Author Biography
Western Michigan Tales of Mystery and Adventure combines nine tales from three prior volumes of short stories with a tenth, new tale. The stories are organized in a sequential fashion that preserves the serial nature of five of the tales. Interleaved between this series there are five additional tales two of which chronicle the adventures of the principal character, John Sherman, when he was a teenager. Another two tales are set in the 19th century in Pentwater, Michigan, and should be read in sequence -Jack Archer and Benefits. Benefits contains echoes of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. The remaining additional tale is an adventure story that occurs at one of the Chicago Council's Owasippie Scout Camps outside Whitehall, Michigan; like all the tales it contains a mystery, history, a valuable item, and, in this instance a love component. All of the stories are suitable for a young adult; they contain no violence. This particular volume was put together to celebrate a family reunion in August 2012 on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. The author's output also includes Philosophy, Dawn, a memoir, Work - A Memoir, and poetry - A Love Affair with Flowers Fair. The author has no desire to market his works - they are purely for the entertainment of friends and relatives. Background material arises from the geography of Western Michigan, the author's experience of three years of active duty as a naval officer on the U. S. S. Hank (DD-702), and the experiences of having spent all his summers at Bass Lake, north of Pentwater, Michigan - since 1944. The author grew up in Chicago, attended Princeton University as an undergraduate, Stanford University for a graduate degree after his three years in the Navy, and holds two graduate degrees from the University of Chicago; he is also a graduate of the Basic, great books, program from the University of Chicago. His principal employment after the Navy was the IBM Corporation as documented in Work - A Memoir.
