Best Selling Books by Frederick Turner

In 1893 a young Frederick Jackson Turner stood before the American Historical Association and delivered his famous frontier thesis. To a less than enthusiastic audience, he argued that "the existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development"; that this frontier accounted for American democracy and character; and that the frontier had closed forever with uncertain consequences for the American future. Despite the indifference of Turner''s first audience, his essay would soon prove to be the single most influential piece of writing on American history, with extraordinary impact both in intellectual circles and in popular literature. Within a few years his views had become the dominant interpretation of the American past. A collection of his essays won the Pulitzer Prize, and for almost half a century, Turner''s thesis was the most familiar model taught in schools, extolled by politicians, and screened in fictional form at local movie theaters each Saturday afternoon. Now, a hundred years after Turner''s famous address, award-winning biographer John Mack Faragher collects and introduces the pioneer historian''s ten most significant essays. Remarkable for their truly modern sense that a debate about the past is simultaneously a debate about the present, these essays remain stimulating reading, both as a road map to the early-twentieth-century American mind and as a model of committed scholarship. Faragher introduces us to Turner''s work with a look at his role as a public intellectual and his effect on Americans'' understanding of their national character. In the afterword, Faragher turns to the recent heated debate over Turner''s legacy. Western history has reemerged in the news as historians argue over Turner''s place in our current mind-set. In a world of dizzying intellectual change, it may come as something of a surprise that historians have taken so long to overturn the interpretation of a century-old conference paper. But while some claim that Turner''s vision of the American West as a great egalitarian land of opportunity was long ago dismissed, others, in the words of historian Donald Worster, maintain that Turner still "presides over western history like a Holy Ghost.". Against this backdrop, Faragher looks at what the concept of the West means to us today and provides a reader''s guide to the provocative new literature of the American frontier. Rereading these essays in the fresh light of Faragher''s analysis brings new appreciation for the richness of Turner''s work and an understanding of contemporary historians'' admiration for Turner''s commitment to the study of what it has meant to be American.

Epic does many things. Among others, it defines the nature of the human storyteller; recalls the creation of the world and of the human race; describes the paradoxical role of the hero as both the Everyman and the radical exception; and establishes the complex quest underlying all human action. Epic illustrates that these ingredients of epic storytelling are universal cultural elements, in existence across multiple remote geographical locations, historical eras, ethnic and linguistic groups, and levels of technological and economic development. Frederick Turner argues that epic, despite being scoffed at and neglected for over sixty years, is the most fundamental and important of all literary forms and thereby deserves serious critical attention. It is the source and originof all other literature, the frame within which any story is possible. The mission of this book is to repair gaps in the literary understanding of epic studies—and offer permission to future epic writers and composers. The cultural genres of Marvel Comics, gothic, anime, manga, multi-user dungeon gaming, and superhero movies reprise all the epic themes and motifs. Consider The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Lost, The Matrix, Superman, Harry Potter, and Narnia. Here can be found the epic beast-man, the miraculous birth of the hero, the creation myth, the founding of the city, the quest journey, the descent into the land of the dead, the monsters, and the trickster. This book will be of interest to all readers fascinated by folklore, oral tradition, religious studies, anthropology, mythology, and enthusiastic about literature in general.

Set four hundred years in the future, Frederick Turner''s epic poem, The New World, celebrates American culture in A.D. 2376. As the book opens, the nation-state has been fragmented and replaced by new political forms: the Riots, violent anarchistic matriarchies, whose members are addicted to psychedelic joyjuice; the Burbs, populations descended from the old middle classes and now slaves to the Riots; the Mad Counties, religious theocracies dominated by fanatical fundamentalists; and the Free Counties, Jeffersonian democracies where arts and sciences flourish. Within this setting, Turner''s epic tells the story of a tragic family feud involving Ruth Jefferson, daughter of the political leader, Shaker McCloud; Antony Manse, a handsome aristocrat; Ruth''s half-brother, the ambitious Simon Raven McCloud, who is under the influence of his grandmother, the witch Faith Raven; and the hero, James George Quincy. When banished from the Free Counties, the vengeful Simon Raven transforms himself into a messianic figure who inspires a league of Mad Counties to launch a holy war to annihilate the Free Counties. Turner''s epic calls for a cultural commitment to transcend the contemporary choice between blind faith and hedonistic relativism. The New World imagines a future that does not include a nuclear holocaust or cultural nihilism. This bold work challenges many conventional assumptions about modern poetry and its relationship to other literary forms and the culture at large.

In his stirring biography, Frederick Turner, the distinguished writer and cultural historian, captures the legendary scale of the life of an American icon. Immigrant, inventor, botanist, and founder of the conservation movement, John Muir (1838-1914) truly led those of his time-and now ours-to rediscover the natural beauty of this land. From his harsh childhood in Scotland and on a Wisconsin pioneer farm, to his rugged, solitary explorations all over America and especially in the Sierras, to his passionate battle, in person and in his writings, to save and celebrate our wilderness, Muir was a heroic figure. Turner''s biography is every bit as monumental and inspiring as its subject.

Award-winning author Frederick Turner examines the lives and careers of nine American authors, the locales they made famous, and the ways in which landscape played a role in the creation of their finest works. Spirit of Place is both a testament to the creative genius of nine of America''s most important writers and an insightful investigation of the vital role of the physical landscape in the cultural development of the United States.

Turner argues that in the time models of contemporary cosmological and evolutionary science all times may be connected and time may be intimately branched and causally looped so that both forward-in-time and backward-in-time factors may be in operation in the same event. Thus, the fundamental substance of the universe may be information rather than matter or energy. The universe is more like a vast living organism than a vast machine."--BOOK JACKET.

Originally published in 1988, Genesis was the first major work of fiction that addressed the idea of terraforming Mars. It not only suggested the idea, but provided a feasible solution for doing so. During its initial publication, Genesis was on the list of recommended reading at NASA, and has since gone on to enjoy cult status. --

"How Henry Miller, renegade and failed writer, came to understand what literary dynamite he had in him and, drawing on two centuries of New World history, folklore, and popular culture, sent his "war whoop" out over the roofs of the world"--

Poems explore ideas, feelings, and themes on the nature and experience of beauty

Rebirth of Value takes as its starting-point the emerging scientific view of the universe as a free, unpredictable, self-ordering evolutionary process in which our own cultural history plays a leading part. It outlines some of the startling implications of this view for contemporary art, literature, theater, ecological ethics, human studies, religion, and education. Turner goes beyond the current fashions of postmodern eclecticism, deconstructive critique, and self-consciousness about genre and ideology. Instead, he seeks out the creative and positive forces in contemporary culture that underlie the surface features, and identifies potent new themes and ideas that drive the trends. Among these are the recovery of a pan-cultural human nature; beauty as a real evolutionary tendency; the efficacy and reality of values in general; the reunion of the arts, sciences, and technology; a new science including the theory of non-linear and self-organizing systems, top-down as well as bottom-up causality, and a broader conception of causality in general. Other themes and ideas discussed are a new environmental ethic in which humans can play a constructive and leading part in the evolution of nature; a conception of history as driven by values; cybernetic technology as a spiritual development; a new religious consciousness including a rich syncretism and a renewal of ritual; eternity as a more intense form of time; and the essential unity, coherence, and fertility of knowledge.

The Significance of the Frontier in American History is a classic essay about the importance of the frontier.

When the Earth becomes a maelstrom of storms and rising sea levels due to catastrophic climate change, some want to give up and call it a day for humanity. Yet there are also those heroic few who are determined to take action and dosomething about the impending apocalypse. These are the geo-engineers—men and women of creativity, knowledge and drive—who will do whatever it takes to save the planet.They will take on the challenge of bringing the planet back into balance. They will fiercely protect their work from the belligerent navies of two large nations— even if this means risking life and limb in a major sea battle. And with a new dawn of artificial intelligence on the horizon, these valiant few may make the difference between a future of human and A.I. enlightenment or a dark age of never-ending terror. At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). “Apocalypse is a wondrous science-fiction epic, written in beautiful blank verse, exploring ideas of humanity, memory, death, hope, and extraordinary scientific thought. . . . Even if you’re not a big reader of poetry, I promise this is a blazed trail you should follow.”—Fantasy Faction “Frederick Turner reveals the poetic soul of science fiction”—David Brin “A science fiction epic poem has at its command that great property of science fiction, evoking a sense of wonder in a reader. Science fiction delivers the intellectual and emotional charge of telling stories about what might happen and what people might do about it. It’s just fun to read about stuff like that. Fred Turner’s epic poem Apocalypse is all those things: cool, as memorable as your favorite song in many spots, and, most of all, entertaining. Fun.”—from the introduction

Turner indicts both Left and Right for creating a cultural establishment that is philosophically empty and esthetically corrupt.

"Narrated by George Coe, an aged veteran of New Mexico''s Lincoln County War, The Kid and Me tells what it felt like to ride alongside Billy the Kid, whom Coe both admired and greatly feared"--

“I just plain loved In the Land of Temple Caves. Frederick Turner makes a compelling case for civility organized in response to culture–shaping art as our most ancient source of saving graces. Beautifully said, humanely thought out, the story he tells is particularly useful in these sorrowful times. Read, and take heart!” —William Kittredge, author of The Willow Field In the Land of Temple Caves travels back to the very beginning of Art to assess anew its meanings in the long human story. Frederick Turner makes a personal investigation of sanctuaries in France and Spain that the great mythographer Joseph Campbell called the “temple caves,” the earliest known of which contains paintings and engravings more than 32,000 years old, works of art more advanced than the hunting implements by which their creators lived. In caves and prehistoric shelters, along the valleys tracing the mighty rivers of the Ice Age, in a war–ravaged village, and in a city church far removed from the country of the caves, Turner finds resonant meaning in what he has always believed to be true. Art does matter—vitally—and never more than now.

A faded newspaperman downs a double Maker’s Mark and contemplates life as a “ham-and-egger,” a hack. Then one day he finds the scoop of a lifetime in a Chicago basement: diaries belonging to the infamous Judith Campbell Exner. Right, that Judy, the game girl who waltzed into the midst of America’s most powerful politicians, entertainers, and criminals as they conspired to rule America. When Frank Sinatra flew Judy to Hawaii for a weekend of partying, she could hardly have imagined where it would lead her: straight to the White House and the waiting arms of Jack Kennedy. And then came the day that JFK and his brother Bobby asked her to carry a black bag to Chicago, where she was to hand it off to the boss of bosses, Sam Giancana. As our Narrator pieces the notebooks into a coherent story, he finds mob connections, rigged primaries, assassination plots, and trysts—and begins to see beyond the tabloid fare to a real woman, adrift and defenseless in a dangerous world where the fates of nations are at stake. As one by one the men Judy loved betrayed her and disappeared, and as the FBI pursued her into a living hell, her diary entries disintegrate along with the beautiful, tough, sweet woman the Narrator has come to know. Who was Exner, after all? Just a gangster’s moll? Or a bighearted woman who believed the sky-high promises of the New Frontier—and paid the price?

Making constant recourse to well-known material from Shakespeare''s plays, this text demonstrates that terms of money and value permeate our minds and lives even in our most mundane moments.

By 1929, the brief, brilliant career of Bix Beiderbecke––self–taught cornetist, pianist, and composer––had already become legend. From the summer of ''26 at Hudson Lake, Indiana, when his genius blazed forth with a strange, doomed incandescence, Bix''s career tragically reflected the chaotic impulses of a country suddenly awash in wealth, power, and a profound cynicism. Shy, elusive, inarticulate, Bix was beloved by both the raccoon–coated campus crowd and the men who nightly played alongside him. He is still celebrated in a yearly festival in his hometown of Davenport, Iowa.And that is where the novel begins, Davenport and the Bix Fest. Then it travels back in time to focus on the highlights of a meteoric career: a Capone–controlled nightclub in 1926; the grueling cross–country tours with Paul Whiteman''s Symphonic Jazz orchestra; the disastrous Whiteman trip to California to make the first all–color talkie musical; the stock market crash of 1929 that finds Bix in an asylum, victim of the era''s signature product, bootleg gin; and finally, Bix''s dying efforts to combine his piano compositions into a suite that would be the pinnacle of his life''s work and his evocation of his time and place.Colored by some of the age''s most popular characters––Maurice Ravel, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Clara Bow–– 1929 brilliantly illuminates a period in history, personified in the gifted, compelling, and melancholy figure of Bix Beiderbecke.

Although Juan Perón changed the course of modern Argentine history, scholars have often interpreted him in terms of their own ideologies and interests, rather than seeing the effect of this man and his movement had on the Argentine people. The essays in this volume seek to uncover the man behind the myth, to define the true nature of Perónism. Several chapters view Perón''s rise to power, his deposition and eighteen-year exile, and his dramtic return in 1973. Others examine: opposing forces in modern Argentina, including the church and its role in politics; the conflict between landed stancieros and urban industrialists, terrorist activities and their popularist support base; Peronism and the labor movement; and Evita Perón''s role in advancing the political rights of women.

In this celebrated collection of essays, the real and the legendary American West collide, and in their wake we are blessed with the carefully crafted and sharp-witted observations of Frederick Turner - historian, storyteller, biographer, and naturalist. Of Chiles, Cacti, and Fighting Cocks, expanded with three new essays, explores the crossroads where Eastern America''s imagination meets the hard twist, rough-and-tumble West, a place where legends and men have been made and broken. ''''A winsome collection of notes on the American West that shines a light down into the back corners of history, emerging with tales and insights as hearty and unceremonious as the people and society Turner portrays.''''

Explores jazz figures like Buddy Bolden, Freddie Keppard, and Bunk Johnson, as well as the social mileu of the formative period of New Orleans jazz. This expanded edition includes sixteen pages of rare photographs and a new chapter on Allan Jaffe and Preservation Hall.

Originally published (hardcover) in 1985 by Paragon House, this examination of the interconnectedness of nature and human endeavor showcases Turner''s exploration of--and attempt to integrate--principles of literature, art, music, biology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and aesthetics. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR