Most people can name some famous artists and recognize their best-known works. But what's behind all that painting, drawing, and sculpting? What was Leonardo da Vinci's snack of choice while he painted Mona Lisa's mysterious smile? Why did Georgia O'Keeffe find bones so appealing? Who called Diego Rivera "Frog-Face"? And what is it about artists that makes both their work and their lives so fascinating-to themselves, to their curious neighbors, and...

Highlights the lives of women including Cleopatra, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Joan of Arc, Isabella I, Elizabeth I, Nzingha, Catherine the Great, Marie Antoinette, Victoria, Harriet Tubman, Tz'u-Hsi, Gertrude Bell, Jeannette Rankin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Eva Peron, Wilma Mankiller, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Rigoberta Menchu.

Profiles many of history's most noteworthy scientists, from Zhang Heng and Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein and Barbara McClintock, sharing lesser-known facts about their favorite activities, relationships, and eccentricities.

Marie Curie, the woman who coined the term radioactivity, won not just one Nobel Prize but two?in physics and chemistry, both supposedly girl-phobic sciences.

Examines America's first ladies and how they helped advance women's rights, political causes and other important progressive changes.

The lives of twenty writers, ranging from Dickens, the Brontes, and Poe to Twain, Sandburg, and Langston Hughes, are profiled in this humorous and informative collection.

Focuses on Franklin D. Roosevelt's childhood years and summarizes his achievements as president

Chronicles the life of Jim Henson, describing how he pushed the boundaries of entertainment and brought the art of puppets to a new level with the creation of his Muppets