Missouri

Name: Missouri's Murderous Matrons
Brand: Victoria Cosner
SKU: 9781467140720
Price: 21.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Taking its cue from St. Louis architecture, the Show Me State operates as a gateway to discovery. The wonders of the 1904 World’s Fair, the scenic passage of Route 66 and the quest for that perfect meal in Columbia all testify to that exploratory drive. But like the restless rivers that gave Mark Twain his alias and inspiration, Missouri’s history proves no frontier provides uncontested passage. In the vicinity of Civil War guerillas or Prohibition Era bootleggers, an unlocked door could invite calamity. Crack open our catalogue of Missouri history books for a portal into the state’s adventurous heritage. [View all Missouri books]

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Missouri's Murderous Matrons

Paperback

$21.99

The Life and Times of Missouri's Charles Parsons

Paperback

$23.99

Hooked Rugs of the Midwest

Paperback

$21.99

The St. Louis Woman's Exchange

Paperback

$21.99

Haunted Jefferson City

African Americans in Mid-Missouri

Live! At the Ozark Opry

Paperback

$21.99

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Missouri's Murderous Matrons

9781467140720

$21.99

At the turn of the twentieth century, people in Missouri experienced unexpected and horrible deaths due to arsenic. Two different women in two different areas of Missouri, and for two different reasons, used arsenic as a means to get what they wanted. Emma Heppermann, a black widow killer, craved money. Bertha Gifford, an angel of mercy, took sick people into her home and nursed them to death. Follow the trails of these women who murdered for decades before being tried and convicted. From Wentzville to Steelville, Emma left a trail of bodies. And Bertha is suspected of killing almost 10 percent of the population of the little town of Catawissa. Authors Victoria Cosner and Lorelei Shannon offer the gruesome history of Missouri’s murderous matrons.

The Life and Times of Missouri's Charles Parsons

9781467144445

$23.99

Charles Parsons is one of St. Louis's and the nation's most influential yet little-known figures. He was instrumental to the Union cause as a Civil War quartermaster and advisor to generals, politicians and presidents alike. As a world-traveling art connoisseur, he helped found the first art museum west of the Mississippi, to which he donated his remarkable collection of American, European and Asian art. To this day, his philanthropic work and dedication to education live on in some of the country's grandest institutions. Author John Launius tells the full story for the first time, from business failures in a riverside boomtown to national renown.

The St. Louis Woman's Exchange

9781609491130

$21.99

On the surface, the Woman's Exchange of St. Louis is an exquisite gift shop with an adjacent tearoom—beloved, always packed, the chatter light and feminine, the salads and pies perfect. But the volunteers who run the Woman's Exchange have had enough grit to keep the place going through two world wars, a Great Depression, several recessions, the end of fine craftsmanship and the start of a new DIY movement. The decayed gentlewomen they set out to help in 1883 are now refugees from Afghanistan, battered wives and mothers of sons paralyzed in Iraq. Sample the radical changes they have made over the years, as well as the institutions they wisely left alone, like the iconic cherry dress that has charmed generations of women and mothers, including Jacqueline Kennedy and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Haunted Jefferson City

9781609494865

$21.99

Missouri's state capital groans beneath the burden of its haunted heritage, from the shadow people of Native American folklore to Boogie Man Bill, Missouri's wild child. The muddy river waters hide the shifting graves of steamboat crews, like the one that went down with the Montana, and the savage scars of the Civil War still linger on the land. Join Janice Tremeear for the fascinating history behind Jefferson City's most chilling tales, including a visit to the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, where the vicious festered for 170 years.

St. Louis Jazz

9781467141741

$21.99

In the early twentieth century, St. Louis was a hotbed for ragtime and blues, both roots of jazz music. In 1914, Jelly Roll Morton brought his music to the area. In 1919, Louis Armstrong came to town to play on the “floating conservatories” that plied the Mississippi. Miles Davis, the most famous of the city’s jazz natives, changed the course of the genre four different times throughout a world-renowned career. The Black Artists Group of the 1970s was one of the first to bring world music practices into jazz. Author Dennis C. Owsley chronicles the ways both local and national St. Louis musicians have contributed to the city and to the world of music.

The Waldo Story

9781609494728

$21.99

The quaint and quirky corner of Kansas City known as Waldo has earned its reputation the hard way through good times and bad since 1841. From its early days as a way station on the Santa Fe Trail, through the dark times in the path of a civil war, from the railroad boom to the Great Depression and right on into the challenges of the modern community, the merchants of in Waldo have played a unique and fascinating role in rooting and nurturing this special, yet very familiar place. Their stories the people, the landmarks, and the special times together make the Waldo Story.

African Americans in Mid-Missouri

9781596296091

$21.99

Brought to Mid-Missouri to serve as slaves but rising up to proudly serve the community as leaders, African Americans have made an indelible contribution to the region. Join historian Rose M. Nolen for the story of some of the most remarkable characters and institutions to come out of Columbia and Sedalia. Allow yourself to be drawn in by authors like Chester Himes and ragtime legends like Scott Joplin and to be inspired by educators like C.C. Hubbard and innovators like Tom Bass. Or link arms with some George R. Smith alumni and let loose a rousing rendition of the college yell from one of the best schools on the prairie.

The Golden Lane

9781609490133

$21.99

It was June 14, 1916, a warm, sticky Wednesday morning. The Democratic Convention would soon meet in St. Louis. Inside the Jefferson Hotel, the men ate breakfast and met with their committees. Outside the hotel, thousands of women quietly took their places along both sides of Locust Street. They stood shoulder to shoulder, each one in a dress that brushed the pavement, shading herself with a yellow parasol and wearing a yellow sash that said Votes for Women.� The all-male delegations may not have had a comfortable walk down the Golden Lane, but they were moved to add women's suffrage to the national platform. Join Margot McMillen for an accessible history of a privilege too often taken for granted.

Live! At the Ozark Opry

9781596290983

$21.99

In the Ozarks, music frames everything. The Ozark Opry was a focal point of that cultural tradition for over fifty years, playing to sold-out audiences and influencing the course of the American entertainment industry in vital ways hitherto untold. This behind-the-scenes story of Lee and Joyce Mace's incredible venture by historian and former Opry performer Dan William Peek reawakens the foot tapping and fiddle scraping still clinging to the shores of the Lake of the Ozarks. This story also spotlights some of the most fascinating characters of the times, the Nashville stars, Chuck Foster, the Mabe Brothers, Albert Gannaway, Seymour Weiss, Scott O. Wright, Sarah Gertrude Knott and Cyrus Crane Willmore.