Fiction by Indiana Authors
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Death Note
Thomas Black
Seventy-five years ago, John Dillinger stashed silver and gold coins in the town of Elkinsville, Indiana. His great-grandson wants the lost loot. Two catches. First, Elkinsville is now a forgotten town, sixty feet below the surface of a reservoir. Easy, blow the dam holding the water. Second, a fiery speleologist, Dr. Jenna Longstreth, has discovered his plan. Not so easy, as he finds out.
To repay a debt, Jenna agrees to explore a cave that may be linked to missing ordnance from a nearby military base. Proving the link is true, she is swept into an evil plot that forces her to fight for her sister’s life, and the lives of an entire town. Caught in it now, Jenna works to uncover the plan and learns a psychopath is going to attack a dam and wipe out a downstream town as a diversion for his real ambition: recovering a fortune. The high stakes and little time push Jenna into a cave being used for the attack. Despite booby trapped passages and a partner she’s come to distrust, she must stop the murderous plan of Dillinger’s kin.
paper 372pp / 2012 / 9781619271883 / $12.95
Order no. 2975
An American Tune: A Novel
Barbara Shoup
Two-time chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard G. Lugar has been one of the most widely respected foreign policy experts in Congress for over three decades. In this illuminating profile, John T. Shaw examines Lugar’s approach to lawmaking and diplomacy for what it reveals about the workings of the Senate and changes in that institution. Drawing on interviews with Lugar and other leading figures in foreign policy, Shaw chronicles Lugar's historic work on nuclear proliferation, arms control, energy, and global food issues, highlighting the senator’s ability to influence American foreign policy in consequential ways. The book presents Lugar’s career as an example of the role Congress can play in the shaping of foreign policy in an era of a strong executive branch. It demonstrates the importance of statesmanship in contemporary American political life while acknowledging the limitations of this approach to governance.Order no. 2972
The Blue Guide to Indiana
Michael Martone
Michael Martone, whose trademark is the blurring of the lines between fact and fiction, has created an Indiana that almost is, a landscape marked by Lover's Lane franchises and pharmaceutical drug theme parks. Passages from this book have been published in Indiana newspapers as feature articles on what to do this weekend or as suggestions for family vacations. Tourists have been directed to visit the Trans-Indiana Mayonnaise Pipeline and the Field of Lightbulbs. They have been told about Our Lady of the Big Hair and Feet and taught the history of the License Plate Insurrection of 1979.
The book opens with a letter from the Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, inviting visitors to sample "refreshing paw paw canapes and free glasses of buttermilk cider drawn from our state's native bison herbs" at state rest areas, and to considering working toward a Ph.D. within the state's picturesque borders. The book closes with a chilling Author's Note that epitomizes Martone's work: It is untrue but nearly believable; and it renders the mundane horrific and the tragic hilarious.
The Blue Guide to Indiana is an extension of Martone's previous work, in which he often composed fake essays in the voices of real celebrities. Like Jorge Luis Borges and Flann O'Brien, Martone uses parody to reveal the deeper truths about our culture.
paper 120 pp / 2001 / 978-1-573660-95-2 / $12.95
Order No. 2872
The Friendly Persuasion
Jessamyn West
A quintessential American heroine, Eliza Birdwell is a wonderful blend of would-be austerity, practicality, and gentle humor when it comes to keeping her faith and caring for her family and community. Her husband, Jess, shares Eliza's love of people and peaceful ways but, unlike Eliza, also displays a fondness for a fast horse and a lively tune. With their children, they must negotiate their way through a world that constantly confronts them-sometimes with candor, sometimes with violence-and tests the strength of their beliefs. Whether it's a gift parcel arriving on their doorstep or Confederate soldiers approaching their land, the Birdwells embrace life with emotion, conviction, and a love for one another that seems to conquer all.
paper 214 pp. / 1945 / ISBN 978-0-15-602909-4 / $13.00
Order No. 979
Come Juneteenth
Ann Rinaldi
Sis Goose is a beloved member of Luli's family, despite the fact that she was born a slave. But the family is harboring a terrible secret. And when Union soldiers arrive on their Texas plantation to announce that slaves have been declared free for nearly two years, Sis Goose is horrified to learn that the people she called family have lied to her for so long. She runs away--but her newly found freedom has tragic consequences.
How could the state of Texas keep the news of the Emancipation Proclamation from reaching slaves? In this riveting Great Episodes historical drama, Ann Rinaldi sheds light on the events that led to the creation of Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom that continues today.
paper 246 pp. / 2007 / ISBN 978-0-15-206392-4 / $6.99
Order No. 977
Why the Chimes Rang
Raymond MacDonald Alden
Two young brothers from a poor village come to a Christmas Eve service at a church where legend says that only the perfect gift will allow the the chime bells to ring out.
cloth 16 pp. reprint 1994 (1909) / ISBN 1-878208-46-2 / $14.95
Order No. 3116
Cross this Bridge at a Walk
Jared Carter
This is Jared Carter's fourth collection of poems. He continues to tell us about a place called Mississinewa County. His poems reach out to the stories, myths, and recollections of an entire continent.
paper / $15.00
Order No. 2657
The Hoosier School-Master
Edward Eggleston
Written with humor and candor and set in Indiana, in the 1850s, the story relates the adventures of young schoolmaster, Ralph Hartsook.
paper 226 pp. 1984 / ISBN 0-253-20324-4 / $12.95
Order No. 2066
Triple Cross
Kit Ehrman
Heading for Louisville for an all-expense-paid trip culminating in the Kentucky Derby, young barn manager and aspiring private detective Steve Cline takes on the job of caring for a Derby runner for his racehorse trainer father, but he soon finds himself caught up in the greedy, vengeful world of the very rich, trying to stop a murderer before it is too late.
cloth / $24.95
Order No. 2649
The Best of Kin Hubbard: Abe Martin's Sayings and Wisecracks, Abe's Neighbors, his Almanack, Comic Drawings
David S. Hawes
A collection of the best sayings, humorous essays, cartoons, and drawings, of one of the most popular, fictional, cracker-barrel philosophers this country has ever known.
paper 143 pp. 1995 / ISBN 0-253-21007-0 / $12.95
Order No. 2256
Raintree County
Ross Lockridge, Jr.
Throughout a single day in 1892, John Shawnessy recalls the great moments of his life—from the love affairs of his youth in Indiana, to the battles of the Civil War, to the politics of the Gilded Age, to his homecoming as schoolteacher, husband, and father. Shawnessy is the epitome of the place and period in which he lives, a rural land of springlike women, shady gamblers, wandering vagabonds, and soapbox orators. Yet here on the banks of the Shawmucky River, which weaves its primitive course through Raintree County, Indiana, he also feels and obeys ancient rhythms. A number-one bestseller when it was first published in 1948, this powerful novel is a compelling vision of 19th-century America with timeless resonance today.
paper 1066 pp. reprint 2007 (1947) / ISBN 978-1-55652-710-4 / $19.95
Order No. 2737
Bears of Blue River
Charles Major
Adventures of a young boy growing up in early nineteenth-century rural Indiana. This is a book for children or adults who love nature and tales of early pioneer life.
cloth 277 pp. 1984 / ISBN 0-253-10590-0 / $20.00
Order No. 2024
paper 277 pp. 1984 / ISBN 0-253-20330-9 / $13.95
Order No. 2025
Uncle Tom Andy Bill: A Story of Bears and Indian Treasure
Charles Major
Relates the boisterous early-twentieth-century boyhood adventures of the narrator.
cloth 344 pp. 1993 / ISBN 0-253-33653-8 / $17.95
Order No. 2219
paper 344 pp. 1993 / ISBN 0-253-33654-6 / $10.95
Order No. 2123
The Best of James Whitcomb Riley
Donald C. Manlove
A collection of best-loved poems about nature, home, and country as well as the dialect poems for which Riley is famous.
cloth 224 pp. 1982 / ISBN 0-253-10610-9 / $20.00
Order No. 2192
paper 224 pp. 1982 / ISBN 0-253-20299-X / $11.95
Order No. 2193
Double-Wide
Michael Martone
Collected for the first time in one volume, the stories in Double-Wide span two decades and the entire state of Indiana. Martone blends history with fiction to reinvent the landscape of places like Preu, Elkhart, Indianapolis, and his hometown of Fort Wayne.
paper 387 pp. 2007 / ISBN 0-253-21890-2 / $22.95
Order No. 2633
Brewster's Millions
George Barr McCutcheon
Comic tale of Monty Brewster, who must completely divest himself of a small fortune by his 26th birthday to gain an even bigger fortune.
cloth 325 pp. reprint 1999 (1903) / ISBN 0-253-33632-5 / $25.00
Order No. 2224
paper 325 pp. reprint 1999 (1903) / ISBN 0-253-21349-5 / $12.95
Order No. 2225
When I Crossed No-Bob
Margaret McMullanThe Sequel To How I Found the Strong
Life as an O'Donnell is all twelve-year-old Addy knows, and life as an O'Donnell means trouble. Tucked away in a gray patch of woods called No-Bob, the O'Donnell clan has nothing but a bad reputation. So when Addy's mama abandons her on the afternoon of Mr. Frank Russell's wedding celebration, nobody is very surprised.
A reluctant Mr. Frank and his new wife take Addy in, and Addy does everything she can to prove that at least one O'Donnell has promise. But one day, Addy witnesses a terrible event that brings her old world crashing into the new. As she finds herself being pulled back into No-Bob and the grips of her O'Donnell kin, Addy is faced with the biggest decision of her life. Can she somehow find the courage to do what's right, even if it means betraying one of her own?
cloth 216 pp. 2007 / ISBN 978-0-618-71715-6 / $16.00
Order No.
Sailing the Inland Sea: On Writing, Literature and Land
Susan Neville
Calling on the image of the Midwest's vanished inland sea, Susan Neville has written a compelling collection of essays that ponder writing and the "landlocked imagination." The essays range from interviews with Indiana writers Kurt Vonnegut, Scott Sanders, Marguerite Young, and others, to discussions on techniques grounded in a Midwestern sensibility. As director of Butler University's Visiting Writers Series, Neville has had the rare opportunity to converse with such literary giants as Salman Rushdie, Ray Bradbury, and Toni Morrison, and some of those exchanges have been incorporated into this exciting new collection.
paper 2007 / ISBN 978-0-253-21902-2 / $19.95
Order No. 2630
Tainted
JD Phillips
"Tainted" is JD Phillips' third book - her latest release. Great Story - as in JD's first two books - the drama, adventure and suspense in her writing gives the imagination of the reader the creative style of her writing.
paper / $15.00
Order No. 2656
Terrarium
Scott Russell Sanders
Imaginative excursion into the future, where humanity has abandoned the outdoors for a network of cities sealed against nature. A tale of the perils of separating ourselves from the environment.
cloth 276 pp. 1985 / ISBN 0-253-32956-6 / $25.00
Order No. 2271
paper 288 pp. reprint 1995 (1985) / ISBN 0-253-21021-6 / $14.95
Order No. 2167
Love in a Small Town
Betty Jo Schuler
Sam Champion, a math professor, is eager to sell the house he inherited in Browning Illinois, and return to Phoenix... until the redhead next door, Lily Madison, sets her house afire and moves in with him. Lily's not the flake he thought, and small towns aren't as dull as Sam expected.
Purchase of this book includes book plates signed by the author (while supplies last).
paper / $12.95
Order No. 2655
A Daughter of the Land
Gene Stratton-Porter
Kate Bates, the youngest female child in a large prosperous farm family, has been designated as her mother's helper in old age, but defies her parents to attain the dream of owning her own farm.
paper 339 pp. 1997 / ISBN 0-253-21138-7 / $13.95
Order No. 2212
A Girl of the Limberlost
Gene Stratton-Porter
Timeless story of an impoverished young girl, Elnora Comstock, growing up on the edge of the Limberlost swamp.
cloth 479 pp. 1984 / ISBN 0-253-13320-3 / $25.00
Order No. 2056
paper 479 pp. 1984 / ISBN 0-253-20331-7 / $14.95
Order No. 2057
The Keeper of the Bees
Gene Stratton-Porter
Stratton-Porter's last novel of a Master Bee Keeper, his bees, and the natural beauty of California that restore a wounded World War I veteran to health.
cloth 515 pp. 1991/ISBN 0-253-35496-X/$27.95
Order No. 2298
paper 515 pp. 1991/ISBN 0-253-35496-X/$15.95
Order No. 2086
Michael O'Halloran
Gene Stratton-Porter
Adventures of an orphaned newspaper boy in his scuffle with life in a midwestern metropolis.
cloth 560 pp. 1995 / ISBN 0-253-33021-1 / $27.95
Order No. 2262
paper 560 pp. 1995 / ISBN 0-253-21045-3 / $14.95
Order No. 2258
Alice Adams
Booth Tarkington
The story of a middle-class family living in the industrialized "midland country" at the turn of the twentieth century. Against this dingy backdrop, Alice Adams seeks to distinguish herself. Alice's resiliency of spirit makes her one of Tarkington's most compelling female characters.
cloth 454 pp. 2003 / ISBN 0-253-34227-9 / $32.95
Order No. 2425
paper 454 pp. 2003 / ISBN 0-253-34227-9 / $14.95
Order No. 2424
The Magnificent Ambersons
Booth Tarkington
A delightful novel giving a view of Indianapolis' evolution from a major marketing center to a great industrial city.
cloth 516 pp. 1989 / ISBN 0-253-35875-2 / $25.00
Order No. 2092
Penrod
Booth Tarkington
Realistic stories of a twelve-year-old boy growing up in early twentieth-century America.
paper 306 pp. 1985 / ISBN 0-253-20361-9 / $16.95
Order No. 2109
Penrod and Sam
Booth Tarkington
The imaginative adventures of Tarkington's ten-year-old Penrod Schofield continue. Familiar characters from the earlier Penrod volume make their appearance. This is a delightfully nostalgic look at Tarkington's turn-of-the-century Indiana.
paper 384 pp. 2003 / ISBN 0-253-21594-3 / $14.95
Order No. 2417
Going All the Way
Dan Wakefield
A passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes.
paper 307 pp. reprint 1997 (1970) / ISBN 0-253-21090-9 / $12.95
Order No. 2213
Under the Apple Tree: A Novel of the Home Front
Dan Wakefield
A brilliantly effortless novel of the home front in World War II. It's a story of awakening and loss and growth.
paper 342 pp. 1993 reprint 1998 / ISBN 0-253-21196-4 / $15.95
Order No. 2342
Leafy Rivers
Jessamyn West
Jessamyn West's spirited novel—set in the Ohio Territory in the early 1880s—is a handsomely paced adventure for lovers of period romance and suspense. Leafy Rivers is a young bride caught up in emotions she does not altogether understand and cannot quite control. As she races against time to save a life and a marriage that may already be lost, a vivid assortment of characters—such as Simon Yanders, a man whose loss has taught him generosity and whose grief has made him alert to joy; Cashie Wade, irresistibly wild and free; and Leafy's husband, Reno, whose love is matched only by his ineptitude—offers challenges that threaten to waylay her at every turn.
paper 310 pp. 2009 (originally pub. 1967) / ISBN 978-0-253-35302-3 / $14.95
Order No. 2744
New Territory: Contemporary Indiana Fiction
Michael Wilkerson and Deborah Galyan
Collection of eleven of the best short stories about Indiana by Indiana authors, with a cast of characters including James Dean, Johnny Appleseed, Clarence Roberts, and newcomer Jason Moss.
paper 166 pp. 1990 / ISBN 0-253-20595-6 / $9.95
Order No. 2104
Related Issues of The Indiana Historian
paper / ISSN 1071-3301 / $1.00 (1-19 copies); $.30 (20 or more copies)
Gene Stratton-Porter
Porter was a self-trained writer, naturalist, and photographer. State Historic Sites memorialize her life and accomplishments.
16 pp. 1996
Riley on Riley
James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosier poet and superstar of his time!
16 pp. 1995 / Order No. 7031
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