Showing results by narrator "Jack Chekijian" in All Categories

There are few characters in the English language more iconic than Robin Hood. Emerging out of the ballads of the High Middle Ages and surviving through numerous permutations to the present day, the green-clad archer has become an icon. This audiobook profiles the historic figures who scholars speculate may be the person Robin Hood was based on, and explains the origins and evolution of Robin Hood.

One of the enduring yet little-examined themes in Civil War lore is the widespread belief that on the field of battle and afterward, members of Masonic lodges would give aid and comfort to wounded or captured enemy Masons, often at great personal sacrifice and danger. This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides.

Are you interested in learning about business and entrepreneurship? And most importantly, are you ready to learn about life? Find out all this and more in this fascinating book.

Ten stories of vigilantes, vendettas, and violence in Texas during a turbulent era of reconstruction—history with a vengeance.

Magician and escape artist Harry Houdini profiles his onetime hero, French magician Robert-Houdin, whose name he used as inspiration for his own, and discovers that his former idol's claims and professional accomplishments conceal disturbing realities. Houdini's effort becomes an investigation through England and Europe that also serves as a general history of magic.

Whether intended as historical fiction or not, this tale of a California bandit in the early years of the Gold Rush by America's first Native American novelist was based on real occurrences. By early 1853, a certain "Joaquin" was being blamed for seemingly every murder and robbery in the young Golden State—a Robin Hood-like figure originally from Mexico said to be an inspiration a half a century later for the character of Zorro (who in turn was an influence on masked vigilante and avenger characters like Batman).

When James Forrestal resigned as secretary of defense in March 1949 before apparently committing suicide (arguably the highest ranking US government official to do so), he left in his office a large accumulation of files and papers. Among them was a private record. This was the "diary", as he called it, that he had maintained in one form or another since the middle of 1944, shortly after his appointment as secretary of the Navy.

A cavalcade of Spaniards, Indians, miners, prospectors, and adventurers have all madly searched since pioneer times for lost gold - hidden gold. To this day, the fabric of dreams blends over the wild Western mountain mysteries of many centuries, many people, and many traditions. Ill-fated Peraltas, the Dutchman, the Lost Wheelbarrow Mine, the Lost Dutch Oven, the Lost Cabin Mine, the Lost Padre, and more are investigated - a saga of incredible frontier fortunes and treasure trails. This work was the basis of the 1949 motion picture, Lust for Gold.

A four-star general pays tribute to a remarkable man in this biography. Believing that America owes a debt to a great character, a superb aviator, and a devoted citizen that was not paid, General Kenney tells the story of Paul Irvin "Pappy" Gunn with the hope that it will help discharge some of that debt. Gunn, who was known during World War II as an expert in daredevil low-level flying and as a hero and mechanical genius, modified light and medium bombers and transformed them into attack aircraft to hit Japanese targets in New Guinea, the Philippines, and Okinawa.

The collected fables, short stories, and essays of writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright George Ade, who has been called the creator of modern American humor in the early 20th century. Introduced, edited, and revised by storyteller and radio personality Jean Shepherd. Originally published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1961.

Twenty years of settlement and growth of Denver and Colorado are detailed in this account, from the area's earliest years up to 1880. It is a history of Denver, of its growth and improvements in areas of business, industry, and society.

The Tucson Artifacts document the annals of a forgotten Roman-styled military governorship in Chichimec Toltec Northwest Mexico. Perfectly preserved, complete and unaltered, they are straightforwardly composed in Latin. They do not have to be reconstructed, pieced together, deciphered, or dated. This illuminating collection of readings translated from Latin, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Nahuatl, Hebrew, and other languages by medievalist Donald N. Yates provides the cultural contexts for understanding these unique witnesses to world history.

This is the classic tale of a knight from King Arthur's Round Table who makes a dangerous deal with a mysterious visitor. The production is based on Jessie L. Weston's 1900 prose edition of a 14th-century poem.

A Texas Ranger reflects on his years of service, a career in which he was said to have run down more criminals than any other Ranger. Sullivan tells of numerous scouts and expeditions, of hunting buffalo, of encounters with Native Americans, and of important captures of train robbers and outlaws. Originally published by Von Boeckmann-Jones Co. in Austin in 1909.

Literature's famous gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha, his trusty squire Sancho Panza, and their adventures and mishaps, are told in this centuries-old classic, which features challenges with windmill monsters, castles masquerading as inns, as well as innkeepers, prostitutes, goat herders, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. Don Quixote must do battle with all of these for the sake of chivalry and knighthood - at least, that is what he believes.

Was Jesse James really shot from behind by friend Robert Ford in 1882? A 100-year-old man comes forward in the late 1940s claiming to be the Missouri outlaw, and he becomes a local sensation. Four affidavits supporting his claim are immediately signed by those who meet him and who knew Jesse James. This is the account of how J. Frank Dalton emerged from obscurity and claimed to be the "outlaw with a heart of gold".

Did Jesus Christ really exist? A rationalist answer to the question is given here by an ordained minister, independent preacher, and lecturer on "independent religion", M. M. Mangasarian. Though the full work was a series of studies from several additional authors from the Independent Religious Society in Chicago, this production highlights Mangasarian's contribution.

Innocent, his own country had called him a murderer. Now murder was his livelihood. John Seldon hired himself out as an assassin, a sharpshooter, to kill a tyrant named Castro in exchange for cash. He did not flinch from his task until the fatal moment, when he found the girl whose love had made him want to live again.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes investigates the true story of two young girls who claimed to photograph fairy creatures in rural England.

These are the memoirs of the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I, abridged for this production in order to focus on the mass deportations and systematic killings of Turkey's Armenian population. This work is a renowned primary source for this Armenian Genocide, a crime since recognized by 29 countries. Ambassador Morgenthau offers detailed profiles of the Turkish leaders with whom he interacts, finding that they are responsible for a "death warrant to a whole race".