Welcome to Legacy Books Press

Legacy Books Press is a publisher based in Kingston, Ontario, specializing in non-fiction about history and Classics.  We are dedicated to exploring those interesting corners of history, both modern history and ancient history, that tend to be overlooked, but still shaped the world as we know it today.

We are currently looking for academic and mainstream non-fiction books about all time periods of modern and ancient history.  Please see our submission guidelines for details.

News

The Secret History of Star Wars: The Art of Storytelling and the Making of a Modern Epic

By Michael Kaminski

628 pages

ISBN: 978-0-9784652-3-0

$44.95 Canada
$39.95 U.S.A.
£25.95 U.K.
€31.95 Europe
$47.95 Australia

Star Wars is one of the most important cultural phenomena of the Western world.  The tale of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and the fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker has become modern myth, an epic tragedy of the corruption of a young man in love into darkness, the rise of evil, and the power of good triumphing in the end.

But it didn’t start out that way.

In this thorough account of one of cinema’s most lasting works, Michael Kaminski presents the true history of how Star Wars was written, from its beginnings as a science fiction fairy tale to its development over three decades into the epic we now know, chronicling the methods, techniques, thought processes, and struggles of its creator.  For this unauthorized account, he has pored through over four hundred sources, from interviews to original scripts, to track how the most powerful modern epic in the world was created, expanded, and finalized into the tale an entire generation has grown up with.

Now available from Barnes & Noble; on Amazon in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Japan; and your local bookstore.  Also available at the low price of $9.99 US for Amazon Kindle and as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book from Powells, Ebookmall, and Diesel E-books.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora: Ancient Greek and Roman Humour, 2nd Edition: Agora Harder!

By R. Drew Griffith and Robert B. Marks

316 pages

ISBN: 978-0-9784652-2-3

$29.95 U.S.A./Canada
£18.95 U.K.
€20.95 Europe
$27.95 Australia

Ancient Greece and Rome aren’t usually remembered for their sense of humour. However, in reality the ancient Greeks and Romans often refused to take themselves seriously. Strange and outlandish activities abounded – including somebody accidentally exposing himself while dancing sideways at his wedding (those wearing bed sheets didn’t wear underwear) and a group of drunk young men thinking their house is sinking at sea, and tossing all their furniture out the windows.

In this new edition, R. Drew Griffith and Robert B. Marks take you on a lively and funny journey through the more bizarre activities of the ancient world, venturing out as far as Egypt, Babylon, and Scandinavia, ranging everywhere from moochers to quacks to shrews to perhaps the oldest laundromat joke in history, and even revealing the most terrible thing you can do to anybody involving a radish.

Now available from Amazon.com in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, from Barnes & Noble, and for order at your local bookstore.  Also available as an Adobe Digital Editions e-book at the low price of $12.95 US from Powells, Ebookmall, Diesel E-books, and Booksonboard.

Nicoletto Giganti's The School of the Sword

A New Translation by Aaron Taylor Miedema

172 pages

ISBN: 978-1-927537-07-7

$21.95 Canada
$19.95 U.S.A.
£12.95 U.K.
€14.95 Europe
$22.95 Australia

Rapier fencing and duelling during the 16th and 17th centuries was dominated by the Italian masters, whose systems of sword fighting became increasingly sophisticated. Breaking away from this trend, Nicoletto Giganti developed something different: a frugal system of fencing that cut to the core of what a swordfight was and how to win it. Giganti’s Scola overò Teatro, or The School of the Sword, became one of the most influential systems of fencing across Europe in the seventeenth century.

In this remarkable new translation by historical fencing instructor and historian Aaron Taylor Miedema, author of Bayonets and Blobsticks, Giganti’s work is presented fresh to the modern reader.  Copiously illustrated with redrawings of dozens of Giganti’s original plates, over 60 new photographs, and even a new plate, Giganti’s detailed curriculum is augmented by comprehensive annotation and commentary.  Regardless of whether you are a historian, a casual reader with an interest in the sword, or an accomplished swordsman, Nicoletto Giganti’s The School of the Sword is a fascinating guide to the art of rapier fencing.

Now available from your local bookstore, from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

Journey to the Polar Sea 1819-1822

By Sir John Franklin, with Appendices by Dr. John Richardson, Lieutenant Robert Hood, R.N., and Joseph Sabine, Esq., F.R.S., and a Foreword by Captain R.F. Scott

766 pages

ISBN: 978-1-997846-08-6 (Paperback) / 978-1-997846-09-3 (Hardcover)

$115.95 (Paperback) / $148.95 (Hardcover) Canada
$82.95 (Paperback) / $106.95 (Hardcover) U.S.A.
£65.95 (Paperback) / £84.95 (Hardcover) U.K.
€77.95 (Paperback) /  €98.95 (Hardcover) Europe
$120.95 (Paperback) / $149.95 (Hardcover) Australia

Exploration, Starvation, and Survival in the Quest for the Northwest Passage

In 1819 Lieutenant John Franklin was selected to command the Royal Navy’s first overland expedition in the Canadian wilderness. Their mission was to seek the Northwest Passage by charting the northern coast eastwards from the Coppermine River while documenting the geography of Northern Canada, from flora and fauna to magnetic variations to meteorology to the Aurora Borealis. Assisting the expedition with information, advice, and supplies was the Hudson’s Bay Company.

What began with promise soon became a harrowing struggle to survive. Miscalculations by the leadership combined with missing supplies to reduce the expedition to starvation, murder, and even cannibalism. Eleven men died, and Franklin became forever known as “the man who ate his boots.”

Based on the 1823 folio, this new deluxe edition contains 4 maps and 28 restored engravings, 11 of which are in colour. It also includes detailed scientific appendices by Dr. John Richardson, Lieutenant Robert Hood, and Joseph Sabine. It is a remarkable look at the land and people of early 19th century Northern Canada.

Now available from Amazon.com in paperback and hardcover.

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