Books in Creative Minds Biographies series

Abigail Adams lived through the Revolutionary War and became the First Lady of the second president of the United States. Though women of her time could not vote, govern, or own property, Abigail believed that women should not be ruled by laws they did not make. Although she did not see these rights come to women, she never gave up talking, writing, and perhaps most important, believing that women were equal to men. Her courage and strength enabled her to help her husband create a new country. She never fired a gun, but her pen was a weapon that helped win freedom for her country--and herself.

A teacher and principal, a lawyer, an entertainer, a diplomat, and a writer, James Weldon Johnson spent his entire life working to help African Americans gain the rights and respect they deserved. The first black chief executive of the NAACP, Johnson lived from the end of Reconstruction in the South through the exciting years of the Harlem Renaissance. He spent his life keeping the promise of equality alive, not only through his actions but through his words―“Lift Every Voice and Sing. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won.”

Lydia Maria Child grew up in the 1800s reading countless books. She defied the idea that girls weren't supposed to fill their minds with ideas and stories. They weren't supposed to write their own books, either, but that is exactly what Lydia Maria did. Although she gained remarkable success as a writer for children and adults, she sacrificed everything when she took up her pen against slavery. Lydia Maria believed that slavery was wrong--and she wasn't afraid to say so. As a result, her courageous words changed her life and helped change the course of American history.

The year was 1569 and the place was Stratford-on-Avon. A little boy watched a company of traveling actors perform on a makeshift stage. No one could have known that the child, whose name was William Shakespeare, would one day become the most famous playwright in history. This is the story of the man who wrote Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and many other plays that have been performed and enjoyed again and again for more than four hundred years.

When Jules Verne was born in 1828, his family had his future planned out for him. They expected him to become a lawyer, but he dreamed of writing. He started out writing more traditional poetry and plays, but then he began to create a new, unconventional kind of fiction. It combined adventure, the modern world of science and invention, and his personal view of the future. With fantastical characters, spaceships to the moon, and deep-sea submarines, his books told of things that would not actually occur for decades.

As a small boy, Charles Dickens worked in a dark, musty London warehouse, pasting labels onto pots of boot polish. He tried not to listen to his grumbling stomach or the rats squeaking on the stairs. His dream was to escape that misery one day and become a fine, educated gentleman. Through his gift for writing, that day did come for Dickens. But he never forgot what it was like to be poor. He wrote stories about London's lower classes--tales that made people laugh, cry, and work to improve their social conditions. By the time of his death, Charles Dickens had become one of the most popular English writers ever. Step into nineteenth-century London and the life of Charles Dickens in this exciting book. David R. Collins's exciting biography and David Mataya's powerful illustrations bring this master storyteller to life.

E. B. White first recognized the magic in words when he was very young. As a child, some of his happiest hours were spent finding just the right words to describe his feelings and experiences. After graduating from college, he took a job with a new magazine called The New Yorker. The magazine's readers soon began to look forward to the poetry and essays written by E. B. White. His writing was clear and lively with no wasted words, and it could make people laugh as easily as it could make them cry. In 1936, White and his family moved to a little farm near the coast of Maine, complete with sheep, chickens, and pigs. It was there that E. B. White wrote Charlotte's Web, perhaps one of the most beloved children's books ever written.