A valuable biography of an unsung scientist.
A daughter explores the life of her father, a groundbreaking Black meteorologist.
Prior to his death more than two decades ago, Alonzo Smith Jr. asked his daughter to tell his story to the world. Porter assented and received his handwritten notes that detailed his life experiences as a Black veteran and scientist in the mid-20th century, but it took her 10 years before she was mentally prepared to begin the project. What she uncovered while reading his notes, and in her subsequent research, was the story of one of the first Black officers to integrate the U.S. Air Force; he would similarly integrate the realm of meteorology at “a time when Black rarely preceded the words commissioned officer and scientist.” The book begins with Smith’s teenage years in Depression-era Harlem in New York City and Washington, D.C., where his academic career was stifled, due to family pressure to support his family by dropping out. After serving in World War II, he refocused on his education and rose up the ranks in the Air Force as a weather officer. This led to his second career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he chaired the agency’s first Equal Employment Opportunity Committee before becoming NOAA’s deputy coordinator for meteorology. The book does not gloss over the rampant discrimination that Smith encountered in his early life and military career, but it also emphasizes his constant self-belief, perseverance, and dedication to his family and community; he would serve as a beloved public school teacher in Maryland following his retirement. And although Porter’s admiration for her subject is apparent, what makes this book special is her painstaking research, which accompanies her father’s notes. These include not only interviews with his contemporaries, but also extensive archival research. The book’s 10-page bibliography includes scholarly resources that help Porter to place her father’s life in historical context. An accessible writing style and the ample inclusion of high-quality photographs adds to the book’s appeal.
A valuable biography of an unsung scientist.Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665764322
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
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