Preface
David Freeman, Ph.
Director of Publications
International Churchill Society
Department of History
California State University

Fred Glueckstein knows Winston Churchill. As can be seen in the essays that follow, Fred's Churchillian interests are both catholic and electic. Fred can tell us in detail about members of the Churchill family, such as the seventh Duke of Marlborough; Churchill's mentors, such as J.E.C. Welldon, the headmaster of Harrow; and political patrons such as Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who gave Churchill his first government office. But Fred can also tell us about the lighter side of Churchill's life including the name of every racehorse that Churchill ever owned.

For Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, statesman, biographer, historian, orator, and amateur painter, the excitement and liveliness of the Turf began in 1949, when at the age of 75 he bought his first racehorse, Colonist II. One of the most popular and remarkable horses of his era, Churchill's colt, a French-bred grey, won thirteen of twenty-four races and placed in five others, all run in distances between 1 mile and 2 ¼ miles. Beloved by Churchill and thousands of admirers for his courage and steadfastness, Colonist II was known for preferring to race in front of his competition and never knowing when he was licked, which always drew comparisons to the indomitable Churchill himself.

Major League Baseball's Opening Day 1951. Nineteen-year-old Mickey Mantle puts on the New York Yankees' famous white pinstriped uniform. His stomach roils. Sweat beads his brow. Today his first major league game in front of a near-capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium, and there is one man Mickey doesn't want to disappoint above all others: his father.

Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes  is the uplifting true story of how a painfully shy teenager from rural Commerce, Oklahoma, became one of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball. While he looked to Joe DiMaggio for inspiration and dreamed of someday playing with that great New York Yankee, Mickey's true hero was his dad.

Their names conjure up the golden era of New York Yankees history and the sport of baseball itself; names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock. Other baseball immortals playing against these Yankee greats in the roaring twenties were future Hall-of-Famers Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Lefty Grove, Eddie Collins, Jimmy Foxx, Tris Speaker, Mickey Cochrane, Bucky Harris, Red Faber, and others.

The '27 Yankees  is a baseball book for all fans of the national pastime. It is the story of the most legendary and revered team in the annals of the game: the 1927 New York Yankees, whose magical name even today evokes the standard of excellence in America's most treasured sport.

Of Men, Women and Horses  is a collection of stories about one of history's most enduring relationships; those of men, women and, the most noble of animals, horses. The collection includes the touching and inspiring true stories of Rosa Bonheur and The Horse Fair (1853); Capt. Myles Keogh and Comanche (1876); Anna Sewell and Black Beauty (1877); Richard Stone Reeves and War Admiral (1937); Jacqueline Bouvier (Kennedy) and Danseuse (1940); Lt. Ed Ramsey and Bryn Awryn (1942); Gen. George S. Patton and the Lipizzaners (1945); Marguerite Henry and Misty of Chincoteague (1947); Sir Winston S. Churchill and Colonist II (1949); Dick Francis and Devon Loch (1956); Sir Alfred J. Munnings: An Artist's Life (1959), and the champion Thoroughbred race horses Exterminator (1918), Black Gold (1924), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), and Assault (1946).

Mimi Rubin had fond memories of growing up in Novy Bohumin, Czechoslovakia, a place that ten thousand people called home. It was a tranquil town until September 1, 1939, when the German army invaded the city. From that day forward, eighteen-year old Mimi would face some of the harshest moments of her life.

This memoir follows Mimi's story-from her idyllic life in Novy Bohumin before the invasion, to being transported to a Jewish ghetto, to living in three different German concentration camps, and finally, to liberation. It tells of the heartbreaking loss of her parents, grandmother, and countless other friends and relatives. It tells of the tempered joys of being reunited with her sister and of finding love, marrying, and raising a family.