Payne at Pinehurst: The Greatest U. S. Open Ever
by Bill Chastain (Alpha Sigma ’76)
It has been called the greatest U.S. Open in the tournament’s more than one-
hundred-year history. In Payne at Pinehurst (ISBN 0-312-33009-X), veteran sports journalist Bill Chastain crafts the dramatic story of the 1999 U.S. Open by combining extensive research with interviews of those who made this a unique event. Central to this amazing story is Payne Stewart. Stewart held a four-shot lead heading into the final day of the 1998 U.S. Open only to suffer a devastating defeat at the hands of his old nemesis, Lee Janzen.
Known for the fashion statements he made each week on the PGA Tour wearing his plus fours and tam, Stewart had worked hard to become a better person and to find peace in his life. His ability to make a special showing a year after losing the 1998 Open was due in large to his introspection and courage in discovering the person within.
Santa Fe Passage
by Jon R. Bauman (Omicron ’57)
Rarely does a novel so vividly capture a period of American history as well as Jon Bauman’s debut Santa Fe Passage (ISBN 0-312-33348-X). In this engrossing tale, Bauman takes his readers back to the Southwest in the early nineteenth century, where cultures clashed, romance was rare and, for those courageous enough to brave its many dangers, there was a fortune to be made along the perilous Santa Fe Trail.
Seventeen year-old Matt Collins sees an opportunity to make his fortunes by bringing goods from St. Louis, Mo. across the famous trail to Santa Fe, still a part of Mexico in 1826. The hacendados, or rich landowners there have settled into their own ways of doing things, and Matt must quickly adapt to their rules to succeed in his ambitious entrepreneurial plans. As his profits grow, so does his affection for Celestina, the daughter of one of the town’s leading hacendados, and their marriage happily pulls him into the Mexican culture. But by the 1840’s, war looms between the United States and Mexico, and Matt is called to Washington, D.C., by President Polk to help his native country take over his adopted one. Forced to question his loyalties and find his true allegiance, Matt must use everything he has learned during his life to come up with a peaceful solution to a potentially very
violent crisis.
The Liberty Hall Volunteers: Stonewall's College Boys
by W. G. Bean (Alpha ’48)
The Liberty Hall Volunteers formed at the outbreak of the Civil War, when a group of students at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) formed a military company. They entered the service in early June 1861, and the company was assigned to the Fourth Virginian Infantry Regiment in a brigade commanded by General Thomas J. Jackson and later known as the Stonewall Brigade. Most of the students had been acquainted with Jackson before the war when he was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. When, in November 1861, he was promoted to major general and given a semi-independent command in the Shenandoah Valley, he detailed the company to act as headquarters guard. It performed this duty until the fall of 1862, when it was forced by depletions in its ranks to relinquish the position. The company remained intact until May 1864, when it, along with most of the men of the brigade, was captured at the “Bloody Angle” at Spotsylvania Court House. The remaining men surrendered with General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. (University Press of Virginia - Library of Congress #: 64-13721)
The Gingerbread Mouse
by James Bradley Cromartie, Jr. (Beta Gamma ’92)
The Gingerbread Mouse is a wonderful children's book written and illustrated by Cromartie when he was a 4th grade student. It is available in Pawleys Island, S.C., at Cuz I Gotta Have it, My Sister's Books and Lollipop Junction.
If you are an author and would like your book featured in the Kappa Alpha Journal, send a copy of your book and any press materials to the attention of the editor at: P. O. Box 1865, Lexington, VA 24450.
