Books with author John R. Neil

First published in 1961, Neil R. Johnson’s The Chickasaw Rancher tells the story of Montford T. Johnson and the first white settlement of Oklahoma. Abandoned by his father after his mother’s death and then left on his own following his grandmother’s passing in 1868, Johnson became the owner of a piece of land in the northern part of the Chickasaw Nation in what is now Oklahoma.The Chickasaw Rancher follows Montford T. Johnson’s family and friends for the next thirty-two years. Neil R. Johnson describes the work, the ranch parties, cattle rustling, gun fights, tornadoes, the run of 1889, the hard deaths of many along the way, and the rise, fall, and revival of the Chickasaw Nation.—Print Ed.

The Wonder City of Oz (1940) is the thirty-fourth in the series of Oz books created by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and the first written and illustrated solely by John R. Neill. With The Wonder City of Oz, Neill introduced a change in tone that continued through his subsequent books. Neill's Emerald City has skyscrapers and gas stations. Normally inanimate objects act alive: houses talk and fight, shoes sing (they have tongues), and clocks run. Jenny Jump captures a leprechaun named Siko Pompus (apparently a pun on "psychopomp") and forces him to make her into a fairy; but he only does half the job before escaping. Jenny then jumps to Oz using her half-fairy gifts. She lands in the carriage of Princess Ozma during a parade - and quickly expresses her desire to be a queen herself. Her ambition lures her into running against Ozma in an Ozlection to become ruler of the Land of Oz.

"I don't much care how you go about it, gentlemen, but bring me Jake Maloney before the week is out..." Jake has the Future Code and the Moderator wants it badly because the Future Code is the only thing standing between him and complete control of cyberspace - of what everybody does, says or even thinks. And he's prepared to do anything to get hold of it and stop Jake before he has the chance to destroy him, his Network and his dreams.

Desperate, lost, the machine men of Zor took off on the most perilous mission they had ever faced—against a foe that could not die!ExcerptSince reaching Zor, this new expedition had embarked upon a roundabout direction, which Professor Jameson expected would ultimately lead him back in the direction of his own world and the nearby system of Sirius, where the strangely evolutionized descendants of humanity had fled millions of years ago when Earth had become chill and the sun had grown subdued. As the present narrative opens, however, we find them upon the third world of a system comprised of five planets.Orange sunlight streamed down upon the hull of the spaceship, moored upon a plain of waving, yellow grasses. The sun was not far above the horizon, and was slowly sinking. Fantastic animals and birds uttered strange cries and noises, but showed little curiosity in regards to the machine men.Professor Jameson and 744U-21 stood and watched machine men flying in from different directions on their metal wings. They were about to leave this third world of the orange sun. There were two outer planets in opposition at their present orbital phases, and it had been the agreed design of the machine men to explore these nearer worlds before proceeding to those closer the sun."I have a strange curiosity, developed since we came to this third world, to see what the second planet is like," said the professor. "Now that we are about to leave here for the fourth and fifth planets, this curiosity seems to have grown stronger.""A coincidence," 744U-21 observed, "for I feel the same way, but it is more logical to visit the outer worlds first."The professor was inclined to agree with him. It was strange that they should both become so unreasonably obsessed with the same idea, 6W-438 and 8L-404 approached."I think we are making a mistake going to those outer worlds before we have explored the worlds closest the sun," said 6W-438."What makes you think that?" 744U-21 asked."I don't know. But SL-404 thinks the same, and so do others with whom I have talked."

"A Tale of Two Acorns" is the story of a young boy's experience with the death of his grandad. Through a story about an acorn who learns about the life of an oak tree which is within him, the young boy comes to an understanding of the spiritual life within all of us. He learns the lesson that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it does not come to life.