This is an amazing story by Leonard Falkner that I found in the August 1957 of American Heritage. For my money, there is no better bang for the buck than old editions of American Heritage. I get them free or for a quarter, but they’re worth a buck or more. […]

Every once in a while in book collecting you get a rare find, a book that gives you goosebumps the first time you open it. One of those rare finds for me was a copy of “A Doctor in Homespun” by Mary Phylinda Dole, signed by the author, which I […]

Here we see Ike and JFK at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland. Ike has been called to advise the president during the Cuban missile crisis. Ike was the last president to wear a fedora, and after his presidency, hats on men disappeared almost completely from American life.

This photo of General Omar Bradley, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower and Scripps-Howard columnist Ernie Pyle is from “The Story of Ernie Pyle” by his best friend and editor Lee G. Miller. (Acme Photo)

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Homer is that he wasn’t just making stuff up. He was reciting old poems that were based on real people and real events. There’s a lot of debate about this, but they figure the sack of Troy, or rather one of the many sacks […]

I’ve mentioned Homer several times. He’s a guy who is well represented in the book sections of flea markets and rummage sales — and well he should be. “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” make great reading. You have to find a translation you like, because some of the old ones […]

I would be greatly remiss if I did not acknowledge in this blog the individual who has dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the twenty-first century. Back around 1978, I think it was, I was the editor of the “Granite State Gazette” and I hired, right out of high school, […]

When Ike was five he went to a family reunion at his uncle’s house in Topeka. There were a lot of grownups there who didn’t interest Ike much, so he started wandering around the grounds. An aggressive gander chased him back inside. His uncle gave him a broom handle and […]

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to give you a brief sample of Ernie Pyle’s writing, but the power of his genius just does not come across in short selections. His columns were really “of a piece,” and you have to read the whole thing to get the […]

I have a book that I would dearly love to give to my daughter Sarah, who is studying international affairs, because it contains so much wisdom, and I keep trying to finish it, but it’s just one of those books you have to read a little bit at a time. […]