By Ann Hazelwood

Boring weekends just got kicked into overdrive. With an introduction by Governor Matt Blunt, St. Charles native Ann Hazelwood dishes 100 Best Kept Secrets in Missouri. Hazelwood’s first book, 100 Things to Do In & Around Historic St. Charles, guides locals and visitors around the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles with ease. With her new book, Hazelwood takes on the entire state of Missouri. So go ahead, visit Missouri’s only castle open to the public in Springfield, find the “Spook Light” in Joplin, or visit the Mastodon State Historic sight just 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis. This guide to Missouri’s hidden tourist treasures also includes regional maps, and guides and contact information for all attractions listed.

By Ann Hazelwood

A handy guide to a fast-growing St. Louis suburb that is rich in history. Author Ann Hazelwood, a St. Charles native, is the perfect tour guide for exploring historic Main Street, the Katy Trail, local bed and breakfasts, restaurants, fall festivals and Lewis & Clark re-enactments at the duo’s original landing site. No matter what you choose to do or see in St. Charles, you’re sure to find fun and adventure for the whole family.

By Thomas Schlafly

* Voted Best Book by a Local Author 2007 by the Riverfront Times (read article here)

* KMOX Charlie Brennan’s Book Club Selection: March 2007

In 1991, St. Louis lawyer Thomas Schlafly decided to play “David” to one of the city’s biggest business Goliaths: Anheuser-Busch. He started Schlafly Brewery as the city’s finest micor-beer in the shadow of the world’s biggest beer maker. Despite legislative shenanigans that tried to limit how many barrels he could brew and resistance from local distributors, Schlafly took an abandoned warehouse in midtown St. Louis and has turned it into one of the nation’s most successful micro-brewers. With wit and insight, Schlafly describes his company’s struggles and successes, including the day he led a dog-drawn carriage to Busch Stadium with the first case of his beer to be sold in the Anheuser-Busch owned baseball landmark.

Exclusive offer, including free shipping, of the companion book to the PBS Documentary

By The St. Louis Billiken’s Soccer Club

America’s soccer legacy has its roots in St. Louis, where European immigrants played their own raw, competitive version of the game in the city’s working class Roman Catholic neighborhoods. When the NCAA sanctioned soccer as an official Division I sport in 1959, St. Louis University got the chance to prove its mettle. SLU won their first National Championship and would win ten more over the next fifteen years, setting the bar for collegiate soccer and creating a St. Louis soccer dynasty.

This handsome 8.5″ x 11″ hardcover coffee table book includes a DVD of the new PBS documentary, “A Time for Champions.” The book and DVD tell story of how a sport became more than a game as generations of young Americans battled for neighborhood, church and city. Blue-collar, urban, and Catholic, they kicked their way from the parochial playing fields to the halls of history.

By Elizabeth Gentry Sayad

These evocative letters penned by Justus Post between 1807 and 1821 open a window into mid-America’s storied frontier past. They reveal the personal ambitions and private thoughts of their author, a classically educated Yankee promoter who arrived in St. Louis in 1815 with a wad of cash and a belief that the American heartland was destined to become the center of the greatest empire in the world. In telling Post’s story and making these documents available to a wider audience, Elizabeth Sayad has performed a valuable service. Anyone interested in Missouri’s early days will find much to savor in this fine publication.

By John Carney

With over 25 years of experience behind the mic, John Carney is one of St. Louis’ most beloved talk show hosts on KMOX radio waves. Over a period of 15 years, Carney acquired hundreds of recipes from interviews on his weekly radio talk show, Restaurant Tuesday, and in turn shares these recipes with the public. The collection of 200 recipes revisits old friends in the St. Louis restaurant scene, some of which have closed. Additionally, Carney shares some of his own family favorites from his personal collection of recipes.

A portion of the proceeds from the cookbook will benefit the Carney’s Kids Foundation which provides financial assistance to and community awareness of children in need.

Now Available for Kindle!
By Jeff Fister

West End Word publisher Jeff Fister draws from his newspaper column about raising a big family — and chickens — in a 112-year-old house in the Central West End. The chickens provide an amusing and sometimes instructive side-story to the core of the book: having a lot of kids in a world filled with ever-shrinking families.

By Kevin Amsler

How did some of St. Louis’ most prominent people die, and where are they buried? From Dred Scott and William Sherman to Betty Grable and T.S. Eliot, author Kevin Amsler provides short biographies of famous St. Louisans and their final resting places. Final Resting Place includes descriptions of area cemeteries and a chart showing “six degrees of historical separation” linking William Clark and Auguste Chouteau to many other well-known locals. Also, read about duels on “Bloody Island”, the plane crash that killed a St. Louis mayor and the elaborate funerals of the Busch brewery family.

*Available Only Through STL-Books.com! Through an exclusive arrangement with the Forest Park Conservancy, STL-Books.com is the only website where you can order this colorful fold-out book. (The book folds out horizontally and vertically). A portion of the proceeds benefit the Conservancy.

This book is a wonderful look at the Park that is home to museums, performing arts, sports and fitness facilities, conservancy programs, green space and gardens.

An individual fold-out section is devoted to each of the Park’s major features including the St. Louis Art Museum; the St. Louis Zoo; the Missouri History Museum; St. Louis’s world-famous theatre, The Muny; the St. Louis Science Center; the Flora Conservancy; the “Jewel Box” and plantings; and people in the park.

The text also covers the Park’s exciting conception and history, and is accompanied by some of the original plans and spectacular early photographs.

By James W. Sherby

When the earthquakes of 1811-1812 hit the New Madrid Fault, the Mississippi River changed not only its course but many lives, and the location of land. Those who suffered damage to the land were subsequently issued certificates to claim public land westward of the river.

Author James Sherby tracts the creation of a certificate, no. 465, from slave-owning farmland to one of St. Louis County’s most highly valued property in the Clayton area. The development of this Clayton neighborhood and the lives it touched until 1930 are detailed in this narrative along with a collection of photographs, maps and documents illustrating this unique history in Missouri.

By Rich Fuegner and David Roth

Gaslight Square Illuminated brings back to life the culturally fresh block that vitalized the urban night scene in St. Louis from the 1950s through the 1960s. Written by local authors Rich Fuegner and David Roth, the book details the L-shaped intersection of Olive and Boyle that created enough hype and draw to reach an international stage. Tina Turner, Barbra Streisand, and the Smothers Brothers all got their feet wet in the area that became the original St. Louis hotspot.

Featuring more than 100 photos, Gaslight comprehensively tells the tale of this long-lost era.

Available November 18, 2010

By Greg Freeman

For many years Greg Freeman’s columns were read by thousands of devoted fans. This book is a collection of his most notable columns selected by his editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

By Holly Drago and Jill Phillips

Founded as a utopian German settlement in 1837, Hermann is nestled in the rolling hills along the Missouri River just a 90-minute drive from St. Louis. Picked because it most resembled to them the Rhine valley in Germany, Hermann has become the center of the state’s wine industry and is populated by more than 150 historic sites, bed and breakfasts and wineries. But as authors Holly Drago and Jill Phillips write, it’s also populated by ghosts, and this book takes the reader on a tour of the city’s most haunted sites along with a guide to the history and wineries of the town.

By Julius K. Hunter

Honey Island tells the story of how Julius Hunter, a popular TV anchor in St. Louis, confronts not only his family’s reluctant past, but the attitudes about race that still prevail in rural Mississippi. In his book, Hunter recreates the sights, sounds and flavors of his family’s life and their journey to St. Louis.

By Ron “Johnny Rabbitt” Elz

St. Louis radio legend Johnny Rabbitt’s second trivia book for St. Louis history buffs features all-new, topical questions, as well as some of Rabbitt’s unique observations on the city’s past. Rabbitt’s first book, Johnny Rabbitt’s 1001 St. Louis Trivia Questions, was a runaway local best-seller and is used as a companion to dozens of local trivia nights.

For more than four decades, Rabbitt has been a fixture on local radio, and now serves as a host at WRTH’s Country Legends station. Rabbitt is also a member of the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame for his pioneering work at local stations such as KXOK and KSHE.

Named one of 2011’s “best regional books” by St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Celebrating 100 Years of the City’s Rural-to-Regal Past

By Charlene Bry

Well-known St. Louis resident, business woman and author Charlene Bry documents and illustrates Ladue’s rural to regal past in a newly released book entitled “Ladue Found.” Before $10 million Colonial-style brick homes, 70-foot oak trees shading promenades, and six private clubs, there were  immigrant farmers and shacks in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, which today is one of the nation’s wealthiest communities. This documented history of Ladue not only tells the story of the city’s transformation from a rural to regal locale, but also features stories of charming characters including a madame, bands of Gypsies, Peter A. Ladue and notorious residents whose names grace the community’s streets. An extensive collection of original photographs and documents illustrate the work throughout, transporting the reader back in time to explore Ladue’s fascinating first 100 years of history as the city celebrates its 75th Anniversary.

By Bert Minkin

This charming collection of articles about the 1904 World’s Fair highlights some little-known facts.

By Lester N. Pope

Foreword by screen star and St. Louis native John Goodman

Award-winning St. Louis film critic Lester N. Pope explores the area’s cinematic history, as well as famous movies, actors and actresses in St. Louis’ first movie book.

From Meet Me in St. Louis to The Big Brass Ring and What’s Love Got to Do With It? From The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery to Fighting Father Dunne and White Palace, St. Louis has been front and center in the action.

And the stars–many started out in St. Louis before they discovered the glitter of Hollywood, or Hollywood discovered them. Vincent Price, Shelley Winters, John Goodman, Redd Foxx, Betty Grable, Kevin Kline, Buddy Ebsen–these and many others made their way to Tinsel Town from the Gateway City.

The book also includes an intriguing “Intermission” trivia section on St. Louis’ movies and stars.

By Andrew Theising

The first ever comprehensive history of this troubled city, the book includes more than 250 photographs and images of the people and events that shaped East St. Louis. Andrew Theising, a professor of political science at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, examines the city’s past from the prominent role it played in the growth of 19th century industrial America to its presently depleted state. For Theising, East St. Louis is more than just a river city suburb; it is an example of industry creating and then abandoning a city, and it is also one of the most misunderstood cities in America.

By Sally Benson

Sally Benson’s original novel is now available in a limited edition from Virginia Publishing Company. Originally appearing in The New Yorker, this classic story was one of the most popular features ever run in that magazine.Benson’s screenplay of the same name became one of the best-loved movies of its era, starring Judy Garland in 1944. This limited edition offers an opportunity to enjoy this charming, timeless story once again.

By Candace O’Connor

This is the fascinating story of the world-famous Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis and three generations of the Koplar family. It captures the spirit of the “rat pack era” in the 1950s and 1960s, when entertainers such as Dean Martin, Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra entertained thousands.

At the center of the family was Harold Koplar, whose father, Sam, built the Park Plaza and later bought the adjoining Chase Hotel. Harold—known as “HK” to friends and staff alike—had a talent for discovering stars and developing chic nightclubs. He ushered in the heyday of the Chase Park Plaza and made the Chase “the place” for the country’s biggest and brightest stars. A visionary, he also started KPLR Channel 11 and redeveloped the Lodge of the Four Seasons, a resort at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

By Carol Porter

While St. Louis celebrates the centennial of the 1904 World’s Fair, this book brings the spectacular sights and sounds of the fair together with the intriguing story of a young architect, Louis Spiering.

In this book, author Carol Porter provides an intimate perspective of the fair through the history of Spiering, a young architect on the design team.

Spiering’s personal journal of photographs from the World’s Fair, unseen for nearly a century, reveals the fair’s grand undertaking through the young architect’s eyes.

By Mary Henderson Gass, Jean Fahey Eberle and Judith Phelps Little

Parkview explores the lively social and architectural history of a notable subdivision nestled up to Washington University and a short walk to Forest Park. Parkview has a rich heritage of Arts and Crafts architecture, and that, as well as its graceful and elegant design, was a significant factor in its listings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Home to three mayors of University City, many of the area’s prominent businessmen, and a magnet for professional people and noted artists as well, Parkview’s history receives a vivid accounting in these pages, which are notable for the lively excerpts from the personal papers, letters, and records provided to the authors by generations of residents who have known Parkview’s tribulations and enjoy its friendships and its serenity.

From a barren, leveled clearing of seventy acres in 1903 to its tree-canopied 255 homes in 2005, over 300 extraordinary photos, maps, and drawings (fifty in full color) follow the development of the subdivision into one of the most historic and desirable neighborhoods in the St. Louis area. In text and image the book also charts the course of its citizens’ lives as steamboat captains, physicians, men of business, professional women, lawyers, writers and teachers. Here, then, is the flavor of the past and the fruit of the present.

Through nearly 150 photographs, paintings, prints, drawings and film stills, the vibrant world of post-World War II New Orleans is illuminated by artist Ralston Crawford.  Though often remembered for his pre-war Precisionist paintings of urban and industrial subjects, Crawford produced a significant body of work after 1949 inspired by the Crescent City and its trademark sound –jazz! Crawford synthesizes the tones and textures, rhythm and syncopation of this uniquely American art form into an acclaimed body of work that celebrates the sights, sounds and emotions of New Orleans!

Published by Virginia Publishing Co. for The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis.

By J.C. Corcoran

Real Life Stories of J.C. and The Breakfast Club chronicles the 16 years in which Corcoran’s irreverent style changed the face of morning radio. A collection of photos is included in the personal memoir.

By Dan Dillon

*Honorable Mention in the Midwest Region at the Independent Publisher Regional Book Awards

In Volume 2 of So, Where’d You Go to High School?, author Dan Dillon looks back at the high school memories of St. Louis’ Baby Boomers. This fun collection of trivia, celebrity tales and photos will have you remembering your prom night like it was yesterday.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, Dillon recalls the rivalries, the teams, the homecoming nights—and yes, the hairstyles—that made high school unforgettable. Packed with descriptions of St. Louis schools, past and present and with stories form St. Louis personalities such as Dan Gray and Steve Savard, this book will complete any St. Louisan’s yearbook collection.

By Ray Bosenbecker

In Volume 1 of So, Where’d You Go to High School?, author Ray Bosenbecker delivers a fascinating history of St. Louis high schools. Bosenbecker describes the evolution of secondary education from a privilege for the rich to an opportunity available to everyone. The book includes historic maps and a compendium of more than 150 St. Louis City and County high schools with descriptions and photos.

By Robbi Courtaway

Spirits of Saint Louis II is the sequel to Spirits of Saint Louis: A Ghostly Guide To The Mound City’s Unearthly Activities, written by Robbi Courtaway in 1999 and also published by Virginia Publishing Company. Woven together with St. Louis’ supernatural tales are local lore, historic tidbits and fascinating viewpoints that run the gamut from believers of the paranormal to scientific purists.

By Michael Kilfoy

*St. Louis Seen & Unseen wins a GOLD!!! St. Louis Seen and Unseen has won a “gold medal” for the Best Regional Non-Fiction book in the Midwest by Independent Publisher. Independent Publisher is the leading trade group for regional and independent book publishers throughout the U.S. Each year they sponsor the “IPPY” awards for the industry. These awards include 65 national categories and 12 regional ones. For the regional awards, 688 entries were received.

St. Louis Seen & Unseen is a visual “portrait” of our city through the eyes of some of the city’s finest known and unknown photographers. This quality hardcover book features full color photos throughout, encompassing the rich fabric of our river city. It illustrates the city’s best-known landmarks, its signature events, rich history, diverse lifestyles and behind-the-scenes surprises. Award-winning photo editor Michael Kilfoy has assembled a collage of more than 200 stunning images from dozens of photographers and literally thousands of original photos. It’s the city’s first such book in more than ten years, and is perfect gift for visitors, residents and those interested in how our city really looks.

By Diane Rademacher

As Midnight struck on Dec. 1, 1904, World’s Fair President David R. Francis stood before a hushed crowd of 100,000 in Forest Park in St. Louis. He then threw a switch that extinguished forever the fair that had been a magical kingdom for several months.

And yet, from a department store in Philadelphia to a hilltop in Birmingham, from a front yard in Moberly, Missouri, to a museum in Alaska, and in dozens of other places, the World’s Fair still lives on.

In Still Shining!, Diane Rademacher tracks down the present history and location of the 1904 World Fair’s most beloved buildings and structures. Rademacher’s book contains original pictures of famous structures and how they look today.

By Shellee Graham

Graham tells historical and first-person accounts of this famous “no tell” motel. The book includes more than 100 color and black and white photos by author and Route 66 photographer Shellee Graham.

Celebrating the 35th anniversary of the West End Word newspaper, this book is a reprint and update from the original 1992 edition. It includes history, recipes, anecdotes and profiles on subjects ranging from the original Maryland Plaza, Herb Balaban, Forest Park to the “West End Walker,” the Chase Hotel and the wild Halloween parties of the 1970s. This edition contains the complete text of the original, out-of-print book as well as updates on many subjects, including a profile of “Baton Bob.”

Named one of 2011’s “best regional books” by St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

At one point in time, East St. Louis was the boomtown of the St. Louis Metropolitan area, promising to be both a hub of industrial markets and a desirable residential area. In 1960, it was honored with the “All-America City” designation, yet today, it has been dubbed “the most distressed small city in America.” Comprising a selection of insightful essays, The Making covers East St. Louis’ turbulent history over the past century and a half, from the Mississippi River’s role in the city’s formation to racial tensions, the industrial decline, and its enduring cultural impact. This book is the first in the East St. Louis Sesquicentennial Series, which aims to examine the city’s influence, document and preserve its history, and provide meaningful reference for historians to come.

By Steve Trampe

From the vision of a “tall thin man from Arkansas,” to its art-deco glory, to a long dark period and eventual rebirth, the story of the Continental-Life Building is the story of 20th century development in St. Louis.

Steve Trampe, the developer who brought life back to this beloved tower in midtown St. Louis, has written a thorough, engrossing history of the building, its times and the people who have shaped its fate.

A 200-page, high quality softcover with more than 150 historic images of the building, its builders and the neighborhood, this book is sure to delight any St. Louisan!

By Marcella and William Magnan

For 33 years, William Magnan walked the streets of St. Louis as a postal carrier.  His natural curiosity about the names of streets and history of the city led him and his wife Marcella to write The Streets of St. Louis. With a historical narrative and comprehensive index of street names as well as a thorough appendix of state governors, city mayors and city schools, the Magnans show how the famous, infamous and unknown have left their marks on the city with a street sign.

By Maureen Hoessle

Did you know that on one single day in St. Louis, the flags of three different countries flew over the city? Young readers will find out this and more in Under Three Flags, which begins in prehistoric times and continues through the Louisiana Purchase.

In its early history, St. Louis has seen hunters of mastodons, the Mississippian Mound builders, Native Americans traveling the rivers in canoes, and people of French, Spanish and African descent who settled the area. Under Three Flags brings to life the forces and the faces that have shaped our river city today.

By Patricia Corrigan

Foreword by Charles Brennan

The first of its kind, this book is an anecdotal history of the Saint Louis Zoo, from the earliest days right up to the present. A collection of animal tales and Zoo history, the book profiles some of the most popular animals through the years and is illustrated with more than 100 color and black and white photos.