The author, a television producer and writer, shares his experiences raising a family in California, and interacting with various family pets and wildlife.

"Since Spencer's Mountain I have followed Earl Hamner's career with much interest and much satisfaction, having picked a winner." --Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird Earl Hamner, one of America's best-loved storytellers, has never been the subject of a full-length study. Earl Hamner: From Walton's Mountain to Tomorrow fills that gap. A native Virginian, Hamner once said, "Even though families are said to be shattered these days, and God is said to be dead, if people can revisit the scenes and places where these values did exist, possibly they can come to believe in them again, or . . . to adapt some kind of belief in God, or faith in the family unit, or just getting home again." This vision of what makes for a whole life permeates all of Hamner's work. It is present in the novel Spencer's Mountain, upon which The Waltons was loosely based, and in his screenplays, such as the work he is perhaps most proud of, Charlotte's Web. It is even present in such unlikely places as the eight scripts he contributed to the classic television series The Twilight Zone and the tales of cold-blooded betrayal and boundless ambition depicted on Falcon Crest. In Earl Hamner: From Walton's Mountain to Tomorrow, readers will discover the integrated nature of his career, finding that there is no real conflict between the warm folksiness of The Waltons, the offbeat fantasies of his Twilight Zone scripts, the unscrupulous ethics displayed on Falcon Crest, and the myriad other novels and scripts he has written and TV programs he has produced. Instead, readers will find that there is a pervasive theme running throughout Hamner's work, that of a man forever taking a backward glance at his roots for direction in finding what makes life worthwhile. Upon learning that this book was being written, Hamner told one of his friends, "I can't imagine anyone wanting to read a book about me, much less write one about me." Readers of this book will find Hamner's doubts indeed misplaced. They will also discover a delightful individual who has enjoyed a long, accomplished career as a storyteller laboring for a worthy goal: that posterity may know of an age and a people whose legacy has not, through silence, been permitted to pass away as if a dream.

For eight wonderful years The Waltons, the story of a family living in the foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains during the Depression, entertained America and the world. Yet this television show was more than entertaining. Each episode combined wonderful stories and "teachable moments" in which adults and children alike learned the importance of honesty, hard work, respect, responsibility, self-sacrifice, and kindness. As is true in most families, the Waltons faced many challenges, occasionally stumbled along the way, but they struggled to live their lives within the framework of the values they believed and taught. Goodnight, John-Boy is a memory book of The Waltons, the number-one television show of its time. Filled with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and profiles of people who appeared on the show, it introduces readers to the Hamner family members who later became characters on The Waltons, suggests events and locales that inspired many of the episodes, and traces Earl Hamner's life as a writer from Virginia to New York to Hollywood. Included is a description of each episode plus reminiscence, comments, and personal feelings from numerous people connected with the series-writers, actors, directors, producers, family, and fans. Heavily illustrated with publicity shots and personal photographs taken by cast, crew, and others, Goodnight John-Boy will be a welcomed book by millions of loyal fans. When The Waltons first aired in 1972, it was at the bottom of the Nielson ratings-by December it led the list. That dramatic leap came about because fans told their friends about it and wrote the CBS network to praise the show and to plead that the show not be canceled. Thirty years later, Goodnight, John-Boy is sure to touch the hearts of the show's fans again.

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century. What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned. Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

A black man is coming home. He sits on a bus and he thinks over what he will tell his child. It's a journey back to Africa. All the problems he has to face but he will not give up.

Discover remarkable information about science, animals, history, and more with this collection of 150 interesting and intriguing facts. Did you know peanut butter could be turned into diamonds? Or that one teaspoon of honey is the life work of a dozen bees? Or that babies have 95 more bones than adults? These are just a few of the facts that you could learn in Factourism. Featuring 150 of the most extraordinary things that happen in the world every day, you’ll find amazing pieces of trivia accompanied by bright, colorful illustrations. Each beautifully designed page holds a trivia tidbit that will leave you brimming with knowledge.