Offers an account of everyday life in early Illinois. This title presents a complex portrait of the midwestern wilderness during the 1830s. It includes descriptions of the author's encounters with early settlers and Native Americans, the flora and fauna that surrounded her, and the developing towns she passed through in her travels.

From the arrival of Marquette and Jolliet in 1673 to the emergence of the prairie poets--Edgar Lee Master, Carl Sandberg, and Vachel Lindsay--in the twentieth century, James Gray traces the saga of the Illinois River and the people of central Illinois.

A thrilling true crime narrative and groundbreaking historical account, Dime Novel Desperadoes recovers the long-forgotten story of Ed and Lon Maxwell, the outlaw brothers from Illinois who once rivaled Jesse and Frank James in national notoriety. Growing up hard as the sons of a struggling tenant farmer, the Maxwell brothers started their lawbreaking as robbers and horse thieves in the 1870s, embarking on a life of crime that quickly captured the public eye. Already made famous locally by newspapers that wanted to dramatize crimes and danger for an eager reading audience, the brothers...