From the Inside Flap
Set in early 20th century Manchuria, the Boxer Rebellion raging throughout the coutnry, the Name of Hero involves readers in the strange career of Alexander Xavierevich Bulatovich of His Majesty's Life Guard Hussar Regimetn. Plotted in the panoramic tradition of James Michener, this historical novel blends fact, fiction, and adventure. It tells of womena nd war, of turbulent events sparked off by religion and railroads, and the tension between facts and faith.
Emerging from an exotic backdrop of Manchurian deserts, Ethiopian elephant hunts, and Petersburg and its surrounding coutnryside, is the story of the enigmatic Bulatovich. Caught among three worlds -- Russia, Manchuria, and Ethiopia -- and three women ... he is forced to confront himself and others in a world that keeps shifting beneath his feet.
About the Author
Richard and his wife Barbara run The B&R Samizdat Express, a small publishing company that does most of its business over the Internet.
Richard also works as Internet Evangelist in the Internet Business Unit at Digital Equipment. He was one of the handful of people who helped Digital to recognize and take advantage of new business opportunities on the Internet as the first major company to use the Web for marketing. He now helps Digital's customers rethink their business models. He acts as a change agent, an advocate for full and more effective use of the Internet for business, communication, and education.
He hosts a weekly chat session on Business on the World Wide Web at Thursdays from noon to 1 PM Eastern Time (GMT -5). He also wrote a book for Digital Equipment entitled The AltaVista Search Revolution published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill and writes a monthly column in the newsletter The Internet Search Advantage, published by the Cobb Group (Ziff-Davis). He is now at work on another book, entitled The Social Web: from Hyperlinks to People Links and Success on the Internet. lf an "Internet evangelist" because of his passion for the subject and his contagious enthusiasm.
Richard graduated from Yale in English in 1969, and has a masters in comparative literature (Russian, French, and German) from the U. of Mass. in Amherst.
His historical novel The Name of Hero (set in Russia, Ethiopia, and Manchuria in 1900) was published by Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin in 1981. He successfully self-published a satirical fable The Lizard of Oz (1974) and a collection of children's stories Now and Then and Other Tales from Ome (1976). And he translated from the Russian two books about Ethiopia in the 1890s by Bulatovich (the "hero" of The Name of Hero) -- From Entotto to the River Baro and With the Armies of Menelik II. He has also written a variety of articles, stories, and plays, some of which are available from the B&R. He recently finished a screenplay, Spit and Polish, which deals with reservists in basic training during the Viet Nam War, and a contemporary novel, Sandcastles. He lives in Boston with his wife Barbara and four extraordinary children.
