Most Popular Books by Charles Leerhsen

Based on extensive interviews with those who knew him intimately, this biography of the late celebrity chef and TV star examines his battles with childhood trauma and addiction and his eventual rise to international fame.

"An authoritative, reliable and compelling biography of perhaps the most significant and controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb, drawing in part on newly discovered letters and documents"--

Charles Leerhsen brings the notorious Butch Cassidy to vivid life in this “lyrical and deeply researched” (Publishers Weekly) biography that goes beyond the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to reveal a more fascinating and complicated man than legend provides. For more than a century the life and death of Butch Cassidy have been the subject of legend, spawning a small industry of mythmakers and a major Hollywood film. But who was Butch Cassidy, really? Charles Leerhsen, bestselling author of Ty Cobb, sorts out the facts from folklore and paints a “compelling portrait of the charming, debonair, ranch hand-turned-outlaw” (Ron Hansen, author of The Kid) of the American West. Born into a Mormon family in Utah, Robert Leroy Parker grew up dirt poor and soon discovered that stealing horses and cattle was a fact of life in a world where small ranchers were being squeezed by banks, railroads, and cattle barons. A charismatic and more than capable cowboy—even ranch owners who knew he was a rustler said they would hire him again—he adopted the alias “Butch Cassidy,” and moved on to a new moneymaking endeavor: bank robbery. By all accounts a smart and considerate thief, Butch and his "Wid Bunch" gang eventually graduated to more lucrative train robberies. But the railroad owners hired the Pinkerton Agency, whose detectives pursued Butch and his gang relentlessly, until he and his then partner Harry Longabaugh (The Sundance Kid) fled to South America, where they replicated the cycle of ranching, rustling, and robbery until they met their end in Bolivia. In Butch Cassidy, Leerhsen “refuses to buy into the Hollywood hype and instead offers the true tale of Butch Cassidy, which turns out to be more fascinating and fun than the myths” (Tom Clavin, bestselling author of Tombstone). In this “entertaining…definitive account” (Kirkus Reviews), he shares his fascination with how criminals such as Butch deftly maneuvered between honest work and thievery, battling the corporate interests that were exploiting the settlers, and showing us in vibrant prose the Old West as it really was, in all its promise and heartbreak.

One hundred years ago, 40 cars lined up for the first Indianapolis 500. We are still waiting to find out who won. The Indy 500 was created to showcase the controversial new sport of automobile racing, which was sweeping the country. Daring young men were driving automobiles at the astonishing speed of 75 miles per hour, testing themselves and their vehicles. With no seat belts, hard helmets or roll bars, the dangers were enormous. When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in 1909, seven people were killed, some of them spectators. Oil-slicked surfaces, clouds of smoke, exploding tires, and flying grit all made driving extremely hazardous, especially with the open-cockpit, windshield-less vehicles. Bookmakers offered bets not only on who might win but who might survive. But this book is about more than a race--it is the story of America at the dawn of the automobile age, a country in love with speed, danger, and spectacle.--From publisher description.

Before Seabiscuit, there was Dan Patch. At a time when champion horses were household names, a workhorse from an ordinary farm became an undefeated legend. Leerhsen brings to life an all-but-forgotten hero of a bygone era. 8 pages of b&w photos.

From flying daredevil combat missions over Nazi Germany and shattering records as test pilot to his annual trip into California''s rugged Sierras, General Chuck Yeager has always been a restless adventurer in search of new challenges. Now General Yeager is back in the cockpit in a book that exemplifies his special brand of living-- full out and straight ahead.

The inside story of NBC''s wonder decade--told by the successful and popular head of programming who personally engineered it all. Tartikoff''s anecdotes, observations, and reflections on the industry provide great entertainment. Contains a new afterword by Tartikoff.

A morte de Anthony Bourdain, que se suicidou em junho de 2018, chocou o mundo. Bourdain parecia ter tudo: uma personalidade irresistível, um emprego de sonho, uma família encantadora e fama internacional. A realidade, porém, era mais complicada do que parecia. «Miserável no Paraíso» é o primeiro livro a contar a história de Bourdain de uma forma tão próxima quanto desassombrada, mostrando como os seus traumas de infância, jamais relatados, lhe alimentaram tanto a criatividade quanto as inseguranças que o levariam a um lugar de desespero.