One of the most widely read poems of our time, John Brown s Body is Stephen Vincent Benet s masterful retelling of the Civil War. A book of great energy and sweep, it swings into view the entire course of that terrible and decisive war, lighting up the lives of soldiers, leaders, and civilians, North and South, amidst the conflict. Generations of readers have found the book a compelling and moving experience. "Magnificently readable." New Statesman. "It is not one of your tours de forces of intellect and technique, to be admired and then tucked away on the library shelf. It is a library of...

The Brandywine River winds from Southeastern Pennsylvania into Delaware along a rolling, agricultural plane. Henry Seidel Canby was born along its banks into a family that has lived in the region for generations. His personal affection for the river is woven into this charming history of events that make the Brandywine one of America's most important small rivers. He explains how the Swedes built the first log cabins in America at the mouth of the Brandywine, why William Penn's Quakers later came here, that prairie schooners were built to haul grain to local flour mills, and how the duPont...