Books with author Edwin Tunis

At first the ferry was just a hollowed-out log canoe in which Henry Baker carried wayfarers across the Delaware River from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to New Jersey. Horses had to swim and tired travelers were put up in the Baker home. Nearly a century later, in December 1776, General George Washington set up headquarters in a mansion near the prosperous tavern that had replaced Baker's house. In The Tavern at the Ferry, Edwin Tunis recreates the people, houses, and artifacts―indeed, the whole way of life―of a vital period in our country's history with his lively text and more than 100 meticulous and evocative pencil-and-wash drawings. He depicts the rhythms of daily life in pre-Revolutionary America, from cooking, eating, and drinking to farming and fishing, and describes how such enterprises as flax oil mills and ironworks operated.Through Henry Baker and his family, Tunis tells the story of America's growth in the colonial period and the growing dissatisfaction of its citizens with British rule. More than just set the scene, The Tavern at the Ferry chronicles the dramatic story of the events leading up to Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the ensuing Battle of Trenton, a turning point in the War of Independence. The weeks and days before the crossing were full of intrigue, and Tunis follows the stories of such men as John Honeywell, the patriot double-agent, and Moses Doan, the would-be betrayer, as well as those of the tired but determined troops who turned the tide of war under Washington's leadership. Whether illustrating a dance at a country tavern or soldiers marching across a snow-covered field, The Tavern at the Ferry provides the small, vivid details that bring history to life.

Nothing like the wheel exists in nature; it may be one of humanity's greatest inventions. In Wheels, writer and illustrator Edwin Tunis traces the development of the wheel over 5,000 years, his accurate drawings and lucid text depicting the human victory over space and inertia. Beginning with the first primitive form of wheel―the captive roller―Tunis takes readers through the history of land transportation from the Elamite chariot―the first recorded passenger chariot―to the ancient wheeled vehicles of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Chinese, and Indians; the whirlicotes, carrosses, berlines, fiacres, and phaetons that traveled the roads of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age; the Conestoga wagons, prairie schooners, and Concord coaches that carried Americans westward; the velocipede, the world's first bicycle, and its successor, the penny-farthing; steam-powered wheeled carriages like the Dudgeon and La Mancelle; Karl Benz's 1885 gasoline tricycle and the 1896 Ford quadricycle; the roadsters of the Jazz Age; and the gloriously chromed and tail-finned sedans of the 1950s.The history of the wheel is the story of civilization, and in Wheels―which won the Boy's Club of America's Gold Medal when it was first published in 1955―Tunis tells it with wit and illustrates it with striking drawings that will delight readers of all ages.

Frontier Living brings to light every significant aspect of daily life on the American frontier, with vivid text and more than 200 wonderful drawings. Immerse yourself in the character and culture of the men and women who stood at the harsh cutting-edge of our civilization: their dwellings, clothing, food, furniture, household articles; their hunting, farming, schooling, transportation, government; their amusements, superstitions, and religion.In Frontier Living the reader finds the forest frontiersman in his log cabin, the ranchero in his casa, the sodbuster in his prairie sod house. Here is the keel-boatman, the cotton farmer, the fur trader, the mountain man, the forty-niner, the cowhand - each helping to shape a new and distinctive way from untamed country. The flintlock gun, the Kentucky rifle, the freight and Conestoga wagons, the stagecoach, the Ohio flatboat, the first steamboat and steam railroad, are all reconstructed here in exact detail.This informative, authentic re-creation of the American frontier, seen in relation to its historic perspective, offers a major contribution toward an understanding of the American character.

"Shaw's Fortune chronicles daily life on a Virginia tobacco plantation during two periods of time. The first part is set in the 1650's as Alan Shaw and his wife Margaret consolidate a series of smaller landholdings into a commercial plantation. The story jumps a hundred years to 1752 when "Shaw's Fortune" has become one of Virginia's largest plantations." "Edwin Tunis was one the finest illustrators to ever work on children's books. Tunis was fascinated by American material culture. In his many books, Tunis showed his readers how things were made before the industrial revolution." Shaw's Fortune is filled with wonderful illustrations showing such ordinary things like: how tobacco was pressed into wooden barrels and corn was ground in water mills. Edwin Tunis was a master illustrator and his works are a pleasure for both parents and children. One could easily find yourself trying to collect all of his work. Most of the description is taken from a customer's review.