William A. Owens

Originally published in 1953, Black Mutiny remains one of the most detailed accounts of the Amistad revolt. In 1839, under the leadership of Cinque, the enslaved Mendi aboard the schooner Amistad killed the ship's captain and took control of the vessel in a valiant attempt to regain their freedom. Cinque's attempts to guide the ship back to Africa were thwarted by surviving members of the Amistad's crew. The schooner was seized off the coast of New York by the U.S. Navy, and Cinque and his comrades quickly became the source of a national debate over slavery and its abolition. For two years, the debate raged in local courts, eventually moving to the Supreme Court, where President Van Buren and former President John Quincy Adams found themselves on opposites sides of the controversy. As the arguments were heard, the country watched and waited to see what the Africans' fate would be. Essentially, both Bell and Dyson observe that the difficult questions raised by the Amistad story are far from being resolved as the nation continues its struggle to truly become a land with justice and liberty for all. The republication of this important work provides a wonderful opportunity for dialogue in communities around the world where the spirit of Cinque lives on in men and women actively pursuing liberation.

Up and down and sideways across Texas you will find diverse people of the state. It is what Texans are: believed in, yearned for, laughed at, fought over.

A diverse array of more than 350 photographs comprises this elegant visual record of life in Texas from early 1850s to 1980.

An English professor in a small Texas town, William A. Owens in 1944 did what many younger men had done before him: he enlisted to serve his country in its second World War. Assigned to serve with the Counter Intelligence Corps in the Philippines, Owens soon found himself at the very heart of the action, not only experiencing the daily life of a soldier but, because of his duties as an intelligence agent, playing a part in the "big picture" of the war as well.^ Owens was in all the major military maneuvers: in the third wave of soldiers landing at Leyte Gulf, in the invasion of Luzon, in the siege and taking of Manila, in the countryside with the communist Huks and guerrillas after the Philippines were "secured." As a CIC agent, Owens interrogated Japanese and read captured documents, thwarted infiltration and sabotage, and, as he dealt with the conflicting factions left in the vacuum created by the war, came to know the major Filipino political leaders on both the left and the right. Acclaimed for his autobiographical works, This Stubborn Soil and A Season of Weathering, and his novels, Walking on Borrowed Land, Fever in the Earth, and Look to the River, Owens brings his formidable literary skills to this fascinating memoir of his wartime experiences.^ The unforgettable people Owens met and events he experienced come vividly to life: the Filipino leper to whom Owens could not grant shelter for fear of contamination; the suspected spy whom he befriended and later delivered home to die; his weary fellow soldiers' joyous response to the discovery of an open brewery; those same soldiers' subdued talk of life and death in the anxious moments before a beach invasion. The role of the Counter Intelligence Corps in the War in the Pacific has rarely received the attention it deserves; here we have an enlightening firsthand look at that role by one of whose Citation for Legion of Merits honors his "exceptionally meritorious conduct" and "distinct contribution to the continued effectiveness of Counter Intelligence activities" in the Philippines. So honored by his country, William A.^ Owen is sure to win further honors of another kind for Eye-Deep in Hell--an unforgettable journey through the invasions, the interrogations, and the ruins and atrocities of the War in the Pacific.--Jacket flap.

Slipcover comments: (1) "I began FEVER last evening about dusk and read it straight through, finishing after midnight. A gripping experience. The narrative interest is intense, highly sustained, and cumulative. The episodic detail is vivid, often explosive, always earthy and convincing. The dialogue is fluent, fast-paced, true-to-life, as is the sexual distinction between men and women. I mean the inner psychology between the sexes. The sense of region is full and authentic, of deep substance and broad scope, panoramic, but crisp with detail. The myth-like vision is powerful, and is of convincing substance. Altogether the work pulsates with a marvelous energy and vitality.... You have wrought a strong, beautiful, astonishing book, Bill." (William Everson, aka Brother Antoninus) (2) "Hotchkiss' curiously great book deals to a large extent with the nature and location of God. Not, one must understand, a universal, codified or even codifiable God, but a certain God that a certain man must find and come to terms with on his own." Stan Hager) SPECIAL NOTE: See LAST BEAR McCAIN, a revision of this poetic rendering in prose.