Bob Drury is the author/coauthor/editor of nine books. He has
written for numerous publications, including The New York Times,
Vanity Fair, Men’s Journal, and GQ. He is currently a contributing
editor and foreign correspondent for Men’s Health. He lives in
Manasquan, New Jersey.
Tom Clavin is the author or coauthor of sixteen books. For fifteen
years he wrote for The New York Times and has contributed to such
magazines as Golf, Men's Journal, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and
Smithsonian. He is currently the investigative features
correspondent for Manhattan Magazine. He lives in Sag Harbor, New
York.
“A fast-paced, well-researched account of a B-17 bomber—known as
Old 666—its crew, and a courageous flight . . . Drury and Clavin
skillfully blend Old 666’s flight into the larger picture of
Pacific Theater warfare and give gripping accounts of combat
flights. The result is a story that history aficionados will find
irresistible.” —USA Today
“The authors deliver a great war story.” —Kirkus Reviews
“In June 1943, Zeamer and Sarnoski volunteered for the
heartbreaking ‘impossible mission’ that forms the core of this
remarkable account of friendship and bravery. Authors Bob Drury and
Tom Clavin not only tell the inspiring story of these two young
airmen, they also provide a cogent, absorbing analysis of the air
war in the Pacific. Lucky 666 is highly recommended for WWII and
aviation history buffs alike.” —BookPage
“A vivid slice of war history that WWII buffs and anyone who
admires true acts of heroism will find riveting.” —Booklist
“An entertaining popular history that will appeal to fans of
adventure-style World War II stories.” —Library Journal
“We think of World War II aviation as a supremely bureaucratized,
controlled effort of men and planes. But here is a tale of bomber
pilots—maybe the last untold story of that great war—that instead
involved individual initiative and extraordinary courage. Lucky 666
is a thrilling narrative about the ingenuity that it took to win
the war, about a ‘Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight’ of aviators
who built their own B-17 out of junkyard parts, and then went on to
fly one of the most memorable, effective missions of the Pacific
campaign. The result is a book that reads like The Dirty Dozen
meets Unbroken. I particularly admire the gritty details here about
WWII aviation. Superb!” —Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail
and Flight of Passage
Praise for The Heart of Everything That Is
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A SALON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
TRUE WEST MAGAZINE’S BEST BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR
“A ripping yarn . . . A quintessentially Western tale of bold
exploits, tough characters, brutal conditions and a lost way of
life, this sounds like the sort of story that practically tells
itself. Yet you only realize how little justice most popular
histories do to their source material when you come across a book,
like this one, that does everything right. It’s customary to say of
certain nonfiction books — gussied up with plenty of 'color' and
psychological speculation — that they 'read like a novel,' but
truth be told, most of the time we’d have to be talking about a
pretty mediocre novel. The Heart of Everything That Is, on the
other hand, resembles the good ones. There were times, turning its
pages, when I could almost smell the pines of the Black Hills, feel
the icy wind tearing down from Canada across the prairie and hear
the hooves of the buffalo pounding the earth.”
—Laura Miller, Salon
“Exquisitely told . . . Remarkably detailed . . . The story of Red
Cloud's unusual guile and strategic genius makes the better-known
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse pale in comparison. . . . This is no
knee-jerk history about how the West was won, or how the West was
lost. This historical chronicle is unabashed, unbiased and
disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no
rifle trigger unpulled. . . . A compelling and fiery
narrative.”
—USA Today
“Vivid . . . Lively . . . A tale of lies, trickery, and brutal
slaughter . . . In telling the story of Red Cloud, Messrs. Drury
and Clavin appropriately bring a number of the larger-than-life
figures from that time onstage . . . [and] chronicle in
considerable detail the shameful treatment of the Indians across
the plains and the destruction of their ancient way of life.”
—Christopher Corbett, The Wall Street Journal
“A page turner . . . Drawing on archives, letters, and a long-lost
autobiography written toward the end of Red Cloud’s life, the
narrative has a remarkable immediacy . . . [and] the narrative
sweep of a great Western.”
—Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe
“Valuable . . . Meticulous . . . [A] remarkable story . . . The
writers don’t shy away from the atrocities on both sides of the
gruesome, long-running conflict between the Indians and the U.S.
forces. But when, for the umpteenth time, U.S. officials break a
contract as soon as the glint of gold is spotted in the hills, one
cannot help but feel that there’s all the more reason to celebrate
one of the Sioux’s most impressive fighters.”
—Smithsonian
“The authors paint a full and vivid picture of the Oglala Sioux
leader . . . The story of Red Cloud is presented here with all the
tension and excitement of a good Western novel. . . . The narrative
is gripping but not sentimental, and it is well-sourced, drawing,
for example, on Red Cloud’s autobiography, lost for nearly a
century, and the papers of many others who knew Red Cloud’s
War.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
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