C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the other Inklings met each week to read and discuss each other's works-in-progress, offering both encouragement and blistering critique. How did these conversations shape the books they were writing? How does creative collaboration enhance individual talent? And what can we learn from their example?

Complemented with original illustrations by James Owen, Bandersnatch offers an inside look at the Inklings of Oxford--and a seat at their table at the Eagle and Child pub. It shows how encouragement and criticism made all the difference in The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and dozens of other books written by the members of this literary group. You'll learn what made these writers tick and more: inspired by their example, you'll discover how collaboration can help your own creative process and lead to genius breakthroughs in whatever work you do.

No one knows more than Diana Pavlac Glyer about the internal workings of the Inklings. In Bandersnatch, she shows us how they inspired, encouraged, refined, and opposed one another in the course of producing some of the greatest literature of the last one hundred years. A brilliant and beautifully clear case study of iron sharpening iron. --Michael Ward, coeditor of C. S. Lewis at Poets' Corner

The Inklings are about as important a group as ever existed in the literary world. This tremendous new book about them is much anticipated and hugely welcome --Eric Metaxas, New York Times best-selling author of Bonhoeffer and Miracles

What a gift Bandersnatch is a joy to read and helps dispel that dangerous myth that our greatest writers created in solitude. We all need community in order to do our best work, and this book will show you how some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century did just that. You won't be able to read this book just once. --Jeff Goins, founder of Tribe Writers and author of The Art of Work

The Union's forgotten mid-level officers and their commitment to the cause

More Important Than Good Generals is an in-depth study of the Army of the Tennessee's junior officers--the company and field grade lieutenants, captains, majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels. While many studies have examined generals and common soldiers, Civil War armies' middle management has been largely ignored. Officers had a substantially different array of duties than the soldiers they commanded and the generals above them, resulting in a drastically different wartime experience. Moreover, it is not only Civil War officers who have been overlooked but also the army Grant and Sherman commanded--the Army of the Tennessee--despite the fact that it was one of the most victorious armies of the war.

Pushing back against the commonly accepted narrative of disillusionment among officers, Engel concludes that the Army of the Tennessee's company and field grade officers endured the war's trials with their moral and political ideology intact. Further, rather than becoming indifferent to the Union cause, Engel argues that the reverse was often true: officers who started off racist or disinterested in the issue of enslavement became advocates of emancipation.

In 2001 The Kent State University Press published James Jessen Badal's In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders--the first book to examine the horrific series of unsolved dismemberment murders that terrorized the Kingsbury Run neighborhood from 1934 to 1938. Through his access to a wealth of previously unavailable material, Badal was able to present a far more detailed and accurate picture of the battle between Cleveland safety director Eliot Ness and the unidentified killer who avoided both detection and apprehension.

In his groundbreaking historical study, Badal established beyond any doubt the truth of the legend that Ness had a secret suspect whom he had subjected to a series of interrogation sessions, complete with lie detector tests, in a secluded room in a downtown hotel. Badal also disclosed recently unearthed evidence that identified exactly who that mysterious suspect was. But was he the infamous Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run? Badal presented all the evidence available at the time and invited readers to draw their own conclusions.

Now, armed with conclusive new information, Badal returns to the absorbing tale of those terrible murders in an expanded edition of In the Wake of the Butcher. For the very first time in the history of research into the Kingsbury Run murders, he presents compelling evidence that establishes exactly where the killer incapacitated his victims, as well as the location of the long-fabled secret laboratory where he committed murder and performed both dismemberment and decapitation.

Was Eliot Ness's secret suspect the Mad Butcher? Thanks to this new information, Badal is finally able to answer that question with certainty.

Beautifully illustrated with dozens of original full-color and black-and-white drawings, The Plants of Middle-earth connects readers visually to the world of Middle-earth, its cultures and characters and the scenes of their adventures. Tolkien's use of flowers, herbs, trees, and other flora creates verisimilitude in Middle-earth, with the flora serving important narrative functions. This botanical tour through Middle-earth increases appreciation of Tolkien's contribution as preserver and transmitter of English cultural expression, provides a refreshing and enlivening perspective for approaching and experiencing Tolkien's text, and allows readers to observe his artistry as sub-creator and his imaginative life as medievalist, philologist, scholar, and gardener.

The Plants of Middle-earth draws on biography, literary sources, and cultural history and is unique in using botany as the focal point for examining the complex network of elements that comprise Tolkien's creation. Each chapter includes the plants' description, uses, history, and lore, which frequently lead to their thematic and interpretive implications. The book will appeal to general readers, students, and teachers of Tolkien as well as to those with an interest in plant lore and botanical illustration.

Many of Ohio's historically significant locations have developed a reputation for being haunted. While it might be almost impossible to prove the validity of the paranormal tales that surround them, one thing is clear: ghost stories help to keep history alive. But the questions remain: How did these stories get started? More important, are any of them tied directly to actual historic events? And do any facts support the ghost lore?

Rather than rely on second- and third-person accounts, author and paranormal researcher James A. Willis sat down with the owners, employees, and patrons of Ohio locations that are said to be haunted - the Arts Castle in Delaware, the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum, the Haunted Hydro in Fremont, Loveland Castle, the Merry-Go-Round Museum in Sandusky, the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, the Zanesville Community Theatre, and many others. After conducting more than 200 hours of one-on-one interviews, Willis was able to piece together unique histories for each location, including eyewitness accounts from people who believed they experienced paranormal activity.

But Willis wasn't content to stop with first-person accounts. He also brought high-tech ghost-hunting equipment into each location and spent a night attempting to collect empirical data to see if he could experience a paranormal encounter himself. What were the results of these vigils? You'll have to read the book to find out! Come along on a journey with Willis as he travels to the crossroads where history and folklore collide, and visit the fascinating Ohio locations where the past comes alive - in more ways than one!

An examination of one of the earliest Peace Corps programs in Africa

In 1961, the first group of Peace Corps volunteers in Tanzania--surveyors, engineers, and geologists--arrived in Dar es Salaam with three core objectives: meet the newly independent country's needs for trained personnel, promote a better understanding of Americans, and promote a better understanding of the people served by the volunteers. The Peace Corps in Tanzania traces the program's progress, successes, and challenges, including analysis of the tensions that led to the program's closure in 1969. The program eventually resumed in 1980, which required significant changes in US-Tanzania relations.

Analyzing how the mythopoeic fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert portray the natural world

Finding the Numinous explores the premise that the environments depicted in The Lord of the Rings and the Dune saga are not only for the purpose of world-building; rather, these imagined worlds' environments are sacred spaces fundamental to understanding these texts and their authors' purposes. Willow Wilson DiPasquale applies Tolkien's three functions of fantasy--recover, escape, and consolation--to demonstrate how both authors' works are intrinsically connected to their ecocritical messages and overarching moral philosophies.

This book also compares Tolkien's Roman Catholic viewpoint with Herbert's Zen Buddhist perspective, arguing that the authors' religious beliefs and biographical, historical, and cultural influences impacted how they chose to craft their creative works and write about nature.

With the release of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and forthcoming film version of The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien's popularity has never been higher. In Green Suns and Fa rie, author Verlyn Flieger, one of world's foremost Tolkien scholars, presents a selection of her best articles--some never before published--on a range of Tolkien topics.

The essays are divided into three distinct sections. The first explores Tolkien's ideas of sub-creation-the making of a Secondary World and its relation to the real world, the second looks at Tolkien's reconfiguration of the medieval story tradition, and the third places his work firmly within the context of the twentieth century and modernist literature. With discussions ranging from Tolkien's concepts of the hero to the much-misunderstood nature of Bilbo's last riddle in The Hobbit, Flieger reveals Tolkien as a man of both medieval learning and modern sensibility--one who is deeply engaged with the past and future, the regrets and hopes, the triumphs and tragedies, and above all the profound difficulties and dilemmas of his troubled century.

Taken in their entirety, these essays track a major scholar's deepening understanding of the work of the master of fantasy. Green Suns and Fa rie is sure to become a cornerstone of Tolkien scholarship.

Winner of the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

* Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

2020 IPPY Awards Gold Medalist, Great Lakes Best Regional Nonfiction

Relying on oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, and original music reviews, this book explores the countercultural fringes of Kent, Ohio, over four decades. Firsthand reminiscences from musicians, promoters, friends, and fans recount arena shows featuring acts like Pink Floyd, The Clash, and Paul Simon as well as the grungy corners of town where Joe Walsh, Patrick Carney, Chrissie Hynde, and DEVO refined their crafts. From back stages, hotel rooms, and the saloons of Kent, readers will travel back in time to the great rockin' nights hosted in this small town.

More than just a retrospective on performances that occurred in one midwestern college town, Prufer's book illuminates a fascinating phenomenon: both up-and-coming and major artists knew Kent was a place to play--fertile ground for creativity, spontaneity, and innovation. From the formation of Joe Walsh's first band, The Measles, and the creation of DEVO in Kent State University's art department to original performances of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and serendipitous collaborations like Emmylou Harris and Good Company in the Water Street Saloon, the influence of Kent's music scene has been powerful. Previously overshadowed by our attention to Cleveland as a true music epicenter, Prufer's book is an excellent and corrective addition.

Extensively researched for eight years and lavishly illustrated, Small Town, Big Music is the most comprehensive telling of any of these stories in one place. Rock historians and fans alike will want to own this book.