Wayne R. Kime – författare

Lt. Col. Richard Irving Dodge's journals, written with utter candor for his eyes only, are the fullest firsthand account we possess of Gen. George Crook's Powder River Expedition against the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians, which culminated in Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie's resounding destruction of Dull Knife's forces on November 25, 1876. Editor Wayne R. Kime, with his customary flair, has transcribed the journals from Dodge's pocket-size notebooks and has provided a pertinent introduction and well-crafted, thoroughly illuminating annotations.Dodge's journals will clearly prove useful to specialists in U.S. -Indian relations and the Great Sioux War, but they will also appeal to a variety of readers because of Dodge's lively style and his range of subject matter. With vigorous intelligence, he describes such topics as General Crook as a military leader and strategist, the merits of infantry versus cavalry against the Plains Indians, the effects of subzero weather in Wyoming on a large army far from its sources of supply, and of course, the elusiveness of military glory.

In the spring and summer of 1875, Lt. Col. Richard Irving Dodge escorted the scientific expedition of geologist Walter P. Jenney into the Black Hills of the Dakotas to determine the truth of rumors of gold started by Gen. George Armstrong Custer the previous summer. The five-month trek north from Cheyenne, Wyoming, challenged Dodge's 452 men with their wagons and animals, but in many respects it was ""a delightful picnic (without the ladies),"" as Dodge described it.Colonel Dodge wrote his journals daily in the field, and in their variety, discursiveness, and detail they convey clearly the pleasure he took in what he said was ""the most delightful summer of my life."" Yet he used only a small fraction of what he recorded in his subsequent official communications and published works. If it were not for this well-annotated and illustrated edition by Wayne R. Kime, readers would not have access to Dodge's experiences with such characters as the stowaway Calamity Jane or the eccentric mountain man and backwoods philosopher California Joe, who was hired to guide the expedition. Dodge's particular interests in hunting, fishing, and fine scenery also enliven his narrative, as do the politics dividing the miners from the Indians, and the soldiers from the scientists on the expedition.Black Hills Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge is by far the most detailed account yet available of the conflicting claims, interests, and populations that converged on the Black Hills during the key transitional period before the Great Sioux War of 1876.

In the decade that followed his emigration to the United States in 1851, Fitz-James O''Brien (1828-1862) produced a steady stream of contributions to American newspapers and magazines. As short story writer, essayist, poet, dramatist, reporter, reviewer, drama critic, and editor he won reputation as one of the ablest young writers in New York City, displaying what one contemporary termed an "extraordinary" talent. But soon after his early death from complications of a battle wound, the sense of wonder at O''Brien''s prolific accomplishments began to dissipate. In 1881 his friend William Winter brought out The Poems and Stories of Fitz-James O''Brien, a one-volume collection that spared him the oblivion that awaits even the ablest magazine writers. That book, with reprintings derived from it, has formed almost by itself the basis for O''Brien''s lasting reputation.In the early decades of the twentieth century O''Brien continued to be admired as the most significant practitioner in the short story in the United States of the 1850s. However, since then the recognition of his achievement has focused on a few tales of the macabre and the supernatural. He is now remembered in two unrelated contexts: as a colorful member of the "Bohemian" circle that flourished in New York City in the years prior to the Civil War, and as author of such stories as "The Diamond Lens," "The Lost Room," and "What Was It? A Mystery."The present volume reintroduces the fiction of Fitz-James O''Brien to modern readers by presenting fourteen of his works, five here reprinted for the first time, that together suggest the development and range of his accomplishment as a short story writer. Additionally, editorial commentary on individual stories reveals O''Brien''s attunement to the fashions, fads, interests, and concerns that manifested themselves in his adopted city and country. Though immersed in the details of his own era, O''Brien cherished a belief that some of his writings would live beyond it. The present collection offers evidence t

his volume forms part of a continuing initiative by Wayne R. Kime to make available the writings of Fitz-James O’Brien (1828-1862), an Irish-American literary man who during his lifetime won reputation as one of the most talented young authors in the United States, but who has been all but forgotten since. It follows Fitz-James O’Brien: Selected Literary Journalism, 1852-1860 (Susquehanna University Press, 2003) and Behind the Curtain: Selected Fiction of Fitz-James O’Brien (University of Delaware Press and Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2011), both edited by Kime. Like its predecessors, the volume offers evidence that “not only for his vivid contemporaneity but also for his originality, range, and technical skill” (Fitz-James O’Brien: Selected Literary Journalism, 10), O’Brien’s claim to lasting memory was well justified.Thirteen Stories by Fitz-James O’Brien: The Realm of Mind presents a group of works that explore one of the author’s special interests, the representation of individual consciousness. All but three of the stories are reprinted here for the first time. The works are arranged chronologically, by date of publication, under five headings: Expanded Faculties (“The Old Boy,” “The Spider’s Eye,” “Seeing the World”), Induced Visions (“The Hasheesh Eater,” “Broadway Bedeviled”), New Knowledge (“Mr. Grubbe’s Night with Memnon,” “The Golden Ingot,” “How I Overcame My Gravity”), Love and Hate (“Number 101,” “Jubal, the Ringer”), and Dreams (“A Terrible Night,” “The Crystal Bell,” “From Hand to Mouth”).A general introduction, brief introductions to the individual stories, and explanatory notes complement the reprinted texts. The volume has been designed to appeal to both general and specialist readers.