Books
Getting Away With Bloody Murder: J.B. Brockman, the Best Criminal Lawyer in Texas
James Brockman rose from shady character to preeminent defense attorney in Houston, Texas representing clients including gang leaders, jilted spouses, wealthy storekeepers and drunken on-duty policemen. These high-profile true crime and murder accounts take place between 1895 and 1910. They cross racial lines, revealing instances of separate and unequal justice in segregated Texas that had a lasting effect on the city and the state. His career gained national recognition, including his involvement in the most famous American murder case of the young twentieth century, when he himself was murdered leaving a dubious legacy.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Houston Baseball: The Early Years 1861-1961
The success of the Astros notwithstanding, Houston is no newcomer to baseball. Imported from the northeast, the sport made its way to the Bayou City as early as the 1850s. Houston Baseball: The Early Years 1861-1961 chronicles each step in the development of Houston baseball from town ball to the emergence of a game that modern fans would recognize. Historian and longtime baseball devotee Mike Vance has crafted a fascinating history that will gratify enthusiasts and shed new light on the game that made Houston a sports town. The book covers the nineteenth-century rise of America's favorite pastime in Houston in far more detail than ever before. Dizzy Dean, Chick Hafey, Billy Williams, and Ron Santo are just a few of the legendary names to appear as Vance details Houston's ascension from minor to major league play. This definitive history of Houston's passion for baseball brings together politics, personalities, and love of the game. Richly illustrated and expertly told, Houston Baseball will delight fans of Houston baseball past and present.
Hardback with dust jacket. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Mud and Money A Timeline of Houston History
Founded on the muddy banks of the confluence of White Oak and Buffalo Bayous, Houston has always been about the money. The founding developers made exaggerated claims about navigable waters, rolling hills and fresh ocean breezes, and young men came to fight for Texas’ independence from Mexico for a promised bounty of land as well as for the more nebulous dream of a grand new beginning. And, ever since, people have continued to come because of our reputation for opportunity. But once they’re here, they discover what really makes this town tick—all the diverse groups who have come here created a remarkable and resilient culture. Why do people choose Houston? And why do they stay? In an accessible timeline packed with intriguing images, Mud and Money provides you with the people, places and tales that are integral to understanding the Houston story.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Murder & Mayhem in Houston Historic Bayou City Crime
When the Allen brothers sold Houston's first lots, the city became a magnet for enterprising tycoons and opportunistic crooks alike. As the young city grew, a scourge of crime and vice accompanied the success of oil and real estate. The Bayou City's seedy side--flashing Bowie knives, privileged bad boys, hardened prostitutes and unchecked serial killers--established its hold. From a young Clyde Barrow to the "Man Who Killed Halloween," Houston's past is filled with bloody tales, heartbreaking loss and despicable deeds. Authors Mike Vance and John Nova Lomax shine a light on these dark days."
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Houston's Sporting Life 1900-1950
Houston has been a sports-crazy town since 1837 when the biggest pastime was watching the horse races held southwest of what was then the capitol of Texas. By 1900, spectators and athletes alike enjoyed the team sports played at every school in the city and suburbs. Companies competed with one another in baseball, basketball, and track. Boxing gyms dotted the wards, and downtown boasted billiard halls, bowling alleys, and indoor shooting galleries. There was also hunting and fishing, auto racing, swimming, and hockey at the Polar Wave, a mid-century indoor ice rink. This book presents a history of how Houstonians competed, where their recreation took them, and how they enjoyed a potential 12 months of "outdoor" weather. The 20th century was a fun and vibrant time for the sporting and outdoor life of Houston, and Mike Vance creates a rollicking look back for today's fans of sports and local history.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Stand-Up Stories
Stand-Up Stories brings you tales that you will not find anywhere else, all told by someone who made a living headlining clubs across the country for 16 years. It is the ultimate insider’s look backstage. The glimpses into the world of comedy will have you laughing out loud from cover to cover.
The 1980s were the golden age of stand-up comedy, the first time that professional funny people from television came to stages in towns all across America. It was new. The comedy was fresh, and the performers were dedicated both to their art and to having the most fun humanly possible.
The Stand-Up Stories include inside scoop about dozens of famous comedy names including Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Garry Shandling, Bob Saget and Dick Gregory.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Wingo: The Remarkable Life of an Unremarkable Man
When 116-year old Rube Wingo reflects back on the start of his life, he remembers a dirt-poor Southern boy who lived baseball and dreamed of future diamond greatness. His positivity landed him in the game all right, but not in the role he envisioned. When happenstance then brings Rube to the Polo Grounds in New York City in 1922, he jumps at the chance for a piece of the big leagues. One of his first assignments is the daunting task of keeping the great Babe Ruth on the straight and narrow.
Outside the confines of rowdy, odiferous locker rooms, Rube and his friends make the world their oyster despite Prohibition and moth-eaten pocketbooks. As he valiantly tries to hang on to his dream job while simultaneously coming to grips with the broad injustice of America, Rube struggles to find his own place beyond the game he loves.
From consummate history storyteller Mike Vance comes a captivating and hysterical romp through an American century of life, love, race and baseball.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Undertold Texas Volume 1
Travel Texas history in the shoes of lesser-known people who illuminate big stories in our Lone Star past. This curated journey through an eclectic collection of Texas history ranges across five centuries. Find captivating stories in Texas politics, arts, labor, literature, agriculture, oil, ranching, sports, and civil rights. There are heartrending struggles and inspiring triumphs of will. Rousing successes and crying shames. From the high school gridiron to armed uprisings, from the strains of early Texas blues to gushers of black gold, these tales bring something entertaining for Texans new and old. Undertold Texas addresses some common Texas myths and reveals some largely obscured truths from our rich Lone Story history. Experience Texas as never before.
Paperback. Please note that price includes tax and some shipping costs.
Wingo's Redemption
116-year old Rube Wingo recounts another half century of his remarkable life, beginning with a personal tragedy that compels him to leave New York City to pick up the pieces in Cincinnati. His friendships, new and rekindled, and his ill-fitting attempts to again find love surround his behind-the-scenes roles with baseball’s oldest franchise and one of its newest ones - all amidst a backdrop of seismic changes in the game and in American society.
At an age when most people are considering retirement, Rube must reinvent himself one last time, starting with deciding what is most important in his life. After decades of following his dreams, he’s forced to face hard truths about himself and the game which he so dearly loves.
From consummate history storyteller Mike Vance comes the conclusion of Wingo’s captivating and hysterical romp through an American century of life, love, race and baseball.
“Mike has a passion for history and baseball. He is an accomplished writer with an active imagination.” – Larry Dierker, MLB All-Star player, manager and broadcaster
“Wingo’s Redemption is simply a great read… a first-class yarn spun by a storyteller and writer at the top of his craft.” – Chris White, Acclaimed author and internet humorist
Paperback.
The Devil's Lease
BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR SHIPPING ON NOVEMBER 26
Will Ennis rules his sprawling plantation empire on the Texas prairie by holding his petty and capricious fist over a mix of sharecroppers and leased convicts. George Purdy is a tenant looking for a fair shake. Trouble feels inevitable.
When murder inserts itself into the already brutal landscape, irascible defense attorney J.B. Duckworth aims to set things right, but the lawyer’s mercurial scruples do not always sit well with his peers in the legal community at the start of the 1900s. Though Duckworth is willing to face all comers, he often does so with an eye toward what plays well in the press. The ultimate question is what lengths Duckworth will travel to secure justice for his clients and what others will do to stop him.
If you enjoy richly human characters and enveloping drama, you will love this thoroughly American tale of our history’s heartbreaking tangles.
Praise for the Devil’s Lease
“Mike Vance has penned a meticulously detailed, utterly convincing story of wrongful behavior… peopled with colorful characters, vividly portrayed. This is historical fiction at its best.” -
Babette Fraser Hale, author of This Familiar Heart & Texas Institute of Letters award winner
“Vance writes with a well-honed sense of place, and his regional yet universal characters--like those of George Sessions Perry--are organic, borne of the soils and streets they trod. Truly an exceptional book.” -
Dan K. Utley, Historian & Co-author of From Can See to Can't and History Ahead
“Mike Vance’s new novel, with good characters, good pace and a heavy salting of historical accuracy, does a public service with his story of convict leasing.” –
James L. Haley, author of the Bliven Putnam naval series and Sam Houston
Notes: This is a paperback book. Sales tax and MOST shipping and handling is included in the price.