Neshaminy: The Bucks County Literary Journal Spring/Summer 2025, No. 11

by Don Swaim, William J. Donahue (Editor), Melissa D. Sullivan (Editor)

In this Heroes of villains? The violent 19th-century struggle of the Pennsylvania coal-mining activists the Molly Maguires against the mine owners led to the execution of 20 men and the glorification of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Don Swaim’s extensive article explores both sides of this historic drama and its impact on the anthracite communities of Pottsville and Jim Thorpe. Coincidentally, in a profile, famed author John O’Hara. who was born in Pottsville, achieved undisputed fame as a novelist, but became one of the most hated and reviled figures in American literary history. This issue also includes work by the beloved Pennsylvania author Christopher Morley, including his ghost story first published in 1921.
Jazz musician and paranormal investigator Eric Mintel, originally from Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, is interviewed by William J. Donahue. Mintel sees his pursuits as two sides of the same coin, and believes there are subconscious connections between the musical and the spirit world. While his jazz quartet has performed at the White House, Mintel’s paranormal investigations have led to the founding of the Vampire and Paranormal Museum in Doylestown.
Also in this issue, an interview with cover-artist Jay McPhillips, poetry by Talia Borochaner, Arlene Geller, Claire Hadida, and Cheryl Salerno; history by Kerry Stickel; and a memoir by Carl Reader.

141 pages, Paperback

Published April 6, 2025

About the author

Don Swaim is a writer, novelist, journalist, and winner of the 2011 Pearl S. Buck short story prize. His novel, The H.L. Mencken Murder Case (St. Martin's Press), was republished as a trade paperback under the Authors Guild's Back in Print program. Born in Kansas and educated in Ohio, his daily feature "Book Beat" was broadcast on major radio stations through the CBS Radio Stations News Service, and can be heard on the Internet at Wired for Books and at Book Beat:The Podcast. After a career at CBS in New York and Baltimore, Swaim founded the Bucks County Writers Workshop in Pennsylvania. He edits the web's definitive Ambrose Bierce Site. His fiction and articles have been published in small magazines and on the web.