Browse A-Z Authors: Mc-Md

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 1. Private investigator Haskell Blevins must uncover the truth behind the mysterious murder of Cordelia Turley's grandmother and her grandmother's pets.

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 2. P.I. Haskell Blevins is back in a witty, lighthearted tale of a poultry millionaire and a murder that smells foul at every turn. When someone bashes in the head of old Jacob Vandeventer with his prized bronze chicken statue, it's left to Blevins to find the murderer--and the suspects abound.

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 3. Three separate clients tell private eye Haskell Blevins that their houses have been ransacked but nothing stolen, but two clients suddenly call him off the case and the third is murdered.

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 4. The fourth mystery in Taylor McCafferty's popular comic Southern mystery series featuring Haskell Blevins, the premier (and only) P.I. in Pigeon Fork, Kentucky. Haskell returns to solve a new murder mystery in a town really going to the birds.

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 5. Hired by the wacky Maedean Puckett to prove to her husband that she is truly faithful, private investigator Haskell Blevins keeps his opinions about the case to himself until the husband is murdered.

Haskell Blevins Mysteries, book 6. Haskell's investigation into the source of unholy withdrawals from the church bank account reveals a less than pious congregation at the Church of the Holy Scriptures in Pigeon Fork.

Schuyler Ridgway Mysteries, book 1. Schuyler Ridgeway, a divorced 40 year-old, inherits a sizeable amount of money from Ephraim Cross, a man she never met. Unfortunately, the gentleman in question was murdered which makes her a suspect in his death. The fun starts when Schuyler tries to convince the dead man's family, lawyer, the local police, her co-workers, and even her own sons that she never met Ephraim Cross. Since she is now prime suspect in the eyes of the police, Schuyler decides to figure out who the murderer is.

Schuyler Ridgway Mysteries, book 2.

Schuyler Ridgway Mysteries, book 3.

Schuyler Ridgway Mysteries, book 4. Kentucky realtor Schuyler Ridgway had done some foolish things in her time, nothing was worse than her failed marriage to a deceptive man with a cheating heart. Now he's back with a new fiancee in tow, and looking into local real estate! But when his betrothed turns up dead and leaves him as the prime suspect, Schuyler must do something terribly distasteful -- prove he's innocent...for once in his life!

Bert and Nan Tatum Mysteries, book 1. "Partners in crime" - spine. First published in 1996.

Bert and Nan Tatum Mysteries, book 2. In Louisville, Kentucky, Bert Tatum has a hunch her twin sister's new beau is no good, despite his looks and charm. One murder later, she knows she is right, and sister Nan could be next.

Bert and Nan Tatum Mysteries, book 3. Bert has just taken a job as an assistant to divorce lawyer Stephanie Whitman, an overbearing, humorless micro-manager who demands that Bert work on Saturday. But since Bert already has plans, and Stephanie won't even be in the office on Saturday, Nan agrees to take over desk duty for her sister. The last thing Nan expects is a too-dose encounter with a surprisingly-well-dressed burglar fleeing Stephanie's office. Nan calmly calls the police, continuing her impersonation as she describes the intruder. But on Monday when the cops have a suspect, it's Bert they take to the station. Unable to identify the culprit, Bert watches helplessly as the suspect is released. And when she arrives at the office on Tuesday, she finds Stephanie's lifeless body, shot once in the back of the head. Horrified that the burglar freed by their identity switch could have returned to kill Stephanie, the twins set out to solve her murder -- only to find themselves face to face with a killer who won't think twice about killing again.

Bert and Nan Tatum Mysteries, book 4. Mystery's most engaging set is at it again, and crime doesn't stand half a chance. This time out, they're about to discover that antiquing can be murder. Nan and Bert are wandering the flea market shopping for each other's birthday gifts, when cantankerous antiques dealer Franklin Haggerty winds up with a tag on his toe. To make matters worse, Bert's daughter Ellie and her boyfriend, Chris, are the prime murder suspects. Delving into the world of vintage curios, the twins assemble a list of eccentrics with the means and the motive to kill Haggerty -- including his oddly merry widow!

Bert and Nan Tatum Mysteries, book 5.

"The marvel is not just that he demonstrates such command of the language...but that coupled with all that remarkable prose is such superb storytelling". Lexington Herald-Leader. Set in the fictional world of Burdock County, Kentucky, around World War II, these ribald stories showcase the wicked, loving humor of McClanahan, author of the bestselling novel The Natural Man.

This rollicking collection--personally selected by the author (in collaboration with his editor Tom Marksbury)--gathers the best of Ed McClanahan's work, making it a must-have for both long-time fans and newcomers alike. Comprised of fourteen works,I Just Hitched in from the Coast is an admixture of fiction and non-fiction, memoir and imagination. It includes such classics as "Fondelle, or: The Whore with a Heart of Gold," and the wry essay "The Day the Lampshades Breathed," chronicling McClanahan's time in the 1960s. In "The Essentials of Western Civilization," McClanahan imagines the affairs of Assistant Professor Harrison B. Eastep, MA, of Arbuckle State in Oregon, and of the gradual erosion of his dedication to academia. Weaving together Vietnam, rock and roll, a lackluster counterculture past, and the Great Plague of London, this is storytelling at its best by a master of the craft. The foremost stylist of the Yippie generation, McClanahan writes with bemused affection. He parlays his Southern sensibilities and California experiences with a mastery of language, to tantalize his readers with musings that are absurd, whimsical, outrageous, and, in the words of one reviewer, "wickedly sharp."

A miscreant, misanthrope, and misfit, two-nosed Luther Jukes lands in jail for murdering a man who insulted his froglike facial features. As Luther schemes in his cell, "hoosegow scullery maid" Juanita Sparks frets over an unwanted pregnancy. But there may be a bit of magic that can sort this out. In the style of underground comix, Ed McClanahan and J. T. Dockery present Juanita and the Frog Prince, an outrageous tale adapted from McClanahan's novella of the same name, originally published in A Congress of Wonders. Set in 1940s Kentucky, Juanita features a cast of characters trying to get ahead at all costs, including the Right Reverend Philander Cosmo Rexroat, redheaded rich boy Warren Harding Skidmore, and "Bad- Cess" Sallie Jukes, the town apothecary rumored to have "access to sinister forces." Rendered in bold strokes of ink that swirl from panel to panel, Luther's and Juanita's stories become further entangled until, in desperation, they attempt to harness the power of a lucky toadstone to create their own fairytale ending - or do they? Juanita and the Frog Prince is a southern Gothic psychedelic trip of a comic that will enrapture readers until the stroke of midnight--and the final KLANG of the clocktower bell.

Highlighting the collection is Grateful Dead I Have Known, a long prize-winning meditation about Jerry Garcia and the fanatical devotion of his fans. Also collected here for the first time are McClanahans earliest short stories, along with book reviews, lost chapters of The Natural Man, and a substantial afterword to Famous People I Have Known. His recollections of famous friends and fellow travelers form an integral part of this book. He joins his buddy Ken Kesey in a bus-journey reunion with other gray-haired Merry Pranksters, and he pokes fun at his own graduate-school flamboyance in a touching remembrance of his mentor Wallace Stegner.

Fiction. A comedy about coming of age in the late 1940s in an out-of-the-way corner of America called Needmore, Kentucky ("population 6 7/8 when they're all at home"). "Others have observed the natural man in the American condition before, but nobody has done it with such good humor. Ed McClanahan's good humor both sharpens his eye and gentles his vision. I don't know where else, now, you would find workmanship that is at once so meticulous and so exuberant" - Wendell Berry. First published in 1983.

Originally published, 1985. Ed McClanahan's hilarious classic introduces us to writers and revolutionaries, hippies and honkies, gurus and go-go girls, barkeeps and barflies, as well as Carlos Toadvine, aka Little Enis, the All-American Left-Handed Upside-down Guitar Player, among the characters he has encountered in thirty peripatetic years of wandering the fringes of the academic and literary worlds -- "working the Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing circuit" -- from his native Kentucky to the West Coast and back again. Book jacket.

Chronicle of the author's hitchhiking adventure the summer before his senior year in college.

Autobiographical story. Twenty-six copies, specially bound, have been signed and lettered with an original drawing by Ed McClanahan.

Writings from students of English 507-001 at University of Kentucky. A contributor-edited anthology.

McClanahan crafts his coming-of-age tales with comic wit and refreshing honesty, inviting readers to relive the memories that shaped his character and career-from hilarious childhood antics in small-town Kentucky to eye-opening adventures on the West Coast Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever is a vivid retelling of Ed McClanahan's life, from his early years growing up in rural northeastern Kentucky to his departure for the West Coast in pursuit of a writing career. He shares vivid moments-from perilous swimming lessons in the Ohio River to his budding friendship with Ken Kesey-with enthusiasm, enlivening each story with narration that is both profoundly reflective and hilariously self-aware. Jovial, lighthearted, and unapologetic, Not Even Immortality Lasts Forever illuminates the value of the rural American mundane and the everyday moments that shape us. McClanahan begins in his hometown of Brooksville, Kentucky, and chaos ensues as events from his childhood unfold. As a young adult, he grapples with the challenges of establishing himself as a writer, eventually leaving Kentucky to seek new prospects in California and Oregon. It is there that he is introduced to inspirational mentors and lifelong friends, among them Robert Stone, Larry McMurtry, and Neal Cassady. McClanahan molds vibrant characters from individuals he's encountered throughout his life, crafting a playful and engrossing narrative that could almost be mistaken for fiction. McClanahan skillfully encapsulates the setting and situations as seen through the eyes of his younger self, while offering poignant reflections on his sources of creative inspiration, family ties, and entrenched traditions. He draws connections between past and present, moments of reminiscence and reality, crafting a story that speaks to the importance of tracing one's roots, even as times change.

"Collection of articles, poetry and fiction is taken from the Free you magazine."

In this enormously appealing "implied autobiography," Merry Prankster Ed McClanahan has assembled a gathering of what he calls "coming-of-age to coming-of-old-age" stories that are both quirky and cutting, hilarious and lyrical, all told in the inimitable voice of one of his generation's best southern chroniclers of American life. The tale begins in 1950, the year he turned 17 and, from there, McClanahan is off and running, describing characters from his eventfullife with affectionate and precise detail. There's the summer he spends on a road crew in Yosemite National Park, striving (with ever-decreasing degrees of success) to be faithful to his college sweetheart back home. There's the McClanavan--the '68 VW Microbus that took McClanahan and his new bride on a 14,000-mile trek in search of honky-tonks. There's the 1969 "peace" demonstration at Stanford University that was less a revolution than a traffic jam. McClanahan and his stories come alive as American souvenirs, enchanting readers with his signature prose in this stunning piece of "memoirabilia."

Between 1974 and 1981 Ken Kesey self-published six issues of a literary magazine called Spit in the Ocean. After the revolutionary novelist's death in the fall of 2001, one of his closest friends, acclaimed writer Ed McClanahan, decided to carry out Kesey's vision and put together a final issue of Spit as a tribute to Kesey's genius and imperturbable spirit. Featuring contributions from cultural luminaries-including Robert Stone, Paul Krassner, Wendell Berry, Bill Walton, and Grateful Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow-as well as "regular folk," and several pieces by Kesey himself, Spit in the Ocean #7 is a loving and fitting homage to the gigantic and unique spirit of the merriest of the Merry Pranksters.

Named persons: Gurney Norman; Bobbie Ann Mason; Ed McClanahan; Wendell Berry; Mary Ann Taylor-Hall. 240 pages; portraits.

With an introduction by Wade Hall, Morris Grubbs has sifted through vintage classics, little-known gems, and stunning debuts to assemble this collection of forty stories by popular and critically acclaimed writers. In subtle and profound ways they challenge and overturn accepted stereotypes about the land their authors call home, whether by birth or by choice. Kentucky writers have produced some of the finest short stories published in the last fifty years, much of which focuses on the tension between the comforts of community and the siren-like lure of the outside world. Arranged chronologically, from Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter" to Crystal E. Wilkinson's "Humming Back Yesterday," these stories are linked by their juxtaposition of departures and returns, the familiar and the unknown, home and beyond. Contributors: Robert Penn Warren, Caroline Gordon, James Still, Jane Mayhall, Elizabeth Hardwick, Dean Cadle, Jesse Stuart, Billy C. Clark, Janice Holt Giles, A.B. Guthrie, Jr., Hollis Summers, Ed McClanahan, Sallie Bingham, Robert Hazel, Jack Cady, Jim Wayne Miller, David Madden, Gayl Jones, Jane Stuart, Gurney Norman, Walter Tevis, Bobbie Ann Mason, Joe Ashby Porter, Leon V. Driskell, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, Richard Cortez Day, Sena Jeter Naslund, Pat Carr, Wendell Berry, James Baker Hall, Lisa Koger, Barbara Kingsolver, Normandi Ellis, Guy Davenport, Kim Edwards, Chris Holbrook, Paul Griner, Chris Offutt, Dwight Allen, Crystal E. Wilkinson. Edited by Morris Allen Grubbs; with an introduction by Wade Hall and an afterword by Charles E. May.

VHS video; approx. 60 minutes. Southern author Ed McClanahan of Kentucky discusses his works and reads from his novel the natural man and his comic memoir Famous people I have known. Also includes a film clip of his short story The congress of wonders.

Interview; Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky. Transcript of recorded interview with Ed McClanahan conducted by Michael G. Miller for the Forrest C. Pogue Oral History Institute of Murray State University.

Archival material. Housed at the Kentucky Historical Society.
Collection consists of 41 boxes of letters, drafts of his publications; copies of interviews conducted by James Baker Hall with other writers; draft copies of manuscripts from other authors; drafts of unpublished James Baker Hall stories, poems, and two novels; journals and notebooks; and memorabilia (clippings, magazines, etc.) related to the literary career of James Baker Hall. Included are letters from Hall's literary friends and colleagues such as Wendell Berry, Robert Hazel, Ed McClanahan, Bobbie Ann Mason, Gurney Norman, and Barry Spacks, as well as other artists.

Limited ed. of 26 signed and lettered copies. Includes an original silkscreen print of the image "Captain Kentucky" by Ed McClanahan, June 1999. Each print signed and lettered by Ed McClanahan.

Poems; 29 pages. In these formally assured, richly alive poems, Jay McCoy shows us the body untamed, 'brimming / with sweat' and 'musk-ripe, ' driven by hunger and need, slipping beyond will and art. I admire these poems for their candor, their exuberant lyricism, their grief, their vibrant, queer vernacular. The Occupation marks the arrival of a brave new voice in American poetry. --Garth Greenwell

Poems; 122 pages.

Poems; 162 pages.

Poems, 177 pages.

Poems; 269 pages.

Reality and dreams mesh in Christopher McCurry's first full-length collection of poetry detailing the fallout of a young couple's divorce. At times elliptical and surreal, the emotional and psychological landscape of these poems is punctuated by flashes of the real risks and rewards of navigating difficult times with grace and compassion. Through the magic of these well-crafted poems, we become invested in the seemingly inconsequential as well as the life-changing.

Poems; chapbook.

Poems; 122 pages.

Poems; 162 pages.

Poems, 177 pages.

Poems; 181 pages.

Poems; 221 pages.

Poems; 269 pages.

Poems; 28 pages.

The story of African Americans in Kentucky is as diverse and vibrant as the state's general history. The work of more than 150 writers, The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia is an essential guide to the black experience in the Commonwealth. The encyclopedia includes biographical sketches of politicians and community leaders as well as pioneers in art, science, and industry. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in an array of notable figures, such as writers William Wells Brown and bell hooks, reformers Bessie Lucas Allen and Shelby Lanier Jr., sports icons Muhammad Ali and Isaac Murphy, civil rights leaders Whitney Young Jr. and Georgia Powers, and entertainers Ernest Hogan, Helen Humes, and the Nappy Roots. Featuring entries on the individuals, events, places, organizations, movements, and institutions that have shaped the state's history since its origins, the volume also includes topical essays on the civil rights movement, Eastern Kentucky coalfields, business, education, and women. For researchers, students, and all who cherish local history, The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia is an indispensable reference that highlights the diversity of the state's culture and history.

Paul Rusch first traveled from Louisville, Kentucky, to Tokyo in 1925 to help rebuild YMCA facilities in the wake of the Great Kanto earthquake. What was planned as a yearlong stay became his life's work as he joined with the Japan Episcopal Church to promote democracy and Western Christian ideals. Over the course of his remarkable life, Rusch served as a college professor and Episcopal missionary, and he was a catalyst for agricultural development, introducing dairy farming to highland Japan. In Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan, Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald present Rusch's life as an epic story that crisscrosses two cultures, traversing war and peace, destruction and rebirth, private struggle and public triumph. As World War II approached, Rusch battled racial prejudice against Japanese Americans, yet also became an apologist for Japan's expansionist foreign policy. After Pearl Harbor, he was arrested as an enemy alien and witnessed the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Upon his release to the US in 1942, he joined military intelligence and returned to Japan in that capacity during the US occupation. Though Rusch was of modest origins, he deftly climbed social and military ladders to befriend some of the most intriguing figures of the era, including prime ministers and members of the Japanese royal family. Though he is perhaps best remembered for introducing organized American football in Japan, his greatest legacy is the founding of the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP), a vehicle for feeding, educating, and uplifting the rural poor of highland Japan. Today his legacy continues to inspire KEEP in the twenty-first century to promote peace, cultural exchange, environmental sustainability, and ecological preservation in Japan and beyond.

Paul Rusch first traveled from Louisville, Kentucky, to Tokyo in 1925 to help rebuild YMCA facilities in the wake of the Great Kanto earthquake. What was planned as a yearlong stay became his life's work as he joined with the Japan Episcopal Church to promote democracy and Western Christian ideals. Over the course of his remarkable life, Rusch served as a college professor and Episcopal missionary, and he was a catalyst for agricultural development, introducing dairy farming to highland Japan. In Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan, Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald present Rusch's life as an epic story that crisscrosses two cultures, traversing war and peace, destruction and rebirth, private struggle and public triumph. As World War II approached, Rusch battled racial prejudice against Japanese Americans, yet also became an apologist for Japan's expansionist foreign policy. After Pearl Harbor, he was arrested as an enemy alien and witnessed the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Upon his release to the US in 1942, he joined military intelligence and returned to Japan in that capacity during the US occupation. Though Rusch was of modest origins, he deftly climbed social and military ladders to befriend some of the most intriguing figures of the era, including prime ministers and members of the Japanese royal family. Though he is perhaps best remembered for introducing organized American football in Japan, his greatest legacy is the founding of the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP), a vehicle for feeding, educating, and uplifting the rural poor of highland Japan. Today his legacy continues to inspire KEEP in the twenty-first century to promote peace, cultural exchange, environmental sustainability, and ecological preservation in Japan and beyond.

As towns in northeastern Montana approach their centennials, The Red Corner chronicles the events of the teens and 1920s that left a permanent mark on the region. Sheridan County was the site of an armed robbery of $100,000 from the county treasury, a Young Communist camp, an adolescent's Bolshevik funeral, and surveillance by FBI agents who pursued some radical leaders even into the 1960s. The book profiles several influential Communists including a colorful newspaper editor who was elected state senator and later national chairman of the Farmer Labor Party, as well as his comrade, the county sheriff, who was allegedly involved in graft, prostitution, and bootlegging. In spite of its notoriety, the farmers' movement became one of the nation's most successful rural Communist organizations during the 1920s. By the beginning of the Depression decade, however, Communism in northeastern Montana was crippled. The Red Corner details this strange reversal of fortune by examining newspaper accounts, FBI reports, and internal Communist Party files, offering insights on how movements arise, sustain themselves, and decline.

Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Southern California.

Named in honor of Gen. Philip Sheridan of Civil War fame, Sheridan County was carved out of the much larger Valley County in 1913. Originally the hunting grounds for Assiniboine, Sioux, and members of other Native American tribes, the county boomed during the homesteading era from 1900 to 1920. Sheridan County's storied past includes being a hideout for horse thieves and outlaws and, later, home to a renowned Communist movement that reached its apex in the 1920s. Since that bygone era, Sheridan County has enjoyed an often-thriving agricultural economy, oil booms, and the type of community spirit that knits people together, whether they are newcomers or the descendants of its first inhabitants.

The Motel of the Stars is a novel set in Kentucky and North Carolina on the eve of the 1997 anniversary of the Harmonic Convergence, a mystical alignment of planets and a portending of universal peace first celebrated in 1987. Part satire of New Age philosophy and part commentary on a modern, fear-based era, the novel is the story of Jason Sanderson and Lory Llewellyn, who travel to the 1997 Anniversary Gathering at the foot of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Both characters have for ten years mourned the loss of Sam Sanderson, Jason's son and Lory's lover, and both must emerge from grief into a new age of possibility and hope.

A coal-mining family's life in 1940s Kentucky. The husband, a World War II veteran, gives up his dream of being a songwriter to work in the pits, but the mine closes and his wife has to work as a maid to support the family. A gut-wrenching exploration of the boundaries between belief, desire, obsession, & madness set in the Kentucky coal mining country.

Miracelle Loving's world comes crashing in when her mother, Ruby, is murdered during a fortune-telling session gone wrong. Not that she had much of a stable world to lose in the first place; the free-spirited mother-daughter duo had never remained in one place for very long. Without the guidance of her mother, Miracelle grows up following the only path she knows, traveling from town to town, sometimes fortune-telling, picking up odd jobs to fill the time and the ever-present lostness she can't seem to escape. Uncertain of what she wants and whether she wants anything or anyone at all, the now thirty-something-year-old finds herself working as a card reader in a Knoxville dive bar, selling fictions as futures, when she is confronted with her mother's ghost voice promising to reveal the truth about her shadowy past. Desperate for answers, Miracelle sets out on a magical road trip unlike any other, in search of her own story and a father she's never known. Following snowy highways and backroads, Miracelle stumbles across a museum of oddities and a hole-in-the-road town called Radiant, ultimately wandering into the town of Smyte where she begins waitressing at the Black Cat Diner. Here, she befriends card-playing has-been Russell Wallen over a series of nighttime adventures, long drives, and after-dark visits to a Holy Roller church. This mythical journey uncovers family secrets and forgotten truths, transforming a familiar story of love and betrayal to reveal the binding power of magic and memory.

In Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean, Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray collect essays from today's finest established and emerging writers with roots in Appalachia. Together, these essays take the theme of silencing in Appalachian culture, whether the details of that theme revolve around faith, class, work, or family legacies. In essays that take wide-ranging forms--making this an ideal volume for creative nonfiction classes--contributors write about families left behind, hard-earned educations, selves transformed, identities chosen, and risks taken. They consider the courage required for the inheritances they carry. Toughness and generosity alike characterize works by Dorothy Allison, bell hooks, Silas House, and others. These writers travel far away from the boundaries of a traditional Appalachia, and then circle back--always--to the mountains that made each of them the distinctive thinking and feeling people they ultimately became. The essays in Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean are an individual and collective act of courage. Contributors: Dorothy Allison, Rob Amberg, Pinckney Benedict, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Sheldon Lee Compton, Michael Croley, Richard Currey, Joyce Dyer, Sarah Einstein, Connie May Fowler, RJ Gibson, Mary Crockett Hill, bell hooks, Silas House, Jason Howard, David Huddle, Tennessee Jones, Lisa Lewis, Jeff Mann, Chris Offutt, Ann Pancake, Jayne Anne Phillips, Melissa Range, Carter Sickels, Aaron Smith, Jane Springer, Ida Stewart, Jacinda Townsend, Jessie van Eerden, Julia Watts, Charles Dodd White, and Crystal Wilkinson.

Memoir; 249 pages. Surrendered Child is Karen Salyer McElmurray's raw, poignant account of her journey from her teen years, when she put her newborn child up for adoption, to adulthood and a desperate search for the son she never knew. In a patchwork narrative interwoven with dark memories from her childhood, McElmurray deftly treads where few dare--into a gritty, honest exploration of the loss a birth mother experiences. The year was 1973, a time of social upheaval, even in small-town Kentucky, where McElmurray grew up. More than a story of time and place, however, this is about a girl who, at the age of sixteen, relinquished her son at birth. Twenty-five years would pass before McElmurray began sharing this part of her past with others and actively looking for her son. McElmurray's own troubled upbringing and her quest after a now-fully-grown son are the heart of her story. With unflinching honesty, McElmurray recounts both the painful surrendering and the surprise rediscovery of her son, juxtaposed with her portrayal of her own mother, who could not provide the love she needed. The dramatic result is a story of birthright lost and found--and an exploration of the meaning of motherhood itself.

Mother of the Disappeared, part memoir and part poetic journey, is a Kentucky birth mother's story of the relinquishment of her son to adoption in 1973, a time of social and political upheaval. 1973 meant Roe vs. Wade. It meant Kent State and Watergate and a disaffected American youth on the road in search of selves lost between Sixties free love and Eighties high-tech. More than a story of a time and a place, however, this is a story of the consequences of loss. At the age of fifteen, McElmurray relinquished a son to adoption, and also relinquished part of herself. Mother of the Disappeared explores that loss and its consequences and enters a difficult landscape -- the mind and heart of a birth mother who gave her child up for adoption due to insurmountable circumstances -- a decision which haunts her today. Authorities gave her two different dates for her son's birth when she went in search of him. One of these days is my birthday, so I celebrate both...The truth is I never saw my son's face. I see a face I have created. It is one I want, one I believe in, twenty-six years later. Juxtaposed with McElmurray's portrayal of her own mother, a mother who could not give her what she needed, this moving memoir sends the reader on a journey to explore the meaning of motherhood. As McElmurray searches for her son, she searches for her mother and for herself. Recovery in this book is recovery of a family lost, and also recovery of a self that must be found.

Fiction; 238 pages.

Fiction; 341 pages.

Fiction; 288 pages. A family novel of Kentucky in the post Civil War days, just before the first running of the Kentucky Derby, the story of the Fairbrother family, of Kizzie who tries to keep the family together, first by running a school for girls, then opening a fashionable "health spa", of her husband who devotes his time to writing his Universal Cyclopedia; of the widow of their son, who had died fighting for the Union; and of Tolley's mare whose colt showed great promise for the big race.

Fiction; 297 pages. Story of Louisville in the 19th century, centered around rise of one man to fortune and fame.

Juvenile play; 41 pages.

Fiction; 310 pages. Thornberry family of Kentucky lives through reconstruction after the Civil War.

Kentucky; social life and customs. American Folkways Series; 214 pages.

Fiction; 892 pages. Historical novel of the pioneers on the Ohio river in the early 19th century. Eighty year old woman rises from her death bed and leads her great-nephew and family to the promised land of Kentucky.

Fiction; 311 pages.

Fiction, Christmas stories; 124 pages.

Fiction; 441 pages. Life in the great plantations of Virginia and Kentucky from 1816 to 1875 is the setting of this stirring historical romance. The Story is shot through with all the color and excitement attendant in the racing and breeding of horses, the principal occupation of the wealthy planters of the time.

Fiction; 310 pages. A confederate soldier returns to his ravaged Kentucky farm.

Fiction; 335 pages. "If the headlines, uniforms, and drives of today make you feel "It all comes back to me now," read this novel about people just like you knew in 1918 and what has happened to them since. It will give you the thrill of reliving the first great experience of your life in the light of the second. Remember 1918 - the entertainments for the men in camps, the current song hits, the appearance of the rookies, the clothes and manners of the girls, the fashions and manner of the time, the daily life of the community. Back in the days of the First World War, Mary Lou Nelson had served on a committee of Louisville debs to welcome the soldiers to camp. She had fallen in love with a young soldier and, when he left for the war, had romanticized what was to him a casual acquaintance into a definite engagement. When the soldier turns up as a Colonel with a grown son in the present war, Mary Lou is faced with an almost impossible task of explanation." -- from inner flap of dust jacket.

Juvenile fiction, middle grade; 229 pages. Ban-Joe Duffy considered himself the unluckiest orphan in Louisville, until he became a jockey and rode Grey Eagle in a race.

Juvenile fiction;

Juvenile literature; 45 pages.

Junior League Plays; 15 pages.

Juvenile fiction; 122 pages.

Juvenile fiction (middle grade); 231 pages. A free Negro woman takes six motherless children on a journey that almost ends disastrously.

Juvenile fiction; 224 pages.

Juvenile biographical fiction; 272 pages. A fictionalized biography of Aristides, the American race horse who won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, told by a stable boy who grew up with the horse.

Juvenile fiction; 96 pages. A postman and his pony were friends to all the families they delivered mail to in that strip of Kentucky wilderness.

Junior League Plays; 26 pages.

History; Cities of America biography series; 279 pages.

Floriculture; 204 pages.

Biography; 238 pages. Free ebook available through HathiTrust.

Cookbook; 125 pages. With an article on inducing them to eat it.

Series: Occasional Contributions (University of Kentucky), no. 104.

[23] pages; illustrations.

Poetry; 58 pages.

Poetry; 78 pages.

Score. Chorus: SATB (v. 1, 4); SSAA (v. 2); TBB (v. 3); in part, with solo voices. "May be performed as a suite or individually"--[V. 2, p. 16]. Contents: [v. 1] Hen party : (prologue) / poem by Peggy Bacon -- [v. 2] Caroline Million : (scherzando) / poem by Isabel MacMeekin -- [v. 3] Pianola d'amore : (concertante) / poem by David McCord -- [v. 4] Design for October : (epilogue) / poem by Jake Falstaff.

In the 1880s, a serial killer terrorized Austin, Texas, setting a pattern for the many who followed him. In the 1890s, an Atlanta boardinghouse resident shot several of his fellow boarders. These and other true crime stories, spanning from Texas to West Virginia, are interesting and historically significant as opposed to depressing or lurid.

The emancipationist Cassius M. Clay has long been one of Kentucky's most controversial and misunderstood figures. This new biography examines his important, though undervalued, place in history from the anti-slavery movement to his role in Lincoln's minister to Russia during the Civil War. Along the way the many fights, romantic entanglements, and political battles of Clay's life are explored. The author, a former guide at Clay's mansion, White Hall, unearthed long forgotten documents such as newspaper and magazine articles, interviews with Clay, and family letters. As a result this book contains much information found in no other Clay biography and many long-standing myths are debunked. In addition to the biography of Clay, the book contains a room-by-room tour of White Hall, several informative appendices, and a collection of ghost stories concerning Clay's mansion, making it both ideal for history buffs and the public at large.

This "fun primer on California's macabre and eccentric history" explores true crimes, paranormal reports, and other curious tales from the Pacific Coast (Paul Koudounaris). California has many famous wonders--the beaches, vineyards, and glamorous neighborhoods are all well documented in guidebooks. But there are darker wonders here as well--the kind seldom shared with outsiders. In Creepy California historian Kevin McQueen explores strange tales of unexplained deaths, intentional live burials, true crimes, and ghosts who haunt the Pacific Coast. From the uncanny to the outright paranormal, this chronicle of oddities includes the story of a coroner who "borrowed" the stylish clothes of a dead man and then sold the corpse's head to a doctor; a rare look inside Stanford University's secret collection of occult memorabilia; the tale of a haunted, two-story house in San Francisco that was painstakingly moved across town in an effort to dislodge its ghostly tenants; a profile of a lonesome Fort Bragg resident who carved a family for himself out of wood; and many others. An intriguing look at the Golden State's bounty of unsettling curiosities, Creepy California promises to keep you guessing what other mysteries lurk in the fog.

Author Keven McQueen relates tales of true crime from Kentucky history, including the story of the abuse and murder of Mary Magdalene Pitts, a three-year-old girl from Greenup County who was killed by her father and a housekeeper.

Author Keven McQueen recalls a time when skunk farms, which allegedly produced a cure for rheumatism, were speckled throughout the countryside and a miserable woman tied her husband to a fence post, coated him with salt and intended to let the cows "lick him to death." Meet the King of the Ghouls, an accomplished grave robber and notorious murderer, and a man so convinced he was an ox that he often joined neighborhood cattle for a bite of grass, and discover ghosts, monsters, giant skeletons and more in this collection of outlandish tales from the Hoosier State.

Author Keven McQueen (Kentucky Book of the Dead, Offbeat Kentuckians) once again bucks tradition and offers an entertaining, if not peculiar, hodgepodge of unfamiliar Bluegrass history. Read about the day it rained amphibians in Louisville, hunts for buried treasure, unidentified flying people, remnants of a vanished race of giants, Owensboro's own Loch Ness Monster and can there really be catacombs beneath the streets of Lexington? Feed your curiosity and discover the Forgotten Tales of Kentucky,

Distinctive demises and bizarre burials of the Southern states. Explore the macabre and morbid aspects of history with this collection of real-life happenings focusing on all aspects of dying, from burial to haunting. Taken from actual newspaper articles, these narratives prove that death can be both grotesque and ridiculous. Accidents are never expected, but perhaps they could be prevented by a little common sense; for example, do not thaw frozen dynamite in a fire. Premeditated murders are atrocious in thought and deed, but even worse than that is killing to gain literary material. This ghastly compilation includes tales from Virginia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, and other Southern states.

53 pages; illustrations.

On March 27, 1890, a devastating storm moved over the Ohio River Valley, spawning dozens of deadly tornadoes. The most powerful of these twisters touched down in Louisville, carving a path of unprecedented destruction from Main Street to the end of town. In the aftermath, nearly eight hundred buildings in the city were destroyed, and over one hundred people perished. In all, the storm produced over twenty-five tornadoes that day, and it remains the twenty-fifth deadliest storm in U.S. history. Join local author Keven McQueen as he chronicles Louisville's most violent natural disaster, with tales of harrowing rescues and rebuilding.

A spooky history of the American Midwest--from grave robbers to ghost sightings and more--by the author of Creepy California. Most people think of the American Midwest as a place of wheat fields and family farms; cozy small towns and wholesome communities. But there's more to the story of America's Heartland--a dark history of strange tales and unsettling facts hidden just beneath its quaint pastoral image. In Horror in the Heartland, historian Keven McQueen offers a guided tour of terrible crimes and eccentric characters; haunted houses and murder-suicides; mad doctors, body snatchers, and pranks gone comically--and tragically--wrong. From tales of the booming grave-robbing industry of late 19th-century Indiana to the story of a Michigan physician who left his estate to his pet monkeys, McQueen investigates a spooky and twisted side of Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Exploring burial customs, unexplained deaths, ghost stories, premature burials, bizarre murders, peculiar wills and much more, this creepy collection reveals the region's untold stories and offers intriguing, if sometimes macabre, insights into human nature.

Discover the ghostly, and sometimes ghastly, characteristics of death in Kentucky. Author Keven McQueen dissects some of Kentucky's more bizarre aspects of death, pulled directly from the history pages. Discover the reaper's creative side, meet the disgusting ghosts of Louisville and find out more than you wanted to know about old-fashioned embalming techniques. You will find it quite engrossing and just plain gross.

Life in Louisville in the years following the Civil War, and through the turn of the century, was as exciting as it was dangerous. The city continued to grow as important urban hub of culture and commerce, connecting the South with the Midwest and Northern states. As Keven McQueen proves in this collection of morbid tales of crime and depravity, life in Louisville certainly had a darker side. Journey back to a time when Louisville's streets were filled with rail cars, its alleys populated by thieves, and its brothels hummed with activity. Whether it's the tale of the marriage of a convicted murderer to a notorious prostitute, or the exploits the criminal duo dubbed Louisville's Bonnie and Clyde," this is a true crime collection that is truly hard to believe."

Biographies, 208 pages.

With an eye for bizarre, macabre detail, Keven McQueen tracks down seventeen true crimes and unsolved mysteries in this rap sheet of historic Hoosier homicides from Indiana's hardscrabble past. This grim collection of tales includes unimaginable incidents like the Indianapolis businessman whose car contained suspicious "hams" and the man who handed his new bride a drink of carbolic acid. It also reveals the tragedy of Gary's beautiful Arlene Draves, killed by her football player boyfriend, as well as a surprisingly comic courtroom revelation by Hammond's Hazel McNally that cleared her of all charges.

Details numerous historical homicides that took place in the Commonwealth between 1826 and 1937, including the famous Beauchamp-Sharp assassination, and many others. --publisher.

New England is renowned for its quaint towns, beautiful landscapes, and busy ports. But it is also infamous as the setting for unexplained deaths, ghost stories, bizarre murders, and peculiar wills and epitaphs. In New England Nightmares: True Tales of the Strange and Gothic, author Keven McQueen explores the darker and stranger side of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. With shocking and unforgettable tales from the tip of Maine all the way to the New Jersey shore, this eerie collection explores our fascination with death and the unknown, including tales of medical students digging up bodies to dissect, of a murderer's bones being wired together after death, and of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith, who requested that he be buried with a breathing tube and glass window so he could see the outside world. An intriguing and frightful look into the odder side of the Northeast, New England Nightmares promises to send chills down your spine.

Biographies, 192 pages.

The author of Horror in the Heartland delves deep into the dark and sordid annals of the region where Hoosier history began. Prepare to take a tour of some dark, strange moments of southern Indiana's history. From the scheming wife who wanted her dull husband out of the way to make room for a young love affair and the husband who stomped his wife to death because she wouldn't stop singing an irritating song, to the man who murdered an entire family to pay off some farming equipment and the case of a mistaken-identity murder, author Keven McQueen relates the sinister (or not so) motives and gruesome details of nine murders that occurred in southern Indiana between 1880 and 1912. With a detailed, if macabre, look at each story as well as the ambiguities surrounding the criminals and punishments, McQueen illuminates the darker side of Hoosier history.

The Wild West is infamous for its outrageous stories, cowboys, and gun battles. But the region is also known for its ghost stories, unexplained deaths, bizarre murders, and peculiar burials. In Weird Wild West, author Keven McQueen brings together a fabulous collection of tales of the darker and stranger side of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. Exploring mysterious deaths, true crime stories, and paranormal activity, this eerie collection uncovers long buried and disturbing stories of the region. Included are the unforgettable tales of the body-snatching of Billy the Kid, the revenge curse of a former deputy district attorney in Colorado, and the weird tale of Mr. Moon, who couldn't keep his dearly departed wife in the ground despite his best efforts. An intriguing, frightful, and entertaining exploration of the strange and gothic side of the Western states, Weird Wild West promises to send chills down your spine.

VHS tape; approx. 40 minutes. A tour of the White Hall Estate, its history with a biographical sketch of Cassius M. Clay.

The Wielders series, book 1. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers to battle other teams using their phasers. Just as the Dreamers are starting to figure out this new world, they have to battle a monstrous phaser to save a terrified little girl. Will the Dreamers have the courage to face such a powerful opponent? And will their new phasers be up to the fight?

The Wielders series, book 2. First Battle Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Their league team the Dreamers is challenged by another team, The Wandering Warriors. Finding they are outmatched and need more phasers, they go in search of more. They find more than they bargained for in the form of gigantic overpowering phasers and Evil squirrels. After getting some new phasers, they battle the Wandering Warriors again. Will their new phasers make the difference? Or will they come up short again?

The Wielders series, book 3. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers encounter a cruel Hunter in the woods while he is trying to capture a phaser. The Dreamers protect the wounded phaser and lose one of their own phasers to the Hunter. The Hunter vows to steal all their phasers if they interfere with him again. Will the Dreamers get their phaser back? Will they be able to stop the Hunter?

The Wielders series, book 4. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers enter the Silver Town Tournament. Jacquelyn competes in the Fashion Show and they have a dream about Mr. Smith that changes everything. Can Jacquelyn win the Fashion Show? Do they have what it takes to win it all?

The Wielders series, book 5. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together, they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. One of the Dreamers is missing and the evidence points to foul play. While following the trail of clues, the Dreamers bump into some old friends and meet a new enemy. Will they ever find their friend? Or will the NEW Death phaser be the end of them all?

The Wielders series, book 6. Five weeks ago, four of my friends and I were living normal lives as ordinary middle school students. Our lives turned upside down when we were transported to a new world. Since then, we have become Wielders, trainers of magical creatures known as phasers. We formed a league team called the Dreamers and can battle other teams using our phasers. We have made a lot of friends as well as an enemy. With no way home, we are just trying to make our way in this new world, one adventure at a time.

The Wielders series, book 7. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together, they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers travel south to the old Water Wielders capital. But what is the League of War doing there? They find the last Water Wielder. New phasers, Death Wielders and an Heir of the Elements is discovered.

The Wielders series, book 8. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. With no way home, they are just trying to make their way in this new world, one adventure at a time. Oh wait, they just stepped through a portal and are home, sort of. What will happen now that they are back? Why are their phasers still out? Will they finally find the answers to all their questions?

The Wielders series, book 9. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. With no way home, they are just trying to make their way in this new world, one adventure at a time. Four years have passed in four days Everything seems to have changed in Silver Town. Enemies lurk in every corner while old friends are hard to find. Will the Dreamers save the day or be brought down by what defeated their friends?

Set in contemporary Seattle, SAVAGE SUMMER is a supernatural thriller as well as a love story. Seventeen-year-old Duncan is pretty sure he died recently in the car crash that killed his foster mother. His life really gets complicated when he is thrust into a new foster home, a new high school, falls in love with Amber, the hottest redhead in school, joins her rock band Savage Summer and develops a disturbing thirst for blood. The band, Savage Summer, gets a gig at a local club, Eros, which turns out to be a haven for vampires. Duncan is forced to protect his new girlfriend Amber and the rest of the band from hungry bloodsuckers and the seductive tunes of Zeal, the vampire rock star. Meanwhile the ruler of the city's vampires, Sapphire, is trying to seduce Duncan. But all Duncan is really interested in is trying to be a normal kid who feels he has finally found a family with Amber and Savage Summer. Duncan struggles with his love for Amber versus the realization she might be safer if he just walked away.

Set in contemporary Alaska, Canada and New York State, The Eternal Hunt is a supernatural thriller based on Iroquois legends. Non-stop action and wonderfully developed characters drive this novel. The main character struggles with his internal demons along with fighting the monster his friend has become. It skillfully blends the modern world with the mystery of American Indian legends. It is a unique addition to the current selections in supernatural novels. While trapped in a month long storm in the Alaskan wilderness, Logan's cousin and blood brother, Caleb, becomes a cannibal to survive. Cannibalism opens Caleb's soul up to a vile Indian spirit known as a Wendigo, which possesses him. After the storm lifts, Logan is the first on the scene to find his friend. All Logan finds is death at the hands of the vicious man eating Wendigo that Caleb has become. Logan barely survives. A near death vision shows Logan he has been chosen by his tribe's spirits to take up the knife and hunt the Wendigo. Logan joins the False Face Society of his tribe, the Seneca Indians of the Iroquois nation. He carves a mask of the Wendigo and upon donning it, gains the Wendigo's powers. Along the way, Logan is recruited into a secret government organization that monitors supernatural beings. With the combination of their high tech weapons and his Indian spirit powers, Logan hopes to stop the Wendigo. Logan struggles with his desire to save his blood brother and the knowledge that the cannibalistic Wendigo Sprit inhabiting Caleb's body must be stopped at any cost.

The Wielders series, book 1. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers to battle other teams using their phasers. Just as the Dreamers are starting to figure out this new world, they have to battle a monstrous phaser to save a terrified little girl. Will the Dreamers have the courage to face such a powerful opponent? And will their new phasers be up to the fight?

The Wielders series, book 2. First Battle Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Their league team the Dreamers is challenged by another team, The Wandering Warriors. Finding they are outmatched and need more phasers, they go in search of more. They find more than they bargained for in the form of gigantic overpowering phasers and Evil squirrels. After getting some new phasers, they battle the Wandering Warriors again. Will their new phasers make the difference? Or will they come up short again?

The Wielders series, book 3. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers encounter a cruel Hunter in the woods while he is trying to capture a phaser. The Dreamers protect the wounded phaser and lose one of their own phasers to the Hunter. The Hunter vows to steal all their phasers if they interfere with him again. Will the Dreamers get their phaser back? Will they be able to stop the Hunter?

The Wielders series, book 4. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers enter the Silver Town Tournament. Jacquelyn competes in the Fashion Show and they have a dream about Mr. Smith that changes everything. Can Jacquelyn win the Fashion Show? Do they have what it takes to win it all?

The Wielders series, book 5. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together, they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. One of the Dreamers is missing and the evidence points to foul play. While following the trail of clues, the Dreamers bump into some old friends and meet a new enemy. Will they ever find their friend? Or will the NEW Death phaser be the end of them all?

The Wielders series, book 6. Five weeks ago, four of my friends and I were living normal lives as ordinary middle school students. Our lives turned upside down when we were transported to a new world. Since then, we have become Wielders, trainers of magical creatures known as phasers. We formed a league team called the Dreamers and can battle other teams using our phasers. We have made a lot of friends as well as an enemy. With no way home, we are just trying to make our way in this new world, one adventure at a time.

The Wielders series, book 7. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together, they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. The Dreamers travel south to the old Water Wielders capital. But what is the League of War doing there? They find the last Water Wielder. New phasers, Death Wielders and an Heir of the Elements is discovered.

The Wielders series, book 8. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. With no way home, they are just trying to make their way in this new world, one adventure at a time. Oh wait, they just stepped through a portal and are home, sort of. What will happen now that they are back? Why are their phasers still out? Will they finally find the answers to all their questions?

The Wielders series, book 9. Transported to another world, five middle school friends become Wielders of magic creatures called phasers. Together they form a league team called the Dreamers and learn to battle using their phasers. With no way home, they are just trying to make their way in this new world, one adventure at a time. Four years have passed in four days Everything seems to have changed in Silver Town. Enemies lurk in every corner while old friends are hard to find. Will the Dreamers save the day or be brought down by what defeated their friends?

Hunters of Eternal Lies is a supernatural thriller as well as a love story. Unknown to Becket, she was destined to join her old Italian family business of working for the patriarch Antal Degano, an ancient vampire. But all that changed when she encountered a six-year-old bloodsucker who wants Becket to replace her long dead mommy.Becket joins a secret organization that investigates supernatural creatures to try to empower herself to fight Lilly, the child vampire hellion hunting her. Lilly's pursuit causes her to leave her old life, join the FBI, become a special agent but she falls in love along the way.Becket has always been special. She inherited an enhanced sense that gives her an edge and the ability to see flashes of the past related to objects she touches. With these gifts and her new training, she turns the tables on Lilly. The hunted becomes the hunter and the only problem is no one told Lilly.