Vraciu Featured in Post-Tribune

The Sunday, April 11, edition of the Gary Post-Tribune featured an article by reporter Bob Kostanczuk on my new youth biography Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu.

The article included comments from the author as well as an interview with Vraciu, who is now retired and living in Danville, California. Recalling his first ride in an airplane, which was subsidized by $2 his father gave him, Vraciu told Kostanczuk: ""I guess I was born to be a fighter pilot."

Vraciu Book Subject of Radio Show

I will be appearing on the Hoosier History Live! radio program to discuss my book Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 10, on WICR, 88.7 FM.

Hoosier History Live! is a weekly radio adventure through Indiana history, live with call-in, hosted by Nelson Price, historian and author of Indiana Legends and Indianapolis: Then and Now. Each week, the program includes a featured guest and topic, a call in from The Roadtripper with a tip about a Hoosier heritage-related road trip, and a Hoosier History Trivia question, complete with a prize for the correct answer. It is the nation's first and only call-in talk-radio show about history, premiering as a live weekly show on Jan. 12, 2008. The call-in number is (317) 788-3314.

New Youth Biography Available

My new youth biography on a Hoosier navy ace, Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu, is now available from the Indiana Historical Society Press.

The sixth volume in the IHS Press's youth biography series, the book explores the wartime service of Vraciu. A graduate of DePauw University, Vraciu learned to fly during his college years through a government program and joined the navy before America was thrust into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Possessed with keen eyesight, quick reflexes, excellent shooting instincts, and a knack for finding his opponent’s weak spot, Vraciu became skilled in the deadly game of destroying the enemy in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. For a period of four months in 1944, Vraciu stood as the leading ace in the U.S. Navy. He shot down nineteen enemy airplanes in the air, destroyed an additional twenty-one on the ground, and sank a large Japanese merchant ship with a well-placed bomb hit.

Vraciu’s luck, however, finally ran out on December 14, 1944, during a strafing run against a Japanese airfield before the American invasion to retake the Philippines. Luckily he was almost immediately rushed to safety by a small group of U.S. Army in the Far East guerrillas, who had been battling the Japanese in the area for the past few years. The navy pilot spent the next five weeks with the guerrillas, receiving the honorary rank of brevet major while with them. Vraci finally marched into an American camp carrying with him a captured Japanese Luger pistol and sword.

Vraciu, who is retired and living in California, was reluctant at first when I wrote him asking if he would be open to having me write about his life. He agreed to cooperate, however, when he learned that the book was part of the IHS Press's youth biography series, aimed at a middle school/high school audience. Vraciu has spent much time sharing his experience in the war with young people.

Fighter Pilot costs $17.95 and can be purchased through the IHS's History Market.

Upcoming Book Talks

I will be speaking about the Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, at the Dr. James Ford Historic Home in Wabash, Indiana. The Ford Home is located at 177 West Hill Street in Wabash.

Copies of my Grissom biography, Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut, will also be available for purchase. Autographs are always free!

At 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 15, just in time for Women's History Month, I will be giving a program on Hoosier suffragist and educator May Wright Sewall at the Fortnightly Club in Vincennes, Indiana. The program is sponsored by the County Public Library.

I will also be having a "conversation" with Sewall for a program at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 22, at the Propylaeum in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jan Wahls will be appearing as Sewall. Light refreshments will follow the presentation.

Holiday Author Fair

Looking for that gift for a favorite mother, father, uncle, aunt, cousin, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, or next-door neighbor? Come on down to the Indiana Historical Society's seventh annual Holiday Author Fair from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, at the Indiana History Center, 450 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis.

I will join approximately 74 other talented writers of fiction, nonfiction, history, gardening, poetry, and children's books who will be there signing copies of their books. Among the authors set to attend are such award winners as James H. Madison, Susan Neville, Mary Mackey, Philip Gulley, Lou Harry, James Alexander Thom, Norbert Krapf, and Alan Garinger.

I have been lucky enough to be a part of all seven Holiday Author Fairs at the IHS (here I am with fellow political junkie Geoff Paddock at last year's Author Fair). It's always a great experience for the authors and public alike. There will be speakers throughout the day, holiday music, and refreshments and free gift wrapping.

The schedule of speakers, presented in the Frank and Katrina Basile Theater, are:

12:30 p.m. "My Indiana Adventure" Student Writing Contest Awards Presentation

1 p.m. Lou Harry, author and journalist, "The Lou Harry Write-About-Anything Lecture and Game Show Extravaganza"

1:30 p.m. Jane Fortune, author, "To Florence, Con Amore"

2 p.m. Dick Wolfsie, author and humorist, "Mornings with Barney and Indiana Curiosities"

2:30 p.m. Terry Border, author and artist, "Bent Objects"

3 p.m. Ingrid Cummings, author and journalist, "the Vigorous Mind: How to Cross-train Your Brain and Why it Matters"
Posted by Indiana Historical Society Press at 12:09 PM

An Evening with May Wright Sewall

Join me as I take a trip back to the nineteenth century and talk to one of Indianapolis's most inspiring women, May Wright Sewall, as we discuss her remarkable life and contributions to the city in a Spirit and Place program at 7 p.m. Friday, November 13, at the Indianapolis Propylaeum Club.

The program, free and open to the public, will feature Jan Wahls, former president of the Propylaeum Club, portraying Sewall. After the discussion, there will be refreshments and historic preservationist Ron Zmyslo will lead a guided tour of the Propylaeum.

The program is sponsored by the Propylaeum Club; the American Association of University Women, Indianapolis Branch; and the Indiana Historical Society.

For more information, call (317) 638-7881, or e-mail propylaeumclub@sbcglobal.net.

IU Press Hoosier Book Club Sale

Looking for a great book to give that special someone a gift this holiday season? Indiana University Press is having a sale on its Indiana and Midwest titles in its annual Hoosier Book Club sale.

In addition to great sale prices (my Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary is on sale for just $15; regular price $21.95), you can receive free shipping on orders of $25 or more.