Best Selling Books by Will James

"Harnack captures the special quality of life in Wisconsin''s North Country. This is a book that residents or visitors familiar with places like Sherman should find of special interest. But its audience need not be confined to Northwoods admirers. If the writing is regional, it''s in the broad spectrum of such writing that includes authors such as Sherwood Anderson." -- Robert W. Wells, Milwaukee Journal Book Editor "You are doing in print what it seems Seurat and Renoir did in oil on canvas: vibrating with the stuff of everyday living and feeling but in your case with a lively sense of value." -- Lester Mondale, Philosopher (brother of Walter Mondale) "Poignant, reminded me of my own life. The mystique of the Northwoods." -- Antler, Milwaukee Poet Laureate, Recipient of the Walt Whitman Award "Place has always been important to me. Like grapevines and cocoa beans that reflect through their flavor the soil and water in which they grow. Some places become part of a person''s emotional and mental fabric, sometimes even when a person only passes through for a night or two. Mr Harnack has written a collection of evocative, elegiac stories that show us a few of the human threads woven through a small northern Wisconsin town in the Chain of Lakes. The stories span decades and characters disappear and re-emerge, forging, repairing or severing links, bound together by the vibrations and ethos of the remote beautiful, northern woods and water. Reading the book feels at turns like watching the flickering 8mm films of home movies, flashes of a familiar past linking up with the present. Like John Prine''s "Lake Marie," which inspires the final tale, the lake town of Sherman, WI is the stage, the foundation and steadfast witness to life, death, loss, love and memory." -- A Reader, Ludington, MI

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Trade Edition without the illustrations. Smoky knows only one way of life: freedom. Living on the open range, he is free to go where he wants and to do what he wants. And he knows what he has to do to survive. He can beat any enemy, whether it be a rattlesnake or a hungry wolf. He is as much a part of the Wild West as it is of him, and Smoky can''t imagine anything else. But then he comes across a new enemy, one that walks on two legs and makes funny sounds. Smoky can''t beat this enemy the way he has all the others. But does he really want to? Or could giving up some of his freedom mean getting something in return that''s even more valuable? "There have been many horse stories. But not one of them can compare with this book." -- New York Times Book Review "One of the finest horse stories ever told." -- Herald Tribune

Eight stories in unrefined western speech about the not always exciting or romantic life of American cowboys.

Will James (1892-1942), artist and writer of the American West, was born Joseph Ernest Nephtali Dufault. It was during his creative years everyone grew to know him as Will James. During the next several years, he drifted, worked at several jobs, was briefly jailed for cattle rustling, served in the army, and began selling his sketches and in 1922 sold his first writing, Bucking Horse Riders. The sale of several books followed. In 1926 his most famous book, Smoky the Cowhorse, was published, which won the Newbery Medal in 1927. His fictionalized autobiography, Lone Cowboy, was written in 1930. He also wrote Home Ranch (1935) and he wrote his last book, The American Cowboy, in 1942. In all, he wrote and illustrated 23 books.

Peachland in Winter "On my first day of the ninth grade, I arrived at the bus stop early. Johnny O soon joined me at the bus stop. We did not know each other well but over the next few years we would become close friends. Johnny was a year younger than me and had recently formed a band with my old pal Syd on bass. Johnny was the front man, the guitarist and singer. He was small, good looking--he had that whole David Cassidy, Mick Jagger thing going for him. With my long wavy, blonde hair, I looked pretty good myself (earlier that summer I had gotten chubby, but I dieted on Fresca and yogurt and with the help of a major growth spurt; I was once again a contender for the girls'' hearts). I was dressed in my new clothes, a lavender shirt, corduroy bell bottoms and boots. (Soon there would be no division between school clothes and play clothes; I would wear blue jeans and whatever shirts my mother had laundered that week.)The ninth grade would be wild. While I wouldn''t become a total stoner (that would come later), I would dabble with drugs whenever I had the chance. I would find the girl of my dreams and then lose her. I would then be asked to join Johnny and Syd''s band (the best junior high band in the Twin Cities) and then be asked to leave. The thing about good fortune, about good luck, is that there always the chance of a reversal of that good fortune, of that glittering prize being stolen or lost. But a loss can bear its own kind of fruit, its own kind of wisdom, bittersweet and dark. This dark night can change us, transform us, if we let it. After all, it brought us the cantos of Dante after the death of Beatrice, and a whole universe of poetry and song."

The old ones, ghosts now, had grand and glorious machines. They inhabited glittering cities of light. They loved to fly (seemingly so dangerous to us). They could fly across oceans. Their sailing vessels filled the skies. They mapped the stars and sent men into space, but they went mad and destroyed themselves. They were like gods, yet they were like us. Their minds worked like our own, using the same inner protocol. What we call the "God protocol". Faint traces of the old world can still be seen in our world, in ruins and refuse not yet been reclaimed by nature. We do not know what lies beyond our shores. Our seafaring vessels are not capable of traversing the globe. Over many generations our people have engaged in battles but nothing like the great wars of the past. We live a peaceful existence. We feel blessed. We share a common language with the old world, with our ancestors; even so, many of their words seem foreign to us and are difficult to decipher. The old ones were capable of great magic. They were able to record and transmit images of themselves across great distances. This art has now been lost. We do have transcripts of these talking pictures (one of which we have included here) along with faded photographs, ragged books and other deteriorating volumes archived in makeshift libraries. Sadly, the largest of these libraries recently burned. This is why we have decided to compile and distill from the existing archives a few stories that moved us and print and distribute them. We are thinking of future generations, that there will be a record not just of sacred texts (stories of sky gods and virgin births), of poets and philosophers and of visionaries and prophets but we wish to produce (using the archives and literary techniques discovered in the books of the old ones) a glimpse into this ancient civilization before death and the whirlwind overtook them (the collapse of that world documented in the final two stories in this collection).

Charles Baudelaire was the first of our postmodern poets. So we begin with him, where a small dose of his work will soon transport us into a country of dark dreams, of melancholy and wondrous visions. We will end with Sappho and the ancient Greeks (with my own poetry falling between these two countries, these two worlds). The translations are mine. -Will James

Deborah''s 39th contract seems so easy, but the fortunes of an assassin can change on a dime.Bleeding her last on the hard wooden floor, Deborah is about to discover that death is just the beginning of her journey. What lies ahead will test her resolve, her beliefs and her very concept of reality.These ethereal beings that seem so interested in her fate? Their tale might be outlandish. It might be incredible. It might be ridiculous. But if it''s true? Then her 40th contract could prove to be a kill like no other. She''ll need to confront more than just the forces that stand in her way. She''ll need to confront more than just this dying reality. She''ll need to confront her own past. She''ll need to confront her own demons. And she''ll need a team.

This is a narrative of cowboy life in a less-sensational portrayal, which is unusual for this period. Written by a Texas cowhand who turned preacher, Will S. James wrote about the cowboy as he really was, describing cowboy life in considerable detail.This edition of the book contains 24 original illustrations, rejuvenated.W. S. James, born 1856, has been described by J. Frank Dobie as a "genuine cowboy who became a genuine preacher and wrote a book of validity. This is the best of several books of reminiscences by cowboy preachers, some of whom are lacking in the real thing as certain cowboy artists." W. S. James should not be confused with William Roderick ("Will") James, who illustrated and wrote many books.

This collection consists of articles and illustrations by William Roderick James excised from Sunset Magazine, Scribner''s, The Saturday Evening Post, The Bookman and other periodicals dating from 1920 to 1932. Stories such as these by Will James generally appeared first in serial installments in magazines such as those listed above, and thus these articles often represent the first appearance of James'' work. Seventy-nine items in all are included.

Letters to Will James (1923) and Mrs. Will James (1929), on letter head of William S. Hart Company. First letter (typed, signed) thanks James for his letter of support. Second letter (manuscript, signed) says that Hart will be sending some photographs soon; he thinks his Billy the Kid six shooter is the only one in existence.

James asks for work as an illustrator.

Without pulling a single six-gun, fanning a trigger, or using any other stock device of Western fiction, Will James tells the story of life on the Seven X Ranch during the early 1900s. This authentic portrait of a ranching family details their dangerous work, their dreams and aspirations, and the rugged land they lived in.Will James (1892 - 1942) was a French Canadian artist and writer of the American West. He is known for writing Smoky the Cowhorse, for which he won the 1927 Newbery Medal, and numerous "cowboy" stories for adults and children. His artwork, which predominantly involved cowboy and rodeo scenes, followed "in the tradition of Charles Russell", and much of it was used to illustrate his books.

The old ones had grand and glorious machines. They could fly across oceans. Their sailing vessels filled the skies. They inhabited glittering cities of light. They mapped the stars and sent men into space--but they went mad and destroyed themselves. We are their offspring. Faint traces of the old world can still be seen in our world, in ruins and refuse not yet been reclaimed by nature. We do not know what lies beyond our shores. Our seafaring vessels are not capable of traversing the globe. Over many generations our people have engaged in battles but nothing like the great wars of the past between Eurasia, Atlantis, Oceania and the Illuminati. We live a peaceful existence. We feel blessed. We share a common language with the old world, with our ancestors; even so, many of their words seem foreign to us and are difficult to decipher. The old ones were capable of great magic. They were able to record and transmit images of themselves across great distances. This art has now been lost. We do have transcripts of these talking pictures along with faded photographs, ragged books and other deteriorating volumes archived in makeshift libraries. Sadly the largest of these libraries recently burned. This is why we have decided to compile and distill from the existing archives a few stories that moved us. We are thinking of future generations, that there will be a record not just of sacred texts (stories of sky gods and virgin births), of poets and philosophers and of visionaries and prophets (Nostradamus, George Orwell and Edgar Allan Poe), but we wish to produce (using the archives and literary techniques discovered in the books of the old ones) a glimpse into this ancient civilization before death and the whirlwind overtook them.

Despite the fact that mammalian hair cells and neurons do not naturally regenerate in vivo, progenitor cells exist within the postnatal inner ear that can be manipulated to generate hair cells and neurons. This work reveals the differentiation capabilities of distinct inner ear progenitor populations and pinpoints cell types that can become cochlear hair cells, vestibular hair cells, neurons, and CNS glia. We expanded and differentiated cochlear and vestibular progenitors from mice (postnatal days 1-3) and analyzed the cells for expression of mature properties by RT-PCR, immunostaining, and patch clamping. Whereas previous reports suggested that inner ear stem cells may be pluripotent and/or revert to a more neural stem cell fate, we find that cells from each organ type differentiated into cells with characteristics of the respective organ. Only cochlear-derived cells expressed the outer-hair-cell protein, prestin, while only vestibular derived cells expressed the vestibular extracellular matrix marker, otopetrin. Since Atohi expression is consistently found in new hair cells, we used an Atohl-nGFP mouse line to identify hair cell candidates. We find that cells expressing Atohl also expressed key transduction, hair bundle, and synaptic genes needed for proper function. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings showed that Atoh1-nGFP+ cells derived from both cochlear and vestibular tissue had voltage gated ion channels that were typical of postnatal hair cells. Only vestibular-derived AtohinGFP+ cells, however, had Ih, a hyperpolarization-activated current typical of native vestibular hair cells but not native cochlear hair cells. Lineage tracing studies with known supporting cell and glial cell markers showed that progenitor capacity of cochlear supporting cells positive for Lgr5 (Lgr5+ cells) was limited to differentiation into hair cell-like cells but not neuron-like cells. In contrast, glial cells positive for PLP (PLP1+ cells) from the auditory nerve differentiated into multiple cell types, with properties of neurons, astrocytes, or mature oligodendrocytes but not hair cells. Thus, PLP+ progenitor cells within the auditory nerve are limited to neuronal or glial fates but have greater potency than Lgr5+ progenitors, which only formed hair cell-like cells. In summary, this work identifies distinct populations of post-natal inner ear progenitors and delineates their capacity for differentiation and maturation.

A graphic novel based on the true story of the astronaut testing program that enlisted thirteen women who believed they would be considered serious candidates to be among the first Americans in space. The women struggled to contribute to the space program in the face of political opposition, personal vendettas, and the prevailing sexism of the period. Includes a short interview (1 page) with Susan Kilrain, a former NASA pilot.

A Mongolian translation of an American Western novel by Will James about a horse, a cowboy and a rodeo.

Fourteen short stories capture the quirky and peculiar behavior of horses, both good and ornery.

The bulk of the collection comprises an alphabetical sequence of undated manuscript music belonging to Reg Lewis and Barbara James, mainly by other composers. The music manuscripts contain a small amount of original music by Lewis and Barbara James including "Between you and us" (1958), "Cafe Theme" (1957), "Mr and Mrs Travel", and "My Theme" as well as undated original music by Will James, including "Be happy while you may", "He loves me I know", "Incidental music", "March", "My dream of Killarney" and miscellaneous sketches. The collection also includes lists of song titles, music lyrics, notes, radio scripts of "Between you and us" (1956-57), a piano roll and cuttings on musical arranging.

James described the longhorn cattle, brought from Spain, in the wild and in herds, cowboys rounding up the wild ones, and the life of the cattle.