Harry Kendall Dowdy Jr. Preserves Family Stories for Future Generations in New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “Crimson Waterfall: The Story of the Dowdys and Six Related Families” by Harry Kendall Dowdy Jr.

This new book released by Dog Ear Publishing shares the life and times of six families connected to the author, as well as historical facts and his original adages and poetry.

History is created by the individuals who move through it, whether they experience triumph or tragedy. This new book chronicles the lives and accomplishments of author Harry Kendall Dowdy Jr.’s extended family, covering his direct line and that of six families related to it: Scarboroughs, Clarks, Westons, Wrights, Shivers and Scotts. As well as revealing true personal stories, Dowdy puts his relatives into historical context, describing little-known facts and people from the past.

Dowdy’s family contains blood ties from at least three ethnic groups: African-American, Irish and Cherokee, leading to a rich heritage. “Crimson Waterfall: The Story of the Dowdys and Six Related Families” reveals some of that heritage with such stories as how the mulatto son of a white man became a plantation owner and sent many of his 21 children to college; how a university dean and president ended up at the center of first sit-ins at Greensboro, N.C.; and how a man who started high school at the ripe age of 21 went on to become a renowned research scientist.

Readers will learn why Georgia’s readmission to the Union after the Civil War was revoked and later reinstated; how the Civil War led to the creation of West Virginia, and the extent of Southern white opposition to the Confederacy.  Personal commentaries and more than 35 original poems by the author show the true value of family and its lasting effect on individuals and the world.

Photographs, historic documents, family trees, family medical history, family bloodlines, and a listing of achievements by family members enhance this book, which was 22 years in the making. Dowdy, born and raised in South Carolina, now lives in Mitchellville, MD.

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The book is available at www.HarryDowdyBook.com; the site contains additional information.

Crimson Waterfall: The Story of the Dowdys and Six Related Families

Harry Kendall Dowdy Jr.

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-2097-6                        380 pages                        $25 US

Also available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

Anglican Minister Served as Patriot in Revolutionary War; Cynthia Mattson Releases New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “James Craig: Patriot Parson” by Cynthia Mattson.

In this new book released by Dog Ear Publishing, history buffs can learn about the life and often turbulent times of the Reverend James Craig –– a parish parson for the early Anglican Church in America and a Revolutionary War patriot.

An 18^th-century Anglican minister’s dedication to both patriotism and his religion had lasting effects in Virginia and on the church that reverberate to this day. In this new book, author Cynthia Mattson uses her command of detail to describe the life and times of the Reverend James Craig, a clergyman in Cumberland Parish in Lunenburg County. Craig was a major player as the drama of religion and revolution unfolded over the course of his 36-year career in Virginia’s southern Piedmont. How he met the challenges of war and politics would go on to shape his church and community for years to come.

James Craig, Patriot Parson: An American Story of Religion and Revolution paints a portrait of an intellectual and enterprising man devoted not only to God and the established church but also to the prosperity of the land on which he lived. In his time and place, that meant the minister was also a wealthy landowner and slaveholder. When war came and British troops discovered that Reverend Craig was operating his thriving gristmill as a supply depot for American troops, raiding enemy legions burned the mill to the ground, laid waste to the parson’s lands, and made him a prisoner. These shocking and life-threatening events in turn made Craig an American hero. This richly detailed account also features another dimension to the parson’s life –– his role as a wealthy plantation owner and slaveholder in tobacco-rich Virginia. It would be almost a century before the contradiction between America’s fervor for freedom and the economics of slave labor would erupt in another war, a civil one that led to the loss of life and lands for Craig’s descendants.

But for Reverend Craig himself, the fight for freedom from tyranny, led by the work of such public figures as Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, meant the eventual demise of the established Anglican Church in Virginia. As newly independent legislatures wrestled with separating church from state in the pursuit of religious freedom for all, Craig helped create a place for his beloved religion in the newly formed Protestant Episcopal Church. James Craig, Patriot Parson draws on volumes of historical material to tell this many-sided story and offers readers a wealth of illustrations, including maps, drawings, photographs, and images of paintings and 18th-century documents.

Author Cynthia Mattson worked for the federal government during her nearly 30-year career as a trial lawyer. Mattson, who has lived in Arlington, Virginia, since 1972, earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a law degree from Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America. She is a member of the Virginia and District of Columbia bars, the United States Tax Court, the Virginia Historical Society, the Lunenburg County Historical Society, and the Arlington Historical Society. Mattson’s husband, Kendall Craig Jones, is a direct descendant of the Reverend James Craig. They have four children.

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For additional information, please visit www.PatriotParson.com.

James Craig, Patriot Parson: An American Story of Religion and Revolution

Cynthia Mattson

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-2190-4           484 pages Hardcover          $25.95 US

ISBN: 978-1-4575-2171-3          484 pages Paperback          $15.95 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

Lauren Chouinard Sheds Light on Infamous Lightweight Boxer in New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “Muscle and Mayhem: The Saginaw Kid and the Fistic World of the 1890s” by Lauren Chouinard.

Learn about the life of George Henry Lavigne, known as the “Saginaw Kid,” who was lightweight world champion from 1896 to 1899. This new book released by Dog Ear Publishing also features the early days of boxing when the Queensberry Rules – featuring gloved fists and timed rounds – began to transform boxing into a legitimate sport.

The story of “Saginaw Kid” George Henry Lavigne is as much about the sport of boxing as it is about the colorful lightweight world champion. This new book details his birth in 1869 to his defeat of “Iron Man” Dick Burge of England for the world lightweight title in 1896 and everything in between. Just as Lavigne was making his professional debut in 1886, along came the Queensberry Rules, which brought new rules (boxers wore gloves and fought timed rounds), changing boxing from its rough-and-tumble roots to a legitimate – and legal – sport.

“Muscle and Mayhem: The Saginaw Kid and the Fistic World of the 1890s” provides an honest account of the sometimes-troubled Kid, including his dozen arrests, bouts with alcohol, trips to the insane asylum and his sudden death at age 58 of a heart attack. Kid had an impressive record as a professional fighter: 34 wins (21 by knockout), 10 no decisions, six losses (four by KO) one no contest, 11 draws and 21 exhibitions. Lavigne was inducted into the Ring Hall of Fame in 1959, the Michigan Boxing Hall of Fame in 1965, the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Known for his toughness and indomitable will as a fighter, Kid fought some extraordinary matches against the best pugilists of the time.  Dozens of photos as well as quotes from early correspondence and a glossary for words and phrases from the 1890s showcase Chouinard’s painstaking research into the life of this extraordinary boxing legend.

Life circumstances influenced author Lauren Chouinard’s love of sport. He grew up on Chicago’s south side, just a few blocks from the first home of Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, and his mother is Kid Lavigne’s second cousin a few times removed. Chouinard, who worked in municipal government for 27 years, retiring as human resources director, belongs to the International Boxing Research Organization. The Illinois State University graduate opened Pacific Nautilus, a health and fitness club, in 1978 in Eugene and wrote “Get Off Your But,” a guide to getting in shape while overcoming excuses.

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For additional information, please visit www.KidLavigne.com.

Muscle and Mayhem: The Saginaw Kid and the Fistic World of the 1890s

Lauren Chouinard

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1840-9                        436 pages                        $29.95 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

New Book Sheds Light on Lawyers Turned Presidents; Albert Lebowitz Releases New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “The Legal Mind and the Presidency” by Albert Lebowitz.

A novelist with a law degree explores the effects of legal minds on the presidency in this new book released by Dog Ear Publishing.

Everybody knows a lawyer joke or two, but what’s not as well known is the effect of the legal mind on the U.S. presidency. That’s a problem, author Albert Lebowitz points out in his new book, because 27 of the 44 presidents since the nation’s founding have been lawyers. For instance, although hundreds of books and articles have been written about Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, little emphasis has been placed on both of them earning degrees from Ivy League law schools, being constitutional law professors and having wives who also graduated from Ivy League law schools and practiced law.

“The Legal Mind and the Presidency” explores what Lebowitz calls a “deep, persistent, historical American hostility toward being governed by law and lawyers,” even as the American people revel in the fact that even the president is not above the law. Legal dramas like Watergate serve to highlight constitutional violations and threaten the people with those who have real power: lawyers. Lebowitz writes that the U.S. form of government requires an “enlightened and educated lawyer group to fuel its checks, to provide its balances.” He believes having someone with legal training as president can be a good thing, noting that non-lawyers rely more heavily on intuitive, simplistic decisions based on an elusive sense of right and wrong.

Lebowitz breaks down different types of lawyers who have occupied the White House, summarizing each type and providing an in-depth analysis and examples. The first section is lawyer rule-skepticism and includes presidencies of John and Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, James Polk and Richard Nixon. The second section is lawyer moralism in the presidency and its adherents including Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The third section features lawyer formalism and the presidencies of men such as Martin Van Buren, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft Clinton and Obama. This book brings a fresh perspective on the legal minds who have held the nation’s highest office.

This is the fourth book for author Albert Lebowitz, whose collection of short stories, “A Matter of Days,” was published by the Louisiana State University Press. His other books, published by Random House, are the novels “Laban’s Will” and “The Man Who Wouldn’t Say No.” Lebowitz, who has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, wrote an article on the Supreme Court for the Akron Law Review. He is already working on his next novel.

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For additional information, please visit www.allebworks.com.

The Legal Mind and the Presidency

Albert Lebowitz

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1798-3                        216 pages                        $15.95 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

Former Park Ranger Shares Marvels of Civilian Conservation Corps Projects in Arizona; Robert Audretsch Releases New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “We Still Walk in Their Footprint: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern Arizona 1933-1942” by Robert Audretsch.

A former park ranger and trained historian describes projects in northern Arizona performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in this new book released by Dog Ear Publishing.

The Civilian Conservation Corps – a program created by President Franklin Roosevelt after less than a month in office that put young men to work during the Great Depression – improved lives as well as national parks and forests, state parks and other public lands. This new book details the Corps’ work in northern Arizona, where workers planted trees, strung telephone lines, put up fences, built roads and building, constructed trails and campgrounds and put out forest fires. Their prolific projects have withstood the test of time decades later, seen in such attractions as the Petrified Forest’s Painted Desert Inn to the trails of Kingman’s Hualapai Mountain Park.

“We Still Walk in Their Footprint: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern Arizona 1933-1942” showcases the determination of these young men, most of whom had no skills or experience, to change their country. Each chapter includes detailed year-by-year descriptions of the Corps’ work in the Petrified Forest and Coconino, Mohave, Yavapai and Prescott counties. Project locations include Flagstaff-area national monuments, Coconino National Forest, Kaibab and Prescott national forests, Antelope Valley and Parker Dam. Corps workers also helped with the division of grazing camps in Yavapai County and helped rescue hundreds of ranchers and their starving livestock during the devastating winter of 1936-37.

The organization was not without controversy. For instance, the Corps included some diversity. In the push to get the program off the ground, the author writes, the military was willing to break with convention, allowing African-Americans, Hispanics, older veterans and American Indians to enroll in the organization. In fact, when the Corps disbanded in 1942 because of World War II, more than 165 companies nationwide were made up of African-Americans. More than 50 photos from the National Archives and museums bring to life the men of the Corps, their camps and the projects to which they dedicated their lives. Local newspapers and camp newspapers offer additional insights into their efforts. The men of the Corps left an enduring legacy that still resonates today.

Author Robert Audretsch, who spent nearly 20 years as a National Park Service ranger at Grand Canyon National Park, has devoted himself full-time to research and writing about the Civilian Conservations Corps since his retirement in 2009. Audretsch has a degree in history and a master’s degree in library science from Wayne State University and worked as a librarian in Michigan, Ohio and Colorado before becoming a ranger. His other books include “Shaping the Park and Saving the Boys: The Civilian Conservation Corps at Grand Canyon, 1933-1942” and “Grand Canyon’s Phantom Ranch.” He plans to explore the history of the corps in Arizona and in Colorado.

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For additional information, please visit www.cccbooks.org.

We Still Walk in Their Footprint: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Northern Arizona 1933-1942

Robert Audretsch

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1783-9                        212 pages                        $21.95 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

New Book by Sophie Britten Offers Tales of Pioneer Life in California

“Historic photos scattered throughout the book enhance this richly detailed narrative.”

The discovery of several boxes of newspaper clippings in this new book inspires a third-generation California native to write the history of the region. This new book released by Dog Ear Publishing features historic photos and detailed descriptions of the land and its people over a 100-year span.

Rolling, wooded hills next to high mountains that fed rivers and the chance for a fresh start lured pioneers to Three Rivers in the 1850s. Drawing on her own family’s history, in this new book author Sophie Britten presents a picture of their daily life as well as shedding light on those who followed, detailing 100 years of the area’s history. Family lore shares equal billing with history in this intriguing look at pioneers in California.

“Pioneers in Paradise: A Historical and Biographical Record of Early Days in Three Rivers, California 1850s to 1950s” covers a lot of ground, literally. In the first section, Britten describes the apple and pear orchards of Three Rivers and cemeteries, as well as community events, services and organizations, natural hazards, schools, and early business ventures like the broom handle factory, fish hatchery and saloon. Britten brings history alive with her detailed descriptions of daily life, including a mention of when Three Rivers was a “hot spot” for motion pictures. Between 1925 and 1929, she writes, a number of films were made there and in nearby parks.

The second section features stories about specific families, told in chronological order. The stories reveal hard-working people and colorful characters, including Mary Holben Trauger, the first white woman to stay in the Mineral King Mining District through an entire winter in the 1870s and a former playmate of William McKinley, future president of the United States. Mary, who helped her husband find the buried and wounded during a snow slide, became known as Mineral King’s “Angel” for that work and for caring for ill or injured silver miners. Historic photos scattered throughout the book enhance this richly detailed narrative.

Author Sophie Britten, a retired rancher, is the third generation of her family to live in Three Rivers and the nearby foothills and mountains. Her family has done cattle ranching, stock packing and citrus farming in the area. Britten, who has published manuscripts, wrote the book after discovering boxes filled with newspaper clippings from area papers. She already is planning another book on the Loverin family and one on an early visitor to the Kaweah canyons. 

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For additional information, please visit www.brittenbooks.net.

 

Sophie Britten

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1650-4                        348 pages                        $19.95 US

 

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

 


About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

Mock Solider Has Unbelievable Adventure in New Novel Released by Daniel Finck

Dog Ear Publishing releases “Reenact This! A Nightmare Adventure in the Civil War” by Daniel Finck.

A pizza delivery man who attends a Civil War battle re-enactment just to talk with a girl he likes gets thrown into the misadventure of a lifetime in this new book released by Dog Ear Publishing. The author’s love of history comes through clearly in his detailed description of the era.

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time during a Civil War battle reenactment at Kernstown, Va., changes 21-year-old George Kidman forever. Kidman, the main character in this compelling new novel, suffers burns and a head injury when he gets caught between battle lines during a charge made without orders. As he runs to a gap in a stone fence that looks safe, Kidman doesn’t see the cannon that’s about to fire. As a result, instead of seeing a mock battle simulating hundreds of wounded, the eight thousand spectators see one man actually go up in flames.

“Reenact This! A Nightmare Adventure in the Civil War” follows George as he takes part in one adventure after another. He wakes up from his injuries and realizes things have changed just a bit and he doesn’t know why. Things come into focus a bit more when he spots man on a horse that he’s seen before only on T-shirts and coffee mugs at the souvenir stall: General Stonewall Jackson. Apparently George has somehow fallen into an actual war as a Confederate soldier.

Making the best of things, George becomes friends with a raider from Turner Ashby’s cavalry and joins the Stonewall Brigade’s Bluestone Rangers. While trying to figure out what happened – and survive hard marches, more brutal fighting and near-fatal attacks from his comrades – George discovers a few things he didn’t learn in history class. Helping a too-shy suitor win a Southern belle, starting a salvage business and teaching a slow boy how to defend himself are just a few acts that keep him busy. As he works to survive the hardships of war, George wonders if he’ll ever get back or be just another soldier lost to the cause.

This is the first novel for author and amateur historian Daniel Finck, who has been interested in the Civil War since the centennial, in the 1960s. Finck, born in Philadelphia, moved to Virginia while serving in the U.S. Air Force. He works in critical care nursing at a teaching hospital, having spent three decades as an EMT/paramedic. He did graduate studies in American literature at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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For additional information, please visit www.danielfinck.com.

Reenact This! A Nightmare Adventure in the Civil War

Daniel Finck

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1633-7                        508 pages                        $25.96 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.

Children’s Historical Novel Tells One Boy’s Wartime Story; Brian Karadashian Releases New Book

Dog Ear Publishing releases “A Flag in the Window” by Brian Karadashian.

The sights and sounds of America at war come to life in this new children’s book released by Dog Ear Publishing. A California boy and his mother wait patiently for his father serving overseas in World War II, but war has a way of bringing unexpected challenges.

All 12-year-old Billy Roarke wants is to have his father back safe and sound. His father, an engineer, is serving with paratroopers in England during World War II. This debut novel features a look at wartime through the eyes of a boy on the cusp of becoming a young man. Although he and his mom live fairly comfortably in Pasadena, far from the front lines, an unexpected event will change their lives forever.

In “A Flag in the Window,” Billy and his mother go about their daily lives, with Billy hanging out with friends when he’s not at school and his mother working in a parachute factory in Los Angeles. When Billy gets expelled from school for badly beating a boy, he gains a new set of friends – and a new respect for authority – at military school. Scenes right out of a Norman Rockwell painting capture the language and images of the mid 1940s in this children’s historical novel. A soda jerk at the pharmacy serves up stories about his days in World War I as he dishes up malts and shakes, and the Roarkes host a pair of servicemen for Christmas dinner. Ultimately, it’s up to Billy to take responsibility for his actions and take the first steps to becoming a man.

This is the first novel for elementary school teacher Brian Karadashian, who’s had articles published in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Dallas Times Herald. Karadashian, who earned a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and a master’s degree from Stanford University, teaches in San Diego. He and his wife, Marcia, have two grown stepchildren and live in Escondido. The cover art is by Richard DeRosset, a maritime and aviation historian who serves as the official artist for the San Diego Maritime Museum and is an official U.S. Coast Guard artist.

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For additional information, please visit www.briankaradashianbooks.com.

A Flag in the Window

Brian Karadashian

Dog Ear Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-4575-1603-0                        180 pages                        $10 US

Available at Ingram, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and fine bookstores everywhere.

About Dog Ear Publishing, LLC

Dog Ear Publishing offers completely customized self-publishing services for independent authors. We provide cost-effective, fast, and highly profitable services to publish and distribute independently published books. Our book publishing and distribution services reach worldwide. Dog Ear authors retain all rights and complete creative control throughout the entire self-publishing process. Self-publishing services are available globally at dogearpublishing.net and from our offices in Indianapolis.

Dog Ear Publishing – self-publishing that actually makes sense.