About this product: Here is one of the most riveting first-person accounts ever to come out of World War II. Robert Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in January 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his odyssey, from basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war’s fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifices of war, painting an unvarnished portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and often die in the defense of their country.
From the live-for-today rowdiness of marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what war is really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Woven throughout are Leckie’s hard-won, eloquent, and thoroughly unsentimental meditations on the meaning of war and why we fight. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow will leave no reader untouched. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.
Now producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman, the men behind Band of Brothers, have adapted material from Helmet for My Pillow for HBO’s epic miniseries The Pacific, which will thrill and edify a whole new generation.
About this product: Robert Leckie, one of America’s greatest military historians, was both an eyewitness and participant to some of the greatest battles in the Pacific. Helmet for My Pillow is his vivid account of combat and survival in World War II.
In January 1942, in the aftermath of the infamous Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. From boot camp in Parris Island to the bloody war in the Pacific, Robert Leckie experienced it all — the booze, the brawling, the loving on sixty-two-hour liberty; the courageous fighting and dying in combat as the U.S. Marines slugged it out, inch by inch, island by island across the Pacific to the shores of Japan.
About this product: Throughout the 1970s and on occasion in the 1980s while home on leave from the military, I would patrol the wide and bountiful aisles of the Ohio Gun Collectors Association show, which was one of the greatest gun shows of the old era. It was a superb source for military items as well as weapons, because so many gun collectors at that time were erstwhile militaria buffs. Most were also WWII veterans, and they sometimes brought their own souvenirs to sell. It was common to purchase quality original German helmets there, and the favorite thing to do was get there as early as possible and zoom up and down the aisles hoping to find a jewel for the collection. I recall from that era a few faces of the competition other young collectors who pursued the same prizes; one of them being Ken Niewiarowicz.
The reason I tell this story is to provide the reader some indication of how long Ken has been a student of German helmets. Not only the length of time, but the originality of the specimens he was obtaining, are important factors here. Ken learned originality, learned what he liked, and stuck with it, building upon his knowledge over the years. The fruits of his efforts include a world-class website featuring fine original helmets and now, a superbly researched and authoritative work on German helmets arguably the new standard for all authors on the subject.
Delving into the chapters, one can see evidence of exhaustive effort in seeking out original helmets from some of the best US and international collections, the finest examples of which are presented here accompanied by a text composed of facts and observations layed out in a direct and cohesive manner. Myself having trod this path, I can attest to the patience which it requires. But Ken has gotten the job done and the quality and value of this effort are evident.
In terms of enhancing the modern study of original German WWII helmets, Ken s methodical approach in analyzing finishes, lot numbers, and corresponding decals of so many fine examples constitutes an important building block of updated forensic study that will benefit all collectors into the future. Therefore, it is my view that this book is the most definitive and complete work available on Third Reich helmets, and will quickly become the cornerstone of helmet collecting literature.
About this product: Ernie Davis, #44 at Syracuse University, was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, then recruited to the Cleveland Browns, and expected to be a running back playing in the backfield with another great African American athlete, Jim Brown. He died of acute leukemia before he could play a game in the NFL. In spite of his youth and incomplete athletic history, Ernie remained an inspiration in the hearts of everyone who met him, knew him or had seen him play. It was not for his fabulous athletic performances or his exceptional abilities that he is remembered and venerated, but for his loving nature, humility, fairness, honesty and goodness that he took a place in the hearts of everyone in his generation. How did Ernie become such a man, and touch the hearts of all in so few years, making them rethink their prejudices once and for all? This edition contains many pictures of Ernie plus a tribute to #44 President Obama.
About this product: He was one of pro football’s most beloved and respected stars, admired not only by NFL fans and his own teammates, but by his opponents as well. Super Bowl champion; six time Pro Bowler; NFL Comeback Player of the Year; NFL Man of the Year; fifth all-time leading rusher in the NFL; future Hall of Famer; now NBC Sports commentator.
You may think you know Jerome Bettis, but you don’t.
In The Bus, Jerome Bettis tells his full, unvarnished story for the first time--from his sometimes troubled childhood in inner-city Detroit to his difficult transition at Notre Dame, to a pro coach who almost caused him to quit the game, to a trade for the ages that resulted in ten glorious seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As a chunky child wearing glasses, Jerome’s only sports-related aspiration was to become a professional bowler. But growing up in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Detroit, he eventually found his escape on the high school football field, thanks to the devotion of hard-working parents, a concerned coach, and his prodigious talent. He arrived at Notre Dame as one of the nation’s best prep players, but despite his incredible performances, he never stopped worrying that he would somehow blow his chance to make good. Drafted and later discarded by the Los Angeles Rams, it was in the football-obsessed city of Pittsburgh that Jerome found his home and became a legend.
The Bus captures the sweetness and honesty of Bettis, but also details the jaw-dropping, violent nature of the game he loved, the mind-boggling injuries he endured, and the cut-throat NFL business tactics he overcame and later mastered. Through it all, Jerome was also a loving son, an adoring father, and the ultimate teammate and mentor.
The Bus not only takes you under the helmet, but inside the huddle, the locker room, the practice field, the negotiating table, the owner’s office, and the Super Bowl sideline. You’ll learn how Bettis became The Bus, how he helped engineer the greatest trade in Steelers history, how he almost cost Pittsburgh a conference championship, and how sweet it was to win—finally—one for the thumb.
Victor Pelevin, the iconoclastic and wildly interesting contemporary Russian novelist who The New Yorker named one of the Best European Writers Under 35, upends any conventional notions of what mythology must be with his unique take on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. By creating a mesmerizing world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide, The Helmet of Horror is a radical retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur set in an Internet chat room. They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms that open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered a dialogue they cannot escape — a discourse defined and destroyed by the Helmet of Horror. Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. The Helmet of Horror is structured according to the way we communicate in the twenty-first century — using the Internet — yet instilled with the figures and narratives of classical mythology. It is a labyrinthine examination of epistemological uncertainty that radically reinvents this myth for an age where information is abundant but knowledge ultimately unattainable.
About this product: This new book explores the history and development of early flying headgear throughout the pioneering nations in military and sport aviation, from the earliest exploits of the Wright Brothers, to the end of World War II. Drawn from aviation museums and private collections from around the world, the illustrated color section features over 1000 photographs depicting more than 650 different items of flying headgear: helmets, goggles, oxygen masks and accessories, including many unique personalizations and rarely seen items.
About this product: This is a 1978-1979 reprint of the original early 1950s Carl Barks classic DONALD DUCK AND THE GOLDEN HELMET. 48 pages, 10' x 7 1/8" with cardboard covers
BOOK
