Edward Willett

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Saturday Special from the Vaults: The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie

One of the more interesting projects I undertook for Enslow Publishers was a history of the famous Mutiny on the Bounty, comparing the real-life events to the way they were portrayed in the movie starring Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian that came out in the 1980s. I've always enjoyed reading about life at sea in the 19th century, so this was a natural fit. And honestly, what other book of mine is likely to have Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson on the cover? I came away from the project with a great admiration for William Bligh, who is surely one of ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 9:09, March 31st, 2012 under Blog, Books, The Vaults | Comment now »

Saturday Special From the Vaults: Introduction to Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky

For several years I wrote numerous non-fiction books for Enslow Publishers, ranging from science books to biographies. Among the biographies were four for a series called American Rebels, for which I wrote books on Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol...and Jimi Hendrix. For this week's Saturday special, the introduction (complete with footnotes!) to Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky. Which you can purchase here, if you're interested! ** Jimi Hendrix: Kiss the Sky By Edward Willett Introduction Shortly after 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 24, 1966, a young black man stepped off a Pan American Airlines airplane at London’s Heathrow Airport. All he had with him was $40 in borrowed cash, a small bag containing ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 13:31, March 17th, 2012 under Blog, Books, The Vaults | Comment now »

Saturday Special from the Vaults: Dragons over Europe

This article appeared in InQuest, a now-defunct magazine that focused on games and game reviews--originally, when I wrote for it ca. 1996, only on collectible card games. This story was based on the premise that creatures from Dominia, one of the multiple parallel worlds in the card game Magic: The Gathering, invaded Earth in the past, so I guess you could call it alternate history! It was fun to write, anyway: it's kind of like a science column written around a complete made-up "discovery." One other fun note: the scientists quoted are real scientists, and the quotes are real, too. They all graciously agreed to provide expert commentary for this obviously fictional "science" article. ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 11:44, December 17th, 2011 under Blog | Comment now »

My bios of Johnny Cash and Andy Warhol are out!

Both are listed as "In Stock" on Amazon and I have my author's copies, so it must be true! Here are the covers (and the back-cover copy) for each: Johnny Cash: The Man in Black When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public's perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 13:17, August 23rd, 2010 under Blog | Comment now »

A nice review for my book Disease-Hunting Scientist…

...comes from Children's Literature (via the Barnes & Noble page for the book): "Science is a verb." that is what science teachers tell their students, and this book describes just that. I found the book to be an exciting collection of seven scientists doing their jobs, and sometimes I was jealous. As scientist, Marta Guerra, describes, "for people who like to do fairly exciting things… you feel like you are actually helping people, [disease hunting in Uganda] is a wonderful experience." The book is scientifically accurate, and, with a bird flu expert hinting about new emerging pandemics, the book is very current. It ...

Posted by Edward Willett at 9:05, November 18th, 2009 under Blog | Comment now »