Books published by Stackpole Books

In this remarkable array of stories, a tour de force of literary styles ranging from unadorned tale to historical mystery to science-fiction adventure, Paul Schullery honors the angler's innate and precious need to hope and illuminates the rich rewards and deeply satisfying misadventures that arise from the fulfillment of our angling dreams.

Thirty seven stories take readers from leaping makos near the fairways of Torrey Pines to midnight Atlantic salmon fishing on the fabled Ponoi. Santella's peripatetic lifestyle and eye for entertaining details - even those that have little to do with the act of throwing flies at fish - will make one look at fishing in a whole different way.

Phil Gioia grew up an army brat during the decades after World War II. Drawn to the military, he attended the Virginia Military Institute, then was commissioned in the U.S. Army, where he completed Jump School and Ranger School. Not even a year after college graduation, he landed in Vietnam in early 1968in the first weeks of the Tet offensive, which marked a major escalation of the war. Leading a platoon in the 82nd Airborne Division, Gioia took his paratroopers into the lifting of the siege of Huewhere death was always just around the cornerand the grisly discovery of mass graves of those executed by the Vietcong, during their occupation of the city. Wounded, he was sent home in April. Released from hospital, he commanded a paratroop company in the 82nd Airborne in 1968, returning to Vietnam with the hard-hitting First Air Cavalry Division a year later, this time leading a rucksack company of light infantry. Inserted into far-flung landing zones, Gioia and his men patrolled the jungles and rubber plantations along the Cambodian border, looking for a furtive enemy who preferred ambushes to set-piece battles and nighttime raids to daylight attacks.Danger Close! recounts the Vietnam War from the unique boots-on-the-ground perspective of a young officer who served two tours in two different divisions. He tells his story thoughtfully, straightforwardly, and always vividly, from the raw emotions of unearthing massacred human beings to the terrors of fighting in the dark, with red and green tracers slicing the air. Hard to put down and hard to forget, Danger Close! will remind readers of the best Vietnam memoirs, like Guns Up! and Baptism.

Folklore, archaeological data, and first-person narratives contrast the wanton destruction of the eastern buffalo with the spirit and heroism of the early frontier.

Add a pop of color and style to your home with these quick crochet pieces!Bringing new textures and colors into your home decor can make all the difference, and with these pieces you can make a whole selection of items for seasonal changes or just to suit your mood. Crochet colorful dishcloths, trivets, and potholders for the kitchen; a beautiful runner, plant hanger, and place mats for your dining room; and a basket, rug, and more for any room in your house. All of the patterns in this book work up in just a few hours, and are perfect for crocheting on the go. With just a hook and yarn in colors you love, you can brighten up every room in your house!

In March 1945, against the advice of his top subordinates, Gen. George Patton created a task force to liberate a POW camp near Hammelburg, Germany. Based on memoirs, diaries, combat reports, and interviews with survivors, Patton's Last Gamble vividly recounts a mission Gen. Omar Bradley later said "began as a wild goose chase and ended in tragedy."

On September 1, 1939, the day World War II broke out in Europe, Gen. George Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff of the U.S. Army. Ten months later, Roosevelt appointed Henry Stimson secretary of war. For the next five years, from adjoining offices in the Pentagon, Marshall and Stimson headed the army machine that ground down the Axis. Theirs was one of the most consequential collaborations of the twentieth century. A dual biography of these two remarkable Americans, The Partnership tells the story of how they worked together to win World War II and reshape not only the United States, but the world.The general and the secretary traveled very different paths to power. Educated at Yale, where he was Skull and Bones, and at Harvard Law, Henry Stimson joined the Wall Street law firm of Elihu Root, future secretary of war and state himself, and married the descendant of a Founding Father. He went on to serve as secretary of war under Taft, governor-general of the Philippines, and secretary of state under Hoover. An internationalist Republican with a track record, Stimson ticked the boxes for FDR, who was in the middle of a reelection campaign at the time. Thirteen years younger, George Marshall graduated in the middle of his class from the Virginia Military Institute (not West Point), then began the standard, and very slow, climb up the army ranks. During World War I he performed brilliant staff work for General Pershing. After a string of postings, Marshall ended up in Washington in the 1930s and impressed FDR with his honesty, securing his appointment as chief of staff.Marshall and Stimson were two very different men who combined with a dazzling synergy to lead the American military effort in World War II, in roles that blended politics, diplomacy, and bureaucracy in addition to warfighting. They transformed an outdated, poorly equipped army into a modern fighting force of millions of men capable of fighting around the globe. They, and Marshall in particular, identified the soldiers, from Patton and Eisenhower to Bradley and McNair, best suited for high command. They helped develop worldwide strategy and logistics for battles like D-Day and the Bulge. They collaborated with Allies like Winston Churchill. They worked well with their cagey commander-in-chief. They planned for the postwar world. They made decisions, from the atomic bombs to the division of Europe, that would echo for decades. There were mistakes and disagreements, but the partnership of Marshall and Stimson was, all in all, a bravura performance, a master class in leadership and teamwork.In the tradition of group biographies like the classic The Wise Men, The Partnership shines a spotlight on two giants, telling the fascinating stories of each man, the dramatic story of their collaboration, and the epic story of the United States in World War II.

Ira W. Gruber is celebrated for the Atlantic salmon fishing techniques he developed over a lifetime of fishing on the Miramichi in New Brunswick, Canada. Ira is known for the 38 salmon fly patterns he originated and the thousands of salmon flies he tied over his lifetime, influencing such well-known contemporaries as Joe Bates, Morris Greene, Ted Niemeyer, and Leonard Wright.Ira D. Gruber, grandson of Ira W., has authored this fishing biography. A professor of history at Rice before he retired, Ira D. Gruber did the research for the book using his grandfather's papers, annotated angling books, photographs, and notes and interviewing locals in New Brunswick and Ira W.'s native Pennsylvania. The book features stunning photographs of and the patterns for 91 flies from Ira W.'s personal collection, including most of his 38 original fly creations.

Learn to create and color your own manga characters!Massive Manga shows you step by step how to bring your ideas to life on paper. Learn by practicing the skills needed for drawing a wide range of manga in a huge variety of hairstyles, faces, and clothing, as well as animals, mechas, weapons, and vehicles. Each subject has a chapter of its own in which you'll find line-by-line instructions and tons of designs. From teens to tech, cuddly pups to dangerous dragons, you'll find them all here in these pages.Step-by-step drawings in pencil, ink, and color show you how to draw bodies, faces, eyes, hair, hands, and feet across a range of human and fantasy creations. Learn scores of hairstyles, facial expressions, hand gestures, and body poses. To complete your scenes, you'll learn how to draw accessories and gadgets, weapons, vehicles, and so much more!

Finally, an easy explanation of Crackle Weave!Susan Kesler-Simpson, author of the popular Overshot Simply and Shadow Weave Simply, now explains Crackle Weave simply. Her teaching style is to break down the weave structure into its basic parts so that it is easy to understand, and then teach you how the parts work together to create the weave structure so that you can use any pattern or create your own.The areas of separating threads give Crackle Weave its appearance of cracking pottery, and once you see how the structure works, there is so much you can do with it! Crackle weave is a block weave structure made up of four or more threading blocks that are based on the twill structure. Each block has four threads made up of two primary threads and two secondary threads. Incidental threads are added when needed to keep the proper twill sequencing. These blocks can be enlarged, reduced, or change location, allowing you to have a traditional or more modern approach to your project. And then there is color! Crackle Weave has many options for playing with colors; colors can be added through the warp, primary threads, and/or secondary threads. Learning is not complete without practice, so there are 25 patterns to try for a variety of pieces in both modern and traditional effects. The projects are simple enough for any beginning weaver, and include shawls, scarves, rugs, blankets, towels, and table runners. Some are woven in the traditional crackle method while others introduce weaving crackle as overshot, summer/winter, and more. Start your exploration of Crackle Weave today!

In June 1942, the U.S. Army began recruiting immigrants, the children of immigrants, refugees, and others with language skills and knowledge of enemy lands and cultures for a special military intelligence group being trained in the mountains of northern Maryland and sent into Europe and the Pacific. Ultimately, 15,000 men and some women received this specialized training and went on to make vital contributions to victory in World War II. This is their story, which Beverley Driver Eddy tells thoroughly and colorfully, drawing heavily on interviews with surviving Ritchie Boys.The army recruited not just those fluent in German, French, Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, and other languagesas well as some 200 Native Americans and 200 WACs. They were trained in photo interpretation, terrain analysis, POW interrogation, counterintelligence, espionage, signal intelligence (including pigeons), mapmaking, intelligence gathering, and close combat.Many landed in France on D-Day. Many more fanned out across Europe and around the world completing their missions, often in cooperation with the OSS and Counterintelligence Corps, sometimes on the front lines, often behind the lines. The Ritchie Boys' intelligence proved vital during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. They helped craft the print and radio propaganda that wore down German homefront morale. If caught, they could have been executed as spies. After the war they translated and interrogated at the Nuremberg trials. One participated in using war criminal Klaus Barbie as an anti-communist agent. Meanwhile, Ritchie Boys in the Pacific Theater of Operations collected intelligence in Burma and China, directed bombing raids in New Guinea and the Philippines, and fought on Okinawa and Iwo Jima.This is a different kind of World War II story, and Eddy tells it with conviction, supported by years of research and interviews.

From the events that led to the clash at Gettysburg in July 1863 to the retreat of Robert E. Lee's defeated Confederates, Richard Wheeler uses the words of participants--both Northern and Southern--to bring one of the Civil War's bloodiest, most pivotal battles to life.

Author Ian Cramb was a fifth-generation stonemason who relied on traditional methods to create and restore beautiful stone structures. In this do-it-yourself manual for homeowners, masonry contractors, and restoration specialists, Cramb drew on his fifty years of life experience in the craft to cover restoration techniques for historic structures in the U.S. and Britain. The book covers various types of stone, stone-cutting, and traditional mortar mixes for walls, foundations, and buildings.

In the opinion of many, nobody was more influential or had a greater impact on retrievers - their training, handling, and breeding - than Cotton Pershall. This book was a command performance, because thousands of dog owners and trainers requested that Pershall''s methods be set down for generations to follow. Through the eyes and words of professional trainer Bobby N. George, Jr. that''s exactly what happened. The book includes complete techniques and training guidelines for lining, marking, obedience training, play training, handling doubles and triples easily, land and water retrieving, the forced retrieve, techniques to make your dog a more effective waterfowl retriever, and starting puppies through finishing a dog - as well as fifty years of reminiscences about dogs, trainers, waterfowl hunts, and field trials.