Illinois Authors

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 2012.

Documents the story of Gilded Age con artist Ferdinand Ward, recounting how his large-scale pyramid operation and other sensational schemes triggered one of the greatest financial scandals in American history.

HarperPerennial, New York, N.Y. : 1992.

A.A. Knopf : New York : ©1994.

530 illustrations in text Best Books for Young Teen Readers. A history of the game, published in conjunction with a PBS documentary, with essays, facts, & over 500 photos. This is an incredible book for the baseball fan & for anyone interested in the social history of America as reflected in a sport. It is filled with wonderful photographs. Students will want to browse through the memorabilia of baseball & read about the evolution of the game. For the most part, the chapters focus on decades & look at every aspect of the game, including the rules, players, owners, facilities, & fans. This is the companion book to the PBS television series. Bibliography & index.

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 2010.

A moving and fascinating history of the game of baseball. Goes beyond the stolen bases and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, American life.

Vintage Books, New York : 2014.

Harper & Row, New York : ©1985.

An intimate portrait of the uncommon family, early years and private world of the man who became FDR.

Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York : 2009, ©1995.

Vintage, 2014.

Random House Audiobooks, New York : â„—2000.

Traces the history of jazz music from its origins in New Orleans through the twentieth century, and looks at the lives and contributions of some of the genre's greatest composers and performers.

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 2000.

Traces the history of jazz music from its origins in New Orleans through the twentieth century, and looks at the lives and contributions of some of the genre's greatest composers and performers.

Random House Audio, New York : â„—2001.

A companion to the PBS miniseries presents material from the great writer's literary works, diaries, and letters, and follows him from his Hannibal, Missouri childhood to his career as a journalist and author, accompanied by essays on him by contemporary scholars and authors.

Integrating material from his literary works, diaries, and letters, this illustrated portrait of one of America's greatest writers follows Twain from his childhood, through his travels throughout the world, to his career as a journalist and author.

Random House, New York : 2009, ©2008.

Presents the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician's take on jazz music, discussing the secrets of listening to jazz, different styles of jazz musicians, the music's improvisational principles, and its influence on modern life and the world.

A.A. Knopf, New York : 1999.

Meet important historical personalities, scientists, aviators, and athletes in this series that illustrate the impact dynamic leaders have on society. These books are sure to inspire young readers as they learn about the lives of famous people. Each book includes a timeline of important dates, a glossary, and an index. Included in the back of each book are additional resources such as At the Library, On the Web, On the Road, and Did you Know? that are filled with interesting facts.

Vintage Books, New York : 1994, ©1990.

Provides a history of the Civil War based on the PBS television series "The Civil War," with maps and text which interweave the author's narrative with the voices of the men and women who lived through the war; and includes essays by historians of the era.

The complete text of the bestselling narrative history of the Civil War--based on the celebrated PBS television series. This non-illustrated edition interweaves the author's narrative with the voices of the men and women who lived through that cataclysmic trail of our nationhood, from Abraham Lincoln to ordinary foot soldiers. Includes essays by distinguished historians of the era.

Select, New York : ©1984.

Stonehenge, [Chicago, Ill.] : [©1983]

Text and lavish photographs present the art and treasures of the Maharajas of India.

Random House Audio, New York : â„—2007.

Chronicles the American experience of World War II, both on the battlefields and on the home front, as chronicled in the voices and experiences of ordinary men and women from four towns across the country, from 1941 to 1945.

A.A. Knopf, New York : 2007.

As companion to the PBS series airing in September 2007, "The War" focuses on the citizens of four towns--Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama, following more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Maps and hundreds of photographs enrich this compelling, unflinching narrative.

Little, Brown, Boston : ©1996.

Focuses chiefly on the 19th century which is the period that defined the American West in popular imagination.

A pictorial essay; more than 100 full color photos.

For many years historian and screenwriter Geoffrey C. Ward, who grew up in India, has returned to visit the Indian jungles, drawn by their beauty and by the mystery and power of the great endangered predator that has always ruled them - the tiger. In this intensely personal, richly illustrated book, containing seventy-five rare photographs, most of them in color and made in the field by the finest nature photographers, he evokes the special appeal of India's forests. He describes his encounters with some of the tiger-wallahs - tiger-men - who have struggled against overwhelming odds to save the species from extinction: Jim Corbett, the great destroyer of man-eaters, who became a still greater conservationist; Billy Arjan Singh, the Spartan farmer who despises hunters and hunting, tried to return a tigress to the wild, and, all alone, carved out a national park; Fateh Singh Rathore, the uninhibited Rajput who cheerfully risked his life defending the jungles in his charge; and Valmik Thapar, the son of New Delhi intellectuals, who began as Fateh's disciple, became an authority in his own right, and now champions a new kind of conservation that may provide the tiger's only hope. Tiger-Wallahs is both a book about a magnificent animal and its ablest defenders, and an evocative farewell to a species that now seems doomed by shrinking habitats and a soaring international trade in tiger bones to vanish from the wild before the century's end.

This is the winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the year award. He was the first black heavyweight champion in history (1908-1915) and the most celebrated - and most reviled - African American of his age. In Unforgivable Blackness, prize-winning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to vivid life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex than the newspaper headlines could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports - one that had always been the preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if colour did not exist. Because of this, the federal government set out to destroy him and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years of exile. As Ward shows, Johnson was seen as a perpetual threat to white and African Americans alike - profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace and a danger to the natural order of things. Unforgivable Blackness is the first full-scale biography of Johnson in more than twenty years. Accompanied by more than fifty photographs and drawing on a wealth of new material - including Johnson's never-before-published prison memoir - it restores Jack Johnson to his rightful place in the pantheon of sporting and social warriors.

A.A. Knopf, New York : 2004.

Prizewinning biographer Geoffrey C. Ward brings to life the real Jack Johnson, a figure far more complex and compelling than the newspaper headlines he inspired could ever convey. Johnson battled his way from obscurity to the top of the heavyweight ranks and in 1908 won the greatest prize in American sports--one that had always been the private preserve of white boxers. At a time when whites ran everything in America, he took orders from no one and resolved to live as if color did not exist. While most blacks struggled just to survive, he reveled in his riches and his fame. And at a time when the mere suspicion that a black man had flirted with a white woman could cost him his life, he insisted on sleeping with whomever he pleased, and married three. Because he did so the federal government set out to destroy him, and he was forced to endure a year of prison and seven years of exile. Ward points out that to most whites (and to some African Americans as well) he was seen as a perpetual threat--profligate, arrogant, amoral, a dark menace, and a danger to the natural order of things.--From publisher description.