Tomáš Klvaňa is Visiting Professor at New York University Prague and a senior international consultant. He was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, served as the Press Spokesperson and Policy Adviser to the President of the Czech Republic, and was Special Coordinator for the Czech government’s missile defense program. Dr. Klvaňa co-founded the Aspen Institute Central Europe and served on its board. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, where he received the Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals, and an M.A. from Charles University in Prague. Dr. Klvaňa is married with two daughters and lives in Prague.

Richard Rex retired from the University of Utah. He is the author of a collection of Chaucer essays titled The Sins of Madame Eglentyne, as well as Alice Muriel Williamson: The Secret History of an American-English Author and The Literary Career of W. B. Trites (Academica Press). He lives with his wife, Ines, on the Olympic Peninsula, in Port Angeles, Washington.

Eric Louw’s career spanned universities in both South Africa and Australia. Prior to that, he was a journalist at the Pretoria News and also ran an NGO engaged in development work in South Africa. Louw has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town and at the University of South Africa and has served on the editorial boards of four academic journals. His publications in the fields of political communication and South African politics include 12 books, over 60 journal articles and over 40 book chapters. Dr. Louw’s books include Decolonization and White Africans: The ‘Winds of Change,’ Resistance, and Beyond (Academica Press) as well as Roots of the Pax Americana, The Rise, Fall and Legacy of Apartheid, and New Voices Over the Air: The Transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in a Changing South Africa.

Paul Brian Heise has studied the works of Richard Wagner since 1971. While pursuing graduate studies in anthropology at Southern Illinois University, he developed an argument that Wagner’s works could be understood as an allegory and withdrew from formal studies to devote his life to discovering and sharing his wholesale reassessment of the meaning of Wagner’s dramas and their music. Heise has published extensively on Wagner, including The Wound That Will Never Heal: An Allegorical Interpretation of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung (Academica Press, 2021), and, with the support of the late British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, the website www.wagnerheim.com, an online compendium of Heise’s thoughts about Wagner.

Paul Brian Heise has studied the works of Richard Wagner since 1971. While pursuing graduate studies in anthropology at Southern Illinois University, he developed an argument that Wagner’s works could be understood as an allegory and withdrew from formal studies to devote his life to discovering and sharing his wholesale reassessment of the meaning of Wagner’s dramas and their music. Heise has published extensively on Wagner, including The Wound That Will Never Heal: An Allegorical Interpretation of Richard Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung (Academica Press, 2021), and, with the support of the late British philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, the website www.wagnerheim.com, an online compendium of Heise’s thoughts about Wagner.

Major Bruce H. Norton, USMC (ret.), Author of Stingray: The History of Reconnaissance Marines Vietnam - 1965-1972, The Encyclopedia of American War Heroes, and Letters from a Yankee Doughboy: Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker in World War I

Master Sergeant Phillip Gibbons, USMC (ret.)

John Andrew Morrow received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, where he focused on Hispanic, Indigenous, and Islamic Studies. He has also completed over four decades of Islamic seminary studies, both independently and at the hands of a series of Muslim scholars. Dr. Morrow has taught at universities around the world and reached the rank of Professor. Recognized as a Master Teacher and a Distinguished Faculty Member, he received a Student Impact Award, an Interfaith Service Award, and a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. A prolific, pioneering, and path-forging author, academic, and activist, he is considered of the leading authorities on Islam and one of the most influential American Muslims.

Juliette de Marcellus, author and journalist, is a great-great-granddaughter of Sir James Bacon. She has produced this book from his unpublished memoirs. In addition to a lifetime career as journalist and critic, Miss de Marcellus, has edited and overseen the publication of two celebrated anthropological studies, The Atlas of Man and The Atlas of Language, by her father, Count Henri de Marcellus. She is also the author of two satirical works, a novel, The Princess, or the I Love Paris Ball and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Carnegie Hall.

Philippe Bohström, a land and marine archaeologist, received his master’s degree in classical archaeology from Gothenburg University and master’s degree in Near Eastern Archaeology and History from Tel Aviv University. He has participated in excavations in Israel, Greece, Italy, and Sweden, and has written extensively about archaeology for new outlets and journals in America, Europe, and Asia for such publications as National Geographic, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Courrier International, and Jewish Chronicle. His book Troy was published by the Swedish Military Association in 2022.

Bradley Mason Gates is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. He holds a B.S. in education from Millersville University, in Pennsylvania, and a MPA in public administration from Golden Gate University, in California. During his career, Brad participated in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and later commanded the Marine Corps artillery force in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1985, Brad received the General John A. Lejeune Award for Inspirational Leadership, and in 1987 he received the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. In 1984, Brad attended the 40th Anniversary of survivors of the Saipan suicide attack of 1944, the subject of this book. He subsequently spent almost ten years conducting personal interviews and other research on the attack, including a trip to Saipan in 1992. Brad and his wife Kathy, also a graduate of Millersville University, met while they were students. They have three children and five grandchildren.