The Indiana Historical Society's free annual Holiday Author Fair is a highlight of the holiday season. On Saturday, Dec. 5, guests can find one-of-a-kind gifts for everyone on their list, while also gaining free admission to all of the exhibitions offered this season at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center at 450 W. Ohio St in downtown Indianapolis.

More than 70 authors will mingle and sign books from noon to 4 p.m., but guests can come early and stay late, to visit the Indiana Experience and Festival of Trees, during the History Center's regular Saturday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This year's featured authors include The New York Times bestseller James Alexander Thom; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dick Cady; and such Hoosier favorites as Philip Gulley, Helen Frost, Jim Madison, Dan Carpenter and Jeanne White-Ginder. Books range in topics from youth historical fiction to biographies to sports and politics, with a lot of Indiana history.

Complimentary gift wrapping will be provided by the Circle City Chamber Choir. Members of the IHS will receive 10 percent off their entire purchase, including signed books, while IHS Sustaining memberships will be available for half price. The Basile History Market also features handmade Indiana products, art and books for unique holiday gifts.

This year's Festival of Trees also offers guests a chance to walk a winter wonderland of 50 elaborately decorated trees, with themes ranging from the Indiana classic A Christmas Story to Harley-Davidson to L.S. Ayres and even wine. Festival of Trees is open during the History Center's regular hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. The History Center will also extend its hours on Tuesday, Dec. 22, staying open until 9 p.m.

The Holiday Author Fair is just one of two free admission days this holiday season at IHS; The other is Statehood Day on Friday, Dec. 11. For more information on IHS's holiday offerings and other programs, call (317) 232-1882. A complete list of authors and books at this year's Holiday Author Fair can be found online at www.indianahistory.org.

2015 Holiday Author Fair List*

Biography/Memoir
1. Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard
Laura Bates
2. John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog
Ray E. Boomhower
Also available – Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu, Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut and Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary
3. Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State
Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, editors
Also available – The Governors of Indiana, Federal Justice in Indiana
4. Senator William Ezra Jenner of Indiana, Remembered by his Son William Edward Jenner
William Edward Jenner
Also available – The Bill Cook Story: Ready, Fire, Aim
5. Making the Rounds: Memoirs of a Small-Town Doctor
Dr. Gerald L. Miller and Shari Miller Wagner
6. Hardwood Glory: A Life of John Wooden
Barbara Olenyik Morrow
7. The Quiet Hero: A Life of Ryan White
Nelson Price with special guest Jeanne White-Ginder
Also available – Indianapolis: Then and Now (revised) and Indiana Legends (revised)
8. Breaking Cardinal Rules
Dick Cady
9. The Cathedral Builder: A Biography of J. Irwin Miller
Charles E. Mitchell Rentschler
10. Three Jews Walked into a Shopping Center
Elizabeth Kraft Taylor
CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT
11. Animal Gas
Bryan Ballinger
12. Big Tractor
Nathan Clement
Also available – Drive, Job Site
13. Little Red Gliding Hood
Troy Cummings
Also available – The Notebook of Doom series
14. Sweep Up the Sun
Helen Frost
Also available – Salt, Hidden, Diamond Willow
15. The Twelve Days of Christmas in Indiana
Donna Griffin
16. Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars
Susan G. Gunderson
17. Auto Facts and Fun
Terri Horvath
Also available – Indiana Cars, Hoosier Tour
18. Lost in Cypress Swamp
Carol Katterjohn
19. The Olive Tree
Elsa Marston and Claire Ewart (illustrator)
Also available – the Green Musician and Santa Claus in Baghdad
20. Two Is Enough
Janna Matthies
Also available – The Goodbye Cancer Garden, Peter, The Knight with Asthma
21. The Carter Journals: Time Travels in Early U.S. History
Shane Phipps
22. What’s Up with This Chicken?
Peter J. Welling (illustrator)
Also available – The Kvetch Who Stole Hanukkah, Justin Potemkin and The 500-Mile Race
23. Genius Summer
Pamela Woods-Jackson
FICTION/POETRY
24. Urban Voices: 51 Poems from 51 American Poets
Joyce Brinkman
Also available – Seasons of Sharing: A Kasen Renku Collaboration
25. The Art He’d Sell for Love
Dan Carpenter
Also available – Indiana Out Loud
26. The Flying Circus
Susan Crandall
Also available – Whistling Past the Graveyard
27. Decades of Dirt: Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem from the Crossroads of Crime
M. B. Dabney and Barbara Swander Miller, editors
28. Snapshot
Mark Eugene Dall
29. Indy Writes Books: A Book Lover’s Anthology
Travis DiNicola, editor
30. The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping
Les Edgerton
Also available – The Bitch and The Rapist
31. Whose Knife Is It Anyway?
Lillie Barnett Evans and Crystal V. Rhodes
Also available – Grandmothers Inc. and There’s Something Wrong with Miss Zelda
32. Firebreak: A Mystery
Tricia Fields
Also available – The Territory and Wrecked
33. A Lesson in Hope: A Novel
Philip Gulley
Also available – The Front Porch Series and If the Church were Christian
34. Catholic Boy Blues: A Poet’s Journal of Healing
Norbert Krapf
Also available – Bloodroot, Songs in Sepia and Black and White and The Ripest Moments
35. Heart of a Warrior: The True Saga of Sweet Breeze and William Wells
Joe A. Krom
Also available – Ulysses Grant: Youth to Uniform
36. The Spirit Keeper
K.B. Laugheed
37. Winesburg, Indiana
Michael Martone and Bryan Furuness, editors
Also available – Double Wide
38. Growin’ Up White
Dwight Ritter
39. Fire in the Water
James Alexander Thom
Also available – Saint Patrick’s Battalion, Sign-Talker: The Adventure of George Drouillard on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Follow the River
HISTORY
40. William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest
William Heath
Also available – Blacksnake's Path: The True Adventures of William Wells
41. Indiana Jewish History, Publication #40
Indiana Jewish Historical Society
Also available – Bonds as Strong as Steel: A History of Indiana Scrap Metal Dealers and their Families
42. Images of Modern America: Lafayette
W. C. Madden
Also available – Indiana Beach: A Fun-Filled History and Haunted Lafayette
43. Hoosiers: A New History of Indiana
James H. Madison
Also available – Hoosiers and the American Story and A Lynching in the Heartland
44. Pluto in the Valley: the History of the French Lick Springs Hotel
Patrick O’Brien
Also available – Risen from the Ashes: The History of the West Baden Springs Hotel
45. Surveillance and Spies in the Civil War: Exposing Confederate Conspiracies in America’s Heartland
Stephen E. Towne
Also available – Indiana's War
46. L. S. Ayres & Company: The Store at the Crossroads of America
Kenneth L. Turchi
47. Indianapolis Jazz: The Masters, Legends and Legacy of Indiana Avenue
David Leander Williams
48. Hidden History of Wabash County, Indiana
Ron Woodward
Also available – Wabash County Chronicles: Raucous, Quirky and Essential Tales
NONFICTION
49. Finding God in the Verbs: Crafting a Fresh Language of Prayer
J. Brent Bill and Jennie Isbell
Also available – Awaken your Senses
50. Starting Something New: Spiritual Direction for Your God-Given Dream
Beth A. Booram
Also available – Awaken you Senses: Exercises for Exploring the Wonder of God
51. 20 Life-Transforming Choices Adoptees Need to Make, 2nd edition
Sherrie Eldridge
Also available – Forever Fingerprints: An Amazing Discovery for Adopted Children
52. Chasing God: Finding Faith from the Outside Looking In
Tracy Line
53. Crossword Puzzles: Quips, Word Play, and Lots of Fun
Michael S. Maurer
Also available – 10 Essential Principles of Entrepreneurship and 19 Stars of Indiana
54. Nature Walks in the Indiana Dunes
Alan McPherson
Also available – Indian Battle Sites in Indiana and Hoosier: Illustrated Origins of Indiana’s Sobriquet
55. Indiana Wineries: The Ultimate Guide to Wine in Indiana
Todd and Becky Outcalt
Also available - Husband's Guide to Breast Cancer: A Complete and Concise Plan for Every Stage and The Other Jesus: Stories from World Religions and Where in the World we Meet: Poems
56. Jewish Stories of Love and Marriage: Folktales, Legends, and Letters
Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Also available – Anne Frank and the Remembering Tree and Creation's First Light
57. Letters to Santa Claus
Emily Weisner Thompson
SPORTS
58. Indiana-Born Major League Baseball Players: A Biographical Dictionary, 1871–2014
Pete Cava
Also available – Amazing Tales from the Cubs Dugout: A collection of the Greatest Cubs Stories Ever Told
59. The Story of Basketball Great Clyde Lovellette
Lew Freedman and Clyde Lovellette
Also available – Indianapolis Colts: The Complete Illustrated History, Bronx Bombers: New York Yankees Home Run History and Cody Rodeo: The Mystique of Buffalo Bill Cody and the Great American Cowboy
60. Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500
Art Garner
61. I Love to Make the Dirt Fly: A Biography of Carl G. Fisher, 1874–1939
Carl Hungness
62. So You Think You Know Indiana University Basketball?
Terry Hutchens
Also available – Hoosiers Through and Through and Rising from the Ashes: The Return of Indiana University Basketball
63. Season of Upsets: Farm Boys, City Kids, Hoosier Basketball and the Dawn of the 1950s
Matthew A. Werner
*List includes co-authors, editors and illustrators who will be in attendance