Nelson Price’s book, Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman, details the story and accomplishments of 168 Hoosiers (including one entry for the individuals in each of several families including but not limited to the Lilly, Bentenhousen and Jackson families. Well organized, the book is divided into sections including “Legends of History,” “Hoosiers in Hollywood,” “Legends of Our Own Day,” “Basketball Legends” and “Other Legends.”
Each profile gives the basic facts of the person’s life and achievements. The profiles are not, though, the dry reports so often written in such books. The style of the profiles reflects Nelson’s years of experience as an extremely popular feature columnist for a major Indianapolis newspaper. Each profile starts with a great first sentence that draws the reader in then gives the reader the essential information and fascinating little tidbits. For example, Marilyn Tucker Quayle’s sister nicknamed Marilyn “merit” after the many Girl Scout Merit badges that Marilyn earned. Price is also careful in reporting “legend” as legendary. Johnny Appleseed was certainly a real man, but there isn’t a huge amount of verifiable information about him.
This is the kind of book that the reader can read from front to back or skip around the profiles as the reader desires. This book surely contains at least one profile that would interest any Hoosier or person interested in Indiana. It is very hard to choose a favorite. Nelson has said in the past, though, that his favorite was probably Jane Pauley as she was just a couple of years ahead of him at Warren Central. My favorite was May Wright Sewell. She was a suffragette, educator, activist and founder of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Such an incredible person and hardly anyone has heard of her. Kudos to Nelson for including her.
Nelson Price will be one of the featured authors at the Local History Book Fair on Feb. 14 from 2-4 at Bookmamas, 9 S. Johnson Avenue. Other authors and their books include Tom Rumer (Westfield) Julie Young (Historic Irvington, Famous Faces of WTTV Channel 4, The CYO in Central Indiana), Forrest Bowman, Jr. (Sylvia: The Likens Trial), Fred Cavinder (Forgotten Hoosiers and Historic Indianapolis Crimes) and David Williams (Indianapolis Jazz).
