Books with author Earle Rice

On June 24, 1497, Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto better known as John Cabot became the first European of his day to record an official landing on the North American continent. Funded by British merchants and sailing under the English flag, Cabot claimed his discovery of the New founde land for England. His claim cleared the way for future English settlements in the New World. On his return voyage to Bristol, England, Cabot sailed his tiny ship Matthew through rich fishing grounds off the Newfoundland coast now known as the Grand Banks. His crew hauled in huge quantities of cod simply by lowering weighted baskets into the sea. This find led directly to the great rise of the Newfoundland cod fishery. Born around 1450, probably in Genoa, Italy, John Cabot lived at about the same time as Christopher Columbus. Like Columbus, Cabot sailed west to find a new route to China and Japan. He found the American continent instead.

Where are Gran Colombia, La Plata, and Dutch Guiana? And where are New Granada, the Isle of the True Cross, and the River of Silver? What makes them important? And why should anyone care about them? The answers to all these questions and many more nestle between the covers of this small book. Few things excite the imagination more than the lure of faraway places. The call of strange-sounding names stirs the spirit of adventure in even the most timid among us. Nothing unlocks new vistas like a fresh look at old times and places. So, delve into the pages of this fascinating mini-history of Latin America and fly down to Rio on the wings of imagination. Settle revolutions in New Spain. Chart the waters of the Spanish Main. And climb the mountains known as Andes. By journey s end you will find that big books sometimes come in small sizes.

Few things stir the imagination more than ghosts and ghostly sightings. The prospect of experiencing spectral encounters with visitors from another plane or dimension draws some 400,000 tourists to the windswept ridges of the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument every year. As most ghost hunters know, there is arguably no better place to ply their trade than the scene of violent action and the irreversible loss of life - the very definition of a battlefield. And the greasy-grass knolls of the Little Bighorn killing fields stand high on the list of haunted battlegrounds.Supernatural tales o spectral sightings from visitors and park employees alike lend an irresistible mystique to the Custer legend and to the battlefield itself. Such tales go back a long way. The Crow people are thought to be the first to experience paranormal happenings. They once called the park superintendent the ghost herder, because they believed the ghosts of the fallen arose from their graves at sundown and walked among the living until daybreak. If the stone grave markers at the Little Bighorn could talk, they would have many tales to tell. Are you ready to listen

More than a few art experts hail Giovanni Antonio Canal as one of the greatest artists of the eighteenth century. One writer of his time called him a happy genius, which was no exaggeration. The world knows him best as Canaletto. Born to a designer and painter of stage settings in 1697, Canaletto followed in his father s path and trained as a theatrical scene painter. He soon left the theater behind and became a vedutista a view painter. Venetians will remain forever grateful for his decision to change the direction of his artistic career. With brush and palette, he created a glittering vision of Venice that continues to define the splendor of that sun-drenched city of islands and lagoons. Canaletto took his talent abroad in 1746 and spent a decade in England, adding to his impressive body of work. But anyone who views his paintings and drawings will always associate him with Venice La Serenissima for Venice and Canaletto are one.

The story of the brothers Custer, George, Tom, and Boston, reads like a Hollywood thriller almost too incredible to be true. George Armstrong Custer, known to family and friends as Autie, graduated last in his class from West Point. What Autie lacked in the classroom he made up for on the battlefields of the Civil War. He rose from a brash second lieutenant to a seasoned brevet lieutenant general and leader of thousands of Union cavalrymen. His heroics at Gettysburg turned the tide of battle for the North and likely saved the Union. Autie s brother, Thomas Ward Custer, or simply Tom, enlisted in the Union Army as a private. Tom s spectacular deeds of valor earned him a battlefield commission and not one but two Medals of Honor. Autie s youngest brother, Boston, was too young to serve in the Civil War, but he was not too young to join his older brothers in a date with fate on the Little Bighorn.