Edgar, the central figure of The Sparrow and the Hall, is a churl, working and raising his family on a small farm in extreme northeastern England during the seventh century. Though he can barely afford even a metal tip for his wooden plowshare, he looks upon life much as a typical modern American farmer does: with determination, acceptance, and good humor. He loves his wife and children, helps his neighbors, and, above all, is unswervingly loyal to Keelwolf, the heroic, elegant thane who virtually rules this part of Northumbria. This loyalty persists even though Edgar suspects for years that his bride, Gwenda, was seduced by Keelwolf. Along the way, Edgar goes through battles, a plague, loss of loved ones, and an ordeal by boiling water. Like everyone around him, he also undergoes the confusion caused by the changes of official religion — from Christianity to paganism and back to Christianity — ordered by a succession of kings. It is a turbulent time in Northumbria, but Edgar tends to his plowing and cocks an appreciative ear to the songs of the birds — until circumstances put a knife in his hand and murder in his heart. 

The Sparrow and the Hall: Love and Betrayal in Anglo-Saxon England

Literature & Fiction

Williams, Donald MacE

Genre Fiction

Bagwyn Books

Interlude in Umbarger: Italian POWs and a Texas Church

Interned in a camp in the Texas panhandle, more than 3,000 Italian POWs spent the last years of World War II an ocean away from their family and friends. A handful of men in camp were artists, and it was this small group of prisoners who struck a deal with the priest of a nearby Catholic church. In exchange for a home-cooked meal each noon, the artists agreed to decorate the plain church with murals and carvings. This compassionate story of courage and kindliness is as enduring as the artwork that still graces the walls of a modest Catholic church in a tiny Texas town.

History

Military

Texas Tech University Press

Born on the first day of the Great Depression, Randy Davies  absorbs the values of small-town Texas life in a time and place when the  willingness to do hard and unpleasant work is a measure of a man's worth.  Later, those values fight for dominance when he is tempted to pursue a  chancy life as an opera and concert singer and to marry a delightful but  childlike girl whom he meets while studying voice in Bavaria. Another  aspect of his inner conflict is his guilty love of the Rocky Mountains as  compared to the flat and dutiful plains of the Texas Panhandle--a conflict  that is heightened for him by memories of a night during his childhood when  a neighbor showed his own love for the mountains by committing a murder.  Black Tuesday's Child, being about Randy's struggles with his  impulses, is also about music, the land, the changing times, and the love  of two remarkable young women.

Black Tuesday's Child

Literary

River's Bend Press

Wolfe is a modern retelling of the story of Beowulf, which relocates the action to Texas in the late 19th Century. When a strange, beguiling creature is found to have slaughtered first the cattle of a lonely ranch, then one of its labourers, the fate of the locals is placed in the hands of an out-of-towner, a calm and confident young man by the name of Billy Wolfe. Rattle originally published the work as a limited chapbook in the US, and it has come to be seen by many as a modern classic. It has been studied in schools in Texas. It is a captivating adventure tale and it reads as a compelling examination of the shadow side of the United States, in the past and in the present. Wolfe is published here alongside a collection of Williams' short poems in book form for the first time. "Donald Mace Williams' "Wolfe" is a flawless epic, and in turning the legend of Beowulf into a critique of man's encroachment on nature, it has a chance at ringing the bell of the current zeitgeist." - Timothy Green, Editor of Rattle

Wolfe and Other Poems

Poetry

Wundor Editions

<p>Interned in a camp at Hereford in the Texas panhandle, more than 3,000 Italian POWs spent the last years of World War II an ocean away from their family and friends. In the last year of the war, the prisoners suffered a siege of hunger dictated by government-ordered cutbacks in rations. The men called this episode la fame and found it difficult to supplement their meager meals. A handful of men in camp were artists, and it was this small group of prisoners who struck a deal with the priest of a nearby Catholic church. In exchange for a home-cooked meal each noon, the artists agreed to decorate the plain church with murals and carvings reminiscent of the Renaissance. This compassionate story of courage and kindliness is as enduring as the artwork that still graces the walls of a modest Catholic church in a tiny Texas town.</p>

Americas

Wolfe and Being Ninety: Old West Monsters and A Texas Poet's Life

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Stoney Creek Publishing Group

Beowulf: For Fireside and Schoolroom

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Books by Williams, Donald MacE