Frank F. Mathias's Books

GI Jive

An Army Bandsman in World War II

By: Frank F. Mathias

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GI Jive

An Army Bandsman in World War II

By: Frank F. Mathias

Frank Mathias was a teenager in a small town when the draft swept him into the army and then halfway around the world to the jungles of the South Pacific. He served in the huge invasion force in the Battle of Manila, the deadliest single battle of the Pacific War. As an army musician attached to the 37th Infantry Division, Mathias saw the war from the bottom of the heap, where young privates lived and died. In his best selling book The GI Generation, Mathias tells of growing up in small-town America between the wars. In GI Jive he recalls the gritty experience of combat as well as the music and the homefront pleasures the GIs fought to preserve.

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Page Count

319

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813188466

ISBN 13

9780813188461

The GI Generation

A Memoir

By: Frank F. Mathias

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The GI Generation

A Memoir

By: Frank F. Mathias

Frank Mathias was born in Maysville, Kentucky, (pop. 7000) in 1925 and grew up in nearby Carlisle (pop. 1500), where life in his small town was much like that in towns and villages all across America. He came of age in an era of total security; his parents never even had a key to their front door. Daily living was infused with gossip; no one had a secret, and everyone knew everyone else's business. Outdoor life was a vital part of growing up, and teachers and mentors instilled a sense of right and wrong in young people. Raised during the Great Depression, Mathias became a member of a fighting force the likes of which the world had never known, a legion now called "The Greatest Generation." The GI Generation tells Mathias's story of growing up with the sweet whistle of the L&N train and the summer-kitchen smells of hot salt-rising bread and blackberry cobbler, which could instantly halt even the most rousing game of cowboys and Indians. Much of community life focused on the local high school, which, in Mathias's case, was a tiny one with no chemistry courses, no drivers' training, and no guidance counselors. Yet the one hundred students who graduated between 1942 and 1944 became university professors, top executives, military commanders, successful investors, lawyers, and physicians. A vivid portrait of a bucolic pre-war boyhood, The GI Generation takes readers back to an era when boys rustled watermelons under the hot summer sun and young lovers danced to the sounds of farmhouse bands. Whether describing the unfortunate (but delicious) end of his brother's pet chicken, Don, or the ominous clouds of war, Mathias writes with humor, honesty, and compassion.

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Page Count

375

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813188857

ISBN 13

9780813188850

Albert D. Kirwan

By: Frank F. Mathias

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Albert D. Kirwan

By: Frank F. Mathias

The name Albert Kirwan is inextricably bound with the University of Kentucky—in sports, scholarship, and administration. His skills and interests were so many and varied that his accomplishments in one area could not long satisfy his restless nature; he captained and later coached the U.K. Wildcats, took degrees in law and history, wrote or edited six books, taught a full load of classes, became dean of students, graduate dean, and finally, was unanimously installed as seventh president of the University. Under his guidance, the UK graduate program was improved and strengthened; he presented the University's case before the National Collegiate Athletic Association council concerning the 1948–49 basketball gambling scandals; he helped to see the University through its first tense period of integration; and he was able to handle student activism in the 1960s with both courage and understanding. Beyond this, he was a gentle, devoted family man. His wife, Betty, his sons, and his sister have shared their memories of Albert Kirwan, providing much of the material included in the biographical section of this book; and Kirwan himself left a tape, "Some Memories of My Life," recorded in 1971, which Frank Mathias has blended with information culled from letters, files, and interviews. During his lifetime, Albert Kirwan was often invited to speak before historical associations, at commencement exercises, athletic assemblies, on television, and on radio. Records of these speeches document his far-ranging thoughts on history, education, athletics, politics, the South, the Civil War, and civil rights, revealing him as a responsible and responsive liberal Kentucky gentleman. He was a man of many moods, and had a wry, tongue-in-cheek humor that enlivened his lectures and talks. The second section of the book is a selection of his speeches, letters, and excerpts from his articles and books, including a chapter from John ]. Crittenden: The Struggle for the Union, which won the Sydnor award. Reproduced here are Kirwan's analysis of the Kentucky court struggle of the 1820s and his statement before the Southeastern Conference on the penalty assessed against Kentucky's basketball team; and, here too are the more casual banquet speeches, the bantering affection of a warm, sensitive man among friends. "Here is a man who has given his whole life to [the University of Kentucky]," Happy Chandler said of him, "... surely he must love it as perhaps no other person could.

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Page Count

255

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813188032

ISBN 13

9780813188034

Proud Kentuckian, John C. Breckinridge, 1821-1875

By: Frank Hopkins Heck

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Proud Kentuckian, John C. Breckinridge, 1821-1875

By: Frank Hopkins Heck

Biography of John Cabell Breckinridge: "a lawyer, U.S. Representative, Senator from Kentucky, the 14th Vice President of the United States, Southern Democratic candidate for President in 1860, a Confederate general in the American Civil War, and the last Confederate Secretary of War. To date, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history, inaugurated at age 36. He is also remembered as the Confederate commander at the Battle of New Market, where young VMI cadets participated in the battle on the Confederate side."-Wikipedia.

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Page Count

420

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813102170

ISBN 13

9780813102177

Book's by Frank F. Mathias

GI Jive

GI Jive

The GI Generation

The GI Generation

Albert D. Kirwan

Albert D. Kirwan

Proud Kentuckian, John C. Breckinridge, 1821-1875

Proud Kentuckian, John C. Breckinridge, 1821-1875

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