Forthcoming--
"No Brag, Just Fact": Seven Reasons Why You Will Want to Read My Forthcoming Book on John Brown's Last Days 

The first and most extensive of my two forthcoming books to be published by Rowman & Littlefield is focused on the last days of John Brown in Virginia. In the 19th century, a number of writers produced articles under this theme, but the reader can be assured that the forthcoming will present the most extensive and detailed narrative of Brown's last days in the 154 years since his death.  As Walter Brennan's character in the TV series, "The Guns of Will Sonnett," used to say, "No brag, just fact."

Readers can be assured of the following:

1.  They will get as close as possible to Brown, from the Harper's Ferry raid to his burial, that is, unless readers have a time machine.

2.  They will read a carefully reconstructed narrative of Brown's last days that includes letters, jail visits, and significant themes and episodes that took place during that time.

3.  They will gain a better understanding of the role of journalists, especially the undercover New York Tribune journalist who actually preserved a realistic front-seat view of Charlestown at the time of Brown's incarceration.

4.  They will observe a number of conventional notions about the raid are challenged, if not overturned.

5.  They will observe how the proslavery press functioned to hide or misrepresent Brown and his impact in Virginia, and the paradigmatic influence of the antislavery Tribune versus the proslavery and racist New York Herald.

6.  They will see a number of never-before-published sketches of Brown made from life, and will see the more familiar newspaper illustrations contextualized in association with the three major illustrated newspapers rivaling each other in covering this episode.

7.  While other books may overlap, no other book looks at the raid, defeat, incarceration, trial, hanging, and immediate aftermath of Brown's impact so fully, since most biographies and studies tend to close with the conclusion of the raid.  This book will begin with an assessment of Brown's broader plan, what actually went wrong in the raid, what really happened to Brown when he was "captured," and then recounts the rest of his life in an unprecedented narrative.

No brag, just fact.