A grim, glowering fortress loomed in the darkness, bathed in the glow of arc lights shadowing its battlements and towers. This was the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet, thirtyish miles south of Chicago. Convicted … Read the article
You helped bring down Al Capone before you turned thirty. What do you do for an encore?… Read the article
August 29th is the anniversary of the discovery of Ishi. No, this is not an island or one of Jupiter’s moons. At the time when Ishi was found, on August 29, 1911, he was touted as the … Read the article
Annie Oakley is one of those Wild West figures whose name is familiar to many people but they don’t know much about her. In honor of the anniversary of her birthday on August 13, let’s find out … Read the article
There are two reasons to write about James Butler Hickok right now. One is baseball. We are in what the sport’s scribes call the “dog days” of the season when the pennant races become as hot as … Read the article
True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball’s—and America’s—most significant figures. Read an excerpt below.… Read the article
Thanks to dazzling advances in xenotransplantation and stem cell research, transplant surgery appears to be going through a new Renaissance. But where did transplants come from? We tend to put them into the same category as the … Read the article
151 years ago, a journey to Africa began that would garner international fame. In March, Henry Morton Stanley set out from Zanzibar to find a missing British explorer. The intrepid Stanley would always be remembered for this … Read the article
As a new war erupts in Europe, Siân Evans recounts the tale of a heroic British nurse working behind enemy lines in Belgium during the First World War. Edith Cavell’s court-martial and execution by firing squad was … Read the article
I came to Heiresses by accident, during the course of researching another book. As I scanned letters and diaries by the usual suspects—Nancy Mitford, Cecil Beaton, James Lees-Milne—in search of information, I found myself intrigued by certain … Read the article