Robert T. Rhode is the author of award-winning books ranging from fiction to nonfiction. He is recognized for his captivating stories, his easygoing style, and his weekly blog, including his blog novel titled The Farm in Pine Village.

The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia 
(with John F. Spalding)
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Now available in a paperback edition from Brenda Stant,
editor of Engineers and Engines Magazine!

Call Brenda at 410-673-2414 or send an email to brenda@engineersandengines.com

This book features over 600 historical pictures of farm steam engines.
To preserve our agricultural heritage, The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia
is packed with stories.

Mouseover picture to pause.

Robert T. Rhode has composed this prose poem about the seasons. The lines reflect his upbringing on a diversified farm in Indiana where he experienced the joys of rural life, not to mention the occasional struggles.

Portraits of Great Authors
Free

Does your son or daughter need a portrait of a great author for a book review or school project? You can download several original paintings here!

Complimentary Portraits for These Great Authors: James Arthur Baldwin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Willa Cather, Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri, William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, Toni Morrison [Chloe Ardelia Wofford], Edgar A. Poe, George Sand [Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin], Amy Tan, Leo Tolstoy [Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy], Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf [Adeline Virginia Woolf].

The Chime of the Christmas Angel 
(eBook )
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Can’t find the right greeting card for someone on your list? Unable to choose among cards that all look alike? Why not give a heartwarming eBook instead? Reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, this captivating short story observes the finest Yuletide traditions and is sure to become a family favorite for holidays to come!

Here are lyrics to 86 of the most loved Christmas songs that Robert has assembled. Print selected pages for a songfest around a piano or read from an iPad for an impromptu gathering.

Classic American Steamrollers  
(with Raymond L. Drake)
(paperback )
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This book won the Silver Jubilee Certificate awarded by England’s Road Roller Association. You’ll be fascinated by the depth of information about the great steam-powered machines that rolled America’s highways.

 

Dan Patch was one of the most famous racehorses of all time. A pacer, he became arguably America’s first sports celebrity. Robert T. Robert’s great grandmother’s brother, Thomas Eleazer Fenton, was the blacksmith who designed a special horseshoe that made the young Dan Patch a winner. Growing up in Pine Village, the same town where Tom and his forge helped an otherwise clumsy horse to victory, Robert heard several stories about Dan Patch, who was originally owned by Dan Messner of nearby Oxford. Robert even has Tom’s original blacksmith sign! Here is a movie made from a 1909 booklet of photographs that, when riffled, made the horse, sulky, and driver (H. C. Hersey) come to life. For readers who want to know more about the renowned harness horse, Robert recommends the book Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America by Charles Leerhsen.

The Harvest Story: Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen
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This delightful paperback offers the unforgettable story of wheat threshing at  the turn of the last century.

This book by Dr. Lorin E. Bixler was edited by Dr. Robert T. Rhode and serialized beginning in The Iron-Men Album Magazine in 2000 and continuing in Steam Traction from 2001 through 2003. To improve readability, Robert’s editing marks were deleted starting in 2001. This document is provided for readers who want a source of the book in one place, not spread across many magazines, and who desire to see where Robert edited Lorin’s typescript. For years, Robert had heard rumors about an unpublished manuscript giving the history of the Aultman & Taylor Company. Some said Lorin had planned to write the book but quit midway in his research. Others claimed he had begun composing the manuscript but had not finished it. George W. Richey of Norwich, Ohio, told Robert that the typescript of the finished but unedited book was in Mansfield. This was exciting news! To a steam enthusiast, paging through Lorin’s pages was like discovering a lost city of gold.

For over a decade, Robert performed a play that he wrote to portray the life and writing of Edgar A. Poe. In this essay, Robert reminisces about his years on stage and, in the process, offers several insights into Poe.