The story of a circus elephant's journey through life  Bad Elephant Far Stream is an animal story for adults, a novel about the odyssey of a circus elephant, told from her own perspective, through her own eyes. Inspired by the true story of the circus elephant Topsy, it begins in the forests of Ceylon in the late 1860s with the capture of a baby elephant known to her own kind as Far Stream. She is taken to America and sent to the Adam Forepaugh Circus in Philadelphia. There, Far Stream embarks on a new life under the big top, appearing as “Topsy,” part of Forepaugh’s famed elephant dancing quadrille. She crisscrosses North America for thirty years with the circus, experiencing hardships, kidnapping, escapes and adventure. But when she comes to outweigh her keepers by a factor of forty—it’s hard not to hurt somebody. It’s hard not to be “bad.”   Praise for Bad Elephant Far Stream  “Meticulously researched and well told...an important story...I urge people to read this book.” (Stewart McFarlane, author of Of Mice and Zen: Animal Encounters in the Life of a Wandering Buddhist)  “Intriguing and haunting...Moving and thought-provoking ... an intense and emotional novel. A highly recommended read.” (Shalini’s Book Reviews)  “Well researched, well written and compelling...gripping, heart felt, and filled with compassion.” (Lynelle Clark Aspired Writer)  “Far Stream captured my heart immediately...I enjoyed this book so much that I had to research the story further.” (The Writers Lounge)  “This historically significant novel is one that will stick with me for a long while. It’s a must read for those who enjoy this genre.” (Pure Jonel: Bibliographic Ramblings of a Bookworm)  “I found myself having a hard time putting down the book as I wanted to find out what would happen next. Topsy's story was just that engrossing.” (If It Has Words)

Bad Elephant Far Stream

Literature & Fiction

Hawley, Samuel

Genre Fiction

Conquistador Press

“Magnificent!” (South China Morning Post) “A wonderful read!” (JoongAng Daily News) “The scope is truly vast!” (Seoul Magazine) “Like a prelude to Shogun!"(StrategyPage.com) “A feast!” (Shogun-ki) In May of 1592, Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a 158,800-man army of invasion from Kyushu to Pusan on Korea’s southern tip. His objective: to conquer Korea, then China, and then the whole of Asia. The resulting seven years of fighting, known in Korea as imjin waeran, the “Imjin invasion,” after the year of the water dragon in which it began, dwarfed contemporary conflicts in Europe and was one of the most devastating wars to grip East Asia in the past thousand years. The Imjin War is the most comprehensive account ever published in English of this cataclysmic event, so little known in the West. It begins with the political and cultural background of Korea, Japan and China, explores the diplomatic impasse that led to the war, describes every major incident and battle from 1592 to 1598 and introduces a fascinating cast of characters along the way. There is Hideyoshi, hosting garden parties as his armies march toward Beijing; Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin, emerging from a prison cell to take on the Japanese navy with just thirteen ships; Chinese commander Zhao Chengxun, suffering defeat after promising to “scatter the Japanese to the four winds”; the courtesan Chu Non-gae, luring a samurai into her arms and then jumping into the Nam River with him locked in her embrace. One nation fighting to expand, another to survive. Shockwaves extending across China and beyond. The Imjin War is an epic tale of grand perspective and intimate detail of an upheaval that would shape East Asia for centuries to come.

The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China

History

Asia

The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema and the First Feature Film

“Movie buffs and boxing buffs alike will relish this!”(Publishers Weekly) “An extremely well-researched tale.”(Kirkus Reviews) On March 17, 1897, in an open-air arena in Carson City, Jim Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons fought for the heavyweight championship of the world. The contest was recorded by film pioneer Enoch Rector from inside an immense, human-powered camera called the “Veriscope,” the forgotten Neanderthal at the dawn of cinema history. Rector’s movie of the contest premiered two months later. Known today as The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, it was the world’s first feature-length film. The Fight That Started the Movies is the untold story of Corbett’s and Fitzsimmons’ journey to that ring in Nevada and how the landmark film of their battle came to be made. It reveals how boxing played a key role in the birth of the movies, spurring the development of motion picture technology and pushing the concept of “film” from a twenty-second peephole show to a full-length attraction, “a complete evening’s entertainment,” projected on a screen. The cast of characters in the tale is rich and varied. There are inventors Eadweard Muybridge, Thomas Edison, William Dickson and Eugene Lauste, figuring out how to photographically capture and reproduce motion. There are the playboy brothers Otway and Gray Latham, who first saw the commercial potential of fight films, and their friend and partner Enoch Rector, who pushed that potential to its fruition. There are fighters Jim Corbett with his “scientific” methods of boxing; Bob Fitzsimmons with his thin legs and turnip-on-a-chain punch; hard-drinking John L. Sullivan and the original Jack Dempsey and the gifted but ultimately doomed Young Griffo. There are loud-mouthed fight managers and big-talking promoters, and Wild West legends like Bat Masterson and Judge Roy Bean when the story heads to the Rio Grande river. And finally, there is the audience, our collective ancestors, discovering that movies were more than just a curiosity to gape at, but a new and enduring form of entertainment to rival the theater.

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Literary Nonfiction. Biography. Canadian History. Sports. At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics an unknown Vancouver runner named Percy Williams shocked the sports world by capturing the 100- and 200-meter gold medals. Some said the feat was a fluke. It wasn't. In 1929 Percy silenced naysayers by sweeping the US indoor track circuit, then he went on to set a world record in the 100 meters that would stand until the arrival of Jesse Owens. And in between he waged a speed duel with the fleetest men on the planet, a battle for track supremacy and the title "World's Fastest Human." Based on extensive research that included access to Percy's private letters, diary and scrapbooks, I JUST RAN is the first full-length account of this sports legend, one of the most famous Canadians of his day but now largely forgotten. It begins as the Cinderella story of a youth who conquers a sport dominated by American sprinters. Then it gets grittier, for success and fame had a dark side. I Just Ran follows Percy and his janitor-coach Bob Granger as they journey through the world of elite running in the 1920s and 30s—a world that was not always pretty beneath the veneer of amateurism.

I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human

Biographies & Memoirs

Ronsdale Press

The quest for the land speed record in the 1960s and the epic rivalry between two dynamic American drivers, Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. "Interesting and complex. . . .The best job I've seen done on the subject so far." -- Craig Breedlove Until the 1950s, the land speed record (LSR) was held by a series of European gentlemen racers such as British driver John Cobb, who hit 394 miles per hour in 1947. That record held for more than a decade, until the car culture swept the U.S. Hot-rodders and drag racers built and souped up racers using car engines, piston aircraft engines and, eventually, jet engines. For this determined and dedicated group, the LSR was no longer an honor to be held by rich aristocrats with industrial backing -- it was brought stateside. In the summer of 1960, the contest moved into overdrive, with eight men contending for the record on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Some men died in horrific crashes, others prudently retired, and by mid-decade only two men were left driving: Art Arfons and Craig Breedlove. By 1965, Arfons and Breedlove had walked away from some of the most spectacular wipeouts in motor sport history and pushed the record up to 400, then 500, then 600 miles per hour. Speed Duel is the fast-paced history of their rivalry. Despite the abundant heart-stopping action, Speed Duel is foremost a human drama. Says author Samuel Hawley, "It is a quintessential American tale in the tradition of The Right Stuff, except that it is not about extraordinary men doing great things in a huge government program. It's about ordinary men doing extraordinary things in their back yards."

Speed Duel: The Inside Story of the Land Speed Record in the Sixties

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Firefly Books

An L.A. hot-rodder with a high school education, a family to support, and almost no money, Craig Breedlove set out in the late 1950s to do something big: harness the thrust of a jet in a car. With a growing obsession that would cost him his marriage, he started building in his dad’s garage. The car's name was Spirit of America. Through perseverance and endless hard work, Craig completed Spirit and broke the land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats, setting a new mark of 407 mph in 1963. He went on to be the first person to drive 500 and 600 mph, breaking the land speed record five times. In the early 1970s he turned to rockets and set an acceleration record at Bonneville that stands to this day. He built a jet car in the 1990s, Spirit of America–Sonic Arrow, to go head to head against Britain’s ThrustSSC to be the first to Mach 1. Craig’s subsequent crash at 675 mph remains the fastest in history. Even today, at the age of eighty, he is going strong with plans for yet another Spirit of America racer. The ultimate goal: 1,000 mph. Ultimate Speed is the authorized biography of Craig Breedlove, with a foreword by Craig himself. A candid revelation of one of motorsports' most interesting figures, the book is based primarily on countless hours of interviews with Craig and dozens of people connected to his life.

Ultimate Speed: The Fast Life and Extreme Cars of Racing Legend Craig Breedlove

Chicago Review Press

A sweeping and suspenseful novel of love and war, set in Japan during the final days of World War II, with a shocking historical premise: three atomic bombs were actually delivered to the Pacific--not two--and when one of them falls into the hands of the Japanese, the fate of a couple that has been separated from one another becomes entangled with the fate of this strange new device. War has taken everything from physicist Keizo Kan. His young daughter was killed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid, and now his Japanese American wife, Noriko, has been imprisoned by the brutal Thought Police. An American bomber, downed over Japan on the first day of August 1945, offers the scientist a surprising chance at salvation. The Imperial Army dispatches him to examine an unusual device recovered from the plane's wreckage--a bomb containing uranium--and tells him that if he can unlock its mysteries, his wife will be released. Working in secrecy under crushing pressure, Kan begins to disassemble the bomb and study its components. One of his assistants falls ill after mishandling the uranium, but his alarming deterioration, and Kan's own symptoms, are ignored by the commanding officer demanding results. Desperate to stave off Japan's surrender to the Allies, the army will stop at nothing to harness the weapon's unimaginable power. They order Kan to prepare the bomb for manual detonation over a target--a suicide mission that will strike a devastating blow against the Americans. Kan is soon confronted with a series of agonizing decisions that will test his courage, his loyalty, and his very humanity. An extraordinary debut novel that is the result of twenty-eight years of work by its author, Daikon is a gripping and powerfully moving saga that calls to mind such classics as Cold Mountain and From Here to Eternity. It is set amid the chaos and despair of the world's third largest city lying in ruins, its population starving and its leadership under escalating assault from without and within. Here is a haunting epic of love, survival, and impossible choices that introduces a singular new voice on the literary landscape.

Daikon: A Novel

United States

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

“Movie buffs and boxing buffs alike will relish this!” (Publishers Weekly)  “An extremely well-researched tale.” (Kirkus Reviews)  On March 17, 1897, in an open-air arena in Carson City, Jim Corbett and Bob Fitzsimmons fought for the heavyweight championship of the world. The contest was recorded by film pioneer Enoch Rector from inside an immense, human-powered camera called the “Veriscope,” the forgotten Neanderthal at the dawn of cinema history. Rector’s movie of the contest premiered two months later. Known today as The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight, it was the world’s first feature-length film.  The Fight That Started the Movies is the untold story of Corbett’s and Fitzsimmons’ journey to that ring in Nevada and how the landmark film of their battle came to be made. It reveals how boxing played a key role in the birth of the movies, spurring the development of motion picture technology and pushing the concept of “film” from a twenty-second peephole show to a full-length attraction, “a complete evening’s entertainment,” projected on a screen.  The cast of characters in the tale is rich and varied. There are inventors Eadweard Muybridge, Thomas Edison, William Dickson and Eugene Lauste, figuring out how to photographically capture and reproduce motion. There are the playboy brothers Otway and Gray Latham, who first saw the commercial potential of fight films, and their friend and partner Enoch Rector, who pushed that potential to fruition. There are fighters Jim Corbett with his “scientific” methods of boxing; Bob Fitzsimmons with his thin legs and turnip-on-a-chain punch; hard-drinking John L. Sullivan and the original Jack Dempsey and the gifted but ultimately doomed Young Griffo. There are loud-mouthed fight managers and big-talking promoters, and Wild West legends like Bat Masterson and Judge Roy Bean when the story heads to the Rio Grande river. And finally, there is the audience, our collective ancestors, discovering that movies were more than just a curiosity to gape at, but a new and enduring form of entertainment to rival the theater.

In May of 1592, nearly three hundred and fifty years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese dictator Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a 158,800-man army aboard a thousand ships from Kyushu to Pusan on Korea's southern tip. Its objective: to conquer Korea, then China and then the whole of Asia.The Imjin War is the most comprehensive account ever published in English on this important event, so little known in the West. It begins with the political and cultural background of Korea, Japan, and China, discusses the diplomatic breakdown that led to the war, describes every major incident and battle from 1592 to 1598, and introduces a fascinating cast of characters along the way: Hideyoshi himself, Korea's admiral Yi Sun-sin, Chinese commander Zhao Chengxun, and kisaeng Chu Non-gae.

Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hawley, Samuel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hawley, Samuel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hawley, Samuel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bad Elephant Far Stream

The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China

The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema and the First Feature Film

I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human

Speed Duel: The Inside Story of the Land Speed Record in the Sixties

Ultimate Speed: The Fast Life and Extreme Cars of Racing Legend Craig Breedlove

Daikon: A Novel

The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema and the First Feature Film

The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China