Sergeant York

Growing up in the Tennessee hills, Alvin York was equallyrenowned as a marksman and as a hard-drinking brawler. A dramatic New Year’s conversionconvinced him that killing was against God’s will, and yet this shy, big-bonedmountaineer singlehandedly dispatched two dozen Germans and captured 132 in theclosing days of World War I. He earned the Medal of Honor and a ticker tapeparade but refused to cash in on his fame, insisting “Uncle Sam’s uniform ain’tfor sale.”This succinct and gripping new account of Sgt. York’s remarkablelife includes details from exclusive interviews with the sergeant’s threesurviving children and information drawn from battlefield eyewitness reports andoriginal film studio archives: fresh reminders of the legacy of one of America’sgreat Christian patriots.We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences,their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds.Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers,highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through proseas accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces.Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is D.L. Moody, Sergeant York, SaintNicholas, John Bunyan, or William F. Buckley, we are now living in the worldthat they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light oftheir lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquelyilluminate our shared experience.

John Perry graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University, with additional studies at University College, Oxford, England. Before beginning his career as an author in 1997, he was an award-winning advertising copywriter and radio producer. John has published 21 books as an author, collaborator, or ghostwriter. He is the biographer of Sgt. Alvin York, Mary Custis Lee (wife of Robert E. Lee and great granddaughter of Martha Washington), and George Washington Carver. Among other books, he has also written about the 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial (Monkey Business, with Marvin Olasky, B&H Publishing, 2005) and contemporary prison reform (God Behind Bars, Thomas Nelson, 2006). He is a two-time Gold Medallion finalist and Lincoln Prize nominee. He lives in Nashville.