*This title has not yet been released*

 

Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution

by John Nagy

ISBN: 978-1594160974

Westholme Publishing; 1st Edition edition (December 8, 2009)

$29.95

 

The Critical Role of Espionage During the War for Independence and How It Was Accomplished
"If your Excellency thinks me criminal, for heaven's sake let me be immediately tried and, if found guilty, executed. I want no favor."--Benedict Arnold to George Washington, May 5, 1779
During the American Revolution, espionage was critical to the successes and failures of both Continental and British efforts, and those employed in cloak-and-dagger operations always risked death. While the most notorious episode of spying during the war, the Benedict Arnold affair, was a failure, most intelligence operations succeeded. Spycraft was no more wholly embraced than by the American commander-in-chief, George Washington. Washington relied on a vast spy network and personally designed sophisticated battle plan deceptions and counterintelligence efforts, some surprisingly modern in form. In Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution, award-winning author John A. Nagy briefly traces the history of spy techniques from ancient China through Elizabethan England before embarking on the various techniques used by spies on both sides of the war to exchange secret information. These methods included dictionary codes, diplomatic ciphers, dead drops, hidden compartments (such as a hollowed-out bullet or a woman's garter), and even musical notation, as well as efforts of counterintelligence, including "Black Chambers," where postal correspondence was read by cryptologists. Throughout, the author provides examples of the various codes and ciphers employed, many of which have not been previously described. In addition, the author analyzes some of the key spy rings operating during the war, most notably the Culper ring that provided information to Washington from inside British-controlled New York City. Based on nearly two decades of primary research, including the author's discovery of previously unrecognized spies and methods, Invisible Ink is a major contribution to the history of conflict and technology.

 

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Rebellion in the Ranks by John Nagy

 

"It gives me great pain to be obliged to solicit the attention of the honorable Congress to the state of the army...the greater part of the army is in a state not far from mutiny...I know not to whom to impute this failure, but I am of the opinion, if the evil is not immediately remedied and more punctuality observed in future, the army must absolutely break up." - George Washington, September 1775

 

Mutiny has always been a threat to the integrity of armies, particularly under trying circumstances, and since Concord and Lexington, mutiny had been the Continental Army's constant traveling companion. It was not because the soldiers lacked resolve to overturn British rule or had a lack of faith in their commanders. It was the scarcity of food—during winter months it was not uncommon for soldiers to subsist on a soup of melted snow, a few peas, and a scrap of fat—money, clothing, and proper shelter, that forced soldiers to desert or organize resistance. Mutiny was not a new concept for George Washington. During his service in the French and Indian War he had tried men under his command for the offense and he knew that disaffection and lack of morale in an army was a greater danger than an armed enemy.

In Rebellion in the Ranks: Mutinies of the American Revolution, John A. Nagy provides one of the most original and valuable contributions to American Revolutionary War history in recent times. Mining previously ignored British and American primary source documents and reexamining other period writings, Nagy has corrected misconceptions about known events, such as the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny, while identifying for the first time previously unknown mutinies. Covering both the army and the navy, Nagy relates American officers' constant struggle to keep up the morale of their troops, while highlighting British efforts to exploit this potentially fatal flaw.

John A. Nagy, an expert in antique documents, is a consultant for the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan. He is a founder of the American Revolution Roundtable of Philadelphia and has appeared on the History Channel.

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Historic Gardens of Mount Holly:

 A Legacy of the Landscape

By Alicia McShulkis

ISBN: 9781596294073

The History Press; Published 2008

$21.99

 

For ages, the Mount from which Mount Holly takes its name remained a primeval place, covered in virgin forest and a few Indian trails and untouched by the axe of the white settler.     As it passed through the greedy hands of men in the nineteenth century, however, the Mount lost much of its leafy tapestry and surrounding acreage. In Historic Gardens,   Alicia McShulkis brings the landscape to life as she takes you on a tour of   Mount Holly's historic homes and gardens, many of which have  vanished over time. Read about Ashurst's secret tunnels used    by slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, the summerhouse where Washington and Lafayette held councils of war and the ghost that haunts Langstaff's third-floor staircase.   From the neatly sculpted Georgian hedgerows to the curved and meandering lines of Capability Brown, the history of           Mount Holly is written in the landscape.

 

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$15.00

 

FOOD for FRIENDS contains 350 very special, tested recipes, collected from neighbors and friends of the John Woolman Memorial worldwide, including many from Woolman family descendants.  It has 200 plus pages divided into 12 categories, with full color hard covers and a sturdy spiral binding. 
     In addition to mouth watering recipes, this cookbook contains fascinating history about the Memorial, John Woolman himself, and historic Mt. Holly, as well as numerous illustrations and photographs of local places which figured prominently in the life of John Woolman. A cookbook which we feel confident you will return to again and again, FOOD for FRIENDS,  will make a perfect gift or keepsake for food lovers and history lovers alike. 
      Proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to maintain and interpret the historic house and grounds of the Memorial and to support projects and programs of the

John Woolman Memorial Association. 

  

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Hauntings in Mount Holly

Posted in News on January 18th, 2009 at 4:46 am by BCT staff photographer Pete Picknally

Mount Holly author Jan Bastien holds a copy of her new book “Ghosts of Mount Holly”, inside The Bookery bookstore on White Street in Mount Holly. The Bookery is located inside the Thomas Budd House, built in 1744, which is featured in the book. The front cover of the book shows the Relief Fire Company on Pine Street, said to be another one of Mount Holly’s haunted hot spots.

BCT staff photographer Pete Picknally can be reached at (609) 871-8083 or at ppicknally@phillyburbs.com

 

  

Ghosts of Mount Holly:  History of Haunted Happenings

By Jan Lynn Bastien

ISBN: 978-1-59629-372-4

The History Press; published 2008

$19.99

  

"Jan L. Bastien leaves no haunted hearthstone unturned in her tour of Mount Holly, New Jersey, wether she is investigating the ghost of the Friends of the Quaker Meeting House or the troubled souls executed for murdering their sweethearts." 

Interviews with the town's current residents root this book in the

familiar routine of daily life, making the strange events they have witnessed all the more hair-raising. Bringing a whole new meaning to the term "historical interaction" Bastien visits firehouses, taverns and cemeteries to exhume those bits of the past whose clammy fingers still cling to the present. The vividness of her spellbinding accounts will have you smelling the sulfur of dead-but-not-departed Hessian mercenaries in less time than it takes to shiver.

 

  

Jan Bastien also hosts the "Haunted Holly Ghost Tours"

every Friday the 13th...........Click here for more details

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Mount Holly New Jersey: A Hometown Reinvented

By Dennis C. Rizzo

ISBN: 978-1-59629-276-5

The History Press; Published 2007

$21.99

  

"The events that secured Mount Holly's place in history involve

a lingering colonel, pillaging Scottish troops and a fateful

mistake that allowed George Washington to cross the Delaware.

But Mount Holly is much more than a battlefield site.

It's a picturesque New Jersey town with a rich, vibrant past." 

Author Dennis Rizzo reveals the history and heart of the town in:

Mount Holly: A Hometown Reinvented

In it's time, this South Jersey town has been witness to a large and vibrant Quaker community, a vigorous mill industry, intense debate over the abolition movement, a national reputation in manufacturing and trade and much more. Let this captivating book guide you through Mount Holly's beginnings, development and redevelopment, as full of twists and turns as the winding Rancocas Creek on which it is situated.

  

 

Also by Dennis Rizzo: 

160 pp. Over 40 Black & White Photographs Publication Date: November 2008

Parallel Communities: The Underground Railroad in South Jersey 978-1-59629-542-1 $19.99 Dennis Rizzo For slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad, names like Springtown and Snow Hill promised sanctuary and salvation. Under the pressures of racial prejudice, free blacks, runaway slaves and even many Native Americans formed island communities on the periphery of South Jersey towns. Dennis Rizzo validates their role in the preservation of tradition, definition of extended family and creation of a social bond between diverse peoples; together they formed parallel communities based on, but independent of, the larger towns and villages familiar to us all.

 

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The Years Gone Bye By Lorraine Rocco

ISBN-13: 978-1434391797 $12.99

 

The Years Gone Bye takes you back to a time when . . . 

a thong was something you wore on your feet,  a blackberry was something you ate  and mini skirts raised eyebrows.  Elvis was drafted into the army,  Archie called Edith a "dingbat"  and Forrest Gump became a household name. America landed on the moon, divers found the Titanic after 73 years and the police chased a white Bronco down the LA Freeway. These snippets are just a few threads of the thousands of strands of pop culture and history that weave this book into a tapestry of the last half-century.  

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Mom No More by Mignon Matthews

ISBN-13: 978-1933167329 $29.95

 

 An orphan is someone who has lost both parents, and a widow is someone who has lost her husband, but what do you call a mother who has lost both of her children? There is no name for them. "Imagine, if you dare, that your marriage is over, your parents are dead, your siblings are dead, and your children are dead. You are sixty-seven years old and no longer employed. What would you do?" "Why would God take away both of my children and leave me alone in my old age? I am not a perfect person. I have made mistakes, but that is a terrible punishment and I am not a bad person." "Life still hurts. A memory sneaks up on me and brings me to my knees on a regular basis, but I cry it out, I write it out, and get on with it." Mignon Matthews lost her daughter Evie in 1980, when she was eighteen, and her son Albert in 2005, when he was forty-two. This is her story.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Bookery, LLC 20 White Street Mount Holly, NJ 08060 609.845.1396

www.thebookeryllc.com noel@thebookeryllc.com or booklover651@verizon.net