Indiana Originals: Hoosier Heroes & Heroines

by Ray E. Boomhower

Overview

Hoosier history overflows with bold visionaries, noble heroes and lovable rogues.

May Wright Sewall struggled to uplift womankind and unflinchingly called for peace in a world sleepwalking toward conflict. In the guise of Abe Martin, Kin Hubbard graced the Indianapolis News's back page for twenty-six years with folksy humor. Combat photographer John A. Bushemi bravely faced the terrors of war and perished capturing its violence. Audacious automotive pioneer Carl G. Fisher went to any length to promote himself, even flying a car via a hot-air balloon. Drawing on more than thirty years of experience, author Ray E. Boomhower, the dean of Hoosier biographers, brings together forty of the most notable figures from the nineteenth state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467140973
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	11/12/2018
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,057,712
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Native Hoosier Ray E. Boomhower has worked at the Indiana Historical Society since 1987, serving as editor of the society's popular history magazine, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, since 1999. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the nineteenth state, including biographies of such notable Hoosiers as Gus Grissom, Ernie Pyle, Lew Wallace and May Wright Sewall. In 1998, he received the Hoosier Historian Award from the IHS, and in 2010, he was named winner of the Regional Author Award in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards.

Table of Contents

Preface 7

1 Creator of Abe Martin Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard 11

2 Indiana's Warmhearted Satirist George Ade 16

3 Lew Wallace and Ben-Hur 20

4 "The Thing Is Right!" Eliza Blaker, Teacher 25

5 Sometimes I Wonder Hoagy Carmichael 29

6 For the People: Congresswoman Julia Carson 33

7 The President of the Underground Railroad Levi Coffin 38

8 Indiana Historian George S. Cottman 42

9 Defender of American Liberties Elmer Davis 47

10 The Man from Terre Haute Eugene V. Debs 52

11 The Historian as Adventurer Jacob P. Dunn Jr. 57

12 Gus Grissom and the Flight of the Molly Brown 62

13 "A Business Without a Boss": William Powers Hapgood and the Columbia Conserve Company 68

14 A Letter from Paris Janet Flanner and the New Yorker 74

15 Combat Photographer John A. Bushemi 77

16 The Colonel and the President 83

17 Kurt Vonnegut, Indianapolis and Slaughterhouse-Five 87

18 The Piano Man Arnold F. Habig 91

19 Indiana's Civil War Savior J.F.D. Lanier 99

20 Goethe Link and the Stars 103

21 A Heartbeat Away Thomas Marshall Woodrow Wilson's Illness 108

22 The Freelancer John Bartlow Martin 114

23 Mattie Coney and Citizens Forum 118

24 A Voyage against War: May Wright Sewall and the Ford Peace Ship 122

25 A Woman of the Limberlost Gene Stratton-Porter 127

26 Hoosier Vagabond Ernie Pyle, Columnist 131

27 The Hoosier Farm Wife Rachel Peden 136

28 An Indiana Warrior David M. Shoup 139

29 The Artist and His Home: T.C. Steele and the House of the Singing Winds 145

30 She Achieved Lotys Benning Stewart 150

31 Indiana's Newspaper Pioneer Elihu Stout 153

32 The Ideas of a Plain Country Woman Juliet V. Strauss 158

33 Penrod and Politics Booth Tarkington 162

34 The Death of a Soldier Ernie Pyle Captain Waskow 167

35 The Dreamer: Carl Fisher and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 171

36 The Fatal Cocktail Charles W. Fairbanks Theodore Roosevelt 176

37 A Writer's Life: Theodore Dreiser 180

38 Fighter Pilot Alex Vraciu 183

39 The Dark Horse: Wendell Willkie and the 1940 Election 189

40 The Hoosier Decoder: Cryptologist Herbert O. Yardley 193

Bibliography 201

About the Author 208