Biographies

Readers' Favorite® 5 Star Award Winner

Hazel Scott was a champion for civil and women’s rights. Born in Trinidad in 1920, she moved with her family to the United States in 1924. She was a musical wonder— studying and performing on the piano from the time she was a child. She became an accomplished singer as well, and appeared in Broadway musicals, films, and recorded her own albums. She also made headlines by standing up for the rights of women and African Americans, and she refused to play for segregated audiences. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the March on Washington, Hazel led a march in Paris, where she was living, in front of the American Embassy. She learned about the Bahá’í Faith from Dizzy Gillespie and became a Bahá’í on December 1, 1968. She passed away in 1981.

We invite you to learn more about this “Change Maker” and the enduring impact she had on race relations through her performing arts.

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In 1881 five brothers, known as the Báqirof-Khamsi clan, whom Bahá’u’lláh designated as Sádát-i-Khams (The Five Siyyids, in Arabic) accepted the Bahá'í Faith in the northern part of Iran. This book describes this family and their struggles to survive in the midst of a fanatical establishment.

This book focuses on three main family members: Siyyid Nasru’lláh Báqirof, Siyyid Ahmad Khamsi-Báqirof, and Mas’ud Khamsi. An exemplary trilogy taking the reader to Iran, Russia, the Holy Land, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Africa, and even to awe-inspiring areas such as the Amazon rainforest and the Andes mountains, exemplifying that love for humanity also travels and it never tires in giving if inspired by higher principles.

This book presents the lives of Shaykh Salmán, Nabíl-i-A’zam and Mullá Sádiq, three individuals closely related to the early years of the Bahá’í Faith in Persia. Shaykh Salmán was Bahá’u’lláh’s on-foot courier travelling annually between Persia and the Holy Land. Nabíl-i-A’zam was the chronicler who carefully documented events of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Faith and a talented poet. Mullá Sádiq stood out as the one who travelled broadly disseminating the new Faith with wisdom, dignity and grace. The first was illiterate, while the second was a self-made scholar who started out in life as a shepherd, whereas Mullá Sádiq came from an educated family of means.

Empowered by faith, certitude, and love to Bahá’u’lláh these three men became a new creation, the like of whom we rarely see in human existence. To their wonder, amazing capacities and invincible powers became theirs, which made it possible for them to endure the most formidable vicissitudes with an ever-increasing spirit of faith and certitude. After glimpsing the greatness of such a Message, nothing had the power to deter them in their path of service - not age, nor lack of means, nor family circumstances, nor the constant danger they faced.

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Recipient of a DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Award from the Religion Communicators Council, Best in Class and Youth category winner

Recipient of a five-star review from Readers' Favorite Book Awards

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was a jazz musician who pioneered a new style of jazz music, known as bebop, in the 1940s. This book, written for junior youth, chronicles Dizzy’s life, beginning with his childhood in South Carolina, his move to New York City, and his eventual travels around the world. Dizzy Gillespie became a Bahá’í in 1968 and strove to be of service to others through his unique gift in music.

This is the second book in the Change Maker Series, highlighting people connected with the Bahá’í Faith who worked to bring about social change.

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Winner of Best Multicultural Non-Fiction from USA Book News.com, the Unsung Hero Award presented by an Australian Aboriginal radio station and newspaper, and received Honorable Mention at the London Book Festival.

Despite a life filled with discrimination and hardship, Aboriginal Elder Banjo Clarke never lost his faith in the human spirit and the goodness of people; his dedication to kindness and forgiveness made him a beloved teacher and inspiration to all whom he met. Wisdom Man covers Banjo’s life from his childhood on a mission, through the grim years of the Depression, his solo travels in search of work, his marriage and children, and his embrace of the Bahá’í Faith, which he found very close to Aboriginal spirituality.

Richard St. Barbe Baker was an inspirational visionary and pioneering environmentalist who is credited with saving and planting billions of trees. He saved lives, too, through his ceaseless global campaign to raise the alarm about deforestation and desertification and by finding effective, culturally sensitive ways for people to contribute to a more peaceful and greener world. Richard was a Bahá’í and met the Guardian during his visit to the Holy Land in 1929. Shoghi Effendi became a lifetime member of St. Barbe Baker’s environmental organization, Men of the Trees (later renamed International Tree Foundation), and they continued to correspond with each other through letters over the course of many years. With a foreword by Prince Charles of Wales and an introduction by Jane Goodall, this biography is sure to inspire environmentally-conscious readers everywhere.

The life of Louise Gregory has been overshadowed by that of her brilliant husband, Hand of the Cause Louis Gregory. This book restores the balance, showing that during her long life Louise achieved much in her own right.

This is a moving biography sharing Louise's childhood and education in England and Europe, her travels to Egypt in 1911 to meet 'Abdu'l-Baha, her travels to America in 1912 and the diffilculties and love of an inter-racial marriage at that time, and her extensive travel teaching in Europe to countries such as Luxembourg, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.