Mark Twain's account of his transformation into a Westerner when he joins his brother, a newly appointed federal official in Nevada.

A priceless, handcrafted rifle, fired throughout the American Revolution, is passed down through the years until it fires on a fateful Christmas Eve of 1994.

Mattie Rigsbee, independent, strong-minded senior citizen, finds her life changed when young, delinquent Wesley Benfield becomes her friend.

With more than one million copies in print and months on the New York Times best-seller list, The Dilbert Principle has become one of the most talked about business books of all time. Author Scott Adams draws upon his nine years in Pacific Bell's cubicle 4S700R to create Dilbert, corporate America's potato-shaped, abuse-loving poster boy. Now-with advice from the daily comic strip, and e-mail submissions sent in by actual readers-Adams demonstrates...

The title story of this collection of short stories features the tale of the "most honest and upright" town of Hadleyburg, whose residents boast of their unsmirched moral character. A stranger, offended by the pious reputation of the town, devises a plan to bring its honored residents to shame. Is there even one righteous man in Hadleyburg?

When a mulatto slave woman switches her own infant with the look-alike son of a wealthy merchant, it takes Pudd'nhead Wilson, the town eccentric, to put things right again.

James Madison led one of the most influential and prolific lives in American history, and his story — although all too often overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries — is integral to that of the nation. Madison helped to shape our country as perhaps no other Founder: collaborating on the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights, resisting government overreach by assembling one of the nation's first political parties (the Republicans,...

Perhaps the most revered American of all, George Washington has long been considered a stoic leader who held himself above the fray of political infighting. What has gone unnoticed about the much-researched life of Washington is that he was in fact a consummate politician, as historian John Ferling shows in this revealing and provocative new book. As leader of the Continental Army, Washington's keen political savvy enabled him not only to outwit superior...