Biography

The runaway international bestseller is now an American must-read for lovers of adventure, travel writing, and romance. Corinne Hofmann tells how she falls in love with an African warrior while on holiday in Kenya. After overcoming severe obstacles, she...

Part sports star, part antihero, part hip-hop icon, Allen Iverson has managed to cross over into the mainstream of American culture -- without compromise. Defiantly tattooed, with his hair in cornrows, the six-foot Philadelphia 76ers point guard is one...

The long journey of an American song, from its enormous success in the early 1850s, written by a white man, considered the father of American music, about a Black man being sold downriver, performed for decades by white men in blackface, and the song, an...

How two Vietnam POWs, one white and one black, formed an unexpected friendship that saved them both: "A moving story." -- John McCainFred Cherry was one of the few black pilots taken prisoner by the Vietnamese, tortured and intimidated by captors who...

"Music is simply the soul boiling over into sound. When you produce with this in mind, there is no way you'll ever miss the mark." Curtiss King: Producer. Rapper. Mentor to thousands of aspiring artists and entrepreneurs through his YouTube channel...

Never one to mince words, Effa Manley once wrote a letter to sportswriter Art Carter, saying that she hoped they could meet soon because "I would like to tell you a lot of things you should know about baseball." From 1936 to 1948, Manley ran the Negro...

A true music-lover's journey into the past! Late one night in 2005, Zeke Schein made an amazing discovery while searching for a vintage guitar on eBay: a grainy, battered photograph captioned Old Snapshot Blues Guitar BB King Neither man looked like...

Jazz Man's Journey chronicles the life and career of, Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., one of New Orleans' most vivacious and talented jazz musicians. From his childhood in a rural section of New Orleans, to solo appearances with the New Orleans/Louisiana...

An Imperfect God is a major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slaveryWhen George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves...

Michael Jackson's closest sister pulls back the curtain to reveal the inner workings of the Jackson family, Michael's tortured soul, and her own love for her brother in this intimate portrait of a beloved, yet troubled, pop legend. In this shocking New...

A distinguished anthropologist tells his life story as a wistful novelist would, watching himself as if he were someone elseThis memoir recaptures meaningful moments from the author's life: as his childhood on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, his...

Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women's and civil rightsSarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop,...

In the early morning hours of December 8, 1969, three hundred officers of the newly created elite paramilitary tactical unit known as SWAT initiated a violent battle with a handful of Los Angeles-based members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense...

She can be funny and sharp-tongued, warm and blunt, empathic and demanding. Who is the woman Barack Obama calls the boss? In Michelle, Washington Post writer Liza Mundy paints a revealing and intimate portrait, taking us inside the marriage of the most...

A unique tribute to often overlooked women who have left an indelible mark on Gospel Music--powerful talents who overcame racism and sexism to define the genre, establish its sound, and set the standard for good sangin' for generations.Nothing in the...