This site is the official home for additional photos, movies, commentary, and links related to William J. Plummer’s “A Quail in the Family“, “Friends of the Family“, and “Five of a Kind“—3 books published by Henry Regnery Company between 1974-1976, detailing the life and adventures of the many pets of the Plummer family in Las Vegas.
ALL THREE books, previously published by Henry Regnery Company, and out of print for about thirty years, are available in ebook editions from Crossroad Press or Amazon (see links below – Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.) for a very reasonable $3.99 each. IMAGINE owning all three of the complete and enhanced electronic editions for less than $15.00!
Enlivened with newly updated photographs — In addition to all the functionality of ebooks (searching, syncing bookmarks across devices, touch access to definitions, and so on), all three books have been updated with a new “Meet the Author” biography, a preface to the ebook edition, and improved photographs (in some cases never before seen.)
In A Quail in the Family, the pen illustrations of the Regnery paper edition have been replaced with beautifully scanned and cleaned versions of the original photographs from which they were derived.
Friends of the Family features similarly replaced photographs. And because the quality of some of the photographs was so bad—I mean the ones I took with my Kodak Instamatic when I was…twelve—I have added public domain photos of several of the animals from the stories. (Thank you Wikipedia and all contributors of public domain photos!)
Five of a Kind in the book edition contained ample photographs of the “Five Ladies”, but some were grainy, and all in black and white. Now, all have been replaced with improved scanned versions, many in color!!
Here’s my promotional blurb for “Friends”, which should give you a pretty good idea of what all three books are about…
Friends of the Family by William J. Plummer—Re-join the Plummers, who adopted and raised “Peep-sight” the Gambel’s quail rooster of A Quail in the Family. In this second book, William Plummer describes the family’s adventures with birds, rodents, snakes, lizards, and other animals–the visiting and resident members of the Plummer menagerie in Las Vegas. We learn of the rescue of “Beverly” the Desert Tortoise from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site; playing “dogfish” with “Georgia” the beagle; “Squeaky”, a kangaroo rat who occasionally left his open cage to make nocturnal household explorations, and “Ellery” the caiman–who resided for a time in his own backyard pool. And we first meet “Carrie”, “Rose”, “Red-Leg”, “Pearl”, and “Brownie”, the five charming female quail whose complete tale is told in the book Five of a Kind.
Preview “A Quail in the Family” by William J. Plummer on Amazon
“Quail” Photos and Photo Embossed Items Available for Purchase!!
Now for the first time ever, William Plummer’s original photos from “A Quail and the Family” and “Five of a Kind” are available for purchase in a wide range of formats and media. Would you like to have your own custom coffee mug with a photo of an adorable baby quail? Now you can!!
Photos of “Peepsight” from “A Quail in the Family”
Photos of “The Ladies” from “Five of a Kind”
Now available as an Audible AUDIOBOOK!
A Quail in the Family: The Story of Peep-Sight (Unabridged) – William J. Plummer
Get the Kindle eBooks versions on Amazon:
Amazon Link to Kindle Books by William J. Plummer
Video of Peep!
Click on the “Blog” menu item for additional information, including the “Peep in the Pool” video of Peepsight (currently just one, but there will be more!)
— Christo (Christopher Plummer)
Quail and Friends 