Before becoming one of America's greatest novelists, Conrad Richter (1890-1968) worked driving a wagon over the mountains of Pennsylvania, in a machine shop, in a small-town bank, on a farm, in his own timber business, and reporting for newspapers, among other jobs. A dogged researcher, he wrote fifteen novels, most of them set on the American frontier, including The Light in the Forest and The Sea of Grass, as well as numerous short stories. His novels won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and many other accolades. David McCullough is the author of The Wright Brothers, John Adams, 1776, and many other books of American history and biography.