In May 1832, in Newport, Rhode Island, a Methodist minister named Ephraim K. Avery was tried for the murder of a twenty-nine-year-old mill worker, Sarah Marie Cornell. It was the first time a clergyman had ever been tried for murder in the United States and the first time an American murder trial became headline news. From this factual base, Mary Cable weaves a chilling novel of gothic desires and conflicting classes. She creates a rich atmosphere to show New England as it was then - simpl...

"Well-researched, well-written, and highly engaging" - National Review. Here is the dramatic story of the Blizzard of 1888, which caused havoc up and down the East coast of the United States. Award-winning author Mary Cable recreates - in all its human and natural drama - the three-day debacle that began on the night of Sunday, March 11, 1888. We meet the heroes and villains alike as they struggle through the mounting snow and icy winds to keep the wheels of civilization from grinding to a...

In August 1839, what appeared to be a listless pirate ship, unidentified by any flag, was spotted off the North Atlantic coast of the United States. On board were thirty barely clad black men, armed with cutlasses, and two white men - Spanish slave owners with an incredible story to tell. A month earlier, the Amistad had set sail from Havana with a valuable cargo of slaves and 40,000 worth of gold doubloons. She was headed for the Cuban coastal town of Puerto Principe - but in a matter of ...

The age of high society in the United States was remarkably brief but also glorious. The names of the families of "people-we-know" - from Astor to Vanderbilt, McCormick to Palmer, Cabot to Whitney - and the places they called home - Fifth Avenue, Newport, Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Prairie Avenue in Chicago, Delmonico's ballroom - still evoke glittering images of style, wealth, and often-outrageous show. The era of "The 400," with all its glamour gentility, and pretension, is marvelously ...

New Orleans has been decimated from time to time by disease, fire, and hurricanes. In 1788, 900 buildings burned to the ground because the church bells used to summon firefighters had been stilled in deference to Good Friday. It is the birthplace of jazz and the Mardi Gras, and at one time, was described as having too many banks and ballrooms and too few bathrooms and Protestant churches. Since its founding in 1718, New Orleans has balanced disaster with joy. Frederick Law Olmsted was begu...

El Escorial is more than a monument to the zeal of Spain's Catholicism; it is also a symbol of Spain at its imperial apogee. This imposing, granite edifice was built by King Philip II to celebrate Spain's victory over the French at Saint-Quentin on August 10, 1557. Paid for with New-World gold, this sprawling monastery-palace is laid out in a vast grid of corridors and courtyards. At its heart is the austere Doric basilica of San Lorenzo el Real - beneath which are the remains of eleven Sp...

One of them was built without wood, and the other lacked doorknobs, but they flaunted all the amenities that Old World skills, Vanderbilt money, and the unbridled taste of Richard M. Hunt could provide. Here, in this essay by journalist and historian Mary Cable, is the story of Newport's Marble Cottages.

In this rich novel of family conflict and closely guarded secrets, Mary Cable explores dreams and fears that lie hidden deep within the human heart. Alex Smithson, forty-two-years-old and living in Santa Fe, leads an under-demanding life made prickly only by her oppressive, aristocratic in-laws to whom Alex will never be entirely acceptable. The Smithsons have always treated Alex as an outsider, despite the fact that she has been married to the older of their two sons, Oz, for nearly twent...

The early European explorers were astonished at the immensity of Mexico. They were equally baffled by the customs, language, and society of the people they encountered. A surprise awaited the visitors beyond every mountain pass, for in a land in which travel was so difficult, the native inhabitants had developed vastly different lifestyles. Historians and archeologists remain uncertain as to the origins of the earliest settlers or exactly when they arrived, but they had been living there f...

Here, acclaimed American historians - among them, Max Boot, Douglas Brinkley, and Stanley Karnow - tell the dramatic story of America's war in Vietnam. It's all here - from the first American deaths in Vietnam and the controversial Gulf of Tonkin attack to the Tet offensive, the My Lai massacre, and, finally, the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

For thousands of years, pirates have terrorized the ocean voyager and the coastal inhabitant, plundered ship and shore, and wrought havoc on the lives and livelihoods of rich and poor alike. Around these desperate men has grown a body of myths and legends-fascinating tales that today strongly influence our notions of pirates and piracy. Most of these myths derive from the pirates of the Golden Age,” from roughly 1655 to 1725. This was the age of the Spanish Main, of Henry Morgan and Black...

This stunning narrative of the epic Battle of Gettysburg begins with the clash of Union and Confederate armies at Chancellorsville and concludes with Robert E. Lee's retreat through Pennsylvania and escape across the Potomac. Award-winning historian Craig L. Symonds recounts the events of three hot, brutal days in July when Americans battled one another across a dozen square miles of rolling Pennsylvania countryside. Symonds details the military strategy of both sides, including the Confed...