David O. Stewart is a Constitutional lawyer and the author of *The Summer of 1787*. The book was well reviewed in *The New York Times* and around the country, hit *The Washington Post* bestseller list for several weeks, won the Washington Writing Award for Best Book of 2007, and made several "best books" lists for 2007. In May 2009, Simon & Schuster released *Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy*. That 1868 trial was another moment when the nation's fate hung in the balance. The book explores long-ignored evidence of bribery and corrupt influences in the final Senate vote. As a trial lawyer for more that 25 years, many of which have been with Ropes & Gray in Washington, DC, Stewart has defended accused criminals, challenged government actions as unconstitutional, and argued many appeals (including two before the US Supreme Court). He developed a fascination with impeachment when he served as principal defense counsel during the Senate impeachment trial of Judge Walter L. Nixon Jr. of Mississippi. For almost 10 years, Stewart wrote a monthly column for *The American Bar Association Journal* on the Supreme Court (five of those columns appear in *The Supreme Court and Its Justices*, issued by ABA Press).

Bethanne Patrick has always been an enthusiastic and engaged reader of books, so when she started writing about authors and publishing in 1996, she brought her own interest to the stories she told and the writers she interviewed. In 2001, after years of freelance writing, Patrick joined the team of *PAGES Magazine* as editor at large. In 2004 she launched the now defunct AOL Books Channel, reaching more readers than ever before through the largest web portal in the world and where her book critic channel, "The Book Maven," was born. Under "The Book Maven," Patrick started a blog for Publishers Weekly, became the moderator for Barnes & Noble's first online book club, "Centerstage," and became managing editor of "The WETA Book Studio" a project of WETA Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. Patrick also regularly writes for AARP, PEOPLE magazine, *The Washington Post* Book World, Barnes & Noble Review, and Bookreporter.com. She has also written a book for National Geographic entitled *An Uncommon History of Common Things*, out now. Currently, Patrick is working on a memoir entitled *Broken*.