Books in Creative Mind Biographies series

Scott Joplin came from a music-making family in Texarkana, Texas. As a small boy, he loved the lively, rhythmic African melodies and the soft, touching spirituals that he heard his father sing. By the age of twenty, Joplin had left home to make a living as a musician. Barbara Mitchell's Raggin' is the story of this talented composer/musician who overcame prejudice and hardship to create such favorites as "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer"--music that still makes people tap their toes.

Sisters against Slavery recounts the lives of Sarah Grimke and Angelica Grimke Weld. These daughters of wealthy Southern planters and slave owners renounced slavery in the 1830's. Through their writings and through a series of lectures delivered in the North, the sisters became famous for their views on slavery and women's rights. Although the sisters were active as speakers and essayists for a relatively short time in the 1830s and 1840s, they reached tens of thousands of people, influenced American views on slavery, and were an inspiration to women's rights leaders for decades to come.

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.

Thomas Paine believed that American liberty was not only possible but worth dying for. He was dissatisfied with his quiet life until he traveled to the American colonies. There, the cause of American freedom from English rule lit a fire within him. To inspire colonists to support and fight the war, he wrote Common Sense and The American Crisis. He was the first person to use the term the United States of America in print. He helped transform an entire nation with the power of his words.

At the age of nine, Clara Wieck gave her first public performance as a concert pianist. She played beautifully. When the concert was over, she felt as if she were dancing on a cloud. As she grew older, Clara's concerts took her all over Europe. Audiences adored her, and she became friends with other famous musicians―including her father's student, Robert Schumann. Robert and Clara fell in love and eventually married. Robert took some of Clara's melodies and shaped them into compositions, and Clara performed his pieces, introducing them to new audiences. Throughout her life, Clara Schumann's performances set the standard for piano music. The greatest composers of her time―impressed with the power and beauty of her playing―wrote music for her. Clara was a pianist, composer, and mentor, as well as an inspiration to the romantic movement that was her life. She made the piano sing.

Sir Isaac Newton changed the world with his many discoveries and inventions about mathematics, science, optics, and physics. Although he was brilliant, Newton felt no need to publish his ideas or to inform his fellow scientists of the amazing discoveries he made. Because of this, his discoveries were often disputed. Despite the controversy that often surrounded him, Newton made astounding advances in his efforts to understand how nature worked. His legacy lives on through inventions such as microscopes, eyeglasses, telescopes, and cameras.