2019 Kansas Notables Books, Part Two - Encore

with the holiday shopping season upon us about a good book or two for the readers on your christmas list i'm j mcintyre and today on tv are prisons that that's new books like kansans or about kansas part two if that see how the nineteen kansas notable books chosen by the state library of kansas in the second of this two part series we'll hear from the authors of about half of those books including fiction nonfiction poetry young adult literature and more we've offered that books to give away go to keep yours facebook page and leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of the kansas notable book if you missed last week's keep your present part one of my annual cannes is notable book so it's now archived other website kansas public radio dot org our first book today is cease fire by lawrence our third natalie parker it's the story of captain caledonia sticks her all female crew and her set but moore's neighbors the morsi this is they've reclaimed to set it once

housed many families including toy delany as parents and many others but when she was very young it was attacked and everybody essentially was lost in that attack killed or taken captive except for caledonia and oscar for best friend and sister casey it's i'm so these two girls have reclaimed the ship they've pulled it together from all the parts that they can find and gathered a crew of other way weren't girls in this world of extreme violence i'm the theory cover of your book is the quote sisterhood is survival tell me about the relationship between the girls and young women on the moore's neighbors so these girls have come together from very disparate parts of this world but it is a world that's very is shrouded in in violence so these girls are all very strong willed they have that some of them very dramatic backgrounds and they are

sisters i think and about the truth since i could make them they fight with each other and the fight for each other and one of the things that i felt very strongly about going into the story was to make sure that they never we're undercutting one another tom i feel like there is a there is a pervasive narrative in a lot of our stories about girls that requires girls to be in competition with one another or conniving against one another and that's not the story i wanted to tell i wanted to get to these girls a different sort of relationship one that was very powerful even if they were sometimes at odds with one another capping caledonia sticks and her crew are clearly the good guys in ceasefire the bad guys erica there and his crew of bullets tell me about them so eric affair has taken as his strategy to to accumulating power in this world i'm dismantling families and replacing family narratives with his own

narrative of family calls himself the father and all of his bullets are but his sons and daughters and so there is this very destructive narrative that i am it becomes very toxic and allows for these boys and girls in this world to arm become very dependent on him not only because he has placed himself in the position of being father at all but also because he has taken control the means of food production and as well as a very dangerous and addictive drug called silt on which he doles out very freely amongst his people and so they're very much in opposition to the kind of found family that caledonia has created on the morris davis they are one that is much more destructive than is not are not the true family i'm visiting with natalie parker of lawrence

sees the other of a cease fire one of the cancers notable books that we're featuring on today's keep your presents now the ship's name is moore's neighbors the captain's name is caledonia sticks her antagonist erica there there's a character named he may or as easy as lean on the lovely he may talk to me about how you selected these beautiful and rich names for your characters have your step thank you well my approach to this world i which is a very futuristic vaguely post apocalyptic setting out was to think of it in terms of what might happen in a far far distant future we have more sustainable technology but we've sort of reached that tipping point already and i'm not i'm not implying that this is our world but it is certain that this topic vision of what might occur in the face of severe climate ange what is going to happen to the this oil that we use

to grow our food what's going to happen to the ocean's what will happen to sea level on what will happen to the technology that we're continuing to create our when we've passed that tipping point and perhaps you know the impact of that is not enough to save the world i'm so to speak so this was really a vision of an exploded world one in which the it's a mass of diaspora of peoples and cultures and so we get this very like spread out and mixed population and i was just thinking about what were some of the names that might stick in within that the context of that vast destructive violent diaspora and so i i stretched into a couple of different cultural directions from caledonia and eric and we're in or an obviously poll from more of the british isles but they also have some greek influence of airspace season aires and then she may is pulled from the japanese culture so there's just

this this sort of miasma of of an rooted people and more to people on and they are coming together once again on on the open ocean so there are just like little snippets of culture that that speak back reached backward to our world better not necessarily rooted in the same way i was originally parker of warrant seized the other artsy fire one of the two thousand eighteen kansas noble book selected by the state library of kansas can i have you read an excerpt from the fire she were these of her first two pages from chapter one of cease fire just before dawn caledonia climbed into the aft rigging of her ship the ropes were rough against her calloused palms as she scaled fifty feet of them has amassed confident ensure her hands and feet flying faster and faster daring the sun to beat her to the top the sky filled with the hazy blue glow of dawn and caledonia pushed harder relishing the

first case of sweat against her skin she'd scarcely reached her chosen perch when she yelled to the team of girls on deck below hall eager voices repeated the command and four sets of strong hands took hold of the lines and heaved along the mast bullies squealed and churned caledonia kept her eyes on the calf be moving toward her break she shouted as the gaffe rose level with her chest from it hung their treasured son sale hundreds of shiny black scales made to absorb solar energy and feed their engines the girls below began to secure the rope scar caledonia moved to balance the top the beam the morning wind that was so gentle on deck was bracing to store up and a constant tension world in her stomach leaving one hand to grip the ropes she stretched to retrieve the peak anchor and pull it down stopping the cable in place the horizon was burning yellow now and the approach of the sun brought a smile

to caledonia slips below she could see a mina perched on the starboard railing tracking her with shrewd eyes it wasn't necessary for the captain to secure the seo anyone ever mean as not ska do this just as easily as caledonia that this moment was unlike any other aboard the moore's neighbors and caledonia crave to the feeling of the world at her feet trim deport she called the sale angle toward sunrise just as the first gentle raised slid across the surface of the ocean light climbed the hall to paint the girls in their boldest strokes for just a second before it reached the black plates of the sun's sale it was like a fire light leapt from a hundred scales at once in fiber and yellows oranges and pinks a cascade of momentary brilliance washed up or as the son climbed higher in the sky and at the top of that all stood caledonia wind tugged at her sleeves in her hair light washed over her from

blue to brow and she felt as alive as the ship beneath her feet charged and powerful it lasted for only a moment then that dazzling morning fire was gone that's natalie parker reading from ceasefire or one of this year's kansas notable books selected by the state library of kansas natalie thank you so much for coming in today thank you for having me today pierre presents the best new books about kansas or by kansans i'm kate mcintyre and on today's program it's a look at the two thousand and nineteen kansas notable books part to selected by the state library of kansas this is the second time on the camp was notable less for linux artist daniel meer as daniel welcome back to the cave your studio's i think strawberry night out is as sweet picture book about a lonely boy at a boys' school it opens with this boy sitting all by

himself at an otherwise crowded dining room table dena hoff we just read through the first couple pages of night out and you describe what's going on there sure this is a night out by daniel mijares all alone yeah and then that first read he's lying in bed this long row of beds all the other children are asleep except this one boy is wide awake with girl with a pensive look on his face i think we've all been there before i know i certainly have but in this image that it's also worth noting and for that the perceptive young readers get their hands on this one it is as though a pet turtle is climbing out of that bowl and next page an invitation and now where is it small tiny pet turtle wants and so it's a little

hope with wood the tiniest little wet footprint flipper prince left on an uncle oak without wax seal winds up bull and the boys looking on the enemy's look on his face he can't believe what he's seeing or not seeing and the turtle is gone he's gone on the next spread the boys opens open the ample open inside the angulo is an invitation and a tiny little map and on the imitation it says the honor of your presence is requested and then this this little boy with with bad head is sitting in front of a giant picture window at the moon martin life on framing his head and the antelope a sitting on his bed but this isn't he decides to pack up his backpack put on a sparrow jacket and climb up the window of course and

there's an old rickety old beat up little bite waiting for him by a tree and a journey begins and his journey thus began and so out of the front gates he rides on his bike with a lantern and hand an old fighter pilot helmet and goggles on his riding off into the night apparently following his tiny now to answer the call of his in the kitchen and no spoilers would likely get any further into the story gets really that for listeners to discover for themselves that's a night out by daniel mijares of lenexa night out is one of fifteen kansas notable book selected by the state library of kansas the best new books by kansans or about kansas dimeo for me if i'm wrong that it seemed to me like there is no small resemblance between the little boy in that book and the illustrator of this work if this were

a skype interview or something with something with dr this record we can put that restaurant just take my word for it you know a lot of a lot of what i try to do now with my art in particular is is really go back and look at the things that matter to me growing up and things are really kind of etched into my heart and i think childhood has a lot to do about that experience and experiences in general do that for my childhood in particular a pleasant played a big role in who i am and who i aspire to be in iran you know my achievements my feelings and all that and and so at this point my life really interested in and what are all these things that i forgot about these are these worries these anxieties these things that i grew up with as a child ends and what the night which was estimate what to do with those and at best the fodder for my stories that i that i tell now but i write now straight and

so it's easily fit into come up word proxies for myself in those stories because that's the thing that i think is going to be the most authentic to others and i mean i could be wrong but i think the closer i can get to you know how i feel and how i relate to the world in the stories i tell them hopefully others will be able to relate to what's going on in that way so that's why i think the character's i'm compelled to check not just two portraits of me but you know to not try to stamp out myself in this character's but encourage it so do so you know when you know if you saw my hair in the morning you know and might look like this little kids fat or yellow the expressions that you see in space might be how i feel and react would react to her mom the things he collects you know like i

said this on social media recently that there's something about a good sturdy backpack that reminds me of adventure so this continued his backpack you know he knew he wasn't going to school they're using the ready for whatever chemical and so he has of a knapsack with you know there was room for anything you might add you know in the story i was as a kid i'd always loved it's all such laws and that because i could put whatever i needed you know a white stranger buttons or you know things change or my water gone or what you know whatever it was i needed i'm from adventure you know i had on the back which that's just part of childhood plus you never know we're in a fight when you're out on an adventure you never know which up to bring back daniel mijares is the author and illustrator of night out it's one of fifteen kansas notable book selected this year by the state library of kansas daniel thank you so much for coming in today for avenues was a pleasure today on k pr

presents its the fifteen best new books about kansas or by kansas others anti mcintyre and we're looking at about half of this year's kansas notable books if you missed part one of my cancer's notable book so it's now archive on our website for clinical friesen of newton is the author of the pastor wears a skirt stories of gender and ministry murthy thank you so much for driving with me today it's good to be with you this but the details your life and career over three decades of ordained ministry within the mennonite church but to go back to the nineteen seventies he went to seminary not with the intention of serving in the pulpit so what were you thinking well i married a man who was going to seminary who i thought are we thought he would become a pastor since he was the son of a pastor missionaries and so early on in our marriage it it was taken for granted we be at seminary the policy enter seminary ways that spouses of

fulltime students could audit any and all courses free so i was only working part time as a as an editor of a small magazine and ice took a full load auditing and liked words unlike the allergy and we were committed to that the church in that sense and down after two three years of auditing he became convinced that he would not be a pastor and i thought i would get a degree are increasing education because i was a teacher first and loved teaching so the reality is that it was by happenstance than my fellow with with theology and ethics in history and but as one of the chapters notes and nineteen seventy four my advisor counseled me out of finishing a

degree because good heavens what will you don't with this and it was just not the right time and i was i loved teaching so to be encouraged to go back to the classroom was not bad advice but it laid the seed for what later i would finished seminary and go into the past you were ordained in nineteen eighty five and served as the pastor of a manhattan mennonite church from nineteen eighty four to nineteen ninety how your role as a female pastor wine different from your male counterparts but also maybe differ from to your female counterparts in other denominations i think in some ways in that congregation was non traditional in some ways we did not own a building we meet we rented space we were multimillion night which so we are related to several kinds of mennonites particularly in kansas that have the three mennonite

colleges i was but i was full time i was everything and i love them for it so that sense very similar to many other male pastor that's what you do if you're the sole a pastor what was different ways that in manhattan there were yet that no other female a protestant ministers in the town at all at all so in nineteen eighty four when i came i was bit in manhattan except for the sisters of the catholic chaplaincy who became very dear friends and support of one another but i generally went to all the minister meetings as the only woman visiting the dirty mecca of treason of newton she's the author of the pastor wears a skirt stories gender and ministry i love the title of your book it goes right into that issue of your a woman serving in the ministry talk to me a little bit about the

role of clothing and what that means to you well there's nothing more distinctive when i stand up i'm gendered but i am i'm also clothed and that issue of clothing is one that all women in ministry must be aware of course historically veiled women or nun's habits or have been a symbol of authority and pastoral leadership the mennonite the nomination and generally does not close with robes are clerical collar is so any woman in a new roll or as the first woman in a n roll i'm doubly challenged by being the pastor of this minister of this speaker in and then i'm closed and so what to wear is always an issue and i'd like to read a little bit from one of the chapters i call

liturgical clothing commandments and there are six but i'm going to read one that's called where seasonal colors to fit the liturgical calendar so just again the practices that mennonites do not close so i have to figure that one out i wore purple and advent inland white on easter and christmas and read for pena cost and reformation sunday the bright gold jacket was reserved for epiphany and a black suit for good friday of course there were plenty of opportunities to varying colors and designs but the holy days seemed to be ones where my preaching and the preparation were enhanced by carefully chosen a tiger the most difficult choices of clothing are reserved for weddings not black to somber not quite conflicted with the bride no

colors that clashed with a bridesmaid dresses and nothing dramatic or aboard navy was the choice modest than you'd addresses are part of the most wedding portraits where i stand with the beating bride and groom early in my career i went to kansas city to shop for address because i had about four summer weddings coming up i tried on several dresses and finally went to a more formal dress shop a friendly clerk inquired and how can i help you today i explained i needed a dress for a wedding but before i could explain my role she said and what are the bright colors no no i said i'm officiating at a wedding i'm the pastor she looked startled and then perplexed she was quiet and went to one side of the store then to the other side and find i came back to me i'm sorry

but we don't have clothes for someone like you that's dorothy nangle friesen of newton she's reading from the pastor wears a skirt stories of gender and ministry and what did you want to write this book i actually didn't want to write a book i started off with post retiree i wanted to take one year to write stories for my children to to let them know i've two daughters and two grandchildren that i wanted you know behind the scenes a little bit here are some things that happened then and i loved i loved to write i always have and i thought and i love the short stories on her own as a way to do that and so i hired a writing coach and i said i'm going to write stories and so every month i am or six stories and she would critique them and i am not the fourth month she said dorothy i think this is a book as i said ok but sort

of surprised by that so after a year i had it i think had over seventy five stories and so i cut that down to about fifty had a manuscript set adopted for publishers to have an instant reviews all one never never responded and the other one i hadn't heard from so i decided to self publish and as i was working with that process i heard from within stop that they would accept a manuscript so to be very truthful i hadn't really thought of hating of book but i am delighted that it actually i was picked up and published and has enjoyed such an interesting response both from friends who are in my church too folks who are not church and so they feel like they get to peak in a new location and congratulations on your book being named a kansas notable book i'd been visiting with dorothy nickel freedom of newton she's the author of the pastor wears a

skirt stories of gender and ministry pretty thank you so much for coming in it's been my pleasure thank you today okay pierre presents its the two thousand nineteen kansas notable books part to the best new books about kansas or by kansans tanya bolden is the author of the children's book no small potatoes genius she grows and his came down in kansas time you thank you so much for coming in today thank you pay for having me i'll be the first to admit that i had never heard of genius grants bail or who was he and how did he become known as not just the potato king of kansas but the potato came out the world was in a word to do our work jimmy's george grosz was born at fifty nine whose foreign slave but obviously he was enslaved very long and he was part of the movement of people from the south

who went west and north seeking opportunity and land and basically what he did was he started doing odd jobs they need to give a farmhand on a potato farm then he became foreman on that and he wanted his own land he had no money but he could keep working hard and so he was able to write many kids keep working on hoping for his own songs that he was able to write twenty acres and he didn't do it alone he had wonderful wife mathilde so anyway five he's able to rent sixty six acres and then becomes an opportunity for him to purchase land there's so many interesting things about this story but i thought one of the most interesting things was who he bought that regional land from right he purchased land of a native american in which you would never because we think of the gentle

narratives you know early today dunn take the illustrator he talked about he was trying to really does great research and at one point i think he originally depicted the seller as a white man and that is something that he checked with me as it now he's about british man that you know she was a native american woman and then he of course checked we've come people you know about the cost and to make sure that they said no she would've dressed in this kind of western as if she's a businesswoman say yeah there's all sorts of fascinating facets to the story you first learn about genius groves when i was working on a book that became searching for sarah rector the richest black girl in america which is about you know the making of oklahoma and they divided up the land the allotments a lot of the cow creek freed men in greek children that the worst lamb liked farming it was like ok just hundred and sixty acres but it turns out that it was and that allows the land there's a lot of black people

so she becomes one of those very wealthy children doing the texas oklahoma's oil boom of the early nineteen hundreds when researching a life in someone tells me that you know after our family left oklahoma moved to kansas city missouri he was saying that one when shia country how he and the person said it was a year when the talking heads home and taking that incident moved on and then the week someone slave and believe it or not i was going to do my archives of primary documents from previous books and one was a nineteen oh four issue of outlook magazine one of the feature story was a negro potato came by booker t washington so i thought ok lightning strike and why it is so i think i need to look in so i read article in an essay i obviously i need to follow this because as knocking on my door and i cited in the race time wimbledon is the other of no small

potatoes genius she grows and his kingdom in kansas tanya i have to admit when i first saw the title of this i'd buy potato kenyan kansas normally known as a paid a state but you once won one of the things cancer store i think as you can go online and find these wonderful postcards celebrating the potato and kansas and what they will have is a man on a court in these humongous exaggerated potatoes but you know i don't know the history that apparently it was it was it was this part of kansas way back you guys would've taken no matter how why did we ever relinquished that idaho oh no small potatoes is a children's biography it's told as a narrative but it's interspersed way a

primary source documents his letters newspaper accounts why wasn't so important to you to tell his story in his own words i guess in a way to make it work for so you we have the primary documents you know and we have quotes from him and how else to this very odd story does sounds so fantastic in the demands it will it was like he kept working hard but i think you had his voice it's how can i deny that to the readers so they're thinking a kid you know impress upon people that yes this was a real person and you can hear his voice and you can hear his driving and his hopes for the future when he was so proud of his children would be say we a part of feeding america i'm having a tiny a bold and she's the author of no small potatoes genius she grows and his kingdom in kansas twenty

can i have you read an excerpt from her book i'd be happy to pick up way era he's been renting has been dreaming dreaming he's been renting he's been dreaming of having a farm of his own an inmate at ninety four jamie is g head as i'm eighty acres this land was easton edwards will be the mass of the call its banks lined with cottonwood trees jimmy's gm until the essay that twenty two hundred dollars with the aviators the edwards will cost thirty six hundred dollars well what the forty not to dial a difference come from the wind a cloud some magic tree nursery it will come from art work that's virginia's do believe when he handed over those twenty two hundred bucks when it was a promise to pay off the balance in india right quick journey is gene went to work turning those eighty acres into a real farm there was a small house to build more

daunting than that was the back straining muscle taxing task of clearing the land for starters digging up a team tree stumps so many years to make a stepping stone up and down the field allow juniors ge was doing all that the top on his mind but it does look at doing grief are hard enough to pay off the money he still hold on those eighty acres in the eu if he didn't he was liable to lose the land and those twenty two hundred bucks negative meringues and they say neighbors make their way to germany as jesus years he did a done deal these people he would never pay off that debt any that tut tutted when they look into julia's geez future those may say neighbor saw nothing the negative merit kicked up a raucous engine is gees had made and said stare down discourage it wasn't like he had only himself to worry about that was mentally what's more the couple had three young sons by then joffe walt and fred stance their

kids maybe was made was the right fit chinese ge may be a dream to be bitten off more than he could chew what to do and the rest of the book tells you what he did that's tanya gold and she's reading from no small potatoes genius to groves and his kingdom in kansas it's one of fifteen books selected by the state library of kansas as two thousand nineteen kansas double books time you thank you so much for sharing judaism store jeff thank you so much my conversations with tanya bolden and dorothy nickel freeze and were taped at the two thousand nineteen kansas book festival in topeka kbr has a number of kansas notable books to give away if you like a chance to win a copy leave a comment on k pr is facebook page we'll have more cans of notable book out there is coming up as kbr present continues right after this the

university of kansas uses public radio kate and you lawrence nine he won five and k engaged in emporia eighty nine seven were unaware that kansas public radio dial support for kbr percent of kansas public radio comes from the university of kansas are transforming students and society academic discoveries service and the information about the possibility that the k u education of online a cave you are eating and from casey ph he's curious case the answering questions like who lived in the kansas city museum how and why is the cop and the interstate like that more questions than answers about flat landscape see it today on k pr presents is the two thousand and nineteen

kansas notable books part to each year the state library of kansas picks the fifteen best new books by kansas others or about kansas today and keep your presents we're featuring about half of the kansas notable books if you missed part one of my cancer's notable book so it's now are kept on her website kansas public radio dot org ken boehm have to peek at is the author of brown enough detail of a mixed race baseball team can thank you so much for listening to me you're welcome good to be here brown enough tells the story of your time playing for the emporia brown bombers back in the summer of nineteen fifty six the brown bombers was an all black baseball team and this is radio so i'm going to do a spoiler alert you are not african american now although in nineteen fifty six i had a very good tan and dark and this was able to convinced the manager that maybe they needed another picture on their staff and i

desperately needed to play a place to play baseball at summer how did you convince and that they should let this white kid play on their team got a couple things they had the manager of the power william possum wayans an african american we thought at the time he probably was about fifteen years old but an old duffer for we ninety year olds or later only found out he was actually seventy that summer but the i had just finished playing baseball are for my freshman year in korea state and i love the game of baseball still do today so i am at possum that he was a young shoeshine boy in a local barber shop and although the barber their charge fifty cents for a haircut which neighbors cannot afford we went to the twenty five cent haircut guy down the street are we would still visit possibly get some historians cohesive some tragic stories about

his experiences he was a rare grand with a minstrel show in his early days out but anyway i had been in construction and i had been done some work and hay fields of kansas and i had a really dark tanned and i thought this is my only chance i'm going to have and that's after i had found a short little advertisement in the oregon set that said the tryouts for all black baseball team and be like next wednesday at six pocket peter pan partner in korea off i got never enough two go to the barber shop and as they would have it the barbers were on break to adjust cost money and he can recognize me for two reasons number one i had been there a number of times before they say to hear some of his stories and he also watched the pitch to work again for emporia state that spring so i still have a hard question asked passengers yes or no is all i need to know is that i'm looking for a place to play baseball the summer and the pictures you may know and down

and also you can see i have a rather dark tan do you think the way or there's a way i could get away with paying for all black baseball team he took a few moments me if i said you know i think you're brown enough that's given to try and therein lies these the key to my title of my book and that started ten weeks somerset a period where i live baseball and of course a regular part of my life and it is in effect a ten week novel based upon true facts many of them drew facts of that summer and fifty six did you get any flack from either the other players or from the fans the spectators the that the book has an almost every incident where there was a garage or tone to it but its forms of players themselves that blossomed in given the chance and as turned out the first time i showed up with the team was not our practice because we had rain first time was an actual baseball

game and he invited me just to show up and sold i got there with a great deal of merced and he's simply shouted to the group when we all got together the kisses kenny omega he'll be playing with this period he didn't use the word period but that was the implication so it and so there was no no outright flak at that point there was ups and downs during the year during the course of the summer as a group would be but but they're most but i feel that it even comparing comparison to the day situation i'd go along pretty well with the consumer you've already talked a little bit about past and williams' coaching manager of the team tom a little bit more about your relationship with them well bob at first the record in a relationship at first of course was cordial as it could be because he was a no nonsense type a guys aren't as fate would happen in my first or second

game i struck out with the bases loaded pitchers better than those days i'm struck out with the bases loaded we if i had even got a walk we would've tied in stolen by what i was a furious with myself had my own bat that i purchased for a quarter and a nail i used store earlier i cracked that battery crossed home plate into a million pieces and she came storming out possibly ago the dugout and we lost a game and he said you've got to buy me a new bet you gonna buy us a new budget and he was furious that he will shortz elle i'm a rather tall one so looking down his buddy's eyes were flashing and he was very very upset so i felt at that point that my career was a brown bomber should be over was it turned out to be he didn't say they more after i she shared with him that the battle with i own that that it wasn't a team that will have three bats for the whole team it was my back and done do i can't imagine the

new eras before than before this game when you walk through a moment and then the next day or two i practice it has a word about sweatshirt with some of my teammates you know am i still in pretty brave and water what and they said now he's usually is worrying about losing the game really nothing much to do with you and when she found out that the bet with my then all of all was forgiven so that's part of my story here that ten home he kept he is the author of brown and the sale of a mixed race a baseball team summer of fifty years they are

today on k pr present is that two thousand nineteen kansas notable books part two and j mcintyre every year the state library of kansas likes the fifteen best new books by kansas others or about kansas today i keep your prisons we're featuring about half of the kansas notable books if you missed part one of my candles notable book so it's now archive on our website when a word myers of newton is the editor of the diaries of rubinstein at kansas settler and civil war soldier when it is great to see you again thank you to back to eighteen fifty four who was reagan's ribbons there was an extraordinary man for fifty years he preaches payday and events that shaped the state of kansas and he captured those experiences and diaries but i think

his stand apart from others because they are just minding daily logs their poignant narratives and during us fifty years he describes some of the most tumultuous times an early cancers history he sailed from england to america and at fifty four as a young man and came last and with a farm laborer for a couple of years decided he went out on his own father and so he set his sights on the new territory of kansas and on he did that not just because of the tea plant that because he might help her become a free state and that desire to help it become a free state shaped very rich career in the military and in active service and support some a little bit about that part of his life well since he just completely adopted this country and thought it was the best in the prius country

he decided that you know he would immediately volunteer when the war began and so for the next four years through his writings we get to see not only the escalation of the civil war but the evolution of snare from an inexperienced volunteers soldier to a seasoned officer and a government spy i think you come across the story of brooklyn's when i was a graduate student at which time state university i've worked in the department of special collections where it rare books and the research materials were kept and when i was organizing a manuscript collection of kansas poet may williams ward i came across an excerpt from her grandfather's diary and and

he described his voyage from england to america and eighteen fifty four and it was it was fascinating the heat he included everything from them work songs sung by the sailors to just a very somber ceremony of a burial at sea and i found that once i started reading it i couldn't stop and so now fast forward thirty years later and when i was finishing my last book which was a biography of new lanes ward i learned by accident that the descendants of snubs had given out but the complete set of the regional diaries to the kansas historical society so the next time i was visiting the state archives i had to see those diaries and i had the same reaction that i had had thirty years earlier i couldn't stop reading and

so it was then that i know what my next project would be what was the most challenging thing for you as the added or in putting this collection of his diaries into what ended up being the published on the diaries of britain's no well there were several things i am i honestly you know he he wrote these for fifty years and if i became clear as i was working with them or i didn't need to include all of the injuries the things that happen to all of us agree but he had a fascinating stories that that put you right there when he was talking about these early times that were important in the history of kansas and so i wanted to highlight those and and make this into a progressive historical narrative what would you like people to know about ribbons oh i think he says that himself

in the last paragraph of the introduction i let him introduce himself i'll with one of his reminiscences that from gay that he wrote when he was sixty five and he would like i'd be happy to read that as i lay upon the quiet waters of the narrative seen river and this event my soldier life pass before me interview i looked upon it as the most unselfish proudest period of my life i had not lived so only for myself but for others i had risk my life that future generations might live under a government without a surf a servant or a slave i am not comrades and down with a large share of this world goods and the greatest and richest heritage that i can leave to my children is that their father was a soldier the war and the rebellion and that he offered his life for his country might live

that's lana word myers she's reading from the diaries of prudence met kansas subtler and civil war soldier it was named one of fifteen kansas notable books by the state library of kansas whether thank you so much for coming into their thank you for asking me our left kansas notable book for today eisenhower becoming the leader of the free world dr louis columbus is emeritus professor of history at johns hopkins university in baltimore welcome professor glad to be here it's wonderful to be in the midwest to court early we tend to think of president eisenhower as this brilliant military commander especially for his role in d day and world war two but you start out your book detailing a couple incidents that threatened to derail his military career early on and argued that by his

early thirties he looks like the military maybe a dead and courier for eisenhower yes he could easily have retired as a major lieutenant colonel and gone back abilene to work in the creamery but he met a man who changed his life general foxconn are a terrific mentor not just a mentor and a sponsor so we help guide eisenhower's career he are aroused his ambition and he focused on mastering the details of his profession and it's a good lesson for anyone who wants to know how to make it so yes that turned his career around when he was thirty years old before becoming president eisenhower served as supreme commander in world were to chief of staff of the us army and as nato supreme allied commander for europe how does physicians prepare him or not

for being president he learned early on as supreme commander how important unity was so he stressed unity in all his commands he stressed unity between air sea and land and when he got to the presidency one of the things that irritated him the most was the interest group that didn't recognize that once you just made a decision you had to you the fly around the national national interest and that irritated him no end and it came out in his farewell address they came as military industrial the military industrial complex was an attack upon those interest groups and what they were doing to the american system of democracy he believed in abilene style of democracy which was personal and

not framed in terms of big lobbyist and big organizations i'm visiting with dr louis columbus professor emeritus at johns hopkins university and author of eisenhower becoming the leader of the free world professor landis you came to this project with a really unique perspective talked about your role as editor of the eisenhower papers when you edit papers you do it one day at a time one paper at a time in ukraine ahead so and then you produce books that are about two and a half inches across and i call them chest crushers if you try to read one at night when you're going to bed they come down on you when you fall asleep and i hurt so i decided to write a book a book that could be read by a reasonable person in a reasonable amount of time so that shaped that it also

meant because i had picked up editing the papers that when he was chief of staff at the end of the war the second world war it meant i had to dig back into his early life and that was the most exciting part of doing a book was finding out how the boy i emerged from abilene kansas he was a typical small town boy fed his interests were primarily football girls and then school and wasn't for his mother who was it marvelous person a saint i said oh she guided all those boys to professional careers and that included it eisenhower becoming the leader of the free world is full of interesting insights about ike's relationship with military and political leaders george patton and you've already mentioned his relationship with foxconn eric general douglas macarthur george

marshall told me about his relationship with charles degaulle bill leader of the french resistance eisenhower was i think a brilliant leader but he never understood charles de gaulle and i think charles de gaulle outfoxed him several times and i don't think he or a franklin the roosevelt our president understood the gall i don't think general marshall understood the goal and it was difficult the french are different and there he had a different style and and the americans were not very well attuned to that i work very well very smoothly with churchill there was only one time in his career when he threatened to resign i don't think he ever that one time threatened to resign working with

churchill but de gaulle seemed to be another kind of person and i cattle are trouble handling him and visit with dr louis gallois he's the author of the eisenhower becoming the leader of the free world in your biography of eisenhower you say that it had a particular story to tell about his life and that that story changed a number of times over his life and career explaining what you mean by that well i think he put a gloss on things in his early life when he looked back at abilene an atoll how he developed i think he kind of rubbed out the bad places and emphasize the good places and all we saw things he is a very positive man end and he saw everything and positive term so in the book i had to

lean against that i could lean on his low valuations it get my own understanding of how the boy who merge into a professional and then into an enormously complex and accomplished leader i'd been visiting with dr louis columbus he's the author of eisenhower becoming the leader of the free world professor thank you so much for coming in today you was wonderful thank you today and kbr presents weekend featuring the two thousand nineteen kansas notable books the best new books by kansas or about kansas if you missed part one of my kansas notable book so its archive on our website kansas public radio dot org we've got a number of kansas notable books to give away for a chance to win a copy leave a comment on k pr as facebook page and j mcintyre kbr prisons is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas