John Keats (2) (1921–2000)

Mr, Keats is not as in love with the automobile as are some of his contemporaries. The one-liners are deliciously nasty, and beneath the bravado, he has a word of caution about the complete love affair of the American with its vehicle. A re-issue of this book might well find a broad audience in the world of 2020.

I always seem to be less sure what I think of a person after I read their biography. John Keats' (no, not that John Keats) work here didn't cause me to veer from that opinion. I suppose it doesn't help that Parker was certainly a complex woman. Depressed, blasé in her own spirited way, spiteful, quick to mock a companion using the least amount of words possible...yet there's something about all that you've got to love.

I think Keats' main thesis throughout the novel was how unappreciated show more Parker's literary body was. He compares her to Hemingway many times throughout the book and it appears to be an apt analysis. It's a shame her short stories are not more well known today. show less

This is the story of Col. Wendell Fertig, a mining engineer who chose to take his chances in the jungle in 1942 on the Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao in the Philippines. It's the story of how Fertig not only survived but also thrived and led his men for three years behind enemy lines. Fertig and a handful of Americans led thousands of Filipinos in a war against the Japanese, making bullets out of curtain rods and telegraph wire from iron fence. Fertig's homemade communications system show more was MacArthur's eyes and ears in the Philippines. When the Americans finally returned to Mindanao, they found Fertig in control of one of the world's largest islands, commanding an army of 35,000, and at the head of a civil government with its own post office, law courts, currency, factories, and hospital.

Wendell Fertig was my grandmother's first-cousin. He's my genealogical "claim to fame." Seriously, I remember meeting him when this book came out. He was an impressive, commanding presence--you didn't forget meeting Wendell Fertig. show less

When the Japanese conquered the Philippines in 1942, most American soldiers surrendered. However, a few did not. They fled into the jungle and mountains living with the locals and in many cases battling the Japanese any way they could. One of these men, organized some of these Americans plus 1000's of Filipinos into a fighting force that tied down 1000's of Japanese soldiers. That man was Wendell Fertig and this is his story.