The Wettest County In The World

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416561404
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Wettest County in the World written by Matt Bondurant and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-12-29 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bondurant weaves a compelling tale of violence, desperation, and greed, as three brothers run moonshine in Virginia during prohibition, in this story that is based on a true story about the author's grandfather and two uncles.

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451625316
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.18/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Night Swimmer written by Matt Bondurant and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “evocative and often lyrical” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel about a young American couple who win a pub on the southernmost tip of Ireland and become embroiled in the local violence and intrigue. The Night Swimmer, Matt Bondurant’s utterly riveting modern gothic novel of marriage and belonging, confirms his gift for storytelling that transports and enthralls. In a small town on the southern coast of Ireland, an isolated place only frequented by fishermen and the occasional group of bird-watchers, Fred and Elly Bulkington, newly arrived from Vermont having won a pub in a contest, encounter a wild, strange land shaped by the pounding storms of the North Atlantic, as well as the native resistance to strangers. As Fred revels in the life of a new pubowner, Elly takes the ferry out to a nearby island where anyone not born there is called a “blow-in.” To the disbelief of the locals, Elly devotes herself to open-water swimming, pushing herself to the limit and crossing unseen boundaries that drive her into the heart of the island’s troubles—the mysterious tragedy that shrouds its inhabitants and the dangerous feud between an enigmatic farmer and a powerful clan that has no use for outsiders. The poignant unraveling of a marriage, the fierce beauty of the natural world, the mysterious power of Irish lore, and the gripping story of strangers in a strange land rife with intrigue and violence—The Night Swimmer is a novel of myriad enchantments by a writer of extraordinary talent.

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451699700
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lawless written by Matt Bondurant and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-09-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a Foreword by Director John Hillcoat Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, Lawless is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. When Sherwood Anderson, the journalist and author of Winesburg, Ohio, was covering a story there, he christened it the “wettest county in the world.” Anderson finds himself driving along dusty red roads, piecing together the clues linking the brothers to “The Great Franklin County Moonshine Conspiracy,” and breaking open the silence that shrouds Franklin County. In vivid, muscular prose, Matt Bondurant brings these men—their dark deeds, their long silences, their deep desires—to life. His understanding of the passion, violence, and desperation at the center of this world is both heartbreaking and magnificent.

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Hachette Books
ISBN 13 : 140138286X
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Third Translation written by Matt Bondurant and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2005-04-06 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ancient mystery, a hidden language, and the secrets of a bizarre Egyptian sect collide in modern-day London in this ingenious novel of seduction, conspiracy, and betrayal alter Rothschild is an American Egyptologist living in London and charged by the British Museum with the task of unlocking the ancient riddle of the Stela of Paser, one of the last remaining real-life hieroglyphic mysteries in existence today. The secrets of the stela-a centuries-old funerary stone-have evaded scholars for thousands of years due to the stela's cryptic reference to a third translation:

Author : Charles D. Thompson Jr.
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 025209526X
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Spirits of Just Men written by Charles D. Thompson Jr. and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2011-04-20 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spirits of Just Men tells the story of moonshine in 1930s America, as seen through the remarkable location of Franklin County, Virginia, a place that many still refer to as the "moonshine capital of the world." Charles D. Thompson Jr. chronicles the Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935, which made national news and exposed the far-reaching and pervasive tendrils of Appalachia's local moonshine economy. Thompson, whose ancestors were involved in the area's moonshine trade and trial as well as local law enforcement, uses the event as a stepping-off point to explore Blue Ridge Mountain culture, economy, and political engagement in the 1930s. Drawing from extensive oral histories and local archival material, he illustrates how the moonshine trade was a rational and savvy choice for struggling farmers and community members during the Great Depression. Local characters come alive through this richly colorful narrative, including the stories of Miss Ora Harrison, a key witness for the defense and an Episcopalian missionary to the region, and Elder Goode Hash, an itinerant Primitive Baptist preacher and juror in a related murder trial. Considering the complex interactions of religion, economics, local history, Appalachian culture, and immigration, Thompson's sensitive analysis examines the people and processes involved in turning a basic agricultural commodity into such a sought-after and essentially American spirit.

Author : Bryce Bauer
Publisher : Chicago Review Press
ISBN 13 : 1613748485
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gentlemen Bootleggers written by Bryce Bauer and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During Prohibition, while Al Capone was rising to worldwide prominence as Public Enemy Number One, the townspeople of Templeton, Iowa—population just 418—were busy with a bootlegging empire of their own. Led by the whip-smart and gregarious Joe Irlbeck, an outfit of farmers, small merchants, and even the church Monsignor together created a whiskey so excellent it was ordered by name: “Templeton rye.” However, a prohibition agent from the adjacent county named Benjamin Franklin Wilson was ardent in his fight against alcohol, and he chased Irlbeck for over a decade. But Irlbeck was not Capone, and Templeton would not be ruled by violence like Chicago. Gentlemen Bootleggers tells a never-before-told tale of ingenuity, bootstrapping, and perseverance, showcasing a group of criminals who embraced the American ideals of self-reliance, dynamism, and democratic justice. It relies on previously classified Prohibition Bureau investigation files, federal court case files, extensive newspaper archive research, and a recently disclosed interview with kingpin Joe Irlbeck. Unlike other Prohibition-era tales of big-city gangsters, it provides an important reminder that bootlegging wasn’t only about glory and riches, but could be in the service of a higher goal: producing the best whiskey money could buy. Bryce T. Bauer is a Hearst Award-winning journalist who has written for Saveur, the Daily Iowan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and other publications. He is coproducing and cowriting West Iowa Whiskey Cookers, a documentary on Prohibition-era bootlegging. He lives in New York City.

Author : James A. Nagy
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0738592641
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Franklin County written by James A. Nagy and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be it Moonshine or Country Music, Franklin County has something for everyone and a story to entertain anyone In the fall of 1785, the Virginia General Assembly voted to create a new county in the southwestern part of the state. The new county, named after Benjamin Franklin, was formed from parts of Bedford and Henry Counties. In January 1786, the first court in Franklin County convened and the county government was established. Native sons who have risen to national prominence include African American educator Booker T. Washington and the only Confederate commander to lead an attack on Washington, DC, during the Civil War, Gen. Jubal A. Early. With an area of 712 square miles, the county includes the communities of Ferrum, Endicott, Sontag, Glade Hill, Snow Creek, Henry, Penhook, Union Hall, Burnt Chimney, Callaway, Wirtz, Redwood, Scruggs, Sydnorsville, and the town of Boones Mill. The county seat of Rocky Mount was incorporated after Rocky Mount and another village, Mount Pleasant, combined in 1873. Having acquired the title of the Moonshine Capital of the World during Prohibition, Franklin County is also the eastern anchor of Virginia's music heritage trail, the Crooked Road.

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Blackstone Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Oleander City written by Matt Bondurant and published by Blackstone Publishing. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the 1900 Galveston hurricane, three lives converge despite persecution from the Ku Klux Klan, a bare-knuckle boxing match gone wrong, and the recovery efforts of the American Red Cross. Based on a true story The hurricane of 1900, America’s worst natural disaster, left the island city of Galveston in ruins. Thousands perished, including all ninety-three children at the Sisters of the Incarnate Word orphanage—except six-year-old Hester, who miraculously survived. Oleander City is the tale of this little girl and the volatile collision between the American Red Cross, the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the most famous boxing matches in American history. The bout, organized to raise money for the recovery effort, featured the enigmatic veteran “Chrysanthemum Joe” Choynski, the most successful Jewish boxer in America, and Jack Johnson, a young hometown hero known as “the Galveston Giant.” The storied battle forged a bond between the two legendary fighters and put Johnson on the path to become the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Meanwhile, Clara Barton and the Red Cross minister to the sick and hungry as mounted vigilantes use the chaotic situation to settle old scores. After witnessing a terrible crime, Hester finds sanctuary with the ladies of the Red Cross, in a heartrending convergence of these historic figures.

Author : Karla Deel
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1493042440
Total Pages : 169 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Storied & Scandalous Kansas City written by Karla Deel and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to Kansas City—the best town this side of Hell. The Paris of the Plains. Home to the Wettest Block in the World. This collection celebrates a storied history of one notorious city. Meet the mobsters and victims, bootleggers, madams, political bosses and raucous entertainers who truly brought the party to the plains even during Prohibition. Witness the best parades, the wackiest costumes and the wildest scams. Kansas City’s sordid underbelly is full of surprises sure to delight and entice—the odd, macabre and delightful.

Author : Alan Maimon
Publisher : Melville House
ISBN 13 : 1612198856
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Twilight in Hazard written by Alan Maimon and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Twilight in Hazard paints a more nuanced portrait of Appalachia than Vance did...[Maimon] eviscerates Vance's bestseller with stiletto precision.” —Associated Press From investigative reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Alan Maimon comes the story of how a perfect storm of events has had a devastating impact on life in small town Appalachia, and on the soul of a shaken nation . . . When Alan Maimon got the assignment in 2000 to report on life in rural Eastern Kentucky, his editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal told him to cover the region “like a foreign correspondent would.” And indeed, when Maimon arrived in Hazard, Kentucky fresh off a reporting stint for the New York Times’s Berlin bureau, he felt every bit the outsider. He had landed in a place in the vice grip of ecological devastation and a corporate-made opioid epidemic—a place where vote-buying and drug-motivated political assassinations were the order of the day. While reporting on the intense religious allegiances, the bitter, bareknuckled political rivalries, and the faltering attempts to emerge from a century-long coal-based economy, Maimon learns that everything—and nothing—you have heard about the region is true. And far from being a foreign place, it is a region whose generations-long struggles are driven by quintessentially American forces. Resisting the easy cliches, Maimon’s Twilight in Hazard gives us a profound understanding of the region from his years of careful reporting. It is both a powerful chronicle of a young reporter’s immersion in a place, and of his return years later—this time as the husband of a Harlan County coal miner’s daughter—to find the area struggling with its identity and in the thrall of Trumpism as a political ideology. Twilight in Hazard refuses to mythologize Central Appalachia. It is a plea to move past the fixation on coal, and a reminder of the true costs to democracy when the media retreats from places of rural distress. It is an intimate portrait of a people staring down some of the most pernicious forces at work in America today while simultaneously being asked: How could you let this happen to yourselves? Twilight in Hazard instead tells the more riveting, noirish, and sometimes bitingly humorous story of how we all let this happen.