Best Selling Books by John Moriarty

An autobiography of John Moriarty''s life in Connemara during the 1980s and the return to his native Kerry. This extra-ordinary work of autobiography concludes the story of John Moriarty''s life in Connemara during the 1980s and the return to his native Kerry. He relates the particularities of his time at Toombeloa, Roundstone and environs, where he worked restoring gardens and building his own house. He describes his adopted family and the children of the household, with sorties to Dublin for Christmas; his neighbourhood and community; the writer Tim Robinson; returned pine martens, the fish and flora of a historic landscape; a lecture tour in Canada, organized by his former students; his engagement with the immensities of the natural and spiritual worlds. He calls to account the literatures and legacies of European thought made manifest in the western extremities of Ireland as they bear witness to his own inner and outer journey, now documented in this compelling and writerly masterwork.

First produced at the Central City Opera House in 1956, "The Ballad of Baby Doe" is now widely considered a classic and is the second most produced American opera. In The Ballad of Baby Doe, Duane A. Smith tells the tale of the complicated birth of this most American of operas. Inspired in 1953 by composer Douglas Moore''s interest in Horace Tabor''s story and funded by the Central City Opera House Association, the opera came together through a unique combination of hard work and serendipity. Smith relates how key people -- including investors and historians in addition to creative talent -- turned Moore''s idea into a reality and brought the story of the Tabors to millions of opera fans worldwide. In addition, Smith compares the opera''s libretto with historical reality, and the book even includes a chapter on the production written by John Moriarty, who conducted the opera in 1981, 1988, and 1996. For anyone interested in opera history or this Colorado story in particular -- the emblematic tale of silver millionaire Horace Tabor and the two women he married -- The Ballad of Baby Doe will be the definitive history for years to come.

In this astonishing volume of autobiography, John Moriarty''s earlier works of mystical philosophy, Dreamtime and Turtle Was Gone a Long Time, are given a biographical grounding. Inhabited by all that he reads and perceives, Moriarty recovers lost forms of sensibility and categories of understanding, reconciling them gloriously within the arc of his life. Nostos is a Greek word meaning ''homecoming''. In its plural form, nostoi, it was the name of an extensive body of literature in ancient Greece about the Greek heroes who returned from the Trojan Wars. Most of this literature has perished, but we do have The Odyssey, describing the long homecoming of Odysseus to Ithaca. Moriarty''s book assumes that for various reasons humanity is now exiled from the earth, but by reimagining it and ourselves as involved in a common destiny, it enacts a homecoming, a nostos to it. Nostos is a continuous narrative describing early on how its author lost his world as surely and completely as the Aztecs lost theirs when Cortez came ashore. Thereafter, in places as far apart as neolithic North Kerry and London, Periclean Athens and Blackfoot Dancing Ground, Manitoba and Mexico, Kwakiutl coast and Connemara, the author fights his way to a kind of rest, to a requiem, at the heart of things as they terribly and resplendently are. ''the classical, Eastern and Amer-Indian legends that have informed Moriarty''s life are recreated or re-enacted in this deeply personal document, which is paradoxically rich in encounters with the physical world and tender episodes of love and loss, while giving us a disturbing insight into the terrors and rare ecstasies of the hermit''s lonely struggle.'' -- Tim Robinson

This gripping memoir deals with a journey back from addiction and suicide. From a childhood of fear and rejection, the writer fled into adulthood fueled by ever-increasing doses of alcohol and drugs. A near-death experience forces him to confront the wasted years and potential within him, to transcend the self-hatred which sometimes besets gay men, and to engage in survival and triumph. Dramatically written and completely devoid of self-pity, this memoir is both a cautionary tale and a call to action.

In Introducing Moriarty Canadian theologian and academic Michael W. Higgins compiles the essential writings of Irish philosopher and mystic, John Moriarty. This distillation of Moriarty''s texts on ecology, mysticism and spirituality is a perfect introduction to the work of this complex and, at times, esoteric philosopher. Higgins'' commentary provides an excellent guide to one of the country''s most enigmatic modern thinkers and is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in Irish philosophy and spirituality.

On 15th November 1939 aged 18 John Moriarty was conscripted into the Rifle Brigade. Six months later he was in Calais fighting for his life. Surviving the Fall of Calais he was marched into captivity. But John had no intention of spending the rest of the war as slave labour for the Third Reich so despite the risk he planned his escape. Initially he wasn''t successful, but as the Soviets advanced in January 1945, and the Germans marched the POWs westward on the infamous death marches, John saw another chance to escape. No Medal No Pension is the story of one man who refused to accept defeat and who''s message to us all is that we must remember our history otherwise we will repeat it.

The outcome of a life''s meditation, an ambitious, Dantesque, shamanic journey -- a Columbus voyage across Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian waters

This title reveals the extraordinary nature of John Moriarty''s thought. It serves as an introductory text for those unfamiliar with his writings and sheds new light on his writings.

In the nineteenth century, here in Ireland, we started to walk away decisively from a native language that was a way of seeing and knowing things. In the twentieth century we started to walk away from a religion that in many of its ideas and practices was a folk religion. In this century we are walking away from local accents, from the big open vowels upon which so many of our poems depend for their full auditory effect. Overall, in line with revolutionary ambitions elsewhere in the world, we have moved from rites that related us to time and eternity to rights within a body politic. Could it be that we have moved too far, too fast? The Chinese say that the sage is to be found not walking ahead of humanity, finding a way for it, but behind it, picking up the inestimable treasures it leaves behind it in its flight into an ever-receding future. While he doesn''t claim to be a sage, here too is where we find Moriarty, walking hundreds, even thousands, of years behind us, picking up things. As its centenary approaches, Invoking Ireland offers an alternative to the 1916 Easter Rising Proclamation. Here Moriarty proposes not a Republic but anEnflaith, reinstituting a Birdreign in which all things live ecumenically with all things, uniting man with nature, magic and the divine. Standing shamanically and mystically with the heroes of political thinkers, among them Plato, St Augustine and Rousseau.

A Hut at the Edge of the Village presents a collection of Moriarty’s writings ordered thematically, with sections ranging from place, love and wildness through to voyaging, ceremony and the legitimacy of sorrow. These carefully chosen extracts are supported by an introduction by Martin Shaw and a foreword by Tommy Tiernan, a long-time admirer of Moriarty’s work.

Deriving from a native Amazonian myth, this third and final volume of Turtle was Gone a Long Time re-engages with two important themes: our efforts to find and navigate the evolutionary channel, and our efforts to bring in new myths and re-open the road to civilization and culture.

A wonderful walk through the story of Moriarty''s childhood growing up on a small farm in north Kerry, and his lifelong engagement with traditional Catholic sacraments, taking as his point of departure Philip Larkin''s poem ''Church Going'' - a richly meditative essay of extraordinary resonance that begins with a visit to the island of Inis Fallen on Loch Leine: ''People say we live in a time of ritual deprivation. Not so people of my age born into Christian Ireland. From three days'' of age I was inducted onto the Christian sacramental road, and that journey I rehearse in this book.''

Charts a night journey through the darkness of nature and culture to Earthrise. Seeing our planet coming up over a lunar horizon, the author, believing that he has good reason to do so, names it Buddh Gaia, a compound of Sanscrit and Greek, suggesting enlightenment not just now and from now on, but all the was back through the geological ages.

The second volume of a trilogy, this text represents a mystical quest enacting one of the central themes of European literature, the journey from Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained.

Years later, when I found my mother, I asked, ‘Why did you let me go?’ My mother told me, in a very soft voice, ‘My son, you were going to school. I took you to school every day ... then I went to pick you up this day and you were gone.’ John Moriarty was born to his Yanyuwa mother Kathleen Murrmayibinya and Irish father John Moriarty in Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory. At the age of four, as part of assimilationist policies, he was stolen from his family and placed in a children’s home. Saltwater Fella is Moriarty’s story of a childhood surviving harsh routines and poverty, hunger and racism in church institutions. It is about finding out who he is through his soccer skills and the start of a long career in advocacy for Aboriginal rights and self-determination. Moriarty’s search for his place in the world takes him from his saltwater people to co-founding an internationally acclaimed Aboriginal design company that would put the stirringly beautiful Wunala Dreaming Qantas jet in the sky. Fired by the injustices around him, Moriarty made it his life’s mission to advocate for the rights of Aboriginal people, from the successful 1967 referendum for voting rights and citizenship, through to education and decent jobs. Through his tireless work in aiding others to find their voice, he discovered his own. Saltwater Fella tells that story.

As the shortest candidate in the 2004 U.S. Presidential contest, Butternut O''Day enjoyed a distinct view of the political process. During her all-too-brief campaign, Butternut corresponded with dozens of business professionals, retailers, service providers, journalists, public personalities and civic leaders. While the resulting letters expose Butternut''s naivete about Presidential politics (as well as sportfishing, air travel, Botox, boxing, and many other subjects), they also capture a singular moment in the history of the United States by answering numerous provocative questions. Can a wee person (3''9") run for President? Can a wee person (3''9") be taken seriously? Can a wee person (3''9") find a Presidential suite at Motel 6? "Wee, The People: Long Letters from a Short Presidential Candidate" is Butternut''s endeavor to keep alive the belief that one person--no matter how tall or short, thin or plump, young or old, skilled or untrained--can make a difference in the world.

A comprehensive guide to the diction of Italian, Ecclesiastical Latin, French and German with practical exercises in a comparative approach for American singers.

This paper examines peer effects in adolescent cannabis use from several different reference groups, exploiting survey data that have many desirable properties and have not previously been used for this purpose. Treating the school grade as the reference group, and using both neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, we find evidence of large, positive, and statistically significant peer effects. Treating nominated friends as the reference group, and using both school fixed effects and IV for identification, we again find evidence of large, positive, and generally statistically significant peer effects. Our preferred IV approach exploits information about friends of friends – ‘friends once removed’, who are not themselves friends – to instrument for friends’ cannabis use. Finally, we examine whether the cannabis use of schoolmates who are not nominated as friends – ‘non-friends’ – influences own cannabis use. Once again using neighbourhood fixed effects and IV for identification, the evidence suggests zero impact. In our data, schoolmates who are not also friends have no influence on adolescent cannabis use.

Describes his current difficulties in business and the amount of money he lost during the last War. Asks for a position within the army that is being raised and sent to the Ohio region.

Discusses the possible purchase of some of Knox''s land in present-day Maine, referring to Knox''s ownership of two farms and a limeworks. Notes that he could arrange to bring people from Ireland to settle the land. Proposes his method of payment.

Written in Bristol, Broad Bay (present-day Maine). Hopes to be able to purchase one or two hundred acres of land from Knox. Asks what price Knox would charge for the land, and discusses his method of payment. Writes, I expect some familys here from Ireland, who will undoubtedly want some tracts of Land, & if you can have faith Enough, to put any Confidence in an Irish man, & that you Impower [sic] me to Act for you here, depend, I will serve you if I can. In a post script, notes that Major John Hopkins, former Commissary of Prisoners, will recommend Moriarty to Knox.