Student Essay Response to An American in Africa

Posted on by
Below you will find an essay written by one of my students in  ENG 101. I use this essay every semester to help my students have a more balanced view of racism in America and to appreciate being an American. Popular media and politics have warped the thinking of many on the topic. I encourage you to share Richburg’s article you can find here:
American in Africa from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/richburg/richbrg2.htm By Keith B. Richburg 
Sunday, March 26, 1995; Page W16
Nicholas BrantleyProfessor Rickey PittmanENGL-101June 10, 2024A Brief Response to An American in Africa
I did not know what to expect when I opened the link for “American in Africa” by Keith Richburg though I was intrigued just by the title. The essay that I received upon opening it far surpassed my expectations. Mr. Richburg left me with more questions than answers and an unshakable feeling that this paper would never have made it past the editors’ desk into publication in today’s hyper-polarized society. I am glad that it was published, however, as it is one of the few times I have seen a black American write about traveling through Africa and the difficult emotions that they dealt with because of it. It provides an insightful, personal look into a sensitive topic that is not discussed enough.
I felt the essay focuses on Mr. Richburg’s attempt to reconcile the reality he witnessed in Africa versus what he thought it would be like based on his life in America. Numerous times in his essay he recounts events that put him squarely at odds with what most Americans believe, he as a black American, should be feeling. He even went so far as to point out that members of his own family questioned his motives in painting, or maybe feeling, a less-than-stellar picture of Africa. He quoted his cousin as saying, “Why does the media have to tear down our black leaders?” (Richburg). He felt torn and asked himself “Was I supposed to travel around looking for the “good news” stories out of the continent, or was I supposed to find the kind of compelling, hard-hitting stories that I would look for any other place in the world? Was I not to call a dictator a dictator, just because he happened to be black? Was I supposed to be an apologist for corrupt, ruthless, undemocratic, illegitimate black regimes?” (Richburg). I believe he felt himself in an impossible situation between his ethics and the expectations of the American black community.
I cannot personally relate to his experiences in Africa, being an American of European descent. However, I believe I can understand, at least intellectually, how difficult it was for him to put his thoughts to paper. This is best illustrated early in the essay when he states “There but for the grace of God go I” (Richburg) as he watches bodies float down the river and his seeming embarrassment in being thankful that his ancestor was enslaved 400 years ago. But for that enslavement, he might be one of those bodies or just another nameless person caught in the middle of the endless strife that racks the continent. He again states that feeling in his closing line “But by an accident of birth, I am a black man born in America, and everything I am today — culture, attitudes, sensitivities, loves and desires — derives from that one simple and irrefutable truth” (Richburg).

The technique he used in this essay was simple, straightforward, and effective. Mr. Richburg recounted his thoughts and experiences while working across Africa, introducing persons that he met when they were meaningful to his story, but not going into detail greater than what was needed to give me, the reader, some background clarity as to why they were important to a particular point. It is similar in style to works I have read in the past where the author narrates their story without embellishment or exaggeration. In a way, it reminded me of House to House by David Bellavia, though the latter was a full-length novel and not a short essay published in the Washington Post.

I can only imagine how it would feel to be in his situation. A black man born and raised in the States is sent to Africa on assignment and confronted with a harsh reality that does not lend itself to the story being told back home. Then on top of that immense reality check, to feel as if others in your community will criticize you for telling the story as you saw it, to be hurting your people, is a position I am glad I am not in. I am happy that Mr. Richburg published this work, all of us need to be able to see the world as it is and not a lie being told by those with an agenda, like the Pan-African conference he mentioned. It was a hard truth that he grappled with, but I am sure it is better to be honest with oneself than not.
Works Cited
Richburg, Keith. “American in Africa”. Washington Post, 26 Mar. 1995http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/richburg/richbrg2.htm

Annotations

Reviews of J.W. Dunn’s October Rain

Posted on by

Reviews of J.W. Dunn’s October Rain

Kay60
5.0 out of 5 stars Love, Betrayal, and Murder

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2024

Verified Purchase
October Rain is one of the best historical fictions I have read in a long time! The story takes the reader into one family’s life in the early 1900s. It was a time when the United States was primarily a rural nation, with most people living on farms. A time when life was simpler, but nothing was easy. Days were filled with backbreaking, physical labor, and everyday chores were accomplished without the help of modern conveniences. It was a time when things moved more slowly, and roles were more clearly defined. A time when love, betrayal, death, and murder were all a part of one family’s struggle for survival.
Rick Pittman
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Historical Fiction Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
October Rain by J W Dunn is a compelling read and a fine example of historical fiction. The novel is set around 1900 in the Piney Woods of Central Louisiana. The story takes the reader into the hard lives of the characters from birth to death, with excellent details of these who survive by farming and hunting. The dialogue is wonderful, the conflicts intense. I read this novel twice: once in print form and once in Kindle version. This is a moving story you will enjoy.

 

OCTOBER RAIN  KIRKUS REVIEW

J.W. Dunn
Booklocker.com (224 pp.) $17.99 paperback, $2.99 e-book ISBN: 9781958891025
October 15, 2023

The patriarch of a Louisiana family must contend with his son’s restlessness, tending to his farm, and an injury on the job in Dunn’s historical novel.

Thurston Knox and his wife, Retty, have a bustling family on an 80-acre farm in 1906 Louisiana. Most of his children are too young to work the farm, and his second-eldest son, Luke, expresses his intention to leave and find work elsewhere. When Luke departs, Thurston is left to deal with his family’s needs and work the land—overextending himself results in a plow accident. Meanwhile, Luke embarks on a journey of self-discovery that leads him to his uncle (who is only four years his elder), Matt Tarroll, and his wife, Tillie. He is welcomed with open arms, but when Luke starts to develop feelings for Tillie, it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose. Adding to the misery of an illicit affair and a fractured father-son relationship is the threat of disease, which takes hold of the family matriarch, Retty, and doesn’t let go. This is a slow, carefully paced historical drama set in the spring and fall of one momentous year. The author crafts rich regional and period dialogue to strongly evoke a bygone, deeply religious environment (“I need to head on back home before Martha sets in to worrying”). As attentive as Dunn is to the sound and texture of the early 20th-century Louisiana parish, however, the characters never really feel satisfyingly developed (particularly the stoic lead, Thurston). Luke is someone who reacts—the reader doesn’t really know why he wants to run away, or what motivates him throughout the story. There’s a lot of fine work in the descriptive language and in the creation of a fully-realized setting, but the characters at the fore never quite spring to life. A brilliantly crafted diorama of early 20th-century Southern life lacking strong characters.

 

Christmas Brides: One Hundred Comanche Maidens To Be Sold At Auction

Posted on by

I study and collect all the information I can on America’s Native Americans, especially on the plains tribes. In my research for my novel set in North Texas in the late 1860s, I came upon this article printed in the Baltimore Sun in Dec. 22 1901.  I hope you find it interesting.

CHRISTMAS BRIDES: One Hundred Comanche Maidens To Be Sold At Auction

Great Wedding Festival: Rival Suitors Will Bid Against Each Other For the Coveted Girls—How the Sale Will Be Conducted.

The Comanche Indians who live on a reservation in Oklahoma are planning a great wedding festival to take place on Christmas Day. One hundred. Brides will be sold to the highest bidders, after which a great wedding dance and feasting will follow.

  This is the first time that the Comanches have ever held one of their sacred wedding dances on Christmas Day, and it is said by their agent, Major Stouch, that the reds are celebrating Christmas because they think it will please President Roosevelt.

The Comanches held their last wedding festival one year ago, when 50 young women 3were sold to the highest bidders. Some of the squaws brought as much as $250 in cash, while 15 or 20 ponies was a common price.

These wedding festivals are conducted by the chief of the tribe, Quanah Parker. All of the young women of marriageable age who have not been “spoken for” by young braves are turned over to the chief, and he makes it well known among the bucks that on a certain day he will sell at auction;n the young women who have attained the age of 18 and whose parents are no longer willing to support them. In the Christmas sale of brides, no men except those of the tribe are allowed to bid,

Quanah Parker, chief of the Comanches, denounced the custom to President Cleveland and promised to have it abolished among his people, but he is taking a lively interest in the approaching sale and has from time to time ween fit to buy eight wives himself. For one—Mrs. Toonuly—he paid $700, or its equivalent, in 70 ponies at $10 each.

The Indians prepare weeks in advance for such an event. The women to be sold are placed in a stockade of tepees, surrounded on all sides by stern old squaws who have passed through the sale once and whose Indian nature thirsts to revenge itself upon others.

The young women are well fed, subject to occasional visits from young men who are planning to buy them. Otherwise, they are left to contemplate their fate. Many of them attempt to escape, but this only makes it worse for them, as they are sold first and allowed to go to the highest bidders who are generally rough.

The young man among the Comanche Indians is considered rich not by his bank account or his land holdings, but by his number of wives and their beauty. A young brave having five beautiful squaws is a member of the Comanche aristocracy and has carte blanche to all social events of the tribe, while the poor unfortunate [man] with but one squaw to do his bidding is quite trashy indeed.

Quanah Parker, by far the most diplomatic of all Indian chieftains alive today started when young and has now eight wives, He owns a large farm structure built in Southern style, not far from Darlington Oklahoma, and it is there the big sale will take place.

In summer Mr. Parker and his eight wives take up their residence in the tepees but in winter they live in his $25,000 mansion. Parker wears a blanket and breechcloth among his people; in Washington he is clothed in. broadcloth and pat. Patent leathers, Besides his wealth of wives, he owns a great of jewelry. including one pearl necklace costing $12,000. This he wears while acting as leader of their medicine and war dances.

Two years ago an old squaw named Lightning Arrow dies and left her curse upon all the unmarried women of the Comanches. She had been married to a white man, Willis Haymes, a cowboy, who beat her to death, The white man was assassinated that night and his heart cut out and burned but the curse of Lightning Arrow remained.  Try as they would, the medicine men could not remove it, The young braves offer up all kinds of blankets, saddles, spurs, and even ponies to the White Father through their medicine man, but the stain was branded deep and seemingly forever,

Two weeks ago Comanche Jack and another medicine man went into the woods on Medicine Creek and announced they were to have a special conference with the Great Spirit. Upon their return, it was given out that a great wedding festival to take place on Christmas Day,

As a matter of fact, the Indian medicine men admitted to their agent that certain young braves had paid them to reach the decision. Quanah Parker’s daughter, who was about to marry a white man, is also indirectly responsible for the festival.

Jennie Parker is a young Comanche girl barely 16. She was engaged to marry a white farmer near the new town of Lawton, She is an educated woman who has attended Eastern schools. She had her wedding clothes prepared and her father had all but given his consent.

Wild Horses, a Comanche warrior of wild reputation, was desperately in love with beautiful Jennie Parker and he induced the medicine men to order the sale so he might win or buy this maiden, She is in despair.

The auction ceremony is unique in itself. All of the young women to be sold are taken before the medicine council three days before the auction day for inspection.

When the appointed day arrives, the young women march to the place of auction and stand in a row, The braves are allowed to pass along by them and pass judgment. The auctioneer then takes the first in line and offers her. He cries her name, age, family history, and good qualities. Then he extols her charms until the young men grow enthused and commence bidding.

 Very often two bitter enemies will bide for one squaw; then the bidding is fierce and reckless. The woman brings twice her value under such circumstances and is apt to be roughly treated by her owner as he blames her for attracting his enemy,

After all the women have been sold a big dance takes place and for several days the braves and squaws make merry.

The Ghost, The Beggar, and The Widow by Kaitlyn W. A response to Emerson’s “The Amulet.”

Posted on by

I teach freshman composition for two colleges and American Literature for  Delta Community College in Monroe. Sometimes, I find a student who really appreciates and understands the classics of our literary canon that I require them to read. Kaitlyn W., a student in my American Literature class in the fall of 2023, wrote one of the best reader-response essays I ever received. She permitted me to share her essay on my blog.

The Ghost, The Beggar, and The Widow

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote some very moving poems in his time. In 1899, Emerson wrote a poem titled “The Amulet”. When I read it, I was left feeling like someone could relate to a very specific feeling I have had before. I know people can relate to the feeling of being alone, but this is something not everyone experiences. This poem, in its entirety, softly describes the phases of a broken love. Not your typical “true love” experiences.

These are the ones that are slow burns. These are the ones that leave those silent scars. They are the ones that will always be remembered and leave a person wondering how things would be if that special person was still in their life. It isn’t a dramatic high school breakup; It is half a soul being ripped from the other.

In this poem, I felt the narrator was a more feminine character, despite being written by a male. So, for the purpose of this paper, I will use she and her pronouns. This was a painful read, but a good one. It posed as a reminder and as proof that there are stages to all cycles in life, but particularly focused on the burnout of love, as I previously mentioned. The title of my paper comes from what I would label these phases after having read Emerson’s poem.

In the first stanza, I was presented with an image in my mind. While this was not a descriptive poem that was meant to channel all the senses and make me feel like I was there and able to see the room as it was, I was able to. I think the reason for this is because I could relate to it. The image I was given was a woman in a rocking chair looking out the window. She was staring down at her ring, remembering her love, who in this poem was described to be at a distance. It was written, “No tidings since it came,” (Emerson “The Amulet”, 1) I see in this quote that she was waiting for another letter, but she was patient. This is the first phase of love when it starts to die out. This is when the person that one loves has become so distant or so absent that they are not involved anymore. It is back to being alone but with the title of being together. This is thephase of The Ghost.

In the second stanza, we reach a new phase. Bargaining is one of the stages of grief after losing someone. In relationships of any kind, this stage exists here too. The partner or friend that loses their other half falls apart for a minute, and in hopes that it isn’t too late, they wonder if something can be exchanged. No matter how small or how large, just something. I remember when I left a very abusive relationship, no matter how bad he hurt me, I still muttered “I want my best friend back” in between each tear after I left. In this stanza, she is left wanting. It was written, in regard to the amulet, “That keeps intelligence with you,” (Emerson “The Amulet”, 2).

She wanted more than anything to know what was going on with him. In modern times, this is the equivalent of waiting for a text back or constantly checking their social media. This stage is a time of desperation. This is the time of begging. In this stage, the lover becomes the beggar. In the very last stanza, we reach the final break. “Torments me still the fear that love Died in its last expression,” (Emerson “The Amulet”, 3). This quote was the one that reminded me the most how empty that feeling is when something is over before it ends. That feeling always leaves me to wonder what I could have been doing with myself in the time we had wasted. I wrote my own poem in another English class before this one. It was about these same stages, but particularly the last one. After a love breaks off, there is that emptiness like I said, but there is also that memory. That is something that can’t easily be gotten rid of. Part of my poem said this: “I was a widow, hoping to scrape enough skin and dust from our sheets. Just enough to have one last hug.” This is the stage that forces you to feel your loss and realize the break has happened. This is the stage of The Widow.
With a heavy heart, I must say this poem was beautifully tormenting. It was a reminder that all good things do come to an end. But it was also comforting to be reminded that I wasn’t alone in the times when I felt broken. I never have been alone in those moments, and I know that now, but it is always good to be reminded. I think with this one, Emerson put in just enough of his own pain and mixed it with his own method of writing, and it produced absolute art.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Early Poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York, Boston,   Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. 1899.

Posted on by

William C. Meadows

Kiowa Military Societies: Ethnohistory and Ritu

The Civilization of the American Indian Series

University of Oklahoma University, 2010

Hardcover and paperback, 455 pp.

A Review by Rickey Pittman

al

All my life, I’ve always been a student of the Native Americans, especially the plains tribes of Texas and Oklahoma. I was raised watching all the cowboy movies and by the age of thirteen had read every book in the local branch of the Dallas Library about Native Americans.

As a Boy Scout, when applying for my American Indian merit badge, I went to the merit badge counselor’s house in Dallas to be interviewed for the award. Entering his house, I was directed to his den, where I found his collection of historical items, virtually a museum devoted to the American Indian. The most striking exhibit was an authentic Kiowa war bonnet, enclosed in glass. We had a discussion about coups, and the war honors each feather must have represented, and the counselor spoke of the deadly reputation of the Kiowa warriors during the Indian wars in Texas.

I continued my interest in Native Americans and that interest manifested itself in my fiction and essays. While working on my present western novel project set in North Texas, the Kiowa would play a prominent part of that story. Though there are more resources now, there are still too few works devoted to the Kiowa that would prove to be useful. So it was with great delight that I came upon William C. Meadows book, Kiowa Military Societies: Ethnohistory and Ritual. William C. Meadows has been working with and presenting his research on the Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa since 1989. This is an amazing read, sure to hold many surprises about the Kiowa, and prove to be a valuable research tool for writers or those interested in Native American culture, legends, and history.

The text is well illustrated with drawings and photos (taken by the author) of the Kiowa from their beginning into modern times. The text is rich with Kiowa vocabulary, including a pronunciation guide. I found the index, the End Notes, along with the extensive Bibliography, to be valuable for reference and for adding extra information.

The body of the book, as the title suggests, focuses on the warrior/military societies of the Kiowa.  The Kiowa were truly a martial people, and Meadows points out how they lacked purely social dance societies like those of some other tribes. The societies revealed to me how central a place war held in the minds and hearts of the Kiowa. Meadows reveals how the warrior societies were structured, what were requirements for membership, rank and social status, rituals, taboos, dress, music (drums and rattles), dances (with choreography), society meetings, persona and society songs, and their connection to the Sun Dance. There were also women societies that served as “auxiliaries to Kiowa warriors, sources of supernatural protection, and as charitable organizations” (p. 307).

The first nine chapters of the book discuss in detail each military society: the Rabbits Society, the Mountain Sheep Society, the Horse Headdresses Society, the Black Legs Society, the Unafraid of Death or Skunkberry Society, the Sentinel or Scout Dogs Society, the Kiowa Bone Strikers, and the Omaha Society. Meadows documents the revival of some of the societies and stresses the Kiowa efforts to honor veterans of the nation’s wars.

I found numerous surprising details extremely interesting including the pictographic calendars of the Kiowa; the mescal bandoliers; the calls from captured bugles; the various sashes, lances (including the no-retreat staff), and staffs; and the Táime and Ten Medicine Bundles. The engaged reader will discover many more.

The reader and researcher will find many historical anecdotes, museums where historical Kiowa relics are located, legends, biographical descriptions of leaders and famous warriors, tribal traditions, as well as conflicts with and the influence of other tribes upon the Kiowa.

This is a book I would highly recommend to anyone who wanted to write about the west, about the fierce Kiowa who came down the Texas Corridor, or who needed an exceptional and reliable reference tool. There is information here one cannot find anywhere else.

The book can be ordered HERE:  https://www.oupress.com/9780806190099/kiowa-military-societies/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: William C. Meadows is Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies at Missouri State University, Springfield. A scholar of Plains Indian cultures, he is the author of Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche Military Societies: Enduring Veterans, 1800 to the Present; Kiowa Ethnography; and The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I.

Posted on by

David Grann
Killers of the Flower Moon:
Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI
Simon & Schuster, 2017

A Review by Rickey Pittman

The Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann was an enthralling read. Though I have been an avid reader and researcher for many years on America’s Native Americans, I knew little about the Osage, other than the fact they were fierce enemies of the Kiowa in the past. After watching Martin Scorsese’s wonderful, award-winning movie and reading Grann’s well-researched book, I received new insights into the Osage culture and their passage from rez Indians to becoming the wealthiest people in America.

 The book’s title fascinated me, speaking with double imagery—describing the beautiful flowers of the Osage hills and prairies seen in April that would die in the month of May—the flower-killing moon—and a title also suggestive of the killers who plagued the Osage in the early 20th century. The lands of the mighty Osage had shrunk until they were finally driven to what was then an undesirable section of Oklahoma; ironically that is, until those same lands were found to contain the richest oil fields in America. The Osage were smart enough to take advantage of their newly found wealth.

However, what could have been a dream fantasy for the Osage turned into a nightmare as so many Osage were murdered by white men who schemed, manipulated, bribed, and murdered so they could obtain the lands and oil income belonging to the Osage. Not only did the Osage suffer from such outlaws, they also suffered from the same corrupt politics our age suffers from—politicians, lawyers, judges and lawmen who lie, who use oppressive laws, and who are even willing to use brute force to get what they want. And if the book’s account of the newly formed FBI had not risen to deal with the Osage murders, there is no telling when these evils and murders would have stopped.            I would encourage the reader to both watch the movie and read Grann’s book. It will be an unsettling experience, but a rich one.

The book can be ordered HERE:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Grann is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the bestselling author of the Lost City of Z and the Devil and Sherlock Holmes. He has received several honors for outstanding journalism, including a George Polk Award.

Two Great Reads to Make 19th and early 20th Century Louisiana Come Alive

Posted on by

J.W. (Billy) Dunn and his family have deep, historical ties to Central Louisiana. Those who originally settled the Piney Woods section of the state were a tough, determined breed of pioneers. They were farmers who wrestled with the unpredictable weather and hard, economic times to raise a family in an unforgiving land.  October Rain is a tale of a family’s struggle to hold on to their faith and to hold their family together. The writing is so strong that the reader will find him or herself living in their cabins, working with them in their fields, and hunting Louisiana forests.

A Review of Anthony Wood’s White & Black: A Story of the Civil War

Posted on by

A Review Anthony Wood’s White & Black: A Story of the Civil War

by Rickey Pittman, Bard of the South

Anthony Wood
A Story of the Civil War
White & Black: A Tale of Two Colors Volume I
Tiree Press, an Imprint of the Oghma Press

This historical novel is a fascinating and thoughtful account of the Antebellum South that like a polished diamond, has many facets. It is in many respects a bildungsroman, that shows the journeys, growth, and development of a young man, Lummy Tullos, in a turbulent, troubled time in America’s history.
This is a Civil War novel, though it thankfully avoids preaching and the overused stereotypes of Hollywood movies.
It is also a story of the conflicts, (inward and outward), struggles, and victories of the Tullos family in Mississippi and in Central Louisiana. Most importantly, this novel is a romance, a story of an intense but forbidden love between Lummy and Susannah, two people of different races. Lummy, in spite of the war descending upon them and his enlistment in the Confederate Army, he finds redemption in Susannah’s love, the love of his life and the only thing that will make him whole again.
Wood’s writing is excellent, capturing the idioms, vocabulary,  and soul of Southerners. Using epigraphs, letters, and historical events, he takes the reader into the deep South so effectively that we will not forget this story. And remember: This is just Volume One.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ANTHONY WOOD is an award-winning and oft-published writer, a devoted historian, a minister, and a Civil War reenactor. Find his book on all streaming services, including Amazon.

 

A Short Review of Daisy’s One World Dance Entertainment Services

Posted on by

A Review of Daisy’s One World Dance Entertainment Services

By Rickey Pittman, Bard of the South

“Dancers are the athletes of God.” — Albert Einstein

I am a musical artist by passion and vocation. Still, I have always admired and studied the artists of other art forms—especially dance, painting, sculpture, architecture, drama, cinema, and literature. I have always especially had great admiration and appreciation for dance presentations. So, it was with great delight that a beautiful, local, and very talented dancer here in Monroe introduced me to her performance dance crew based in DFW, Daisy’s One World Dance Entertainment Services,

         This company, which also provides workshops in addition to performances,  is creative, matching themes of bookings to make a memorable event. The variety of dances, performances, and services they provide is breathtaking. The company offers workshops, features presentations (often interactive) for Flapper Parties, a Fusion Belly Dance Act, Circus Style Performance act,  Group Cancan Act, Music Video Dancers, LED (Light-emitting diode) Group Performers, Vegas Showgirls, Fire Shows, and Character impersonations. To see specific booking details (including price, time length of booking, etc.) of each of these options you must visit their website HERE: https://www.daisysoneworld.com  Their services also include a promise to help customers organize the full line-up of the event, photographers, sound, lighting, and staging.

As you can see from the photos included in this post, the performers of Daisy’s One World Entertainment are beautiful, experienced, well-trained professionals, beautifully costumed, sure to amaze any audience.

If you are interested in learning more and perhaps booking first-class entertainment for your events, I encourage you to visit their website and sign up for their mailing list, and if an dance artist, perhaps consider membership.  A few selected photos are below.

CONTACT DETAILS:

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/daisy.pardo11

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/daisysoneworld/

Website https://www.daisysoneworld.com

Phone: 817-505-6955

     

Two Louisiana Books Perfect for Christmas Gifts!

Posted on by

It’s time for Christmas shopping! Here are two fine Louisiana books–Remembrance, a historical novel, and Remembrance, a memoir–authored by J.W. (Billy) Dunn and edited by Rickey Pittman. Both books are available from Booklocker (see link below) and from Amazon! A perfect gift for any reader who loves Louisiana.

  October Rain by J.W. Dunn is a historical novel relating the story of Thurston Knox and his family as they struggle to survive and prosper on his eighty-acre farm in North Louisiana in 1906. Beset by weather, a son’s rebellion, sickness, and death of loved ones, Thurston worries about his own impending death—a condition he has hidden from his family and continues pushing himself to plant an additional ten acres of cotton, determined to make his farm provide for his family after he is gone. However, his stubborn resolution precipitates events that threaten to destroy his family. Dunn and his family are long-time residents of Columbia in Caldwell Parish.

Remembrance is A Caldwell Parish memoir of the life of Creston Curtis Dunn, who lived in three centuries and in the second and third Millennium. Mr. Dunn was one of the most influential and interesting individuals in the history of Caldwell Parish.

Order from Booklocker:   Remembrance HERE: October Rain: HERE.

AMAZON:  Remembrance HERE: October Rain: HERE.

          ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J. W. Dunn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double concentration in history and English from the University of the State of New York, Albany, New York, now Excelsior College. He studied with Elaine Ford and Constance Hunting in the University of Maine’s graduate creative writing program. Dunn and his family have been long-time residents of Caldwell Parish.