Product Description
No Time Like the Past - starring Jason Alexander; A Most Unusual Camera - starring Mike Starr; Twenty Two - starring Andrea Evans; Monsters Are Due on Maple Street - starring Frank John Hughes; Mr. Dingle the Strong -starring Tim Kazurinsky ... Read more

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A series produced and directed by Robert Clem ... Read more

Product Description
VHS TAPE, not a book. Journey Back to the Wild (VHS Tape), 100 Years of Robert Service. CONTAINS THREE POEMS, with video narration: "The Shooting of Dangerous Dan Mcgree" "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee" and "The Spell of the Yukon" Watch Dennis Corrington, Joyce Parry and more bring Robert Service to life. ... Read more

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The Hitch-Hiker - starring Kate Jackson; Sounds and Silences - starring Richard Kind; Mr. Denton on Doomsday - starring Adam Baldwin; The Brain Center At Whipples - starring Stan Freberg; I Shot An Arrow Into the Air- starring Chelcie Ross ... Read more

Product Description
A white supremacist, barricaded with his family on an isolated Montana mountaintop, holding off the cops with assault rifles.A brilliant hostage negotiator who has failed to come to terms with his personal demons, reluctantly taking leadership of the one case he can't afford to lose.A virtual army of state and local cops, national guardsmen, U.S. Marshals, and the FBI's elite hostage rescue team, clawing for jurisdiction, vowing vengeancefor fallen comrades.A growing crowd of onlookers, sympathizers, and troublemakers, some willing to turn an isolated battle into an all-out war.A mixture as explosive and unstable as nitroglycerine...The Standoff. A stunning debut from a major new talent. ... Read more

Product Description
On the streets of midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer saves a kid from mugging, only to find himself targeted by the kingpins of the narcotics trade. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the darkest alleys, Hammer deals with idealistic docs and desperate dopers, sexy hippie chicks and heartless hit men, meeting the changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance. Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid . . . literally.

Customer Reviews (31)

A fun lightweight crime novel
I'm going to preface this review by disclaiming that I've never read a Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer noevl. While I know the character and the style, it was a little before my time. So, I'm not comparing this to "vintage" Spillane because I have no basis for comparison.

As a standalone noir crime novel, this is a good read. It's fast, lots of action. It came across darker, sexier, and grittier than I expected and for me that's a good thing. Is it grea, a classic? No. I found it quickly forgettable. In fact, I forgot it right after I read it and just remembered to review it.

I don't know if the publisher is looking for new Spillane fans with this or just throwing a bone to existing fans, but based on this, I'd happily add some old Spillane to my list and check out anything new from the new co-author Collins too.

The Big Bang
Max Allan Collins had done a pretty good job of completing the `lost' Mike Hammer novel that Mickey Spillane started. Set in the 60s, this is Mike Hammer almost at his best. This is a great story for fans of Mike Hammer; an ordinary mystery for fans of the genre.

Book Reading
We had a chance to see Max Allan Collins book reading. It is a great book and a was an excellent reading. Here is the link to the book reading video if anyone is interested: [...]

The Big Bang
It has been a long time since I read any Mickey Spillane...probably close to 20 years.Even with a 20 year lag, it's pretty obvious that Spillane didn't write much of this book.He may have supplied Mr. Collins with an outline and a VERY rough draft, but this isn't Mickey's.Mickey Spillane was a product of the 40s and the 50s.The overt sexuality in this book were NOT a product of his generation.

For all of that, it is an entertaining read, with Mike Hammer at his toughest, and his secretary/fiance Velda at her sexiest.I just wish Mr. Collins hadn't felt the need to update this Mike Hammer novel to today's sensibilities....it would have been more effective with the values and feel of the 40s.Collins' update cheapens itsomehow.

Big Bang caused a huge Mickey Spillane explosion for me.
I wasn't a fan of Mickey Spillane or Mike Hammer before picking up Big Bang.I didn't dislike them, just didn't care enough to give them a chance.But I love the graphic novels by Max Allen Collins and am a big noir fan, so why wouldn't I try this book?Sadly, I almost didn't.

Mike Hammer might seem a familiar character, being a Phillip Marlowe fan I found some superficial similarities.But after you get past the outer layer, the character goes his own way.Phillip Marlowe kills only when he has no other choice, Mike Hammer is much more likely to get rid of any dirt bag with no questions asked.Many a man will envy the ease which Hammer picks up beautiful women.


If Big Bang is your first introduction then you're going to be blown away.It's been my gateway drug to a life of Mickey Spillane addiction. ... Read more

Product Description
Private eye Mike Hammer is no stranger to murder, but this time he has two to untangle: the killing of the Captain, a legless, homeless panhandler, dismissed by the police as minor, and the slaying of gambling kingpin Marty Wellman. Marty's lady friend, Helen Venn, turns to the P.I. for help when the Mob fingers her for the next kill. Seems the new kingpin, Carmen Rich, with whom Hammer has a violent history, thinks Helen made off with ten mil in skim money, courtesy of her late lover. But Mike Hammer knows a damsel in distress when he sees one and takes up Helen's cause, igniting a series of hit attempts on his life by a small army of out-of-town shooters. Such minor distractions can't prevent the toughest detective of them all from solving two murders and avenging a 'little death' in a big way.

This fully-dramatized, full cast, theater-of-the-mind audio adventure enhanced with sound effects and music is a follow-up to The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Vol. 1, which was a finalist for the prestigious Audie® Award in 2009.

Stacy Keach, who first discovered Mickey Spillane's novels as a teenager, said, 'Being cast to play one of my childhood heroes was like entering a dream.' The Mike Hammer Theme, Harlem Nocturne, was written by Earle Hagen. Music composed and performed by Stacy Keach. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Terrific addition to the Mike Hammer canon
Stacy Keach reprises his most famous role as Mike Hammer, Mickey Spillane's most famous creation, in this second volume of The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. At the beginning of The Little Death -- a "novel for radio" written by Max Allan Collins from the short story "The Night I Died" by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins -- Hammer is nearing the end of his search for a reporter friend's killer. Hammer's getting older, but he's still more than capable of chasing a suspect across the rooftops of New York.

After that case is closed in Hammer's signature style, six months go by. Waiting for a client in Carmen Rich's casino, Hammer is interrupted by Helen Venn, mistress and silent partner of the late Marty Wellmann. Venn was there to meet Rich, who didn't show. Hammer escorts her out of the bar, between flying bullets, and she tells him her story: she's thought by Rich to have $10 million that Wellmann supposedly skimmed from Rich, and so she has a price on her head.

Later, Hammer gets a message from "the Captain," a legless, homeless war vet who's seen something important, but when Hammer arrives at the meeting place, the Captain has gone down with his ship. Now Mike's got two murders to solve (including Wellmann's), a gorgeous blonde to protect from syndicate scum, and a couple more murders to commit before he gets to the bottom of things.

The cast of The Little Death (whose title -- la petite mort in French -- refers to the belief that orgasm causes a loss of vital "life energy") includes Collins regular Michael Cornelison (Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life), and Collins himself is credited with two roles. Cornelison as Pat Chambers more than holds his own with Keach's Hammer, matching his verbal thrusts with equally skilled parries. Also strong is Vernette Lebo's three-dimensional turn as Velda. Collins uses his skill with tough-guy patter to pepper the story with a selection of fun wisecracks and puns.

There are enough familiar tough-guy private-eye tropes floating around in The Little Death to fill a P.I.-fiction instruction manual, but since a lot of what may now be seen as cliches originated with Mike Hammer, they become part of the appeal. The ending will hardly be a surprise to anyone familiar with the genre (though Spillane and Collins jump us through a number of plausible hoops in the meantime), but that doesn't take away from the wonderful use of the audio format.

In addition to the high-quality writing and acting, the events are underscored by noirish jazz compositions written and performed by Stacy Keach himself. The realistic sound effects -- you can even hear Hammer swallow his beer (and his bouncing bedsprings!), including a gunshot that fills the room with its explosion -- round out this "movie for the mind" and put Mike Hammer in a fully realized world that will be revisited over and over again. The Little Death is a terrific addition to the Mike Hammer canon.

Classic Keach Hammer!!
The New Adventures of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, Vol. 2:The Little Death

This audio book brings back Stacy Keach in the role of Mike Hammer he made famous back in the 80's and 90's. As any real Keach/Hammer fan would hope, Spillane protégé author Max Allan Collins sticks to the true Spillane-Hammer formula that works, and is a bit grittier to boot without the constraints of broadcast television: a crime is committed... it gets personal for Hammer... Mike hits the streets to deliver justice-- Hammer style!

Familiar characters are present: Velda, Captain Pat Chambers, Maya, Betsy (he, he), etc. and the voice work by the actors playing each is excellent (Velda sounds just like Lindsay Bloom from the 80's TV series, but the voice of Captain Pat Chambers reminds me more of Captain Skip Gleason from the 90's series). Mind you, like Volume 1, this is a complete audio production with skilled voice actors, music, sound effects, etc. and it is extremely immersive (especially if you close your eyes or listen to it in bed in the dark!), not a "read by" type audio book.

It would have been great to get some more of the original actors in on this production (like Lindsay Bloom, Don Stroud, Kent Williams, Ben Powers as Moochie, Danny Goldman as Ozzy the Answer, etc). Happily, Malgosia Tomassi reprises her role as the charming yoga instructor Maya from the 90's series (she also happens to be married to Stacy Keach in real life). Of course Stacy Keach himself delivers Hammer with utter perfection, narrating and voice acting in the same style as the beloved TV series.

This Volume 2 CD delivers a feature film length noir style murder mystery audio book, unlike Volume 1 which provides two mutually exclusive TV episode length audio book mysteries. I appreciated the extra time, and while I totally enjoyed Volume 1, I'd prefer future productions to be full-length like Volume 2. I purchased the mp3 version, which thankfully is DRM free (distributed on a CD-ROM as 28 individual mp3 files and a playlist).

Stacy Keach, if you happen to read this, thanks for being dedicated to your Hammer fans. These high quality audio book productions are awesome. I hope you keep them coming! ... Read more

Product Description
Experience one of television’s greatest science-fiction series, The Twilight Zone – fully dramatized for AUDIO!The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas feature a full cast, music and sound effects and today’s biggest celebrities in modern radio dramatizations by Dennis Etchison of creator Rod Serling’s classic scripts.Hosted by Stacy Keach, The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas will keep you glued to the edge of your seat whether listening in your home or while driving in your car.This collection features 4 stereo recordings.

"A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" Starring Jim Caviezel.The year is 1847.A wagon train has made the cross-country trek from Ohio to the deserts of Arizona and beyond – all the way into another century.

"The Lateness of the Hour" Starring Jane Seymour and James Keach.A young woman lives a life of comfort and easy, thanks to her father’s robot servants.The problem is, she may also be a prisoner in her own perfect home.

"A Kind of Stopwatch" Starring Lou Diamond Phillips.The world’s most talkative bore gets a magical stopwatch that can stop everything except him.But when he misuses it, a wonderful conversation piece becomes a real party killer.

"Mr. Dingle, the Strong" Starring Tim Kazurinsky.A mild-mannered vacuum cleaner salesman is given the strength of three hundred men in a scientific experiment conducted by two Martians. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

step back in time to revisit the chills you experienced watching the original versions
Enjoyed Collection 1 of THE TWILIGHT ZONE RADIO DRAMAS,
hosted by Stacy Keach . . . it contained four stories
that were performed by such actors as Jim Caviezel, Jane Seymour,
James Keach, Lou Diamond Phillips and Tim Kazurinsky.

If you were a fan of the TV show, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, you'll
want to listen to this program . . . doing so will enable you
to step back in time to revisit the chills you experienced
when you watched Rod Sterling hosting the original version.

You'll also receive an introduction to what it was like listening
to the radio for your entertainment . . . folks actually did
that at one time . . . or so I've been told.

Though some of the stories were better than others, none
left me disappointed . . . they left me seeking Collection
2 of these dramas.

Twilight Radio Drama
This is a gift and ithasn't been opened it yet.All looks great just as promised.

New Versions of Great Stories
I just added these radio dramas to my collection.When I purchased them I thought they were olde time radio dramas and that the TV show had been made from them.Not so.These are modern radio versions made from the scripts of the old TV show.And, in many ways, I like them better than the TV versions.I have every intention of buying all of them I can get.My only criticism is that I get tired of hearing Stacy Keach's advertisement for the website at the end of each program.Small annoyance.I highly recomment them.

Into The Twilight Zone...Anywhere !
These are some of the original T.Z. episodes re-written especially for 'radio'.
Now available on CD, these are the first ten episodes of the radio series on ten discs. The stories are in no particular order according to the T.V. show, but does include 'The Lonely', the first televised episode. The other stories include 'Night of the Meek', 'A Kind of Stopwatch', 'The Lateness of the Hour', 'The Thirty-Fathom Grave','The Man in the Bottle','The After Hours', 'Mr.Dingle The Strong', 'A Stop At Willoughby' and 'Of Late I think of Cliffordville'.
They do vary in (content)quality, from stories like 'Night of the Meek'...whilst very professional and well executed, is also very 'workmanlike' and lacking the atmosphere of the original. However, 'The After Hours' works magnificently portraying a truly spooky atmosphere which is enhanced by these pin-sharp recordings.
Stacy Keach steps into Rod's wingtip brogues as the host 'in-and-out' of the stories and he is an excellent choice. Each episode has a guest star and I for one was pleasantly shocked by how good Lou Diamond Phillips is, as he crops up a few times in the entire series.
All in all, a very good first volume. A good choice of stories, something quite literally for everyone (horror, suspense, comedy and sci-fi stories) with top notch production values.
I will certainly be buying Volume 2 & 3 as I have enjoyed this one so much.

A great new twist on a classic!!
These radio dramas are so cool!!I recieved a free sample cd from the creators and really loved what I heard. I for sure wanted to own all of them for my long commute. As the reviewer earlier said..the sample cd I recieved had "commercials". I knew I would not pay for advertising so I called the company to ask if the ones I would purchase would be add free. They informed me that the newer 10 cd volumes did not have commercials. Well I just recieved the 1st three 10 cd volumes from Amazon this week and can vouch for the no commercials fact. From what they said the smaller pack versions have commercials.
These guys did a stellar job of these radio dramas! They had to change a few things here and there to fit the radio format..and I do not mind any of the subtle changes. The sound effects and the atmosphere they create is pure magic...I have gotten lost in each one I've heard. I have been a TZ fan since childhood (I'm 39) and I can honestly say these are very very well done imo. I think Rod Serling would be proud!! Look forward to getting the rest of them in the near future. If you like TZ I think you will love these. ... Read more

Product Description
In a facsimile edition of the first mystery to feature hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, the tough detective investigates the brutal murder of his best friend. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

gonzo detective work
It is not easy to reconcile Mike Hammer into todays arch types of law and order, masculinity and conservatism.He carries around his private detective license and gun permit, flaunts traffic laws, and orders ordinary police patrolmen around.The debut novel unfolds like something Hunter S. Thompson would write, only with fewer words.It is hard to rationalize his progress through the case.Eventually he reaches the end of it.

Good pulp
A rainy night, a murder, a sobbing babe ready to be comforted, cops at the ready, puzzled & in need of something. This is the milieu anyone who has a vague inkling of MS's MH automatically conjures. & it's the setting where the world 1st meets private cop MH. There's the babe: Myrna, & MH's old army pal Jack Williams. The cops see a routine case. MH senses sadism & describes it to Pat Chambers, his cop buddy, & captain of the local precinct. It is only at the evidence of sadism that MH makes his famous vow: `He won't sit on the chair. He won't hang. He will die exactly as you died, with a .45 slug in the gut, just a little below the belly button. No matter who it is, Jack, I'll get the one. Remember, no matter who it is, I promise.' Or this: `You're a cop, Pat. You're tied down by rules and regulations. There's someone over you. I'm alone. I can slap someone in the puss and they can't do a damn thing. No one can kick me out of my job. Maybe there's nobody to put up a huge fuss if I get gunned down, but then I still have a private cop's license with the privilege to pack a rod, and they're afraid of me. I hate hard, Pat. When I latch on to the one behind this they're going to wish they hadn't started it. Some day, before long, I'm going to have my rod in my mitt and the killer in front of me. I'm going to watch the killer's face. I'm going to plunk one right in his gut, and when he's dying on the floor I may kick his teeth out.' This is where we get the 1st rift between the genre's formalities & MS's new take on things. As with many prior crime books this 1 has its own `society party'. This is where MH scopes out a typical lineup of possible murderers: the sexpot Bellemy twins- Mary (who lacks the birthmark, but later gets nailed by MH) & Esther (the non-nympho)- rich playgirls with nothing to lose; the sobbing Myrna- a recovering smack addict; Charlotte Manning- the wealthy psychiatrist-cum-goddess-cum-fiancée-cum-drug dealer-cum-killer; Hal Kines- a playboy college boy who turns out to be a plastic surgically altered pimp & drug dealer; & George Kalecki- a shady rich man with a dark past MH knows all too well.
But, the inevitable get-together of all the chief suspects at another party does not result in the revelation of the suspect- although Mike hammers Mary Bellemy. Yes, there are classic elements in the book- the death of innocents (Jack Williams, Myrna, Bobo Hopper), gratuitous but entertaining brawling, MH seeing his fair share of gorgeous pussy, plot turns galore- the prime suspects (Kines & Kalecki) turn out to be red herrings, & MH's monomania for justice/vengeance. The clues slowly sort themselves out for MH. The book's denouement, now classic- & almost trite, after later imitations, had to have been a scorcher back in the day.
This book lays the template: 1) nasty quotables, 2) MH's cat-n-mouse love for Velda, 3) his `partnership' with Pat, 4) his overall character, 5) the sex & gore, & 6) the crescendos at novel's end- which reached its climax 2 books later. On a scale of 1-100 I will give MS's books 2 ratings- the 1st is for its excellence in the genre, & the 2nd is for its literary value- regardless of its genre.
In genre I rate I, The Jury a 97 out of 100- it's just so classic & archetypal. Yes, some elements saw MH improve upon in the later books, but this was the great `break' from those who came before. As pure literature I'd give it a good solid 88 out of 100. There are too many nods that tie it to the genre to rate it as highly as I do in-genre, but there are too many positives to not admit this is an excellent book- better than anything Dickens or Tolstoy ever penned.
Now that I've limned the book's tale let me criticize it in a wider context. In many ways, much of what critics said about MS, MH, & this book was absolutely true. They just mistook those qualities- acts of violence, titillation, machismo, narrative rapidity, archetypes- for their negative counterparts: wanton violence, pornography, sexism, shallowness, & stereotypes. Part of the reason, I believe, that this error in judgment occurred was for the very reason that MS WAS SO GOOD at what he did. Were he not critics would not have bothered with it- but they kept coming back to pummel this book as if they really knew that it hit a primal nerve with an America that understood such entertainment (yes, art) at a fundamentally visceral level at odds with the gentlemanly art of dialectical criticism. It reminds 1 of the silly- & now obviously ridiculous- pummelings that Impressionist paintings 1st got- that is, the critics knew that the art they were weaned on was soon going to be obviated by this newer type of art that was at once `more realistic' & more mythic.

A man's book
I'm not trying to be sexist, just realistic.I, the Jury, is outstanding reading.Spillane is in top form with this one, and the story is strong and riveting.But there is a good deal of sex and violence, and things were certainly a lot different when Mr. Spillane wrote this.Don't look for any politically correct jargon or attitudes, and don't hope for a happy ending, because you'll be disappointed on both counts.But if you want a good read, and you want something that is WAY different than any stories being published today, buy this book.

Not Free SF Reader
This is your stereotypical hardboiled private eye type, or part of the mould from which many of the latter day variety have poured forth.

Mike Hammer solves his problems with a gun, a fist or two, and many bizarre turns of phrase and thought.He likes his women to look like women, and cheap booze will do.

Entertaining if taken in a parody sense.

40's Detective Thriller - exciting nonsense

This Mike Hammer detective thriller was a best-seller hit in the 1950's, selling over a million and a half copies in the USA alone in that decade.

It begins when Private Eye and ex G.I. Mike Hammer discovers that Jack Williams, a former WWII comrade who had literally given his right arm to save Mike's life, has been murdered. Williams had died with a dum-dum bullet through the lower body, apparently at the hands of a particularly sadistic killer.

Mike is in a race with police detective Captain Pat Chambers to catch the killer: Pat wants to arrest and try the culprit, Hammer has promised that he will kill the murderer, whoever it is, in exactly the same way that Jack Williams was killed.

(Now, I was under the impression that in law, shooting someone dead other than in self-defence is still murder even if the victim is also a murderer, but different rules seem to appliy in novels.)

As Mike and Pat think they are closing in on the killer, they start to get shot at themselves - then more people are murdered.

The story is quite exciting, and the shock ending when Mike Hammer finally confronts the killer is absolutely chilling.

Quite nonsensical in places, but if you are into 40's & 50's style thrillers you will probably find this entertaining. Be warned however that the book packs a major sting in the tail. ... Read more

Product Description

ALL THREE VOLUMES OF
HEMINGWAY'S SHORT STORIES
TOGETHER IN ONE DELUXE EDITION

Before he gained wide fame as a novelist, Ernest Hemingway established his literary reputation with his short stories. Set in the varied landscapes of Spain, Africa, and the American Midwest, this definitive audio collection traces the development and maturation of Hemingway's distinct and revolutionary storytelling style -- from the plain bald language of his first story to his mastery of seamless prose that contained a spare, eloquent pathos, as well as a sense of expansive solitude. These stories showcase the singular talent of a master, the most important American writer of the twentieth century.

The Short Stories Gift Edition features Stacy Keach reading such favorites as:The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife; The End of Something; My Old Man; Hills Like White Elephants; The Killers; Ten Indians; Now I Lay Me; A Clean, Well-lighted Place; A Way You'll Never Be; The Gambler; and Fathers and Sons. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Form, Function and Lenght
The standard refrain is that Hemingway was a master of short fiction.There is something about the minimalism of his style, and the short format, that create a happy marriage of form, substance, and length.

That is certainly shown in this collection of stories, which feature some of his most well-known works.Coming back to these stories after a few years, one is struck by the geograpical span of the works.This quintessential American writer was at home in the world.The stories take place in Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Africa, the American West, and Upper Michigan.Hemingway was reaping the benefit of America's expansion after the Great War.He could go anywhere, do anything, and from that experience, distill these gem-like stories.

In exploring the world, he found uniquely American stories to tell.

American Classic
What can one say, this is the classic collection the way Hemingway intended it to be.A great book for taking on vacation or to keep on the nightstand when a short story or two can be just the thing.

Excellent Collection
I got this book a while back for a college course where we were to pick an author and write about him/her. I randomly picked Hemingway...I had no idea that this random act would lead me into a fantastic world of fine literature.

This book contains the first 49 short stories Hemingway wrote. There are stories from Africa, from Spain, and from America. There are stories about love, life, and death.

You really have to read Hemingway to understand why so many love his writing...at least, it is not something I can really describe...you just have to read his work.

Since reading this collection, I have bought several other Hemingway works...I have yet to be disappointed with a Hemingway novel.

For those who have read his work but don't have this book, I recommend this book. I also recommend The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition - though I do not own it, it contains all of Hemingway's short stories...

5/5

A review of the CD set, not the author's work
There is little that I could say about Hemingway's short stories that hasn't been said before. But while Ernest Hemingway had magic with the written word, his old recordings of reading his own stories on tape are not good. Instead of sounding like how I would expect the story to be told (out loud), the author's voice is shrill and, in places, sounds more like an impression of Mark Twain. Stacy Keach is hands down the ideal voice of Hemingway's short stories (although I give four stars to Charleton Heston). His readings are straightforward, he employs accents where applicable, and minimizes the "he said" and "she said" words, making them place holders rather than part of the story itself. Based on the three volumes of Hemingway short stories, I am sufficiently enamored of Keach's readings to make me delve into other works of fiction that Keach has recorded on CD.

Experience is Everything...
Ernest Hemingway was one of the first celebrity writers.In fact, his life was so interesting that, for a time, it looked like he was more interesting than what he wrote.While I read A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises relatively early in life, I remember really getting into Carlos Baker's biography of the "larger than life" author. At first, I steered clear of Hemingway's short stories; on the whole, I am not a big fan of short stories.They're over too fast, for one thing, and add to this a professor I had along the way who likened every short story to the archetypical story of Adam and Eve, and my interest in the short story form evaporated like yesterday's rainwater.Then in the 70's I saw a Hollywood adaptation of Hemingway's Nick Adams stories (and especially after seeing Paul Newman play the washed up boxer in "The Battler"), I dusted off my copy of EH's short stories, and read them all over the course of a couple of days and was blown away by them.Later, when I taught "Big Two-Hearted River" and "My Old Man" to the American Authors class in a local high school, I had some of the most soul-searching discussions with the students. Often, I would read one of the stories aloud to them and then we'd talk about it.What was there about these stories that brought the classalive and soopen to discussion?One reason might be thatthey are written so simply and, yet, pack such an emotional punch the reader hardly sees it coming.In "Big Two-Hearted River", for example, he's not just telling about a fishing expedition, catching and cleaning fish, packing them up for the trip home;he's got that bit about the ants on the burning log which transfers quite nicely as an allegory for human existence.In his laconic, yet sophisticated style--unparalleled by any author before or since, Hemingway creates a visceral reaction in the reader; the reader, without a lot of fancy footwork, EXPERIENCES what the first breakup feels like ( "The End of Something"), or how it feels to get drunk for the first time ("The Three Day Blow").The plight of the returning soldier ("A Soldier's Home"), and the desperation of the dispossessed (Old Man on a Bridge) are unearthed in the reader as though he is returning home or sitting alone at the bridge during wartime.We all know, that in life Hemingway was all for grace under pressure andpossessed an almost manic push to experience everything. In his short stories, especially, we can truly experience what it really feels like to be alive and never have to leave our recliner.Heartfelt thanks for that, Ernest.
... Read more

Product Description

"Of the place where he had been a boy he had written well enough. As well as he could then." So thought a dying writer in an early version of The Snows of Kilimanjaro. The writer of course was Ernest Hemingway. The place was the Michigan of his boyhood summers, where he remembered himself as Nick Adams. The now-famous "Nick Adams" stories show a memorable character growing from child to adolescent to soldier, veteran, writer, and parent-- a sequence closely paralleling the events of Hemingway's life.

In this arrangement Nick Adams emerges clearly as the first in a long line of Hemingway's fictional selves. Later versions were all to have behind them part of Nick's history and, correspondingly, part of Hemingway's. This is a must-have for fans of the iconic author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Gee, the Swell Places

That's Nick Adams, in conversation with his friend George, in Cross Country Snow, one of the 24 short stories assembled for this collection of Hemmingway's shorter work. Written in the early part of the 20th century, these stories are pervaded by a wistful and romantic vintage feel.

Only 16 of the stories were published in Hemmingway's lifetime; the remaining eight were released posthumously and combined with their predecessors to make up a complete volume following the life of the Nick Adams character.

The stories chronicle a series of rites of passage, initiation, and comings of age. Nick's character clearly incorporates many autobiographical elements, and provides insight into the inner life of the author. The stories are grouped into sections: The Northern Woods, On His Own, War, A Soldier Home, and Company of Two. The actual stories present vignettes from early life in northern Michigan, adolescence and early independence, wartime injury, peacetime recovery, and the uncertain resolution of family.

My favorites are Indian Camp, The Last Good Country, and Big Two-Hearted River. In Indian Camp, Nick accompanies his father, a doctor, who delivers a baby by caesarian section in primitive conditions. The Last Good Country has him on the run from the law, and contrasts the corruption of civilization with the innocence and purity of the wild. Big Two-Hearted River is about recovery, healing, and cleansing, in the context of a solitary post war fishing trip.

This is the first of Hemmingway's fiction that I have read since the mandatory exposure of high school English, and I'm eager to go back after all these years.

Order Issues
I have always enjoyed the Nick Adams Stories, however I am not sure if we get the full context of the stories in the order they have been placed in this particular book.

Still, great stories and always worth reading.

book review
a compilation of Hemingways short stories.I would have enjoyed them more if the year they were written(each story) was include in the title of each short story.The style varies a little from story to story and I understand that the stories were not written in the order that Nick Adams ages.

must read for anyone interested in Hemingway
Lately I've been reading a lot of Jim Harrison who went to Michigan State and has written a lot about Michigan.This book anticipates a lot of Harrison's themes about Michigan, native Americans, the outdoors, fathers, etc.I like Harrison work, like Returning to Earth, better.

There are a lot of unfinished posthumous snippets that glue together the published stories.They provided interesting context, but some of them I felt like I just had to get through to get to the next 'real' story.Great read though.

Hemingway and northern Michigan
In the spring of 2008 the first Great Michigan Read was launched, a program which encouraged state residents to join in the reading and discussion of one book. The book chosen for this ambitious and worthy project was a classic: Ernest Hemingway's The Nick Adams Stories. Program coordinators throughout the state went to great pains to publish and distribute background information on the the book and on the Hemingway family connections to northern Michigan. Many readers were surprised to learn that Ernest Hemingway spent all the summers of his youth at the family cottage on Walloon Lake near Petoskey. That area and other northern Michigan towns provide the settings for most of the tales of young Nick Adams, often called Hemingway's fictional alter ego.
The Nick Adams Stories first appeared under that title in 1972, in an edition which attempted to chronologically arrange the tales and also added previously unpublished fragments found after Hemingway's death. Most of the original stories, however, were first published in 1925, when Hemingway was living in Paris, under the title, In Our Time.
I read this collection the first time in 1968, in an American Lit class at Central Michigan University. Our professor, Dr. John Hepler, spent much of our clast time explaining what he called the collection's centerpiece story, "Big Two-Hearted River." It depicted Nick Adams' solitary fishing trip to a river near Seney, in the Upper Peninsula. Dr. Hepler carefully pointed out to us the utterly peaceful setting of the forest and the river, the small simple pleasures of the details of making camp and the process of fishing itself. Then he made sure we knew, that although the war is never mentioned in the narrative, it is nevertheless clear that Nick had come to this place to try to recover, to heal from some traumatic event.
Hemingway himself was seriously wounded during his service in the First World War and spent several months recovering in a hospital in Italy, so the events of the war were still fresh in his mind when he wrote those first stories, set in upper Michigan. But Nick Adams stands for much more than just the author's own experiences. His character and the reaching out for healing represented a whole generation of young men damaged by war.
It was in that same CMU classroom that I also learned the source of that first story collection's original title, In Our Time. It was a line from the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer - "Give us peace in our time, O Lord."
Dr. Hepler drove this home to us, continuing, perhaps in his own paraphrasing: "We get not peace in our time, O Lord, But only violence and numbness."
I remembered all this as I re-read the stories with great interest this year, nearly forty years later. From March to May, I helped facilitate group discussions of the book at libraries in Osceola, Mecosta and Lake Counties. As we talked of Hemingway's life and his stories, and the pristine beauty of the rivers and forests of northern Michigan, the pleasures of fishing and the healing powers of nature, all agreed on one thing: we still get not "peace in our time.
Reflecting on these talks, I considered how this has been true in my own family. My mother was born in 1916, during the First World War. Her first four sons were all "war babies," born in the World War II years. I was the fourth, born in 1944. Her last two children were born during another war, Korea.
I served in the army from 1962 to 1965, during the Cold War, but it was also the Vietnam era. The first American casualty in Vietnam was in 1961.
My first son was born in 1969, the second in 1971. By those years hundreds of American soldiers were dying in Southeast Asia every week. Body counts and casualty figures were a staple on evening news broadcasts - "violence and numbness" prevailed.
My older son served in the army during the first Gulf war, a mercifully brief conflict which saw a limited number of American deaths. But Jeff, who was working as a "psych tech" in the psychiatric ward of Landstuhl Army Hospital at the time, told me some heartbreaking stories of a few patients, mostly officers and NCOs, brought in from the war zone who had simply cracked under the protracted pressure of responsibility and the tension of waiting, and wondering what would happen, and how they would respond - emotional casualties ofmodern warfare.
My first three grandchildren were born in 2004 and 2007 - "war babies" like their fathers, and like my mother and me. There are two more grandchildren due later this year in our family. It seems an inevitable given that these too will be children born under the shadow of war.
"We get not peace in our time, O Lord."
Sadly, I know that this pattern of birth and death and war that I find in my own family history is refelected and repeated endlessly in millions of families in this country and around the world, and is likely to continue.
Ernest Hemingway experienced firsthand the physical fear and pain and the emotional trauma that the violence of combat can bring. He managed to convey these feelings in his fiction - in those first stories of Nick Adams, and, later, in his classic and heartbreaking novel, A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway went on to a brilliant career in writing, but he always carried with him those psychic scars of war. In 1961 he took his own life. But his stories live on and can still teach us something. The Nick Adams Stories was an excellent book selection for the first Great Michigan Read. More than eighty years have passed since Hemingway wrote those stories, but they are still relevant. They still give us pause, make us think.
"Give us peace in our time, O Lord ..."
Please.

- Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy and Love, War & Polio

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