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Pearl Zane Gray was born January 31, 1872 - October 23, 1939 in Zanesville, Ohio. He had a happy upper-middle childhood, as his father was a successful dentist. But,there was an occasional fistfight with boys, that teased him about his first name being.... Pearl. He later replaced it with his mothers maiden name.... Zane. A scout for the university of Pennsylvania, convinced him him to play on the college baseball team, and study there. He graduated in 1986 with a degree in dentistry.  Seems Zane did not have much fondness for the idea of replicating his father’s safe but unexciting career path.  Searching for an alternative, Grey decided to try his hand at writing.  His very first attempt was an uninspiring historical novel about a family ancestress. At that point, Grey might well have been doomed to a life of dentistry, had he not met Colonel C. J. “Buffalo” Jones in 1908, who convinced Grey to write his biography. More importantly, Jones took him out West ...

Bryan Stevenson is NYU Law School professor of law and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on March 2, 1904. While Theodor Geisel died on September 24, 1991, Dr. Seuss lives on, inspiring generations of children of all ages to explore the joys of reading. “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, would say. “Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained and delighted.”

Prize winning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Donald L. Miller is the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College. He is a creator and associate producer of the HBO documentary  He Has Seen War  and has been chief consultant for numerous award-winning PBS productions. He is author of the prizewinning  City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America.

World War II, fought from 1939 to 1945, engulfed the globe in a shattering struggle over national sovereignty and individual rights. It was also the costliest battle in history in terms of human life, with millions perishing in combat, in concentration camps, and under the rubble of crushed cities. This gripping and epic battle is brought powerfully to life on every page of Time-Life Books'  World War II in 500 Photographs.  Inside, you'll find: Key events, battles, and turning points, year by year Profiles of the war's leaders, heroes, and enemies Memorable quotations and firsthand accounts Color maps and photo timelines