3 comments about Once Upon an Island.

1. This is a MUST READ for anyone here in the Pacific Northwest or planning to cruise up into the Candian Gulf Islands.
   
   It is a tribute to a couple with a dream, more his than hers at first, love, hard work and support of a community known as Ganges.
   
   I read this book back in 1968 and was delighted to find it again today.
   
   If you have a chance to got to Wallace Island, walk ashore and see the old buildings that they built. You can go back in time and recapture each chapter in your own eye.
   
   
   Many of us today wish we could do what that they did back then. Would you be willing to take the risk?
   
   This would be a wonderful gift to give to any boater, since it is a treausre to have aboard!



2. This was one of the best reads I have had in a long time. David Conover lived his dream and was kind enough to write a book and share his trials and tribulations. "Once Upon an Island," is a pleasure to read. I agree with the other reviewer that it was hard to put this book down. I turned the pages with anticipation, waiting to see what new adversity the family would undergo, and how they triumphed. This is great movie material--too bad Hollywood wastes their time with special effects movies.



3. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I READ IT IN ONE NIGHT. IT IS THE STORY OF A YOUNG COUPLE WHO SCRAPED TOGETHER ALL THEY HAD TO BUY AN ISLAND. THE STORY TELLS OF THEIR FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES OF TRYING TO MAKE IT AND BUILD THE PRIMITIVE ISLAND INTO A HOME AND EVENTUALLY A SMALL PRIMITIVE RESORT. THEY TELL OF THE BEAUTY AND PRIVACY AND PEACEFULNESS OF THEIR OWN ISLAND AND THEIR DAILY LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF FIXING IT UP TO BE HABITABLE. I WILL PROBABLY START READING IT ALL OVER AGAIN!

3 comments about Ghetto Plainsman.

1. In GHETTO PLAINSMAN, Jarid Manos points the way to a future consciousness of compassion and respect for the earth and all who reside here, humans and other animals alike. With a deep spiritual awareness born of incredible suffering, Manos makes the connection between the health of the planet and human health. He makes a strong case for the importance of providing opportunities for young people to experience a connection with, and appreciation of, nature. This is an amazing autobiography of an extraordinary life full of contradictions: The street-wise drug dealer living off the streets of NYC and LA, who feels most at home alone on a wind-swept prairie, miles from civilization, for months at a time, and who just happens to have walked across Turkey and France. When it comes to understanding the intrinsic value of other beings in addition to ourselves, Jarid Manos "gets it." This book will appeal to anyone interested in social justice, health, environmental issues, animal rights, planetary ecology, or the history of NYC club life in the 1980's-'90's. It's a highly recommended can't-put-down read.



2. Jarid Manos' brave sharing about his personal life and the healing grace of Mother Earth is profound indeed. The myths about poverty are changed, and one leaves the book with a comprehensive understanding of the most dehumanizing side of poverty in this country. I learned many things I did not know about the treatment of animals and our Earth, the horrible side of racism and discrimination, and how it's possible to remove those shackles. The author's innate drive and determination to survive the immense obstacles placed in his life are most inspirational and amazing. How could the author have ever known that experiencing something spiritual by sleeping on the cold ground for days waiting for the buffalo to come close or lavishing fields of sunflowers would lead to his vast knowledge of the environment and it's current destruction? How could he have known his innate struggle and determination for survival would ultimately provide the world with a model to salvage our own existence on this Earth? As with classic writings, the psyche and the physical are permeated with an integrated truth, resulting in emotional, spiritual, and physical awareness and growth.



3. Ghetto Plainsman is an amazing book about suffering, injustice and redemption. It's the memoir of a man of color who has suffered the indignities and injustices of the street yet maintained the lessons taught by and hope for the wilderness. From New York City drug dealer and prostitute to founder of a Fort Worth based environmental group (gprc.org) that seeks to re-establish buffalo across the Great Plains, Jarid's story is unquestionably unique and inspiring. Though its intensity at times makes the gut-wrenching story hard to read, the reader is uplifted by its descriptions of wilderness and its power to anchor one man's soul. I strongly recommend this book.

5 comments about Down in Bristol Bay: High Tides, Hangovers, and Harrowing Experiences on Alaska's Last Frontier.

1. I read this book a little over a year ago, so it is not exactly fresh in my mind, but I must say I disagree with most of the other reviewers here.
   
   If you looked at every book's page on Amazon, you would see that the vast, vast majority of books have an average user ranking of 4 or 5 stars. I think this is because someone who picks up a book and think its junk won't bother to finish it, and rarely would bother to write a review. What ends up happening is that only those people who like a book rank it, and therefore almost everything gets a high ranking. Well, I didn't like this book, but I will take the time to write a review.
   
   Parts of this book are entertaining, especially those dealing with moving his boat from SE Alaska to Bristol Bay, and some of the discussion on fishing. Overall, however, it seems that the author does a poor job of describing the natural majesty of his surroundings nor about the internal conflict of a man embarking on a new life.
   
   Most annoying, however, is the author's slippage into the 3rd person when he describes drinking and 'adult partying' (don't know what words amazon will let me use here) when the rest of the book is in the 1st person. The narrator shows up at a party, and then all of a sudden it is someone else who is sleeping around on his wife.
   
   Anyway, if you want to read a good book about fishing up in Alaska, check out Joe Upton's 'Alaska Blues'.



2. Great read for anyone who wants to get a flavor of the Alaska life and great figurative return for those who have lived it. It is also great literature because he was an English professor.



3. While this is a better book that the second one, there is still something lacking. Depth I suppose. The fishing stories are good but I'm afraid the actual techniques and day-to-day trials are glossed over with tales of drunkeness. The characters are accurately portrayed, but each year is a rerun of the last, a quick summary of the same. Frankly, for all of Durr's qualifications this is the one theme that I can't help but think carries on to this day: The acid Leary professor drops out and stays out. But life is what happens between the parties. During this period, at least I know how he made a living, which is what dismayed me with the Coldman Cometh: thirty-five years of successful bush living on imaginary income, from the readers' perspective. He doesn't share finances here either though so we don't know what he made from the fishing trips.
   
   Staying in Alaska without money is tough. And with a family to support even more impossible, yet Durr seems to go about it as if there's nothing to it; the path of least resistence he describes to Pope, but in Alaska there is a great deal of resistence always. I can hear him try to justify the scheme to his late wife who never says anything or gives him a hard time about the difficulties of living on the edge like that, but Durr rarely reveals anything of this nature. He's very much secretive, which is a motivating force for the retreat to Chase and Back-Lake. I found the Durrs to be stand-offish in 1976, suspicious of newcomers to the land, even fellow "hippie" brothers. This may be due to personal paranoia and the more-people-coming fear, which is the message I got. As it turns out Durr managed to outlast the other '70s settlers in Chase of which I was one, albeit briefly. That evidently was what he wanted in the first place.



4. This book is a describes a man's struggle to break from the "creature comforts" world to live and fish in Bristol Bay, Alaska. It told a story that was captivating because when reading, you always wanting to know what was going to happen next. The story tells of a man who achieves having the best of both worlds ands puts the utimate dream to the test. I would highly recommend this book to all adventurists and those who would like to "escape" to the alaska frontier; if not in reality, then through this book.



5. This is a great little book and a fun read. It takes a lot of guts to do what Bob Durr did. His descriptions of the Alaskan bush and the people who live and work there are wonderful. Everyone should meet a person like Pope at least once in their lives. The philosophical discussions on board the fishing boat were sometimes tedious and less than believable, but somehow it all works. I hope Durr will write another book about the rest of his life in Alaska.

2 comments about Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanleys African Journeys.

1. "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all heard that quote. Some of us even know who said it. However, if that's all you know about Henry Morgan Stanley, you are in for a treat when you read Imperial Footprints. In his time, Stanley was compared with Christopher Columbus, and Newman makes it clear why. This is a well-written and very readable story. Newman has done an excellent job of capturing the adventure of Stanley's seven(!) African journeys, as well as his very interesting younger life. Did you know that Morgan fought in the American Civil War? On both sides??? I give Imperial Footprints my highest recommendation. If you like adventure stories, if you like well-written biography, Imperial Footprints is the book for you.



2. A hundred years after Henry Morton Stanley's death, his own African explorations have receded from public memory in favor of critical reviews of European colonialist expansion in Africa. James L. Newman returns Stanley's importance to the world with Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanley's African Journeys, a re-creation of his seven African journeys which explains why and how he made them, and their lasting impact on the modern world. The blend of history, biography and travelogue makes for an exciting blend of researched fact and drama which reads like fiction, giving Imperial Footprints an edge over other coverages on Stanley.

3 comments about The Kurt Diemberger Omnibus: Summits and Secrets : The Endless Knot : Spirits of the Air.

1. I admire Diemberger's achievements: he's obviously an intelligent and sensitive man and an impressive mountaineer. However, he's very much an amateur writer, at least to judge by this translation. The tragic events he describes in The Endless Knot (by far the best of the three books here) are certainly dramatic in themselves and make compelling reading for that reason. Unfortunately, the foggy haze of Diemberger's prose obscures as much as it illuminates. He uses the present tense, presumably to make it all seem more immediate and dramatic, but the result is something like the bad narration on a reality-TV show, where everything seems over-hyped. Also, at the beginning of the book, I had to spend a fair bit of time trying to straighten out his chronology, since he's describing several different expeditions, and they come across as a tangled muddle. I came to this book after reading several superlative mountaineering books: Rick Ridgeway's The Last Step The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2about the 1978 ascent of K2, and the Boardman-Tasker Omnibus The Boardman Tasker Omnibus: Savage Arena, the Shining Mountain, Sacred Summits, Everest the Cruel Way(two books each by Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman). These thoughtful, wonderfully written books put Diemberger's to shame, though I suppose it's a lot to ask that a great mountaineer be a good writer as well. Still, a good editor could probably have helped. Worth reading for the events described if you can hack your way through the prose.



2. The author's awesome attainments in mountaineering: the only living man with two first ascents of 8,000-meter mountains, are matched by his boundless curiosity and his enthusiasm for every new experience. He is a man of high good humor, tenacity, and independence with remarkable communication skills.

   The autobiography is three books "Summits and Secrets" written as a young man, "The Endless Knot" takes up his ascent and harrowing descent of K2 in 1986 and the loss of his beloved partner, Julie Tullis who died there; and "Spirits of the Air" written in middle age.

   Though "Summits and Secrets" covers interesting material about Diemberger's childhood and early manhood, I found the translation to be stiff. I fault the translator because the other two books are so free flowing and at times lyrical. In these autobiographies, you get a sense of the complete man, not just his genius on the mountains. He loves to sing (he claims it helps him breathe better on the mountain), can and does swear thunderously in German when thwarted, has small vanities, and a never failing appreciation of the charms of the ladies. Unlike many of the climbing fraternity, he doesn't appear to have a double standard where women climbers are involved. He judges everyone on his or her merits. I became so attuned to his storytelling, I felt as if it was all directed to me personally, that he wanted me to be entertained and share his wonder and delight at all he had seen. I am glad to report that as of this date, Kurt is still going strong lecturing, climbing and doing camera work. The story ends at 1991, and I had to follow up to see how he has fared this last decade.

   The much-traveled Mr. Diemberger for some reason had never been in the United States until his 40th year. (Maybe because we cannot boast of any 8,000 meter peaks!) He was an enthusiastic tourist as is shown in the following excerpt from "Spirits of the Air." His awe and amazement during his helicopter flight through Grand Canyon is infectious:

   "I am staggered! Overwhelmed is no word for it! And anyway, there's no time to be overwhelmed when new sensations are continually bombarding you, shaking you, grabbing your attention, whetting your appetite for even more unexpected thrills. You are looking ahead, back, down, as gigantic buttresses sweep past, pillars and palaces of red rock, side valleys opening and closing, the terrific gorge agape below you--- You are flying through the biggest trough on earth. All the pictures I have ever seen of the Grand Canyon are forgotten. They are tiny facets, mosaic pieces, nothing more - I see that now. No human brain can comprehend this intricate labyrinth that is the Grand Canyon. It is a world!"

   Let Kurt take you on his journey. You will never regret it.




3. Of this omnibus I have read only The Endless Knot but am so impressed with it that I wanted to lodge a review. This account of climbing K2 during one of its hungriest years is rendered luminous by the simple, unaffected, honest and straightforward affection between Kurt and his working partner Julie. Kurt's "married to the mountain" prose and his personal honesty make this a genuine monument in the literature.

5 comments about Sam Hyde Harris, 1889 - 1977 a Retrospective: A Pictorial Biography of His Life and Work.

1. Maurine St.Gaudens shows great sensitivity in the layout of this book, she clearly loves her subject. There's less text than in so many artist retrospective books, instead this is a comprehensive pictorial biography, which I found very satisfying. The book covers Sam Hyde Harris' commercial illustration work extensively, which informs the reader more about the artist than any text could reveal. Harris was an artist who excelled in many mediums, his pencil sketches are divine, as are his lush paintings. I would highly recommend this book to students and appreciators of not only California art, but to anyone interested in seeing the rich visual evolution of a unique creative spirit.



2. Beautifully printed, LOTS of color photographs and only a little text, this book is a great way to learn about one of the lesser known California Impressionists. Paintings, posters and illustrations, compositional sketches. Best of all, there are many detail views of the paintings that allow you to see Harris' brushwork, and a couple of essays on painting and drawing that Harris himself wrote.



3. This gorgeous, generously sized and illustrated volume is a very good one to have for those interested in the "eucalyptus" school, Southern California Impressionism. Not only is it very informative about SHH, but also is a great collection of images of how things were - one of the attractions of these paintings generally - California's beloved scenery and atmospherics without freeways, windfarms, subdivisions, or man-made pollution. Of course it is a must-have for collectors considering acquiring works by SHH.



4. With only a few pages of text, perhaps little more than a dozen, plus an extensive record of exhibitions and a chronology, this is primarily a catalogue of the artist's work.
   
   The text provides a brief introduction to Sam Hyde Harris and a very brief biography, and some short descriptions of his practical approach to his work.
   
   The real delight of the book however is the wealth of illustrations which adorn virtually every one of the two hundred and forty pages and must total well in excess of that number. They range from the artist's graphic work and illustration, include a few personal photographs, but of course concentrate on his paintings, both oils and watercolours. All the images are in full colour with the exception of a few which for obvious reasons are duo-tone or black and white, and are beautifully reproduced
   
   This is a truly splendid volume, of generous proportions, which clearly conveys the power of his graphic work and the subtle beauty of his paintings. This is surely a book to be highly prized.



5. This is a beautifully illustrated and printed book of the works of Sam Hyde Harris who was a prominent illustrator and landscape painter in the hay day of California plein aire artists. Hyde's focus on color and value in his commercial illustration work often spilled over into his landscapes and seascapes. Some of his landscapes are reminiscent of Maynard Dixon's stylized natural shapes and colors, but Harris had very much his own style. Also included in this heavily illustrated book are examples of Harris' work in wood block prints which are as good as any done in the 1920s and 1930s.
   Overall, this work by Maurine St. Gaudens and collaborators is extremely well done and does justice to one of the best artists of the period.

2 comments about Lucien Maxwell.

1. I give this an A simply for being a compilation of interesting historical facts and a life story that I've never seen published elsewhere. Perhaps one has to have a strong interest in Western and New Mexico history to appreciate this story, but years after I read it, I still flash back at random times to the bittersweet life of Lucien Maxwell as told in this book. He was kind of a Citizen Kane, rising to great power and influence and then finishing up his life on quite a down note -- except for a big difference: Lucien didn't need to get a life, he had one. This is a fascinating part of American history, when soldiers, traders, trappers and settlers from the young United States began to mix it up with Spaniards, Mexican natives and local pueblo people who in the early 1800s had already been living more or less settled lives in New Mexico for over 200 years. If you are interested in this period of history, you might want to read "Wah-to-yah & the Taos trail: Prairie travel and scalp dances, with a look at los rancheros from muleback and the Rocky mountain campfire" - yup, that's the title. It is a first-hand account of another Frenchman who at the age of 18 came to New Mexico in 1848 on a lark, traveling down the Santa Fe Trail, through Lucien's turf and then stepping into a dramatic chapter of American history during the takeover of New Mexico by the U.S. Army, the assassination of the first U.S. governor, hanging of culprits, etc.



2. I hate to give this book such a low rating but it was incredibly dull. This is coming from a relative of the subject! The title might lead you to believe the author will paint a tale of two persons and compare the sides, but in fact she tells you in the first few pages that she sees him as a visionary. There is nothing in the book that would suggest the subject was a villain at all. I have a great interest in Mr. Maxwell and I could not bring myself to finish this book - and this was my second attempt.

1 comments about A Time for Reflection: An Autobiography.

1. William Simon's is an extraordinary lifestory, and reading his memoir, published posthumously this year following his death in 2000, was thoroughly enjoyable. Simon's life had so many incarnations -- prescient Wall Street trader, principled public servant (energy czar and treasury secretary), conservative intellectual, pathbreaking merchant banker, champion of the U.S. Olympic movement, philanthropist, intrepid adventurer, Eucharistic Minister -- that it's hard to fathom one person leading such an eclectic, richly diverse life.

   Known for his sharp opinions while in public office, Simon is largely magnanimous in recounting his life experiences. For example, he declines to elaborate on the reasons for his falling out with a longtime colleague and business partner, saying only that he trusted someone he thought was his friend. He pulls no puches, however, in expressing outrage at wrongheaded government decisions, such as the 1989 FIRREA Act (which suddenly made struggling S&Ls insolvent), Pres. Carter's Olympic boycott (which accomplished little other than prompting Soviet retaliation four years later) and foolish government meddling in the oil market (rationing, price controls, etc. which largely created the 1970s energy "crisis").

   The memoir offers several colorful, revealing anecdotes. For example, Simon's pointed counsel to Ronald Reagan, urging him to drop former Pres Ford from consideration for the Vice Presidency. (I never heard or read of this before; Lou Cannon makes no mention of it in his new biography of Reagan's pre-presidential years.) Also, Simon's confrontation -- nearly leading to blows -- with an inebriated Vice President Rockefeller. This is fascinating stuff.

   Equally fascinating are the chapters on Simon's pioneering role in the use of Leverage Buyouts to restore underperforming companies to sound profitability. Simon eschewed hostile LBOs, preferring to work cooperatively with, and empowering, management, and deftly abandonded the business when it attracted a surfeit of "takeover artist" capital in the late 1980s.

   Simon's separation from, and reconcilliation with, his wife of 40 years is particularly poignant, as is his ministry to indigent AIDs patients and other destitute people. The caring and compassion behind a gruff -- sometimes mercurial exterior -- is palpable.

   William Simon led an amazing, noble life. Emulating such an extraordinary human being is beyond the reach of most of us. But thanks to this new book, we can at least read about and admire him. Highly recommended.

5 comments about The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax - Clarence King in the Old West.

1. This book seemed to end at least 50 pages too soon in the sense that there are only tantalizing glimpses of the last 25 years of geologist, author, would-be mining baron Clarence King's life (1842-1901). "Where's the rest?", I thought. Then I looked again at the front of the book and parsed the full title, "The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax--Clarence King in the Old West". Oh, it wasn't supposed to be a full biography of the pioneering geologist who became nationally known through his colorful writing about travels, adventures and mountaineering exploits that mostly occurred before he tuned thirty. Rather it focuses just on King's adventures (exploring previously undocumented mountain ranges, making first ascents of high peaks, violent encounters with Indians and outlaws), science (education with leading geologists at Yale, field work with the California Geologic Survey, leading, at age 25, his own multi-year pioneering exploration/survey of the Great Basin and publishing several books that were scientific standards of the era) and the Great Diamond Hoax (exposing a huge financial fraud that made worldwide news in the early 1870s).
   
   But if it's not supposed to be a biography why did the author devote almost a third of the book to King's childhood and college years as well as sketches of King's upper strata social life that had little or nothing to do with the themes promised in the subtitle? It's especially perplexing because some of the "exploration" begs for more detail since large swaths of the country that King explored are barely mentioned.
   
   Today King is best known for his once-bestseller Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, and anyone who has read that book - excerpted and described at some length in Explorer King - will find nothing new here. Likewise there are entire books devoted to the Great Diamond Hoax, and although King played the pivotal in exposing the hoax (and reaped scads of publicity for himself in the process), this episode consumes an inordinate amount of space to set up the story before King (alerted by members of his survey staff) rushes in to save the day. As for the science and King's 40th Parallel Survey's position relative to the other large scale geologic surveys that overlapped his work, I highly recommend Great Surveys of the American West by Bartlett. Apparently the best biographies of King, which author Wilson refers to several times are an unpublished 1953 PhD dissertation, So Deep a Trail, by Crosby and a 1988 work by Wilkins, Clarence King a Biography. These books and others are listed in a three-page bibliography.
   
   I reluctantly concur with another reviewer that this book is something like a college term paper that draws together material from its bibliography but contributes nothing original to the subject. There are 18 pages of term paper style, chapter-by-chapter footnotes at the end of the book but, oddly, the text itself doesn't contain any superscript footnote numbers so it's hard to connect the text to the notes (I didn't even realize they existed until I got to the end of the book). The author pieces together material from his sources in an almost novelistic style and the story skips around chronologically in places, a practice I found confusing.
   
   Recommended to anyone wants to read just a single account of the career and adventure highlights of a leading 19th Century American scientist/explorer/adventurer to learn a bit about the era and its interests and accomplishments. Readers who want to study the era and it's leading figures comprehensively would do well to look elsewhere. Numerous period b&w photos, mostly widely reproduced elsewhere, are scattered through the book but many are too small to see clearly. Two large scale sketch maps cover the regions most prominent in the book but they don't have enough detail to locate all the major events mentioned.



2. An absorbing biography of famed geologist Clarence King.
   I must admit that while not totally ignorant in the sciences, I had never heard of the man.
   
   In his early twenties he accomplished many outstanding feats while climbing, mapping and geologizing in California's high Sierra Nevada mountains. Then, at the age of twenty-five he was placed in charge of the fortieth parallel scientific expedition across the western U. S. The culmination of his career was uncovering the great diamond hoax in northwestern Colorado.
   
   All this field work and close observation of the natural and physical world lead King to his own geological theories of time, space and evolution. For the first half of his life the man was highly regarded and respected for both his demeanor and scientific contributions. Sadly, the second half of his life he basically "fell off the planet ".



3. This book does not discuss in much detail the USGS and the second half of Clarence's life but it places you in the times of King and during some of the most interesting parts of his adventures in the West. I really enjoyed the book and found that the author created an interesting angle by carefully reviewing King's upbringing, religious beliefs and how he squared his religious convictions with an education and career in science during the mid 1800s.
   This is not a historical tome but a fairly light read where the author keeps the material interesting. It is like a rock skipping over the surface of his life. A good read that leaves me hoping others will write additional books to tell other parts of his story.



4. As a geographer with an interest in the opening of the west I looked forward the this book. Unfortunately it is poorly written and repetitious, and half-way through King's life the author appears to lose interest in the subject. There is nothing about the rivalry between King's Survey and the other great surveys led by Powell, Hayden and Wheeler that lead to the establishment of the U. S. Geological Survey. Nor is there any mention of the political fighting between King and Ferdinand Hayden that led to King's selection as the first director of that agency. A major disappointment.



5. For me, this book was an introduction to the daring and storied adventurer scientists of the mid-nineteenth century. I bought it with great anticipation and, after reading the dust jacket, I began with a novice's eagerness on a journey of which I knew little. The first chapter was set in Washington D.C., after all of King's great adventures had been accomplished, in the parlor of Henry and Clover Adams accompanied by their usual guests and friends, Clarence King and John and Clara Hay. These five were such fast friends that they were referred to in the inner circles of Washington as the Five of Hearts. And the glue that held them together was King himself, with his great raconteur tales and his abundant charm. Adams called him the most remarkable man in their circle--tremendous praise considering Adam's circle of friends.
   
   What a unique way to establish your protagonist and to whet the reader's appetite for the adventure to come.
   
   Unfortunately the first chapter is as good as this book gets. It is not that the story is not worth reading. For the most part it is. One learns a great deal about geology, surveying, the geography and topology of the West, and the sense of adventure that any white explorer felt in going into these new, wild and dangerous territories. It is that the telling of the story turns flat--never matching, or coming close, to the rip-roaring story telling, charismatic, fast living, adventure filled life of Clarence King. The book is a polite scholastic treatment, if you will. It reminds the reader not of a book, but rather, of a dissertation.
   
   If this were not enough, the author devotes only three pages of the last chapter to the surreptitious last half of King's life and his marriage to a black woman who bore him five children. This relationship he kept secret to the world, with only his most devoted friends having an awareness. This would have been fertile ground to develop even more the complex character and turmoiled person that was King. The author, however chooses to pass by this last 29 years of King's life; instead retreating into the scholastic realm with which the author is most comfortable--the retelling and analysis of a speech that King made at Yale, his alma mater. With this, the book abruptly ends.
   
   It is like a Doctoral student who doesn't quite know how to end his thesis and submits it to the jury of peers hoping that it will be enough. I don't think that it would have earned the degree.

No comments about Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism (Latin America Otherwise).