Faith Cross, a beautiful and purely innocent young black woman, is told by her dying mother to go and get herself 'a good thing.' Thus begins an extraordinary pilgrim's progress that takes Faith from the magic and mysticism of the rural South to the promises and perils of modern-day Chicago. It is an odyssey that propels Faith from the degradation of prostitution, drugs, and drink into a faceless middle-class reality, and finally into a searing tragedy that ironically leads to the discovery of the real Good Thing. National Book Award-winner Charles Johnson's first novel, originally published in 1974, puts the life-affirming soul of the African-American experience at the summit of American storytelling.

A collection of more than one hundred tales of legendary heroes, tricksters, Native American creation stories, mythical characters, love stories, and ghost stories celebrates the voices that make up America. BOMC.

Winner of the National Book Award

“A novel in the honorable tradition of Billy Budd and Moby Dick…heroic in proportion… fiction that hooks into the mind.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Long after we'd stopped believing in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that.” — Chicago Tribune

“It's a joy to read fiction in which there is a cultivated vision at work...the greatest victory of Dreamer is the light it shines on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.”

—Dennis McFarland, The New York Times Book Review

“In their remarkable simplicity these stories reach into...the African American experience with surprising freshness and the fluency of years of gathered wisdom. This book is a deeply satisfying reading adventure.” — Black Issues Book Review

Winner of the National Book Award

“A novel in the honorable tradition of Billy Budd and Moby Dick…heroic in proportion… fiction that hooks into the mind.” — The New York Times Book Review

“Long after we'd stopped believing in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that.” — Chicago Tribune

“It's a joy to read fiction in which there is a cultivated vision at work...the greatest victory of Dreamer is the light it shines on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.”

—Dennis McFarland, The New York Times Book Review

“In their remarkable simplicity these stories reach into...the African American experience with surprising freshness and the fluency of years of gathered wisdom. This book is a deeply satisfying reading adventure.” — Black Issues Book Review

This expanded edition of an established work offers a generously illustrated natural history set in the context of the state's geologic and human pasts. A broad ecological overview written in engaging narrative for lay readers as well as naturalists, conservationists, and biologists, the book is enhanced with more than 140 photographs, drawings, maps, and diagrams. Also a practical guidebook, it directs people to where they can see what is being discussed, gives current references, and offers a complete directory of conservation organizations in the state.

In the new edition, State Naturalist Charles W. Johnson describes many environmental, technological, and cultural changes: more moose and turkey vultures, fewer wood turtles and butternuts; refinement in our thinking about natural communities and endangered species; effects of development, pollution, acid rain, global warming, and invasive non-native species such as zebra mussels and Eurasian water milfoil; urban/rural clashes mirrored in such issues as the Northern Forests and clear-cutting; a sharpening focus on biodiversity, sustainability, and ecosystem management; the rise of conservation biology as a field of study. At the same time, Johnson includes Abenaki stories - Vermont's Native American legacy of respect for and identity with nature - that serve as reminders of how our fortunes are inextricably tied to those of nature.

"Puss in Boots," "Blue Beard," "Tom Thumb," and other beloved fairy tale classics, as set down by the man who first rescued them from the oral tradition in the 17th century. Contains six color plates and 30 black-and-white illustrations.

Senza alcun intento morale o puramente didattico, Charles Johnson offre al lettore otto parabole sui pregiudizi razziali. Otto storie di iniziazione, i cui protagonisti, da principio incarnazioni di cliché e stereotipi della cultura afroamericana ingabbiati nei loro ruoli sociali, si trovano presto coinvolti in un'indagine nel mistero dell'Io, un'esplorazione kafkiana dell'identità dove la condizione di nero non rappresenta solo uno status ma soprattutto una metafora della condizione umana.