1. Teaching Yourself to Train Your Horse. Simplicity, Consistency, and Common Sense from Foal to Comfortable Riding Horse. 2001. By Richard D. Alexander, photographs by Dr. Andrew F. Richards. xiv + 257 pp., table of contents, 334 color photographs, 3 diagrams, 41 references, index to subjects and authors. $35.00 plus shipping and handling ($5.00).

Playin' Cowboy. The Coontail Blue and Other Horse Tales by Richard D. Alexander. 2006. 321 pp., hardcover, profusely illustrated. Price when ordered from Woodlane Farm Books, 30.00

NEW!!Thumping On Trees. Richard D. Alexander, illustrated by John Megahan. 2009. 43 pp. Price when ordered from Woodlane Farm Books, 20.00

2. The Red Fox and Johnny Valentine's Blue-Speckled Hound. Alexander, Richard. D. 2004. Woodlane Farm Books, 10731 Bethel Church Road,
Manchester, Michigan 48158. 11" X 8 1/2", hardback, dust cover, 89 pp., 7 chapters, author's note, reference on red foxes, 31 full-page watercolor paintings by John Megahan, 36 pencil field sketches of foxes by William D. Berry, one pencil sketch of a hound by the author, one photograph of fox kits.

Club 48. A Personal Account of Blackburn College and the Men of Butler Basement: 1946-48. 2001. By Richard D. Alexander, with considerable help from Dr. Carl W. Campbell. 128 pp., table of contents, 53 photographs, 1 drawing, index of names. $15.00.

This book tells with candor the story of the first post World War II class at a small work college in southern Illinois.

"As all old Blackburn-ites know, resident students did almost everything that had to be done on campus: laundry, cooking, dish washing, waiting tables, painting and redecorating buildings inside and out, janitoring all the buildings, much of the actual building as the campus expanded, running the supply rooms, hauling the garbage, firing the furnaces, cutting down trees and maintaining the lawn, working in the library, operating the bookstore and mailroom, and, in the 1940's, even operating the college farm." (p. 18)

"Blackburn College officials surely had no idea of the unique phenomenon they were creating in the fall of 1946. Desperate to find housing for the postwar flood of first year male students, they sealed off the basement of one of the girls' dormitories, Butler Hall, and filled the largest room with 48 closely spaced, wooden, olive drab, double army bunk beds. The remaining four rooms at the east end of the basement were equipped with desks and chairs as study halls. One multi-user toilet, sink, and shower facility was expected to take care of everyone. . . . 'Everyone' turned out to be a motley crew: a mass of 16-18-year old kids just out of high school mixed with a smaller but colorful set of older men newly mustered out of the military forces of World War II. The naivete of the new graduates was made immensely more stark by the experience and cynicism of the veterans. . . .Many a novel song, verse, epithet, and startling or hilarious commentary on life -- coming out of that long and difficult war ­ made its way into the permanent vocabularies and memories of kids whose parents, if their lives had depended on it, couldn't have imagined a tiny fraction of what was going on in that busy basement." (p. 6)

. . . this set of stories is not a history of the dignified and the predictable ­ not the sort that can be constructed by reviewing old copies of the Blackburnian, or any other existing archives. . . . the stories . . . are mostly about events behind the scenes; prankish and personal escapades, and probably, in some peoples' minds, naughty, disruptive, or even perverse happenings and attitudes. They're also about the serious kinds of social experiences that affect the innermost souls of individuals ­ the kind that lead to emotional wounds ­ or triumphs ­ with lifelong influence, as opposed to the trivial zit that affects the teenager for a mere moment, or the fleeting blaze of a dignified bit of fame for what someone thought a decorous act. . . ." (p. 8)

"Sometimes I think the Club 48-ers were the original politically correct organization. It seems to me in retrospect that in that close and constant learning situation we came to resemble a huge group of relatives, whose loyalty extended forever . . ." (p. 64)

Mom's Story. The Life of Katharine Elizabeth Heath Alexander Stutzenstein. Edited by Richard D. Alexander. 1991. 128 pp., table of contents, 101 photographs, 2 maps, 3 drawings, 3 diagrams. $15.00.

This book is the life story of an early Illinois country school teacher, told in her own words. Katharine Elizabeth Heath was born in 1905 on a dairy farm, lost her mother at age 5, entered college at 16, and began teaching in a one-room country school at 18. After a few years of teaching she married and became a farm housewife and mother, tending a huge garden and truck patch and a flock of several hundred laying hens, canning and storing fruits and vegetables for all winter, and at first depending on an outhouse, cooking on wood and coal kitchen stoves, carrying drinking and bathing water from an outdoor pump, and eventually driving her children 12 miles to and from high school in a 1936 automobile that had traveled more than 100,000 miles and had nothing but an old blanket covering the springs of the front seat. Following her husband's death in 1953, she re-entered the teaching profession on an emergency certificate, eventually finishing college and beginning graduate study. A strong individualist, she remained determined to earn her own way and secure her due in a world she perceived to be unfairly dominated by men. Despite many stumbling blocks she also kept her long life filled with a variety of creative and intellectual activities, including flower arrangement and rock garden construction on the farm, playing the piano for church services, teaching Sunday school, and later painting, literature, and extensive world travel. She completed her extraordinary life in January 2001.