Saying It Straight: Writing by Ordinary People [paperback] Sturges, Clark [Aug 01, 1984] ... 0915685019

Saying It Straight: Writing by Ordinary People

Devil Mountain Books

Gerald William Haslam (born March 18, 1937) is the author credited with having created an awareness of "the other California" (in a book of the same name), the state's untrendy small town and rural reaches. A native of Oildale in the Bakersfield area, Haslam has often written about the Great Central Valley (also in a book of the same name), about country music (Workin' Man Blues), about the despair and exultation of blue collar people in a golden state (That Constant Coyote, Condor Dreams, Straight White Male, etc.), winning numerous literary awards.Most recently he (and wife Janice E. Haslam) have examined the life of another maverick, Senator S. I. Hayakawa (In Thought and Action: The Enigmatic Life of S. I. Hayakawa). Reviewer David Peck labeled him "the quintessential California writer."

Snapshots: Glimpses of the Other California : Selected Stories

Literature & Fiction

Haslam, Gerald W.

United States

Voices of a Place: Social and Literary Essays from the Other California

Haslam, Gerald

History & Criticism

Dr. Dave: A Profile of David E. Smith, M.D., Founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics

Biographies & Memoirs

Sturges, Clark S.

Professionals & Academics

In the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers, Gerald Haslam's redoubtable Tejon-Club Gang returns the tall-tale and the bumpkin-humor traditions to their proper places in American letters...wherever that is! The gang manages to poke holes in social trends and elitist assumptions - and in its own prejudices, too - while bumbling from one beer-fueled misadventure to the next. Thirteen short stories - plus a disclaimer by the narrator - introduce readers to these Good Ol' Boys who live and work in California's Great Central Valley.

The Great Tejon Club Jubilee: Stories

Humor & Satire

Founded in the early 1970s in the rugged back country of California's north coast, Compost College was a unique intentional community where diverse organic elements came together to make things grow. These elements, a motley bunch of college students, teachers, administrators and drifters, dreamed about a better way of life. Their experiences living through hazardous times under primitive conditions, was painful but filled with moments of joy and beauty. Rick Seymour, one of the commune's original members, tells the story of these counter-culture visionaries, providing a prologue and epilogue to put the Compost experiment in perspective.

Compost College: Life on a Counter-Culture Commune

Politics & Social Sciences

Richard B. Seymour

Social Sciences

Cultural Writing. Revised Edition. This is a new edition of this popular book which was chosen by a SF Chronicle's readers' poll as one the top non-fiction books of the 20th Century. COMING OF AGE IN CALFORNIA consists of seventeen personal essays by a fifth-generation Californian about growing up in the Golden State, experiencing both the uniqueness of place and the universals of family, friends, love, and aging. These essays explore actual people and places as they influenced this popular California writer.

Coming of Age in California

Regional U.S.

The Kochi Maru Affair: A Novel

Daniel C. Helix

From his earliest days on the tough streets of West Berkeley, California, Ken Grainger found himself battling from the underdog position. Hard-earned physical skills enabled him to overcome most obstacles and learn the values of loyalty, respect and honor. 
These values are challenged when he leaves Korea as a highly decorated combat veteran and is assigned to Army Intelligence in Japan. He becomes involved in the cover-up of a botched CIA scheme to smuggle spies into China aboard the Kochi Maru and questions the validity and morality of an operation that kills a number of innocent people. 
Grainger finds himself in direct conflict with his supervisor, a bureaucratic empire builder and, more threatening, the notorious, amoral Colonel Sukow Kim of the South Korean CIA. Kim is determined to eliminate Grainger in any way possible. 
Grainger enlists the support of some Army friends and finds a surprising ally in the person of Arcady Petrovsky, a Soviet Intelligence general who has his own reasons for a payback against the malevolent Colonel Kim. Together, they craft a plan to neutralize Kim and also avert a major international incident that threatens a crisis in American Intelligence.

The Kochi Maru Affair

Helix, Daniel C.

Leon Patterson was a Southwestern migrant to California who, despite being raised in poverty, became a world-class athlete. Throwing the discus and putting the shot, he left indelible memories at both Taft Union High School and at the University of Southern California. He managed to accomplish remarkable things despite being terminally ill and knowing it. His inner strength was nurtured by a girl named Dixie Kenney, who loved him, by a coach named Tom O'Brien, who all but adopted him, and by the community that sustained them all.

Leon Patterson: A California Story

Gerald W. Haslam

with Janice E. Haslam

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

Books by Devil Mountain Books