In 1869, newspaper articles touted Aiken as a health and pleasure resort with the world's largest wooden hotel. Swirling social life and sporting action continued during the war years, when the women of society carried on local traditions. In 1950, Aiken was bustling with scientists and engineers who relocated to work at the Savannah River Site. The last half of the 20th century saw swelling crowds at polo matches, steeplechase races, fox hunts, golf courses, and cultural amusements. In the early 21st century, many Aiken sporting traditions mark milestone anniversaries. At the center of everything is Hitchcock Woods, a woodland paradise, pine-topped cathedral, and equestrian playground that remains open year-round. The Hitchcock Woods Foundation was established to safeguard this treasure within the heart of Aiken. The Aiken Horse Show, held each spring, and Blessing of the Hounds, held on Thanksgiving, are two of the most revered of Aiken's sporting traditions.

Focusing on the impact of the Savannah River Plant (SRP) on the communities it created, rejuvenated, or displaced, this book explores the parallel militarization and modernization of the Cold War-era South. The SRP, a scientific and industrial complex near Aiken, South Carolina, grew out of a 1950 partnership between the Atomic Energy Commission and the DuPont Corporation and was dedicated to producing materials for the hydrogen bomb. Kari Frederickson shows how the needs of the expanding national security state, in combination with the corporate culture of DuPont, transformed the economy, landscape, social relations, and politics of this corner of the South. In 1950, the area comprising the SRP and its surrounding communities was primarily poor, uneducated, rural, and staunchly Democratic; by the mid-1960s, it boasted the most PhDs per capita in the state and had become increasingly middle class, suburban, and Republican. The SRP's story is notably dramatic; however, Frederickson argues, it is far from unique. The influx of new money, new workers, and new business practices stemming from Cold War-era federal initiatives helped drive the emergence of the Sunbelt. These factors also shaped local race relations. In the case of the SRP, DuPont's deeply conservative ethos blunted opportunities for social change, but it also helped contain the radical white backlash that was so prominent in places like the Mississippi Delta that received less Cold War investment.

An intimate portrait of a tortured player, this biography culls interviews, letters, and the personal account of baseball legend Willie Mays Aikens. Touted from a young age as the next Reggie Jackson, Aikens' promising career quickly turned disastrous when he fell into drug abuse and was ultimately sentenced to the longest prison sentence ever given to a professional athlete in a drug case. Not only an exploration of baseball and culture in the 1980s, this book also delves into the United States justice and penal systems.

Steeplechasing provides a long, colorful history of the sport and gives behind-the-scenes portraits of the horses, people, and places of the chase. From the 1800s, enjoy the reproductions of illustrations from colorful sporting journals, and enjoy the writing style of that era which was equally colorful. In more recent times, marvelous action pictures capture the excitement, beauty, and sometimes danger of the sport. Art lovers will also enjoy the color reproductions of horse portraits and race scenes by some of America's best sporting artists. Limited Edition ($175) is bound in a cloth clamshell casing.

A research center for Thoroughbred racing, breeding, and related subjects, the Keeneland Association Library is located at Keeneland Race Course near Lexington, Kentucky. Amelia King Buckley, who became librarian in 1953, has compiled an alphabetical author listing of the titles in this unique collection as of June 1, 1958. Begun in 1939 with a gift of 2,000 volumes from William Arnold Hanger, the library has grown with the addition of other gifts and purchases, and now comprises one of the finest collections in its field. The published catalog includes more than 900 monograph titles, more than 100 serial titles, selected sales catalogs, private studbooks, bound pamphlets, and a small amount of manuscript material. The volume is illustrated with photographs from the library's remarkable collection of 15,000 negatives taken by the late Charles Christian Cook, one of the first American photographers to specialize in racing scenes.

Described by his contemporaries as the greatest pianist of the era, Josef Hofmann performed on world stages for more than fifty years, enjoying phenomenal success. Using previously unpublished letters, documents, interviews, and testimonies, Elizabeth Carr uncovers Hofmann's world from child prodigy to established artist and private citizen.

Hunting literature had its beginnings as early as the fourteenth century, when nobles hunted stag, bear, fox, and other game on horseback. As foxhunting grew in popularity, literary works that covered the sport flourished, as well. In Six Centuries of Foxhunting: An Annotated Bibliography, M. L. Biscotti has compiled all books produced in Great Britain and the United States that pertain to, or mention, foxhunting with hounds. Arranged alphabetically by author, more than 2000 titles are included. Each entry features details such as place and year of publication, publisher, book size, page count, illustrations, and binding. Nearly every title is also annotated with a description of the book’s contents, and biographical sketches are provided for the most notable authors. Narratives, histories, illustrated works, verse, fiction, and even anti-hunting literature all have their place in this volume. Six Centuries of Foxhunting also features more than thirty images of book covers and foxhunting illustrations. With appendixes that contain author, title, and illustrator time lines, and separate author and title indexes, this comprehensive bibliography is a valuable resource for researchers, book dealers and collectors, and foxhunters.