Kevin Amsler
Freelance Writer/Author
THE BOOKS
All available in both printed and e-book
The Architecture of Maritz & Young:
Exceptional Historic Homes of St. Louis
With gracious residential boulevards, soaring cathedrals, and some of this country’s first skyscrapers nestled amid bustling city blocks, St. Louis is home to buildings designed by some of America’s best-known architects, including Cass Gilbert and Louis Sullivan. But no single architectural firm has shaped the style of the city known as the Gateway to the West more than Maritz & Young.
From the beginning of the twentieth century, Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgely Young built more than a hundred homes in the most affluent neighborhoods of St. Louis County, counting among their clientele a Who’s Who of the city’s most prominent citizens. The Architecture of Maritz & Young is the most complete collection of their work, featuring more than two hundred photographs, architectural drawings, and original floor plans of homes built in a variety of styles, from Spanish Eclectic to Tudor Revival. Alongside these historic images, Amsler and Schott have provided descriptions of each residence detailing the original owners. Lovingly compiled from a multitude of historical sources and rare books, this is the definitive history of the domestic architecture that still defines St. Louis.
Final Resting Place:
The Lives and Deaths of Famous St. Louisans
​
"Author Kevin Amsler has done an excellent job of relating the history of St. Louis through the snippets of the people featured. I read this in preparation for a class on St. Louis history and I picked up stories and anecdotes of characters that I had never heard elsewhere or, if I had, was able to place them into a context that I had not previously appreciated. This is a short book and an easy, but most rewarding read." -- James Gallen (Amazon Book Review)
The second edition of "Final Resting Place: The Lives and Deaths of Famous St. Louisans" is available. The softcover book, originally published in 1997 by Virginia Publishing Company, contains biographies about notable St. Louisans, from their unique lives to their final hours and ultimate resting place. Prominent St. Louis cemeteries such as Bellefontaine, Calvary, New Mt. Sinai, and Jefferson Barracks are included.
The book profiles the likes of famed explorer William Clark, St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau, Civil War General William Sherman, "Beat Generation" writer William Burroughs, beer baron Adolphus Busch, broadcaster Jack Buck, and playwright Tennessee Williams. Others prominent in St. Louis and Missouri history - governors, mayors, businessmen, sports figures, entertainers, writers - are included.
Additional chapters cover "Bloody Island", the Mississippi River sandbar where men of honor fought deadly duels giving the island its name; and the disastrous year of 1849 where the Great St. Louis Fire destroyed a sizeable portion of the city and the city's worst cholera epidemic killed thousands of citizens.
Smoky Goes to Europe:
A Travel Tale of a Marriage
Smoky Goes to Europe: A Travel Tale of a Marriage is the humorous story of a pet black bear who accompanies his human parents on a 17-day trip to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Besides staying with family living in Bavaria, the author and his wife take Smoky to explore medieval towns along Germany's Romantic Road, stroll Mozart's Salzburg, hike the Swiss Alps, discover a fairytale castle in Bavaria, renew wedding vows in a historic Italian church, and walk enough hills, steps, and streets to make the reader collapse from exhaustion.
This story weaves through the history of European countries, provinces, cities, and town, while embracing the cultures, the languages, and the increadible scenery of Europe in the spring. Amid the travel tales is the story of the close-knit relationship of a couple who married for the first time later in life and have not spent a single day of that marriage apart.
Smoky Goes to Europe... Again:
A Decade Later in England & France
​
Smoky is again off to Europe with his parents, this time to England and France. This humorous travel journal weaves its way through an 18-day journey beginning with the exploration of charming villages in the English Cotswolds before heading to Oxford, Windsor, then London. The Chunnel train delivers the travelers to Paris for the pleasures of the French capital with a side trip to view the chateaux of the Loire Valley.
English and French history is told through visits to historic towns, museums, castles, and palaces. European royalty is discussed, from the saintly to the tyranical, kings and queens who were honored and hated. Notables such as Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Vincent van Gogh, and Napoleon are brought to life through their deeds, both good and bad. Over 200 photographs will bring the scenery to life.
Shiloh Revisited
A Novel
Frank Mayfield receives a curious letter at his Memphis Historical Society office. The letter, written over 100 years earlier and apparently addressed to him, is from Union soldier Samuel Plant. Jerome Schotten, a rare book collector and owner of the letter, wants Frank to find the treasured diary mentioned in the text.
Days later, Frank and his daughter Sara visit Shiloh National Park in central Tennessee and come in contact with Samuel who leads them into an old log cabin that transforms them back to 1862 to experience the war first hand. During this time, Frank observes the battlefield as no modern man ever has and views Samuel’s diary for the first time. Samuel's inspiring words and spiritual guidance embrace Frank and show him the meaning of life and death.
The Enemy Within: A Screenplay
(Note: This work is in screenplay format.)
It is a fictional story of Kono Sukara, a World War II Japanese soldier who emerges from the Philippine jungles 30 years after the war. His survival instincts prepare him for his introduction into the strange environment of everyday life. He also faces the clash of cultures between his Japanese heritage and his Americanized family who grew up without him. In conclusion, Kono returns to the jungle to help an unscrupulous treasure hunter find a stash of gold stolen by Japanese soldiers during the war.
Excerpt: "When does duty end and peace of mind begin? For most of us there's a clear line between the two. For one man, it had faded, disappeared. I first met my father in 1974 when I was thirty-one. He was born in the small family dwelling in Kofu, Japan in 1920. Called to duty a week after Pearl Harbor, he fought as a member of the Japanese Imperial Army, 32nd Infantry Regiment. He faithfully served his country longer then any Japanese soldier. Through this he redefined dedication and determination, words many of us use for lesser feats. But his battles in the jungles were only a prelude to his battles of conscious. As he continues to struggle for an awareness of the world around him, he relies on the understanding of all of us. This is the story of my father, Kono Sukara."