A few months back, I decided to Google "Tim Talbott and "Random Thoughts on History" just to see what turned up. Among the first hits was a link to the recently published Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America by W. Caleb McDaniel. By coincidence, several months earlier, I had read an article in Smithsonian magazine on the book's topic, also penned by the author.
Being that it was a Kentucky-based story, involving slavery and law, and involving a historical personality (Zeb Ward) with whom I'd researched when I lived in the Bluegrass State, I was certainly interested in obtaining the book and immediately placed it on my book "wish list."
In Sweet Taste of Liberty, McDaniel cited my article from "Random Thoughts on History" about some African American men previously owned by Zeb Ward and who enlisted in United States Colored Troops regiments during the Civil War. It is an honor for a fellow historian to use some of my research, but it is especially so when that historian's study results in such a prestigious award as the Pulitzer Prize.
Hoping to get a copy of Sweet Taste of Liberty for a reasonable price, I have checked my wish list often to monitor the used price rate. I probably should have grabbed a copy at the $15.00 it was once going for, because now that it has earned the Pulitzer it is priced over $40.00. Proof positive of the effects book awards can have.
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