Pony Express coming to the Albert Wisner Public Library on Sept. 16

WARWICK — Master storyteller, New York Times best-selling author and Warwick resident Jim Defelice is coming to the Albert Wisner Public Library on Sunday. Sept. 16, at 2 p.m., to discuss his newest history, "West Like Lightning: The Brief Legendary Ride of the Pony Express."
A discussion with the author will be followed by a book signing with copies available for purchase.
To attend this program, please register online at albertwisnerlibray.org or call 986-1047 ext. 3.
DeFelice is known for his vivid, raw and powerful portrayals of modern American military heroes: from Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's iconic memoir "American Sniper" to a ground-breaking biography on WW II-era Five Star general, "Omar Bradley: General at War."
The frontier's most audacious enterprise In "West Like Lightning: The Brief Legendary Ride of the Pony Express," DeFelice resurrects the heroes of the Old West to recreate the sweeping drama of the American frontier's most audacious enterprise: the legendary Pony Express.
A meticulous researcher, DeFelice drove the entire, nearly 2,000-mile stretch of the original Pony Express trail from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, in 2016.
Along the way, he talked with museum curators, local historians and historical reenactors of the Pony Express Association, and tracked down original documents to convey the full scope of the historic enterprise against the wider background of the U.S. Postal Service, American finance, the Gold Rush and the impending Civil War.
There is also a surprising connection to the Hudson Valley inventor Samuel Morse’s telegraph system, to New York City’s financial district, which financed some of the enterprise and to political scandals in Washington, D.C.
'Rendered in fine, thrilling detail'Critically reviewed, Publisher’s Weekly said: “DeFelice frames his story with the six-day November 1860 trip that brought news of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential victory from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif., the Pony’s main route. The ride, including employees’ encounters with feuding settlers in Kansas, bison stampedes, and hostile Native Americans, is rendered in fine, thrilling detail.”
And Tombstone Epitaph’s reviewer Erik J. Wright said it “offers a fresh and engaging look into an often-ignored piece of America’s frontier heritage. . . it reads like a wild ride through our western imaginations.”
Delving deeply into the human experience of war, history, geopolitics, and cutting edge technology, DeFelice has written on a wide range of subject matter. His spy novels run the historical gamut, from the American Revolution (The Silver Bullet), to futuristic techno-thrillers (Dreamland and Puppetmaster series co-written with Dale Brown). His military histories capture the WW II-era in Rangers At Dieppe, and the current Iraqi and Afghanistan wars in two memoirs, "Code Name: Johnny Walker" and "Fighting Blind," along with the critically acclaimed novel, Leopards Kill. He also helped create and wrote the storylines for several video games, most notably "Ace Combat: Assault Horizon" and "Afro Samurai."
Learn more at his websites www.jimdefelice.com and www.westlikelightning.com.