If you’d like to learn more about the places and individuals in this book, the following are excellent sources.
General Indiana Guides
Indiana: A New Historical Guide by Robert Taylor, Errol Wayne Stevens, Mary Ann Ponder, and Paul Brockman (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1989)
Indiana Historical Tour Guide by D. Ray Wilson (Carpentersville, IL: Crossroads Communications, 1994)
Indiana Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff, 3rd ed., by Dick Wolfsie (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2010)
My Indiana: 101 Places to See by Earl L. Conn (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 2006)
Weird Indiana: Your Travel Guide to Indiana’s Local Legends and Best-Kept Secrets by Mark Marimen, James A. Wallis, and Troy Taylor (New York: Sterling, 2008)
It Happened in Indiana: Remarkable Events That Changed History by Jackie Sheckler Finch (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2011)
Indiana Off the Beaten Path, 10th ed., by Phyllis Thomas (Old Saybrook, CT: Globe Pequot, 2012)
Indiana Legends by Nelson Price (Carmel: Guild Press of Indiana, 1997)
Amazing Tales from Indiana by Fred Cavinder (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990)
More Amazing Tales from Indiana by Fred D. Cavinder (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003)
Borderline Indiana by Wendell Trogdon (Mooresville, IN: Backroads Press, 1996)
Awesome Almanac: Indiana by Jean Blasfield (Fontana, WI: B&B Publishing, 1993)
The Indiana Book of Records, Firsts, and Fascinating Facts by Fred Cavinder (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985)
Indiana Trivia by Ernie and Jill Crouch (Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill, 1997)
Legends and Losers by Andy Jones (South Bend: and books, 1999)
From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History by Ronald Baker (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995)
Indiana Ghosts
Hoosier Hauntings by K. T. MacRorie (Grand Rapids, MI: Thunder Bay, 1997)
Haunted Indiana by Mark Marimen (Grand Rapids, MI: Thunder Bay, 1997)
1: Northern Indiana
Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum
It’s a Duesy! by Lee P. Sauer (Auburn, IN: Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum, 1999)
Diana of the Dunes
Diana of the Dunes: The True Story of Mabel Alice Gray by Janet Zenke Edwards (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010)
The Lincoln Highway’s “Ideal Section”
The Lincoln Highway Forum (Tucson: Lincoln Highway Association)
RVs and Motor Homes
Home on the Road: The Motor Home in America by Roger B. White (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2000)
RVs & Campers: 1900–2000 by Donald Wood (Hudson, WI: Enthusiast Books, 2002)
Johnny Appleseed
Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, the American Story by Howard Means (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011)
Johnny Appleseed: Man and Myth by Robert Price (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1954)
Octave Chanute
Locomotive to Aeromotive: Octave Chanute and the Transportation Revolution by Simine Short (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011)
Progress in Flying Machines by Octave Chanute and Adam Frost (New York: Dover, 1998)
Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5
Moonwalk by Michael Jackson (New York: Crown, 2009)
Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness by J. Randy Taraborrelli (New York: Birch Lane, 1991)
Michael Unauthorized by Christopher Andersen (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994)
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Hollywood Classic by Caseen Gaines (Toronto: ECW, 2013)
Dan Quayle
The Man Who Would Be President by Bob Woodward and David S. Broder (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992)
Standing Firm by Dan Quayle (New York: HarperCollins, 1994)
What a Waste It Is to Lose One’s Mind by The Quayle Quarterly (Bridgeport, CT: The Quayle Quarterly, 1992)
The Dan Quayle Quiz Book by Jeremy Solomon and Ken Brady (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989)
Belle Gunness
Belle Gunness: The Lady Bluebeard by Janet L. Langlois (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985)
The Gunness Story by Madeline G. Kinney and Gretchen Tyler (La Porte, IN: La Porte County Historical Society, 1984)
Lodner Phillips and His Submarines
Great Lakes’ First Submarine by Patricia A. Gruse Harris. (Michigan City, IN: Michigan City Historical Society, 1982)
Indiana Circuses
Life in a Three-Ring Circus by Sharon Smith and Stephen J. Fletcher (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001)
Indiana’s Big Top by Don L. Chaffee (Grand Rapids, MI: Foremost Press, 1969)
The First 25 Years by DeLoris Welden (Peru, IN: Circus City Festival, 1985)
Cole Porter
Cole Porter: A Biography by William McBrien (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998)
Elmo Lincoln, the First Tarzan
My Father, Elmo Lincoln, The Original Tarzan by Marci’a Lincoln Rudolph (Rochester, IN: Self-published, Date unknown)
Studebaker
More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story by Thomas E. Bonsall (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000)
Studebaker: The Life and Death of an American Corporation by Donald Critchclow (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997)
George Gipp
The Gipper: George Gipp, Knute Rockne, and the Dramatic Rise of Notre Dame Football by Jack Cavanaugh (New York: Skyhorse, 2010)
One for the Gipper by Patrick Chellan (New York: Arrowhead Classics, 1996)
Orville Redenbacher
Just Call Me Orville: The Story of Orville Redenbacher by Robert W. Topping (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011)
2: Central Indiana
The Battle of Tippecanoe
The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier by Adam Jortner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)
Lew Wallace and Ben-Hur
The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace by Ray E. Boomhower (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 2005)
Jim Jones and the People’s Temple
Raven: The True Story of Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman (New York: TarcherPerigee, 2008)
White Night by John Peer Nugent (New York: Rawson, Wade, 1979)
Our Father Who Art in Hell by James Reston, Jr. (New York: Times Books, 1981)
James Dean
The Real James Dean: Intimate Memories from Those Who Knew Him Best by Peter L. Winkler, ed. (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2016)
James Dean: The Mutant King by David Dalton (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2001)
Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Paul Alexander (New York: Viking, 1994)
The James Dean Story by Ronald Martinetti (New York: Birch Lane, 1995)
Levi Coffin and the Underground Railroad
Fleeing for Freedom by George Hendrick (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004)
Levi Coffin: Quaker Breaking the Bonds of Slavery in Ohio and Indiana by Mary Ann Yannessa (Richmond, IN: Friends United, 2001)
Reminiscences of Levi Coffin: The Reputed President of the Underground Railroad by Levi Coffin and Ben Richmond (Richmond, IN: Friends United, 2001)
Dan Patch
Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch by Charles Leerhsen (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Drive: The Story of My Life by Larry Bird (New York: Bantam, 1990)
3: Southern Indiana
General Southern Indiana Guides
Strange Tales of Crime and Murder in Southern Indiana by Keven McQueen (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2009)
Bill Monroe
Can’t You Hear Me Callin’: The Life of Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass by Richard D. Smith (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000)
Kinsey Institute
Alfred C. Kinsey: A Life by James H. Jones (New York: Norton, 2004)
Sex the Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey by Jonathan Gathorne- Hardy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000)
Lincoln in Indiana
There I Grew Up: Remembering Abraham Lincoln’s Indiana Youth by William E. Bartelt (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 2008)
Lincoln’s Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1816–1830 by Louis A. Warren (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1991)
The Real Hoosiers
The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told by Greg Guffy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993)
The Making of Hoosiers: How a Small Movie from the Heartland Became One of America’s Favorite Films by Gayle L. Johnson (Self-published, 2010)
Virgil I. Grissom
Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom by George Leopold (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 2016)
New Harmony
New Harmony Then and Now by Darryl D. Jones and Donald E. Pitzer (Bloomington, IN: Quarry Books, 2011)
Walker’s Guide to New Harmony’s History by Janet R. Walker (New Harmony, IN: Historic New Harmony, 1996)
Santa Claus, Indiana
Holiday World by Pat Koch and Jane Ammeson (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia, 2006)
Santa Claus by Pat Koch and Emily Weisner Thompson (Mt. Pleasant, SC: Arcadia, 2013)
New West Baden Springs Hotel
History of the New West Baden Springs Hotel by Gregory S. Gatsos (West Baden Springs, IN: Self-published, 2001)
West Baden Springs: Legacy of Dreams by Chris Bundy (West Baden Springs, IN: Self-published, 2001)
4: Indianapolis and Suburbs
General
Wicked Indianapolis by Andrew E. Stoner (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2011)
David Letterman
The Letterman Wit by Bill Adler (New York: Carroll & Graff, 1994)
David Letterman by Frances Lefkowitz (New York: Chelsea House, 1997)
Dave’s World by Michael Cader (New York: Warner Books, 1995)
Kurt Vonnegut
We Never Danced Cheek to Cheek: The Young Kurt Vonnegut in Indianapolis and Beyond by Majie Alford Failey (Portland, OR: Hawthorne Books, 2011)
Mike Tyson
Heavy Justice: The Trial of Mike Tyson by Randy Roberts and J. Gregory Garrison (New York: Addison Wesley, 1994)
Robert Kennedy
Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon by Larry Tye (New York: Random House, 2016)
USS Indianapolis
Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis by Pete Nelson (New York: Delacourt Books for Young Readers, 2003)
In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton (New York: Henry Holt, 2001)
Abandon Ship! The Sage of the USS Indianapolis, the Navy’s Greatest Sea Disaster by Richard F. Newcomb (New York: HarperCollins, 2000)
Indy 500
The Indianapolis 500: A Century of High Speed Racing by Lew Freedman (Indianapolis: Blue River, 2016)
Indianapolis 500 Chronicle by Rick Popely (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 1998)
Indianapolis Motor Speedway—100 Years of Racing by Ralph Kramer (Iola, WI: Krause, 2009)
5: John Dillinger Diapers to Death Tour
Hoosier Public Enemy: A Life of John Dillinger by John A. Beineke (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 2014)
Dillinger: A Short and Violent Life by Robert Cromie and Joseph Pinkston (Evanston, IL: Chicago Historical Bookworks, 1990)
Dillinger: The Untold Story by G. Russell Girardin and William J. Hemmler (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994)
The Dillinger Days by John Tollard (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 1995)
Dillinger Strikes in East Chicago by Richard Smyers (Self-published: East Chicago Public Library, date unknown)