Jan Adkins: 7 books

Frank Lloyd Wright was the most influential architect of the twentieth century?and a rogue genius whose life was a wild ride. Wright routinely ignored unpaid bills, clients? wishes, budget constraints. Only his creative vision mattered to him. That vision transformed the way we live, sweeping aside...

Dear Reader: The Childhood of Famous Americans series, seventy years old in 2002, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person¹s development. History is fleshed out with...

Sandwiched between the ocean and the mountains surrounding the Pueblo de Los Angeles, wealthy Spanish caballeros live side by side with Native Americans. One boy with both Spanish and Indian blood belongs to both worlds. He is Diego de la Vega, who will one day wear the mask of Zorro. As a...

It's 1888 and Bertha Benz's husband, Karl, has invented the prototype Benz motorwagen. But the German government declares the vehicle illegal, and the church calls it the devil's work. Unbeknownst to her husband, Bertha steals away with her two sons and drives nearly one hundred miles to prove just...

You know all about cowboys, right? They're the good guys in the white hats, carrying six-shooters and wearing fancy boots. Well, no. Cowboys weren't like that at all. Come inside and meet Jake Peavy. He's the real deal. Jake's a crackerjack cattle herder but he wears a grubby hat and he limps from...

Forget jousts and quests and dragons—a real knight had real work to do, lots of mouths to feed, and trouble could ride over the hill at any moment. Castles were dark, armor was uncomfortable, and jousts and tournaments (not to mention real battles) were dangerous—and expensive. As in the popular...

People of African heritage have traveled to Monterey since the 1770s, when African Spaniard Alexo Nino, a ship's caulker, traveled with Fr. Junipero Serra to Monterey via the San Antonio. For centuries since Nino, black men and women migrated to the Monterey Bay area in search of a new life. In the...