Biography

In 1973 young artist and filmmaker Lee Jaffe met Bob Marley in New York City and within hours cemented a friendship that would see Jaffe becoming a Wailer right down (or up) to his dreadlocks. While Marley was well known in Jamaica, he was little known...

The charming real-life fairy tale of an American secretary who discovers she has been chosen king of an impoverished fishing village on the west coast of Africa. King Peggy chronicles the astonishing journey of American secretary, Peggielene Bartels, who...

The untold story of Sammy Davis, Jr.: This incisive biography and sweeping cultural history conjures the many worlds [Davis, Jr.] traversed, and shows how the issue of race, in his own mind and in the minds of his fans and detractors, shaped his career...

Chester B. Himes has been called "one of the towering figures of the black literary tradition" (Henry Louis Gates Jr.), "the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "a quirky American genius" (Walter Mosely). He...

[These contributions] touch on so many different facets of the immigrant experience that readers will find much to ponder... [and] experience how creative writing enriches our understanding of each other and our lives. -BooklistIntroduction by Pulitzer...

When life is defined and debated through sound bites and social media, who would want to read a story about a boy who traversed multiple cultures, languages, religions, and geographical areas?To Have Nothing, the first volume of Adel Ben-Harhara's...

A new, fully illustrated gift book commemorating the unparalleled rise, fall, and comeback of golf's greatest champion Tiger Woods turned pro at age 20 in 1996, rapidly ascending to become the No. 1 ranked player in the world at age 21 and the youngest...

Dorothy Dandridge's life story is the stuff Hollywood dreams--and nightmares. Completed shortly before her tragic death in 19665, Everything and Nothing recounts her rags-to-riches-to-rags story form her personal point of view. Dandridge recalls her...

Roxane Orgill's vivid words and Leonard Jenkins's dramatic pictures combine to tell the story of a boy who grew up to be a giant of jazz--the legendary and beloved Louis Armstrong. As a poor boy in New Orleans, where music was everywhere--dancing out of...

Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film, the black D. W. Griffith--a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves, he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his...

"Becoming Richard Pryor is a book that breaks new ground. . . . Saul details the amazing way that Richard found his way out of the life for which he seemed destined and into the world of the performing arts." --New York TimesRichard Pryor may have been...

At age ten, Peter Mutabazi ran away from home. For five years he survived on the streets of Kampala, Uganda, a city of 1.5 million, until one man saw potential in him. This man not only supported Peter through school but also altered Peter's outlook in...