Biography is an endlessly fascinating subject for a wide variety of readers. The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography is the most up-to-date and comprehensive, single-volume, biographical reference of living and dead Americans available. The book contains 9,000 entries written for general readers in fluid narrative style. Each entry is self-contained and does not assume any historic or geographic knowledge. What sets this book apart is its breadth of coverage--living and dead, famous and forgotten American figures, of diverse careers, from colonial times to the present day--and its attention to women and minority groups. The Dictionary has been originally compiled--not derived from older work--with the help of over one-hundred consultants. It also contains two exceptionally useful indexes: one by occupation and the other by names mentioned in the entries (whether or not they are entries themselves). The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography is written for anyone interested in owning an eminently readable reference to living contemporaries and their achievements as well as to historically important figures. John Bowman, an accomplished author and editor, has been assisted by an editoral board of distinguished American scholars.

A comprehensive, highly readable reference

This is an authoritative, one-stop resource for essential information on the exploration of North America, from alleged pre-Columbian explorers to polar expeditions in the twentieth century. Completely up-to-date in content and historical approach, the book is divided into seven sections, each covering a major area of exploration. Vivid, narrative entries bring to life early expeditions (e.g., African and Scandinavian voyages, real and apocryphal), voyages of European explorers, Western expeditions, and explorations of the Arctic. From the Atlantic seaboard to the Appalachians to the Mississippi to the northernmost regions, readers will discover the Native nations, geographical features, private and governmental institutions, and settlements that played a role in the history of exploring the continent. Maps, photos, and sidebars with lively first-person accounts from contemporary diaries, reports, and news accounts round out this thorough examination of the numerous adventures taken around the continent.

Michael Golay has published five books on American history, including most recently The Ruined Land. He lives in Exeter, New Hampshire.
John Bowman is the Editor of the Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography and numerous other reference works. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.