A Real Christian: The Life of John Wesley fills a void in available books in Wesleyan studies by providing a brief, solid biography that focuses on Wesley himself. While exploring Wesley's ancestry, birth, death, and every major biographical and theological event between, Collins also explores the theme of John Wesley's spiritual growth and maturation. Wesley came to the conclusion that real Christians are those whose inward (and outward) lives have been transformed by the bountiful sanctifying grace of God -- what he termed real Christianity--and this he strove to obtain for himself. Real Christianity, as Wesley understood it, embraces both works of piety and mercy, the person and the social.

John Wesley Hardin spread terror in much of Texas in the years following the Civil War as the most wanted fugitive. Hardin left an autobiography in which he detailed many of the troubles of his life. In A Lawless Breed, Parsons and Brown have meticulously examined his claims against available records to determine how much of his life story is true, and how much was only a half truth, or a complete lie.

" ... the only authentic autobiography of a gunfighter ... reveals [what] made him the most dreaded killer in Texas, admitting to at least 40 fatal shootings ..."--Cover.

"The Plea starts with a terrible crime. On a moonlit night in 1889, the Iowa farmer John Elkins, and his young wife, Hattie, are brutally attacked and murdered in their bed. Eight days later, their son, eleven-year-old Wesley Elkins, is arrested and charged with the crime. The community is shocked by both the gruesome facts of the homicide and the age of the accused perpetrator, a small, quiet boy weighing just 75 pounds. The Plea tells the story of this crime and its aftermath. Despite his youth and evidence that he had been abused by his parents, Wesley is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an adult prison. For more than a dozen years, the boy's fate is in the hands of others. His story captures the attention of a divided and transfixed public, raising questions about the criminal justice system and the rights of children. The focus of the narrative is on the legal and societal aspects of the case: Wesley's rehabilitation and remarkable transformation in prison, his plea that his case be reconsidered, the outpouring of support he received from prison wardens, politicians, newspaper editors, and educators. The story of the life of Wesley Elkins becomes an emotional and compelling story of redemption. This is a true story, based on years of meticulous research. All the scenes are based on primary sources: newspaper reports, legal documents, interviews, nonfiction works, memoirs, and personal letters. Bryan and Wolf quote from these materials throughout the book. The Plea is an accessible and fast-moving story that delivers a complete, complex, and nuanced narrative of this horrific crime, shedding light on the legal, social, and political environment of Iowa and the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s"--

The award-winning author’s “fearless” debut novel chronicles the life of a legendary Texas outlaw with “a ruthless sensibility . . . spare and tough” (Publishers Weekly). Some called him a Texas hero. Some called him the Devil himself. But on one point they all agreed. While he was alive, John Wesley Hardin was the deadliest man in Texas. A killer at fifteen, in the next few years he became skilled enough with his pistols to back down Wild Bill Hickok in the street. The law finally caught up with him when he was twenty-five. By then, he had killed as many as forty men and been shot so many times that, it was said, he carried a pound of lead in his flesh. In jail he became a scholar, studying law books until he won himself freedom, and afterwards he tried to lead an upright life. It was not to be. By the time he was killed in 1895, Hardin was an anachronism—the last true gunfighter of the Old West. With each chapter told from a different character’s perspective, The Pistoleer is “a genuine tour-de-force” of Western historical fiction from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning author of In the Rogue Blood (Rocky Mountain News). “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews “Detailed and cinematic.” —Publishers Weekly “An achievement by any standards, but as a first novel is simply astounding.” —Roundup Magazine