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Books Written by Robert N. Cronk
As an aspiring author, Robert N. Cronk has tried his hand at producing books in various fields of endeavor. The books written by Robert include two family trees, one history, one autobiography, and one guide to better English.
The following descriptions of each of these five books will help you understand, in a small way, the contents thereof. Below is a list of those books.
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1 - MacDONELL / McDONELL FAMILY TREE
At a MacDonell family reunion held in Jacksonville, FL, in 1986, Robert's sister, Margaret Sheffield, brought some records of their ancestors and asked him to place them on his computer. There were only 40 to 50 names, and so he agreed. While sorting these names, other family ancestors naames emerged. Then current members started coming forth, and soon the project blossomed into a full scale endeavor.
Gathering information from every source at his disposal, he soon accumulated more than 1200 names of family members and their spouses. He made CHARTS showing the lineage of each member, and placed them in his book. The book also has sections such as TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND ADDRESSES, STATISTICS (of the living members), MEMORIAM (of the deceased members), and a BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Now requiring more than 800 pages, and after approximately two years of hard work, Robert assembled a record of his family dating back, in some instances, to the 1500's. The book was first published in 1988 in soft cover, and Robert sold (to family members) more than 55 copies at a cost of $30.00.
As time progressed, he discovered new family members, and decided to revise his book to include these newfound people. In the year 2000, he started his revision. It was completed in the year 2001, and those newfound names were intermingled with the others. The revised edition of the book grew to almost 1300 names and now required 900 pages. Copies were produced in hard cover, and sold at $85.00 each. The added year needed to finish his revised book totaled three years on the project. An additional 40 copies were sold in 2001
Every copy produced and dispensed by Robert has become a treasured heirloom. They stand proud in bookcases all across the country, eventually to be passed from one generation to another.
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2 - THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE SOVIET UNION
In 1990, the forces of Iraq, under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, invaded the tiny country of Kuwait bordering southeastern Iraq. President George H. W. Bush demanded that those forces withdraw from Kuwait When they did not, United States troops were sent to the area for that purpose, and swiftly ejected the Iraqians from Kuwait. However, in their retreat, the Iraqians set many of the oil wells of Kuwait on fire, and special tecnicians were dispatched from the United States to extinguish these fires. After the Iraqians were ejected from Kuwait, the United States forces were withdrawn and Saddam Hussein remained in power. This action was called "The Gulf War".
In 2003, Saddam Hussein continuing his rule of despotism in Iraq, publicly denounced the United States. Hard at work developing weapons of mass desctruction, including those of atomical, chemical and conventional nature, he exalted his defiance of the United States. In order to protect the interests of the United States, President George W. Bush, gave Hussein ample opportunities to divulge the locations of those weapons, and to destroy them. One of the conditions was that he resign his position, and seek asylum in a neutral country. He declined to do so, and it became necessary for the United States to send troops to enforce the President's conditions, eject Hussein from power and end his tyrannical regime. This action was accomplished. It was called "The Gulf War II". However, to this day (2003) sparodical opposition by the supporters of Saddam Hussein continue to plague the peaceful transition of power from the United States to the people of Iraq.
Robert N. Cronk thought it would be a good opportunity to record the daily activities of this mideast war from its beginning, and so he began to enter those events in his computer.
However, after just two or three days, he noticed that major changes were occuring in Soviet Russia. Robert quickly surmised that the changes indicated a major breakup of the Soviet Union, as it appeared to be rapidly falling apart. He dropped the Gulf War endeavor, and transferred his attention to the Soviet Union. From newspaper accounts, he kept daily records as each change evolved, and produced his book "THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE SOVIET UNION". Working at his desk and at his computer, he labored for three years compiling the information necessary to record the events.
His book is a daily collection of newspaper articles, placed in chronological order, in a manner completely describing those events.
Unfortunately, because of copyright fees and the lack of a publisher, his book was never published. By the time it was completed, the subject was more or less passe. He did have three copies made in hard cover, each containing 900 pages, all of which are still in his possession.
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3 - AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT N. CRONK
Having written his mother's family tree, Robert decided that he should make a record of his life for his family, so they would have a lasting record of his accomplishments and failures.
Starting with his birth, he recorded each major event in his life, including his military service, marriage, occupation, hobbies, ideas,
and accomplishments. In order to keep the contents from being boring, he decided to mention each point briefly, and by doing so, kept the book to approximately sixty pages.
This book, distributed to family members via email, was received by his son, Robert N. Cronk, Jr., who had it printed and bound (soft cover). He presented ten copies to Robert, Sr., as a Christmas present. Copies of the bound book were given to each of his two children, and also to each of his four grandchildren.
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4 - A GUIDE TO BETTER ENGLISH (Complete Book Included Herein.)
After hearing some of the American people on television, and their total misuse of the English language, Robert decided it was time to produce a book which would be "A Guide to Better English" for these apparently less than literate persons.
Using a format of informative lessons, he chose certain words and phrases, and proceeded to try to explain the correct use of them in specific situations.
The book contained thirty-five short lessons, each one dealing with a different application of the English language, such as when to use "between" or "among", "me" or "I", "aren't" or "isn't", etc. Also included were situations such as "double negatives", "ending a sentence with a preposition", "possessive words", etc.
Unfortunately, the book still remains unpublished, although, in order to get a one dollar bill to frame as first copy sold, one computer generated copy WAS sold (for one dallar), and that dollar bill is hanging on his office wall today.
Click on "A GUIDE TO BETTER ENGLISH" below to view the entire book.
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5 - CRONK FAMILY TREE
One of Robert's newfound cousins in Texas (on his father's side) had researched the Cronk family, and pieced together a line of descent from his great-great-grandfather. Using this new knowledge, and having the experience of writing his mother's family tree, Robert volunteered to put the information into book form, including both the Texas members and the east coast members. In order to make the book complete, Robert researched all family members in both locations, and expanded his list of members to approximately three hundred and fifty people.
After approximately one year of hard and diligent work, Robert produced his book, He emailed it free of charge to every family member whose email address was known to him, and sold (at cost - $20.00) computer generated copies. Those persons receiving the book by email, and printing it out, ended up with a free copy of the book. But it is believed the majority of the email recipients merely saved the files to their hard drive, and consequently did not receive the full benefits of the book. As a result, this negated the hard work by Robert of producing the book (one year) and reduced the effectiveness offered by the book.
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A Guide to Better English
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