Western Biography

Jesse James grew up in Clay County, Missouri, a place where north and south conflicted over the issue of slavery. Tensions grew in the lead-up to the Civil War, and James’ Southern loyalties meant he had to make a decision. When war broke out, Jesse and his brother Frank joined the Confederate guerrillas known as “bushwhackers” alongside other notorious characters like “Bloody Bill”. By the age of 17, Jesse had escaped death twice and gained a reputation as a ruthless killer.

One of the biggest concerns as the Civil War wrapped up was that Confederate troops might disappear into the Appalachian Mountains where they could conduct guerrilla raids with relative impunity. If they did, the war could have been extended for years, maybe even decades as the insurgents crept out of their strongholds to conduct hit-and-run raids.

On a warm night in September 1985, teenagers Kimberly Dowell and Ethan Dixon were brutally murdered in Westside Park in Muncie, Indiana. Their killer has never been charged. Early on, police focused on a family member of one of the teens as a primary suspect. The investigation even ruled out fantastic scenarios, including a theory that the perpetrator was a Dungeons & Dragons devotee. The case grew cold.

Timbuktu: the African city known to legend as a land of scholars, splendor and mystery, a golden age in the Sahara Desert. But to many it is a vaguely recognizable name - a flippant tag for "the most remote place on earth." With this fabled city as his goal, author Rick Antonson began a month-long trek. His initial plan? To get a haircut. Aided by an adventuresome spirit, Rick endures a 45-hour train ride, a swindling travel agent, "Third World, three-lane" roads, rivers, and a flat deck ferry boat before finally reaching Timbuktu.

Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.

In it's heydey, Grossinger's Bakery was the one-stop shop for Upper West Siders seeking baked goods and traditional European treats. Breaking Eggs tells the story of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants during the depression in NYC and the business that grew into a legendary bakery. To this day, customers and grandchildren of those original customers still pine for the famous praline ice cream cake created by the author's father. This book takes you on a journey from immigration to the final days of the bakery's physical presence on the ever-changing Upper West Side.

I lead my Grulla Mare, Savanna, to water. She is the gray of a mule deer's winter coat, with a dorsal stripe and zebra markings on her legs that trace back to the original wild horses, though she is quarter horse, not mustang. The mustang follows. It is his first time here, to the pinon pine and juniper woodland that defines my desert home.

Country Editor's Boy picks up where Hal Borland's classic memoir High, Wide and Lonesome left off: with Borland, on the cusp of adulthood in the early twentieth century, making his way in an eastern Colorado town that still retained all the flavors of the Old West. Borland's father, the editor of a local weekly newspaper, was working to help his publication transition along with the town around him. At the same time, young Hal was experiencing dramatic social and economic change in his own way.

Just before Christmas in 1996, a beautiful French woman - the wife of a movie mogul - was brutally murdered outside of her holiday home in a remote region of West Cork, Ireland. The crime was reported by a local journalist, Ian Bailey, who was at the forefront of the case until he became the prime murder suspect. Arrested twice, he was released without charge.

The giant characters of history - from Mozart to Michelangelo, Shakespeare to Einstein, Henry VIII to Hitler, Catherine the Great to Margaret Thatcher, Jesus Christ to Genghis Khan - lived lives of astonishing drama and adventure, debauchery and slaughter, but they also formed our world and will shape our future. In this eclectic and surprising collection of short and entertaining life stories, Simon Sebag Montefiore introduces his choice of kings, empresses, sultans and conquerors as well as prophets, explorers, artists, actresses, courtesans and psychopaths.

In this gripping memoir of a young man, a wolf, and their parallel lives and ultimate collision, Bryce Andrews describes life on the remote, windswept Sun Ranch in Southwest Montana. The Sun's 20,000 acres of rangeland occupy a still-wild corner of Southwest Montana - a high valley surrounded by mountain ranges and steep creeks with portentous names like Grizzly, Dead Man, and Bad Luck.

Michael W. Allison is a self-made entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to helping others by sharing his own story of dedication, resiliency, and faithfulness. As a US Armed Forces Veteran, he was the recipient of a number of awards during his career, including several Navy Achievement medals with two Bronze Stars, the Combat Action Ribbon, and the distinguished Purple Heart.

The Wild West made legends out of many men and women through the embellishment of their stories, but it was Buffalo Bill Cody who truly brought the Wild West to life and provided the images that people still associate with the 19th century West today. Though he had a long career that spanned service in the Civil War, trapping, and even a stint with the Pony Express, Buffalo Bill eventually became synonymous with his world-famous Wild West Show.

The complete Unbreakable Dolls series! A total of 20 stand-alone short stories of amazing pioneer women who settled the southwest, primarily in Arizona. Ranchers, business women, homesteaders, and Harvey Girls. After each story is a humorous story by the author's father which were published in the 1960s and 70s. The books are both educational and entertaining. Suitable for all ages, men and women, boys and girls. Enjoy!

Do you want to learn about the astronomer Johannes Kepler but don’t have the time or patience to read a thick book? Then this short and concise book “The Astronomer Johannes Kepler: A Short Biography” is for you!! In this book you will read about the life and times of the 17th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler and his many contributions to astronomy. The book covers the topics: Kepler’s years as a teacher in the city of Graz, Kepler’s book “Mysterium Cosmographicum (The Cosmographic Mystery),” His work with Tycho Brache in Prague, The development of the elliptical ...

In the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution's rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics.

Inayat's Song is the story of a young man who struggled with the great questions of existence. Who is God? And who am I? And what is our relationship? Inayat Khan's first-person narrative is read by award-winning actor Tom Alter. Inayat Khan was a gold medal-winning musician, a child prodigy from a musical family, including the renowned musician and music educator, Maulbakhsh Shole Khan. Along with his music education, he showed an aptitude for mystical training and was taken as a pupil of Sufi Master Abu Hashim Madani of Hyderabad.

Billy the Kid once said that he killed 22 men - one for each year that he lived. While it’s more likely that he only killed eight or nine, this young outlaw was clearly deadly. But his brief and brutal life reveals how his tragic existence led him into a life of crime. After growing up in poverty as an Irish immigrant in New York City and losing his father at a young age, Billy the Kid had to endure losing his mother when he was only 15.

The separation from his mother at an early age appears to have left a permanent scar on young Isaac Newton that followed him through the rest of his life. He never married or had any children and had but a few close friends. He would work frantically for days on end, seemingly without food or rest, resting only when the creative spirit left him. However, the work of this ponderous man would have a profound effect on the world as we know it today.

Galileo's oldest child was 13 when he placed her in a convent near him in Florence, where she took the most appropriate name of Suor Maria Celeste. Her support was her father's greatest source of strength. Her presence, through letters which Sobel has translated from Italian and masterfully woven into the narrative, graces her father's life now as it did then. Galileo's Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment of a mythic figure whose 17th-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion.