Applewood Books

Demanding Freedom, Equality and Women's Rights

One of the defining documents of the women's rights movement in the United States is the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. Principally authored by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the declaration was signed by one hundred attendees—sixty-eight women and thirty-two men—at the Seneca Falls Convention in Seneca Falls, NY in July 1848. The controversial and courageous document stated: “…because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States." It would be another seventy-two years before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.  This short work is part of Applewood's “American Roots" series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America’s most famous writers and thinkers.

John Singer Sargent was an American painter whop spent little time in the US. He grew up in a privileged, somewhat nomadic family living in Italy and the France. Exposure to European art from an early age guided his exquisite paintings that captured both everyday life and portraits with drama and elegance. The Short Bio series from Applewood Books features short, intriguing, and entertaining biographies of world-renowned figures. These hardback gems will become souvenirs of a favorite artist or a memorable trip to a museum. 

Olaus and Mardy Murie dedicated their lives to each other and to the environment with a shared passion for preserving wildlife and the natural world.

Their important work in Alaska and Wyoming continues today. Theirs is an inspirational love story – for each other and for the world they lived in. The Short Biographies series from Applewood’s Benna Books imprint features short, intriguing, and entertaining biographies of world-renowned figures. Each beautiful hardcover book includes an interesting retelling of a single person's life, suitable for young adults and adults alike. These little gems will become beloved souvenirs of a favorite artist or a memorable trip to a museum.

Chronicles the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), a New-England born American novelist and short story writer, best known as the author of The Scarlet Letter.

The Short Biographies Series from Applewood Books are intriguing and entertaining short biographies that tell the details, insights and stories of renowned lives.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir filled his paintings with light and beauty. Unlike his contemporaries, plain-air painters of landscapers, he filled his canvases with human movement: the swish of a silk; the crackle of crinoline. The Short Biographies series from Applewood Books features short, intriguing, and entertaining biographies of world-renowned figures. These hardcover gems are beloved souvenirs of a favorite artist or a memorable trip to a museum. 

Manabi Hirasaki was a Depression era boy, Japanese American World War II veteran, savvy entrepreneur, and a generous philanthropist before his death in 2012 at the age of 89. The son of a successful Gilroy, California farmer, Hirasaki vividly recounts his enduring relationship with the world of commercially grown strawberries and his rise to become the first non-family member to lead the board of Driscoll Strawberry Associates, the world’s largest commercial strawberry distributor. A pioneer in the cultivation of the long-stem strawberry, Hirasaki’s autobiography reveals the trials and triumphs of being a Japanese American during World War II, and the post-war boom of California’s agriculture industry. This memoir, written with editor Naomi Hirahara, is a vital history of a life devoted to the American ideals of equality, entrepreneurship, and community.

Trailblazing ornithologist Florence A. Merriam’s classic firsthand account of her adventurous and influential field work through Southern California on horseback, first published in 1896. 

A-Birding on a Bronco is Florence A. Merriam’s enduring personal narrative of the natural wonders and new bird species she encountered while surveying the southern California wilderness atop Canello, her trusty white bronco. 

As the first female member of the American Ornithologists’ Union, Merriam was a trailblazer in the emerging field of birding in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Merriam’s pioneering field work took her across the United States. Perhaps her greatest journey of all is recounted is A-Birding on a Bronco, a classic of American nature writing first published in 1896. Merriam’s lively prose is presented alongside original illustrations by famed artist and ornithologist Louis Agassiz Fuertes, his first-ever published work in what became a storied career. It’s all presented in fine detail in this facsimile printing of the original edition. 

In 1889 and 1894, respectively, Merriam journeyed West to document birds far from her native Northeast. A-Birding on a Bronco recounts these exciting horseback expeditions, vividly describing more than seventy bird species she found in the southern California backcountry, as well as introducing the colorful personalities she met along the way.  

Merriam today is regarded as an essential early voice for conservation, and A-Birding on a Bronco shows her important principles put into practice. In an era when capturing and killing birds for research was commonplace, she was among the first to advocate studying birds in their natural habitats to preserve species. It is a fundamental practice that endures today. Merriam also penned the highly influential book Birds Through Opera-Glass (1890), considered by many to be the first birding field guide ever published. 

Whether you’re a fan nature writing, or of first-person adventure narratives, A-birding on a Bronco stands out as a classic across genres. It’s why, more than a century later, A-birding on a Bronco still resonates with readers today. 

Derived from a patriotic Grammy-nominated spoken word album recorded by The Duke in 1973.

Now, in America, Why I Love Her, we can join Little Duke on his journey through this great land and learn about true American values of love, freedom, compassion, honesty, family, unity, hope, liberty & justice, honor and peace.