Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers,...

"Soon after the horrific events of September 11, newsroom staffers at The New York Times began to ask about the real people, the names and faces behind the unimaginable statistics. Their efforts, which grew into the daily "Portraits of Grief" feature, gathered force over the ensuing weeks and eventually became a cultural phenomenon on a national scale. Each day, readers in New York and across the country spent a few moments getting to know the doting...