5 comments about Denmark Vesey.

1. I was often annoyed with the author's inability to write an accurate and even handed account of the Great Denmark Vesey. There are way better books out there. I will continue to search until I find a historian who is fair and isn't afraid to tell it like it was. These myth makers are getting on my last nerves.
   
   The only positive thing I can say is that the author directed me to some other historians, most notable John Hope Franklin. I bet he has done a better job.



2. I have just finished Denmark Vesey and consider it one of the finest books I've ever had the pleasure to read. David Robertson is an extraordinary and talented author whom I feel deserves national attention. He gives us an extensively researched and scholarly piece of work that should be required reading for every high school student nationwide. I found his narrative both an informative and enlightening journey into the horrors of slavery in the 19th century South. Also well worth mentioning are Mr. Robertson's insights and philosophy which give us all a well needed opportunity to examine our own consciences as to what we have learned from history and how we as a nation still need to work to achieve harmony for all races in an ever growing diverse United States of America. An outstanding book.



3. David Robinson attempts to define the life of Denmark Vessey. Since Vessey is little known, and not much has been written about him, this short book attempts to define what motivated Denmark Vessey to try to lead on of the largest slave rebellions. Good background material about Barbados and Charlestown's links with the slave island. One of the previous reviewers called Vessey a Haitan, but his name indicates origin in the Danish Virgin Islands, as Robertson asserts. Because his origin is so obscure, Robertson puffs up what is known and makes it book length. More research could have led to a more interesting book. However Robertson does shed light on an interesting time in U. S. History.



4. Probably the biggest obstacle to writing a biography of Denmark Vesey is the wealth of rumors and legends and a dearth of facts. All the greater is the loss as Mr. Vesey was a fascinating part of the history of Charleston and the history of this nation. Some of these legends survive even to this day and appear below in some of the reviews. A closer look implies that the plot almost certainly did not include the massacre of all whites in Charleston. Instead any whites seen coming out of their doors in the areas under attack, such as the armory, or seen to be assembling would be killed. Also, there were plans to put fire to parts of Charleston to create greater confusion if need be. These would be strategies necessary to the success of such an insurrection. In fact, the in-depth planning, organization and strategy of this attempted uprising is what sets it apart from other slave revolts in this country. I would strongly suggest reading this book as well as Egerton's to help get a clearer picture of the man and the insurrection.



5. The more History I read of this Country the more I seem to read about South Carolina. I am not a concentrated reader of The Civil War, and while South Carolina played key roles in that conflict, it also was the locale of a number of additional notable events in this Country's History. If I were to pick one State the approximate vintage of South Carolina, I cannot make a better argument for a single State that was as independently oriented, and that defended its independence from influence outside its borders, and defended it with even greater passion from any Federal influence. To the very present, South Carolina has been expressing the same theme through the issue of what Flag they will fly over their Capital, and who the decision will be made by. A decision was reached, the flag may no longer fly over the Capital, but it shall fly not far from it.

   Denmark Vesey's birthplace is unknown contrary to the conflicting commercial reviews. From the book, "It is not confirmable whether Vesey was born in Africa or The West Indies". If there is a consistent thread through the book, it is how much is not known about this man who attempted what would have been a massive Rebellion, Slave in makeup or otherwise composed. This is not to say the book is not well done, quite the contrary. I believe that the documentation achieved by Mr. David Robinson is nothing short of remarkable when the effort to destroy all remnants of the rebellion is considered. The book loses no credibility because we don't know from what tree he was executed, nor where his body was finally buried. These issues are more legend than they will ever be fact, but these issues do not change the heart of the event, and the facts of what took place. Even Mr. Vesey's appearance is unknown except for the most impressionistic of drawings; the man visually is an enigma.

   The story as related is brief, 153 pages. But as evidenced by photographs and 40 pages of notes, the Historical detective work was clearly done. The Author presents what he knows, makes very little speculation, and to the extent he does, he places his feelings in a distinct chapter, "A Personal Conclusion".

   Staying away from the story so as not to spoil it, there was however an aspect of the South in 1822 that I had never read about in such detail. There were not 2 groups, there were many. Slaves, freed slaves like Mr. Vesey, and very defined and distinct groups among the black and white Communities. The distinctions amongst the people that Vesey wished to lead were the same that lead to his rebellions defeat.

   It is necessarily a brief story unless more information comes to light. With the material at hand and the documentation the Author found, I believe he did a very credible job of relating a relatively unknown event in our History.

   The question of what would have happened had Vesey succeeded, and the implications on this Country are not to be found in the book, nor do I believe it would be appropriate for such counter-factual debate to be placed in a Historical work. The "what if" scenarios are varied and certainly would have been momentous. However History did not take place as Mr. Vesey planned, and the historical record was systematically destroyed to the extent possible.

   What is important is that Denmark Vesey and other leaders like him take their place in our Historical record. Whether positive, negative, or aborted, events like these must be recounted or our History is incomplete.

3 comments about Ghetto Diary.

1. Owing to the fact that Korczak cared for children, it is not surprising that much of his diary is devoted to this subject. He mentions such challenges as child-care tips, discipline, and attempting to heal sick children. He also noted the pains of ageing that he experienced.
   
   Korczak makes many interesting comments on various subjects. He often discusses what kind of God he believes in. He also writes: "The world knows nothing of many great Poles." (p. 86). Also: "Nietzsche was also of Polish origin--Nitzki, you know." (p. 28). Korczak mentions Jewish virtues such as talent and hard work (p. 179), but also comments: "The Jews are conceited and that is why they are despised. I believe this will change, perhaps soon." (p. 182).
   
   Unlike other diarists, Korczak devotes little direct attention to German Nazi actions in the Warsaw Ghetto. The consequences, however, are obvious: "The body of a dead boy lies in the sidewalk. Nearby, three boys are playing horses and drivers. At one point, they notice the body, move a few steps to the side, and go on playing." (p. 121). Korczak, an obvious intellectual, invites others to discussions in his flat about such topics as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci, freedom, destiny and free will, etc. (p. 155). These Jewish behaviors shed light on comparable Polish ones. Holocaust materials have commonly featured the Poles engaged in normal activities (riding a carousel, attending Easter Mass, etc.) while the ghetto was burning--all insinuating the cold indifference of Poles to Jewish suffering. They were no such thing. We see that both Poles and Jews simply attempted to live lives as close to normal as possible in the face of all the horrors surrounding them.
   
   Korczak was offered to be saved by his Polish friends (p. 39), who had already made forged identification papers for him. He refused, and went to the gas chambers of Treblinka with the children in his care.



2. I am a great admirer of Janusz Korczak not because of his wonderful books, but because he was firm to his beliefs until the end. He had principles and he was not ready to give up, and he paid with his life for it.
   
   Korczak was the director of a big orphanage in Warsaw and he was very well know throughout the world for his writings in education. As the Holocaust started and life got very hard on the ghetto, Korczak worked even harder to keep on with cultural activities and day-to-day life. He was offered to escape to US, as most famous Jewish, but he believed that his children were his life and that he would rather die with them than live in a world that exterminates children cold-bloodedly. BUT, as William Blake puts it: "He who respects the Infant's faith triumph's over Hell & Death."
   
   This book is very interesting; it provides many of the memories that Korczak wrote in the difficult days of the Second World War. It shows how desperating reality was, and how Korczak gave his soul into his fight to keep his children safe and healthy; a sad historical document with pictures of this noble man and the orphanage that made him so proud.
   
   I have his whole collection; unfortunately for English speakers, I have found around 15 books in Hebrew while in English I found just 5. I warmly recommend this book, together with two other books that are found at Amazon: 'King Matt the First' and 'When I am little again' (see my reviews about them).



3. Janusz Korczak was a radical educator and early advocate of the rights of children. He was a Polish Jew (Korczak was a gentile pseudonym for Henryk Goldschmidt) and pediatrician whose work was well-known in Europe before WWII. Though little translated in English, his exceptionally original and poetic style and ideas puts him in the same league as Pestalozzi, Dewey and Montessori. In prewar Warsaw he organized two outstanding institutions: orphanages which were run as self-governing children's republics. But Korczak is legendary not for his life of intense work and ideas, but for his death. When The Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated, he prepared his 200 children to defy death in a unique way. Eye-witness accounts testify to the shattering spectacle of 200 cheerful, orderly children marching in foursomes through the hell of the Ghetto singing. They entered the trains singing, and they died at Treblinka. Every teacher and Korczak himself died with them. Korczak was twice of! fered by the Nazis to survive, once at the trains, once in Treblinka itself -- to be sent to Germany and educate German youth. But he refused. The Ghetto Diary is the only English translation of Korczak's own account of the last year in the Ghetto. It is invaluable. Those of us interested in children, in education and in Remembrance, should put this book into Samizdat, copying it and sharing it. It is the duty of the publisher to keep such a document available. This edition has a superb introduction by a former student of Korczak's. It is written as a novella, but perhaps comes as close to capturing the state of Korczak's mind in those days as anything could. It is quite surrealistic -- as is Korczak's own work. It combines in tribute to Korczak, Korczak's own unique synthesis of imagination, dream and the harshest, most unsparingly observed reality.

3 comments about Confessions of an Original Sinner.

1. I agree with the two reviewers who give the book five stars. I would give it six stars if I could! In almost every sentence one can feel Mr Lukacs' humanity. Strangely, in my youth, I spent a summer in Norristown, a northwest suburb of Philadelphia, close to where Mr Lukacs lives. I too was struck by the verdant beauty of the countryside of southeast Pennsylvania. It is a mystery that its beauty is not more widely known.



2. Lukacs gets to you slowly in this marvelous autobiography. It's partly the way he structures his life, and partly his remarkable prose. Structurally, he moves chronologically through his life, but also moves thematically at the same time, coming back around to the same preoccupations again and again but from different angles, foreshadowing what's to come, commenting on his earlier follies and triumphs. And so, slowly, he gnaws away at your preconceptions about history, especially U.S. history. Particularly entertaining are his witty criticisms of U.S. academia, his stinging assessments of Kissinger and Reagan from his perspective as a "reactionary" historian. Direct and simple, never-simplistic, he paints his experience as an exile coming to the U.S. after WWII truthfully, with wit, self-deprecation, and remarkable self-knowledge. There are passages in this book which are remarkably moving. His description of his first wife's illness and death, the slow dissolution of his connections to Hungary, the mother and family he left behind, are restrained, but all the more emotionally compelling because of that restraint. An original thinker, Lukacs never accepts anything at face value. After reading him, your view of 20th Century U.S. and world history will be changed. You may even be tempted to adopt his "reactionary" values.



3. This is no doubt one the most heartfelt and honest memoirs I have ever read. John Lucaks, teacher and historian, tells us early on of how he escaped from Hungary shortly after World War II. He lived under the Nazi's and then the Communists, despised both, and then made a life for himself in America.

   Good writing is about good writing. Any subject is interesting when presented the right way and Lucaks goes a long way in presenting his story in a way that is fresh and full of life. He reveals many personal observations and details that leave him bare. He laments the loss of his first mistress (a married Hungarian lady with two children) and keeps her picture still. He describes, in detail, the harrowing illness and death of his first wife and the sadly sweet feelings that her memory still conjure up. He goes a long way in describing why Philadelphia is superior to New York City and why the Pennsylvania countryside is superior to both.

   But mostly, Lucaks explains why he is a political reactionary, why that distinction is a noble one, and why it suits him so well. Don't construe this to mean that he is a member of the John Birch society or something, his political opinions are really hard to pigeonhole. He is a man of unique perspective, who had a front row seat to the happenings in the Second World War. He saw his people at their best and at their worst. He witnessed people who blew with the wind, and others that stood on conviction. He got a glimpse of what Eastern Europe could have been like if the Americans hadn't left it in the hands of the Russians.

   The one caveat I have to offer is that this book is not breeze to read. The language is easy enough, but Lucaks insists that you think about his writing, and that takes a little more time than reading the latest popular novel.

5 comments about Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century.

1. It was truly wonderful to read David's biographies of these great souls. There is quite a warts-and-all documentary style to this, but I really felt that I got into the lives of the people. For instance, I felt like I got a better picture of Billy Graham from the one chapter on him here than I did from the whole of Graham's autobiography.

   Full disclosure: I know David a little, we go to church together. But it's STILL a great book. I hope you can still find it around.




2. What a wonderful book! I have the privilege of knowing the author, and I can say that Dr. Aikman has not only unveiled six great souls for our benefit, but has exposed the greatness of his own.



3. I really want to thank Mr. Aikman for this book. It illustrates the way a pure soul can be used by God to accomplish things beyond anyone's expectations. The author masterfully weaves anecdotes, interviews and biographical information to connect us in a unique way to these great people. I came away inspired to try and carry away remnants of each of these wonderful people. Thank you for such a masterful work. It is profound in so many ways.



4. I really want to thank Mr. Aikman for this book. It illustrates the way a pure soul can be used by God to accomplish things beyond anyone's expectations. The author masterfully weaves anecdotes, interviews and biographical information to connect us in a unique way to these great people. I came away inspired to try and carry away remnants of each of these wonderful people. Thank you for such a masterful work. It is profound in so many ways.



5. Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century is undoubtedly one of the best collections of biographies I have read in years. In an era where celebrities are designated "heroes" and fifty or so men in New Orleans are called "Saints", it is refreshing - no it's inspiring - to read about five men and a woman whose attitudes and actions had a profound and positive effect on this century. David Aikman, a talented foreign correspondent for Time Magazine turned writer, has done a superb job capturing, in a few pages, the extraordinary lives and accomplishments of Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Pope John Paul II, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela. If you are looking for perfect people, you won't find them in Aikman's book. What you will find, however, are six individuals who again and again, rose above their times and circumstances to change, if only for a brief time, the course of human events. Aikman's astute observations into the worldly and spiritual lives of these great souls hold important lessons for all of us today. Mother Teresa's inexhaustible compassion for the poorest of the poor, Nelson Mandela's amazing capacity to forgive, Billy Graham's urgent quest for salvation for the human soul, Solzhenitsyn's implacable pursuit of the truth, Pope John Paul's passion for human dignity and Eli Wiesel's constant reminders of the profound wickedness that lurks in the hearts of men, these are some of the lessons in store for those who read this enjoyable and inspirational book. Perhaps the best chapter is the last. Here Aikman uses Eli Wiesel's compelling and tragic story to inquire into the nature of evil. Was Adolph Hitler a charismatic but misguided despot or Satan incarnate? Was the Holocaust "a mutation on a cosmic scale" or "merely the natural shoots watered by Europe's longtime subterranean lake of anti-Semitism"? As we move from this millennium to the next, hopefully the brilliant lights of these great souls will illuminate the answers to these questions and be a lamp unto the uncertain path that lies before us.

   rlrodriguez@ucdavis.edu

1 comments about King of the Delawares: Teedyuscung, 1700-1763 (Iroquois and Their Neighbors).

1. Anthony F. C. Wallace, like his father, Paul A. W. Wallace, is an acknowledged authority on the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware, and this book is one of his finest. It tells the story of the enigmatic Teedyuscung fairly, accurately, and (at times) grippingly.

   Interestingly, the flow of the book reflects the uneven, back-and-forth fortunes of Teedyuscung and his people in eighteenth century America, which can be somewhat dizzying for some readers. But it is well worth the effort, and the persevering reader will be rewarded.

   The maps that are included in the volume are so helpful that one might wish there were more, but that fault is easily overlooked.

No comments about John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement.

1 comments about William Johnson's Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro.

1. My stepfather asked me to purchase this book for him since he did not have a computer. He read the first 400 pages within 3 days. He called me to tell me that he totally enjoyed this book and he asked me to order the book for another person(he raved so much to this person about the book). He's leaving the book to the family (once he passes on) to let each
   member to read and learn about Afro American History.

2 comments about Letters from Lee's Army: Or Memoirs of Life in and Out of the Army in Virginia During the War Between the States.

1. A better bargain than this smashing little paperback will be hard to find. The blended letters of Susan and Charles Blackford, two erudite, observant members of the Virginian gentry, tell the story of one family's Civil War struggle in the frontlines and on the homefront beautifully. Susan describes the loss of children, the battle to feed family, and the "impression" she made in front of her husband's unit plunging headfirst into a mudpile. Charles observes the war from the vantages of both the line and the staff, and supplies some incredible character studies ranging from Jeff Davis to Lee and Jackson, down to the private soldier (with the impudence of a town cow). A collection of letters from someone who wrote on a warmed frying pan to keep his hand from freezing probably deserves reading regardless! My third reading...



2. My Uncle Minor was the author of this book. It was first published 40 years ago.We would sit on his front porch and he would talk about his work. He told me how proud he was that when it went out of print and became a library issue that he would get a phone call about once a year from a college student challenging him on one General he misquoted the name. My Uncle is deceased now but going through the house after his death I accidently found a stack of unpublished manuscripts that would headed for the dumpster as no one knew about them. I salveged them and working on getting them in print as they are wonderful cival war historical novels. The first one is named Cry Liberty as is centered around Lychburg and Col Lynch and the war. I am sure he would be proud that I saved his work so many can enjoy it in print.

4 comments about Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual Legacy of C.S. Lewis (Leaders in Action Series).

1. This book is a part of the Leaders in Action Series, which contains many biographies of great leaders throughout history, all of which are extremely stellar. Each book is divided into a biography section and an analysis section, the latter of which is always very insightful. The chapters are short, so reading can be spaced throughout a few weeks, which is very helpful.

   But beyond the series itself, this book is hands down the best biography I've read on C.S. Lewis, barring his own autobiography. Terry Glaspey traces three main attributes of Lewis throughout his life: imagination, reason, and faith. Threaded all throughout Jack's life, these three things set him apart as a leader, and Glaspey brings them out beautifully. The man had such faith in God that he couldn't help but glory in fantasy and intellect, and after reading this biography I want nothing else but to lay hold on these traits and incorporate them into my own life.

   I would first and foremost recommend Lewis' autobiography, _Surprised by Joy_. But for the facts Lewis left out and for a delightful analysis of Lewis' life and writings from an outside stance, this book can't be beat.




2. The book is short and so are the sections. And for some reason, it gives the book a certain charm. You can take a minute or two and read the next section, and if you want put it down. There is a lot of information in each section. The first part of the book is biographical in nature. The more interesting part, in my opinion, is the second part. This is where the editor really shined and his admiration and understanding of Lewis shines through. Each section deals with Lewis' thoughts on certain subjects. It is not really biographical...it is picking the brain of a giant. The book is truly wonderful and I suggest it for all Lewis fans, or for those serious about becoming more acquainted with his thoughts. Would make a great gift.



3. I had only read the Chronicles of Narnia, which I had found to be very profound, yet I had never really understood the breadth of the contributions of C. S. Lewis before reading this small volume. Mr. Glaspey does not waste words in this interesting biography. I have not read anything else about Lewis, but I feel that I know and understand so much about him because of this book. This book is divided equally between the life of Lewis and His teachings. If anything was a could be improved it would be that much of the teaching is paraphrased and summarized by Glaspey. I am certain that larger excerpts of Lewis own very eloquent words would have been better. I appreciate the small bibliography of other biographies of Lewis included at the end. This book does a wonderful job of highlighting a christian genius.



4. Terry Glaspey grasps at many of the unique features of Lewis that other biographers have not done. Lewis and Glaspey in many ways are cut from the same cloth. They both challenge the reader to go into your own resources of a personal walk with God that remind you of other great minds like Rushdoony, Yamauchi, and Francis A. Schaeffer. The book is worth reading more than once!

5 comments about James J. Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest (The Oklahoma Western Biographies , Vol 12).

1. Right up front Malone admits this is neither an authoritative nor exhaustive biography of Jim Hill and he keeps his promise. But as a pretty quick (280 page) read of Hill it is a solid book if slightly antiseptic and repetitive at times. It is particularly interesting if you want to know more about the history of the Great Northern Railway.



2. «The wealth of the country, its capital, its credit, must be saved from the predatory poor as well as the predatory rich, but above all from the predatory politician» - James J. Hill.

   In her 1962 lecture, «America's Persecuted Minority : Big Business», Ayn Rand distinguished two types of entrepreneurs, whom Burton Folsom Jr. was later to label «economic» and «political»: «self-made men who earned their fortunes by personal ability, by free trade on a free market» and «men with political pull, who made fortunes by means of special privileges granted to them by the government.» And according to her, James Jerome Hill was an arch-representative of the former group, because he built his transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern, «without any federal help whatever.»

   Michael P. Malone's admiration for Hill, on the other hand, is much more moderate (and for those who think such moderation unjust, he is kind enough to direct us to Albro Martin's «highly laudatory» two-volume biography of Hill, *James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest*)

   For instance, he puts the phrase «self-made man» in quotation marks when applying it to Hill, for, he says, Hill's fortune «sprout... from the rich seedbed of federal subsidy»: by completing his first large scale project in time (the Manitoba railroad), Hill managed to reap the «seventh largest of the original seventy-five railroad grants», located mostly in the fertile Red River valley. Therefore, Malone says, we should forget the «hoariest, and most mischievous, of all the many legends surrounding Hill»- the one perpetrated by Ayn Rand and, after her, Burton Folsom Jr.- which «rhapsodizes about how he built a great transcontinental line without the benefit of a federal land grant.»

   Was Hill therefore just another political entrepreneur? I don't think so.

   First, Malone here seems to be conflating federal subsidies and land grants. A federal subsidy, in my understanding, is a transfer of money or produced goods, which by its very essence involves a forced redistribution and is therefore immoral. A land grant, on the other hand, consists in the granting of a non-improved natural resource to its actual developer, in a good approximation of the Lockean ideal of acquisition through labour. What makes it a form of «federal aid» is only the government's assumption of the power to acquire land by some non-Lockean process (i.e. by fiat, or in this case, purchase from another government that had acquired the land by fiat.)

   Second, the lands granted to the railroads actually owed most of their value to the building of the roads. As Clarence Carson explains in *Throttling the Railroads* : «the lands granted [however fertile] were worth little to nothing on the market at the time they were granted.» This was so because cultivating those lands would have been economically hopeless without the cheap transportation to population centers provided by the railroads.

   And third, Malone's metaphor makes it sound as though Hill's fortune merely grew out of the «soil» of federal subsidy by some natural, automatic process or, to mix metaphors, a snowball effect. Actually, the building of the Manitoba railroad is only chapter 2 of the biography, and there are 6 more chapters to go in which Malone himself offers ample illustration that the building of Great Northern and the rest of Hill's achievements did not simply «sprout» from the government's bounty.

   Whatever the motivations for Malone's very mixed final estimate of Hill, he does grant his subject a certain number of admirable character traits, which confirm Edwin Locke's conclusions in *The Prime Movers*. For instance, Malone singles out the following as Hill's distinctive traits in chapter 4: «his remarkable mastery over every detail of what was now a far-flung operation, his vision of the inevitable triumph of transcontinental through-carriers [together forming Locke's virtue of «independent vision»], his insufferable [Malone again...] iron will and work ethic [Locke's «drive to action»], and his recruitment of an able coterie of men [Locke's «love of ability in others»].» And this is only Malone himself trying to summarize Hill's virtues : the book offers much more concrete material for you to make your own identifications and corroborate Locke's analysis.

   The flaw of *Empire Builder of the Northwest*, in my opinion, is that it is merely interesting and informative where, given its subject, it could have been epic. Malone himself is no great enthusiast of economic freedom: at one point, he refers to «the simplistic bromides of laissez-faire». Moreover, the book only offers two maps, which makes following some of the descriptions rather difficult. However, if you do not have the time for Albro Martin's longer work and are frustrated by the mere 22 pages in Folsom's *The Myth of the Robber Barons*, Malone's book remains a good introduction to the life of an immensely productive and hardworking man, who was also a voracious reader, a faithful husband and- as the opening quote reveals- a «true believer in the virtues of unfettered capitalism».




3. Perhaps the author should have written a history of the Northwest, and northern railroads. I found very little of the persona of James J. Hill in this. It is a very historical narritive, not very biographic.



4. A new favorite of our staff..and recomended to our members who would like to understand the Northwest in a brand new light. Malone is an excellent writer and this book a gem !



5. Malone's book is a good introduction for people interested in the early history of the Northwest, the Great Northern Railway, and the man who greatly influenced both. While not as detailed as Martin's 1976 bio, Martin's is at least twice as long and too tedious for many readers.

   Both Martin and Malone had access to the James J. Hill papers, a collection of almost every business paper Hill ever handled that is located in the Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, MN. Except for Pyle, previous Hill biographers and railroad historians did not see those papers, such much of what they say is more rumor than fact. Malone (and Martin) set the stories straight.