VAN STOCKUM | Give Someone a Book by HvS

Give a book by Hilda van Stockum this year. Click on a title in blue below to order from Amazon

For Kids - books by Hilda van Stockum -

Little Old Bear – About an old bear that was blind and thrown away. An elderly lady sews new eyes on the bear so he can see again, and he see boys and girls having fun. He wishes one of them would be his friend. And then...!!! For kids and their grandparents.

Patsy and the Pup – A puppy follows a little girl in Ireland home. She is told she will have to bring the puppy back to the owner. She does this, and has many adventures. She wishes she could have a puppy like this. Another surprise ending, making for a happy little girl and a happy puppy.

Kersti and St. Nicholas – This book was written in 1940, the year that Hitler's troops invaded and occupied Holland. While not about the occupation (which is the subject of two other famed books by van Stockum, The Winged Watchman and The Borrowed House), it's about a girl who persuades St Nicholas to be merciful to the naughty boys and girls because they need love.

King Oberon's Forest – A book recommended by Eleanor Roosevelt (a letter from her is reprinted by permission of her estate). It is about challenges to a forest kingdom posed by progress. Illustrations by Brigid Marlin.

For Teens - books by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro  – This is the story of a boy who leaves home and becomes part of a Roma caravan in Ireland. Hilda van Stockum tries to help us understand the life of the Roma, who are outcasts in Ireland. There is a love story between Rory and a Roma girl, carefully told and resolved.

Memoirs and Inspirational Books

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, daughter of HvS. Olga tells of her life as an educator of young women in Kenya. She went to Kenya with two other young European women with a dream, at a time when European teachers were leaving Kenya because of the Mau Mau drive for independence. Olga became a Kenyan citizen and is still there. This is her story.  (She has also written the story of the parents of one of her co-workers in Kenya.)

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. Brigid tells the story of Danny, a boy with both epilepsy and autism. The remedies for one aggravated the symptoms of the other. Brigid seeks meaning for the sadness of Danny's story.

The Box House, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. This is Brigid's touching story about a neglected girl in England who seeks to replace the mother they never had and provide a home for her young siblings.

Science Fiction
Time Bomber, by Robert Wack, is based on the life of Willem van Stockum, Hilda van Stockum's brilliant brother. A mathematics lecturer at the University of Maryland, Willem volunteered for the RAF as a bomber pilot, having spent many months training pilots in navigation. He flew a Halifax with a crew of six others during the week of D-Day. He knew the lousy odds against his coming home from the war. He is buried in France, shot down on June 10, 1944. Robert Wack puts Willem's story into a sci-fi framework to get across the decisions that Willem had to make.

TIME BOMBER | Review by Richard Peacocke

Dr. Robert Wack with
his book, Time Bomber

Richard Peacocke of Ottawa, Canada had some nice words to say about Robert Wack's Time Bomber (Boissevain Books, 2014).

He posted a 5-star rating on the Amazon listing of the book and had the following to say about the book, which he writes that he tried to post but may not have succeeded:

Gripping narrative of warfare and moral choice, underpinned by a far-reaching mathematical theory about space and time. 

Highlights for me are the authentic scenes in the RAF squadron and gripping episodes in the fields of Normandy. The book weaves together the history of several places and time periods, with inspiration drawn from the real-life Dr. Willem van Stockum. 

There is a great deal of action, but while there is bravery and cowardice, there is little or no glory. The character studies and human experience in wartime ring true. 

All the way through the reader has an uneasy feeling that something unknown and mysterious is occurring. This is based on a soaring mathematical theory, the intricacy of which is touched on, but not laboured over. The theory is based on Dr. van Stockum’s work and allows the protagonist to bridge fiction and reality. I couldn’t put the book down.

Thank you, Dick Peacocke, for sending this along.

TIME BOMBER | Author Robert Wack Featured in Maryland Library Magazine

Robert P. Wack with his new
book, Time Bomber (Boissevain
Books, 2014).

Dr. Robert Wack, author of Time Bomber (Boissevain Books, 2014), is featured in the current issue of Currents, magazine published by the Carroll County (Maryland) Public Library.

Carroll County is outside Baltimore. It was the birthplace of Francis Scott Key, who wrote The Star Spangled Banner.

The Carroll County Public Library has six branches, in Eldersburg, Finksburg, Mount Airy, North Carroll, Taneytown, and Westminster.

Dr. Wack is Director of Pediatric Services at Frederick Memorial Healthcare Systems. He is a graduate of Notre Dame and the Georgetown University Medical School. After graduation he served with the U.S. Army Medical Corps on Germany and Hawaii.

He was inspired to write Time Bomber when he was reading a book at the Westminster Public Library called How to Build a Time Machine, by Paul Davies. The book describes the pioneering work of Dr. Willem J. van Stockum in translating Einstein's equations for his Theory of Relativity into an hypothesis of time-like curves that might make possible time travel.

TIME BOMBER | Monument to Plane Crew

L to R: John Ellyatt, John Tepper Marlin and Cpl. Pamela Turney, 
pointing to the crew members to whom they are related. The 
crew members named on the monument are:

Flying Officer Willem Jacob Van Stockum, Pilot

Flying Officer John Ellyatt, Flight Engineer

Flying Officer Gilbert Daniel, Navigator

Flying Officer Robert Keith Marshall, Bomb Aimer

Sergeant Alfred Charles Perkins, Wireless Operator AG

Pilot Officer Fred Beales RCAF, Upper Gunner

Sergeant Albert Mason, Rear Gunner

The hero of Time Bomber is Willem van Stockum, my mother's brother.

Last month I attended a ceremony in France right after the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

The ceremony occurred 70 years after the downing of the MZ 684 Halifax bomber, at Entrammes, near Laval, Mayenne, France - south of Omaha Beach.

My uncle Willem was the pilot of the plane. He and two other crew members were represented by their families at the unveiling: John Ellyatt's son John Ellyatt and Fred Beales's great-niece Cpl. Pamela Turney.

In 2011, four of the seven crew members were represented by family at the Vaufleury Cemetery. The additional family member then was Robin Sumner, nephew of Gilbert Daniel.

Top photo shows two relatives of the crew of the MZ 684, 
JT Marlin (your blogger), nephew of Willem van Stockum, 
and Pamela Turney, great-niece of Fred Beales. The newly 
unveiled monument to the 1944 crash is in Entrammes.

The same day, another monument was unveiled, at Saint-Berthevin, dedicated to the MZ 532 Halifax bomber and its crew.

Comment

Uncle Willem was the person who brought my parents together. He roomed with my father at Trinity College, Dublin in 1929-32. When my father discovered that Willem had a sister, he set about wooing her.

They were married in 1932, had their first child in 1934 (my sister Olga will be 80 this year), and ten years after they were married they got me (#5 out of 6 children).

When Uncle Willem died in 1944, a light went out in the lives of my parents. It was unspeakably tragic for them and for my Granny who lived with us. She lost her husband and both of her sons within a period of a few years. Her daughter was the only one left. Granny died in 1949, the same year as her brother Eugen Boissevain, husband of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

When we came to visit the graves in 1954, the 13 RAF-administered British and Commonwealth graves had tombstones. My uncle's grave just had a simple wooden cross. I remember my mother burst into tears because she couldn't understand why her brother was singled out for not having a tombstone.

"Time Bomber", by Robert
Wack, centered on the life
of W. J. van Stockum.

It turns out it was because Willem was still a Dutch citizen (he was seconded from the Royal Canadian Air Force but was still Dutch although he had applied for American citizenship and was subject to the draft). The Dutch Government had asked my mother what she wanted to have on the tombstone and she said: "Greater love hath no man..." The tombstone arrived in due course, but my mother never came back to see it. My brother Randal and I have been back several times. The Dutch tombstone is very impressive, but it does not have on it the epitaph that my mother requested.

On the other hand, my uncle is the only one so far of the 14 members of the crew to have a book written about him - Time Bomber, written by an unrelated U.S. Army Major and pediatrician, Dr. Robert Wack.

I recommend the book for three groups of people: (1) those interested in the European theater of World War II, (2) those interested in the scientists who have examined time travel, and (3) those who are interested in the motivation and challenges of a soldier's and airman's life.  The story is based mainly on factual material about my uncle and the life he led until it was ended. The additional elements that have been added to the story, what we could call the sci-fi meta-story, make several important points that are hard to discuss any other way.

BOOK EXPO | 2014 Short Takes

The BookExpo America autograph area.

A NewYork Times story this morning by David Carr about BookExpo America says:

Someone forgot to tell the book business that it was dead. ... I walked over to the Javits Center... The immense space was brimming with optimism.

Autograph Lines. That was my impression as well. The lines for autographs were huge. One reason is that the books are given away to those who take the trouble to sign up and wait in line - a good move.

 Another reason is that people who are reading books online are hungry for physical contact - ideally, with the authors.

The entry point to the autograph lines.

At the back of each line is a publisher's representative, who stays with the author and gets more books from boxes behind a curtain. At the front of each line are people in yellow T shirts, mostly young women, who shepherd the fans to the author they want to see.

I talked with one of them, who said that she was a volunteer and was recruited via a summer publishing program.

The autograph lines are cheerful.
What's not to like?

 Some lines are so long there are extra waiting areas to one side to control the crowds. Other lines are very short.

At the end of the corridor of waiting fans is the author with a pile of books.

These are not the only autograph areas. Headline Books, for example, has a table in its exhibit area at which its authors sign books, and they even offer space to authors who do not publish with them.

Book Support Services. Besides publishers, the exhibits include publicists, printers, trade associations, collateral products (stationery, cards), distributors, remainderers and government agencies.

Sarah Miniaci, Publicist for Smith
Publicity.

I stopped by Smith Publicity, run by Dan Smith and his wife. Boissevain Books has used them to promote A Meaning for Danny, a Boissevain Books title. We have also used PR Web to promote Time Bomber.

Sarah Miniaci was on hand to talk to authors. She likes bloggers about books because collectively they are effective at getting the word out about authors.

The Casemate Group targets specialized markets. 

Specialized Publishers. Another exhibit that interested me was that of Casemate, which has developed an extensive line of historical nonfiction that they can deliver to academics and training programs for specialized courses.

I spoke with Jennifer Tanz and others at this stop.

Their array of books about Normandy, D-Day and World War II was impressive.

May 20 - "Time Bomber" Now on Sale

Time Bomber is a Sci-Fi novel based
on real person, Dr. Willem J. van
Stockum, pilot of an RAF Halifax
bomber shot down in June 1944.

Time Bomber is the first book in a new Boissevain Books LLC series, "Science Fiction/Historical Fiction". It is for adult readers or young adults with some background in the history of World War II and a tolerance for mild swear words such as were common among military personnel in action.

It is now available on Amazon as a printed book OR Kindle eBook. To order, go to our new web site at www.boissevainbooks.com or directly to the book's page on Amazon.

The book is written by Robert P. Wack, who is a U.S. Army Major and a pediatrician in the Washington, DC area.  

The first half of the book adheres fairly closely to the biography of Willem Jacob van Stockum (brother of Hilda van Stockum), who is known to time-travel enthusiasts as the first person to have demonstrated to a broad audience a scientific basis for time travel. 

Van Stockum showed how Einstein's equations for his special theory of relativity generate time-like curves and provide a basis for conceptualizing time travel. Van Stockum is the first scientist listed as providing a scientific basis for time travel in David Toomey's synoptic view of the idea of time travel. 

Van Stockum was also a bomber pilot in World War II and was shot down over Laval, France during the week after D-Day. The second half of the book explores a "What if?" question about Willem's life. Publicity for this book is being oriented to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

May 2014 - Boissevain Books Update

Seven Boissevain Books Published so far (Click title to order from Amazon):

Logo for Boissevain Books
Children's Series 

Pre-School Children and Early Grades (up to 10 years old), by Hilda van Stockum

Little Old Bear, for young children and their grandparents; suburban setting, England.

Patsy and the Pup, for young children who would like to have a puppy; in rural Ireland. 

Kersti and St. Nicholas, Dutch girl charms St. Nick into leaving gifts for naughty kids; rural Holland.

Older Children and Young Adults (7+ years old), by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro, about gypsies; teaches tolerance and also its limits; Ireland

King Oberon's Forest, life among the animals, environmental message; magical forest setting.

Memoirs/Biography - 

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, about her half-century in Kenya

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, about her son with Asperger's; England.

Update, May 2014 - Three More Books in the 2014 Pipeline
1. April 2014 - A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin co-published with Philadelphia-based Infinity Publishers, has been getting interviews, press coverage and some rave reviews. It tells the story of an autistic boy from the point of view of his mother. Some membership organizations and writers specializing in autism, Asperger's, epilepsy or mental illnesses generally have been ordering the book.

2. May 2014 - Our web site has been redesigned. Next in the Pipeline, Book #8: Time Bomber. The first book in a new series, "Science Fiction/Historical Fiction", is AS OF MAY 17 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. The book is written by Robert P. Wack.  The first half of the book adheres fairly closely to the biography of Willem Jacob van Stockum (brother of Hilda van Stockum), the first person to have demonstrated to a broad audience how Einstein's equations for his special theory of relativity generate time-like curves and provide a basis for conceptualizing time travel. Van Stockum is the first physicist listed as providing a scientific basis for time travel in David Toomey's synoptic view of the idea of time travel. He was also a bomber pilot in World War II and was shot down over Laval, France during the week after D-Day. The second half of the book explores a "What if?" question about Willem's life. Publicity for this book is being oriented to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

3. June 2014 - After Time Bomber, Boissevain Books will be publishing Book #9, the third book in its Memoir/Biography series, The Box House, by Brigid Marlin. It is based on a true story about a young girl in a family in England with a mother who virtually abandons her children. The girl takes responsibility for the raising of her younger siblings, and creates a secret home for them out of cardboard boxes in a vacant lot.

4. July 2014 - Boissevain Books returns to keeping in print books by Hilda van Stockum - Book #10, reprinting Andries, is in production.

5. August 2014 - We again plan to participate in the Children's Fair at the East Hampton Library, on August 10. Also, we will move into production two more books (Books #11 and #12) for adults: (1) The influence of Oxford and Cambridge alumni on the 13 original American colonies (Biography), and (2) A biography of Will Woodin, FDR's first Treasury Secretary.

6. September 2014 - The Board of Boissevain Books meets again in Ottawa, where two members of the Board reside.