Among the few moviegoers unmoved by the horror were two priests, Father William S. Bowdern and Father Walter Halloran, members of the Jesuit community at St. Louis University. "Billy came out shaking his head about the little girl bouncing on the bed and urinating on the crucifix," Halloran remembers. "He was kind of angry. 'There is a good message that can be given by this thing,' he said. The message was the fact that evil spirits operate in our world."
Bowdern and Halloran knew that the movie was fictional veneer masking a terrible reality. Night after night in March and April 1949, Bowdern had been an exorcist, with Halloran assisting. Bowdern fervently believed that he had driven a demon from a tormented soul. The victim had been a thirteen-year-old boy strangely lured to St. Louis from a Maryland suburb of Washington. Bowdern's exorcism had been the inspiration for the movie.
The true story of this possession, told in Possessed, is based on a diary kept by a Jesuit priest assisting Father Bowdern. The diary, the most complete account of an exorcism since the Middle Ages, is published for the first time in this revised edition of Possessed.
]]>The Blue and The Gray tells that story, the epic of the first great modern conflict. In so doing, it raises issues still of urgent concern in many lands today: What unifies a diverse nation? What justifies the formation of a new one? What sustains democracy and law in the range of the guns? What peace can follow the loss of 600,000 lives?
Six chapters cover the conflict chronologically. Key characters in the saga are examined in biographical sketches throughout the volume, and a picture-and-text portfolio on a major social or technological theme accompanies each chapter. The book features color illustrations by National Geographic photographer Sam Abell and text by Thomas B. Allen, formerly a Society staff editor and a specialist in military studies. A judicious selection of historical photographs, specially commissioned new maps, and maps from the Civil War era enrich the pages.
While tracing the drama of the battlefield, The Blue and The Gray lets the reader meet individuals of the 1860s -- on both sides of the front lines. Their own words, eloquent or earthy, funny or pitiful or noble, express the ideals they lived by and died for as family members fought one another and the war toll became the highest in American history.
With accompanying guidebook and map supplement, this volume is designed to show and explain why, in Robert Penn Warren's words, "The Civil War is, for the American imagination, the great single event in our history," and why, in the opinion of Abraham Lincoln, it would affect "hope to the world for all future time."
]]>Author Tom Allen has carefully researched all known shark incidents from all over the world. The result is the most thorough and informative book to date on the phenomenon. SHARK ATTACKS contains the harrowing personal stories of shark attack survivors, expert opinions from marine biologists, and the latest scientific studies of shark behavior. Allen's fascinating analysis explains;
* Why so many attacks occur in water less than five feet deep * Which species are killers * What triggers an attack * Behavior just before an attack * Whether shark nets increase swimmer safety levels * Environmental and seasonal conditions that contribute to an increase in attacks * Why it is better to be below a shark than above it.
This is a book for everyone who wants to read about the frightening reality of shark attacks--and to understand the myths that surround this often misunderstood creature.
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