Bücher veröffentlicht von Nighthawk Books

Gold of Their Bodies, first published in 1955, is a fascinating biography of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), the French post-impressionist artist, most famous for his colorful paintings of life in Tahiti and the South Pacific. Although fictionalized by the addition of dialogue, Gold of Their Bodies draws from Gauguin's own writings and accurately portrays the adult life of Gauguin - his struggles to make a living from his art, his friendships with Van Gogh, Cezanne, Pissaro, and other contemporaries, his travels and life with the native peoples of the South Pacific, his relationships with Polynesian women, and his run-ins with French colonial authorities. Gauguin, prolific in his output (in large part due to the small price he received for his works), and troubled by poor health in his later life, died at the relatively young age of 54 in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. It was not until after his death that his works were recognized as masterpieces, and, in February 2015, one of his Tahitian paintings sold for the staggering price of $300 million dollars.

The Cincinnati Kid, first published in 1963 (and made into a feature film starring Steve McQueen in 1965), is a gritty novel of smoky back-rooms and centered on a young card-shark ("The Kid") who eventually finds himself in a stud-poker game against the undisputed master ("The Man"). From the first edition dust-jacket: "By the time he was twenty-one, he was a full rambling-gambling man, a three river man. . . . From Jolly's Omaha Card Club on the Missouri, to Spriigi's Emporium in Wheeling on the Ohio, down to Big Nig's in Memphis on the Mississippi, he was known as The Cincinnati Kid, a comer, with a way about him."

Desperate Men: The True Story of Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, and The Wild Bunch, first published in 1949 and updated and enlarged in 1962 (under the title Desperate Men: Revelations from the Sealed Pinkerton Files) is historian James Horan's well-researched yet easy-to-read account of the lives and crimes of outlaws Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and a host of other renegades of the American Midwest and West. The book provides a unique, in-depth look at the work of the Pinkerton men in bringing these fugitives to justice and their efforts to provide a measure of security to an otherwise nearly lawless region. Included are 40 pages of illustrations and a complete index.

King Of The Harem Heaven, first published in 1960, is the fascinating, although likely somewhat sensationalized story, of the House of David religious cult and its leader, Benjamin Franklin Purnell. Based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the group also owned a large tract of land on High Island in Lake Michigan, and eventually developed a number of successful enterprises including farms, timber, a vegetarian restaurant, amusement park, roadside service station, and a motel. Notable was their having several baseball teams, the "Flying Rollers," famous for their long hair and beards (they did not believe in cutting their hair) which toured the U.S and played against other semi-pro teams. The group was rocked by scandal when members alleged that leader Purnell, while enforcing celibacy among the members, was engaging in sex with the women - including underage teenagers - of the group, and also for massive financial irregularities. Legal battles ensued, ending only upon the death of Purnell in December 1927.

A High Wind in Jamaica, first published as The Innocent Voyage in 1929, is a classic coming-of-age novel. The story centers on the five children of the Bas-Thornton family, living on a plantation in late nineteenth-century Jamaica. Following a devastating hurricane, their parents send the children to England aboard a merchant ship which is captured by pirates shortly after the ship sets sail. What follows is an intense, gripping story of children forced to deal with difficult situations and with emotions they are not yet equipped to handle. The book is considered to have set the stage for later novels such as Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and was the subject of a 1965 movie of the same name. Included in this edition is an Introduction by Isabel Paterson and four illustrations from the 1932 edition.English author Richard Hughes (1900-1976), wrote novels, children's stories, plays, and poetry. A High Wind in Jamaica is his most famous work.