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If you plan to return to Acapulco soon, or make your first visit to the fascinating community on the sunny coast of Mexico in the next few years, don't do it without your own copy of “The Gringo's Guide to Acapulco.”

The author is well-known in the Illinois legal community as Cook County Judge Charles R. Winkler, but to his many compadres among the amigos and amigas south of the border, he is “Carlos” Winkler.

This is the third edition of his popular, pocket-sized work that is the only travel guide to Acapulco written concisely for North Americans. It is the result of more than a hundred visits Winkler has made since 1964.

“The Gringo's Guide” is dedicated to his two sons, Chuck and Mike, who have been regular visitors to the popular resort area since they were in diapers. Two of Winkler's grandsons are following in their footsteps.

“The Bay is one of the most beautiful in the world,” Winkler says in his introduction. “Add the tropical climate, with little or no rain between October and May, and you have the perfect holiday.” (Note: Winkler makes many of his visits in November.)

The guidebook begins with the basics of Preparation – tips on travel documents, packing your bags, and getting through customs – in the first chapter.

The second chapter, Orientation, describes getting around the “three Acapulcos,” complete with detailed maps, and getting the biggest ping for your peso.

Five chapters follow with in-depth information about accommodations, restaurants, entertainment, shopping and sightseeing. A useful index may be found at the end of the 180-page book.

Winkler also provides a chapter on the real estate market for Condos, Villas and Timesharing as a help to those who seek a more-or-less permanent connection to Acapulco. He explains real estate trusts and the important services of the notario publico.

“The Gringo's Guide to Acapulco: 3rd Edition,” now available from Trafford Publishing at $16.75 per copy, may be purchased online at www.trafford.com/05-2480.

One dollar from the sale of each copy is donated to American Legion Post 4 in Acapulco, which the author points out “makes a substantial contribution to three (local) orphanages that serve the needs of hundreds of homeless children.”

Winkler has parlayed his Acapulco retreats into fulfillment of the best of his three favorite worlds – vacations, which become research for a hobby, which benefits a worthwhile charity.

The 22-year-old manuscript of a biography of pioneering black Chicago attorney Earl Burrus Dickerson has at last been published in book form.

“Earl B. Dickerson, A Voice for Freedom and Equality” was written in 1984 by Chicago Daily News editor Robert J. Blakely, who shared it with Dickerson before his death in 1986 at age 95.

Blakely's work was discovered in the Library of Congress by Northwestern University Law Prof. Leonard S. Rabinowitz, who saw that it was published by Northwestern University Press. The original manuscript was edited by Marcus Shepard and has a foreword by John Hope Franklin.