In addition to directing the production of 200 AGS titles, Bill Yenne is also the author of more than 75 non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics, from history to popular culture to transportation. Here is some of what the critics have had to say about a few of these:

“Yenne's book excels as a study in leadership.”
--- The New Yorker

“Splendid… [Mr. Yenne writes with]… cinematic vividness.”
--- The Wall Street Journal

“Stirring biography . . . remarkable.”
--- Publishers Weekly (in a Starred review)

“Thoroughly enjoyable.”
--- World Business.

“Enough to wear out several pairs of blue suede shoes.”
--- The New York Times

Mr. Yenne’s biography Sitting Bull was named to Amazon’s Top 100 Best Books of the year, placing at Number 14 (or Number 5 for non-fiction). This was after being included among Amazon’s “Significant Seven” during the month of its release. Said Amazon, “Bill Yenne has produced a fascinating and exhaustively researched biography, cutting through legend to place the Lakota leader squarely in his own cultural context.”

In its review of Sitting Bull, The New Yorker writes, “Yenne's book excels as a study in leadership.”
(Check out the full review.)

Said Publishers Weekly, in a Starred review, Sitting Bull is a “stirring biography . . . remarkable, tragic portrait.”

American Library Association’s Booklist adds that “Combining sound historiography and singular eloquence, versatile American historian Yenne provides a biography of the great Lakota leader in which care is taken to describe sources and to achieve balance with compassion . . . . [it is] Indispensable to Native American studies.

Bill Yellowtail (Montana State University, Katz Endowed Chair in Native American Studies), says of Sitting Bull that it is “much more than the usual romantic Native American biography or sympathetic history. Instead, Bill Yenne transcends the customary Eurocentric filter as he delivers culturally-credible insight into the world view of Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa Lakota. He debunks the myths and romantic distortions, combining thorough literary research with contemporary Native American sources to penetrate the complex and enigmatic character of America's best-known Indian hero. And he does it all in a refreshing, engaging style.”

Tommy Gun: How General Thompson’s Submachine Gun Wrote History, earned the praise of Larry Cox in the Tucson Citizen, who writes that Bill Yenne “serves up a colorful history that connects the battlefields of Europe to the crime-ridden streets of Chicago, as well as the soundstages of Hollywood. Crisply written and full of rich detail, this highly readable account is an important addition to the understanding of this weapon and its connection to the culture of 20th century America.”

Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his recent dual biography of Richard Bong and Tommy McGuire, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top-Scoring American Aces of World War II. Wrote Gary W. Boyd, the historian for McGuire AFB and the 305th Air Materiel Wing, “Your telling of the story is as good and objective as I can ever hope.”

Mr. Yenne’s Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint, was listed among the year’s top business books at the online version of Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine, and the same publication rates the book as its TOP pick for “Cocktail Conversation.” Says World Business, “This is a thoroughly enjoyable, complete chronicle of a great beer business.”

In calling it a “fine book,” Sam Calagione, owner of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and author of Brewing Up a Business, adds Guinness (the beer) is a touchstone for brewers and beer lovers the world over. Guinness (the book) gives beer enthusiasts all the information and education necessary to take beer culture out of the clutches of light lagers and back into the dark ages. Cheers!”

The Wall Street Journal recently called Mr. Yenne’s Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West “splendid” and went on to say that it “has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read.” The reviewer also said that Mr. Yenne writes with “cinematic vividness.” (Check out the full review.)

Walter Boyne, the former director of the National Air and Space Museum, described Mr. Yenne’s Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II as “the best book yet written on the saga of the heroic Japanese Americans who served the United States so well during World War II. Yenne combines in-depth research with poignant personal narratives to make this fast-moving history a real page-turner." Of the same book, Lloyd Clark, the Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, said: “Bill Yenne's Rising Sons shines a bright light onto a neglected aspect of the US Army during World War II. . . . Yenne uncovers a remarkable story. With its carefully developed mixture of rigorous analysis and copious interviews, this book is not only learned, it is also a first-rate read."

Air & Space Smithsonian magazine recently honored Bill Yenne’s popular and wonderfully illustrated The American Aircraft Factory in World War II by publishing a six-page review! (See it here). FlyPast, the leading aviation monthly in the United Kingdom called this book a “Lavishly illustrated, landscape-format tribute to the huge US war machine that churned out over 304,000 aircraft between 1939 and 1945. . . . The author knits a careful narrative around the imagery.”

A Recognized Historian

Bill Yenne has acted as a consultant on, and/or appeared in, such History Channel programs as Tactical to Practical and Command Decision, as well as other television programs. His book, On The Trail of Lewis and Clark, Yesterday and Today, is critically acclaimed, and led to his being selected as a featured guest at "Clark on the Yellowstone," the National Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Signature Event organized by Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission. In order to get the pictures for this book, and to capture the scale of the legendary expedition, Bill Yenne had carried his camera along the entire 4,000-mile route from Camp Dubois, Illinois on the Mississippi River to Fort Clatsop, Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia. (Check out the review in Montana’s Missoulian.)

Indeed, Bill Yenne has traveled far and wide to research his topics and to shoot the photographs that have appeared in his books. He has flown in the jump seat of a B-52 and he has climbed to the top of more than a dozen Gothic cathedrals across Europe.

He was also a contributor to the Simon & Schuster D-Day Encyclopedia, and penned all of the United States entries to World War I, A Visual Encyclopedia. He worked with the legendary US Air Force commander, General Curtis E. LeMay, to produce Superfortress: The B-29 and American Airpower in World War II, which Publisher's Weekly described as "An eloquent tribute." This classic work has just been released as a trade paperback by Westholme.

His military and transportation works include Operation Cobra and the Great Offensive: Sixty Days that Changed the Course of World War II, Aces: True Stories of Victory and Valor in the Skies of World War II, Secret Gadgets and Strange Gizmos: High-Tech (and Low-Tech) Innovations of the U.S. Military, Secret Weapons of the Cold War, Secret Weapons of World War II, Black '41: The West Point Class of 1941 and The American Triumph in World War II, The History of the US Air Force, and SAC: A Primer of Strategic Air Power. Of the latter, Major Michael Perini wrote in Air Force Magazine: "This book deserves a place on any airman's bookshelf and in the stacks of serious military libraries."

He is a regular contributor to International Air Power Review, and he has written corporate histories of America's greatest planemakers, specifically Boeing, Convair, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, and North American Aviation -- as well as of America's major historic railroads including the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe and the Great Northern. Regarding the latter book., Mr. Yenne received a personal note from Bev Tracy, the information coordinator of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society saying that she had heard from one of the society’s directors that he had “just sent all the Directors a message about your book Great Northern Empire Builder. Said we should get one! Says it has lots of pictures that he never saw before. All he could say is wow!” (Order yours today.)

On the lighter side, the New York Times called his Field Guide to Elvis Shrines "enough to wear out several pairs of blue suede shoes."

A Popular Beer Writer

In addition to his Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint, Bill Yenne’s other books on beer and brewing history are: The American Brewery, Great American Beers: Twelve Brands That Became Icons, Beers of North America, Beers of the World, and Beer Labels of the World.

He has contributed articles to All About Beer magazine, and was recently a featured guest on the History Channel’s American Eats program, in which he discussed the history of American beer, beginning with the beer that came over on the Mayflower!

Several years ago, Mr. Yenne was a member of an elite panel chosen to select the beers to compliment each course of a formal dinner held at the Oldenberg Brewery. Afterward, Jay Maeder of the New York Daily News described his choice of a beer to accompany the entree of "Soused and Stuffed Chicken Breast Marinated in Mustard Sauce" as "perfect."

Bill Yenne as a Novelist

Bill Yenne has also authored a half dozen novels, including the Raptor Force trilogy and the recent Into the Fire, a novel of men and women at war, which Publishers Weekly called “authentic down to the smell of explosives and the stink of sweat and fear.”

His recent A Damned Fine War is a captivating "what if" tale of General George Patton leading the Allies in a war against Stalin's Red Army that might have occurred at the end of World War II. General Patton's granddaughter has praised the book, and noted author and military historian Brian Sobel called it an "action packed, Patton-size novel. . . powerful and compelling." Charles M. Province of the Patton Society called it "A damned fine book."

Gary Sheffield, Professor of War Studies at the University of Birmingham in England wrote: “Alternative histories can make us think about what might have happened if things had turned out a little differently, and what the consequences would have been. Bill Yenne’s A Damned Fine War succeeds triumphantly on both accounts. It is an excellent read, and offers us some sobering ‘might have beens’.”

His new military action series, Raptor Force, has been a big hit with action-adventure fans everywhere. The series includes: Raptor Force, Raptor Force: Holy Fire, and Raptor Force: Corkscrew.

Background Info

Bill Yenne grew up inside Montana’s remote and rugged Glacier National Park, where his father, William J. Yenne was the supervisor of roads and backcountry trails. He spent his summers in the remote backcountry, and his winters becoming a voracious reader and history buff. He recently authored a book on the history of the park, in the Images of America series., entitled, what else? Glacier National Park. In reviewing one of Mr. Yenne’s books, John Smithers of Montana’s Missoulian wrote: “Bill Yenne is a perfect example what happens when a child reads too many books and doesn’t watch enough television. He ended up with an imagination.”

Before turning to a career as an author and photographer, Mr. Yenne was a nationally recognized artist and illustrator. His illustrations have appeared in a number of national magazines, including Rolling Stone, and several of his paintings are in the official collection of the US Air Force.

A member of the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS), the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and the American Book Producers Association (ABPA), Bill Yenne is also a graduate of the University of Montana and the Stanford University Professional Publishing Course.

Bill Yenne makes his home in San Francisco, where he and his wife, Carol, raised two daughters, Azia and Annalisa. He currently has several new projects in the works.

Contact Bill Yenne at:
Bill_Yenne@sbcglobal.net
(415) 285-8799
PO Box 460313
San Francisco, CA 94146