The real story of the "unsinkable" Titanic survivor and her early life in the Midwest.In the film version of the life of the "Unsinkable Molly Brown," she is rescued from the Colorado River and raised in the Rocky Mountains, but the actual Margaret Tobin Brown was born and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. Her formative years took place in the town's Gilded Age; the railroad brought in lumber barons, and as the wealth of Hannibal grew, so too did the dreams of ...

Local historians take readers beyond the celebrated charm of Mark Twain's boyhood home to its unexplainable and disturbing dark side.After living in Rockcliffe Mansion, where the haunted hallways were a rite of passage for countless Hannibalian youth, Ken and Lisa Marks learned firsthand that Hannibal, Missouri, is indeed haunted. Hannibal's own Mark Twain held a lifelong fascination with paranormal activity after experiencing an uncanny premonition of the death of...

Picked by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the unknown wilds of the Louisiana Territory, Meriwether Lewis assembles a rugged team of adventurers, including co-captain William Clark-and a Newfoundland dog named Seaman. As hunter, retriever, and guard, Seaman becomes a trusted member of the Corps of Discovery. While the team tackles raging rivers and muddy shallows, Seaman is there-sharing their hunger and fatigue. Whether Indians threaten or grizzlies roar, he stands his ground. And th...

Did you know there are over 400 different species of sharks? Did you know they have been on Earth much longer than humans, and even lived before the dinosaurs? Here you'll learn all about these fearsome kings of the ocean, including their eating habits and the basics of their anatomy. Sharks come in many sizes, from under a foot long to over 40 feet-and that's not even counting the long-extinct, 60-foot-long Megalodon shark. And while some have been known to bite people, they are usually q...

Critically acclaimed author Keith Lee Morris-who has drawn favorable comparisons to Richard Russo and Richard Ford-delivers a stunning collection of stories. In these unforgettable tales of deep humanity, the flaws and strengths of young men are explored with remarkable clarity. "Morris's prose is polished to transparency and proves surprisingly flexible in terms of tone . marked by quiet authority and beautifully observed moments."-Publishers Weekly

Dusty Richards' Westerns are visceral portraits of America's past-a time when ruthless land-grabbing reddened the plains with blood. In this 2007 Spur Award winner, cattle baron Rupart MacDavis wants to bury the ranchers of Horse Creek, Montana. With the local law in his pocket, MacDavis brutalizes the town until Herschel Baker begins showing the people how to fight back.

Recipient of seven Spur Awards, Elmer Kelton "just keeps getting better and better" (Tulsa World). When a ruthless cattle baron and his men destroy Doug Monahan's property, his old friend and mentor is gunned down. Pistol whipped and now flat broke, Monahan finds refuge on the sprawling homestead of Noah Wheeler and his virtuous daughter. But Monahan refuses to quit. "If there's an heir to the Louis L'Amour legacy, it's Kelton."-Booklist

Chuck Palahniuk, literature’s favorite transgressive author, gives us twenty-one stories and one novella in Make Something Up, a compilation that disturbs and delights in equal measure. In “Expedition,” fans will be thrilled to find to see a side of Tyler Durden never seen before in a precursor story to Fight Club. And in other stories, the absurdity of both life and death are on full display: in “Zombies,” the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragic...

The fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell has been honored with the Pushcart Prize, the AWP Award for Short Fiction, and Southern Review’s Eudora Welty Prize. In this stunning collection—a National Book Award finalist—Campbell paints unapologetically frank portraits of broken souls striving for redemption.In rural Michigan, the American dream, if it ever existed, lies discarded like so much rusty scrap metal. For the inhabitants of Campbell’s tales, the real truth of life can be found in i...

The recipient of two Spur awards, Dusty Richards is celebrated by his peers and fans alike for his exceptional Westerns. In Montana Revenge, former rancher Herschel Baker has just settled into the job as sheriff of Yellowstone County when a cowboy is hung from a tree with the words "Hoss Steeler" pinned to his chest. It's vigilante justice, plain and simple, and it's just the sort of lawlessness that Herschel refuses to abide.

In Bitter Trail, Kelton tells the story of a tough teamster named Frio Wheeler whose wagons haul cotton from Texas to Mexico.Sounds like a peaceable enterprise?The problem is that the Civil War is raging throughout the South and Wheeler's cotton is to be sold for gold--gold used to buy guns and ammunition for the Confederate army.And, added to his balky mules, the broiling heat, and killing drought of the Mexican dessert, Wheeler has even more serious matte...

Elmer Kelton, voted "The Greatest Western Writer of All Time" by the Western Writers of America, is a legend in the field of Western literature. Famous for his realistic characters and accurate depictions of the history of his home state of Texas, Elmer Kelton continues to write exceptional novels of American history.In Hanging Judge, Justin Moffitt is eager to help keep the peace as a deputy marshal in small-town Texas. That is, until Justin is assigned to the wrong marsh...