By Li Cunxin

In a compelling memori of life in Maoist China, the acclaimed dancer describes how he was swept from his poverty-stricken family in rural China to study ballet with the Peking Dance Academy, his rise to success in the world of Chinese ballet, his dramatic defection at age eighteen in the United States, and his new life in the West.

Raised in a desperately poor village during the height of China's Cultural Revolution, Li Cunxin's childhood revolved around the commune, his family and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

Until, that is, Madame Mao's cultural delegates came in search of young peasants to study ballet at the academy in Beijing and he was thrust into a completely unfamiliar world.

When a trip to Texas as part of a rare cultural exchange opened his eyes to life and love beyond China's borders, he defected to the United States in an extraordinary and dramatic tale of Cold War intrigue.

Told in his own distinctive voice, this is Li's inspirational story of how he came to be Mao's last dancer, and one of the world's greatest ballet dancers.

Australia. Penguin Random House. 2005. 522p.

By Erik H. Erikson

From the cover: Many of the methods of civil disobedience so widely and so sporadically used today have their origin in Mahatma Gandhi’s militant nonviolence. In order to eluci­date the nature of what Gandhi called his Truth in Action, Erikson sets out to retell in great detail a relatively little-known event in Gandhi’s middle years, namely, his assumption of leadership in a strike of textile workers in the city of Ahmedabad in 1918. Erikson explains Gandhi’s method of concentrating on local grievances of high symbolic value as a way of mobi­lizing the Indian masses both spiritually and politically — a method that distin­guished Gandhi from the charismatic fig­ures (Lenin, Wilson) of the post-World War I period…..Erikson counterpoints Freud’s insights into the nature of sexuality (and Gandhi’s disavowal of it) and Gandhi’s insights into the nature of armed violence (and Freud’s fatalism regarding it) and con­cludes that only a combination of these insights might give man some measure of mastery over his fatal alternation of re­pression and excess.

NY. W. W. Norton. 1969. 465p.

By Charles Darwin. Edited By Francis Darwin.

From the editor: In preparing this volume, which is practically an abbre­viation of the Life and Letters (1887), my aim has been to retain as far as possible the personal parts of those volumes. To render this feasible, large numbers of the more purely scientific letters are omitted, or represented by the citation of a few sentences. In certain periods of my father’s life the scientific and the personal elements run a parallel course, rising and falling together in their degree of inter­est. Thus the writing of the Origin of Species, and its publication, appeal equally to the reader who follows my father’s career from interest in the man, and to the natural­ist who desires to know something of this turning point in the history of Biology. This part of the story has there­fore been told with nearly the full amount of available detail.

NY. Dover Publications. 1892. 408p.

By Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie began to write this book in April 1950; she finished it some fifteen years later when she was seventy-five years old. Any book written over so long a period must contain certain repetitions and in­consistencies and these have been tidied up under the watchful and sympathetic eye of her daughter Rosa­lind. Nothing of importance has been omitted, however: so, substantially, this is the autobiography as she would have wished it to appear. She ended it when she was seventy-five because, as she put it, “it seems the right moment to stop. Because, as far as life is concerned, that is all there is to say.”

NY. Ballantine Books. 1977. 660p.

By Luciano Iorizzo

For more than 70 years, Al Capone has been equated with wealth, violence, and corruption. As America's most infamous criminal, he has intrigued, attracted, and repulsed the general public with his legendary criminal deeds. This concise biography separates the myth from the man. Beginning with a historical look at corruption in American society—along with a clarification of the terms Black Hand, Mafia, and Organized Crime—Capone is presented in his own time and place. A timeline summarizes the events of his life and career. A thorough bibliography of print and electronic sources will assist students and general readers interested in further research, making it perfect for anyone interested in Capone's life, organized crime, the prohibition era, and the struggle of lower-class Americans to rise in society.The son of poor Italian immigrants struggling for a better life in early 20th-century New York, Capone chose a life of crime as a means of advancing his place in the world. His success brought him fabulous wealth and fame. His criminal deeds made him many enemies among law enforcement officers, politicians, and fellow criminals. Yet ultimately, Capone's downfall was his own misdeeds. Following a lengthy prison term, he died at age 48 from complications of syphilis. In his short life, Capone had become America's most feared criminal, and after his death, his legend cast an even greater shadow.

Westport, CT: London: Greenwood Press, 2003. 154p.

By Montagu Saunders.

It needs a considerable amount of assurance to add yet another book to the comparatively long list of those which have been written upon the subject of Dickens's unfinished story, and it is no sufficient justification to assert that the writer is sincerely convinced that his contribution to the discussion will afford some assistance in the solution of the problem, seeing that practically everyone who has ventilated his ideas upon the subject has expressed a similar conviction. Proctor, for instance, who was the first to examine Edwin Drood in a quasi-scientific way, was absolutely satisfied that in identifying Datchery with Edwin, he had discovered the " mystery " which Dickens had taken such pains to hide, and so strongly did he feel that his solution was correct, that he exhibited considerable impatience with those who failed to swallow it whole. Mr J. Cuming Walters, again, the originator of the highly ingenious Helena-Datchery theory, is equally convinced that he has unearthed Dickens's secret, and, like Proctor, he has supported his views by means of numerous arguments drawn from the text, which, if they do not carry conviction to every mind, are nevertheless sufficiently weighty to call for very careful examination, more particularly as they have succeeded in securing as adherents of the theory two such acute critics and eminent scholars as Dr Henry Jackson and Sir W. R. Nicoll. In these circumstances the present writer considers that it would be presumption on his part to express any definite opinion as to the accuracy of his own conclusions, and he feels that some apology is needed for the dogmatism which, upon a re-reading of this little essay, seems to him at times to be only too apparent.

Cambridge, UK: University Press, 1914. 184p.

By Albert Holland Rhodes.

A Strange Tale Taken from the Notes and Memoirs of Hadlock Jones by his friend, Dr. Lawrence L. Langdon. “In 1883 a party of three English adventurers penetrated into the heart of Maori land. They tell of a splendid race of dark men ruled by a young white chief.”

Holland Publishing (1912) 72 pages.

By D. Quentin Miller.

James Baldwin, one of the major African American writers of the twentieth century, has been the subject of a substantial body of literary criticism. As a prolific and experimental author with a marginal perspective—a black man during segregation and the Civil Rights era, a homosexual at a time when tolerance toward gays was not common—Baldwin has fascinated readers for over half a century. Yet Baldwin’s critics have tended to separate his weighty, complex body of work and to examine it piecemeal. A Criminal Power: James Baldwin and the Law is the first thematic study to analyze the complete scope of his work. It accomplishes this through an expansive definition and thorough analysis of the social force that oppressed Baldwin throughout his life: namely, the law. Baldwin, who died in 1987, attempted suicide in 1949 at the age of 25 after spending eight days in a French prison following an absurd arrest for “receiving stolen goods”—a sheet that his acquaintance had taken from a hotel. This seemingly trite incident made Baldwin painfully aware of what he would later call the law’s “criminal power.”

Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2012. 187p,

By Capt. Kennedy.

A true and authentic life history of the most noted bandit that ever lived. A man who has overthrown the government of Mexico and defied the United States.

Baltimore, MD: I. and M. Ottenheimer, 1916. 145p.

By Henry Berry Lowrie.

The great North Carolina bandit, with biographical sketch of his associates by Mary C. Norment. Being a Complete History of the Modern Robber Band in the County of Robeson and State of North Carolina. “It will be remembered that the facts recorded in this book were written by one who knew the cause and result of this unfortunate period of Robeson's history, having lived "through the thick or the fight", and gained the information recorded by actual experience.”

Lumberton, N.C. : Lumbee Pub. Co.,1909. 192p.

Edited by Thomas Seccombe.

Original Studies of Eminent Scoundrels by Various Hands. CONTENTS. 1. Alice Perrers Favourite of King Henry III. 2. Alice Arden Murderess. 3. Moll Cutpurse Thief and Receiver. 4. Frances Howard Countess of Somerset. 5. Barbara Villiers Duchess of Cleveland6. Jenny Diver Pickpocket 7. Teresia Constantia Phillips. 8. Elizabeth Brownrigg Cruelty personified. 9. Elizabeth Canning Imposter. 10. Elizabeth Chudleigh Duchess of Kingston 11. Mary Bateman “ The Yorkshire Witch" 12. Mary Anne Clarke.

London: T.F. Urwin, 1911. 373p.

By George Bidwell.

Bidwell’s Travels: Forging his own chains. “Freed a human wreck, a wonderful survival and a more wonderful rise in the world. To-day he has a national reputation as a writer, speaker and is considered an authority on all social problems. He was tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced for life. charged with the £1,000,000 forgery on the bank of England. This story shows that the events of his life surpass the imaginations of our famous novelists, its thrilling scenes, hair-breadth escapes and marvelous adventures are not a record of crime, but are proofs of that in the world of wrongdoing success is failure.

Bidwell publishing Hartford (1897) 295 pages.

By H. B. Irving.

This is an exhaustive account of the infamous Judge , “1st Baron… (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving as Lord High Steward in certain instances). His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy, resulting in an historical reputation for severity and bias.”

London William Heinemann (ca. 1898) 383 pages.

By Fred D. Pasley.

The Biography of a Self-Made Man. “Im getting sick of fellows like Hughes using me to attract glory to themselves,” said Al.

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (1930) 208 pages.

By Thomas Furlong.

Late Chief of the Secret Service of the Missouri Pacific Railway, known as the Gould System; the Allegheny Valley Railway of Pennsylvania, and first Chief of Police of Oil City, Pa. 35 real detective stories, hitherto unpublished facts connected with some of Mr. Furlong's greatest cases—Other interesting incidents of his long and strenuous career which really began on September 14, 1862, when he was detailed from his company, (Co. G., 1st Pennsylvania Rifles, better known as the Pennsylvania Bucktails) for special service.

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. (ca. 1870) 284 pages.

By Anthony Trollope

A spirited defense by bright and friendly story-teller Anthony Trollope, of Cicero up to the peak of his career and during the dying days of the Roman Republic. Whose side was he on? Trollope was certainly on Cicero’s. But Cicero?

Harrow and Heston Classic Reprint. NY. Harper. 1881. 330p.

By Chas. A. Siringo.

The true life of the most daring young outlaw of the age. He was the leading spirit in the bloody Lincoln County, New Mexico, war. When a bullet from Sheriff Pat Garett's pistol pierced his breast he was only twenty-one years of age, and had killed twenty-one men, not counting Indians. His six years of daring young outlawry has never been equalled in the annals of criminal history.

Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint. (1920) 145p.

By Thomas F. Daggett.

Or, The King of American Highwaymen. A complete and authentic history of this famous young desperado, his crimes and adventures.

New York: R.K. Fox, Franklin Square, (1881). 124p.

By Daniel Defoe et al.

Murderers, Street-Robbers, etc.by Daniel Defoe. Charles Johnson, and Alexander Smith. Birmingham: Printed by R. Walker. (1742) 453p.

By Joseph A. Dacus.

“In that dreadful ebullition of human hatreds, Frank and Jesse James played no laggard's part. As boys, they accepted service under Quantrell, and became renowned for caution and daring even in the days of their youth. Members of a partisan organization, famed even in the early days of the strife for daring deeds and extraordinary activity; a band, every man of which was a desperado of great cunning and prowess, these two callow-youths, taken from a country farm, speedily rose to the eminence of leading spirits among the most daring of men. Both sides in the border counties of Missouri and Kansas prosecuted war with a vindictive fury unparalleled in modern history. The scene of the operations of the Guerrillas was at first confined to the limits of Clay, Platte, Jackson, Bates, Henry, Johnson, and Lafayette counties, in Missouri, and along the Kansas border.”

St. Louis: W.S. Bruan; Chicago, J.S. Goodman, 1880. 396p.