When Ward Degler graduated from journalism school, his mother speculated he would become a world-famous war correspondent or, at the very least, editor-in-chief of an influential newspaper. He did neither. Instead, he became a columnist, giving him the opportunity to write about subjects that interested him while avoiding everything that didn't. In The Dark Ages of My Youth, Degler shares a selected collection of the weekly columns written for the Times Sentinel in Zionsville, Indiana, from 1993 to 2010. The essays explore the way things were, where we've been, and where we are going. He reveals the challenges of an eight-year building project that was supposed to be completed in three months. He narrates his bafflement in dealing with the world's most headstrong dog. With humor, he details the foibles and dilemmas of everyday living. And, he profiles the special people who have altered and enriched his life. From the simple to the complex, from the sublime to the silly, The Dark Ages of My Youth takes a charming walk through both the past and present.

When Ward Degler graduated from journalism school, his mother speculated he would become a world-famous war correspondent or, at the very least, editor-in-chief of an influential newspaper. He did neither. Instead, he became a columnist, giving him the opportunity to write about subjects that interested him while avoiding everything that didn't. In The Dark Ages of My Youth, Degler shares a selected collection of the weekly columns written for the Times Sentinel in Zionsville, Indiana, from 1993 to 2010. The essays explore the way things were, where we've been, and where we are going. He reveals the challenges of an eight-year building project that was supposed to be completed in three months. He narrates his bafflement in dealing with the world's most headstrong dog. With humor, he details the foibles and dilemmas of everyday living. And, he profiles the special people who have altered and enriched his life. From the simple to the complex, from the sublime to the silly, The Dark Ages of My Youth takes a charming walk through both the past and present.

A story of the early history of life and manners in "the middle ages of the middle West."

The "utterly compelling, uncommonly beautiful" collection of personal essays (Newsweek) that established Jo Ann Beard as one of the leading writers of her generation. Cousins, mothers, sisters, dolls, dogs, best friends: these are the fixed points in Jo Ann Beard's universe, the constants that remain when the boys of her youth -- and then men who replace them -- are gone. This widely praised collection of autobiographical essays summons back, with astonishing grace and power, moments of childhood epiphany as well as the cataclysms of adult life: betrayal, divorce, death. The Boys of My Youth heralded the arrival of an immensely gifted and influential writer and its essays remain surprising, original, and affecting today. "A luminous, funny, heartbreaking book of essays about life and its defining moments." --Harper's Bazaar