Winston Groom

A riveting history of the battle that permanently turned the tide of the Civil War.While Gettysburg is better known, Winston Groom makes clear in this engrossing narrative that Vicksburg was the more important battle from a strategic point of view. Re-creating the epic campaign that culminated at Vicksburg, Groom details the arduous struggle by the Union to gain control of the Mississippi River valley and to divide the Confederacy in two. He takes us back to 1861, when Lincoln chooses Ulysses S. Grant--seen at the time as a mediocre general with a drinking problem--to lead the Union army south from Illinois.We follow Grant and his troops as they fight one campaign after another, including the famous engagements at Forts Henry and Donelson and the bloodbath at Shiloh, until, after almost a year, they close in on Vicksburg. We witness Grant's seven long months of battle against the determined Confederate army, and the many failed Union attempts to take Vicksburg, during which thousands of soldiers on both sides would be buried and, ultimately, the fate of the Confederacy would be sealed. As Groom recounts this landmark confrontation, he brings the participants to life. We see Grant in all his grim determination, the feistiness of William Tecumseh Sherman, and the pride and intransigence of Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston to General John C. Pemberton, the Philadelphia-born Rebel who commanded at Vicksburg and took the blame for losing.A first-rate work of military history and an essential contribution to our understanding of the Civil War.From the Hardcover edition.

To the generation of Americans who lived through it, the Second World War was the defining event of the 20th century, and the defining events of that war were played out in the year 1942. It was a time when an unexpected attack on American territory pulled an unprepared country into a terrifying new brand of warfare with a ruthless enemy. Soon after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, German U-boats were sinking hundreds of US merchant ships, some right off the American coast. In the Pacific, Japan's Army and Navy far outmatched those of the United States and was threatening the American mainland from Alaska to the Panama Canal. The beginning of 1942 was a relentless cataract of defeats. The Japanese annihilated MacArthur's 130,000-man army in the Philippines and set into motion the infamous "Death March" on Bataan. Hong Kong fell, followed by Malaya, with its vast natural resources, and then Singapore itself. By May, it appeared to many that the entire Western Pacific, including Australia would be in Japanese hands. Then, in June, the tide began to turn. In this riveting account, acclaimed novelist and historian Winston Groom relates the story of 1942 as it has never been told before, with an accomplished storyteller's eye for the time's fascinating tales and characters -- from the great leaders of the 20th century to war heroes such as Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who led a daring revenge raid on Tokyo, to lesser-known but equally fascinating characters such as Claire "High Pockets" Phillips, an attractive actress and dancer who, after her husband was killed while a prisoner of war, used the nightclub she ran in Manila to front a spy-and-supply ring that got desperately needed items into the POW camps and probed Japanese intelligence officers for vital information. 1942 tells the story of America's most critical hour -- a year of perseverance, courage, and ingenuity in the face of great odds, during which America rose against adversity and displayed the qualities that have made her what she is to this day. - Jacket flap.

"The Ypres Salient in Belgian Flanders was the most notorious and dreaded place in all of World War I - probably of any war in history. It was said that you could smell the battlefield miles before you reached it - a fetid odor of death. It was where the poppies grew in Flanders Fields while a million men lived like animals in slimy underground trenches and from 1914 to 1918 slaughtered one another with such consistency that even on "quiet days" casualties ran into the thousands.". "A Storm in Flanders is historian Winston Groom's history of the four-year battle for Ypres. As the engagement degenerated into relentless attrition, the salient became a gigantic corpse factory where hundreds of thousands of men - including Americans - died for gains that were measured in mere yards. To break the stalemate, the high commands on both sides over the years debuted and refined some of history's most terrifying weapons and tactics: poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks, stupendous underground mines, air strikes, and the unspeakable misery of trench warfare. The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, ranks among the most infamous in the history of warfare, where the horror of fighting in mud sometimes waist-deep reduced even the high command to tears. The stalemate lasted until the fourth battle, when the Germans finally came within sight of the Eiffel Tower in an all-or-nothing attack and were miraculously beaten back by an Allied army on its very last legs.". "Illustrated with photographs and drawing from the private journals of the men who fought on the harrowing front lines (including those of young soldier Adolf Hitler, whose experience at Ypres set him on his fateful path), A Storm in Flanders is a work of military history: a drama of politics, strategy, and the human heart, and the struggle for survival and victory against all odds."--BOOK JACKET.

Celebrated author and diehard Bama fan Winston Groom covers the illustrious history of football at The University of Alabama from 1892, when William G. Little introduced the game, to the dramatic 1999-2000 season during which the Crimson Tide made a miraculous turnaround to reclaim its place at the top of national polls. The book's nearly 300 historic and contemporary photographs of coaches, games, players, cheerleaders, fans, artifacts, commemorative items, and vintage game programs immerse the reader in the Alabama football experience. The text and photos capture all of the team's triumphs: Alabama's 1922 defeat of the University of Pennsylvania (a victory that put Alabama on the national football map), the Tide's celebrated upset win over the University of Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl, the legendary years under Coach Paul W. "Bear" Bryant, the twelve national championships, the heart-stopping victories over the big rivals, and, of course, highlights from the remarkable and record-breaking final season of the 20th century. Keith Jackson of ABC Sports has written a foreword for the book, which also features short essays from author and former UA student newspaper sports editor Gay Talese, former UA quarterback Scott Hunter, actress and former UA cheerleader Sela Ward, the late southern writer Willie Morris, Alabama native and New York Times editorial page editor Howell Raines, long-time Birmingham News sportswriter Clyde Bolton, and UA English professor Philip Beidler. Every Bama football fan--and every other fan who thinks he or she knows something about the sport--should own a copy of this definitive history of the Crimson Tide.

Delia Jamison is a gorgeous woman of a certain age and at the pinnacle of her career as anchor a network news show in Los Angeles. But she is being blackmailed by someone she is certain is one of her former lovers. Terrified to go to the police for fear the story will leak and cause a scandal, Delia's at her wit's end when she accidentally runs into none other than one of those former lovers, Johnny Lightfoot, whom she hasn't seen in nearly twenty years. Johnny is now an Academy Award-winning screenwriter living in New York and L.A. who feels the old emotional attraction for Delia rising again. Even though she's recently married, Delia mysteriously seems to encourage Johnny's interest. Since she won't go to the police, Johnny agrees to help her find the culprit, which means she has to produce a list of the suspects. And what a list it is: moguls on the New York Stock Exchange, fancy lawyers, a stellar Ivy League professor - even a United States senator. As Johnny's investigation delves deeper into Delia's past, it exposes more than he ever wanted to know; meanwhile, the blackmailer rachets up his dangerous game.

Shrouds of Glory focuses on Confederate General John Bell Hood's decisive actions in the western theater of operations during the final moments of the Civil War. The rich narrative takes us on a journey through the ravaged South to the once vibrant city of Nashville, where General Hood makes a last, futile attempt to preserve the Confederacy. Weaving eyewitness accounts, journal entries, military communiques, and newspaper headlines with his own straightforward narrative style, Groom constructs a meticulous and atmospheric re-creation of the war - especially the charged battlefields where general and foot soldier alike were thrown into the fray. Groom paints vivid portraits of the major players in the conflict, revealing the character, the faults, the emotions, and, most of all, the doubts that molded the course of the war.

It's a poignant, sometimes funny and sweet view of the world viewed through the innoncence of the man child protaganist. The title character Forrest goes on an epic journey through life, meeting many famous people and going through many interesting, earning him a great amount of wisdom, despite being percieved as other characters as an "idiot", due to his mental disabilities. It may be one of the most amazing novels ever written. As we , the readers, journey through Gump's life, from his truthful perspective, Winstom Groom perfectly portrays his created character, it is unsuprising that it was made into a film and was the New York Times Bestseller.In epilouge, if I were to choose one book to bring with me onto a desert island, it would probably be Forrest Gump by WinstonGroom. I would probably be entertained for years by Forrest's journey through life.

Beau Gunn returns from Vietnam stripped of his boyish naivete and becomes a successful playwright and journalist, but when he is drawn back to his native Alabama, he uncovers a scandal so shocking that it may destroy many lives, including his own.