What will Kentucky Book Festival visitors find on your table?

Louisville Gambling Barons discusses Louisville when the city experienced the golden age of gambling between 1860 through 1885, thanks to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers by steamboat and later railroads. Entire city blocks were devoted to betting. Horse racing and lotteries emerged. Gambling houses became grand palaces with names such as the Crockford, the Crawford, and the Turf Exchange. Louisville was known as the “City of Gamblers.”

A History Lovers Guide to Louisville covers the early history and some of historic places such as Farmington, Locust Grove, the Olmstead Parks, and modern accomplishments such as the Yum Center, The Frazier Museum, and the restoration of Whiskey Row, and the Lynn Family soccer stadium.

Whom do you invite to stop by? Who will benefit from reading your book?

Louisville enthusiasts, Civil War, Gilded Age, and gambling history.

Could you please tell us something curious about you and/or your book?

Louisville has a rich history, and I have covered different topics of Louisville’s history, such as the Civil War, the Gilded Age, Bourbon barons of Louisville and Gambling Barons of Louisville.

Is this your first time participating in Kentucky Book Festival? If yes – what are you looking forward to the most? If you’ve participated before – what was your favorite experience at the Festival?

I enjoy meeting people who are interested in Louisville history or Civil War history. I also like talking “shop” with other authors in my field.

Bryan Bush has been a Civil War re-enactor for twenty years, portraying an artillerist. Louisville’s Gambling Barons returns the reader to the golden age of gambling that Louisville experienced between 1860 and 1885, thanks to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers by steamboat and foot.