Ordinary people with extraordinary spirit who energized us

Ordinary people with extraordinary spirit who energized us
By Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

Over this July 4th weekend I found a handwritten note written by my late wife, Wanda, on which she had expressed her views about Southfarm Press military history and memoir authors. I think this weekend is an appropriate time to share with you what she wrote about these people:

“Our authors are ordinary people with extraordinary spirit, all over 75, who wrote about their lives serving freedom, sometimes as part of our military. Not jet setters, not golfers, not cruisers on luxury liners, not rich in money, but rich in spirit. They all have a point of view, a tenacity and spirit that brought them to their publisher. Us.

“They had something to say and said it. They told us about the past. Their past, and history.

“Through reading their books, we can enrich our spiritual lives even though their books are not literary masterpieces and they will never be classics.

“But their books will always be around in the future as a reminder of them and their sacrifices for freedom. Southfarm Press is energized by their enthusiasm."—Wanda Haan

Wanda, of course, was editor, managing editor and executive editor of Southfarm Press all rolled into one attractive, intelligent woman. At the bottom of her paragraphs reprinted above, she listed the last names of whom she was talking about: Bogart, Heide, Vance, Schultz, Knox, Gordon, Unsworth and Gould. To those names I add Chase and Beyea, whom she didn’t live long enough to know.

Frank and Mary Bogart, Till War Do Us Part (1995), ISBN: 978-0-913337-24-0
Sigrid Heide, In the Hands of My Enemy (1996), ISBN: 978-0-913337-29-5
Heidi Scriba Vance, Shadows Over My Berlin (1996), ISBN: 978-0-913337-30-1
Alfred W. Schultz, Janey: A Little Plane in a Big War (1998), 978-0-913337-31-8
Ralph Knox, The Emperor’s Angry Guest (1999)
Joseph Furbee Gordon, Flying Low: And shot down twice during World War II in a spotter plane (2001), ISBN: 978-0-913337-43-1
Thomas P. Reep and Constance Reep Unsworth, Abe Lincoln and the Frontier Folks of New Salem (2002), ISBN: 978-0-913337-36-3
Dudley C. Gould, Follow Me Up Fools Mountain (2002), ISBN: 978-0-913337-47-9;
Good Night Love (2006), ISBN: 978-0-913337-56-1
Jean L. Chase, The Grasshopper That Roared (2005), ISBN: 978-0-913337-54-7
Frank M. Beyea, Monk’s War in Vietnam (2009), ISBN: 978-0-913337-70-7

Frank M. Beyea, I must note, has not yet reached 75.

We WERE energized by their enthusiasm. And I still am. They all found us, we did not find them. I once asked one of our authors how he found us and was told that the mayor of Jaspar, Indiana recommended us! As we did not know the mayor, we were very surprised.

Read their books and be enveloped with their energy and spirit for freedom.—Copyright ©2009 by Walter Haan, www.war-books.com

All of the books listed above are still in print, still available as new books from our Web Site, www.war-books.com except for our hardcover edition of The Emperor’s Angry Guest. (now available in a paperback edition from Trafford Press) and Monk’s War in Vietnam which must be purchased online from Amazon.com and bn.com while our Web Site is being enlarged.