Takeoff-a ton of inert matter transformed by the pilot into a thing of spirit and beauty. Takeoff-lifting one's shadow off the earth, entering a new element where movement is the very condition fro existence, for, as the author observes, "in life, to choose the wrong wife or the wrong lift is conventionally viewed as being matters of varying gravity, but in piloting an aircraft an act of petty oversight, because of the obvious but decisive fact that in flight there can be no stopping, can be fail." Interweaving observation and dream, Takeoff is a meditation on flying. It carries the reader up to the clouds, into a world governed by different laws, where as we look through the cockpit window-and into our own souls-we see painful new clarity. Whether he is reliving his first solo flight or recounting the mysterious disappearance of an airliner, del Giudice focuses on the edge of experience where a person learns to take nothing for granted.
Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of a Citizen of New-york, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853,...
Behind the Scenes. by Elizabeth Keckley. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.
Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton: For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail
Inaugurated for a second term on March 4, 1873, Ulysses S. Grant gave an address that was both inspiring and curiously bitter.
This is my ground, and I am sitting on it.” In May, Sioux leaders traveled to the capital, where Grant renewed efforts to persuade them to relocate to Indian Territory, “south of where you now live, where the climate is very much better ...
After whites massacred black militia in South Carolina, Grant warned that unchecked persecution would lead to "bloody revolution." As violence spread, Grant struggled to position limited forces where they could do the most good.
During the winter of 1864–65, the end of the Civil War neared as Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant maintained pressure against the dying Confederacy.
In his third annual message to the nation, Ulysses S. Grant stated the obvious: "The condition of the Southern States is, unhappily, not such as all true patriotic citizens would like to see.
Initial enthusiasm soon gave way to rancor, as factions split over where to place the fair. Grant favored Central Park, but public sentiment intervened, and funding evaporated. By March, Grant resigned.
In spite of his public silence, Grant was caught in the dispute between Congress and President Andrew Johnson. His position became intolerable after Johnson publicly accused Grant of dishonesty.