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Author: Randolph Hollingsworth
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 202
ISBN-13: 9780738524665
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA history of the city located in the heart of central Kentucky Bluegrass country traces Lexington's long, proud past which reaches far back before the “Horse Capital of the World” reared its first thoroughbred, claiming the first college, newspaper, and millionaire west of the Alleghenies--among many other firsts. Original.
Author: James C. Nicholson
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2013-05-04
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 0813142016
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA quarter of a million people braved miserable conditions at Epsom Downs on June 2, 1954, to see the 175th running of the prestigious Derby Stakes. Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Winston Churchill were in attendance, along with thousands of Britons who were all convinced of the unfailing superiority of English bloodstock and eager to see a British colt take the victory. They were shocked when a Kentucky-born chestnut named Never Say Die galloped to a two-length triumph at odds of 33–1, winning Britain's greatest race and beginning an important shift in the world of Thoroughbred racing. Never Say Die traces the history of this extraordinary colt, beginning with his foaling in Lexington, Kentucky, as well as the stories of the influential individuals brought together by the horse and his victory—from the heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune to the Aga Khan. Most fascinating is the tale of Mona Best of Liverpool, England, whose well-placed bet on the long-shot Derby contender allowed her to open the Casbah Coffee Club. There, her son met musicians John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, later joining their band. Featuring a foreword by the original drummer for the Beatles, Pete Best, this remarkable book reveals how an underdog's surprise victory played a part in the formation of the most successful and influential rock band in history and made the Bluegrass region of Kentucky the center of the international Thoroughbred industry.
Author: James Archambeault
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2008-10-03
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780813125053
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn any given day, more than forty thousand horses roam the fields of the Bluegrass, and there are more than five hundred horse farms in the region known for its rich soil and rolling hills. Kentucky Horse Country: Images of the Bluegrass is renowned photographer James Archambeault's pictorial portrait of the natural beauty of Kentucky's Bluegrass region and the thriving thoroughbred industry for which it is famous. The book contains more than 150 full-color images ranging from tender scenes of mares and foals grazing, to the excitement of race day at Keeneland, to gorgeous landscapes of pristine white fences enclosing lush pastures. The region has long been associated with the best achievements of the equine world. In 1871, a horse named Lexington was foaled in Scott County, and many famous thoroughbreds can trace their lineage back to this great sire. Having photographed the bluegrass for decades, Archambeault is intimately familiar with the backstretch and the barns, the fields and the foals, that are known around the world. In the course of his career, he has been able to see many of the legendary horses that have made horse racing so exciting and popular: Affirmed, Alydar, Spectacular Bid, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Cigar. Rare photographs of these and other racing royalty are included in the book. The handsome barns and well-tended pastures found throughout central Kentucky have been the home to international racing champions, and now individuals from all over the world, including England, Ireland, Japan, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, have a stake in the region's flourishing horse industry. As preeminent racing historian Edward L. Bowen notes in his introduction, "It is a special place where the ruler of Dubai and a stable groom have something in common; the queen of England can admire a leathery old jockey; a philanthropist and a veterinary professor have the same goals; and a $2 bettor celebrates at the same moment that a corporate CEO grits his teeth in disappointment." The vibrant photographs in Kentucky Horse Country are accompanied by Archambeault's captions and narrative descriptions, as well by a lively introduction to the history of thoroughbreds in the Bluegrass by Bowen. The book also includes a foreword by Kentucky native Steve Cauthen, the youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown, who once again calls the Bluegrass his home. James Archambeault's latest work is a Kentucky triple crown for those who love horses and horse racing, for those who revel in the magical beauty of the Bluegrass, and for those who are looking for a grand introduction to what makes this region so unique.
Author: Randolph Paul Runyon
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2018-05-04
Total Pages: 280
ISBN-13: 0813175402
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThough they were not, as Charlotte claimed, refugees from the French Revolution, Augustus Waldemar and Charlotte Victoire Mentelle undoubtedly felt like exiles in their adopted hometown of Lexington, Kentucky -- a settlement that was still a frontier town when they arrived in 1798. Through the years, the cultured Parisian couple often reinvented themselves out of necessity, but their most famous venture was Mentelle's for Young Ladies, an intellectually rigorous school that attracted students from around the region and greatly influenced its most well-known pupil, Mary Todd Lincoln. Drawing on newly translated materials and previously overlooked primary sources, Randolph Paul Runyon explores the life and times of the important but understudied pair in this intriguing dual biography. He illustrates how the Mentelles' origins and education gave them access to the higher strata of Bluegrass society even as their views on religion, politics, and culture kept them from feeling at home in America. They were intimates of statesman Henry Clay, and one of their daughters married into the Clay family, but like other immigrant families in the region, they struggled to survive. Throughout, Runyon reveals the Mentelles as eloquent chroniclers of crucial moments in Ohio and Kentucky history, from the turn of the nineteenth century to the eve of the Civil War. They rankled at the baleful influence of conservative religion on the local college, the influence of whiskey on the local population, and the scandal of slavery in the land of liberty. This study sheds new light on the lives of a remarkable pair who not only bore witness to key events in early American history, but also had a singular impact on the lives of their friends, their students, and their community.
Author: Maryjean Wall
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2014-10-14
Total Pages: 200
ISBN-13: 0813147077
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe “captivating” true story of the notorious Gilded Age madam who inspired the Belle Watling character in Gone with the Wind (The Wall Street Journal). Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill’s bawdy house—an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln. At nineteen, Brezing was already infamous as a youth steeped in death, sex, drugs, and scandal. But it was in Miss Hill’s “respectable” establishment that she began to acquire the skills, manners, and business contacts that allowed her to ascend to power and influence as an internationally known madam. In this revealing book, Maryjean Wall offers a tantalizing true story of vice and power in the Gilded Age South, as told through the life and times of the notorious Miss Belle. After years on the streets and working for Hill, Belle Brezing borrowed enough money to set up her own establishment—her wealth and fame growing alongside the booming popularity of horse racing. Soon, her houses were known internationally, and powerful patrons from the industrial cities of the Northeast courted her in the lavish parlors of her gilt-and-mirror mansion. Secrecy was a moral code in the sequestered demimonde of prostitution in Victorian America, so little has been written about the Southern madam credited with inspiring the character Belle Watling in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Following Brezing from her birth amid the ruins of the Civil War to the height of her scarlet fame and beyond, Wall uses her story to explore a wider world of sex, business, politics, and power. The result is a scintillating tale as enthralling as any fiction.
Author: Richard E. Holl
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2015-10-09
Total Pages: 409
ISBN-13: 0813165652
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, Kentucky was still plagued by the Great Depression. Even though the inevitably of war had become increasingly apparent earlier that year, the citizens of the Commonwealth continued to view foreign affairs as a lesser concern compared to issues such as the lingering economic depression, the approaching planting season, and the upcoming gubernatorial race. It was only the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that destroyed any lingering illusions of peace. In Committed to Victory: The Kentucky Home Front During World War II, author Richard Holl offers the first comprehensive examination of the Commonwealth's civilian sector during this pivotal era in the state's history. National mobilization efforts rapidly created centers of war production and activity in Louisville, Paducah, and Richmond, producing new economic prosperity in the struggling region. The war effort also spurred significant societal changes, including the emergence of female and minority workforces in the state. In the Bluegrass, this trend found its face in Pulaski County native Rose Will Monroe, who was discovered as she assembled B-24 and B-29 bombers and was cast as Rosie the Riveter in films supporting the war effort. Revealing the struggles and triumphs of civilians during World War II, Holl illuminates the personal costs of the war, the black market for rationed foods and products, and even the inspiration that coach Adolph Rupp and the University of Kentucky basketball team offered to a struggling state. Committed to Victory is a timely and engaging account that fills a significant gap in the literature on a crucial period of American history.
Author: James C. Klotter
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2018-11-26
Total Pages: 585
ISBN-13: 0813176514
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen originally published, A New History of Kentucky provided a comprehensive study of the Commonwealth, bringing it to life by revealing the many faces, deep traditions, and historical milestones of the state. With new discoveries and findings, the narrative continues to evolve, and so does the telling of Kentucky's rich history. In this second edition, authors James C. Klotter and Craig Thompson Friend provide significantly revised content with updated material on gender politics, African American history, and cultural history. This wide-ranging volume includes a full overview of the state and its economic, educational, environmental, racial, and religious histories. At its essence, Kentucky's story is about its people—not just the notable and prominent figures but also lesser-known and sometimes overlooked personalities. The human spirit unfolds through the lives of individuals such as Shawnee peace chief Nonhelema Hokolesqua and suffrage leader Madge Breckinridge, early land promoter John Filson, author Wendell Berry, and Iwo Jima flag–raiser Private Franklin Sousley. They lived on a landscape defined by its topography as much as its political boundaries, from Appalachia in the east to the Jackson Purchase in the west, and from the Walker Line that forms the Commonwealth's southern boundary to the Ohio River that shapes its northern boundary. Along the journey are traces of Kentucky's past—its literary and musical traditions, its state-level and national political leadership, and its basketball and bourbon. Yet this volume also faces forthrightly the Commonwealth's blemishes—the displacement of Native Americans, African American enslavement, the legacy of violence, and failures to address poverty and poor health. A New History of Kentucky ranges throughout all parts of the Commonwealth to explore its special meaning to those who have called it home. It is a broadly interpretive, all-encompassing narrative that tells Kentucky's complex, extensive, and ever-changing story.
Author: Garden Club of Lexington (Ky.)
Publisher: Wimmer Cookbooks
Published: 1985
Total Pages: 350
ISBN-13: 9780961444204
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThere is a close relationship between horse farms and entertaining that has made the hospitality of Kentucky famous throughout the world. This collection is a compilation of many family traditions and grand dining events.
Author: J. Winston ColemanJr.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-12-14
Total Pages: 257
ISBN-13: 0813189551
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen Stage-Coach Days in the Bluegrass was first published in 1935 by the Standard Press in Louisville, the New York Times reviewer described "this charming work" as "an interesting example of that very useful class of books, local histories, which so rarely get the attention they deserve." Along with his focus on the development of stage-coach travel, Coleman covers details such as pioneer roads, taverns, travelers' experiences, mail carriers, and the coming of the railroad. This fascinating look at an age gone by is truly a work of regional culture.
Author: James Duane Bolin
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-12-14
Total Pages: 302
ISBN-13: 0813193648
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWilliam Frederick "Billy" Klair (1875-1937) was the undisputed czar of Lexington, Kentucky, for decades. As political boss in a mid-sized, southern city, he faced problems strikingly similar to those of large cities in the North. As he watched the city grow from a sleepy market town of 16,000 residents to a bustling, active urban center of over 50,000, Klair saw changes that altered not just Lexington but the nation and the world: urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. But Klair did not merely watch these changes; like other political bosses and social reformers, he actively participated in the transformation of his city. As a political boss and a practitioner of what George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall referred to as "honest graft," Klair applied lessons of organization, innovation, manipulation, power, and control from the machine age to bring together diverse groups of Lexingtonians and Kentuckians as supporters of a powerful political machine. James Duane Bolin also examines the underside of the city, once known as the Athens of the West. He balances the postcard view of Bluegrass mansions and horse farms with the city's well-known vice district, housing problems, racial tensions, and corrupt politics. With the reality of life in Lexington as a backdrop, the career of Billy Klair provides as a valuable and engaging case study of the inner workings of a southern political machine.
