Collection: Biography & Memoir

Chicago's legacy of organized crime is legendary. Through a vivid and visually stunning collection of images author John Binder tells the story of the people and places of the world of organized crime in the center of the midwest.

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"So richly detailed, you can almost smell the gunsmoke and the sweat of the saddles. "
--Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers

Billy the Kid--a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William Bonney--was a horse thief, cattle rustler, charismatic rogue, and cold-blooded killer. A superb shot, the Kid gunned down four men single-handedly and five others with the help of cronies. Two of his victims were Lincoln County, New Mexico, deputies killed during the Kid's brazen daylight escape from the courthouse jail on April 28, 1881.

For new sheriff Pat Garrett, an acquaintance of Billy's, the chase was on. . . .

The first dual biography of the Kid and Garrett, To Hell on a Fast Horse re-creates the thrilling manhunt for the Wild West's most iconic outlaw. Mark Lee Gardner digs beneath the myth to take a fresh look at these two men, their relationship, and their epic ride to immortality.

Pete Forcelli did what members of the U.S. Congress encourage government employees to do: he spoke up when he saw misconduct within the federal government. But choosing to be a whistleblower almost cost Forcelli his job, his possessions, and his reputation as a law enforcement official.

"In a raw and unflinching account that details his harrowing journey as whistleblower in the Fast and Furious federal scandal, Forcelli shows the public and personal cost of standing up for justice." --Jonathan Green, author of Sex Money Murder: A Story of Crack, Blood, and Betrayal

Pete Forcelli was a highly respected federal agent in New York City, where he made an impact on violent crime by successfully targeting some of the city's most violent street gangs by using federal racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise statutes in conjunction with federal prosecutors. In early 2007, he was promoted to a supervisory position in Phoenix and quickly discovered that federal prosecutors were not charging criminals for violating federal firearms laws, even in instances where they knew guns were being trafficked to ultra-violent drug cartels and then used in crimes that were shocking to the conscience.

When those very same prosecutors spoke about possibly indicting John Dodson, a special agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious, Forcelli stepped forward and contacted Congress. Forcelli became a whistleblower himself, detailing how federal prosecutors in Arizona not only failed to prosecute gun traffickers, but allowed a man who was making hundreds of hand grenades for the Sinaloa Cartel to continue his operations unabated for years. At that moment, those prosecutors and officials from the Department of Justice came after him, leading to a nearly four-year battle for Forcelli to clear his name.

This book provides his insider's account of the scandal that stands as one of the worst stains on federal law enforcement.

Wyoming's Chief Game Warden, Jay Lawson, has chronicled the life histories of some of the most colorful outdoor men and women of early 20th Century Wyoming, including trappers, cowboys, forest rangers, hunting guides and early game wardens. Lawson spent years conducting interviews and gathering more than 140 old photographs depicting their fascinating lives spent in country as wild as their spirits. This is a remarkable collection. Were it not for Lawson's keen interest in Wyoming history and his gift as a storyteller, some of the state's most legendary figures and their stories would be lost forever. By capturing the memories of Wyoming's pioneer outdoors people, Lawson does a tremendous service for our generation, and those who will follow.-Tom Reed, author of Great Wyoming Bear Stories and Give Me Mountains For My Horses. Jay Lawson's book has preserved the history of Wyoming's colorful outdoor characters. His career as a Wyoming game warden took him to wild places where he uncovered these delightful stories that he is sharing with us. I recommend Men to Match our Mountains to anyone with an interest in western history and our outdoor heritage. - Dave Bragonier, author of Wild Journey

"It's hard to think of another writer with as fecund and protean an imagination as the eighty-five-year-old Joyce Carol Oates, who is surely on any short list of America's greatest living writers." --New York Times Magazine

In this generous selection of Joyce Carol Oates's letters to her biographer and friend Greg Johnson, readers will discover a never-before-seen dimension of her phenomenal talent.

In 1975, when Johnson was a graduate student, he first wrote to Oates, already a world-famous author, and drew an appreciative, empathetic response. Soon the two began a fairly intense, largely epistolary friendship that would last until the present day. As time passed, letters became faxes, and faxes became emails, but the energy and vividness of Oates's writing never abated. Her letters are often sprinkled with the names of famous people, from John Updike and Toni Morrison to Steve Martin and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. There are also descriptions of far-flung travels she undertook with her first husband, the scholar and editor Raymond Smith, and with her second, the distinguished Princeton neuroscientist Charlie Gross. But much of Oates's prose centered on the pleasures of her home life, including her pet cats and the wildlife outside her study window.

Whereas her academic essays and book reviews are eloquent in a formal way, in these letters she is wholly relaxed, even when she is serious in her concerns. Like Johnson, she was always engaged in work, whether a long novel or a brief essay, and the letters give a fascinating glimpse into Oates's writing practice.

Discover the life of Marie Curie―a story for kids 6 to 9 about discovering big things through hard work

Marie Curie became one of the most celebrated scientists in history. Before she changed the world with her discoveries in physics and chemistry, Marie was an intelligent girl who studied hard to reach the top of her class. She overcame many challenges, including people who told her she couldn't be a scientist because she was a woman. She didn't let anything stop her, and her important research is still helping people today. Explore how Marie Curie went from being a young girl growing up in Poland to a famous, Nobel Prize-winning scientist.

The Story of Marie Curie includes:

• Helpful glossary―Find easy-to-understand definitions for some of the more advanced words and ideas in the book.
• Lasting change―See how Marie Curie made the world a better place for future generations.
• Test your knowledge―Take a fun quiz about the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of Marie's life.

How will Marie's determination and curiosity inspire you?

Dreams and Nightmares appears in full color in both English and Spanish.

Description

At fourteen, Liliana Velásquez walked out of her village in Guatemala and headed for the U.S. border, alone. On her two-thousand-mile voyage she was robbed by narcos, rode the boxcars of La Bestia, and encountered death in the Sonoran Desert. When she was caught by Immigration in Arizona, she thought her journey was over. But it had just begun.

A los catorce años, Liliana abandonó su pueblo en Guatemala y se dirigió hacia la frontera de los Estados Unidos, sola. En su viaje de dos mil millas fue asaltada por los narcos, viajó en los vagones de La Bestia y se enfrentó a la muerte en el desierto de Sonora. Cuando fue capturada por Inmigración en Arizona, ella pensó que su viaje había terminado. Pero solo acababa de empezar.

What People Are Saying

While Immigrants' stories are often told by others, Liliana shares her personal experience of vulnerability, resilience and perseverance in the face of uncertainty. She is a strong and remarkable woman.

Mientras que las historias de los inmigrantes son generalmente contadas por terceros, Liliana comparte su propia historia personal, su capacidad recuperativa y su perse-verancia en medio de mucha incertidumbre. Ella es una mujer fuerte y extraordinaria.

--María Sotomayor, DACA recipient, Youth Organizer, Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition

Stories like Liliana's counter the inhumane narratives that cast migrants and refugees as "drug dealers and rapists," and instead offer US audiences a perspective infused with the genuine human experience of migration.

Historias como la de Liliana contradicen a las historias des-humanizantes en las que se equipara a los inmigran-tes y refugiados con "narcotraficantes y violadores." La historia de Liliana ofrece al público estadounidense una perspectiva imbuida de una experiencia migratoria genuina-mente humana.

--Aja Y. Martinez, PhD, Syracuse University

Liliana's story is heartbreakingly ordinary, similar to tens of thousands of children who have fled violence, abuse, and extreme poverty, only to suffer further hardship at the hands of a US government that treats them as threats rather than child survivors of trauma.

La historia de Liliana es dolorosamente común, similar a la de decenas de miles de niños que han huido de la violencia, el abuso y la pobreza extrema, sólo para sufrir más adver-sidades a manos del gobierno de los E. U. que los trata como si fueran una amenaza y no como a niños sobre-vivientes de un trauma.

--Jonathan Blazer, Advocacy and Policy Counsel for Immigrants' Rights, American Civil Liberties Union

One of Smithsonian magazine's Best Books About Travel of 2018

The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables explores L. M. Montgomery's deep connection to the landscapes of Prince Edward Island that inspired her to write the beloved Anne of Green Gables series. From the Lake of Shining Waters and the Haunted Wood to Lover's Lane, you'll be immersed in the real places immortalized in the novels.

Using Montgomery's journals, archives, and scrapbooks, Catherine Reid explores the many similarities between Montgomery and her unforgettable heroine, Anne Shirley. The lush package includes Montgomery's hand-colorized photographs, the illustrations originally used in Anne of Green Gables, and contemporary and historical photography.

Sprint around the track and get to know Jesse Owens in this fascinating, nonfiction Level 3 Ready-to-Read, part of a new series of biographies about people "you should meet."

Meet Jesse Owens, an African American runner who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin! What made his achievement even more memorable was that Adolph Hitler expected the Olympic Games to be a German showcase. In fact, he criticized the United States for even including black athletes on its Olympic roster. According to many reports, after Owens won his fourth gold medal, Hitler stormed out of the stadium. In 1936 Jesse Owens took a stand against racism and made history.

A special section at the back of the book includes extras on subjects like history and math, plus a short article filled with interesting facts about the Olympics. With the You Should Meet series, learning about historical figures has never been so fascinating!

An inspiring picture book biography about British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, who was a pioneer in her field against all odds, told by debut author-illustrator Victoria Tentler-Krylov.

The city of Baghdad was full of thinkers, artists, and scientists, the littlest among them Zaha Hadid. Zaha knew from a young age that she wanted to be an architect. She set goals for herself and followed them against all odds. A woman in a man's world, and a person of color in a white field, Zaha was met with resistance at every turn. When critics called her a diva and claimed her ideas were unbuildable, she didn't let their judgments stop her from setting goals and achieving them one by one, finding innovative ways to build projects that became famous the world over. She persisted, she followed her dreams, and she succeeded.

Winner of the Best Book Award by the Wild West History Association

A ripsnortin' ramble across the bloodstained Arizona desert with Wyatt Earp and company... A pleasure for thoughtful fans of Old West history, revisionist without being iconoclastic. --Kirkus Reviews

Wyatt Earp is regarded as the most famous lawman of the Old West, best known for his role in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. But the story of his two-year war with a band of outlaws known as the Cowboys has never been told in full.

Drawing on groundbreaking research into territorial and federal government records, John Boessenecker's Ride the Devil''s Herd reveals this long-forgotten chapter of Wild West history.

"Readers who want to learn the true details about what happened before, during and after the gunfight will be rewarded... [Boessenecker] provides rich detail on the Earp family and its questionable ethics." --Roanoke Times

Readers interested in Wyatt Earp and 'Wild West' history will enjoy this new chronicle of the lawman's life and times. --Library Journal

Adapted for young readers! Join two-time Women's World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and trailblazing activist Megan Rapinoe in the fight for equality and justice in this middle grade adaptation of her New York Times bestselling memoir, One Life.

You know Megan Rapinoe as an international soccer superstar! She's also a fierce activist, boldly speaking out about issues of equality and justice--from LGBTQ rights to the equal pay movement to Black Lives Matter.

In this adaptation for middle school readers of her memoir One Life, get to know Megan: from her childhood in a small California town where she learned to play soccer and how to fight for social justice; through high school, college and beyond; to 2016 when she became the first high-profile white athlete to take a knee in support of Colin Kaepernik, and also suing the United States Soccer Federation along with her teammates over gender discrimination.

Using stories from her own life and career, Rapinoe discusses the responsibility we have to speak up. In this edition specifically for young readers, she reveals the impact everyone, even kids, can have on their communities and how kids can get involved in making the world a better place.

In the decades preceding the Civil War, few figures in the United States were as influential or as controversial as Sam Houston. In Sam Houston, James L. Haley explores Houston's momentous career and the complex man behind it. Haley's fifteen years of research and writing have produced possibly the most complete, most personal, and most readable Sam Houston biography ever written. Drawn from personal papers never before available as well as the papers of others in Houston's circle, this biography will delight anyone intrigued by Sam Houston, Texas history, Civil War history, or America's tradition of rugged individualism.

In 1962, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson received the Nobel Prize, but it was Rosalind Franklin's data and photographs of DNA that led to their discovery.

Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

The 2018 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Winner

A Newbery Medalist and a Caldecott Honoree's New York Times best-selling ode to poets who have sparked a sense of wonder.

Out of gratitude for the poet's art form, Newbery Award-winning author and poet Kwame Alexander, along with Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth, present original poems that pay homage to twenty famed poets who have made the authors' hearts sing and their minds wonder. Stunning mixed-media images by Ekua Holmes, winner of a Caldecott Honor and a John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award, complete the celebration and invite the reader to listen, wonder, and perhaps even pick up a pen.

The transporting account of an obsessive quest to find El Dorado, set against the backdrop of Elizabethan political intrigue and a competition with Spanish conquistadors for the legendary city's treasure

As early as 1530, reports of El Dorado, a city of gold in the South American interior, beckoned to European explorers. Whether there was any truth to the stories remained to be seen, but the allure of unimaginable riches was enough to ensnare dozens of would-be heroes and glory hounds in the desperate hunt. Among them was Sir Walter Raleigh: ambitious courtier, confidant to Queen Elizabeth, and, before long, El Dorado fanatic.

Entering the Elizabethan court as an upstart from a family whose days of nobility were far behind them, Raleigh used his military acumen, good looks, and sheer audacity to scramble into the limelight. Yet that same swagger proved to be his undoing, as his secret marriage to a lady-in-waiting enraged Queen Elizabeth and landed him in the Tower of London. Between his ensuing grim prospects at court and his underlying lust for adventure, the legend of El Dorado became an unwavering siren song that hypnotized Raleigh.

On securing his release, he journeyed across an ocean to find the fabled city, gambling his painstakingly acquired wealth, hard-won domestic bliss, and his very life. What awaited him in the so-called New World were endless miles of hot, dense jungle packed with deadly flora and fauna, warring Spanish conquistadors and Indigenous civilizations, and other unforeseen dangers. Meanwhile, back at home, his multitude of rivals plotted his demise.

Paradise of the Damned, like Keith Thomson's critically acclaimed Born to Be Hanged, brings this story to life in lush and captivating detail. The book charts Raleigh's obsessive search for El Dorado--as well as the many doomed expeditions that preceded and accompanied his--providing not only an invaluable history but also a gripping narrative of traveling to the ends of the earth only to realize, too late, that what lies at home is the greatest treasure of all.