2001, ISBN: 9780312262709

Simon & Schuster. Very Good. 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches. Hardcover. 1999. 256 pages.<br>A psychiatrist shares the fruits of his forty-year search for evidence of old souls, the spiri… More...

Simon & Schuster. Very Good. 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches. Hardcover. 1999. 256 pages.<br>A psychiatrist shares the fruits of his forty-year search for evidence of old souls, the spirits of the dead who tra vel from body to body, bringing the reader on a lively globe-trot ting trek in search of stories about this spiritual phenomenon. 7 5,000 first printing. Tour. Editorial Reviews Amazon com Review As our understanding and awareness of who and what we are advanc es through the grueling gauntlet of scientific process, we contin ually face a debilitating dilemma: we must simultaneously questio n everything and at the same time proceed as if we know something . As a result we continually battle ourselves, questioning the gr ound on which we stand while using that same ground to prove our questions irrelevant. It's a gift, then, when a writer emerges wh o will grapple with any of these battles at the event horizon bet ween science and conjecture and take himself wholly into the fray , reporting back to us the subtle forces at work within the storm and how those forces play upon him and the subject he explores. In Old Souls, journalist Tom Shroder manages this feat and hands us a volume that is considerable and engaging. Not only do we ex plore the work of a brave and committed researcher on the slipper y slope of reincarnation, we are also treated to a remarkable tou r of worlds foreign to us: human existence in post-war Beirut and in the depths of poverty in India. Through the entire journey, M r. Shroder keeps the primary question lively, carrying the reader through to a closing bit of personal memoir that brilliantly tie s the book together into a provocative whole. Whether you belie ve in reincarnation or not, you can't help but appreciate Mr. Shr oder's disciplined, scrupulously fair, and soul-searching explica tion. Along the way, we learn immensely about the process as it i s revealed and a great deal about exploration itself. The book wo rks on many levels, and readers will benefit from them all. --Don ald A. Freas From Publishers Weekly While it is easy for Wester n science to dismiss as fantasy or wish fulfillment the recollect ions of individuals who remember being Cleopatra or Napoleon, how is one to explain a young boy's insistence that he is really a n ondescript auto mechanic who died in a car crash a few years befo re? American psychiatrist Ian Stevenson has spent more than 30 ye ars studying the cases of some 2000 children who spontaneously re member concrete details about dead strangers whose experiences ca n be documented. On his two final field trips, to Lebanon and Ind ia, he was accompanied by journalist Shroder, Sunday Style editor of the Washington Post. Shroder's account of these expeditions e mphasizes physical detail over in-depth analysis but nevertheless makes for engrossing reading. In many cases, the subjects exhibi t birthmarks or extreme phobias corresponding to injuries or trau matic events in their past lives. They recognize the deceased's r elatives and friends; in one case, a Lebanese boy asked the decea sed's mother if she had finished knitting the sweater she was mak ing for him when he died. That the compelling questions raised by such cases are ignored by the scientific establishment causes St evenson great disappointment. For me, he claims, everything now b elieved by scientists is open to question, and I am always dismay ed to find that many scientists accept current knowledge as forev er fixed. The journalistic objectivity Shroder brings to his mate rial makes this an exceptionally valuable treatment of an often d isparaged subject. Agent, Al Hart, Fox Chase Agency. (Aug.) Copy right 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Publishers Weekl y While it is easy for Western science to dismiss as fantasy or w ish fulfillment the recollections of individuals who remember bei ng Cleopatra or Napoleon, how is one to explain a young boy's ins istence that he is really a nondescript auto mechanic who died in a car crash a few years before? American psychiatrist Ian Steven son has spent more than 30 years studying the cases of some 2000 children who spontaneously remember concrete details about dead s trangers whose experiences can be documented. On his two final fi eld trips, to Lebanon and India, he was accompanied by journalist Shroder, Sunday Style editor of the Washington Post. Shroder's a ccount of these expeditions emphasizes physical detail over in-de pth analysis but nevertheless makes for engrossing reading. In ma ny cases, the subjects exhibit birthmarks or extreme phobias corr esponding to injuries or traumatic events in their past lives. Th ey recognize the deceased's relatives and friends; in one case, a Lebanese boy asked the deceased's mother if she had finished kni tting the sweater she was making for him when he died. That the c ompelling questions raised by such cases are ignored by the scien tific establishment causes Stevenson great disappointment. For me , he claims, everything now believed by scientists is open to que stion, and I am always dismayed to find that many scientists acce pt current knowledge as forever fixed. The journalistic objectivi ty Shroder brings to his material makes this an exceptionally val uable treatment of an often disparaged subject. Agent, Al Hart, F ox Chase Agency. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information , Inc. From Library Journal Shroder, an editor at the Washington Post, persuaded psychiatrist Ian Stevenson to take him along on six months of field research in Beirut, India, and America. The r esearch involved tracking reports of children claiming to recall vivid details about a stranger who has lived before and possessin g certain birthmarks related to that person's violent death, such as a bullet wound. When the historical data are matched, we have a mystery suggesting that old souls are reborn into new bodies. During 37 years of research, Stevenson has documented over 2500 a lleged cases of reincarnationAevidence that has been ignored by m ainstream science. Shroder has effectively captured some of Steve nson's work, but we are still left wondering about the mechanics of the transfer of identity and markings. For larger collections on reincarnation/paranormal studies.ALeo Kriz, West Des Moines Li b., IA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirk us Reviews A bemused journalists firsthand report of his travels with an aging research scientist on arduous, often perilous journ eys throughout Lebanon and India seeking to verify childrens clai ms of having lived previous lives. Shroder, a Washington Post edi tor, discovered Dr. Ian Stevenson, a professor of psychiatry at t he University of Virginia, while researching a piece on Dr. Brian Weiss, author of a book about a woman who, under hypnosis, claim ed to have had several past lives. Unconvinced by Weisss evidence , Shroder turned to the work of Stevenson, who has spent nearly 4 0 years investigating claims of small children who spontaneously reported memories of prior existences. The first trip on which Sh roder accompanied Stevenson was in 1997 to Lebanon, where Stevens on tracked down and reinterviewed subjects he had first studied s ome 16 years earlier. In 1998, the two traveled together to India on a similar mission. Stevenson, a researcher well versed in the scientific method, looked for flaws, discrepancies, and explaina ble coincidences in the stories he collected and meticulously mea sured birthmarks on living persons to compare them with trauma on the dead bodies of those whose souls the living believed now inh abited them. Shroder, whose journalistic background makes him a c lear-eyed observer and brilliant reporter of his surroundings, pr ovides unforgettable descriptions of living conditions amid the w reckage of once-prosperous Lebanon and the medieval filth and pov erty of India. His stories of American children with possible pas t-life memories pale by comparison, as does his account of an odd happening in his own youth that shaped his thinking about lifes enigmas. Shroders conclusion is not that old souls are being rein carnated in new bodies, but that the world is indeed a mysterious place and that we are all connected by forces beyond our underst anding. While true believers will find much here to buttress thei r notions about the immortality of the human soul, skeptics will enjoy watching a trained scientist in his careful explorations of the inexplicable. -- Copyright ®1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. About the Author Tom Shroder has been an award -winning journalist, writer, and editor for more than twenty year s. A fourth-generation author (his grandfather was Pulitzer Prize -winning novelist MacKinlay Kantor), Shroder edits the Sunday Sty le section of The Washington Post. Previously, he was executive e ditor of the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, which during his ten ure was awarded two Pulitzer prizes for content. He is the coauth or (with John Barry) of the critically acclaimed Seeing the Light , a nonfiction novel based on the life of Everglades naturalist p hotographer Clyde Butcher. He lives in northern Virginia. Excerp t. ® Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter One: The Question It is late, nearly lightless. Smoke from a million dung fires hangs in the headlights as the Maruti microbus bangs a long the narrow, cratered hardpack that passes for a paved road i n the Indian outback. We are still hours away from the hotel, an island of First World comfort in this simmering Third World ocean , and the possibility that we will never get there looms as large as the oncoming truck, absurdly overloaded and undermaintained, shuddering violently as it hurtles toward us dead in the middle o f the road. Using every inch of the rutted dirt shoulder, we bare ly escape. Through the thin tin of the Maruti, I can feel the tru ck vibrate, smell death in the exhaust pumping from its tailpipe. In escape, there is no relief. We bounce back onto the road's pi tted surface and immediately overtake a wooden cart lumbering to the heavy gait of yoked oxen with immense horns. Our driver leans on his horn as he swerves around the cart into a blind curve tha t I can only pray is not occupied by a bus loaded to the dented m etal ceiling with humans and farm animals. I try not to think abo ut the lack of seat belts or the mere half inch of glass and meta l that separates the front seat from whatever we plow into -- or the Lonely Planet article I read that said fatal accidents were f orty times more likely on Indian roads than on American highways. Or the account of a Western traveler who hired a car and driver in northern India, exactly as we have, only to crash head on into a truck, then regain consciousness in agony in a crude hospital, stripped of passport, money belt, and insurance papers. I try no t to think about dying ten thousand miles from home, about never seeing my wife and children again, about their lives going on wit hout any trace of me. I try not to think about absolute darkness. But even within my bubble of fear, I am aware of the irony. Si tting in the backseat, apparently unconcerned about the two-ton m ud-splattered torpedoes racing toward us, is a tall, white-haired man, nearly eighty, who insists that he has compiled enough soli d, empirical evidence to demonstrate that physical death is not n ecessarily the end of me or anyone else. His name is Ian Steven son, and he is a physician and psychiatrist who has been braving roads like this and worse for thirty-seven years to bring back re ports of young children who speak of remembering previous lives a nd provide detailed and accurate information about people who die d before they were born, people they say they once were. While I struggle with my fear of dying, he is wrestling with his own fear of annihilation: that his life's work will end, largely ignored by his peers. Why, he asks for the third time since night has f allen, do mainstream scientists refuse to accept the evidence we have for reincarnation? On this day, and for the past six month s, Stevenson has shown me what he means by evidence. He has permi tted me to accompany him on field trips, first to the hills surro unding Beirut and now on a wide swath of India. He has responded to my endless questions and even invited me to participate in the interviews that are the heart of his research. The evidence he i s referring to does not come from fashionable New Age sources, pa st-life readings, or hypnotic regressions during which subjects t alk about being a Florentine bride in the sixteenth century or a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, rendering the kind of details one might garner in an hour's time paging through a few romance nove ls. The details Stevenson's children recall are far more homely a nd more specific than those. One remembers being a teenager calle d Sheila who was hit by a car crossing the road to collect grass for cattle feed, another recalls the life of a young man who died of tuberculosis asking for his brother, a third remembers being a woman waiting for heart surgery in Virginia, trying and failing to call her daughter before the operation she would not survive. It goes on and on: These children supply names of towns and rela tives, occupations and relationships, attitudes and emotions that , in hundreds of cases around the world, are unique to a single d ead individual, often apparently unknown to their present familie s. But the fact is, the people the children remember did exist, t he memories that the children claim can be checked against real l ives and their alleged feats of identification verified -- or con tradicted -- by a variety of witnesses. This is what Stevenson has been doing for almost forty years; it is what we have been do ing in Lebanon and India: examining records, interviewing witness es, and measuring the results against possible alternative explan ations. I have seen close up, as few others have, how compelling some of these cases can be -- and not just factually, but in the emotion visible in the eyes and the voices of the subjects, their families, and the families of the people they claim to have been . I have seen and heard astonishing things, things for which I ha ve no easy explanation. Now we are near the end of our last tri p together, perhaps the last trip of Stevenson's career. It dawns on me in the noisy chill of the microbus, droning and rattling t hrough the night, that Stevenson's question is not rhetorical. He is asking me, the outsider, the skeptical journalist who has see n what he has to show, to explain. How can scientists, professed to hold no dogma that reasonable evidence cannot overturn, ignore the volumes, Simon & Schuster, 1999, 3, St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: Billed as a medical thriller, this unsavory story focuses on the troubled life of Garrett Wilson, the father of two infants who mysteriously died in their cribs in the 1980s. Wilson is not an easy person to like: he's a womanizer, a liar, and a thief. But is he a murderer? Author Adrian Havill, better known for biographies of more appealing characters such as Christopher Reeve and Bob Woodward, maintains a journalist's impartiality throughout the story and utilizes an abrupt, matter-of-fact writing style, never hinting at Wilson's guilt or innocence until the trial verdict at the end. Readers may find it difficult to keep track of the many characters that appear--particularly since there is no single, distinct voice telling the story--but more than a dozen black-and-white photographs help keep the faces straight. The medical angle of the mystery, with its detailed look at sudden infant death syndrome, adds interest and intrigue. --Jodi Mailander Farrell" "From Publishers Weekly: This disturbing true-crime tale by veteran author Havill (The Mother, the Son, and the Socialite, etc.) recounts the horrific saga of Garrett Wilson, a man who was convicted of killing two of his infant children for insurance money and is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Havill, who interviewed Wilson in prison and had access to both prosecutors and defense lawyers, describes Wilson's penchant for deceit as a smooth-talking womanizer and embezzler who twice tried to mask his stealing of funds as robbery. In 1980, in his mid-20s, he married Debbie Oliver, a 16-year-old who was five months pregnant with his child. Their baby daughter's death at two months was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a broadly defined cause of death that is not well understood by doctors. Wilson took his wife on a vacation with the $40,000 life insurance policies he had taken out on the baby's life. History repeated itself in 1988 when another baby, a five-month-old son that Wilson had with Missy Anastasi, whom he married after divorcing Debbie, also died of SIDS and Wilson collected on a $100,000 policy. Missy became convinced that he had murdered their child, and Havill traces her long legal battle for justice. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was again remarried and with a young daughter. Although his third wife, Vicky, testified to his innocence and still takes their daughter regularly to visit Wilson in prison, she, too, eventually divorced him. Child murder is a difficult subject to broach, but devotees of the true-crime genre may be drawn to this account. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc., St Martin's Press, 2001, 3<

2001, ISBN: 9780312262709

Hardcover

Wordsworth Editions Ltd. New. Wordsworth Press, Paperback, 2001, Book Condition: New, Introduction and Notes by Keith Wren. University of Kent at Canterbury The Man in the Iron Mask is th… More...

Wordsworth Editions Ltd. New. Wordsworth Press, Paperback, 2001, Book Condition: New, Introduction and Notes by Keith Wren. University of Kent at Canterbury The Man in the Iron Mask is the final episode in the cycle of novels featuring Dumas celebrated foursome of D Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who first appeared in The Three Musketeers. Some thirty-five years on, the bonds of comradeship are under strain as they end up on different sides in a power struggle that may undermine the young Louis XIV and change the face of the French monarchy. In the fast-paced narrative style that was his trademark, Dumas pitches us straight into the action. What is the secret shared by Aramis and Madame de Chevreuse? Why does the Queen Mother fear its revelation? Who is the mysterious prisoner in the Bastille? And what is the nature of the threat he poses? Dumas, the master storyteller, keeps us reading until the climactic scene in the grotto of Locmaria, a fitting conclusion to the epic saga of the musketeers. . 2001. TRADE PAPERBACK., Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2001, 6, St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: Billed as a medical thriller, this unsavory story focuses on the troubled life of Garrett Wilson, the father of two infants who mysteriously died in their cribs in the 1980s. Wilson is not an easy person to like: he's a womanizer, a liar, and a thief. But is he a murderer? Author Adrian Havill, better known for biographies of more appealing characters such as Christopher Reeve and Bob Woodward, maintains a journalist's impartiality throughout the story and utilizes an abrupt, matter-of-fact writing style, never hinting at Wilson's guilt or innocence until the trial verdict at the end. Readers may find it difficult to keep track of the many characters that appear--particularly since there is no single, distinct voice telling the story--but more than a dozen black-and-white photographs help keep the faces straight. The medical angle of the mystery, with its detailed look at sudden infant death syndrome, adds interest and intrigue. --Jodi Mailander Farrell ""From Publishers Weekly: This disturbing true-crime tale by veteran author Havill (The Mother, the Son, and the Socialite, etc.) recounts the horrific saga of Garrett Wilson, a man who was convicted of killing two of his infant children for insurance money and is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Havill, who interviewed Wilson in prison and had access to both prosecutors and defense lawyers, describes Wilson's penchant for deceit as a smooth-talking womanizer and embezzler who twice tried to mask his stealing of funds as robbery. In 1980, in his mid-20s, he married Debbie Oliver, a 16-year-old who was five months pregnant with his child. Their baby daughter's death at two months was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a broadly defined cause of death that is not well understood by doctors. Wilson took his wife on a vacation with the $40,000 life insurance policies he had taken out on the baby's life. History repeated itself in 1988 when another baby, a five-month-old son that Wilson had with Missy Anastasi, whom he married after divorcing Debbie, also died of SIDS and Wilson collected on a $100,000 policy. Missy became convinced that he had murdered their child, and Havill traces her long legal battle for justice. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was again remarried and with a young daughter. Although his third wife, Vicky, testified to his innocence and still takes their daughter regularly to visit Wilson in prison, she, too, eventually divorced him. Child murder is a difficult subject to broach, but devotees of the true-crime genre may be drawn to this account. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc."", St Martin's Press, 2001, 3<

2001, ISBN: 9780312262709

St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: … More...

St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: Billed as a medical thriller, this unsavory story focuses on the troubled life of Garrett Wilson, the father of two infants who mysteriously died in their cribs in the 1980s. Wilson is not an easy person to like: he's a womanizer, a liar, and a thief. But is he a murderer? Author Adrian Havill, better known for biographies of more appealing characters such as Christopher Reeve and Bob Woodward, maintains a journalist's impartiality throughout the story and utilizes an abrupt, matter-of-fact writing style, never hinting at Wilson's guilt or innocence until the trial verdict at the end. Readers may find it difficult to keep track of the many characters that appear--particularly since there is no single, distinct voice telling the story--but more than a dozen black-and-white photographs help keep the faces straight. The medical angle of the mystery, with its detailed look at sudden infant death syndrome, adds interest and intrigue. --Jodi Mailander Farrell ""From Publishers Weekly: This disturbing true-crime tale by veteran author Havill (The Mother, the Son, and the Socialite, etc.) recounts the horrific saga of Garrett Wilson, a man who was convicted of killing two of his infant children for insurance money and is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Havill, who interviewed Wilson in prison and had access to both prosecutors and defense lawyers, describes Wilson's penchant for deceit as a smooth-talking womanizer and embezzler who twice tried to mask his stealing of funds as robbery. In 1980, in his mid-20s, he married Debbie Oliver, a 16-year-old who was five months pregnant with his child. Their baby daughter's death at two months was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a broadly defined cause of death that is not well understood by doctors. Wilson took his wife on a vacation with the $40,000 life insurance policies he had taken out on the baby's life. History repeated itself in 1988 when another baby, a five-month-old son that Wilson had with Missy Anastasi, whom he married after divorcing Debbie, also died of SIDS and Wilson collected on a $100,000 policy. Missy became convinced that he had murdered their child, and Havill traces her long legal battle for justice. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was again remarried and with a young daughter. Although his third wife, Vicky, testified to his innocence and still takes their daughter regularly to visit Wilson in prison, she, too, eventually divorced him. Child murder is a difficult subject to broach, but devotees of the true-crime genre may be drawn to this account. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc."", St Martin's Press, 2001, 3<

2001, ISBN: 9780312262709

St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: … More...

St Martin's Press, 2001. First Edition, Ex-Library. Hardcover. Very good. GREAT BOOK! FIRST EDITION WITH VERY MILD SHELF WEAR ON DUSTJACKET & A FEW LIBRARY MARKINGS. Amazon: Billed as a medical thriller, this unsavory story focuses on the troubled life of Garrett Wilson, the father of two infants who mysteriously died in their cribs in the 1980s. Wilson is not an easy person to like: he's a womanizer, a liar, and a thief. But is he a murderer? Author Adrian Havill, better known for biographies of more appealing characters such as Christopher Reeve and Bob Woodward, maintains a journalist's impartiality throughout the story and utilizes an abrupt, matter-of-fact writing style, never hinting at Wilson's guilt or innocence until the trial verdict at the end. Readers may find it difficult to keep track of the many characters that appear--particularly since there is no single, distinct voice telling the story--but more than a dozen black-and-white photographs help keep the faces straight. The medical angle of the mystery, with its detailed look at sudden infant death syndrome, adds interest and intrigue. --Jodi Mailander Farrell" "From Publishers Weekly: This disturbing true-crime tale by veteran author Havill (The Mother, the Son, and the Socialite, etc.) recounts the horrific saga of Garrett Wilson, a man who was convicted of killing two of his infant children for insurance money and is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Havill, who interviewed Wilson in prison and had access to both prosecutors and defense lawyers, describes Wilson's penchant for deceit as a smooth-talking womanizer and embezzler who twice tried to mask his stealing of funds as robbery. In 1980, in his mid-20s, he married Debbie Oliver, a 16-year-old who was five months pregnant with his child. Their baby daughter's death at two months was attributed to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a broadly defined cause of death that is not well understood by doctors. Wilson took his wife on a vacation with the $40,000 life insurance policies he had taken out on the baby's life. History repeated itself in 1988 when another baby, a five-month-old son that Wilson had with Missy Anastasi, whom he married after divorcing Debbie, also died of SIDS and Wilson collected on a $100,000 policy. Missy became convinced that he had murdered their child, and Havill traces her long legal battle for justice. At the time of his arrest, Wilson was again remarried and with a young daughter. Although his third wife, Vicky, testified to his innocence and still takes their daughter regularly to visit Wilson in prison, she, too, eventually divorced him. Child murder is a difficult subject to broach, but devotees of the true-crime genre may be drawn to this account. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc., St Martin's Press, 2001, 3<

ISBN: 9780312262709

St. Martin's Press. Hardcover. POOR. Noticeably used book. Heavy wear to cover. Pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the ma… More...

St. Martin's Press. Hardcover. POOR. Noticeably used book. Heavy wear to cover. Pages contain marginal notes, underlining, and or highlighting. Possible ex library copy, with all the markings/stickers of that library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, and dust jackets may not be included., St. Martin's Press, 1<