Notorious Lives

From Sani Abacha, de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998, to Grigory Zinovyev, the prominent Bolshevik revolutionary executed by Stalin in the "Trial of the Fifteen," Bankston (Tulane U.) has complemented the more chronologically oriented volumes of Salem Press's Great Lives series with an additional 637 biographies of "notorious" individuals from around the world. In making the selections, the publisher claims that individuals who have yet to be fully judged by history or whose scandalous episodes are not the primary reason for their historical significance have been avoided. They also "have avoided the young and still-living who might be considered victims of circumstance as well as poor judgment," although that category apparently doesn't include so-called "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh, who is represented in the entries, while none of the architects of the torture policy to which he was subjected appear. Entries do represent a range of political (and apolitical) tendencies and include such choices as Osama Bin Laden, Benedict Arnold, Idi Amin, Ivan Boesky, Attila the Hun, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Richard Nixon, Al Capone, Lt. William Calley, Alberto Fujimori, Adolf Eichmann, Emma Goldman, Aleister Crowley, Anthony Comstock, Patty Hearst, Ivan the Terrible, Pierre Laval, Timothy Leary, Huey Newton, Benito Mussolini, Judas Iscariot, Pope Urban VI, Robin Hood, Vidkun Quisling, Juan and Eva Peron, and Emiliano Zapata. Entries follow the same basic format as other biographical references from Salem Press, presenting basic summary information, followed by narrative description of the figures importance and a brief listing of further readings. The third and final volume of the set includes appendixes and indexes that allow the reader to locate entries by birth year, category, geography, and personages discussed and also include a general bibliography and a guide to electronic resources. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)