Clarice Stasz has published over forty years, from social commentary to biographies. A retired professor of history, Clarice is a leading scholar of Jack London, with appearances in documentaries for HBO and PBS. She was noted by Book-of-the-Month Club for The Vanderbilt Women, and has received several awards for her Jack London studies. Starting her writing career as an editor, Clarice is committed to crisp and straightforward narratives to introduce average readers to history. A lifelong reader of mysteries, Slanderley is her first venture into the genre, and she is now on her third book in the series!Living close to Jack London State Historic Park, she discovered the author and his times close to her fascination with the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. This led her to the use of biography as a means to convey American history. Her ongoing research was supported in part by the Rockefeller Archives and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through these writings run the themes of gender, race, and power relations. She wrote the first textbooks incorporating discussion of the male as well as female social roles, this at a time when concentration on women alone prevailed.