Richard Purtill Books

This book details my two fire service careers that took me to the "bumpy" road to the top. These careers consumed almost 34 years of my life. In this book I also included my colorful and exciting pre-teen and teenage years as well as my Navy experience. I originally wanted to be a Montgomery County Police Officer while in high school but after I finished my time with the Navy Seabees, unexpected events led me to the fire service. The fire service then afforded me an interesting career. In this book you will see where I was honored by being invited to "Ground Zero" by some of the FDNY Firefighters. This by far was the most emotional trip I have ever undertaken.

"The story of Helen of Troy is one of the great classics of all time. In this unusual fantasy novel, Richard L. Purtill dares to look behind the scenes to depict what it was really like to be involved with that half-goddess whose radiant beauty did indeed launch a thousand ships. Here is Helen as a child, kidnapped and held hostage. Here is Helen as a woman, captive in an alien city while the civilized world sought for her, fought for her. Told as by one who had seen the events, who knew her, who knew the gods who pulled the world's strings, this is a novel that brings it all back in the vivid reflections of the mirror of divine judgement."— Donald A. Wollheim, founder of DAW Books"With a scholar's grasp of the period and its mythology, and an unerring eye for character, Richard Purtill brings a gripping reality to the siege of Ilium. As real as today's news—and vastly more enjoyable."— F. M. Busby, author of The Demu Trilogy

The basic purpose of the book is to recall and record the historical events that surrounded and strongly influenced a generation of Americans. It was that generation born in the decade of the Great Depression, 1930 1940. To be dubbed later as the "Silent Generation," although not really 'silent,' they should more properly be called the "Depression Babies." They would grow up during World War II, a war fought by their parents whom Tom Brokaw would celebrate as The Greatest Generation. The Depression Babies were educated in the late 1940s and early 1950s, participated in or witnessed two more wars and were major contributors to the Technology Revolution in its early developmental stages. The book deals with the history and progress (or lack thereof) of the Depression Babies up to the present day and explains their politics and actions that unfortunately had them mislabeled as the "Silent Generation."

A fascinating look at the fantasy and philosophy of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien. The two men were friends and fellow professors at Oxford, renowned Christian thinkers who both found it necessary to create for the purposes of their fiction other worldsnot utopias or dystopias, but different worlds.The great importance of [Lewis and Tolkien] is that they have succeeded in restating certain traditional valuesin a way that they make an imaginative appeal to a very wide audience, young and old, traditionalist and non-traditionalist. Richard Purtill, Author, J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion"