A whopping tale about a California ranching family (1923 to 1940) who are already rich but become crazy rich when one of the sons discovers oil―giving them a money printing machine they can use any way they like―which they proceed to do and then some. The oil business and endless stockholders meetings, horse racing, show business, movie stars, art, politics, oh yes, sex―that about covers it.Sometimes hitting it just right, but mostly going on too long and meandering too far, Busch ...

Greatness can―and often does―arise out of undistinguished and ignoble beginnings. This collection of biographical vignettes of celebrated Americans of a bygone era tells the stories of twenty-one individuals―a baseball player, hotel owner, producer, band leader, umpire, jockey, actress, as well as enterprising promoters and entrepreneurs―who began as nobodies but achieved the impossible. Engaging, illuminating, educational, historical, unforgettable. It is the our good fortune that the con...

John Charles Fremont(January 21, 1813-July 13, 1890) ― military officer, explorer, and politician ― has long stumped historians. Some scholars regard him as a military hero, while others view him as a failure who was so volatile and complex that he repeatedly defeated his own aspirations. It's not surprising that this accomplished and controversial individual was the choice of Niven Busch for this Bicentennial novel written for the San Jose Mercury News in 1976.No Place for a Hero ...

With action moving from the fast-track of Silicon Valley to a Moroccan prison cell, from secret war games in the California desert to sexual espionage in the nation's capital, this story tells of a young man brought up in the weapons business–and disgusted with it – who is suddenly forced to adjust to a world he never made. Jason Streck, once a hostage of another kind, inherits his father's defense-procurement empire and is swiftly drawn onto turf staked out for profit by international mer...

In politics, the rise to the top can also correspond to the erosion of one's moral core. Ask Aline Cleary Belshaw ― her father was an honest and popular senator and she grew up immersed in the excitement of political life, believing in the unshakable fiber of the political process. So when she marries a grass-roots lawyer with political ambitions, she is happy to support him in every way. Until, of course, she discovers that his integrity is disappearing along with every toehold.Cl...

Spanish Bit Ranch is the insular domain of Senator Jackson McCanles; a kingdom carved from the Texas soil in the 1880's and containing thousands of acres of “steers and wire, mesa and windmills and horses, cap rock and barren trail and pleasant river shallows.” A way of life ruled by the Code of the Plains and carefully constructed to withstand the relentless path of progress and interfering outsiders.But, despite their efforts, the Senator and Mrs. McCanles and their four sons are...

New Mexico cattle baron, Temple Caddy Jefford, hog-rich and gut-mean, doesn't think that either of his two sons has what it takes to manage the spread after he's gone. In lieu of a son's partnership, he offers the job to his flinty, shrewd, and passionate daughter, Vance who accepts the challenge and excels. As the bond between father and daughter grows, she becomes the beloved patriarch's indispensable assistant and astutely masters all she can about her father's business tactics―perhaps ...

In this essay originally aired in the 1950s, novelist and screenwriter Niven Busch discusses faith, prayer, and subway rides in "The Fellowship of the World", his contribution to NPR’s This I Believe series.This I Believe is a National Public Radio program that features Americans, from the famous to the unknown, completing the thought that begins with the series title. The pieces that make up the program compel listeners to re-think not only what ...

Three marines, one seaman, and a raider scout are thrown together on their last patrol and, bound by hardship and tragedy, become the Group; a brotherhood that is their only home and sets the standard by which they live. When they return to Los Angeles in 1943, they are dedicated to staying united as they abandon death, doubt, and terror and endeavor to embrace life, hope, and assurance.However, the men find themselves and their families irreparably changed as the challenges of civ...

“If you locked the window, the past crept under the door.”As Jessica Saxe lies dying in a hospital, the story of the Saxe family — Anchylus, her husband, and Pamela, Alexandra, and Sharon, their three daughters — slowly unfolds, meandering backward and forward in time as the author skillfully merges the memory of the past with the challenges of the present and the reflection that hindsight kindles. While it could be said that this is a rags-to-riches story of a man — irascible, lif...

Dan Prader is “the perfect figure of a man.” A has-been stunt man and actor looking for the way back into a profession for which he was once flawlessly suited. Few remember him, but among those who do is his neglected and bitter son, Harold, overshadowed since childhood by the sheer size and charisma of his once famous father.Dan is still deeply loved by his wife, Jill, who though confounded by her husband's capricious spending and wandering eye, holds fast to her marriage and drea...

An aged and penniless man shakes a fist in the faces of the dynastic, arrogant lords of the great Railroad Bank of San Francisco and demands an accounting of his rights. Andy O'Toole holds a worn and yellowed passbook to an account opened by his father the year he was born and a contract in the flyleaf clearly states that he has a right to the profits of the bank—profits that he has been unable to claim. An unknown young attorney on the prowl takes on the case hoping to right the injustice...