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John William Jakes

Born: Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Born in Chicago in 1932, John Jakes began writing professionally during his freshman year at Northwestern University, where he was studying acting. He decided to trade the stage for the typewriter when, at age 18, he sold his first story for $25.

Biography: After completing school, Jakes spent his days writing copy for a large pharmaceutical corporation, then several advertising agencies, including Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, one of the world's largest. At night he wrote and published short stories--eventually 200 of them, along with some 60 books in genres such as mystery, western, and science fiction.


Awards:
  • Porgie Award, 1977, for best books in a series; Ohioana Book Award for fiction, 1978, for "American Bicentennial" series; Friends of the Rochester Library Literary Award, 1983; Owen Wister Award for lifetime contribution to Western literature, Western Wr

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Website: http://www.johnjakes.com
John William Jakes on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=john++william+jakes


Selected Titles

101 mystery stories
ISBN: 0517603616 OCLC: 12664456

Avenel Books : New York : 1986.

A collection of suspense stories, puzzle stories, whodunits and tricky whydunits involving police detectives, private eyes, talented and sometimes lucky amateurs, armchair detectives, and ethnic detectives.

American dreams /
ISBN: 0451197011 OCLC: 41615847

Signet : New York : 1999.

Follows the historical saga of the Crown family, German immigrants who settle in Chicago, as they participate in the events of the early twentieth century.

  Amerikai álmok
ISBN: 9635477139 OCLC: 440346208

Magyar Könyvklub, [Budapest] : 2002.

Charleston /
ISBN: 0451207335 OCLC: 52598553

Signet, New York : 2003, ©2002.

Follows the lives, loves, and shifting fortunes of the unforgettable Bell family, from the American Revolution through the turbulent antebellum years to the savage defeat of the Confederacy. Jakes paints a powerful portrait of the Charleston aristocracy who zealously guard their wealth and privilege--while harboring dark family secrets that threaten to destroy them all. Peopled by a sprawling cast of memorable characters-- patriots and cowards, aristocrats and abolitionists, slaves and freedmen, heroic men and courageous women.

Crime time :
ISBN: 0786231572 OCLC: 46683698

Five Star, Waterville, Me. : 2001.

Heaven and Hell /
ISBN: 0451200837 OCLC: 16085535

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, CA : ©1987.

Continues the saga of two American families, the Mains of South Carolina and the Hazards of Pennsylvania, in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Homeland /
ISBN: 0451198425 OCLC: 27068931

Doubleday, New York : 1993.

The Crowns of Chicago are fictional immigrants from Berlin whose lives are woven here with the lives of such as Eugene Debs, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Clara Barton, Jane Addams, Black Jack Pershing, and Buffalo Bill.

Love and war /
ISBN: 0451200829 OCLC: 10924093

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego : ©1984.

Recounts the adventures of two unforgettable families--the Hazards of Pennsylvania and the Mains of South Carolina--in a land ripped apart by the Civil War.

North and South /
ISBN: 0451200810 OCLC: 7946770

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York : ©1982.

A novel of two families during twenty turbulent, troubled years that culminate in the shattering Civil War.

  North and South.
ISBN: 0790725533 OCLC: 33219969

Warner Home Video, Burbank, Calif. : ©1995.

The continuing saga of North and South about a friendship tested by the turbulent events of the Civil War.

Preaching with sacred fire :
ISBN: 9780393058314 OCLC: 150356504

W.W. Norton, New York : ©2010.

One hundred sermons that display the victorious, although sometimes painful, historical and spiritual pilgrimage of black people in America. --from publisher description.

Savannah, or, A gift for Mr. Lincoln :
ISBN: 0451215702 OCLC: 55067576

Dutton, New York : ©2004.

As Sherman's army marches from Atlanta to the sea in 1864, the city of Savannah lies directly in its path, threatening the livelihood of widow Sara Lester and her twelve-year-old daughter Hattie, who struggle to save the family plantation.

The best western stories of John Jakes
ISBN: 0821409824 OCLC: 22507596

Ohio University Press, Athens : ©1991.

The bold frontier /
ISBN: 0451204190 OCLC: 47806562

Signet, New York : ©2001.

Collection of western stories by John Jakes." These tales capture the glory and suffering of the men and women of the era--from a strange saloon shootout and a trapper seeking vengeance against a fur company to double-crossing outlaws and a duel between medicine men. John Jakes's thrilling stories span the legacy--and fuel the imagination--of the American frontier.

The gods of Newport :
ISBN: 0451222342 OCLC: 71237280

Dutton, New York : ©2006.

Determined to secure entry into the elite social circles of late nineteenth-century Rhode Island, Sam Driver enlists the help of a pair of social gadflies but finds his efforts complicated by his daughter's romance with an impoverished young Irishman.

  Újvilág
ISBN: 9635477961 OCLC: 909401441

Magyar Könyvklub, Budapest : 2003.

 

 

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