy with his place in life than the others.

The process of becoming whole, for Artie, calls for him to re-establish connection with his culture through his tumbledown shack and with nature by getting a fish to chomp on his artificial feathers. Only when he gives himself entirely to this pursuit does obscene success, in the form of wealth, find him. He uses it wisely by enabling his cousin to pursue his dream. And love finds them all, just like in Shakespeare where each Jack has his Jill (and nought shall go ill).

Set within this story is confrontation of the tribal and the dominator cultures. In this instance, the tribal (the Injuns) has checkmated the dominator by adopting their own manipulative, and threatening, tactics. It's the only way a tribal culture can avoid being devoured by the dominator.

Beyond Yonder

When Darwin Hunter decides to update Over Yonder Hill (Alton Blanchard's history of the tiny Vermont hamlet of Upper Granville), the result is Beyond Yonder, a chronicle of the cultural divide between the entrenched natives and the invaders from the Land of Flat. From "Babysitters" to "Zucchinis" the contrasting world views are examined and skewered.

Beyond Yonder is part one of Stories and Tunes, Stephen Morris's four-part trilogy of life in the rural North.

King of Vermont

A chance comment on Vermont's most popular talk show, Straddlin' the Fence, lands Darwin Hunter in a three-way race to be elected State Senator. Set against a political landscape as rocky and muddy as the garden during Mud Season, Darwin combats his wily, experienced opponents with his only long suit –- the truth.

The King of Vermont is part two of "Stories and Tunes," Stephen Morris's "four-part" trilogy of life in the rural North.

Tales and More Tails of Beyonder

Essential Knowledge for Vermonters (Chucks OR Flatlanders)

This book is a collection of articles originally appearing in a variety of Vermont newspapers. Stephen Morris is an indefatigable chronicler of life in Beyonder, and this is his best work. His offerings on Mud Season and Vermont Holidays is particularly memorable.

Tales and More Tales of Beyonder is part three of "Stories and Tunes," Stephen Morris's "four-part" trilogy of life in the rural North.

Deus Ex Machina

Plunked down in the middle of the twentieth century, reverted to his childhood body, but his memories intact, Joshua Leyden takes a run at revising his own life, and changing a future that needs some tinkering.

"Paul Freundlich is always innovative, fascinating and entertaining."

Captain Fathom's Fables

In Captain Fathom's Fables everybody wins. Every fable ends up with everybody winning. And it's sort of like a modern-day spiritual non-violent Robin Hood character, who goes around with his "fearless friends of Captain Fathom" doing good, doing the Lord's work.

Hallelujah! And they are constantly battling with adversaries, Students for a Stalinist Society, the insane, authoritarian communistfascists. And the heat of various hues. And the capitalist class and other people of ill will. Captain Fathom and his fearless friends are champions, you know, of love, peace, healthy orgasms, ice cream and apple pie, brandy and coffee -- all of the good things. And so they go about these various places that Captain Fathom has lived, doing good. Doing the Lord's will. They're people much like you and me.

Captain Fathom's sea-level lessons for growing up hairy in Mendonesia. The Captain's kind heart, home truths, and wry observations are a delight to those who know him, and worthy of a wider audience. Read the eBook! If we're all lucky, Fathom might reprint the real book.

James Dean in Mendocino

Historian Bruce Levene writes: "In 1975 I was given a scrapbook with photographs taken when Frenchmen's Creek, Johnny Belinda, and East of Eden were made on the Mendocino Coast, a collection now at Mendocino Historical Research (the Kelly House) in Mendocino. The 'snapshots' were taken by Laing Chambers, who taught school in Mendocino for 40 years.

"In 1980 Addie Reis of Fort Bragg gave me the 11 minute, 8mm movie she had made of the making of East of Eden (she also filmed productions of Johnny Belinda and The Russians are Coming!).

"Through the years I collected and was loaned other materials -- photographs, newspapers, magazine articles, personal memories of local residents -- and now, 40 years after Elia Kazan brought his troupe to the Mendocino Coast, these elements are combined into a book about my favorite movie and my favorite town."

Great find for James Dean fanatics and history buffs who want to remember Mendocino in 1955

Voices and Dreams: A Mendocino County Native American History

The native population of California before contact with the white flood of missionaries, miners, loggers, settlers and opportunists was over three hundred thousand. By 1890 it was sixteen thousand -- a ninety-five percent loss.

Pre-contact California encompassed several major cultural areas comprised of hundreds of villages loosely associated in smaller cultural areas. California was a polyglot of separate languages, language families, and dialects. The concentration of languages and cultures in the California geographic area was one of the most dense ever encountered historically, anywhere. Although there was a great deal of social exchange and economic trade and occasional combat between groups, there were no great politically organized multitribal nations in California.

We are honored that the men and women presented here were gracious in their sharing of their lives with us. We are privileged to share them further with you the reader.

These oral histories are stories of a living culture, memories of a shattered and scattered community, voices of the indigenous dwellers of the land that is now Mendocino County, dreams of a spirit that endures.

A fascinating document for anyone interested in the interplay of story and history.

70 Yale by the Class of Seventy

Here, in their own words, are the memories, reflections, and accumulated wisdom of Yale's Immortal Class of 1970. They were Yale's last all-male graduating class, Yale's winningest football class, and the prime example of the efforts by Admissions Dead Inslee Clark and President Kingman Brwester to reshape the mold of the Yale Student.

While I (Harvard '66) am required to look askance at the words and works of the Yale Class of 1970, I confess, as this book grew, these writings encouraged and inspired me. These are the recollections and accomplishments, matter-of-factly written, of heroes. You don't even need Ivy League to get what these guys stand for ...and wish there were a helluva lot more of them!