Captain Isaac "Ike" Emerson, riding high on the international success of his patent, Bromo-Seltzer, lived a storied life of opulence. This first biography of the "Bromo-Seltzer King" traces his path from North Carolina farm boy to Baltimore-based multimillionaire with a penchant for lavish entertaining. Emerson is presented as an entrepreneur, patriot, civic leader, sportsman, and philanthropist. He was a phenom in his era, and this book, drawing from archival records, newspapers of the day, and interviews with descendants, details the ups and downs of his complex and indulgent life.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

Arthur A. Carey’s autobiographical Memoirs of a Murder Man was first released in 1930, and focuses on the author’s detective work in homicide cases. The book includes chapters on such infamous cases as the 1920 slaying of Joseph Bowne Elswell, an American bridge player, tutor, and writer during the 1900s and 1910s, and the Barrel Murder in 1903, when New York police found the body of U.S. Secret Service agent Benedetto Madonia stuffed in a barrel, similar to the New Orleans “barrel murders” of the previous decade. A gripping book!

“Before there was the Perfect Storm, there was the Great Hurricane of 1938. A riveting and wonderfully written account.” —Nathaniel Philbrick On the night of September 21, 1938, news on the radio was full of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. There was no mention of any severe weather. By the time oceanfront residents noticed an ominous color in the sky, it was too late to escape. In an age before warning systems and the ubiquity of television, this unprecedented storm caught the Northeast off guard, obliterated coastal communities on Long Island and in New England, and killed nearly seven hundred people. The Great Hurricane, 1938 is a spellbinding hour-by-hour reconstruction of one of the most destructive and powerful storms ever to hit the United States. With riveting detail, Burns weaves together countless personal stories of loved ones lost and lives changed forever—from those of the Moore family, washed to sea on a raft formerly their attic floor, to Katharine Hepburn, holed up in her Connecticut mansion, watching her car take to the air like a bit of paper. “A very good book.” —The Washington Post