Books published by New Century Books

This collection includes all public interviews John Steinbeck gave throughout his career, from the earliest in 1935, to his last in 1972. Steinbeck's life, in retrospect, can been seen in three phases: his California years; the war years of the 1940s and the years after the Second World War. In this collection we can see Steinbeck working through projects; enduring fame and criticism. His life became difficult and more controversial with the publication of: In Dubious Battle (1936); Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). After The Grapes of Wrath was published, he was never truly welcome in his home state of California again.This collection is invaluable for any Steinbeck student or scholar. it is a reprint of the original 1988 edition, which has been out-of-print.Thomas Fensch is the author or editor of five books about Steinbeck: His 1979 book Steinbeck and Covici; The Story of a Friendship, the relationship between Steinbeck and his editor-publisher Pascal Covici, was very favorably reviewed in The New York Times and widely reviewed elsewhere. It has been in print now for over 40 years and long been considered a seminar work in Steinbeck scholarship.

First published in 1970, The Lions and the Lambs profiles the best pool players of that time. It followed the release of The Hustler, a highly acclaimed-and financially successful film-starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason. Until 1970, there has been no book about pool/billiards that separated the facts from the legends of this timeless sport. Shakespeare mentions billiards in Anthony and Cleopatra; Mary Queen of Scots played the game and Lord Bryon also mentioned billiards. Lions, in the language of the game, are gamblers or hustlers; those who can win when there is money on the table; Lambs are tournament players, but not necessary gamblers. The book includes both categories of players; each chapter is a comprehensive profile of the player-his (or her) attitudes toward the game and comments about other players. Also included is a Introduction about pool in the United States; a section about the film The Hustler and a lexicon of terms. It is illustrated with a wide variety of photographs, many taken by the author. The book went out-of-print after its original printing and the book publisher also disappeared. Copies available on the internet have listed at $200-$250 or more; this is a reprint of the 1970 edition.

During the Nixon administration impeachment process, in August, 1974, the U.S. Department of Justice deemed it necessary to have -- for its own use -- a document outlining the historial and legal espects of impeachment; thus this document. Impeachment is a seldom-visited aspect of American political life; encountered only twice in the past, during the administrations of Andred Johnson and Richard Nixon. (And 24 years later, Bill Clinton.) This is a one-oif-a-kind study, for all citizens, politicans at every level, students, academics and all others interested in American government. Published for general use for the first time.

After the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Spanish fascists immigrated to Cuba. With financing by the American Embassy in Havana, Hemingway recruited a ragtag band to spy on the fascists. He called them the "crook factory." The FBI became enraged that he was poaching on their territory.

"e;at the dangerous edge of social justice"e; is a searing indictment of reprehensible - and often -- murderous racism in America -- from Huck Finn and Nigger Jim on the Mississippi, to the murder of Emmett Till in in Mississippi, in 1955, the murder of Medgar Evers in 1963, Malcolm X in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, James Byrd Jr., in Texas in 1998 and Trayvon Martin in 2012. Other chapters include pioneers who survived the Civil Rights years, such as Rosa Parks. This is stark, unvarnished history. Highly important for understanding 20th century American culture.

at the dangerous edge of social justice is a book of profiles on courage on facing prejudice in America. Chapters include: Emmett Till, killed at 14 in 1955; Medgar Evers, killed at 37 in 1963; Malcolm X, killed at 39 in 1965; Martin Luther King, Jr., killed at 39, in 1968, James Byrd Jr. killed at 49 in 1998, Trayvon Martin, killed at 17 in 2012. Other chapters include: John Howard Griffin, who died his skin black and wrote the classic "Black Like Me"; Grace Halsell, who died her skin black and wrote "Soul Sister"; civil rights icons Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks, Rodney King and others. Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech," an Epilogue shows dramatically how far America is from being a fully post-racist society: blacks are still twice as likely as whites to live in poverty; twice as likely to be unemployed as whites; the net worth of white families is 22 times greater than black families -- and on and on -- This is a sad, tragic -- and powerful -- book.

"Television News Anchors" is a collection of 35 major articles and essays which are divided into three sections: "The Early Years," the rise of American television news, which was largely accidental; "The Present: Issues" ethical issues in television news and "The Present: Faces" major profiles of Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and 19 other major television news people. "Television News Anchors" contains a Timeline of the development of television news; an Annotated Bibliography and an Index. This book is an essential guide to understanding those who give us our daily dose of broadcast news and the issues they face. 310 pp.

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI denied that they had ever investigated novelist John Steinbeck, yet for decades the FBI maintained a file on Steinbeck, which included the recommendation by the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Branch (G-2) that Steinbeck was unfit to be commissioned as an officer in the Armed Forces during World War Two. (Despite the evaluations by the California G-2 agent-in-charge that Steinbeck did have the honesty, loyalty and integrity to be an officer in the Armed Forces....) The FBi files on Steinbeck include vague references to communist tendencies, the fact that the communist press approved of "The Grapes of Wrath" -- and some other Steinbeck novels -- the fact that he had read the communist newspaper "The Daily Worker," notations of the fact that Steinbeck's second wife had once registered to vote as a communist and, even later, critiques by the FBI of the character of police officers in Steinbeck's 1961 novel, "The Winter of Our Discontent." John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, yet the FBI files show a pattern of distrust and guilt by innuendo. J. Edgar Hoover's denials of an investigation of Steinbeck were, at the very least disingenuous, at worst, an outright lie.