Preston Lewis

As new empty-nesters Harriet and Preston next looked forward to becoming grandparents. Their journey to assuming the names of Mema and P-Pa, however, took a tragic and unexpected turn. The Gulag P-Pa Diaries tells a bittersweet story of anticipation, loss and sorrow counterbalanced with hope, faith and a butterfly on the path to grandparenthood. Told with poignancy and humor, the narrative triumphs over tragedy by chronicling The Grands' misadventures each summer at Camp Mema/Gulag P-Pa. The Gulag P-Pa Diaries will touch your heart and tickle your funny bone.

The Soldiers Did the Fighting, the Generals Did the InfightingIn the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South's dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee. In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen and local residents through the five days leading up to the horrific Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The lives of soldiers ranging from Major General Patrick Cleburne to Brigadier General Hiram Granbury and from Sergeant Major Sumner Cunningham and to Corporal Sam Watkins will be forever changed by Hood's decisions and mistakes. Franklin civilians like apprehensive and loving mother Mary Alice McPhail and teen Hardin Figuers, desperate to serve the Confederacy but too young to enlist, are ensnared in the events that will bring death and devastation to their very doorsteps. Devout Confederate Chaplain Charles T. Quintard must reconcile his religious beliefs with his support of slavery. Slaves like the elder Wiley Howard and the inquisitive young Henry B. Free are trapped on the fault line between what has been and what could be. Too Much the Lion offers an unvarnished account of the dying days of the Confederacy in a powerful and moving narrative of honor and betrayal, bravery and cowardice, death and survival. Told with poignancy and honesty by an accomplished novelist, Too Much the Lion achieves for the Battle of Franklin what The Killer Angels did for the Battle of Gettysburg, providing a classic fictional account of one of the Civil War's pivotal encounters.

The Soldiers Did the Fighting; the Generals, the InfightingIn the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South's dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee. In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen and local residents through the five days leading up to the horrific Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The lives of soldiers ranging from Major General Patrick Cleburne to Brigadier General Hiram Granbury and from Sergeant Major Sumner Cunningham to Corporal Sam Watkins will be forever changed by Hood's decisions and mistakes. Franklin civilians like apprehensive and loving mother Mary Alice McPhail and teen Hardin Figuers, desperate to serve the Confederacy but too young to enlist, are ensnared in the events that will bring death and devastation to their very doorsteps. Devout Confederate Chaplain Charles T. Quintard must reconcile his religious beliefs with his support of slavery. Slaves like the elder Wiley Howard and the inquisitive young Henry B. Free are trapped on the fault line between what has been and what could be. Too Much the Lion offers an unvarnished account of the dying days of the Confederacy in a powerful and moving narrative of honor and betrayal, bravery and cowardice, death and survival. Told with poignancy and honesty by an accomplished novelist, Too Much the Lion achieves for the Battle of Franklin what The Killer Angels did for the Battle of Gettysburg, providing a classic fictional account of one of the Civil War's pivotal encounters.

Children of the Cotton PatchCotton-like the families that produced it-is today undervalued for its contribution to Texas's wealth and heritage, but for the region's first century as a colony, a nation and then a state, the fluffy commodity carried the Lone Star economy bale by bale toward prosperity. In Cotton-Picking Folks, award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction Preston Lewis explores one family's experiences on dryland tenant farms during the Great Depression and the waning years of the sharecropping and crop lien system. As the grandson of a tenant farmer, Lewis in the 1970s collected the written and oral histories of his grandfather's five daughters and two sons. Born into a poverty that demanded their child labor, all seven siblings picked cotton before they could read, and all faced a biscuit-and-gravy existence that typified the farm tenancy system in the cotton South in the first five decades of the twentieth century. The seven children matured as tenant farming reached its Texas zenith in a labor-intensive industry that sucked children into the state's cotton fields to feed the voracious global hunger for the versatile fiber. Their coming-of-age recollections are enlightening and touching testaments to the enduring spirit and faith of the Greatest Generation, whose work in the cotton fields was little different than it had been the previous century. In the 78,000-word volume with 18 photographs, Lewis provides a 16,000-word essay that puts the Depression-era cotton culture in perspective, then lets those who worked in the fields and farm homes tell their stories through their letters and recollections. Cotton-Picking Folks: Eulogy for a Texas Depression Era Family is a heartfelt tribute to a farm generation poor in material goods but rich in spirit.

Children tread lightly through the pages of Old West history. Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time gives frontier children their due for all the work they did to assist their families. Even at early ages, the youngsters helped families make ends meet and handled chores that today seem unbelievable. Written for today's young adults, Pintsized Pioneers offers lessons on frontier history and on the value of work for contemporary youth. In 1850 adolescents 16 and under accounted for 46 percent of the national population, making them an important labor force in settling the country. Pintsized Pioneers examines their tasks and toils starting with the chores on the trail west. Children assisted in providing fuel and water on the trail and at home when they settled down. In their new locations the young ones helped grow food, make clothing for the entire family and assist with the housekeeping in primitive dwellings. These pintsized pioneers took on farm and ranch chores as young as six, some going on cattle drives at eight years of age. Even Old West town tykes, who enjoyed more career possibilities, helped their folks survive as well. In the end, many pintsized pioneers pitched in to help their families make ends meet. Difficult as their lives might have been, the lessons those children learned handling chores helped them and their country in the years ahead. Those pintsized lessons have contemporary applications to the youth of today. Targeted at young adults, Pintsized Pioneers is written at a ninth-grade reading level and includes a supplementary glossary. Even so, Pintsized Pioneers is an eye-opener for adult readers as well.

Children tread lightly through the pages of Old West history. Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time gives frontier children their due for all the work they did to assist their families. Even at early ages, the youngsters helped families make ends meet and handled chores that today seem unbelievable. Written for today's young adults, Pintsized Pioneers offers lessons on frontier history and on the value of work for contemporary youth. In 1850 adolescents 16 and under accounted for 46 percent of the national population, making them an important labor force in settling the country. Pintsized Pioneers examines their tasks and toils starting with the chores on the trail west. Children assisted in providing fuel and water on the trail and at home when they settled down. In their new locations the young ones helped grow food, make clothing for the entire family and assist with the housekeeping in primitive dwellings. These pintsized pioneers took on farm and ranch chores as young as six, some going on cattle drives at eight years of age. Even Old West town tykes, who enjoyed more career possibilities, helped their folks survive as well. In the end, many pintsized pioneers pitched in to help their families make ends meet. Difficult as their lives might have been, the lessons those children learned handling chores helped them and their country in the years ahead. Those pintsized lessons have contemporary applications to the youth of today. Targeted at young adults, Pintsized Pioneers is written at a ninth-grade reading level and includes a supplementary glossary. Even so, Pintsized Pioneers is an eye-opener for adult readers as well.

In More Cat Tales of the Old West: Triumphs, Trials & Trivia of Frontier Felines, two-time Spur Award recipient Preston Lewis pulls together another amusing and eclectic collection of articles from western newspaper reports on frontier cats. In the sequel to his award-winning Cat Tales of the Old West: Poems, Puns & Perspectives on Frontier Felines, Lewis provides another engaging look at frontier felines from the perspective of pioneering times. The author in More Cat Tales of the Old West examines cats as frontier fighters, homebodies, workers, miners, criminals, and actors with enough colorful period anecdotes to satisfy both the cat lover and the cat hater. With a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Chris Enss, More Cat Tales of the Old West provides an educational perspective on Old West history. An authority on cats in the Old West, Lewis has published articles on the subject in periodicals such as Wild West and Journal of the Wild West History Association. His first book on the topic, Cat Tales of the Old West received a Will Rogers Bronze Medallion Award for written western humor. In 2024 More Cat Tales of the Old West was named a Spur Finalist by Western Writers of America. More Cat Tales of the Old West is catnip for feline fans and frontier aficionados interested in frontier history with a twist of the cat's tail.

From Spur Award-winning Author Lewis Preston, the final riveting novel in the Three Rivers series Wes Bracken is a rancher caught in the crossfire of the Lincoln County War, a bloody feud that pitted rival factions of merchants and cattle barons against each other in 1870s New Mexico. His life is threatened by his brother-in-law, who blames him for his sister's death, by a powerful businessman who wants to crush his competition, and by Jesse Evans, a notorious outlaw who raped Bracken's wife. Bracken has two promises that make his survival even harder: he swore to his wife not to kill her brother, and he agreed to help William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, get a pardon from the governor for his crimes. To keep his word and his dream of a peaceful future, Bracken must face a corrupt legal system, a treacherous governor, a ruthless political ring, and the evil Jesse Evans. If Bracken breaks his promises, he will dishonor himself and his family. If he keeps them, he may end up in an early grave with many of the Lincoln County War's victims.Two promises. One war. No escape.

Wes Bracken is a man caught in the crossfire of a bloody war. In Rio Bonito, the second book in Preston Lewis's award-winning Three Rivers Trilogy, he faces enemies on both sides of the law in the wild New Mexico Territory. He refuses to join either of the feuding factions that are tearing Lincoln County apart, but that only makes him a target for both. Bracken tries to do what's right, but he is branded a vigilante, a rustler, and a killer by those who want him dead. He must fight to protect his family and friends from the outlaws who roam the land, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Justice is not only blind in Lincoln County; it's buried under a pile of corpses. As he struggles to survive, Bracken also has to deal with his friendship with Billy the Kid, the notorious outlaw who casts a long shadow over his life. Will Bracken be able to stay true to himself and his principles in this violent and lawless land? He refused to take sides. Now he has to fight them all.