Allan Wilson Cates grew up in the poverty-stricken hills of North Arkansas in the 1940s and 1950s. At age sixteen, he joined the U.S. Army, and after serving two years, he hitchhiked north in search of work. It was 1956, and for the first time in his life, he didnt have to answer to anyone. For the next 40 years, he built airports, dams, and hydroelectric and nuclear power plants from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Bering Sea. While he started as a nonskilled laborer, hed end up overseeing teams of engineers and retired from the apex of management with the University of Texas System, in Austin, Texas. In this memoir, he looks back at his magnificent career as well as the adventures he enjoyed visiting more than seventy countries. Join a man who worked his way to the topand had a great time doing itand see places youve only dreamed of visitingwith Vagabond Years.
• Featuring artwork from the 32+ volume manga series - Vagabond is on Japan’s top ten best seller’s list with over 100 million volumes in print. • Vagabond has sold over 22 million copies worldwide! (Not including Japan’s sales). • Vagabond is based on the novel, Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Originally written in the early 40’s, Yoshikawa’s fictional account became so well known that his version has blurred fact from fiction. • VIZ Media is currently releasing the English translated edition of Vagabond only three months apart from the Japanese release! • The popularity of Vagabond has been attributed for the reason NHK produced its period drama TV series based on Yohikawa’s novel. • There have been 6 films and 2 TV series based on Miyamoto Musashi’s life. • Inoue received the 2000 Media Arts award for manga from the Japanese Ministry of Culture and the Kodansha award for best manga for his work on Vagabond. • Nominated for 2003 Eisner Award in the category for Best Writer/Artist! • "...reads like an Akira Kurosawa film captured on the printed page." -Cliff Biggers, Comic Buyer's Guide • Inoue has personally created licensed merchandise on a small scale, so that the products will meet his standards of quality. • Inoue’s previous series Slam Dunk has over 100 million copies in print worldwide. • Everything Takehiko Inoue has published has hit the top ten sales list in Japan. Sumi presents Inoue's magnificent pen and brush work in black and white. It also includes a behind the scenes look at Vagabond with rough sketches and photos of Inoue's studio. In a recent interview, Takehiko Inoue claimed that in his first major follow-up to Slam Dunk, he wanted to delve as deeply as possible into visual artistry. The result was the incredibly realized world of Vagabond, the Sistine Chapel of manga. This artbook captures the very best of Inoue's work, with images hand-selected by Inoue himself. Not one to skimp on reproduction and image quality, Inoue also hand selected the specific printer. Sumi presents Inoue's magnificent pen and brush work in black and white. It also includes a behind the scenes look at Vagabond with rough sketches and photos of Inoue's studio.
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi was the child of an era when Japan was emerging from decades of civil strife. Lured to the great Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 by the hope of becoming a samurai—without really knowing what it meant—he regains consciousness after the battle to find himself lying defeated, dazed and wounded among thousands of the dead and dying. On his way home, he commits a rash act, becomes a fugitive and brings life in his own village to a standstill—until he is captured by a weaponless Zen monk. The lovely Otsu, seeing in Musashi her ideal of manliness, frees him from his tortuous punishment, but he is recaptured and imprisoned. During three years of solitary confinement, he delves into the classics of Japan and China. When he is set free again, he rejects the position of samurai and for the next several years pursues his goal relentlessly, looking neither to left nor to right. Ever so slowly it dawns on him that following the Way of the Sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the Way. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in the Art of War he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being He becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and been touched by. And, inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival. Musashi is a novel in the best tradition of Japanese story telling. It is a living story, subtle and imaginative, teeming with memorable characters, many of them historical. Interweaving themes of unrequited love, misguided revenge, filial piety and absolute dedication to the Way of the Samurai, it depicts vividly a world Westerners know only vaguely. Full of gusto and humor, it has an epic quality and universal appeal. The novel was made into a three-part movie by Director Hiroshi Inagai. For more information, visit the Shopping area
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • With a new foreword by Tim Ferriss • “Vagabonding easily remains in my top-10 list of life-changing books. Why? Because one incredible trip, especially a long-term trip, can change your life forever. And Vagabonding teaches you how to travel (and think), not just for one trip, but for the rest of your life.”—Tim Ferriss, from the foreword There’s nothing like vagabonding: taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. In this one-of-a-kind handbook, veteran travel writer Rolf Potts explains how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Now completely revised and updated, Vagabonding is an accessible and inspiring guide to • financing your travel time • determining your destination • adjusting to life on the road • working and volunteering overseas • handling travel adversity • re-assimilating back into ordinary life Updated for our ever-changing world, Vagabonding is an indispensable guide for the modern traveler.
Eisner-award nominated creator Takehiko Inoue’s critically acclaimed take on the life of Miyamoto Mushashi. Transcends the potential of what manga can be. Striving for enlightenment by way of the sword, Miyamoto Musashi is prepared to cut down anyone who stands in his way. Vagabond is an action-packed portrayal of the life and times of the quintessential warrior-philosopher--the most celebrated samurai of all time! Miyamoto Musashi is a man destined to be revered as a sword-saint and one of Japan's most celebrated samurai. But Musashi wasn't always an enlightened warrior-philosopher--for the path to greatness is filled with adversity and perilous danger. In this volume Musashi seeks out Shishido Baiken, a master of the deadly sickle and chain. Will Musashi's sword be able to stand true against this most unusual of weapons?
A “fascinating slice of rarely considered American history” (Booklist)—the story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison—whose annual summer sojourns introduced the road trip to our culture and made the automobile an essential part of modern life. In 1914 Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs visited Thomas Edison in Florida and toured the Everglades. The following year Ford, Edison, and tire maker Harvey Firestone joined together on a summer camping trip and decided to call themselves the Vagabonds. They would continue their summer road trips until 1925, when they announced that their fame made it too difficult for them to carry on. Although the Vagabonds traveled with an entourage of chefs, butlers, and others, this elite fraternity also had a serious purpose: to examine the conditions of America’s roadways and improve the practicality of automobile travel. Cars were unreliable and the roads were even worse. But newspaper coverage of these trips was extensive, and as cars and roads improved, the summer trip by automobile soon became a desired element of American life. The Vagabonds is “a portrait of America’s burgeoning love affair with the automobile” (NPR) but it also sheds light on the important relationship between the older Edison and the younger Ford, who once worked for the famous inventor. The road trips made the automobile ubiquitous and magnified Ford’s reputation, even as Edison’s diminished. The automobile would transform the American landscape, the American economy, and the American way of life and Guinn brings this seminal moment in history to vivid life.
Offering an often hilarious, occasionally heart wrenching memoir of his life as a professional basketball player, Shirley details his years playing in America, Spain, and even Siberia.
Three volumes in one! A prestige treatment of Inoue’s epic samurai series with bonus content, color pages, storyboard samples and more! Real-life figure Miyamoto Musashi was the most celebrated samurai of all time. The quintessential warrior-philosopher, Musashi authored A Book of Five Rings, a classic treatise in the canon of world philosophy and military strategy. But the path to enlightenment is an endless journey, and to get there through violent means--by way of the sword--makes mere survival an even greater challenge. Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro’s intertwining paths lead them toward what will be the greatest samurai duel in Japanese history. Sasaki Kojiro heads to Kokura for his new position as sword instructor for the powerful Hosokawa Clan. Meanwhile, Musashi is at a crossroads dealing with the aftermath of single-handedly destroying the mighty Yoshioka clan. After he starts to question his quest to be invincible and his whole reason for existence, will his confidence in himself ever be the same?
