Norah piehl biography of george washington
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“A Novel”: An article
As you circulate around your neighborhood bookstore or trawl the fiction section of Amazon, your eyes may sweep across the words “A Novel” on many a cover. “The Mars Room: A Novel,” “Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel,” “Purity: A Novel.”
“Duh,” you may think, though it’s possible the phrase won’t cause more than a faint blip on your radar, too small to register as a thought. As a book marketing convention, “A Novel” is so common that it hardly seems worth remarking on. When I started emailing people in the book publishing world to see if they could tell me why this tradition exists, I received multiple responses along the lines of, “I’m not sure I have much to say.”
I’m not the only one to pursue the question. When a book lives in the fiction aisle or is neatly tagged as such online, does it really need to announce itself as a novel? The answer to
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The legendary soldiers of the American Revolution
In his new book, bestselling military historian Patrick K. O’Donnell turns his attention to a forgotten story of the American Revolution. Today, only a rusted metal sign memorializes 256 Maryland soldiers who fell during the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776. The dock were part of a legendary regiment whose heroic actions in that battle—and others in the years to come—helped determine the outcome of the war.
O’Donnell became curious about the men while on a walking tour of the Brooklyn neighborhood where the undiscovered remains of the soldiers still lie. Through his research, he uncovered the fascinating story of Major Mordecai Gist, who formed an independent company of dock in Baltimore in 1774, when war clouds were gathering. The unit would become one of only a few that fought throughout the war, disbanding in November 1783. (Gist, who survived, named his sons Independent and States.)
O’Donnell
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Gob’s Grief
Ever since Chris Adrian's acclaimed short story "Every Night for a Thousand Years" appeared in the New Yorker in 1997, readers have waited for the release of the author's first novel. In Gob's Grief, their wait is rewarded with a visionary book that builds on the Civil War-era story first introduced some four years earlier.
In the original tale, American poet Walt Whitman watches over the deathbed of a child soldier suffering his final days in an Army hospital. Whitman's despair drives him to near madness. In Gob's Grief, Whitman makes the acquaintance of George Washington Woodhull, better known as Gob, the fictitious son of real-life feminist and presidential candidate Virginia Woodhull. Raised in the Ohio countryside by a quirky extended family, Gob apprentices himself to the man-beast Urfeist to unlock the secrets of death. Gob has suffered relentless anguish since his 11-year-old-brother Tomo ran off to fight in the Ci