Of all the brave stage drivers in the old west, Mountain Charley Parkhurst was one of the bravest and most colorful. He also just happened to be a woman.

A wounded Confederate soldier treks across the ruins of America in this National Book Award–winning novel: “A stirring Civil War tale told with epic sweep.” —People Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His journey across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. Meanwhile, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic odyssey, hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving.

Americans have long cherished romantic images of the frontier and its colorful cast of characters, where the cowboys are always rugged and the ladies always fragile. But in this book, Peter Boag opens an extraordinary window onto the real Old West. Delving into countless primary sources and surveying sexological and literary sources, Boag paints a vivid picture of a West where cross-dressing—for both men and women—was pervasive, and where easterners as well as Mexicans and even Indians could redefine their gender and sexual identities. Boag asks, why has this history been forgotten and erased? Citing a cultural moment at the turn of the twentieth century—when the frontier ended, the United States entered the modern era, and homosexuality was created as a category—Boag shows how the American people, and thus the American nation, were bequeathed an unambiguous heterosexual identity.

An intimate journey across and in search of America, as told by one of its most beloved writers, in a deluxe centennial edition In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people. To reassure himself, he set out on a voyage of rediscovery of the American identity, accompanied by a distinguished French poodle named Charley; and riding in a three-quarter-ton pickup truck named Rocinante. His course took him through almost forty states: northward from Long Island to Maine; through the Midwest to Chicago; onward by way of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana (with which he fell in love), and Idaho to Seattle, south to San Francisco and his birthplace, Salinas; eastward through the Mojave, New Mexico, Arizona, to the vast hospitality of Texas, to New Orleans and a shocking drama of desegregation; finally, on the last leg, through Alabama, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to New York. Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. Written during a time of upheaval and racial tension in the South—which Steinbeck witnessed firsthand—Travels with Charley is a stunning evocation of America on the eve of a tumultuous decade. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition also features French flaps and deckle-edged paper. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Popular images of women during the American Civil War include self-sacrificing nurses, romantic spies, and brave ladies maintaining hearth and home in the absence of their men. However, as DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook show in their remarkable new study, that conventional picture does not tell the entire story. Hundreds of women assumed male aliases, disguised themselves in men’s uniforms, and charged into battle as Union and Confederate soldiers—facing down not only the guns of the adversary but also the gender prejudices of society. They Fought Like Demons is the first book to fully explore and explain these women, their experiences as combatants, and the controversial issues surrounding their military service. Relying on more than a decade of research in primary sources, Blanton and Cook document over 240 women in uniform and find that their reasons for fighting mirrored those of men—-patriotism, honor, heritage, and a desire for excitement. Some enlisted to remain with husbands or brothers, while others had dressed as men before the war. Some so enjoyed being freed from traditional women’s roles that they continued their masquerade well after 1865. The authors describe how Yankee and Rebel women soldiers eluded detection, some for many years, and even merited promotion. Their comrades often did not discover the deception until the “young boy” in their company was wounded, killed, or gave birth. In addition to examining the details of everyday military life and the harsh challenges of -warfare for these women—which included injury, capture, and imprisonment—Blanton and Cook discuss the female warrior as an icon in nineteenth-century popular culture and why -twentieth-century historians and society ignored women soldiers’ contributions. Shattering the negative assumptions long held about Civil War distaff soldiers, this sophisticated and dynamic work sheds much-needed light on an unusual and overlooked facet of the Civil War experience.

George Washington may never have told a lie, but he may be the only person—our history is littered with liars, deceivers, fraudsters, counterfeiters, and unfaithful lovers. The Encyclopaedia of Liars and Deceivers gathers 150 of them, each entry telling the intriguing tale of the liar’s motives and the people who fell for the lies. To collect these stories of deceit, Roelf Bolt travels from ancient times to the present day, documenting a huge assortment of legerdemain: infamous quacks, fraudulent scientists, crooks who committed “pseudocides” by faking their own deaths, and forgers of artworks, design objects, archaeological finds, and documents. From false royal claims, fake dragon’s eggs, and bogus perpetual motion machines to rare books, mermaid skeletons, and Stradivari violins, Bolt reveals that almost everything has been forged or faked by someone at some point in history. His short, accessible narratives in each entry offer biographies and general observations on specific categories of deceit, and Bolt captures an impressive number of famous figures—including Albert Einstein, Cicero, Ptolemy, Ernest Hemingway, François Mitterand, and Marco Polo—as well as people who would have remained anonymous had their duplicity not come to light. Funny, shocking, and even awe-inspiring, the stories of deception in this catalog of shame make The Encyclopaedia of Liars and Deceivers the perfect gift for all those who enjoy a good tall tale—and those people who like to tell them.

From Gregory's Diggings prospector to Denver mayor, Richard Sopris left an indelible mark on the Mile High City and Centennial State. During an 1860 prospecting expedition, Sopris discovered Glenwood Springs and the nearly thirteen-thousand-foot summit later named for him. Following life as a steamboat captain, he was appointed captain of Company C, First Colorado Cavalry, in 1861 and commanded volunteer troops at Glorieta Pass. After serving as a delegate to the first constitutional convention of Colorado and as Arapaho County sheriff, he helped quell the Hop Alley Chinese Riot of 1880 and enacted public works projects to rid Denver of a deadly typhoid outbreak. After his mayoral term ended in 1881, Sopris became the first commissioner of his beloved City Park. Author Linda Bjorklund celebrates the unsung life and accomplishments of a founding son of Colorado.

TALES OF THE EXPRESS This true story begins in 1826, at a small farm in New Hampshire. The main character is a scared, thirteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Parker. An alcoholic and abusive stepfather and stepbrother complicate her life and she runs away from home with an old horse. After running as far as the horse could take them, Charlotte disguises herself as a boy and tries to find work at a stable. She meets a kind-hearted man named Ebenezer Balch, who owns a livery stable and tavern called the Balch House. Eb takes the boy under his wing and vows to make a man of him. Reinventing herself as Charley Parkhurst, the “boy” becomes part of the family business. Charley stays on at the Balch house and learns to become a respected coachman. In 1844, when the Balchs’ relocated to Providence Rhode Island, Charley, now 31 went along as well. At the “What Cheer House”, in Providence, Charley meets two young men named James Birch and Frank Stevens, who are hired on as stable boys. Parkhurst trains them well as coachmen and during the California gold rush, Birch and Stevens helm a wagon train to the west. James Birch starts a stagecoach business in Sacramento and is wildly successful. Here we are introduced to a lawman named William Wallace Byrnes and see California hang its’ first woman. Several future outlaws are introduced before James Birch can convince Charley Parkhurst to come to California to drive stagecoaches. Parkhurst travels to California with Birch and another coachman named Hank Monk, aboard ship, stopping in Jamaica, before taking a boat ride through the jungles, then riding mules over the mountains to Panama and a waiting ship, with cholera still lingering on her decks. When they get to California, Birch shows them the ropes and sends them down the road. While driving a stagecoach in the Mariposa mountains, Parkhurst is attacked by a sadistic killer named Tres Dedos and left for the bears to finish. A Cherokee poet, John Rolling Ridge, who was camped nearby, rescues Charley. The Mexican gang captures the two of them, but the leader, Joaquin Murrieta decides the gang doesn’t need trouble with the U. S. mail and releases them. When back to work, Parkhurst drives with William Byrnes as a shotgun, they forge a tight friendship.William Byrnes joins the California Rangers to hunt down Murrieta. In the fall of 1855, Parkhurst was again in the company of his friend Hank Monk in the foothills of the Sierras, Placerville, where they befriend a young man from Norway, named John Thompson. Remembering his childhood in the Alps, Thompson builds himself a set of skis and eventually signs on to carry the winter mail across the Sierra Mountains to Carson City. In the spring, while Charley was on route to Redwood City, Parkhurst has trouble with a nasty horse and is kicked in the face and loses his eye. Monk cheers up his pal on a bear hunt, that nearly finishes Hank in the river. The following winter, Snowshoe Thompson saves the life of James Sisson, who was freezing to death in an abandon cabin in the Sierras. Charley Parkhurst and Hank Monk both drive the new Pioneer route from Placerville to Carson City. While on this route, Parkhurst is robbed at night by the bandit Sugarfoot. Horace Greeley then makes an appearance, and is treated to a wild ride and ridicule by Hank Monk. Promoting Monk to the rank of legend. April of 1860 saw trouble with the Paiute Indians, near Carson City, after some station keepers at a remote relay station kidnap two Indian women. When Snowshoe Thompson signs up to hunt Indians, Byrnes signs on to keep the Sierras’ only winter mailman alive. Parkhurst decides to see the rest of the frontier, the plains. He signs on with the new “King of Stagecoaching” Ben Holladay, but doesn’t find it to his liking. Charlie learns that Byrnes has been shot seriously and is in need of a trip to Ne

Charlie and Kangu make it to the magical winter town, but their journey toward the historical castle is not as easy as it seems. As they battle against the cold, the strong wind, and the deep snow, a big polar bear heads their way making their journey complicated and scary. The focus is to make it over the cold mountain, rescue the animals they find who are stuck in the snow, and complete tricks that will help them find the right path to go on. Will Charlie and Kangu make it? The two friends are ready to face anything in their path, but they could use your help too. Will you help them?

This is the autobiography of Charles Franklin Gill, Jr. beginning in 1835 when the Gills and Haynes arrived in Richwood, Ohio and played a major role in the establishment and administration of the community. It continues with the arrival of the Foxes and LeMasters from West Virginia and the union of those two families. My story tells of my birth, childhood, moving to Reno, Nevada, college, Vietnam, and later my life in Saratoga, California as a businessman. I have included an extensive appendix containing articles in the Union County History archives and family trees of the Gills, Haynes, Foxes and LeMasters families. Part I is largely historical. I have attempted to make it readable with lots of photos. Part II is my story and I will let it speak for itself. These anecdotes and stories are derived from the sources stated in the appendixes as well as my own life experiences.