Biography

Beyond the River brings to brilliant life the dramatic story of the forgotten heroes of the Ripley, Ohio, line of the Underground Railroad. From the highest hill above the town of Ripley, Ohio, you can see five bends in the Ohio River. You can see the...

Auntie, why don't people love our black men? A 15 year-old heartbroken teenager asks her aunt. A simple but poignant question births Beyond The Hashtag into the heart of Jenjii Faith. Beyond The Hashtag breathes life into the complex relationships...

The analyses of both Ellington's music and his enigmatic personality are delineated with rare insight.--Leonard Feather, author of The Encyclopedia of JazzOne of the twentieth century's greatest composers, Duke Ellington (1899-1974) led a fascinating...

Arthur Briggs's life was Homeric in scope. Born on the tiny island of Grenada, he set sail for Harlem during the Renaissance, then to Europe in the aftermath of World War I, where he was among the first pioneers to introduce jazz music to the world...

A beautiful genre-bending tribute to the larger-than-life blues singer Bessie Smith. Scotland's National Poet blends poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction to create an entirely unique biography of the Empress of the Blues. There has never been anyone...

Jennifer Jones is a native of Houston, Texas who now resides in Arlington, TX with her family. She is a loving, caring, outspoken, mother of 3 beautiful children who she absolutely adores. Upon entering the workforce, she began her career in security...

Bass player extraordinaire Charles Mingus, who died in 1979, is one of the essential composers in the history of jazz, and Beneath the Underdog, his celebrated, wild, funny, demonic, anguished, shocking, and profoundly moving memoir, is the greatest...

In her powerful and inspiring memoir, Cookie Johnson, wife of NBA legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson, shares details of her marriage, motherhood, faith, and how an HIV diagnosis twenty-five years ago changed the course of their lives forever. On November 7,...

Originally published in 1868--when it was attacked as an "indecent book" authored by a "traitorous eavesdropper"--Behind the Scenes is the story of Elizabeth Keckley, who began her life as a slave and became a privileged witness to the presidency of...

History's only four-time world heavyweight boxing champion and one of America's most admired and beloved athletes reveals the dramatic story of his rise from poverty to the very pinnacle of the toughest sport on earth. Barely able to make it into the...

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER - ONE OF ESSENCE'S 50 MOST...

I saw a car in a driveway and I ducked under the car lying there, afraid to move. It was still in the middle of the day, about five or six o'clock. Every time someone would walk past, or I heard something my heart would start beating so fast because, I...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. covers the entire life of the leader of the Civil Rights Movement Winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive...

A must-read for modern sanghas--Asian American Buddhists in their own words, on their own terms. Despite the fact that two thirds of U.S. Buddhists identify as Asian American, mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often...

The explosive definitive account of the Michael Jackson saga, chronicling the King of Pop's battles against child molestation charges from 1993 to 2005, from award-winning journalist Diane Dimond, who broke the story first, over twelve years ago ...

Every borough has its own story and Basildon in Essex is no different. This book follows the lives of 50 people from the sixteen hundreds to present time from the area, who have become Nationally or Internationally famous. From Christopher Martin a...