Highlights the life and accomplishments of the creator of the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" movies, whose technological innovations have had a major impact on the film industry.

"This exciting Who Was? title explores how Catherine the Great was able to turn Russia into one of the great powers of Europe by expanding its borders, helping improve its educational system, and advocating for the arts. Her three-decade reign is considered the Golden Age of Russia"--

As a child, Charles Dickens worked in a shoe polish factory where his gritty surroundings inspired some of the most memorable characters and settings in literary history. Known for his masterful storytelling in books like Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Christmas Carol, Dickens toured the globe as one of the most famous people of his era. Widely considered the greatest writer of the Victorian age, Dickens’s...

Profiles the life and accomplishments of the schoolteacher who became the most famous leader of the women's rights movement.

Best known for his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien was born in British-occupied South Africa. His early life was full of action and adventure. Tolkien spent his childhood roaming the British countryside with his family and could read and write by age four. He was naturally gifted with languages and used this skill as a signals officers in World War II as well as in his fantasy writing. By creating alternate universes...

Profiles the life and accomplishments of the British filmmaker known for his distinctive style of directing and his films that featured suspenseful and surprising plots.

"Meet the man who created Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Lewis Carroll is the pen name of Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician and church deacon, who taught at Oxford University. He was inspired to write his best known works, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by one of the Dean's daughters, Alice Liddell. The books were hugely successful and brought Carroll wide acclaim, especially for the nonsense...