The author tells a harrowing story of being held in several Japanese prison camps in Java for three years and seven months during World War II. Rentz was the chief radio operator aboard a B-17 bomber when it was shot down by Japanese... Read More

The idea for the tour was hatched-over drinks during an all-night bender in “Smiley” Mike Corbett’s bar at Twelfth and Lyttle on Chicago’s East Side-by Charles Comiskey, the Chicago White Sox’s owner, and John McGraw, president... Read More

If one wants to be happy for a lifetime, write the authors, one should become a gardener. Their love of gardening comes through every page of this comprehensive guide to growing 261 plants, with species-by-species information on each... Read More

The Iroquois Theatre opened on November 23, 1903, in downtown Chicago. It was called a “virtual temple of beauty” with its foyer patterned after the Opéra Comique in Paris, its enormous stage (fifty feet deep and 110 feet wide), and... Read More

In 1982, President Reagan asked the author to lead an effort to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. A total of $87 million was needed, and the overhaul had to be completed by the summer of 1986, in time for the Statue’s... Read More

On October 6, 1951, the author was captured by the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army while fighting in the Korean War. He spent twenty-two months as a prisoner, one of 7,245 Americans captured there. Bassett recalls almost every day of... Read More

“Elizabeth called me Gangster and I called her Baby Boobs,” writes the author in the brief text that complements this treasure trove of photographs of the legendary actress. Bozzacchi began his career as a photographer in Italy,... Read More

Perhaps the most famous photograph of the Vietnam War was that of terrified children running from an aerial napalm attack in June 1972. One of them was nine-year-old Kim Phuc, naked and in agony as napalm seared her body. Now living in... Read More