The Civil War book series ( OCLC 20080930) chronicles in great detail the American Civil War. Published by Time Life Books, the series was simultaneously released in the US and Canada between 1983 and 1987, with subsequent identical reprints in the late 1980s - early 1990s following suit for foreign, though untranslated, dissemination as well. Some titles focused on a specific topic, such as the blockade, and spies, but most volumes concentrated on the battles and campaigns, presented in chronological order.
Each volume in the series was 176 pages in length, heavily illustrated and with pictorial essays on specific topics within each volume and came standard without a dust jacket. Executed in hardcover, each volume was bound in silvery-gray padded faux leather, the cover endowed with in deep blue printed text imprints, and heavily embossed with Civil War symbology with an oval shaped illustration glued on.
There are 28 volumes in the series:
Title | Consultants/Authors | Volume | Year published | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
Brother Against Brother - The War Begins | William C. Davis | 01 | 1983 | ISBN 0-8094-4700-2 |
First Blood - Fort Sumter to Bull Run | William C. Davis | 02 | 1983 | ISBN 0-8094-4704-5 |
The Blockade - Runners and Raiders | John R. Elting, James J. Robertson, William A. Frassatino, Les Jenson, Michael McAffee, Clark G. Reynolds, James P. Shenton | 03 | 1983 | ISBN 0-8094-4708-8 |
The Road to Shiloh - Early Battles in the West | David Nevin | 04 | 1983 | ISBN 0-8094-4712-6 |
Forward to Richmond - McClellan's Peninsular Campaign | Ronald H. Bailey | 05 | 1983 | ISBN 0-8094-4720-7 |
Decoying the Yanks - Jackson's Valley Campaign | Champ Clark | 06 | 1984 | ISBN 0-8094-4724-X |
Confederate Ordeal - The Southern Home Front | Steve A. Channing | 07 | 1984 | ISBN 0-8094-4728-2 |
Lee Takes Command - From Seven Days to Second Bull Run | John R. Elting, William A. Frassatino, Les Jenson, Michael McAffee, James P. Shenton | 08 | 1984 | ISBN 0-8094-4804-1 |
The Coastal War - Chesapeake Bay to Rio Grande | Peter M. Chaitin | 09 | 1984 | ISBN 08094-4732-0 |
Tenting Tonight - The Soldier's Life | James I. Robertson, Jr. | 10 | 1984 | ISBN 0-8094-4736-3 |
The Bloodiest Day - The Battle of Antietam | Ronald H. Bailey | 11 | 1984 | ISBN 0-8094-4740-1 |
War on the Mississippi - Grant's Vicksburg Campaign | Jerry Korn | 12 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4744-4 |
Rebels Resurgent - Fredericksburg to Chancellorsville | William K. Goolrick | 13 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4748-7 |
Twenty Million Yankees - The Northern Home Front | Donald Dale Jackson | 14 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4752-5 |
Gettysburg - The Confederate High Tide | Champ Clark | 15 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4756-8 |
The Struggle for Tennessee - Tupelo to Stones River | James Street, Jr. | 16 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4760-6 |
The Fight For Chattanooga - Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge | Jerry Korn | 17 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4816-5 |
Spies, Scouts and Raiders - Irregular Operations | John R. Elting, William A. Frassatino, Les Jenson, Michael McAffee | 18 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4716-9 |
Battles For Atlanta - Sherman Moves East | Ronald H. Bailey | 19 | 1985 | ISBN 0-8094-4773-8 |
The Killing Ground - Wilderness to Cold Harbor | Gregory Jaynes | 20 | 1986 | ISBN 0-8094-4768-1 |
Sherman's March - Atlanta to the Sea | David Nevin | 21 | 1986 | ISBN 0-8094-4812-2 |
Death in the Trenches - Grant at Petersburg | William C. Davis | 22 | 1986 | ISBN 0-8094-4776-2 |
War on the Frontier - The Trans-Mississippi West | Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. | 23 | 1986 | ISBN 0-8094-4780-0 |
The Shenandoah in Flames - The Valley Campaign of 1864 | Thomas A. Lewis | 24 | 1987 | ISBN 0-8094-4784-3 |
Pursuit to Appomattox - The Last Battles | Jerry Korn | 25 | 1987 | ISBN 0-8094-4788-6 |
The Assassination - Death of the President | Champ Clark | 26 | 1987 | ISBN 0-8094-4820-3 |
The Nation Reunited - War's Aftermath | Richard W. Murphy | 27 | 1987 | ISBN 0-8094-4792-4 |
Master Index - An Illustrated Guide | Editors of Time Life Books | 28 | 1987 | ISBN 0-8094-4796-7 |
Because of it being a USA-specific topic, no international editions of the main series and/or the hereafter mentioned spin-offs are known to have been published in translation by either Time Life itself or licensed others. Still, interested parties in other language territories were offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, as was commonplace for the company at the time, typically by taking out a series subscription.
These slipcases are relatively rare.
A 432-page excerpt hardcover variant edition, its chapter organization roughly following the series title order as released, was concurrently published in 1990 by educational publisher Prentice Hall as "Brother against brother, Time-Life Books history of the Civil War" ( ISBN 0139218181), as well as by Time-Life itself in a dust jacket for the general populace under the same title ( ISBN 0809478471), and was subsequently reprinted as "The Time-Life history of the Civil War" by Barnes & Noble Books in 1995 ( ISBN 1566199026). Renowned Civil War historian James M. McPherson (who had not contributed to the main series) provided the foreword for the excerpt edition.
A well-received series at the time, it has enticed Time-Life to delve much deeper into the subject of the American Civil War with follow-up releases as companion series, becoming arguably Time-Life's most revisited topic in the process. These included, Collector's Library of the Civil War (1981-1985, 28 volumes – reprinted by Easton Press in 1998 with two additional titles – , deluxe reproductions of memoirs written by Civil War participants, OCLC 41657774, actually already started before the main series and therefore conceivably the de facto source publication), Echoes of Glory (1991, 3 volume box set, two volumes detailing the arms and equipment of both respective armies, the third one being an historical atlas of the war, re-using the maps the publisher had originally commissioned for the main series, OCLC 40341912 – reprinted several times in the 1990s in varying executions, including a 1999 boxed softcover edition, ISBN 0737031573), and Voices of the Civil War (1996-1998, 18 illustrated volumes, reproductions of letters from Civil War participants, written at the time of the key battles around which the series was organized). Aside from these, Time-Life (re)issued The Civil War: A Narrative – 40th Anniversary Edition in 1999-2000, an illustrated commemorative version of Shelby Foote's magus opus (14 volumes – the original three-volume work was, save for a few maps, not illustrated). Additionally, two stand-alone titles were released as a, summarizing, general history of the war, and, like Voices and A Narrative, again making use of the considerable pictorial archive the publisher had accumulated for the main series, including their own commissioned maps. The first one concerned "War between Brothers" ( ISBN 0783562519), released in 1996 as part of the six-volume mini-series The American Story, that dealt with selected highlights of US history, and which was followed in 2000 by "An Illustrated History of the Civil War" ( ISBN 073703162X), a truly stand-alone title as that title was not a part of a series.
Nor have the "War between Brothers" and "Illustrated History" remained the only stand-alone Civil War titles by Time-Life; despite the fact that the publisher had largely withdrawn from book publication in 2003, subsequent iterations of the company did release additional Civil War book titles – aside from re-issuing the Illustrated History title in 2011 ( ISBN 9781603201711) – , mostly on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the war, being in essence largely rehashings of the considerable editorial effort they had undertaken for the main series thirty years earlier. Titles thus released included,
In the early 2000s, three volumes of the main series were reissued in brown faux leatherette as otherwise unaltered installments by The History Channel Club for their American History Archives deluxe book series collection (which dealt with the overall history of the USA) and concerned "A Nation Divided: The Civil War Begins" (2003, ISBN 1581592019, = volume 01), "Gettysburg: The Tide of War Turns" (2003, ISBN 1581592167, = volume 15), and "Antietam, The Bloodiest Day" (2004, ISBN 1581592213, = volume 11), the two 2003 releases even featuring the same cover illustrations. These hardback versions are relatively rare on the used-book markets and the "Antietam" title in particular commands a higher after-market price than its Time Life progenitor does. The other collection volumes dealing with the Civil War did not originate from the Time Life series.
Apart from the book titles, Time-Life has under its own imprint released in 1991 the PBS multi-award-winning 1989-1990 documentary series The Civil War by documentary maker Ken Burns (who in turn was inspired by Shelby Foote's work) as a 9-tape VHS box set, while also re-releasing the series as a 5-disc DVD collection in 2009 on DVD ( OCLC 608347591), again re-issuing the collection in 2015 with an additional disc ( OCLC 919639054). Voices of the Civil War was also released as a taped audio book series by Time-Life (for which the publisher had commissioned Hachette Audio), shortly after the release of the book versions. In 1991 the company also released "The Civil War Music: Collector's Edition" three-piece box set, a rendition of contemporary tunes played at the times, in both music cassette and CD formats. The accompanying 24-page booklet featured information lifted from the main series, predominantly from the volume Tenting Tonight.
An ancient, precursory publication on the topic had been the centennial 1961 six-part The Civil War article series for Life Magazine, commemorating the centennial anniversary, from which the book "Great Battles of the Civil War" ( OCLC 1044896) was derived in the same year. This ancient release was in 1963 followed by two equally ancient plain hardcover volumes from the early The LIFE History of the United States series, volumes 5 ("The Union Sundered, 1849-1865", OCLC 228435529) and 6 ("The Union Restored, 1861-1876", OCLC 1407715615), in both cases endowed with a revised 1974 deluxe faux burgundy red leatherette in dust jacket reprint edition ( OCLC 1417554798 , 1417573572 respectively) and authored by American historian T. Harry Williams.
As had become standard practice for Time Life Books by the late 1970s and 1980s, the series was vigorously supported by a television ad campaign in the form of a series of commercials transmitted either in first-run syndication or during late-night television programming. The Civil War book series commercials were broadcast on television in the latter half of the 1980s. [1]
The television ad campaigns were complementary to Time Life's standard operating procedure of sending out elaborate multi-sheet mailings to their already existing customer base, in which a series was introduced in detail to a potential subscriber; having taken out a subscription once, a customer was then registered in Time Life Books' customer database, at the time a crucial business model marketing tool for the company, making that customer eligible for receiving the company's mailings henceforth. [2]
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud was a French artist, cartoonist and writer who worked in the Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim predominantly under the pseudonym Mœbius for his fantasy/science-fiction work, and to a slightly lesser extent as Gir, which he used for the Blueberry series and his other Western themed work. Esteemed by Federico Fellini, Stan Lee, and Hayao Miyazaki, among others, he has been described as the most influential bande dessinée artist after Hergé.
A paperback book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic.
Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company.
Marvel Masterworks is an American collection of hardcover and trade paperback comic book reprints published by Marvel Comics, with the main goal of republishing classic Marvel Comics storylines in a hardcover, premium edition, often with restored artwork and better graphical quality when compared to other Marvel collected editions. The collection started in 1987, with volumes reprinting the issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The Avengers. The Masterworks line has expanded from such reprints of the 1960s period that fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books to include the 1930s–1940s Golden Age; comics of Marvel's 1950s pre-Code forerunner, Atlas Comics; and even some reprints from the 1970s period called the Bronze Age of Comic Books.
Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western canon, though many titles are translated or of non-Western origin; indeed, the series for decades since its creation included only translations, until it eventually incorporated the Penguin English Library imprint in 1986. The first Penguin Classic was E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey, published in 1946, and Rieu went on to become general editor of the series. Rieu sought out literary novelists such as Robert Graves and Dorothy Sayers as translators, believing they would avoid "the archaic flavour and the foreign idiom that renders many existing translations repellent to modern taste".
The Civil War: A Narrative (1958–1974) is a three volume, 2,968-page, 1.2 million-word history of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote. Although previously known as a novelist, Foote is most famous for this non-fictional narrative history. While it touches on political and social themes, the main thrust of the work is military history. The individual volumes include Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974).
Time Life is an American company formerly known for its production company and direct marketer conglomerate known for selling books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. The current focus of the group is music, video, and entertainment experiences as the Time Life book division closed in 2001. Its products have been sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales. Current operations are focused in the US and Canada with limited retail distribution overseas.
Thraxas is a series of twelve fantasy novels written by British author Martin Millar under the pen name Martin Scott. The first eight were originally published in the United Kingdom by Orbit Books between April 1999 and May 2005. The remaining four titles were self-published by Millar, between March 2013 and April 2022. The series has been generally positively received, and has produced one World Fantasy Award winner.
DC Comics Absolute Edition is a series of archival quality printings of graphic novels published by DC Comics and its imprints WildStorm Productions and Vertigo. Each is presented in a hardcover and slipcased edition with cloth bookmark consisting of one or more books which include restored, corrected and recolored versions of the original work, reprinted at 8 by 12 inches. Also included are supplemental materials regarding the creation of the work, including sketches, comic scripts and memos.
The Legend of Drizzt is a series of fantasy novels by R. A. Salvatore that began in 1988, and consists of 39 books as of August 15, 2023. They are based in the Forgotten Realms setting in the dimension of Abeir-Toril on the continent Faerûn in the Dungeons & Dragons universe currently published and owned by Wizards of the Coast. It combines the series The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, Legacy of the Drow, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter's Blades Trilogy, and other sets into an abridged compilation. Drizzt Do'Urden is the main character of most of the books.
The Complete Peanuts is a series of books containing the entire run of Charles M. Schulz's long-running newspaper comic strip Peanuts, published by Fantagraphics Books. The series was published at a rate of two volumes per year, each containing two years of strips. Slipcased sets of two volumes are also available. The series comprises a total of 26 volumes, including a final volume that was a collection of Schulz strips, cartoons, stories, and illustrations that appeared outside of the daily newspaper strip. These hardcover books were first published between 2004 and 2016. Later, Fantagraphics also began publishing the series in a softcover format. A companion series titled Peanuts Every Sunday, collecting only the Sunday strips of the Peanuts series, was launched by Fantagraphics in 2013 and ran until late 2022.
The EC Archives are an ongoing series of American hardcover collections of full-color comic book reprints of EC Comics, published by Russ Cochran and Gemstone Publishing from 2006 to 2008, and then continued by Cochran and Grant Geissman's GC imprint (2011–2012), and finally taken over by Dark Horse in 2013.
How and Why Wonder Books were a series of American illustrated books published in the 1960s and 1970s that were designed to teach science and history to children and young teenagers. The series began in 1960 and was edited under the supervision of Paul E. Blackwood of the Office of Education at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The series was published by Wonder Books, Inc., a division of Grosset & Dunlap.
The Old West is a series of books about the history of the American Old West era, published by Time-Life Books from 1973 through 1980. Each book focused on a different topic specific for the era, such as cowboys, American Indians, gamblers and gunfighters.
Russ Cochran was a publisher of EC Comics reprints, Disney comics, and books on Hopalong Cassidy, Chet Atkins, Les Paul, and vacuum tubes. He was a publisher for over 30 years, after quitting his job as a physics professor.
Forge of Darkness is the first novel of The Kharkanas Trilogy by Canadian author Steven Erikson, set before the events of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
The Third Reich is a series of books published by Time Life Books that chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, relating historical events as experienced by the German side. The series began its release run on the home market from 1988 onward, followed a year later by an European dissemination release, typically by series subscription through the "Time-Life Books BV" Amsterdam-branch subsidiary, among others in the UK. Each book focused on a different topic, such as the SS, Afrika Korps and various campaigns.
A. L. Burt was a US book publishing house from 1883 until 1937. It was founded by Albert Levi Burt, a 40-year-old from Massachusetts who had come to recognize the demand for inexpensive reference works while working as a traveling salesman. The company began by reprinting home reference works and reprints of popular and classic fiction, before expanding into the field of children's works, particularly series books.
Lucky Luke – The Complete Collection is a series of books collecting the complete output of the Belgian comic title Lucky Luke, a comic title that was first published and introduced in the Belgian magazine Spirou during the late 1940s, and later continuing in Pilote before finally switching back to Spirou and being collected in the album format. The comic title was created by Morris in 1949, and later also written by René Goscinny. The publisher behind this reprint book collection is Cinebook Ltd. The first volume of the series was released in June 2019.