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Explores the history of William Shakespeare's First Folio.

Presents a comprehensive A to Z history of the personalities and shows of Broadway and provides information on its producers, writers, composers, lyricists, theaters, performers, and landmarks.

All his life journalist Walter Shapiro had heard outlandish stories about his great-uncle Freeman Bernstein. He assumed they were exaggerated family lore---Jewish revenge fantasies dreamt up to entertain the kids. Only when he started to research Freeman's life, did he realize that his family was actually holding back---there were even more stories to tell. From a ragtag childhood in Troy, New York, Freeman made his way through life as a vaudeville manager (where he met his wife, May Ward, who became Mae West), boxing promoter, stock swindler, card shark, and the self-proclaimed "Jade King of China". Then, on February 18, 1937, he was arrested by the LAPD outside of Mae West's apartment in Hollywood. The charge? Grand larcency---for cheating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi government. Freeman had promised to ship thirty-five tons of embargoed Canadian nickel to the Furher. When the cargo arrived, the Germans found only huge, useless quantities of scrap metal and tin. The fake shipment was a huge blow to their economy, war preparations, schedule, and ego. Hitler did not take the bait-and-switch lightly and sent the police after him. But Freeman Bernstein had the last laugh. He swindled Adolf Hitler---and got away with it!.

Corey Pegues has lived on both sides of the law. At the height of the 1980s crack epidemic, he was a teenager hugging the street corner, selling dope for the notorious Supreme Team gang and watching drugs decimate his stable, working-class neighborhood almost overnight. After a botched murder attempt on a rival gang member, Corey, the only member of his family to graduate from high school, knew he had to get out. Barely eighteen, with two kids by two different women, Corey left under cover of night to enlist in the US Army. After several years in the military, the police academy was a breeze. What is daily life truly like for urban youth in America? What is the one problem endemic in law enforcement that's even more dangerous than rampant racism? There aren't many people who understand both sides of the story. As war rages throughout our nation between police and communities of color, Pegues tears down the blue wall to discuss the discriminatory practices he faced within the NYPD and talks candidly about the distrust between law enforcement and the people.

When Samuel Battle broke the color line as New York City's first African American policeman early in the twentieth century, he had to fear his racist colleagues as much as the criminals. His forty-year career with the New York City Police Department is both the story of one man's courageous battle for acceptance and also the story of the progress of racial diversity. Throughout his career, Samuel Battle mixed with the rich and famous and the rich and infamous but he never forgot who he was and the job that he was doing.

Daniel Spiegelman helped himself to rare books, manuscripts, and letters from Columbia University's Butler Library. While not a sophisticated thief with academic knowledge in this area, he was clever in the methods he used. The thefts remained undetected for months by library staff because there was no trace of a break-in. Only when a librarian went to get a rare book that she was working on, and found it missing, did the thefts come to light. Spiegelman was caught in Europe as he was trying to sell some of the material.

When Shakespeare died in 1616, no one, including the playwright, thought that his writings would last, that he was a genius, or that he would be celebrated as the greatest author in the history of the English language. Seven years after his death, copies of his plays and manuscripts were gathered, edited, and thirty-six of them were published in a book format. This massive book was called the the First Folio, and was only intended as a memorial, but it later became one of the most important books ever published and became a coveted prize among collectors, many of whom would do almost anything to obtain a copy.

In the mid-1970's Times Square was a symbol of New York City's economic decline. Nervous theatergoers had to dart past drug dealers and hustlers as they made their way to dilapidated theaters. But New York City overcame all that and today Broadway is an artistic and economic engine. Journalist Michael Riedel explains the cause of Broadway's reversal and details its history.

Born Betsy Bowen into grinding poverty, the woman who became Eliza Jumel was raised in a brothel, indentured as a servant, and confined to a workhouse when her mother was in jail. Yet by the end of her life, "Madame Jumel" was one of America's richest women, with servants of her own, a New York mansion, a Saratoga Springs summer home, a major art collection, and several hundred acres of land. During her remarkable rise, she acquired a fortune from her first husband---a French merchant---and almost lost it to her second---notorious vice president Aaron Burr. Divorcing Burr amid charges of adultery, Jumel lived on to the age of 90, astutely managing her property and public persona. After her death, the battle over her estate went all the way to the United States Supreme Court---twice. Family members told of a woman who earned the gratitude of Napoleon I and shone at the courts of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Claimants to her estate painted a different picture of a prostitute, the mother of George Washington's illegitimate son, a wife who defrauded her husband and perhaps even plotted his death. Eliza Jumel's real story---so unique that it surpasses any invention---has yet to be told, until now.

"Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of people in stunning photographs, ... and, most importantly, longer stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candor"--Provided by publisher.