Adult

In UNDER A WILD SKY, William Souder reveals that John James Audubon not only composed the most famous depictions of birds the world has ever seen, he also composed a brilliant mythology of self, for he discovered that selling subscriptions to his bird paintings, an essential step to underwrite his work, required he sell his own story first. The author charts the life of a driven man who, despite frequent failure, no clear path to success, and rigorous physical and artistic work, became the historical figure we know today.

TUDORS VERSUS STEWARTS brings alive a neglected aspect of British history --- the blood-spattered steps of two small countries on the northern fringes of Europe towards the union of their crowns. Beginning with the dramatic victories of two usurpers --- Henry VII in England and James IV in Scotland --- in the late 15th century, Linda Porter's book sheds new light on Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth I and his great-niece, Mary Queen of Scots, still seductive more than 400 years after her death.

Scandal! Intrigue! Cossacks! Here the world’s most engaging royal historian chronicles the world’s most fascinating imperial dynasty: the Romanovs, whose 300-year reign was remarkable for its shocking violence, spectacular excess and unimaginable venality. In this incredibly entertaining history, Michael Farquhar collects the best, most captivating true tales of Romanov iniquity.

Some historians claim that Richard III's "black legend" is nothing more than political propaganda. Yet such an interpretation, according to Desmond Seward, suggests a refusal to face the facts of history. Even in the king's lifetime, there were rumors about his involvement in the murders of Henry VI and of his nephews, while his reign was considered by many to be a nightmare, not least for the king himself. The real Richard III was both a chilling and compelling monarch, a peculiarly grim young English precursor of Machiavelli's Prince.

President Nixon's voice-activated taping system captured every word spoken in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room and other key locations in the White House, and at Camp David --- 3,700 hours of recordings between 1971 and 1973. Yet less than five percent of those conversations have ever been transcribed and published. Now, thanks to professor Luke Nichter's massive effort to digitize and transcribe the tapes, the world can finally read an unprecedented account of one of the most important and controversial presidencies in U.S. history.

After suffering a stinging defeat in the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Richard Nixon's political career was proclaimed dead by everyone. Yet on January 20, 1969, he would stand taking the oath of office as the 37th President of the United States. Patrick J. Buchanan --- who served as one of two staff members to Nixon --- gives a first-hand account of those pivotal years, in which Nixon worked to reverse his political fortunes in a decade marked by revolution, the Vietnam War, assassinations, and the rise of the New Left.

The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance and large parts of the country that had been at one time Norman or, later, English. The fighting ebbed and flowed, but despite their superior tactics and great victories at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the English could never hope to secure their claims in perpetuity: France was wealthier and far more populous, and while the English won the battles, they could not hope to hold forever the lands they conquered.

America’s first “celebrity” general, William Tecumseh Sherman was a man of many faces. Some of them were exalted in the public eye. Others were known only to intimates --- his family, friends and lovers, and the soldiers under his command. In this rich and layered portrait, Robert L. O’Connell captures the man in full for the first time. Sherman was, as O’Connell puts it, the “human embodiment of Manifest Destiny.”

When the German army found themselves desperate for a typhus vaccine, they turned to Rudolf Weigl. The success of Weigl's techniques gave him cover during the Nazi's reign, so he hired otherwise doomed men, protecting them from atrocity. Among the scientists saved was a gifted Jewish immunologist named Ludwik Fleck. Condemned to Buchenwald and pressured to recreate the vaccine, Fleck had to make a choice between his scientific ideals or the truth of his conscience.

Billy Williams came to colonial Burma in 1920, fresh from service in World War I, to a job as a “forest man” for a British teak company. Mesmerized by the intelligence, character and even humor of the great animals who hauled logs through the remote jungles, he became increasingly skilled at treating their illnesses and injuries, and championed more humane treatment for them. In ELEPHANT COMPANY, Vicki Constantine Croke chronicles Williams’s growing love for elephants as the animals provide him lessons in courage, trust and gratitude.