Earl B. McElfresh

Biography

Earl B. McElfresh (St. Lawrence University) is the author of Sidereal Days, The History of Rock & Roll, A Romance (Tammy Norie Press e-book 2012,) Maps and Mapmakers of the Civil War (Abrams, 1999) and contributing editor to Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald (History Book Club, 2007.) He is a regular contributor of Civil War articles to Civil War Times Magazine.

He has spoken on Civil War mapping at The Smithsonian, The National Archives, The Library of Congress, The New York Public Library, The Boston Public Library, The Newberry Library, The Harvard Map Collection, The Warburg Institute in London, National Geographic and on C-Span Book TV.

His plays Marvels of Modern Man and Amid Planetary Music were performed at St. Lawrence University. His play Honor Luck received a reading at the New Phoenix Theater in Buffalo. His screenplay Lazy Eye was filmed and premiered at the New School in New York.

Cartographer for McElfresh Map Company LLC, he has prepared twenty-three maps. Twenty of the maps have been main or featured selections of History Book Club. He is currently preparing endpaper maps for the four volume Civil War set being being published by Library of America and entitled The Civil War: Told by Those Who Lived It.

He served two years in Olean (NY) city government on the Common Council—a great experience—and he played rhythm guitar with the band The Fabtones. The cabaret laws of New York City pretty much restricted their playing to the wonderfully hospitable streets of New York City.

He and his wife Michiko have three children and a cat. Like Roger Miller’s King of the Road, they have no pool.

Where to find Earl B. McElfresh online

Books

A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping Section Six--Make Straight His Path: Maps and Topography in the Civil War & Military Mapping: Robert E. Lee Moves to Gettysburg
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 6. Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 10,730. Language: English. Published: September 11, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » American, Nonfiction » History » Essays
Military maps are not like civilian road maps which merely outline a transportation network. Military maps encompass a complete inventory of the topography of the geographic areas an army might march through or fight over. The two articles in this symposium describe in great detail how maps were prepared, used and what effect maps, or lack of maps, had on Civil War campaigns and battles.
A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping Section Five--Getting There First: Essays on Three Civil War Mapmakers
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 5. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,820. Language: English. Published: September 10, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » Essays, Nonfiction » History » American
Maps & the engineers that made them performed some of the most crucial tasks of the Civil War. The mapmakers & their maps are often overlooked, but they could make the difference between a successful campaign & a lost battle. These are the men that commanders paid close attention to even if history has not. This symposium will introduce the reader to Jed Hotchkiss, Leon Fremaux, and John S. Clark.
Robert E. Lee Fails: Mapping Gettysburg
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 4. Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 8,640. Language: English. Published: June 26, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » North America » USA, Nonfiction » History » Military » Military / United States
Did hubris lead Robert E. Lee astray in the Gettysburg Campaign?
A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping Section Three: Two Views from Inside Lincoln’s Office
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 3. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 2,920. Language: English. Published: September 19, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » American, Nonfiction » History » Essays
Two articles: "Since I Came to This Place" describes President Lincoln's White House Office. The second article describes Francis Carpenter's famous painting. All of the items shown in the painting, from the pictures on the wall to the papers on the floor, have some significance in relation to the preparation and presentation of the Emancipation Proclamation. Nothing is incidental.
Sidereal Days The History of Rock and Roll A Romance (In One Volume)
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 174,180. Language: English. Published: September 10, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Historical » USA, Fiction » Literature » Literary
Meet the Sparrows…and Bo Diddley, the Cookies, Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, Ed Sullivan, the Beatles and more as they navigate through their Sidereal Days in the early ‘60s, writing, recording and performing their rock and roll music. Sidereal Days The History of Rock and Roll A Romance. Books 1-2-3-4 now complete in one volume.
A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping Section Two: U. S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 2. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 4,850. Language: English. Published: February 1, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » Military » Military / United States, Nonfiction » History » American
This second section of A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping describes the logistics and tactics of General U. S. Grant during the Vicksburg campaign and the role that maps played in his maneuvers.
A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping Section One: Marching with Maps & Mapping the Shenandoah Valley
Series: A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping, Book 1. Price: $1.99 USD. Words: 10,330. Language: English. Published: January 23, 2012 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » American, Nonfiction » History » Military » Military / United States
This first section of A Symposium of Lectures and Articles on Military Mapping includes an introduction to the series as well as a description of the efforts by the opposing Confederate and Federal Armies to accurately map the logistically and strategically crucial valley sheltered between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains.