Winter of 1945. Aksel Foss, a Dane forced at gunpoint to fight in the German Army, flees Soviet tanks across the snow-bound fields of East Prussia. His goal: return to Denmark, and escape both the Russians and the dreaded SS who seek him for killing concentration camp guards. Retreating through burning towns and cities, he engages in near-daily combat as he tries to save himself and his lover, a beautiful refugee woman who has lost her entire family in the war.

The Art of Life Is the Avoiding of Pain is Brian Walters' fourth collection of stories and poetry. As with all of Walters' poetry you'll find this book accessible and moving, but this is without a doubt his most powerful book to date. As a physical therapist Walters is welcomed into the homes of a vast cross-section of society, and he opens a window on the quiet desperation that so many of our neighbors live with every day. This collection is both beautiful and, at times, profoundly sad. B...

The award-winning historian's acclaimed account of British sea power throughout WWII: "a must-read for anyone interested in Naval warfare" ( PowerShips magazine).For four centuries the British realm depended on sea power to defend itself against a myriad of threats. The Royal Navy established itself as the "Sovereign of the Seas," helping transform a small island nation into the center of a global empire. But Britain's maritime services faced an unprecedent...

Double Toil and Trouble is the first new volume of fiction in more than a decade by beloved Arkansas writer Donald Harington (1935–2009). Featuring the long-lost suspense novel of the title and four previously unpublished or uncollected stories, this volume adds several new chapters to the saga of Stay More, the fictional Ozarks village that serves as the setting for more than a dozen other Harington novels.Edited by longtime Harington scholar Brian Walter*, Double Toil an...

That the Roman republic died is a commonplace often repeated. In extant literature, the notion is first given form in the works of the orator Cicero (106-43 BCE) and his contemporaries, though the scattered fragments of orators and historians from the earlier republic suggest that the idea was hardly new. In speeches, letters, philosophical tracts, poems, and histories, Cicero and his peers obsessed over the illnesses, disfigurements, and deaths that were imagined to have beset their body ...

Donald Harington, best known for his fifteen novels, was also a prolific writer of essays, articles, and book reviews.The Guestroom Novelist: A Donald Harington Miscellany gathers a career-spanning and eclectic selection of nonfiction by the Arkansawyer novelist Donald Harington that reveals how a life of devastating losses and disappointments inspired what the Boston Globe called the “quirkiest, most original body of work in contemporary US letters.”This extensive...

Few people doubt the importance of that rare thing…a truly compelling elevator speech that immediately increases interest in a person, business or product. However, it’s also true that few people know who to trust for the strategy for creating and delivering that compelling elevator speech.Communications advisor Brian Walter has developed a proven system for powerfully and memorably communicating your unique value proposition. The result is that people you’re talking to will actual...

On the eve of the American Civil War, Wade Hampton, one of the wealthiest men in the South and indeed the United States, remained loyal to his native South Carolina as it seceded from the Union. Raising his namesake Hampton Legion of soldiers, he eventually became a lieutenant general of Confederate cavalry after the death of the legendary J. E. B. Stuart. HamptonÆs highly capable, but largely unheralded, military leadership has long needed a modern treatment. After the war, Hampt...