Description: This website is maintained by Bill Double, a freelance writer who takes pleasure in wandering history’s less traveled byways and celebrating its under-appreciated actors. .
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icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle Bill Double Home Works Contact Welcome Bill Double is a freelance writer who takes pleasure in wandering history's less traveled byways and celebrating its under-appreciated actors.
In Charles Hires he discovered an extraordinary Gilded Age entrepreneur whose story demanded a wider telling. Hires left the farm as a 12-year-old apprentice and opened his own drug store at 21. He launched several successful business ventures. But his most notable achievement was exploiting the nascent power of advertising to catapult his humble homemade root beer into a national brand. "Charles Hires and the Drink that Wowed a Nation" is available from booksellers and Temple University Press.
A reformed journalist, Double returned to Philadelphia to resume full-time writing after a career with the New Jersey Legislature. The city, as most sixth-graders can attest, is the site of the Liberty Bell and the arena where larger-than-life founders conspired to form a nation. But beneath Philadelphia's grammar school past lies a rich vein of neglected characters, places and events patiently waiting to be disinterred.