Most Popular Books by Timothy Egan

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author Timothy Egan masterfully weaves together history, anthropology, and politics in this captivating exploration of the Pacific Northwest. "A celebration of natural bounty, a warning that too much has been lost...Egan is a worthy spokesman for his homeland, a fluent and crafty writer." —Los Angeles Times Journey through lush landscapes and vibrant cultures, from breathtaking salmon fisheries to towering redwood forests. Egan''s vivid storytelling and keen observations uncover fascinating stories of the region''s inhabitants, past and present. This immersive narrative celebrates the beauty and diversity of the Pacific Northwest while examining the impact of natural forces and human resilience. The Good Rain offers readers a rich, multifaceted portrait of this unique corner of America.

From "the world''s greatest tour guide," a deeply-researched, captivating journey through the rich history of Christianity and the winding paths of the French and Italian countryside that will feed mind, body, and soul (New York Times). "What a wondrous work! This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan''s case, both." --Cokie Roberts "Egan draws us in, making us feel frozen in the snow-covered Alps, joyful in valleys of trees with low-hanging fruit, skeptical of the relics of embalmed saints and hopeful for the healing of his encrusted toes, so worn and weathered from their walk."--The Washington Post Moved by his mother''s death and his Irish Catholic family''s complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther. The goal: walking to St. Peter''s Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium. A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.

In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story of the Dust Bowl rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows. The dust storms that terrorized America’s High Plains during the Great Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of this American environmental disaster, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, "the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect" (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is "arguably the best nonfiction book yet" (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature. This e-book includes a sample chapter of THE IMMORTAL IRISHMAN. Egan’s masterful storytelling brings the harrowing reality of the Dirty Thirties to life, exploring: Personal Stories of Survival: Experience the terrifying drama through the eyes of a dozen families who fought to endure blinding blizzards, crop failure, and devastating loss. An Epic Catastrophe on the Plains: Follow the decade-long dust storms that terrorized the High Plains, turning the nation’s breadbasket into a black desert. National Book Award-Winning History: Discover why this tour de force of historical reportage is considered one of the best nonfiction books ever written about this iconic chapter of American history. A Sobering Historical Lesson: Uncover a powerful and timely reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature, woven from the accounts of the stoic men and women who survived.

Edward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudevill stars, leading thinkers. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: to capture on film the continent''s original inhabitants before the old ways disappeared.

In 1935, the Spokane police regularly extorted sex, food, and money from the reluctant hobos (many of them displaced farmers who had fled the midwestern dust bowls), robbed dairies, and engaged in all manner of nefarious crimes, including murder. This history was suppressed until 1989, when former logger, Vietnam vet, and Spokane cop Tony Bamonte discovered a strange 1955 deathbed confession while researching a thesis on local law enforcement history. Bamonte began to probe what had every appearance of widespread police crime and a massive cover-up whose highlight was the unsolved murder of Town Marshall George Conff. The fact that many of those involved, now in their 80s and 90s, were still alive made it imperative that Bamonte unravel this mystery. The result is Breaking Blue, a white-knuckle ride through institutional corruption and cover-up that vividly documents Depression-era Spokane and an extraordinary case that few believed would ever be brought to light.

National Book Award–winner Timothy Egan turns his historian''s eye to the largest-ever forest fire in America and offers an epic, cautionary tale for our time. On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men to fight the fires, but no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan recreates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force, and the larger story of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot, that follows is equally resonant. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by every citizen. Even as TR''s national forests were smoldering they were saved: The heroism shown by his rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, though it changed the mission of the forest service in ways we can still witness today. This e-book includes a sample chapter of SHORT NIGHTS OF THE SHADOW CATCHER.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction • An NPR Best Book of the Year • A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year • A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of the Year • A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year • A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist "With narrative elan, Egan gives us a riveting saga of how a predatory con man became one of the most powerful people in 1920s America, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, with a plan to rule the country—and how a grisly murder of a woman brought him down. Compelling and chillingly resonant with our own time." —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile “Riveting…Egan is a brilliant researcher and lucid writer.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune A historical thriller by the Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author that tells the riveting story of the Klan''s rise to power in the 1920s, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them. The Roaring Twenties--the Jazz Age--has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson. Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees. A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND marries a propulsive drama to a powerful and page-turning reckoning with one of the darkest threads in American history.

In the New York Times bestseller The Immortal Irishman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Timothy Egan illuminates the dawn of the great Irish American story, with all its twists and triumphs, through the life of one heroic man. A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony for life. But two years later he was "back from the dead" and in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher’s rebirth included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade in many of the fiercest battles of the US Civil War. Afterward, he tried to build a new Ireland in the wild west of Montana — a quixotic adventure that ended in the great mystery of his disappearance, which Egan, in this unforgettable biography, resolves convincingly at last. "This is marvelous stuff. Thomas F. Meagher strides onto Egan''s beautifully wrought pages just as he lived — powerfully larger than life. A fascinating account of an extraordinary life."—Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Facing the Mountain This rich, page-turning history brings to life: An Irish Revolutionary: The story of Thomas Francis Meagher, a dashing orator who led a failed uprising against British rule during the Great Hunger and became a symbol of defiance. From Exile to Icon: Banished for life to a Tasmanian prison colony, Meagher engineered a death-defying escape and reemerged in New York as the most famous Irishman in America. Civil War General: Witness Meagher''s rebirth as the leader of the legendary Irish Brigade, commanding his fellow immigrants in some of the fiercest battles of the US Civil War. The American West: Follow his final, quixotic adventure to govern the Montana Territory, a quest that ended in a mystery unsolved for over a century.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Mountains and Plains Book Seller''s Association Award "Sprawling in scope. . . . Mr. Egan uses the past powerfully to explain and give dimension to the present." --The New York Times "Fine reportage . . . honed and polished until it reads more like literature than journalism." --Los Angeles Times "They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it," writes Timothy Egan of the West; still, "this region''s hold on the American character has never seemed stronger." In this colorful and revealing journey through the eleven states west of the 100th meridian, Egan, a third-generation westerner, evokes a lovely and troubled country where land is religion and the holy war between preservers and possessors never ends. Egan leads us on an unconventional, freewheeling tour: from America''s oldest continuously inhabited community, the Ancoma Pueblo in New Mexico, to the high kitsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone; from the fragile beauty of Idaho''s Bitterroot Range to the gross excess of Las Vegas, a city built as though in defiance of its arid environment. In a unique blend of travel writing, historical reflection, and passionate polemic, Egan has produced a moving study of the West: how it became what it is, and where it is going. "The writing is simply wonderful. From the opening paragraph, Egan seduces the reader. . . . Entertaining, thought provoking." --The Arizona Daily Star Weekly "A western breeziness and love of open spaces shines through Lasso the Wind. . . . The writing is simple and evocative." --The Economist

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

A chorus of essays from a variety of voices, backgrounds, and experiences, exploring what it means to be human and true to yourself. What does it mean to be yourself? To be born here or somewhere else? To be from one family instead of another? What does it mean to be human? Collected by Lori Carlson-Hijuelos, A Path to the World showcases essays by a vast variety of luminaries—from Gary Soto to Nawal Nasrallah to Ying Ying Yu, from chefs to artists to teens to philosophers to politicians (keep your eyes peeled for a surprise appearance by George Washington)—all of which speak to the common thread of humanity, the desire to be your truest self, and to belong. Contributors include: Lori Marie Carlson-Hijuelos, Joseph Bruchac, Jacinto Jesús Cardona, William Sloane Coffin, Pat Conroy, Mario Cuomo, Timothy Egan, Alan Ehrenhalt, Shadi Feddin, Ralph Fletcher, Valerie Gribben, Alexandre Hollan, Molly Ivins, Geeta Kothari, Jeremy Lee, Yuyi Li, Emily Lisker, Kamaal Majeed, Madge McKeithen, Nawal Nasrallah, Scott Pitoniak, Anna Quindlen, Michael J. Sandel, Raquel Sentíes, David E. Skaggs, Gary Soto, Alexandra Stoddard, KellyNoel Waldorf, George Washington, and Ying Ying Yu.

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times national correspondent Timothy Egan turns to fiction with The Winemaker''s Daughter, a lyrical and gripping novel about the harsh realities and ecological challenges of turning water into wine. When Brunella Cartolano visits her father on the family vineyard in the basin of the Cascade Mountains, she''s shocked by the devastation caused by a four-year drought. Passionate about the Pacific Northwest ecology, Brunella, a cultural impact analyst, is embroiled in a battle to save the Seattle waterfront from redevelopment and to preserve a fisherman''s livelihood. But when a tragedy among fire-jumpers results from a failure of the water supply–her brother Niccolo is among those lost--Brunella finds herself with another mission: to find out who is sabotaging the area''s water supply. Joining forces with a Native American Forest Ranger, she discovers deep rifts rooted in the region''s complicated history, and tries to save her father''s vineyard from drying up for good . . . even as violence and corruption erupt around her.

The stock market is a place for those who can stand a fast pace. DOWN TICK is a factional read that revolves around a high pressured sales force. The story is mixed with humor, mystery, justice, and survival. It is a must read from the "player" to the workplace investor who follows an IRA investment.

Charismatique et visionnaire, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) a immortalisé à travers ses photos l''univers des Indiens d''Amérique et son oeuvre gigantesque est aujourd''hui mondialement reconnue. Journaliste au New York Times, récompensé par le prix Pulitzer et le National Book Award, Timothy Egan nous fait partager la formidable aventure artistique, ethnologique et humaine à laquelle Curtis consacra toute sa vie et pour laquelle il a tout sacrifié. Havasupais du Grand Canyon, Pueblos, Blackfeets, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Yakimas ou encore Salishans : pendant près de trente ans, Curtis a parcouru le continent à la rencontre de plus de 80 tribus alors largement méconnues, faisant preuve de persévérance pour gagner leur confiance. En 1930, au terme de ce projet insensé, il avait pris environ 40 000 clichés et rédigé des milliers de pages dont il publia une partie dans les vingt volumes de son impressionnante série : L''Indien d''Amérique du Nord. En son temps critiqué par certains, mais soutenu par Theodore Roosevelt et J.P. Morgan, il est désormais considéré comme l''un des premiers photojournalistes, doublé d''un véritableanthropologue. Car en mettant ses talents d''artiste au service de l''Histoire, celui que les Indiens nommèrent « l''Attrapeur d''Ombres » réussit le pari de saisir pour l''éternité la beauté d''un monde à jamais disparu.

Une enquête fascinante aux sources du racisme et de la haine dans l''Amérique des années 1920. Les années 1920 aux États-Unis. L''âge du jazz, des fêtes sans fin, du champagne... l''âge de la haine la plus brutale et la plus abjecte, aussi. Le Ku Klux Klan y atteint en effet son apogée. À sa tête, un homme dangereux, manipulateur et ultra-violent : D. C. Stephenson. Il va permettre au " Klan " d''étendre son influence, de pénétrer dans les familles, les écoles, les pique-niques du dimanche. Sous sa direction, l''organisation raciste va jusqu''à développer un plan pour prendre progressivement le pouvoir à Washington. C''est une femme, Madge Oberholtzer, une enseignante, qui va faire chuter le Ku Klux Klan et son chef. Kidnappée, séquestrée et violée par Stephenson, elle trouve, malgré les menaces, le courage de parler, de désigner et nommer ces hommes qui terrorisent le Sud des États-Unis. Son témoignage provoque un scandale sans précédent et une prise de conscience. Grâce à elle, jamais le " Klan " ne retrouvera sa sombre et inquiétante influence dans la société américaine. Avec Une poussée de fièvre, Timothy Egan signe une enquête incroyablement minutieuse et prenante, portée par un souffle romanesque. Il montre chaque engrenage de la fabrique de la haine et signe un bouleversant portrait de femme. Un livre fascinant qui, en dénonçant les mécaniques et les discours racistes, trouve un écho inquiétant avec notre époque. Traduit de l''anglais (États-Unis) par Valérie Le Plouhinec " Une enquête impressionnante. Timothy Egan met en lumière l''un des chapitres les plus sinistres de l''histoire américaine : la montée au pouvoir, au début du xxe siècle, d''un mouvement raciste, dirigé par un escroc meurtrier. Un livre fascinant, puissant et profondément actuel. " David Grann, auteur des Naufragés du Wager " Un livre passionnant qui résonne de façon glaçante avec notre époque. " Erik Larson, auteur de La Splendeur et l''Infamie et de Dans le jardin de la bête

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Fever in the Heartland, a thrilling real-life Western that is also a powerful reckoning with the drama and heroism at the final moments of the American frontier. A story of a hard land and a most remarkable man trying to find a home under the open skies of the American Southwest, The Big Lonesome is the true tale of a frontier like no other. In the final days of the wars against the last free Native tribes, the U.S. government dispatched a corps of fierce fighters comprised of formerly enslaved men—the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. They could out-ride and out-endure nearly every other cavalry unit. And yet, they were largely despised by the people they were trying to protect. At their helm was a brilliant twenty-one-year-old, Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper, the first Black West Point graduate, the first Black officer to serve in the Regular U.S. Army, and now the only Black officer to command a company of soldiers. He was a scholar, a seeker, and a soldier, loyal to a country that rarely loved him back. Born into slavery, Henry Flipper endured staggering racial prejudice as a young cadet and officer before setting out on a quest that would shape the West to this day. The Big Lonesome is the story of his life at the crossroads of legendary characters—Quanah Parker, the leader of the Comanche, with whom Flipper hunted buffalo; Victorio, the Apache chief, and Geronimo, his fellow warrior during the twilight of the Indian Wars; and a young Irish-American woman, Mollie Dwyer, whose affection for him ultimately led to his downfall. Together, they speak of a nation struggling with life-or-death contradictions at the end of Reconstruction and the dawn of the Gilded Age. With his signature page-turning prose and breathtaking depth of research, Egan crafts a clear-eyed account of one of the most pivotal periods of American history, revisiting the land he chronicled in The Worst Hard Time, his National Book Award winning account of the Dust Bowl.