Best of
Autobiography

1951

Memoirs of a Revolutionary


Victor Serge - 1951
    This facsimile edition brings Charles Lamb's critically acclaimed and revered "Elia" essays back into print.

A Soldier's Story


Omar N. Bradley - 1951
    A Soldier's Story is the behind-the-scenes eyewitness account of the war that shaped our century: the tremendous manpower at work, the unprecedented stakes, the snafus that almost led to defeat, the larger-than-life personalities and brilliant generals (Patton, Eisenhower, Montgomery) who masterminded it all. One of the two books on which the movie Patton was based, A Soldier's Story is a compelling and vivid memoir from the greatest military tactician of our time.      The books in the Modern Library War series have been chosen by series editor Caleb Carr according to the significance of their subject matter, their contribution to the field of military history, and their literary merit.

Autobiography of a Hunted Priest


John Gerard - 1951
    And nowhere in literature is it so apparent as in this classic work, "The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest." This autobiography of a Jesuit priest in Elizabethan England is a most remarkable document and John Gerard, its author, a most remarkable priest in a time when to be a Catholic in England courted imprisonment and torture; to be a priest was treason by act of Parliament.Smuggled into England after his ordination and dumped on a Norfolk beach at night, Fr. Gerard disguised himself as a country gentleman and traveled about the country saying Mass, preaching and ministering to the faithful in secret always in constant danger. The houses in which he found shelter were frequently raided by priest hunters; priest-holes, hide-outs and hair-breadth escapes were part of his daily life. He was finally caught and imprisoned, and later removed to the infamous Tower of London where he was brutally tortured.The stirring account of his escape, by means of a rope thrown across the moat, is a daring and magnificent climax to a true story which, for sheer narrative power and interest, far exceeds any fiction. Here is an accurate and compelling picture of England when Catholics were denied their freedom to worship and endured vicious persecution and often martyrdom.But more than the story of a single priest, "The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest" epitomizes the constant struggle of all human beings through the ages to maintain their freedom. It is a book of courage and of conviction whose message is most timely for our age.

The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell


Bertrand Russell - 1951
    One of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, he transformed philosophy and can lay claim to being one of the greatest philosophers of all time. He was a Nobel Prize winner for Literature and was imprisoned several times as a result of his pacifism. His views on religion, education, sex, politics and many other topics, made him one of the most read and revered writers of the age. This, his autobiography, is one of the most compelling and vivid ever written. This one-volume, compact paperback edition contains an introduction by the politician and scholar, Michael Foot, which explores the status of this classic nearly 30 years after the publication of the final volume.

Gold in the Furnace: Experiences in Post-War Germany


Savitri Devi - 1951
    She also chronicles the systematic plunder of Germany by the Allies: the clear-cutting of ancient forests, the dismantling of factories, the theft of natural resources.In spite of the disaster, Savitri Devi did not view it as the end of National Socialism, but as a purification—a trial by fire separating the base metal from the gold—a prelude to a new beginning. Thus Savitri also devotes chapters to presenting the basic philosophy and the constructive political programme of National Socialism.Gold in the Furnace is a valuable historical document: of the National Socialists who never lost faith, despite suffering, persecution, and martyrdom—of the ordinary Germans who revered Hitler even after the war—of the widespread rumours of Hitler’s survival—of the hopes of imminent National Socialist revival, perhaps in the aftermath of a Third World War—of the expectations of Soviet victory in such a war—and of the philosophy, experiences, and unique personality of a remarkable woman.Gold in the Furnace is one of the first “revisionist” books on World War II and its aftermath. But although Savitri Devi exposes many falsehoods about the concentration camps, she accepted the existence of homicidal gas chambers and regarded attempts to deny the mass-extermination of Jews as intellectually dishonest pandering to humanitarian sentimentality. It was only in 1977, after reading Arthur Butz’s The Hoax of the Twentieth-Century, that Savitri Devi came to reject the central claims of the Holocaust story.Until now, Gold in the Furnace has been almost impossible to find. Published in a tiny edition by Savitri Devi’s husband A.K. Mukherji in Calcutta in 1952, it was distributed privately by the authoress to her friends and comrades. A German translation appeared in 1982, a Spanish translation in 1995; in 2005, a second English edition was published in England, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Savitri Devi’s birth, on 30 September 1905.

His Eye is on the Sparrow


Ethel Waters - 1951
    With astonishing candor, Ethel Waters tells her dramatic and dazzling story: from a childhood of abject poverty, to her early success in Black vaudeville, to her rise into the top ranks of stardom with her memorable performances in Cabin in the Sky, Pinky, and The Member of the Wedding. Hers is both an engrossing record of a topsy-turvy career and, just as importantly, an invaluable social document that traces the changing landscape for African American entertainers in the first half of the twentieth century. One of our very best show-business memoirs, brimming with insights, humor, and an unbreakable spirit, His Eye Is on the Sparrow was a significant groundbreaker when first published in 1951--and remains an authentic American classic today."--Donald BogleEthel Waters's His Eye Is on the Sparrow stands as perhaps the greatest autobiography of a black female performer, capturing both the horror and the joy of the African American woman's experience through the often bitter yet always forgiving voice of an indomitable spirit. This edition is supplemented with a new historical preface and over a dozen photographs.

World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender


Stephen Spender - 1951
    His portrait of his friends--Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats, and Christopher Isherwood--render a romantic world of literary genius. Spender uses a poet's language to create an honest and tender exploration of amity and the many possibilities of love. First published in 1951, World Within World simultaneously shocked and bedazzled the literary establishment for its frank discussion of Eros in the modern world.Out of print for several years, this Modern Library edition includes a new Introduction by the critic John Bayley and an Afterword that Spender wrote in 1994 describing his reaction to the charges that David Leavitt plagiarized this autobiography in a novel.

Sun in the Morning


Elizabeth Cadell - 1951
    Growing up in Calcutta had been glorious. How could it help being, with friends like Poopy and Marise, with neighbours like the dear, funny de Souza family, Mr. Rogers the actor, Miss Brooke and her gushing and Mr. Andros with his fussing? Everybody and everything just a bit unexpected. It was a carefree, entrancing life she had led at the flat in Minto Lane, and here is a writer with the happy knack of letting you share it all.

Bricks And Flowers


Katherine Everett - 1951
    

The Unfinished Autobiography


Alice A. Bailey - 1951
    Shows the stages in the author's journey from Christian evangelism to mastery of the science of esotericism and her work as an author, lecturer and teacher.