1977 Rogues and Heroes from Iowa's Amazing Past, by George Mills (read 1 Feb 1986) The author of this book is a retired Des Moines Register reporter (who interviewed me once when I was an alternate delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention). This book was published in 1972 and is composed of stories about people connected with Iowa, arranged by cities and written journalistically and with no scholarly pretensions. The Sioux City stories include a page and a half on Oscar Hartzell and the Drake Estate. This is a fantastic story, occurring in the 1930's. Hartzell was convicted in Federal Court in Sioux City in 1933 (defended by Carlos Goltz, though Mills' account makes no mention of that colorful figure from Sioux City's past) and died in prison in 1943. [The whole story is told in better detail in Drake's Fortune: The Fabulous True Story of the World's Greatest Confidence Artist, by Richard Rayner (read by me 20 Dec 2002).] Another Sioux City story tells of Henry Clay Work, who came to Sioux City in 1856 as a printer, aged 24. He "'after a time" moved to Chicago where he became "a famous songwriter." He wrote "Grandfather's Clock" and "Marching Through Georgia." Another story is about when Dick and Pat Nixon lived in Ottumwa for seven months during World War II. Nixon was described as "very reserved...a nice fellow to talk to but who didn't go out of his way to mix...very conscientious...a good Joe...a little on the meek side." Seems to me Nixon changed a lot--for the worse. Another three paragraph story tells of Honore Willsie Morrow, who was born there in 1880 and died in 1940. She is the author of books I read in high school about Lincoln--I thought them very good when I read them. The things in this book are interesting--I guess I just wish they were more precise and reference-book like. ( )