kentucky

Hardcover. Louisville, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket., 160 pages. Sulky races at the Mercer County Fair, church suppers, sorghum making, shooting marbles in the school yard, housing tobacco, loafing at the courthouse-here are 129 beautifully reproduced images of who we were as Kentuckians not so long ago-during the Depression and the early years of World War II. This collection is part of the remarkable series of photos shot for the Farm Security Administration-more than 125,000 photographs taken over a period of nine years by some of the best American photographers of the time, including Ben Shahn, Marion Post Wolcott, Russell Lee, John Vachon, and Arthur Rothstein. To reintroduce us to that important slice of our history, Beverly Brannan and David Horvath have selected a rich sampling from among several thousand photos taken in Kentucky for the FSA. They have added an extra dimension to the images by including in their commentary excerpts from the photographers' own correspondence and field notes.

Hardcover. Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, paper-covered boards, 172 pages. One of the most innovative films ever made, Sam Peckinpah's motion picture The Wild Bunch was released in 1969. From the outset, the film was considered controversial because of its powerful, graphic, and direct depiction of violence, but it was also praised for its lush photography, intricate camera work, and cutting-edge editing. Peckinpah's tale of an ill-fated, aging outlaw gang bound by a code of honor is often regarded as one of the most complex and impactful Westerns in American cinematic history. The issues dealt with in this groundbreaking film-violence, morality, friendship, and the legacy of American ambition and compromise-are just as relevant today as when the film first opened. To acknowledge the significance of The Wild Bunch, this collection brings together some of the leading Peckinpah scholars and critics to examine what many consider to be the director's greatest work. The book's nine essays cover an array of topics. Explored are the function of violence in the film and how its depiction is radically different from what is seen in other movies, the background of the film's production, the European response to the film's view of human nature, and the strong sense of the Texas/Mexico milieu surrounding the film's action. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Press, 6thpr., 1963, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Ex-lib copy with stamping on front pages, rear endpaper and text block edges. The dust jacket is very good, clean, unclipped with just a small sticker to bottom of spine. A great historical novel for young people of a Kentucky family and their lives at the turn of the century with b&w Illustrations by Berkeley Williams, Jr.

Hardcover. Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 286 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Unfortunate musty smell, else in flawless condition.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown & Co., 2nd pr., 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price clipped dust jacket, 342 pages, b&w illustrations. Paul W. (Bear) Bryant's story in his own words. Together with John Underwood a Sports Illustrated writer, Bryant tells of his years coaching football from his days at Maryland, Kentucky, Texas A & M, and Alabama where he coached for 28 years. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Kentucky, Purple House Press, 2nd pr., 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Non-paginated. Hardcover with dust jacket. Light edgewear to covers, otherwise clean and tight copy. 25th Year Anniversary edition.

Hardcover. NY, Artisan/Workman, 1st, 2024, Hardcover decorated gray boards with embossed gilt lettering. Knowledgeable, entertaining, and more than a little infatuated with his subject, award-winning food writer and chef Edward Lee gives us his insight into bourbon, telling us everything we should know about the mellow honey-brown treasure that's put Kentucky on the global map: How bourbon is made. Its history. How to read a label. A look inside the famous distilleries. The influence of oak. Tours of Kentucky's bourbon regions. How to taste bourbon like a professional. And, in the most delicious surprise, how to cook with bourbon, with 50 recipes from Bourbon-Glazed Chicken Wings and Blackened Salmon with Bourbon-Soy Marinade to a Bourbon and Butterscotch Pudding. Plus the best Old-Fashioned you'll ever mix. Still in publisher's shrinkwrap.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 240 pages, in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A collection of plays performed in Louisville. Edited by Michael Bigelow Dixon and Michele Volansky. Including plays by: Wendell Berry, Roy Blount, Jr., Harry Crews, and Marsha Norman. INSCRIBED BY CREWS on the front fly leaf to poet friend Ed Hyland: "For Ed - Best wishes for resilience in your work. Keep your ass in the chair - Harry Crews". The Crews play "Blood Issue" is included. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 448 pages. Greta Garbo proclaimed him as her favorite director. Actors, actresses, and even child stars were so at ease under his direction that they were able to deliver inspired and powerful performances. Academy-Award-nominated director Clarence Brown (1890-1987) worked with some of Hollywood's greatest stars, such as Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Mickey Rooney, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy. Known as the "star maker," he helped guide the acting career of child sensation Elizabeth Taylor (of whom he once said, "she has a face that is an act of God") and discovered Academy-Award-winning child star Claude Jarman Jr. for The Yearling (1946). He directed more than fifty films, including Possessed (1931), Anna Karenina (1935), National Velvet (1944), and Intruder in the Dust (1949), winning his audiences over with glamorous star vehicles, tales of families, communities, and slices of Americana, as well as hard-hitting dramas. Although Brown was admired by peers like Jean Renoir, Frank Capra, and John Ford, his illuminating work and contributions to classic cinema are rarely mentioned in the same breath as those of Hollywood's great directors. In this first full-length account of the life and career of the pioneering filmmaker, Gwenda Young discusses Brown's background to show how his hardworking parents and resilient grandparents inspired his entrepreneurial spirit. She reveals how the one-time engineer and World War I aviator established a thriving car dealership, the Brown Motor Car Company, in Alabama-only to give it all up to follow his dream of making movies. He would not only become a brilliant director but also a craftsman who was known for his innovative use of lighting and composition.

Hardcover. NY, Grove Press, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Chris Offutt is an outstanding literary talent, whose work has been called "lean and brilliant" (New York Times Book Review) and compared by reviewers to Tobias Wolff, Ernest Hemingway, and Raymond Carver. He's been awarded the Whiting Writers Award for Fiction/Nonfiction and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, among numerous other honors. His first work of fiction in nearly two decades, Country Dark is a taut, compelling novel set in rural Kentucky from the Korean War to 1970. Tucker, a young veteran, returns from war to work for a bootlegger. He falls in love and starts a family, and while the Tuckers don't have much, they have the love of their home and each other. But when his family is threatened, Tucker is pushed into violence, which changes everything. The story of people living off the land and by their wits in a backwoods Kentucky world of shine-runners and laborers whose social codes are every bit as nuanced as the British aristocracy, Country Dark is a novel that blends the best of Larry Brown and James M. Cain, with a noose tightening evermore around a man who just wants to protect those he loves.

Hardcover. Auburn, Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1st, 1854, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 390 pages. Noted as "Fifth Thousand" at top of title page. Previous owners name on front endpaper. Brown leather covers with gilt title on faded spine. Rubbing to cover corners. Light foxing to some pages. Copy tight and unmarked.

Softcover. Jackson MS, University Press of Mississippi, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, illustrated with b/w photography throughout. 83 pages. Maggie Lee Sayre was born deaf near Paducah, Kentucky, in 1920. She lived 51 years of her life on a river houseboat as her family made a living fishing throughout Kentucky and Tennessee. This collection of her photos, accompanied by descriptive captions from Sayre, reveals a traditional river culture that is rooted in subsistence living. Clean copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, Counterpoint, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 288 pages. In 1969 Gary Snyder returned from a long residence in Japan to northern California, to a homestead in the Sierra foothills where he intended to build a house and settle on the land with his wife and young sons. He had just published his first book of essays, Earth House Hold. A few years before, after a long absence, Wendell Berry left New York City to return to land near his grandfather's farm in Port Royal, Kentucky, where he built a small studio and lived there with his wife as they restored an old house on their newly acquired homestead. In 1969 Berry had just published Long-Legged House. These two founding members of the counterculture and of the new environmental movement had yet to meet, but they knew each other's work, and soon they began a correspondence. Neither man could have imagined the impact their work would have on American political and literary culture, nor could they have appreciated the impact they would have on one another. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY/UK, Osprey Publishing, 2nd pr., 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 244 pages illustrated in b&w and color. The story of families enduring the whirlwind of the Civil War, told through the words of famous and ordinary citizens and ranging from the battlefield to the home front, from presidential councils to frontier revivals. The book reveals how Americans on both sides of the Mason and Dixon line withstood four years of brutal, unrelenting conflict. Of the hundreds of thousands of books published on the American Civil War, this is one of the few to approach the nation's defining conflict from this powerful perspective. Grounded in rare family letters and diaries, Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades captures Americans' wide-ranging reactions to the war and their astonishing perseverance. Some of the accounts are entirely unknown to readers, while better-known events are told from unusual perspectives. Abraham Lincoln's assassination, for example, is shared from the viewpoint of Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancee (and stepsister) Clara Harris, while Lewis Powell's attempt on Secretary of State William Seward's life is seen through the terrified eyes Fanny Seward, who was seated next to her father when Powell burst into the room. Madison and Lizzie Bowler help readers understand how the war brought a Minnesota couple together in marriage and then nearly drove them apart when Madison insisted that his first duty was to his nation while Lizzie believed it was to her and their newborn daughter. A thousand miles to the south, two Texas families also suffered through their soldiers' absence and tried to explain to their young children why father had "gone to war" with "Santaclause." And to the north in Kentucky, a runaway slave won freedom for himself and his family by joining the Union Army only to face prejudice as brutal and destructive as the life he'd left behind. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A Hollywood screenwriting and movie-making icon, Ernest Lehman penned some of the most memorable scenes to ever grace the silver screen. Hailed by Vanity Fair as "perhaps the greatest screenwriter in history," Lehman's work on films such as North by Northwest, The King and I, Sabrina, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music helped define a generation of movie making. But while his talent took center stage, the public knew little of Lehman himself, a native of Manhattan's Upper West Side and the Five Towns of Long Island devoted to his wife of 50 years. His relentless perfectionism, hypochondria and all-night writing sessions fueled by tequila and grilled cheese sandwiches were some of the quirks that made Lehman a legend in the Hollywood community.

Hardcover. NY, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 274 pages, with b&w photographs. Very clean and tight copy. Unauthorized biography of Hunter Thompson. Perry takes us on a journey through Thompson's booze and drug fueled rise to fame. From a young yahoo in Louisville, Kentucky-drinking heavily and playing with his rifle, to the first hand secrets of Thompson's inventive and irreverent gonzo jounralism. A look at a man who was a horror to some, a hero to others.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 261 pages, 34 b&w illustrations. Scandal, adultery, secret marriages, divorce, custody battles, suicide attempts, and alcoholism - the trials and tribulations of the Costellos were as riveting as any Hollywood feature film. This eccentric and talented clan was one of the twentieth century's most famous families of actors, until their achievements were eclipsed by their own immutable penchant for self-destruction. Patriarch Maurice Costello was considered the first screen idol until his career, marked by accusations of spousal abuse, drunkenness, and physical assault, abruptly ended. Costello's daughter, Helene, was the first actress to star in an all-talking picture, but her career was ruined by a very public divorce from Lowell Sherman, who testified that his wife was a drunk and an avid reader of pornography. And though the original members of this family may be gone, the legacy lives on - most notably through actress Drew Barrymore. Written with unprecedented access to the family's personal documents and artifacts, as well as interviews with several family members, Film's First Family explores the dramatic history of the Costellos and their extraordinary significance to the stage and screen. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in bright, unclipped dust jacket, 413 pages. His second collection after The Summer Game (1972). Five Seasons covers the baseball seasons from 1972 through 1976, described as the "most significant half decade in the history of the game." The era was notable for the remarkable individual feats of Hank Aaron, Lou Brock, and Nolan Ryan, among others. It also presented one of the best World Series of all time (1975), including still the greatest World Series game ever played (Game Six). Along with visiting other games and campaigns, Roger Angell meets a trio of Tigers-obsessed fans, goes to a game with a departing old-style owner, watches high-school ball in Kentucky with a famous scout, and explores the sad and astounding mystery of Steve Blass's vanished control. Angell's Five Seasons is a gem and a gift for baseball lovers of all ages. Super condition, clean.

Hardcover. Chicago, Bonus Books, 2nd pr., 1989, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 317 pages, b&w photos. Happy Chandler was a two-time governor of Kentucky and a U.S. Senator from the same state during World War II. And while most people credit Branch Rickey with integrating baseball, it would not have happened without this special southern politician, Albert "Happy" Chandler being the Commissioner of Baseball at that time. Chandler also had to deal with the raids on star players by the Mexican League, the controversial suspension of Brooklyn Dodger manager Leo Durocher, and the threatened player strike. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Frankfort, KY, Robert's Printing Co., 1st, n.d., Book: Good, 219 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Top front corner heavily damaged. Signed and inscribed by Lydia Bond on front fly leaf. Front hinge tear at top. Soil to front cover.

Hardcover. University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 279 pages, b&w photos. With a career that spanned from the silent era to the 1990s, British screenwriter Charles Bennett (1899-1995) lived an extraordinary life. His experiences as an actor, director, playwright, film and television writer, and novelist in both England and Hollywood left him with many amusing anecdotes, opinions about his craft, and impressions of the many famous people he knew. Among other things, Bennett was a decorated WWI hero, an eminent Shakespearean actor, and an Allied spy and propagandist during WWII, but he is best remembered for his commercially and critically acclaimed collaborations with directors Sir Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille. The fruitful partnership began after Hitchcock adapted Bennett's play Blackmail (1929) as the first British sound film. Their partnership produced six thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Young and Innocent (1937), and Foreign Correspondent (1940). In this witty and intriguing book, Bennett discusses how their collaboration created such famous motifs as the "wrong man accused" device and the MacGuffin. He also takes readers behind the scenes with the Master of Suspense, offering his thoughts on the director's work, sense of humor, and personal life.

Hardcover. NY, PublicAffairs, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The former editor of the Chicago Tribune tells the story of his entry into the world of thoroughbred breeding, profiles Kentucky's racehorse culture, and chronicles his successful breeding of Monarchos, the 2001 Kentucky Derby winner.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages. Isaac Murphy, born enslaved in 1861, still reigns as one of the greatest jockeys in American history. Black jockeys like Murphy were at the top of the most popular sport in America at the end of the nineteenth century. Black jockeys were internationally famous - the first African American superstar athletes--and with wins in three Kentucky Derbies and countless other prestigious races, Murphy was the greatest of them all. At the same time, he lived through the seismic events of Emancipation and Reconstruction and formative conflicts over freedom and equality in the United States. And inevitably he was drawn into those conflicts, with devastating consequences. Katherine C. Mooney uncovers the history of Murphy's troubled life, his death in 1896 at age thirty-five, and his afterlife. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) was driven not just to be an actress but to be a star. One of the most influential sex symbols of her time, she was known for her platinum blonde hair, hourglass figure, outrageously low necklines, and flamboyant lifestyle. Hardworking and ambitious, Mansfield proved early in her career that she was adept in both comic and dramatic roles, but her tenacious search for the spotlight and her risque promotional stunts caused her to be increasingly snubbed in Hollywood. In the first definitive biography of Mansfield, Eve Golden offers a joyful account of the star Andy Warhol called "the poet of publicity," revealing the smart, determined woman behind the persona. She discusses Mansfield's childhood, her many loves -- including her famous on-again, off-again relationship with Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay -- her struggles with alcohol, and her sometimes tumultuous family relationships. She also considers Mansfield's enduring contributions to American popular culture and celebrity culture. Clean, bright copy.