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Told partly in his own words, this is the interesting, bittersweet story of Arthur Babb, an extraordinary ordinary man, who was born on the Texas frontier, grew up during the golden age of railroading, and then, despite a lack of formal education, became an architect and building contractor before taking up bookbinding as a trade and art as a hobby in his old age, during which time he wrote his memoirs in a conversational, folksy style, along with essays on topics that interested him. A must read for anyone interested in the history of post-Civil War and early twentieth century Texas or anyone simply looking for a heart-warming and occasionally tragic story of a man and his family struggling, often against the odds, to find a modicum of happiness in this world. ISBN 978-1-7379480-6-3 |
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To mark the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas-born historian Steven Butler has written an account, not only of JFK's well-documented 1963 trip to “Big D,” but also, his previous four visits to the city, as well as the visits to Dallas of twenty other U.S. chief executives, starting with Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, up to would-be presidential nominee Joe Biden, who came to town in 2020, seeking votes in the upcoming Democratic primary election. This one-of-a-kind collection, illustrated with official White House photographs as well as photos taken by the author, also includes descriptions of two visits to Dallas by nearly- President Robert F. Kennedy, the text of three speeches, and an author's afterword, in which he records his memories of the Kennedy assassination along with his recollection of a later visit to Dallas by a then-future President. ISBN 978-1737948056 |
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In 1925, Richardson, Texas, founded in 1873, was the focal point of a thriving but lightly populated agricultural district twelve miles north of Dallas. When residents of the then-tiny town realized that becoming a city was the only way they could have the municipal water and sewer system that they wanted, they voted to incorporate. Today, Richardson is one of the biggest small cities in Texas, covering 28.6 square miles, with a population of over 120,000 people living in what has come to be known as the "Telecom Corridor." In this volume, "Remarkable Rise," historian Steven R. Butler, whose own roots in Richardson reach back to the first decade of the twentieth century, tells the "warts-and-all" story of Richardson from 1925, when the City of Richardson was born, to 2023, the year that city and citizens celebrated their Sesquicentennial. ISBN 978-1737948087 |
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A Sesquicentennial History of Richardson, Texas, or, How a Tiny Railroad Town Became One of the Biggest Small Cities in the Lone Star State, VOLUME ONE: Rural Roots by Steven R. Butler (2022) In 1873, Richardson, Texas was nothing more than a lone railroad depot surrounded by 121 acres of mostly bald prairie that the Houston & Texas Central Railway had recently obtained from two local landowners. Today it is one of the biggest small cities in Texas, covering 28.6 square miles, with a population of over 120,000 people living in what has come to be known as the "Telecom Corridor." In this volume, Rural Roots. historian Steven R. Butler, whose own roots in Richardson reach back to the first decade of the twentieth century, tells the "warts-and-all" story of Richardson from 1841, when Anglo-American settlers began to arrive in the area, to 1924, the year before the town officially became a city. ISBN 978-1737948018 |
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TEXANIC: A Guide to the History, Art & Architecture of Dallas' Remarkable Fair Park by Steven R. Butler (2022) Dallas' Fair Park, in addition to being the home of the annual State Fair of Texas, is one of the most historic spots in the city. It is also as one of the most artistically and architecturally distinctive places in the entire state of Texas. Authored by a respected local historian and Fair Park expert, this informative guide, illustrated with the author's own photographs, as well as historic photos, is a treasure-trove of information that will almost certainly be welcomed not only by Dallas residents, but also by anyone who is interested in the history, art, and architecture of the only world exposition site of the 1930s in the United States that remains largely intact. ISBN 978-1737948032 |
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From Water Supply to Urban Oasis: A History of White Rock Lake Park, Dallas, Texas, 100 Years plus 10 (2022) From Water Supply to Urban Oasis was first published in 2004. It was adapted from a two part series originally published in Legacies, A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas in 2002 and 2003. A revised, expanded, and improved 84-page "Centennial Edition" was published in 2011, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the completion of the White Rock dam. Containing everything that was in the Centennial Edition, and then some, this new, updated edition is now available for sale. ISBN: 978-1-7379480-2-5 |
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John Neely Bryan: The Father of Dallas, A Biographical Study by Steven R. Butler (2022) Steven R. Butler's John Neely Bryan: The Father of Dallas, A Biographical Study by Steven R. Butler is now available at AMAZON.COM $17.99 plus tax and shipping. John Neely Bryan: The Father of Dallas is not only the story of the founding father of one of America's largest cities but also the story of the individuals, largely journalists, who wrote about Bryan in the past. Drawing both on their work and his own original research, Butler has managed to produce a scholarly but readable narrative that forms the most complete picture of the enigmatic Dallas founder that's been published to date. ISBN 978-0-9981526-5-3 |
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Our European Summer: A Personal Recollection of the U.S.S. Intrepid's 1971 NATO Cruise by Steven R. Butler (2021) Our European Summer: A Personal Recollection of the U.S.S. Intrepid's 1971 NATO Cruise, tells how a young, newly-married couple found a way to be together as much as possible while one of them was serving in the United States Navy aboard a warship that spent extended periods of time at sea, conducting Anti-Submarine Warfare exercises with its allies. The author, a former enlisted crew-member, also recalls the ship's history, describes its operations at sea, reveals some previously little-known incidents, and comments upon the forty-six-year-long "Cold War" between the United States and the Soviet Union that forms the backdrop of this frank and revealing narrative. ISBN 978-1-737048001 |
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Muskogee: A Novel Based on a True Story by Steven R. Butler (2021) Muskogee: A Novel Based on a True Story by Steven R. Butler is now available at AMAZON.COM $15.99 plus tax and shipping. Based on actual people and events, MUSKOGEE is the heartwarming story of a young Texas family who leave farming life behind to make a fresh start in one of Oklahoma’s fastest growing small cities and how for ten years that spanned the “Roaring Twenties,” the Great Depression, and the beginning of FDR’s “New Deal,” they coped with and adapted to not only the ongoing changes in their personal lives, but also some of the technological and societal changes in American life that were taking place during that period. Lovingly crafted by author/historian Steven R. Butler, MUSKOGEE will make you think, tickle your funny bone, and almost certainly, tug at your heartstrings. ISBN 978-0998152691 |
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Stories My Mother Never Told Me by Steven R. Butler (2021) Stories My Mother Never Told Me by Steven R. Butler is now available at AMAZON.COM $15.99 plus tax and shipping. Spanning more than three hundred years, Stories My Mother Never Told Me (and Some My Teacher Didn't Either) brings the past to life by shining a light on several untold or little-known incidents of American history, in which the ancestors or relatives of the author, a college professor and family historian, took anactive part. A “must-read” for history buffs, genealogists, or anyone who enjoys stories of courage, determination, and the indomitable will to survive. ISBN 978-0998152677 |
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Miles Away From Butler: How a DNA Test Rewrote My Family's History by Steven R. Butler (2020) Miles Away From Butler: How a DNA Test Rewrote My Family's Histor by Steven R. Butler will soon be available at AMAZON.COM $12.99 plus tax and shipping. Miles Away from Butler is the story of how a DNA test led a veteran genealogist to discover a ninety-one-year-old family secret that not only had the effect of pruning several branches from his family tree, while at the same time rendering decades of research an enormous waste of time,money and effort, but also led him to have a crisis of conscience: Should he tell the person who lay at the heart of the secret, or remain silent for fear of potentially doing more harm than good? ISBN 978-0998152660 |
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A Truck Named Genevieve by Steven R. Butler and Micah Victory (2020 & 2022) A Truck Named Genevieve by Steven R. Butler and Micah Victory is now available at AMAZON.COM $15.99 plus tax and shipping. A Truck Named Genevieve: The World War II Photographs of a Red Ball Express Driver is the true story of Anton F. Pirman, an unlikely American soldier from Chicago, who not only took part in one of the greatest military supply operations in all of human history, the legendary “Red Ball Express,” but also made a photographic record of his experiences. Using a captured German camera that he obtained in Cherbourg, France, shortly after the “D-Day” invasion began, Pirman took photographs of soldiers and the scenes of destruction they encountered in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, sometimes from the driver’s side window of his truck, which he nicknamed “Genevieve,” in honor of the young wife he had left behind in the States. This never-before-published collection, which every World War II enthusiast will want to own, also includes photographs of some the war’s lighter moments, when Pirman and his fellow G.I.s received passes to visit the then recently-liberated cities of Brussels and Paris, where they were present on V. E. (“Victory in Europe”) Day. ISBN 978-1-7379480-4-9 |
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The Rural Life of England by Capt. Mayne Reid, transcribed, edited and introduced by Steven R. Butler (2017) The Rural Life of England by Capt Mayne Reid is now available at AMAZON.COM $15.99 plus tax and shipping. The Rural Life of England consists of twenty-six letters or articles that were written by Victorian-era author Capt. Mayne Reid, celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic for his adventure novels, during the final full year that he and his wife Elizabeth resided at Frogmore, the country home they rented in Herefordshire, not far from the village of Ross-on-Wye and also the English-Welsh border. Intended for an American readership, these informative, factual letters were published at weekly intervals in the New York Tribune between April 2 and September 24, 1882. A separate letter, “The Failure of the English Hay Crop,” is included, although it was not a part of the series. So far as known, none of these letters have appeared anywhere else in print since their original publication in 1882. The Rural Life of England was transcribed and edited by Steven R. Butler, author of Away O’er the Waves: The Transatlantic Life & Literature of Capt. Mayne Reid. Butler has also written a brief biography of Reid for his volume, as well as an informative Introduction. ISBN 978-0998152639 |
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The Forgotten Soldiers: Deceased U.S. Military Personnel in the War with Mexico (2017) Steven R. Butler's The Forgotten Soldiers is now available at AMAZON.COM $12.99 plus tax and shipping. The Forgotten Soldiers is the tragic tale of how the remains of U.S. military personnel who died during the 1846-1848 War with Mexico were, and continue to be, singularly forgotten and neglected by the United States government. Originally written in 1999 as a graduate school thesis, The Forgotten Soldiers, is, unfortunately, no less timely today (2017). ISBN 978-0-9981526-2-2 |
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From London to Kentucky: The Life & Times of James Haycraft, Jr. and his son, Samuel Haycraft, Sr. (2016) Steven R. Butler's From London to Kentucky is now available at AMAZON.COM $12.99 plus tax and shipping. During the colonial era, English courts sentenced tens of thousands of petty criminals to "transportation" to the colonies in North America. From London to Kentucky is the true story of one of those convicts, a London chimney-sweep named James Haycraft, Jr. who after being apprehended for committing a burglary, soon found himself first in London's notorious Newgate Prison and then, after a brief trial, in chains aboard a ship bound for Virginia. There, after serving out his seven-year sentence, James was married and started a family. The story continues with the experiences of his son, Samuel Haycraft, Sr., who after serving on the frontier during the American War for Independence, became one of the founders of Hardin County, Kentucky, an employer of Abraham Lincoln's father, a sheriff, and a respected Kentucky state legislator. ISBN 978-0-9981526-1-5 |
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15 Lancaster Gate: A Transatlantic Love Story (2016) Steven R. Butler's 15 Lancaster Gate: A Transatlantic Love Story is now available at AMAZON.COM $11.99 plus tax and shipping. 15 Lancaster Gate is the extraordinary true story of a young American sailor, who at the close of the 1960s, unexpectedly spends a week in “Swinging London,” where between escapades, he meets the girl of his dreams, only to be stymied by a situational mix-up. From London, he travels to the Netherlands, back to England, out to sea, and then to Germany and Denmark (and back to sea again), before returning to the British capital, where at long last he has a second chance for romance. Before love can blossom however, the sailor and his new-found English girlfriend must overcome obstacles that threaten to keep them apart. Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, this oftentimes humorous memoir will surely make you laugh while at the same time touching your heart. ISBN 978-0-998-15260-8 |
Copyright © 2016-2023 Poor Scholar Publications. All rights reserved.
An Extraordinary Ordinary Man: The Life and Times of Arthur Babb, Railroader, Architect, Story-Teller, Bookbinder, Amateur Artist and Self-Proclaimed "Heretic" by Arthur Babb and Steven R. Butler (2023)
