California Biographies

Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Sweeney’s “endearing series of true tales from parenthood’s front lines” (O, The Oprah Magazine) is a funny, smart tour de force that reads like a conversation with your best friend. In these candidly witty and poignant essays, comedienne and writer...

When acclaimed journalist Alan Deutschman came to the California wine country as the lucky house guest of very rich friends, he was surprised to discover a raging controversy. A civil war was being fought between the Napa Valley, which epitomized elitism, prestige and wealthy excess, and the...

Each week, millions of viewers tune into The Discovery Channel to watch their favorite dysfunctional American family, the Teutuls. Their hit TV show, American Chopper, features Paul Teutul, Sr., and his sons Paul, Jr., and Mikey, along with a supporting cast of mechanics and friends. Together, they create some of the most incredible and outrageous motorcycles in the world.

When Jack and Denny Smith decided to build a vacation dream house in Baja, California, they had no idea they were entering a phase of their lives "that would capture the fancy of readers throughout the United States". Through a series of strange and whimsical adventures, they would find that building a house takes God and Mr. Gomez.

For over a decade, I’ve been captivated by the idea of this book, which goes beyond profiling well-known locals in Orange County. It focuses on individuals who contribute significantly to the region’s culture and beyond, showcasing a diverse range of stories. Orange County isn’t just a location; it’s a hub of creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation—from surf culture to tech giants.

Modern biographies of Richard Nixon have been consumed with Watergate. All have missed arguably the most important perspective on Nixon as California's native son, the only U.S. president born and raised in California. By shifting the focus from Watergate and Washington to Nixon's deep, defining roots in California, Paul Carter boldly challenges common conceptions of the thirty-seventh president of the United States.

In May 1972, Liese Greensfelder arrived in the small Norwegian town of Øystese to startling news: Johannes, the farmer who hired her for the summer, had just been hospitalized after a stroke. Could she please watch over his place for a month or so, until he got back on his feet? Twenty years old and with no farming experience, Liese was dropped off the next day at a centuries-old mountain farm at the end of a dirt road high above the magnificent Hardanger Fjord—with 115 sheep, two cows, one calf, a draft horse, and a Norwegian herding dog to care for.

An intimate portrait of a tortured player, this biography culls interviews, letters, and the personal account of baseball legend Willie Mays Aikens. Touted from a young age as the next Reggie Jackson, Aikens' promising career quickly turned disastrous when he fell into drug abuse and was ultimately sentenced to the longest prison sentence ever given to a professional athlete in a drug case.

It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air...

A story of obsession, glory, and the wild early days of Ultimate Frisbee. David Gessner devoted his twenties to a cultish sport called Ultimate Frisbee. Like his teammates and rivals, he trained for countless hours, sacrificing his body and potential career for a chance at fleeting glory without...

Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere 25 years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next 65 years, he wrote nearly 80 more books and won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He was also a filmmaker, labor activist, women’s rights advocate, and health pioneer on a grand scale. This new biography of Sinclair underscores his place in the American story as a social, political, and cultural force, a man who more than any other disrupted and documented his era in the name of social justice.

Governor Culbert L. Olson is one of the most important and prominent men you have probably never heard of. Elected governor of California in 1938, he is noted for being the first Democratic governor of the state in over 40 years. His term spanned the years 1939 to 1943, years of tumult and trial for California and for all of America. It included the last part of America's Great Depression and the first part of World War II. Olson led California through this difficult time with a progressive agenda known as Olson's "New Deal for California."

American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You'll never see your state fair or street festival the same way again. Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals. He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last king of the sideshows.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area during the golden age after World War II, the bold, often reckless Joe Fessio would suddenly enter the Society of Jesus at age twenty and, by divine providence, find himself studying under three of the greatest theological minds of the twentieth century—Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

An eight-year-old boy assigned the task of throwing flowers during the Shah’s visit. A teenager in boot camp eager to catch episodes of a popular Japanese TV show. An adult coming to the United States, ready to make his mark in the tech world. These are just some of the personal experiences shaping Hodjat’s intimate narrative of a boy growing up in post-revolutionary Iran. The stories paint a picture of a middle-class Westernized boy experiencing all the common - and uncommon - adventures of childhood and self-discovery.

“Superb. Hiltzik makes a compelling case that California is the heartbeat of our nation.”—Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of Silent Spring Revolution From Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Hiltzik, a definitive new history of California—from the Spanish conquistadors to...

A native of northern Russia, Alexander Baranov was a middle-aged merchant trader with no prior experience in the fur trade when, in 1790, he arrived in North America to assume command over Russia’s highly profitable sea otter business.

At fifty-four, Alenka was running out of time to follow through on a dream she’d written down in her pocket-size Rumi book just after her first marriage crumbled. Years later, as she slowly rebuilt her life with her second husband, things started spiraling out of control. The only way she knew how to heal and connect all painful parts of her life was by riding her bike, and she didn’t want to have regrets. But was she brave enough to embark on an unknown path and risk losing everything . . . perhaps even her own life?

Gary Reid Galbreath was born and raised in California and knew from a young age that he wanted to devote himself to the pursuit of justice. From donning his first seersucker suit at four to his career in law enforcement, he was determined to seek out the truth and level the playing field. Little did he know that seeking the truth and finding justice as a California State Lottery Investigator would get him labeled as a whistleblower. Fired and shunned by the very people he thought would support him in his quest for fairness, Reid shares his story of vindication and clearing his name.

Many of the women who went west for the gold rush shared the same eagerness for adventure as the men (in contrast to the conventional image of the long-suffering martyr accompanying her husband). Levy intersperses her text with excerpts from diaries and journals and concludes with brief biographies of 17 women participants.