Joseph Cowley

John Adams: Architect of Freedom (1738-1826)
John Adams could be, and was on occasion, cantankerous, stubborn, tactless, even rude. He was also prone to vanity and self-pity, and sensitive to what he perceived as slights, or attacks on his reputation or character. He also had a lust for fame, as did many involved in the founding of this nation. But if fame was the spur, it was the driving force behind Adams' enormous energy, energy guided by a strong sense of honor and duty that was built into his character and stayed with him his whole life. Victory in the long struggle for freedom was certainly not assured. In this very readable biography, you'll find the best and brightest people the colonies had to offer. These were the people who tendered their lives, property, and sacred honor as collateral in the struggle for the freedom we enjoy today.

(Sample of writing)

Chapter One
The Early Years (1735-1758)

“Mighty states and kingdoms change,” wrote the young man. “A few people came over to this new world for conscience’ sake; this apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire to America. Our people will, in another century, become more numerous than in England itself. The united force of Europe will not be able to subdue us.” The young man who wrote those words was a twenty-year old school teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts named John Adams. The year was 1755, and at that time America was a group of thirteen relatively unimportant colonies that was part of a great empire ruled by England. To most Europeans it was a wilderness for which England, France, and Spain were still contending. At the end of the century John Adams spoke of, America had a population more than double that of England and was a free and independent nation. Adams himself had helped forge that nation, had been an architect of its laws and constitutions, both federal and states, and after the long struggle for independence became the new nation’s second president. Two centuries later the United States of America was the most powerful nation on earth, a bulwark of freedom and democracy.

John Adams, born in Braintree (the name was changed to Quincy in 1792), Massachusetts on October 19, 1735, was the fifth generation of Adams in this country. His great-great grandfather,Henry Adams, had emigrated to Boston from England in 1636 and settled in Braintree, ten miles south of Boston, in 1640. He, and all his progeny, had been farmers, with the exception of John’s uncle, Joseph Adams, who was a minister in New Hampshire. It was traditional to send the eldest son to college, and John’s father, a deacon in the Braintree First Congregational Church and a selectman in the town, had determined that John, his eldest son, was to be a minister. The ministry, it was felt, was the highest calling to which a young man could aspire. Ministers were not only spiritual leaders of their communities, but frequently temporal leaders as well. For the pulpit provided a powerful platform for the spread of ideas as well as gospel, and the sermon was considered the most important part of the service. John, however, had other ideas...

The Best of Joseph Cowley
Joseph Cowley at his best: Once More With Feeling, about an old man seeking a lost love after his wife dies; The Chrysanthemum Garden, about finding love later in life; Another Great Day, about a man on a "lost weekend"; He Says, She Says, about an unemployed writer and beautiful married woman who meet in Alcoholics Anonymous and fall in love; and The Stargazers, about the conflict between the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler as they struggle to find the secret of the solar system.

The Executive Strategist
Originally published by McGraw-Hill, this guide to scientific decision-making (Operations Research, management science) is designed to help managers in business and industry make better decisions using quantitative decision-making techniques. It discusses each problem area from the executive's point of view, explaining each problem may be better solved.

The Chrysanthemum Garden
Originally published by Simon & Schuster, this is a novel about two mature humans given a second chance at love. The story of their life together is so transcendently beautiful, reading it is like an act of liberation and deliverance from the cares of this life and from the fears of aging and death. It takes you on a journey into the human heart you will never forget.

Home by Seven
This short novel is the story of a man on a "lost weekend" at the moment his life is coming unraveled. It is framed by opening and closing chapters that give it depth and resolution. The opening chapter sparkles with a black humor that, by the end, has turned to the grim reality of an alcoholic filled with the darkness of despair that comes before the dawn of hope.

Landscape with Figures
The story of a family struggling to survive on a dairy farm during the Great Depression. Despite their defects, love enables them to endure and ultimately prevail against defeat. It is told from the viewpoint of the different characters. Like a fine landscape painting, the land itself is part of the story, so vividly realized, so imbued with color and feeling, it makes the novel an unforgettable read.

Dust Be My Destiny
Michael Reles, an agent provocateur for the CIA, and his pal Pancho are caught in the swift action of a band of rebels determined to overthrow the tyrant who rules his country with an iron hand. In the end Michael must choose between his honor and his own troubled humanity. A page-turner, "Dust" will please the discerning reader as well as those who just want a good read.

The House on Huntington Hill
A novel about J. Pierson-Grenville, a wealthy old man who has discovered the secret to eternal life by persuading specially "gifted" young men to give him their bodies, and the attempts of Jack and Doris Oliver to prevent him from claiming their son David. The author considers this a horror novel, but it has also been listed on the Internet as science-fiction.

The Stargazers
The planetary observations of the astronomer Tycho Brahe provide the data upon which Johannes Kepler will base his famous three laws of the solar system. The play's conflict stems from Kepler's urgent need for Tcyho's observations to prove his theories, and Tycho's equally urgent desire not to share them before he can use them (with Kepler's help) to prove his own.

A Jury of His Peers
A textbook salesman with a loving family and wonderful friends is visiting a school on a sales call at the time the rape and murder of a young girl takes place. Circumstantial evidence points to him. Is he guilty? Friends and neighbors, even his wife, become a jury that tries him before his trial by a jury of his peers. In the end, there are three juries. You are the third. What is your verdict?

Twin Bill: I Love You, I Love You\My Life With Women
Two plays tied together by themes of love and lust. In the first, an out-of-work writer and a married woman fall in love in Alcoholics Anonymous and learn a valuable lesson. In the second, a lustful old man is visited by the ghosts of women he has loved.

The Night Billy Was Born and Other Love Stories
Stories of love from teenage to nonage, including the obsession of a young man for an older woman; a married woman's love for another woman; the journey of an old man to find the love he left behind in war-torn England; and the loneliness of an old woman with no one to share her grief on her son's death.

Do You Like It and Other Stories
In this collection you'll find not only stories of "love," from teenage to nonage, but also "strange" stories, of children playing a deadly game in the title story, to the weird adventures of a clutch of explorers in "Kalimundoo". The collection also includes some of the author's earliest stories. Note: Some of these stories also appear in "The Night Billy Was Born."

Love Stories
This book is out of print. The four novellas it contains are "Dianne," "He Says, She Says," "Gina," and "Once More With Feeling." These novellas have all been reprinted in The Night Billy Was Born and Other Stories. Like the stories in that collection, these stories are about love at all ages, arranged chronologically by the ages of the principal characters in each story, and with the feeling-tone appropriate to the ages of the principal characters.