Best of
Autobiography
1985
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
Richard P. Feynman - 1985
Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.
Yeager: An Autobiography
Chuck Yeager - 1985
. .the World War II flying ace who shot down a Messerschmitt jet with a prop-driven P-51 Mustang . . .the hero who defined a certain quality that all hotshot fly-boys of the postwar era aimed to achieve: the right stuff.Now Chuck Yeager tells his whole incredible life story with the same "wide-open, full throttle" approach that has marked his astonishing career. What it was really like enaging in do-or-die dogfights over Nazi Europe. How after being shot over occupied France, Yeager somehow managed to escape. The amazing behind-the-scenes story of smashing the sound barrier despite cracked ribs from a riding accident days before.The entire story is here, in Yeager's own words, and in wondeful insights from his wife and those friends and colleagues who have known him best. It is the personal and public story of a man who settled for nothing less than excellence, a one-of-a-kind portrait of a true American hero.
Trapped in Hitler's Hell: A Young Jewish Girl Discovers the Messiah's Faithfulness in the Midst of the Holocaust
Anita Dittman - 1985
By the time she was twelve, the war had begun. Abandoned by her father when he realized the price of being associated with a Jewish wife and family, Anita and her mother were ultimately left to fend for themselves. Anita's teenage years are spent desperately fighting for survival yet learning to trust in the One she discovered would not leave her ...
Lime Street at Two
Helen Forrester - 1985
In this book, Helen Forrester continues the moving story of her early life with an account of the war years in blitz-torn Liverpool, and the happiness which she so nearly captured, but which was to elude her twice.
Ansel Adams: An Autobiography
Ansel Adams - 1985
Written with characteristic warmth, vigor, and wit, this fascinating account brings to life the infectious enthusiasms, fervent battles, and bountiful friendships of a truly American original. "A warm, discursive, and salty document." - New Yorker
The White Mouse
Nancy Wake - 1985
Nancy Wake, a New Zealander who became one of the most highly decorated women of WW II, here she tells her own story.
I Want to Be a Mathematician: An Automathography
Paul R. Halmos - 1985
The main message i absorbed from it was a set of conditions required for success in mathematics: talent, yes; single-mindedness, almost as obvious; sense of humour, essential when the going gets tough; and love, yes that is the right word - you must love mathematics, and that means all the ingredients, passion, pain and loyalty." The Mathematical Gazette#1"The book is written in a very personal, but plain and honest way, result of reflected experience and mature self-assessment of a wise man. It avoids palliation as well as exaggerated modesty.- It should be a document for history and sociology of science." (R. Fischer) Zentralblatt für Mathematik#2
I Came, I Saw: An Autobiography
Norman Lewis - 1985
It is now re-published with 50 new pages increasing in depth the story in the 1960s and 1970s, recording his time spent in the south of Italy.
Q's Legacy: A Delightful Account of a Lifelong Love Affair with Books
Helene Hanff - 1985
Hanff recalls her serendipitous discovery of a volume of lectures by a Cambridge don, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. She devoured Q’s book, and, wanting to read all the books he recommended, began to order them from a small store in London, at 84, Charing Cross Road. Thus began a correspondence that became an enormously popular book, play and television production, and that finally led to the trip to England – and a visit to Q’s study – that she recounts here. In this exuberant memoir, Hanff pays her debt to her mentor and shares her joyous adventures with her many fans.
Dancing in the Light
Shirley MacLaine - 1985
Outspoken, controversial, talented, and perceptive Shirley MacLaine now takes us on an intimate and fascinating personal odyssey. In 1984 she won an Oscar, starred on Broadway, wrote the best-selling Out on a Limb -- and turned fifty years old. At this special time, in this special year, she was now ready to resume the spiritual journey she had begun in her early forties. In Dancing in the Light, Shirley MacLaine bares her innermost self and explores the lives, both past and present, which touched and affected her own. She sheds new light on her loves, her losses, her childhood, her passions, and her inner drives and ambitions. She asks poignant questions and finds surprising answers. She asks poignant questions and finds surprising answers. She challenges her beliefs and confronts her conflicts. Ultimately, she takes us with her through a life-altering experience that provides a stunning new vision of herself, her future... and the fate of our world.From the Paperback edition.
Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement
James Farmer - 1985
Farmer might be called the forgotten man of the movement, overshadowed by Martin Luther King Jr., who was deeply influenced by Farmer’s interpretation of Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent protest. Born in Marshall, Texas, in 1920, the son of a preacher, Farmer grew up with segregated movie theaters and “White Only” drinking fountains. This background impelled him to found the Congress of Racial Equality in 1942. That same year he mobilized the first sit-in in an all-white restaurant near the University of Chicago. Under Farmer’s direction, CORE set the pattern for the civil rights movement by peaceful protests which eventually led to the dramatic “Freedom Rides” of the 1960s. In Lay Bare the Heart Farmer tells the story of the heroic civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. This moving and unsparing personal account captures both the inspiring strengths and human weaknesses of a movement beset by rivalries, conflicts and betrayals. Farmer recalls meetings with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson (for whom he had great respect), and Lyndon Johnson (who, according to Farmer, used Adam Clayton Powell Jr., to thwart a major phase of the movement). James Farmer has courageously worked for dignity for all people in the United States. In this book, he tells his story with forthright honesty. First published in 1985 by Arbor House, this edition contains a new foreword by Don Carleton, director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, and a new preface.
Shoemaker Of Dreams: The Autobiography Of Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo - 1985
Other People's Trades
Primo Levi - 1985
Throughout the book there are glimpses of long lost childhood summers, his grandparents, adolescence and, most importantly, his writing. The book, which is near to autobiographical of Levi's post-Auschwitz years, conveys his conviction that though "we are living in an epoch rife with problems and perils, it is not boring".
My Life for the Poor: Mother Teresa of Calcutta
José Luis González-Balado - 1985
In this inspiring book, one of the world's most famous women tells her own story: her childhood, her family, and her early years in Albania; her work and religious training as a nun; her years teaching in India; her call to leave her order to serve the poor; the establishment of her Missionaries of Charity; and the growth of her order, including their life together and the work they have done.
A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika
Alfons Heck - 1985
This autobiographical account is a rare glimpse at World War II from a German boy's viewpoint.
While Others Slept: Autobiography and Journal of Ellis Reynolds Shipp
Ellis Reynolds Shipp - 1985
Mad White Giant
Benedict Allen - 1985
At the age of 22, inspired by a youthful aspiration to be an explorer, Allen set out to travel from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon. But as he stumbled through the Amazonian jungle, he was soon confronted by the harsh reality of his isolation in the midst of potentially perilous territory. Mercifully, the experience of living in the rainforest among indigenous Indians taught him how to survive - a skill of which he soon found himself to be in considerable and urgent need.
Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion
Mary Lou Retton - 1985
Signed and inscribed by Mary Lou Retton on the free endpaper.
Midway on the Waves: Diaries, 1948-1949
James Lees-Milne - 1985
Balanchine's Tchaikovsky: Conversations with Balanchine on His Life, Ballet, and Music
Solomon Volkov - 1985
He had, however, been conducting over his last two years a continuous series of private interviews with Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. Their subject was Tchaikovsky, the composer who exercised perhaps the most profound lifelong influence on the great choreographer. And throughout these interviews, it was Balanchine's characteristic way to spring from his observations of Tchaikovsky and the many affinities he so deeply felt in the composer's art and life into a free flow of personal reflections and reminiscences.
Call Me Woman
Ellen Kuzwayo - 1985
Winner of South Africa's CNS Literary Award (1987). "Among that small group of books that have entered into my consciousness and changed my frame of reference."--San Francisco Chronicle
Diana Cooper: Autobiography; The Rainbow Comes and Goes; The Lights of Common Day; Trumpets from the Steep
Lady Diana Cooper - 1985
Married to Duff Cooper. She is the first Lady Diana.
The Authorized Al
Tino Insana - 1985
This tongue-in-cheek examination of the life and music of this "superstar" covers from his birth to his rise to stardom. The Authorized Al is actually based on the mock rocumentary HBO special and video The Complete Al (CBS/Fox, 1984), and the two items work well as a complementary package. The video includes such items as his rock videos, concocted interviews with family and friends and concert footage. The book provides such gems as "Weird Al's" Six-Minute Work Out, bogus newspaper and magazine clippings and The Complete Al Songbook, with all of his song lyrics to date. The book's major shortcoming is the inability to translate some of the atmosphere and humor of Al's work to the printed page. However the popularity of the entertainer plus the rock-and-roll subject matter should attract a large YA audience. John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, Va.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Cats of Shambala
Tippi Hedren - 1985
The riveting story of how actress Tippi Hedren, in the process of making a feature film as a plea to save wildlife, came to share her home and land with some 100 lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, and cougars.
Years with Frank Lloyd Wright: Apprentice to Genius
Edgar Tafel - 1985
Unpredictable, cantankerous, a striking figure with white hair, cape and cane, Frank Lloyd Wright was an individualistic spirit who delighted in acting out his own myth. Here is an intimate view of the many moods of Wright the man, warts and all, the inspired teacher, and the creative visionary, by a devoted student who came to know him as few others have.Now a successful architect in his own right, Tafel takes us back to 1932 and the early years of the Taliesin Fellowship when a group of promising young apprentices gathered in Spring Green, Wisconsin, to be near the 65-year-old master and work at his elbow. We are privy to the incredible richness and diversity of Wright's thinking, his passion for artistic truth and devotion to the cause of architecture, his unfailing creative surges, as well as to his eccentricities and fascinating details about life at Taliesin. We see genius at close range as he designs the most famous house of the twentieth century. Fallingwater, the magnificent Johnson Wax Building and Wingspread; as he ceaselessly tinkers with his designs, all the while proclaiming his organic theories of architecture; as he badgers, bullies, awes and inspires a generation of young architects.Tafel's memoir provides us with a rare view of the man who considered his chief mission in life to create a genuinely American architecture and style of living, wholly personal and original. Here are illuminating anecdotes about his Prairie house and Oak Park periods, his disdain for the Bauhaus school and its leading practitioners, his total immersion in the design and construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, his romance with concrete, his efforts to develop the practical "Usonian homes," and much else. It is also an enlightening summary of the facts and forces which influenced the history of American architecture.Written with affection and admiration, and enhanced with over 300 photographs — many never before published — Years with Frank Lloyd Wright offers an unusually candid portrait of the brilliant, eccentric genius who charted a new course for modern architecture.
Voyages of Joshua Slocum: Voyage of the Destroyer from New York to Brazil : Sailing Alone Around the World : Rescue of Some Gilbert Islanders
Joshua Slocum - 1985
Contents include: Sailing Alone Around the World, Voyage of the Destroyer, Rescue of Some Gilbert Islanders, Voyage of the Liberdade and the Aquidneck Correspondence.