Best of
Autobiography

1989

Miles: The Autobiography


Miles Davis - 1989
    Universally acclaimed as a musical genius, Miles is one of the most important and influential musicians in the world. The subject of several biographies, now Miles speaks out himself about his extraordinary life.Miles: The Autobiography, like Miles himself, holds nothing back. For the first time Miles talks about his five-year silence. He speaks frankly and openly about his drug problem and how he overcame it. He condemns the racism he has encountered in the music business and in American society generally. And he discusses the women in his life. But above all, Miles talks about music and musicians, including the legends he has played with over the years: Bird, Dizzy, Monk, Trane, Mingus, and many others.The man who has given us some of the most exciting music of the past few decades has now given us a compelling and fascinating autobiography, featuring a concise discography and thirty-two pages of photographs.

Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess


Danny Sugerman - 1989
    Excessive, scandalous, comic, cautionary and horrifying, it chronicles the 60s dream gone-to-rot and the early life of a Hollywood Wild Child who was just brilliant at being bad.

Chuck Amuck: The Life and Time of an Animated Cartoonist


Chuck Jones - 1989
    Winner of three Academy Awards and numerous other prizes for his animated films, Chuck Jones is the director of scores of famous Warner Bros. cartoons and the creator of such memorable characters as the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, and Marvin Martian. In this beguiling memoir, Chuck Jones evokes the golden years of life at "Termite Terrace," the Warner Bros. studio in which he and his now-famous fellow animators conceived the cartoons that delighted millions of moviegoers throughout the world and entertain new generations of fans on television. Not a mere history, "Chuck Amuck" captures the antic spirit that created classic cartoons-such as Duck Dodgers in the 241/2 Century, One Froggy Evening, Duck Amuck, and What's Opera, Doc?-with some of the wittiest insights into the art of comedy since Mark Twain.

Bill Peet: An Autobiography


Bill Peet - 1989
    A 1990 Caldecott Honor Book Bill Peet tells his life story, including his years with Disney, with illustrations on every page.

The Real Frank Zappa Book


Frank Zappa - 1989
    Along the way, Zappa offers his inimitable views on many things such as art, politics and beer.

Maiden Voyage


Tania Aebi - 1989
    She was going nowhere until her father offered her a challenge. He would offer her either a college education or a twenty-six-foot sloop in which she had to sail around the world alone. She chose the boat and for two years it was her home, as she negotiated weather, illness, fear, and ultimately, a spiritual quest that brought her home to herself....From the Paperback edition.

Diana's Story


Deric Longden - 1989
    In 1982 Diana contracted ME, a condition which meant years of pain and paralysis that ended in death. Throughout her illness Deric cared for her and this book is the story of that time.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace


Le Ly Hayslip - 1989
    When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is the haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down.The youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family, Le Ly Hayslip was twelve years old when U.S. helicopters landed in Ky La, her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops fought in and around Ky La, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those children. Before the age of sixteen, Le Ly had suffered near-starvation, imprisonment, torture, rape, and the deaths of beloved family members—but miraculously held fast to her faith in humanity. And almost twenty years after her escape to America, she was drawn inexorably back to the devastated country and family she left behind. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, offering a poignant picture of Vietnam, then and now, and of a courageous woman who experienced the true horror of the Vietnam War—and survived to tell her unforgettable story.

Vivekananda: A Biography


Nikhilananda - 1989
    Swami Vivekananda, India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, proclaimed the universal message of Vedanta: the non-duality of the Godhead, the divinity of the soul, the oneness of existence, and the harmony of religions. This 256 page book details the life of Swami Vivekananda and contains 28 photographs, as well as, an appendix containing the Swami's most important teachings.

It's Always Something


Gilda Radner - 1989
    I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end."The world fondly remembers the many faces of Gilda Radner: the adamant but misinformed Emily Litella; the hyperkinetic Girl Scout Judy Miller; the irrepressibly nerdy Lisa Loopner; the gross-out queen of local network news, Rosanne Rosannadanna. A supremely funny performer, Gilda lost a long and painful struggle in May 1989 to "the most unfunny thing in the world"--cancer. But the face she showed the world during this dark time was one of great courage and hope. "It's Always Something is the story of her struggle told in Gilda's own remarkable words--a personal chronicle of strength and indomitable spirit and love undiminished by the cruel ravages of disease.This is Gilda, with whom we laughed on Saturday Night Live: warm, big-hearted, outrageous, and real. This is Gilda's last gift to us: the magnificent final performance of an incomparable entertainer whose life, though tragically brief, enriched our own lives beyond measure.

Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander


Edward Porter Alexander - 1989
    Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail - this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides.

Drive: The Story of My Life


Larry Bird - 1989
    To understand basketball, you have to understand Larry Bird. Arguably the greatest all-around player the game has ever known, he led the Boston Celtics from the basement to three world championships, collecting three NBA Most Valuable Player awards along the way. Yet, despite these massive accomplishments, Bird has rarely talked to the press, and much about the man has remained a mystery.Now in Drive, the long-silent superstar sets the record straight, revealed a side of himself-and of basketball-you've never see before. Inside, you'll learn Bird's most private feelings about: The momentous decision to transfer from Bobby Knight's Indiana University to Indiana State. The heartbreak of his father's suicide and his own failed marriage. The single-minded discipline that tumed a small-town hero into a national superstar. The Boston Garden and the legendary Celtic charm. The Isiah Thomas controversy and the fierce Celtic-Laker rivalry. The great players of the NBA: including Magic Johnson, Dominique Wilkins, and Michael Jordan, and much more. here is the book that puts a basketball legend-and his game-on the line. And scores!

Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education


Sybille Bedford - 1989
    It picks up where A Legacy leaves off, leading us from the Kaiser's Germany into the wider Europe of the 1920s and the limbo between world wars. The narrator, Billi, tells the story of her apprenticeship to life, and of her many teachers: her father, a pleasure-loving German baron; her brilliant, beautiful, erratic English mother; and later, on the Mediterranean coast of France, the Huxleys, Aldous and Maria.

Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest, and Poet


Pauli Murray - 1989
    Roy Wilson

Why Me: The Sammy Davis, Jr. Story


Sammy Davis Jr. - 1989
    has done it. In this sprawling, revealing, lively second autobiography (following the bestseller Yes, I Can , also coauthored with the Boyars) stories of money, sex, violence, drugs, booze, fame, luxury and extravagance spill out relentlessly. Superstardom, admits Davis, has always been his be-all and end-all, and the almost obligatory downside--failed marriages, sickness, age, his own personal IRS auditor--are featured heavily here, along with insider show-biz gossip. More up-tone tales involve life-long buddy and supporter Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack, the Kennedys, Richard Nixon. At the core of the book is the extraordinary black experience of the last 50 years. Davis became a star in the '40s at a Vegas hotel where he could headline but not sleep. In the '70s, he slept in Lincoln's bed in the White House, guest of the president. Even Mr. Wonderful (Davis's first Broadway smash hit) couldn't top that.

The Journals Of Louisa May Alcott


Louisa May Alcott - 1989
    Entries which have previously been censored or altered are reinstated and corrected, providing a wealth of new material.

Approaching the Magic Hour: Memories of Walter Anderson


Agnes Grinstead Anderson - 1989
    A widow�s riveting yet poignant memoir of her marriage to a prolific creator, the extremely inspired Gulf Coast artist Walter Anderson, whose splendid art was heightened and enriched by his madness

All my best friends


George Burns - 1989
    The reader gets the inside scoop on those who created and shaped show business--from Al Jolson and Jimmy Durante to Jack Benny and the Marx Brothers, All My Best Firends shows them as they really were: their loves and feuds, their gimmicks and real talents. Photographs.

Chronicles of Wasted Time


Malcolm Muggeridge - 1989
    As a journalist he worked around the world on the Guardian, Calcutta Statesman, the Evening Standard and the Daily Telegraph. In 1953 became editor of Punch, where he remained for four years. In later years he became best known as a broadcaster both on television and radio for the BBC. His other books include Jesus Rediscovered, Christ and the Media, and A Third Testament.

The Road from Coorain


Jill Ker Conway - 1989
    At eight, still too small to mount her horse unaided, she was galloping miles, alone, across Coorain, her parents' thirty thousand windswept, drought-haunted acres in the Australian outback, doing a "man's job" of helping herd the sheep because World War II had taken away the able-bodied men. She loved (and makes us see and feel) the vast unpeopled landscape, beautiful and hostile, whose uncertain weathers tormented the sheep ranchers with conflicting promises of riches and inescapable disaster. She adored (and makes us know) her large-visioned father and her strong, radiant mother, who had gone willingly with him into a pioneering life of loneliness and bone-breaking toil, who seemed miraculously to succeed in creating a warmly sheltering home in the harsh outback, and who, upon her husband's sudden death when Jill was ten, began to slide—bereft of the partnership of work and love that had so utterly fulfilled her—into depression and dependency.We see Jill, staggered by the loss of her father, catapulted to what seemed another planet—the suburban Sydney of the 1950s and its crowded, noisy, cliquish school life. Then the heady excitement of the University, but with it a yet more demanding course of lessons—Jill embracing new ideas, new possibilities, while at the same time trying to be mother to her mother and resenting it, escaping into drink, pulling herself back, striking a balance. We see her slowly gaining strength, coming into her own emotionally and intellectually and beginning the joyous love affair that gave wings to her newfound self.Worlds away from Coorain, in America, Jill Conway became a historian and the first woman president of Smith College. Her story of Coorain and the road from Coorain startles by its passion and evocative power, by its understanding of the ways in which a total, deep-rooted commitment to place—or to a dream—can at once liberate and imprison. It is a story of childhood as both Eden and anguish, and of growing up as a journey toward the difficult life of the free.

My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt's Acclaimed Newspaper Columns 1936-62


Eleanor Roosevelt - 1989
    . . . She's perfect for us as we enter the twenty-first century. Eleanor Roosevelt is a loud and profound voice for people who want to change the world." -- Blanche Wiesen Cook Named "Woman of the Century" in a survey conducted by the National Women's Hall of Fame, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote her hugely popular syndicated column "My Day" for over a quarter of that century, from 1936 to 1962. This collection brings together for the first time in a single volume the most memorable of those columns, written with singular wit, elegance, compassion, and insight -- everything from her personal perspectives on the New Deal and World War II to the painstaking diplomacy required of her as chair of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights after the war to the joys of gardening at her beloved Hyde Park home. To quote Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "What a remarkable woman she was! These sprightly and touching selections from Eleanor Roosevelt's famous column evoke an extraordinary personality." "My Day reminds us how great a woman she was." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Education of a Wandering Man


Louis L'Amour - 1989
    Like classic L'Amour fiction, Education of a Wandering Man mixes authentic frontier drama--such as the author's desperate efforts to survive a sudden two-day trek across the blazing Mojave desert--with true-life characters like Shanghai waterfront toughs, desert prospectors, and cowboys whom Louis L'Amour met while traveling the globe. At last, in his own words, this is a story of a one-of-a-kind life lived to the fullest . . . a life that inspired the books that will forever enable us to relive our glorious frontier heritage.

Child in the Wilderness


Harold Klemp - 1989
    

Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz


Käthe Kollwitz - 1989
    But her diary, kept from 1900 to her death in 1945, and her brief essays and letters express, as well as explain, much of the spirit, wisdom, and internal struggle which was eventually transmuted into her art.

Trammell Crow, Master Builder: The Story of America's Largest Real Estate Empire


Robert Sobel - 1989
    Follows Crow from his origins as a small-time real estate dealer to his transformation into a corporate symbol. Discusses the bold methods that Crow used to build the most influential real estate company in America. Includes an examination of how Crow's risky strategy of making all principals partners in his firm and offering equity interest to deal managers paid off with spectacular profits. A lively account of Crow's mission to break all the rules and become the greatest builder of our age.

Walking Tall: An Autobiography


Simon Weston - 1989
    Simon gives his own account of his war experiences, and his subsequent struggle to rebuild his life despite physical and emotional scars.

Lewis Grizzard's Advice to the Newly Wed; Lewis Grizzard's Advice to the Newly Divorced


Lewis Grizzard - 1989
    In a package almost as clever as the author, this original paperback will appeal to everyone interested in the vagaries of romance.

But I'll Be Back Again


Cynthia Rylant - 1989
    In this straightforward autobiography, Newbery medalist Cynthia Rylant describes some of the most profound influences on her life: her grandmother, a tiny town called Beaver, the Beatles (especially Paul McCartney), and Robert Kennedy.

I Am the Blues: The Willie Dixon Story


Willie Dixon - 1989
    These are just a few of Willie Dixon's contributions to blues, R&B, and rock'n'roll—songs performed by artists as varied as the Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, ZZ Top, the Doors, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Megadeth, Eric Clapton, Let Zepplin, Tesla, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jeff Healey.I Am the Blues captures Willie Dixon's inimitable voice and character as he tells his life story: the segregation of Visksburg Mississippi, where Dixon grew up; the prison farm from which he escaped and then hoboed his way north as a teenager; his equal-rights-based draft refusal in 1942; his work—as songwriter bassist, producer, and arranger—with Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry which shaped the definitive Chicago blues sound of Chess Records; and his legal battles to recapture the rights to his historic catalog of songs.

The Autobiography of St. Anthony Mary Claret


Anthony Mary Claret - 1989
    From age 5 he was haunted by the thought of the souls about to fall into Hell. This insight fueled his powerful drive to save as many souls as he could. 248 pgs; PB

Men from Earth


Buzz Aldrin - 1989
    16 pages of photos.

Straight from the Heart: My Life in Politics and Other Places


Ann Richards - 1989
    Ann Richards--keynote speaker of the 1988 Democratic convention and front-runner in the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race--offers a smart, candid look at her life in politics and the struggles she has won.

This I Cannot Forget: The Memoirs of Nikolai Bukharin's Widow


Anna Larina - 1989
    Larina tells the story not only of her twenty years in the Gulag but of her life as a daughter and a wife among the founding fathers of the Soviet Union.

Neon Angel


Cherie Currie - 1989
    The author recounts her teenaged years as the lead singer of the all-girl rock band, the Runaways, her career as a movie actress, and her battle with drugs and alcohol.

Destination: Moon


James B. Irwin - 1989
    He rejoiced in the Genesis account of origins. He believed that God created the world in six, twenty-four-hour days. That man was Col. James Irwin, the lunar vehicle commander for Apollo 15. Destination: Moon recounts his amazing physical and spiritual journey to the moon. With spectacular photos and “you are there” text, you will experience what it’s like to train for four years as an astronaut. You will feel the emotions of lift-off, see Earth from space, and explore the moon. As amazing as his accomplishment was, Astronaut Irwin viewed it as insignificant compared to the accomplishments of the Creator.Col. Irwin spent the rest of his life sharing this message: "Jesus walking on Earth is more important than man walking on the moon." His legacy of faith and discovery is an inspiration even now, thirty years after he landed on the moon. Visually stunning. By Astronaut James Irwin.

Time And Eternity


Ananda K. Coomaraswamy - 1989
    If one thinks more deeply, it will be seen that time which appears to be measurable is beyond measurement and nothing is everlasting. Save the supreme principle that guides life, there is nothing which is immeasurable and external. Thus time and eternity, being associated with the supreme principle, attracted the attention of great religious thinkers. Here in this book, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy has dealt with these two concepts as discussed by Hindu, Buddhist, Greek, Christian and Islamic Philosophers.

Mountaineer: A Lifetime of Climbing the Great Mountains of the World


Chris Bonington - 1989
    Chris Bonington's photographic autobiography.

Pattern of Circles: An Ambassador's Story (Revised)


John E. Dolibois - 1989
    John E. Dolibois was born December 4, 1918, in Luxembourg. His mother died weeks later, and he was raised by an older sister until she left for Akron, Ohio, with her American husband. In 1931 John came to Akron with his father and thus began a fascinating life journey.He graduated from Miami University in 1942, in time for service as an Armored Force officer and then in Military Intelligence. In this latter station he assisted in the interrogation of the Nazi war criminals prior to the Nuremberg trials. His descriptions of Goering, Doenitz, Ribbentrop, et al. are perceptive, penetrating, and flavored with earthy humor. These chapters are set against the backdrop of war, the Holocaust, and attendant horrors.In 1981, after retirement from Miami University as Vice President for University Relations, Dolibois was called by President Ronald Reagan to become U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. His appointment came fifty years to the day from his arrival in Akron. His four years as ambassador are an appropriate chapter of life given to the service of his adopted country.

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography


Ralph Abernathy - 1989
    Illustrated.

Dance on the Earth: a Memoir


Margaret Laurence - 1989
    She relates her experiences living in different cultures; the issues and causes she so passionately upheld; her personal battle against censorship. She also pays tribute to the three women from whom she drew important spiritual strength. Including a selection of her articles, speeches, and letters – many never before published – and photographs selected by Margaret Laurence from her personal family albums, Dance on the Earth is a book in which Margaret Laurence speaks about her place in the world as a woman, a writer, and a concerned human being.

The Philippine Revolution: The Leader's View


Jose Maria Sison - 1989
    Jose M.Sison, the most prominent leader of the Philippine Left, gives his version of Philippine history and contemporary circumstances: the political, economic, and social crisis of Philippine society and the Philippine revolutionary movement.

The Art of Hanna-Barbera: 2fifty Years of Creativity


Ted Sennett - 1989
    350 full-color photos.

Journal III, 1970-1978


Mircea Eliade - 1989
    The entries—full of marvelous ideas, outlines for works never written, responses to the works of others, and much more—reveal many rarely glimpsed sides of the private, as well as public, man. What did he really think of the students who came to him for instruction in black magic? What were his private reflections on feminism, student drug use, the sexual revolution, the nature of American scholars and scholarship? Who were his best friends, why did he enjoy their company, and why did he shun the company of others?Quite apart from the personal, biographical interest the journal holds, it is a document of cultural and intellectual significance. Eliade remarks on such colleagues and friends as Jung, Dumézil, Ricoeur, Bellow, and Ionesco. Moreover, the period covered encompasses Eliade's most active years as a teacher, and the journal beautifully reflects his developing views on religion, history, and the nature of academic culture. Bits and pieces of Eliade's past life are juxtaposed with thoughts about ongoing projects and work yet to be undertaken as well as with anecdotes of his travels and comments on world events.A genuine treat for Eliade readers and those interested in history of religions, Journal III provides new perspectives on many of Eliade's other works—the History of Religious Ideas, Ordeal by Labyrinth, the Autobiography. At the same time the journal is a mature scholar's record of the aftermath of the 1960s, a turbulent period that profoundly affected American university life. As such, these writings hold valuable insights into not only the life and work of one man but also the cultural history of an entire era.

A Particular Friendship


Dirk Bogarde - 1989
    Intrigued, he wrote back to her and thus began a flood of correspondence that ended with her death in 1972.Selected from Dirk Bogarde's letter, 'A Particular Friendship' reveals the unexpected side of a great actor and film star: a man deeply committed to his home, witty, stringent, observant, some times depressed by the state of Britain or of his work but always razor-sharp with his pen. Sprinkled with reminscences, gossip and cameo portraits of the famous, the letters are a tribute to the relationship between two exceptional people.

Around the World Single-handed: The Cruise of the "Islander"


Harry Pidgeon - 1989
    Between 1921 and 1925 Harry Pidgeon circumnavigated the globe in a sailboat of his own construction, experienced many thrilling adventures in the far corners of the world, and relied mainly on his own strength, skill, and resourcefulness to survive.After building his 34-foot yawl (at a cost of $1,000 for materials and a year and a half of hard work), the author sailed from California west across the Pacific to Hawaii in a test voyage. Then, from Los Angeles he cruised to lush and fabled islands — the Marquesas, Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, New Hebrides, and New Guinea. With grace and economy, Mr. Pidgeon describes memorable encounters with native peoples (including suspected cannibals), tribal rites and rituals, the warm hospitality afforded him at many a remote harbor, good times with new friends and, of course, the delights of sailing. But there was danger and hardship as well, as he navigated his small craft through raging gales and giant seas, and a near-catastrophe when the Islander ran aground off the coast of South Africa.Over 60 photographs enhance the text (Pidgeon was also an expert photographer) depicting the Islander under construction, under sail and at anchor in various locales; native peoples, houses, and ceremonies; penguins and other wildlife; pearl divers, a canoe race at Port Moresby; a tattooed girl of New Guinea; and many other vivid vignettes.Well written, exciting, and true-to-life, Around the World Single-Handed: The Cruise of the "Islander" will delight armchair adventurers, sailing enthusiasts, or anyone who ever dreamed of hoisting sail and setting out for distant ports of call.

Stone Work: Reflections on Serious Play and Other Aspects of Country Life


John Jerome - 1989
    The job begins on a whim-he decides to move one from his woods for the sheer pleasure of seeing it from the house-and as the wall progresses, the physical occupation leads Jerome to philosophical preoccupation. Thus Stone Work, first published in 1989, becomes a discourse on the meaning of craft, the stolidness of work, the gifts of the seasons, and the complexities of being male and fifty-five. Jerome finds something pure in the lugging and the struggling with the stones, a clarity that leads him to insights into family ties, the tenuousness of nature's beauty, and his ongoing quest for fixity in a world of flux. "Maybe gravity is all the alignment one ever gets," he thinks as he pushes a stone into place, "and therefore all I ought to need. What more could one want, anyway, than the sure sense-right there, at any given moment for the noticing-of a straight line pointing toward the center of the earth?" While his wall isn't a masterwork-isn't even finished-his hands-on labor allows Jerome to grasp some elemental truths; with him we come to see the "riches, riches, everywhere, just for the paying of attention."

The Time of My Life: Entertaining the Troops - Her Wartime Journals


Joyce Grenfell - 1989
    First published in 1989, this is a collection of the letters and journals Joyce Grenfell kept on her travels during the Second World War, revealing hilarious as well as fascinating insights and observations to Cairo, Baghdad and India.

Passing Time: Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War


W.D. Ehrhart - 1989
    The author presents his autobiographical memoirs of his experiences in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968, and describes his personal and political awakenings and how he was able to confront his own feelings about the government, the country, and himself.

Down to Earth: Taking the Biscuit


Faith Addis - 1989
    

Confessions of an Original Sinner


John Lukacs - 1989
    The journey takes us from the Hungary of the 1930s and the ravaged Budapest of World War II to Lukacs's discovery of the New World, his forays into the intellectual life of New York City, and finally his settling in Philadelphia.Along the way, Lukacs examines many of the major currents of our period, including fascism, communism, democracy, anti-Semitism, and the Christian realism from which springs the book's title. What emerges is a mind that brings to bear on the conflicts of the twentieth century the erudition of the European heritage and the independence of the American.In prose as elegant as it is supple, Confessions of an Original Sinner is at once the vivid account of one man's voyage and an important contribution to that small library that brings into sharp focus the major intellectual developments of our time.

Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam


Bob Greene - 1989
    From bestselling author and syndicated columnist Bob Greene, a searing look at what really happened to American soldiers when they came home from the country's most controversial war, told by the veterans themselves.