In his 40 years as Mayor of Charleston, Joe Riley has led the historic port city through its greatest period of growth, economic development and unity. His authorized biography, The Mayor: Joe Riley and the Rise of Charleston (Evening Post Publishing Company, 2015), is the inside story of his life and how he built -- and forever transformed -- one of the nation's oldest cities.

Brian Hicks is a metro columnist for The Post and Courier and the author or coauthor of seven previous books. A native of Cleveland, Tennessee, Hicks lives in Charleston.

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