The Book of Famous Iowans

The Book of Famous Iowans PDF Author: Douglas Bauer
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609382668
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Will Vaughn, a man of late middle age living in Chicago with his second wife, remembers the month of June 1957 in his hometown, the rural village of New Holland, Iowa. More precisely, Will remembers just a few days of that month and the quick sequence of astonishing events that have colored, ever since, the logic of his heart and the moods of his mind. He tells of his stunningly beautiful young mother, Leanne, who liked to recall the years of the Second World War, during which she sang with a dance band in a lounge in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He tells too of his father, Lewis, a soldier in the war who one night saw the “resplendently sequined” Leanne step onstage and began at that instant to plot his courtship of her. But mostly what Will summons up in his intimate remembrance are those few catastrophic days in early June when he was “three months shy of twelve,” more than a decade after his parents have married and returned to the Vaughns’ home place, where Lewis farms his family’s land. For it is during those days that Leanne’s affair with a local man named Bobby Markum becomes known—first to Lewis and then, in a fiercely dramatic public confrontation, to young Will, to his beloved Grandmother Vaughn, and by nightfall to all the citizens of the town. The knowledge of such scandal, in so small a place, sets off a series of highly charged reactions, vivid consequences that surely determine the fates of every member of this unforgettable family. A tale of memory and hero worship and the restless pulse of longing, The Book of Famous Iowans examines those forces that define not only a state made up of a physical geography, but more important, those states of the wholly human spirit.

The Book of Famous Iowans

The Book of Famous Iowans PDF Author: Douglas Bauer
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609382668
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Will Vaughn, a man of late middle age living in Chicago with his second wife, remembers the month of June 1957 in his hometown, the rural village of New Holland, Iowa. More precisely, Will remembers just a few days of that month and the quick sequence of astonishing events that have colored, ever since, the logic of his heart and the moods of his mind. He tells of his stunningly beautiful young mother, Leanne, who liked to recall the years of the Second World War, during which she sang with a dance band in a lounge in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He tells too of his father, Lewis, a soldier in the war who one night saw the “resplendently sequined” Leanne step onstage and began at that instant to plot his courtship of her. But mostly what Will summons up in his intimate remembrance are those few catastrophic days in early June when he was “three months shy of twelve,” more than a decade after his parents have married and returned to the Vaughns’ home place, where Lewis farms his family’s land. For it is during those days that Leanne’s affair with a local man named Bobby Markum becomes known—first to Lewis and then, in a fiercely dramatic public confrontation, to young Will, to his beloved Grandmother Vaughn, and by nightfall to all the citizens of the town. The knowledge of such scandal, in so small a place, sets off a series of highly charged reactions, vivid consequences that surely determine the fates of every member of this unforgettable family. A tale of memory and hero worship and the restless pulse of longing, The Book of Famous Iowans examines those forces that define not only a state made up of a physical geography, but more important, those states of the wholly human spirit.

Iowa and Some Iowans

Iowa and Some Iowans PDF Author: Betty Jo Buckingham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


Iowa's Remarkable Soils

Iowa's Remarkable Soils PDF Author: Kathleen Woida
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609387503
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In language that is scientifically sound but accessible to the layperson, Kathleen Woida explains how Iowa's soils formed and have changed over centuries and millennia. Its soils are what make Iowa a premier agricultural state, both in terms of acres planted and bushels harvested. But in the last hundred years, large-scale intensive agriculture and urban development have severely degraded most of our soils. However, as Woida documents, some innovative Iowans are beginning to repair and regenerate their soils by treating them as the living ecosystem and vast carbon store that they are.

The Baseball Whisperer

The Baseball Whisperer PDF Author: Michael Tackett
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0544386396
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
“Field of Dreams was only superficially about baseball. It was really about life. So is The Baseball Whisperer . . . with the added advantage of being all true.” —MLB.com From an award-winning journalist, this is the story of a legendary coach and the professional-caliber baseball program he built in America's heartland, where boys would come summer after summer to be molded into ballplayers—and men. Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl’s original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the Los Angeles ghetto who would one day become a beloved Hall-of-Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith. The Baseball Whisperer traces the “deeply engrossing” story (Booklist, starred review) of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A’s baseball team, which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. Along with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players. In the process, he taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility. More than a book about ballplayers in the nation’s agricultural heartland, The Baseball Whisperer is the story of a coach who put character and dedication first, reminding us of the best, purest form of baseball excellence. “Mike Tackett, talented journalist and baseball lover, has hit the sweet spot of the bat with his first book. The Baseball Whisperer takes one coach and one small Iowa town and illuminates both a sport and the human spirit.” —David Maraniss, New York Times-bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered

Amazing Iowa Women

Amazing Iowa Women PDF Author: Katy Swalwell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781649450661
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Inspired by 'Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls' and 'Rad Women A to Z,' Iowa State education professor Katy Swalwell worked with over 25 Iowa women artists and RAYGUN to create an illustrated children's book that celebrates the incredible accomplishments through short biographies of a diverse set of women throughout Iowa's history. The book is available at raygunsite.com.

Iowa's Changing Wildlife

Iowa's Changing Wildlife PDF Author: James J. Dinsmore
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609389255
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
"This book tells the recent story of Iowa's wildlife from recovery and restoration to disappointing declines. During the pandemic, the number of visitors to state parks, wildlife areas, and other natural areas has increased greatly. For many, this is a new experience. This book will provide them with a reliable source of information about many of the animals that they are now seeing. Much has changed with Iowa's wildlife in the past 30 years. Some species like Canada goose, wild turkey, and white-tailed deer that once were rare in Iowa are now common, and others like sandhill crane, river otter, and trumpeter swan are becoming increasingly abundant. The goal of this book is to provide an up-to-date, scientifically based summary of changes in the distribution, status, conservation needs, and future prospects of about 60 species of Iowa's birds and mammals whose populations have increased or decreased in the past 30 years. Emphasis is given to several species that have experienced significant growth, some that show signs that they may experience future growth, and a few whose long-term future in Iowa is in jeopardy. This book is not an update of James and Stephen Dinsmore's earlier book, A Country So Full of Game, which discussed Iowa's wildlife up to about 1990. This is an entirely new book, discussing what has happened in the years 1990-2020. For species covered in the earlier book, only a brief discussion of earlier years is provided to connect the new material to what happened earlier"--

The Guide to Iowa's State Preserves

The Guide to Iowa's State Preserves PDF Author: Ruth Herzberg
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609380088
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The Iowa state preserves system was created in 1965; a decade later, thirty preserves had been dedicated, including “six native prairies, a native White Pine stand, the state's only Sphagnum bog, a Balsam Fir stand, some of the oldest exposed rock outcrops in the world, an ancient fort, a fen, several Indian mound groups and a historical cemetery.” This new guide to all ninety Iowa state preserves—biological, geological, archaeological, historical, and scenic—describes the state's most treasured prairies and forests, quartzite outcrops and ice caves, and Indian mounds and wetlands as well as such historic sites as Fort Atkinson and Montauk. Each entry includes two-color, progressively scaled maps giving the location of the preserve within the state, within its county, relative to a nearby town (with a recommended driving route), and on the local landscape (using USGS 7.5-minute topo maps). Also included are written directions (using 911 street names and signs); a description of the preserve's size, features, and history; a list of nearby or similar preserves, parks, natural areas, and other attractions; recommended readings; and contact information. (There are a few exceptions for privately owned or fragile preserves.) For travelers, a map in the introduction numbers all the preserves both geographically and alphabetically by name. Although the preserves system emphasizes preservation rather than recreation, some preserves do have formal trails; some allow hunting, horseback riding, and canoeing; a few have museums or nature centers. This comprehensive guide allows visitors to plan active and informative visits to sites that highlight Iowa's natural and cultural heritage.

Irish Iowa

Irish Iowa PDF Author: Timothy Walch
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439666296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Iowa offered freedom and prosperity to the Irish fleeing famine and poverty. They became the second-largest immigrant group to come to the state, and they acquired influence well beyond their numbers. The first hospitals, schools and asylums in the area were established by Irish nuns. Irish laborers laid the tracks and ran the trains that transported crops to market. Kate Shelley became a national heroine when she saved a passenger train from plunging off a bridge. The Sullivan family became the symbol of sacrifice when they lost their five sons in World War II. Author Timothy Walch details these stories and more on the history and influence of the Irish in the Heartland.

Necessary Courage

Necessary Courage PDF Author: Lowell J. Soike
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609382226
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
During the 1850s and early 1860s, Iowa, the westernmost free state bordering a slave state, stood as a bulwark of antislavery sentiment while the decades-long struggle over slavery shifted westward. On its southern border lay Missouri, the northernmost slaveholding state. To its west was the Kansas-Nebraska Territory, where proslavery and antislavery militias battled. Missouri slaves fled to Iowa seeking freedom, finding opponents of slavery who risked their lives and livelihoods to help them, as well as bounty hunters who forced them back into bondage. When opponents of slavery streamed west across the state’s broad prairies to prevent slaveholders from dominating Kansas, Iowans fed, housed, and armed the antislavery settlers. Not a few young Iowa men also took up arms. In Necessary Courage, historian Lowell J. Soike details long-forgotten stories of determined runaways and the courageous Iowans who acted as conductors on this most dangerous of railroads—the underground railroad. Alexander Clark, an African American businessman in Muscatine, hid a young fugitive in his house to protect him from slavecatchers while he fought for his freedom in the courts. While keeping antislavery newspapers fully apprised of the battle against human bondage in western Iowa, Elvira Gaston Platt drove a wagon full of fugitives to the next safe house under the noses of her proslavery neighbors. John Brown, fleeing across Iowa with a price on his head for the murders of proslavery Kansas settlers, relied on Iowans like Josiah Grinnell and William Penn Clarke to keep him, his men, and the twelve Missouri slaves they had liberated hidden from the authorities. Several young Iowans went on to fight alongside Brown at Harpers Ferry. These stories and many more are told here. A suspenseful and often heartbreaking tale of desperation, courage, cunning, and betrayal, this book reveals the critical role that Iowans played in the struggle against slavery and the coming of the Civil War.

An Iowa Album

An Iowa Album PDF Author: Mary Bennett
Publisher: Bureau Oak Original
ISBN: 9780877457534
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This work invites the reader to travel through 60 years of Iowa history, between 1860 and 1920, and to view the state in turn-of-the-century glory. Lavish illustrations show harvest times, main streets, children playing, and leisure activities of the time - warmly redolent of a time gone by.