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SAM HOUSTON

A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FATHER OF TEXAS

Indian State historian Williams (A Great and Shining Road, 1988) presents one of the most colorful figures of the early days of the American West as a flawed hero and failed family man—but also as an unswerving supporter of the republic that he guided into the US. Born in 1793 in western Virginia, Houston distanced himself from his family at an early age, living among the Cherokee as a teenager and maintaining their trust even after he developed his lifelong passion for alcohol. Wounded in an attack against Creek rebels, he recovered sufficiently to become a member of Congress and then governor of Tennessee before the age of 35, but habitual drunkenness and a scandal involving his wife led to his resignation as governor in 1829. Soon attracted to the possibility of carving a new nation from northern Mexico, Houston became involved in schemes to settle the territory with Americans, provoking a strong response from Mexican general Santa Anna. Seizing the proper moment, now-General Houston led a charge against the Mexican army, defeating it soundly though receiving a painful wound. Acclaimed as a hero, Houston became the first president of the Republic of Texas and steered it on a quiet but steady course toward annexation by the US (accomplished in 1845) while attempting to stay clear of the growing controversy over slavery. As a US senator and, later, governor of Texas, Houston held to a moderate course, trying above all to keep Texas in the Union—but to no avail. In 1863, two years after Texas joined the Confederacy, Houston died, broken and impoverished. Well-detailed but somewhat pedestrian history in which Houston emerges only intermittently from his context; still, a valuable look at the forces behind the formation of Texas and its pivotal role in US expansion from coast to coast. (B&w photos—not seen.)

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 1993

ISBN: 0-671-74641-3

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1992

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NIGHT

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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