Rex Alan Smith is renowned for the books he has written. He has gained the respect of historians, publishers and

Rex Alan Smith Black Hills, SD

readers alike; earning a reputation as one who is meticulous in his research, talented in his writing techniques, and spellbinding in his story telling style.

      His major literary works are:

• Moon of Popping Trees  - "THE LAST SIGNIFICANT BATTLE between the American Indian and the white man took place on December 29, 1890, on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. It has been called both a "battle" and a "massacre"- the term used depending on the bias of the speaker. Actually, it was mostly a battle, partly a massacre, and entirely a tragic blunder.
  excerpt: paragraph 1, Chapter 1
  Reader's Digest Press, 1975
  

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  With co-author Philip Kaplan :
• One Last Look
  "...in this compelling book one is truly taken back to wartime England-through a rare combination of the frank recollections of men who still vividly remember what it was like to be there (from flying through flak over the target to slogging through perpetual mud at the base), as well as vintage photos from their scrapbooks and other private collections, and a wide-ranging selection from the U. S, A. F: archives of both pictures and memorabilia-to richly illustrate the American experience in World War II England as it was lived. "
  excerpt: One Last Look dust jacket.
  Abbeville Press, 1983
  

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• The Carving of Mount Rushmore - The Carving of Mount Rushmore is the first book to tell the complete story of what Franklin D. Roosevelt called "The Shrine of Democracy," of how the project was conceived, how the site was chosen, what the geology and hidden hazards of Mount Rushmore were, and of how portrait-carving on such an unprecedented scale actually was done.
  excerpt: dust jacket
  Abbeville Press ( New York, NY ), 1985
  

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With co-author Gerald A. Meehl:
• Pacific Legacy. —A beautifully illustrated book, great in both size and content.
  Foreword by Joe Foss, Medal of Honor winner — "No OTHER BOOK ON WORLD WAR II so VIVIDLY SURVEYS, in fascinating narrative and evocative illustration, all aspects of the Pacific war-bringing alive the terrors of charging point blank into Japanese gunfire on invasion beaches, flying with Doolittle on a one-way trip to bomb Tokyo, living with the tedium of everyday life on support bases miles from the fighting, recklessly attacking Japanese destroyers in plywood PT boats, bearing up under the drudgery of building coral runways on forward bases for the B-29's that relentlessly bombed Japan, and living through the swarms of kamikaze attacks on American ships."
  excerpt: dust jacket
  Abbeville Press ( New York, NY ), 2002
  

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And coming, October 2004 - Abbeville Press:
With co-author Gerald A. Meehl:
• Pacific War Stories: In the Words of Those Who Survived ... a unique book of stirring, first-hand accounts from front-line combat at the epicenter of violence and death to restless weariness on rear area islands thousands of miles from the fighting to chilling aerial encounters with the dreaded Japanese Zero.

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• He is author of several other works including: Straight Talk About Life Insurance Dividends and various contributions to Reader's Digest and Life Association News.

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