Books in Creative Minds Biographies series

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York in 1797 or 1798. She never knew for sure which year she was born or even whether it was summer or winter. By the time she was a young woman, Sojourner knew she could no longer live as a slave, and with the help of Quakers, she escaped to freedom. She then began her long struggle to reunite her family and to free other slaves.

In 1847 an eighteen-year-old immigrant arrived in New York. He had little in his pockets and no knowledge of English. However, by 1874, people throughout the United States knew him as the man who made blue jeans with copper rivets. Even now Levi Strauss's name lives on as a mark of quality and style. In Mr. Blue Jeans, Maryann N. Weidt presents the history of this hardworking man, as he struggles through long, grueling days as a peddler and challenging times as a young businessman. His honesty, integrity, and generosity stand out as clearly as his name, making this rags-to-riches story well worth reading. The accurate and highly readable text is enriched by Lydia M. Anderson's dramatic black-and-white illustrations.

In 1791 plans for the new capital city, Washington, D.C., were in the works, but someone was needed to help with the surveying. Thomas Jefferson recommended Benjamin Banneker for the job. Banneker was a free black man who lived at a time when black Americans had few, if any, rights. Yet he was an accomplished farmer, mathematician, astronomer, and surveyor. What Are You Figuring Now? is the story of a man who was never afraid to try something new, no matter how difficult.

For the first twenty-eight years of her life. Harriet Tubman lived as a slave on a southern plantation. Finally, with the help of a Quaker woman, she was able to escape to Philadelphia by way of the Underground Railroad. After her escape, Harriet began her quest to help free other slaves. Over a ten-year period she led more than three hundred people through the Underground Railroad. In Go Free or Die, young readers will learn about this courageous woman who refused to be a slave and who fought for freedom for everyone.

Although he is credited with changing history through his invention of printing, Johann Gutenberg remains mysterious. In Fine Print, author Joann Johansen Burch pieces together Gutenberg's amazing story. When Johann was a child in the early 1400s, books were rare and sometimes very expensive. Each book had to be copied by hand, letter by letter. Gutenberg loved to read, and he often grew impatient waiting for the time-consuming bookmaking process to be completed. Young Gutenberg dreamed of finding a better way to make books. From his childhood in strife-torn Mainz through the many years of setbacks and bankruptcies, Gutenberg persevered in his belief that books could be made quickly and inexpensively. This is the story of the man who invented movable type and the printing press and gave the world the gift of books.

When George Eastman decided to make photography his hobby, "simple" was hardly the word to describe the pastime. He had to lug 50 pounds of camera equipment around with him, including the fragile glass plates that would become pictures. But resourceful George wasn't one to put up with such inconvenience for long. Click! is the story of how George Eastman developed a camera simple enough for anyone to use―the Kodak, predecessor of today's pocket instamatics―and forever revolutionized photography.

Growing up in the 1830s, Louis Pasteur saw the horrifying effects of diseases like rabies and tuberculosis. Filled with curiosity and imagination, Pasteur began a lifelong search for answers to his many questions about diseases. Although many scientists disagreed with his unusual ideas, his discoveries made him famous. Through his dedication and insight, Pasteur saved millions of lives and laid the groundwork for future medical advancements.

From the time she was a very young girl, Rachel Carson felt a bond with nature. Growing up in Pennsylvania, she spent hours exploring meadows and woods, dreaming of seeing the ocean. As Rachel grew older, she combined her gift for writing with her love of nature, producing award-winning books about the sea. But her best-known achievement was the publication of Silent Spring, an account of the dangerous effects of pesticides on plants and animals. With Silent Spring, Rachel helped create a movement to ban these harmful chemicals. Her findings helped to assure that future generations would be able to dream about the ocean and listen to crickets.

In the 1870s, surgery was a crude affair performed on the patient's kitchen table. In the frontier town of Rochester, Minnesota, Dr. W. W. Mayo brought his young sons, Will and Charlie, to assist him with operations. Fifty years later, Rochester became a medical mecca as the Mayo brothers were established as world-class surgeons. With a firm belief in sharing information and learning from others, the Mayo brothers proved the benefits of cooperation in a jealously competitive field, and accomplished more than any single colleague of their time. Emily Crofford gives a vivid account of the Mayos' meteoric rise to fame and their contributions as pioneers on the frontier of modern surgery.

Jan Matzeliger felt anything but welcome in Philadelphia in 1873. As well as being a foreigner, Jan was half African American, which meant that most doors were closed to him. Although the Civil War had been over for nearly ten years, inequality for African Americans still persisted in its aftermath. However, Jan refused to let prejudice keep him from achieving his dream of making a shoe-lasting machine to replace the tedious, time-consuming hand sewing that held up shoe manufacturing processes in his day.