Civil War News by Theodore P. Savas
"With the publication of Jerry Maxwell’s outstanding The Perfect Lion, the Civil War community finally has the biography it has waited for more than half a century to enjoy."
"Thankfully, most of Maxwell’s ink is spent not on strategic discussion, but on the tactics of his subject — what Pelham did and why, whom he did it with, and what he and his comrades thought, wrote, hoped and dreamed.
The notes and bibliography are extensive, the maps workmanlike but useful for a work of this nature, and the index complete and accurate."
"Writing good biography grounded in firsthand accounts is an art form, and Maxwell’s effort is a standard against which others should be measured."
March 2012 -- http://southfromthenorthwoods.blogspot.com/2012/03/perfect-lion.html
South from the North Woods by Jim Rosebrock
"Jerry H. Maxwell’s new book The Perfect Lion is the latest and most complete biography on the life of Confederate artillerist John Pelham. The book is a well crafted and detailed account of the life of one of the South’s premier gunners - the Gallant Pelham. "
January 2012 -- http://cwba.blogspot.com/2012/01/maxwell-perfect-lion-life-and-death-of.html
Civil War Books and Authors
"Maxwell's depth of research is exemplary, and the level of detail and analysis present in his narrative should fully satisfy even the most demanding Civil War students. My only complaint is a minor one pertaining to the maps. While they do trace the position of Pelham on various battlefields in general terms, and are present in sufficient numbers, one might have wished for a more close-in scale. Again, this is only a minor quibble. The Perfect Lion completely blows away all previous efforts, worthily assuming the mantle of the standard biography of John Pelham. Every student of the operations of the Confederate long arm in the eastern theater during the first half of the war, especially those most interested in Stuart's horse artillery, will benefit substantially from reading this volume."
September 2011 - http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2011/09/pelhams_valor_shines_in_maxwel.html
Al.com by John Sledge
"All of this incident, color and romance would seem to present fine material for a biography, but, surprisingly, there hasn’t been one of the boy major since 1960. Now, that imbalance has been satisfyingly redressed in “Perfect Lion: The Life and Death of Confederate Artillerist John Pelham” (Alabama, $49.95), a solid piece of Civil War scholarship and writing by Jerry H. Maxwell, a former high school teacher with a passion for American history. Maxwell utilizes a suitably broad array of sources in his big book, from official reports and correspondence, newspapers and contemporary memoirs to personal family letters and diaries. He writes with a sure sense of pacing, shifting from animated action in dusty fields to glittering dances held in candlelit parlors. The result is nothing less than history as literature."
January 2011 -- http://spinalcolumnonline.com/the-jerry-maxwell-interview/
Jerry gave an interview to Angela Niemi on January 26th for The Spinal Column, a local Commerce newspaper, speaking about The Perfect Lion for the first time.
December 2010 -- http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Perfect-Lion,5080.aspx
The hardcover publishing date is April 28th, 2011. View the official information from the University of Alabama Press at the site listed above.
September 2010 -- http://alcwrt.org/pdf%20forms/September2010Newsletter.pdf
Jerry gave a talk to the Abraham Lincoln Civil War Round Table on September 16, 2010 and was included in their September newsletter. View their comments at the site listed above.
