Horatio Alger

MR. PLAYBOY: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream, by Steven Watts. Wiley, 544 pp., $29.95. If Hugh Hefner hadn't existed, the 20th century would have had to create him. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the 20th century would have wanted to...

Deconstructing Sammy Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob Matt Birkbeck Amistad: 288 pp., $25.95 Sammy Davis Jr. was the epitome of the artist as brilliant naif, blazing as he collapses into a cold, dark star, a posthumous object best described...

The Complete Ripley Novels The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, Ripley Under Water Patricia Highsmith W.W. Norton: 5 volumes boxed, $100 In March 1954, in a rented cottage in Lenox, Mass.,...

In 1953, Hugh Hefner was a young man in Chicago with an unimpressive résumé and big plans. He would start a men's magazine geared toward young urbanites such as himself, with lifestyle tips and racy pictures. He would call it "Stag Party." A legal...

The Inland Lakes Railway in Eustis has launched a Murder Mystery Express dinner theater. RailStar Corp., the out-of-state company that owns the railway, said the inaugural run of Fat Louie's Pizza to Die For sold out. The show -- during which guests...

Wallace Rasmussen started at Beatrice Foods hauling ice during the Depression and ended up as chief executive officer in the late 1970s. He rose to the top with just a high school diploma. But his philanthropic efforts focused on ensuring young people...

IF HUGH HEFNER hadn't existed, the 20th century would have had to create him. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the 20th century would have wanted to create him either way. As the postwar era dawned, so too did an array of cheap, limitless...

Minders of Make-Believe Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature Leonard S. Marcus Houghton Mifflin: 402 pp., $28 It seems a long way from the 1689 (or so) publication of the first American children's book, which...

List of scholarships for high school teens. Brickfish "Pampered Pet" Scholarship for grades 9-12. Must submit a photo, blog or video that describes how you pamper your pet. www.brickfish.com. Deadline: Nov. 12 General Motors Minority Deadlers...

Anybody who arrived from Mars and wanted to know what all the fuss was over this Anna Nicole Smith would do well to watch just one clip: her appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards. Prancing onstage in a tight-fitting black gown that showcased her...

A series of multimillion-dollar lawsuits against boy-band entrepreneur Louis J. Pearlman has reached the front doorstep of his Trans Continental empire, once seen as the spark that could revitalize downtown Orlando's Church Street Station. But now...

Choosing a new attorney general will be easy if President Bush follows a simple rule: Look for the opposite of Alberto R. Gonzales. Apparently Gonzales finally recognized the damage caused by his mind-boggling explanations of his role in the firings of...