author

Ira L. (Ira Louis) Reeves

1872–1939

A U.S. Army officer who also turned his firsthand experience into books, he wrote about military life, marksmanship, education, and later the turbulent years of Prohibition. His work ranges from early short fiction set around war to practical manuals and memoir-like nonfiction.

1 Audiobook

Bamboo Tales

Bamboo Tales

by Ira L. (Ira Louis) Reeves

About the author

Born in 1872 and dying in 1939, Ira Louis Reeves served in the Army in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Archival records describe him as a military man whose papers include personal materials, photographs, maps, and documents connected to his service and to Oklahoma history.

His books show an unusually wide range. Listings from major library catalogs and book databases connect him with the story collection Bamboo Tales (1900), A Manual for Aspirants for Commissions in the United States Army (1901), The A B C of Rifle, Revolver and Pistol Shooting (1913), Military Education in the United States (1914), Ol' Rum River: Revelations of a Prohibition Administrator (1931), and Prohibition Menaces America (1932).

Taken together, those titles suggest a writer shaped by service and public life. He seems to have moved from fiction and practical military instruction into broader commentary on American institutions, ending with books that reflect the controversy and upheaval of the Prohibition era.