Think you know Jesse James ? Wait until you meet his family
Read chapter previews of Jesse James Soul Liberty now
Jesse James Soul Liberty, Vol. I
Authorized historical biography of the family of Frank & Jesse James. The first of five volumes, drawn from primary family sources. Includes family photos, letters, documents, memoirs, interviews, genealogy, with source citations, notes, bibliography, & index.
Published in the USA by Cashel Cadence House, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8957469-0-2. Hardcover, $36.95
“Eric James knows more about the Jesse James family than anyone in America.”
– Charles Broomfield, former Clay County (MO) Commissioner, responsible for the transfer of James Farm in Kearney, Missouri from the Jesse James family to Clay County.
___________________________________________________________________
REVIEW: James-Younger Gang Journal
REVIEW: Wild West History Association
Most longtime outlaw-lawman aficionados have probably read a number of books about Jesse and Frank James. Those books probably included Background of a Bandit by Joan M. Beamis and William E. Pullen and Jesse and Frank James: The Family History by Phillip W. Steele. Chances are you think you know a lot about the family of America’s most famous bandits. However, if you think this– think again– you have seen only the tip of the iceberg.
Jesse James fanatics are going to be delighted with all the new material and serious historians are going to wonder how they have missed so much for so long…
In summary, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I did not want to put the book down. It reads a lot like the family sagas written by Howard Fast and John Jakes. However, this is all fact, not fiction.
If you have any interest in the James gang and their history this book is a “must read”. And do not skip the notes; there is a wealth of material to be found in the notes and the bibliography is a gold mine. Four more volumes of James family history are to follow this book. I eagerly anticipate all of them.
REVIEW: Western Writers Association of America
The extended family of the James outlaws has unjustly been ignored by historians. The abundance of the accomplishments of the James family is more than enough to mitigate any stigma attached because of the outlaws. This family has led the way for social justice in many fields. They have been leaders in law, business, church, education and the arts…
The research and writing is outstanding and there is awealth of photos. There are excellent notes, bibliography and family charts. The book is very highly recommended.
________________________________________________________________
Order your PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHED copy HERE.
Available also at LOCAL BOOKSTORES & LIBRARIES. If they don’t stock the book, ask them to order a copy for you through Ingram Distribution.
FURTHER READING...There's a new biography of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who destroyed the screenwriting career of our Daniel Lewis James Jr. The book shows that this foul history of the past is far from dead and is very much alive. www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=887649136&live=1
'We've Got To Learn From Our History,' 'Demagogue' Author Warns
www.npr.org
Author Larry Tye chronicles Sen. Joseph McCarthy's infamous smear campaign in a new book. He says both McCarthy and Trump are "bullies" who exploit fears and "point fingers when they're attacked."I just learned of the passing of the Chicano author Rudolfo Anaya on June 28, 2020, who appears prominently in my book Jesse James Soul Liberty, Vol. I.
Anaya was not above human prejudice, nor above holding a public lynching of a white person, as he did with Daniel Lewis James of the James family. Dan James was a Hollywood screenwriter and collaborator with Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. He and Chaplin were blacklisted. When Dan James went underground, he volunteered in the Chicano community in the barrios of Los Angeles as an unpaid social worker. Dan sent Chicanos he met to school at his own expense and he got jobs for their parents in the film industry. From his experiences in the barrios, Dan wrote a novel Famous All Over Town. Since Dan was blacklisted, he wrote under the pen name of Danny Santiago (Dan St. James). His novel won a prestigious national award. When Dan failed to show up to accept the award, the Hispanic literati, of which Anaya was one, held a public inquisition. They lynched Dan for being an Anglo.
Neither Anaya nor any of the Hispanic literati ever apologized to Dan or to the James family for their prejudice or transgressions. Today Dan’s novel is taught in college-level Hispanic studies aside from his films now taught in film schools.
The following excerpt is from pages 253-255 of JJSL.
“Assembled by a ‘kangaroo court of intellectuals’ as one writer called the Hispanic elites who gathered, the inquisition posed the question, “Danny Santiago, Art of Fraud?” Ishmael Reed, himself a non-Hispanic, incited the Before Columbus Foundation of Berkley, California to conduct the inquiry, held at the Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco. Many established Hispanic writers represented the Foundation as peers. The panelists were Gary Soto, Rodolfo Anaya, Thomas Ibarra, Myrta Chaban, and Juan Felipe Herrera. About 120 guests attended. Dan James was branded a fraud. Blacklisted first by Hollywood, Dan James was brown listed now by the Hispanic community he faithfully and quietly had served.”
Looking forward to This Bloody Ground, Vol. II of JJSL . . . John M. James entered the Kentucky District of Virginia in 1784, making his settlement permanent. His residence in Logan County would not occur until after 1807 - after his final term in the Kentucky House of Representatives, after his vigorous defense in the House of Judge Harry Innes and their roles in the Spanish Conspiracy to sell Kentucky to Spain, after his wife Clara Nall abandoned their marriage, and after all his personal disgrace. Logan County, known as Rogues' Harbor, became his new home, where he could start a new family, and begin a new revolution. This time, against banks!TODAY IN LOGAN COUNTY, KY – June 1, 1792
Kentucky became a state, barely escaping an earlier planned name of Transylvania. Col. Richard Henderson from North Carolina and in conjunction with the Transylvania Land Company purchased lands in what is now KY and TN, about twenty million acres. On 23 April 1775, he called for election for delegates to the Transylvania colony. In June of 1776, Virginia invalidated his purchases but gave him the area now known as Henderson and the twelve square miles surrounding the present-day town. Kentucky was then Kentucky County of Virginia and later separated into the counties we know today, Logan being cut off September 1, 1792. The diagram shows the area of the colony he planned. Visit McCracken County, KY library’s website to learn more.
It's taken me 5 years to do it. Last night at 2 am, I finally screened the movie Trumbo, starring Bryan Cranston. The movie is about the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who was a personal friend of Daniel Lewis James Jr. of our family. Like Trumbo, Dan James also was unjustly blacklisted by the House on Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood movie industry. Both Trumbo & James appear in JJSL Vol I in my chapter "All for the Underdog."
The film's storyline was known to me, in fact, intimately known, based on my research about Dan James for my book. But it sure was fun seeing the story on a movie screen. For years, I've thought Dan James' story would make a great movie. I still think it can, despite the appearance of the Trumbo movie.
If you read their story in JJSL or don't want to wait for a movie about Daniel Lewis James, see Trumbo now. Just imagine the title of the movie is James instead.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY fired the soul of Frank & Jesse James' grandfather John M. James just as it does today. When I was writing This Bloody Ground, Vol. II of JJSL, I relied upon John Ragosta (interviewed here) and his book Wellspring of Liberty to tell the story of John M. James and his band of rebel preachers who exiled Virginia for the frontier of the Cain-tuc. Listen to Ragosta's comments in this interview here for a first understanding of the term religious liberty. It may change how you view the topic today.
