“So geographers in Afric’ maps / With savage-pictures fill their gaps; / And o’er uninhabitable downs / Place elephants for want of towns,” commented Jonathan Swift. Cartography, that age-old science that combines beauty with... Read More

Thomas Morgan Reed’s physical problems were first brought to his family’s attention by his Scoutmaster, who noticed that the boy had trouble with his back while swimming. Soon Thomas found himself in the hospital in a body cast that... Read More

Take a Victorian mansion, strange women clad in striped stockings and flowing garments, a mermaid, a wolf walking upright and dressed like a man, and a banjo-playing doll. Throw in knives, gore, dismemberment, and death. Mix well.... Read More

This book ought to carry a warning on its cover: “Mothers of Small Children Should Approach With Extreme Caution.” The author’s wrenching first-person account of trying to rescue her young daughter and son from their powerful,... Read More

Many of America’s household names began in chautauquas. Edgar Bergen began there, honing his ventriloquist act. Lady Mary Heath of Ireland, an aviation pioneer, went on tour, as did other notable women. Dick Mallett, whose father was... Read More

As a person reaches the late middle years of life, the push and pull of personal connections inform the decisions she makes, decisions that will change the course of her remaining years. In the author’s third short story collection,... Read More

Lewis and Clark were not the first European Americans to see grizzly bears, but, argues the author, “for the practical purposes of how we perceive the bear today they might well have been.” Using various journals and diaries from the... Read More

One of children’s author Wanda Gág’s favorite sayings was: “There are times when it is necessary to do the impossible.” The artist, who lived from 1893 to 1946, is a central figure in this family biography. She followed her... Read More