A lifetime of working in the prison system inspired Kansas author Robert Hannigan to write a book about his experiences.
Hannigan was one of many authors who appeared for a book signing Thursday evening at Town Crier Bookstore. The authors appeared with copies of their books and signed them for customers of the bookstore who wanted a copy of the book.
“We want to showcase local authors,” said Marla McClellan of Town Crier. “Anytime we can get local authors together to hold an event to help them get started.”
McClellan said a large book signing was held in June but many authors either had books coming out or weren’t able to make that one so another one was held.
Hannigan, who worked in the prison system for 40 years — 30 of those as a warden — has a lot of stories to tell from the unusual to the funny. He wrote the book, “Forty Year Journey in Corrections,” after he retired because he wanted to share the stories with the public. He also wanted people to see the progression of the prison system from the 1950s. During his tenure in the prison system, Hannigan witnessed a prison riot, hunger strikes and work stoppages. There are more than 150 individual topics in the book.
“I tried to balance the book with humorous things that happened and unusual things I saw,” he said.
Sam Pierson, author of “Without Warning” wrote a book about her home break-in experience near Lebo. Pierson and her friend, Ken Vitt, experienced a night of terror as intruders held the two at gunpoint overnight while they burglarized their house. Pierson said they were “hog tied” and held overnight until the next day when they took Vitt to the bank and forced him to withdraw $11,000 — half of what Vitt had in his checking account.
Pierson said while they were ransacking the home, they showed some concern for their victims by switching from rope to duct tape when her hands started turning blue from the rope.
“They robbed me but they were nice to me,” Pierson said.
While the perpetrators might have been “nice” they still threatened Pierson with a gun, putting the gun to her neck and saying if she tried anything they would use it.
The perpetrators also took Pierson’s rings, but gave those back to her following the trip to the bank. Earlier they had told her that if all went well at the bank she would get her rings back. They lived up to their promise.
Pierson said the experience has had a long-lasting effect. Nearly 12 years later, she still doesn’t like to go out at night and no longer drives everywhere at night like she used to before the home invasion. She only recently published the book. It hit bookstores in July.
Kansas City author Patrick Dobson who wrote “Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains” also was present at the book signing. The first part of the book is set in western and central Kansas.
“In May 1995, I left my home and a steady, deadening job to walk to Helena, Mont.,” Dobson wrote in an e-mail. “Walking from my home at Gillham Park in Kansas City, Mo., I let chance encounters guide me to a deeper sense of who I was and where I was going. Seldom Seen charts my experiences with the seldom-seen people of the small towns, the far-flung outposts and the Great Plains that make up our America.”
Dobson wrote that the world he saw was “filled with desperation and hope, beauty and ugliness, hospitality and savagery and richness and simplicity. Religious fundamentalists run me out of their pretty Kansas town. Nebraskans do everything in their power to welcome me into their towns...”
Above all, however, Dobson said he experienced beauty in the land, people and the places he stayed.
Authors present at Thursday evening’s event:
• Jim Hoy, author of multiple books
• Jennifer Slattery, “Journey to the Ice”
• Patrick Dobson, “Seldom Seen: A Journey Into the Great Plains”
• Linda Born, “My Mom Has Alzheimer’s”
• Barry Smith, “Only Milo”
• Todd Hunter, “Heroes Die Young”
• Ken Peery, “Desires of My Heart”
• Doris Peery, “Torn Between Two Rivers”
• Sam Pierson, “Without Warning”
• Justin Bell, “Surviving America”
• Michelle Spencer, “StarElf of Bellethea”
• Robert Hannigan, “A Forty Year Journey in Corrections”
• Stephanie Mann, “Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English”
• Susan Slater, “0-60”
StephanieMann (anonymous) says...
Just a correction: the title of my book is "Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation".
The list above left off the last, crucial word! Thank you.
October 26, 2009 at 5:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )