In Carrying the Fire, his account of his voyages into space and the years of training that led up to them, Collins reveals the human tensions, the physical realities, and the personal emotions surrounding the early years of the space race. Collins provides readers with an insider's view of the space program and conveys the excitement and wonder of his journey to the moon. As skilled at writing as he is at piloting a spacecraft, Collins explains the clash of personalities at NASA and technical aspects of flight with clear, engaging prose, withholding nothing in his candid assessments of fellow astronauts Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, and Buzz Aldrin, and officials within NASA. A fascinating memoir of mankind's greatest journey told in familiar, human terms, Carrying the Fire is by turns thrilling, humorous, and thought-provoking, a unique work by a remarkable man.

    Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.

    The author, a political activist, reflects upon the people & incidents that have influenced her life & commitment to global liberation of the oppressed.

    . . . The reader falls totally under his spell."—Associated Press The second volume in the multimillion copy bestselling seriesMillions of readers have delighted in the wonderful storytelling and everyday miracles of James Herriot in the over thirty years since his delightful animal stories were first introduced to the world.Now in a new edition for the first time in a decade, All Things Bright and Beautiful is the beloved sequel to Herriot's first collection, All Creatures Great and Small, and picks up as Herriot, now newly married, journeys among the remote hillside farms and valley towns of the Yorkshire Dales, caring for their inhabitants—both two- and four-legged. Throughout, Herriot's deep compassion, humor, and love of life shine out as we laugh, cry, and delight in his portraits of his many, varied animal patients and their equally varied owners."Humor, realism, sensitivity, earthiness; animals comic and tragic; and people droll, pathetic, courageous, eccentric—all of whom he views with the same gentle compassion and a lively sense of the sad, the ridiculous, and the admirable."—Columbus Dispatch

    Peace Child tells their unforgettable story of living among these headhunters and cannibals.

    Her parents more or less collapsed under the strain, father spending hours in search of non-existent work, or in the dole queue, mother on the verge of a breakdown and striving to find and keep part-time jobs. The running of the household, in slum surroundings and with little food, the care of the younger children, all fell on twelve-year-old Helen. Unable to attend school, Helen's fear that she was to be trapped forever as drudge and housekeeper caused her to despair at times. But she was determined to have a chance and struggled, despite her parents, to gain an education.

    In these memoirs he also recounts his distinguished career as a diplomat & politician, during which he came to know iconic figures including Gandhi, Che Guevara, & Mao Tse Tung.

    Fest tells and interprets the extraordinary story of a man's and a nation's rise from impotence to absolute power, as Germany and Hitler, from shared premises, entered into their covenant. He shows Hitler exploiting the resentments of the shaken, post-World War I social order and seeing through all that was hollow behind the appearance of power, at home and abroad. Fest reveals the singularly penetrating politician, hypnotizing Germans and outsiders alike with the scope of his projects and the theatricality of their presentation. Fest also, perhaps most importantly, brilliantly uncovers the destructive personality who aimed at and achieved devastation on an unprecedented scale. As history and as biography, this is a towering achievement, a compelling story told in a way only a German could tell it, "dispassionately, but from the inside." (Time)

    The nightmare knew no bounds as Carter traded his superstar status for a prison number and the concrete walls of some of America's most horrific institutions. Originally published as an attempt by Carter to set the record straight and force a new trial, "The Sixteenth Round" is timeless. It is an eye-opening portrait of growing up black in America, a scathing indictment of the prison system Carter grew up in and out of, and a mesmerizing re-creation of his furious battles in the ring and in the courtroom set against the backdrop of the turbulent sixties. The liveliness of Carter's street language, its power and ironic humor, makes this an eloquent, soul-stirring account of a remarkable life not soon to be forgotten.

    Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive. For ten excruciating weeks they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable...This is their story—one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.

    Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive. For ten excruciating weeks they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable...This is their story—one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.

    Now in a new trade paperback edition, this masterful work explores the Father of Our Country - sometimes an unpopular hero, a man of great contradictions, but always a towering historical figure, who remains, as Flexner writes in these pages, "a fallible human being made of flesh and blood and spirit - not a statue of marble and wood... a great and good man." The author unflinchingly paints a portrait of Washington: slave owner, brave leader, man of passion, reluctant politician, and fierce general. His complex character and career are neither glorified nor vilified here; rather, Flexner sets up a brilliant counterpoint between Washington's public and private lives and gives us a challenging look at the man who has become as much a national symbol as the American flag.

    This is the true story of Ivan (Vanya) Moiseyev, a soldier in the Soviet Red Army who was ruthlessly persecuted and incarcerated for his faith. Through two years of trial and torture, he never denied his Savior, and he never hesitated to share the gospel with anyone who would listen. You'll be inspired to live for Christ in your own world as never before after you experience the gripping story of a believer named Vanya.

    I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can." -- Babe Ruth Babe Ruth is without a doubt the most famous character ever produced by the sport of baseball. A legendary player, world-famous for his hitting prowess, he transcended the sport to enter the mainstream of American life as an authentic folk hero. In this extraordinary biography, noted sportswriter Robert W. Creamer reveals the complex man behind the sports legend. From Ruth's early days in a Baltimore orphanage, to the glory days with the Yankees, to his later years, Creamer has drawn a classic portrait of an American original.

    Dispensing with the long-established Victorian picture of Shelley as a blandly ethereal character, Holmes projects a startling image of "a darker and more earthly, crueler and more capable figure." Expelled from college, disowned by his aristocratic father, driven from England, Shelley led a life marked from its beginning to its early end by a violent rejection of society; he embraced rebellion and disgrace without thought of the cost to himself or to others. Here we have the real Shelley—radical agitator, atheist, apostle of free love, but above all a brilliant and uncompromising poetic innovator, whose life and work have proved an essential inspiration to poets as varied as W.B. Yeats and Allen Ginsberg.

    Hunted in turn by American troops, the Philippine police, hostile islanders, and successive Japanese search parties, Onoda had skillfully outmaneuvered all his pursuers, convinced that World War II was still being fought and that one day his fellow soldiers would return victorious. This account of those years is an epic tale of the will to survive that offers a rare glimpse of man's invincible spirit, resourcefulness, and ingenuity. A hero to his people, Onoda wrote down his experiences soon after his return to civilization. This book was translated into English the following year and has enjoyed an approving audience ever since.

    It is the inspiring, ultimately triumphant story of her no-holds-barred war against the darkness of their lives, and how she searched for, and found, the individual keys to free them."

    Mr. Truman took the tradition of plain speaking back to Missouri with him."Fortunately for history, Merle Miller followed. In the early 1960s, as preparation for a ill-fated series of television series, Miller talked in complete frankness with the former president for hundreds of hours over several months. He also interviewed many people who had been close to Truman from his childhood in Independence, Missouri through his years in Washington. While the television programs never materialized, the book Miller composed from his unprecedented conversations offers an intimate and riveting portrait of one of America's most remarkable presidents, illuminating Truman's early political career and surprising path to the White House, as well as the critical events and momentous decisions that shaped his years in power. The subject's candid comments on the characters of Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and others add a feisty edge to the reflections and opinions that enliven this rich, revealing book. All in all, this is a rare, human, and often very funny evocation of the life and times of an American president.

         Eric was seventeen when he heard the doctor's verdict about the disease that wanted his life. At first he and his family could not believe it. Eric was the picture of everything a youth should be—a champion athlete, a splendid human being, vibrant with energy and loved by all who knew him.     The doctors could promise little. They would do as much as was medically possible. Eric had to do as much as was humanly possible. But if the odds were not good, they were good enough for Eric. Given the choice between life and death, Eric chose to live.

    Sewall's monumental biography of the great American poet (1830-1886), won the National Book Award when it was originally published in two volumes. Now available in a one-volume edition, it has been called "by far the best and most complete study of the poet's life yet to be written, the result of nearly twenty years of work" (The Atlantic).R.W.B. Lewis has hailed it as "a major event in American letters," adding that "Richard Sewall's biographical vision of Emily Dickinson is as complete as human scholarship, ingenuity, stylistic pungency, and common sense can arrive at."

    The Romantic Egoists draws almost entirely from the scrap books and photograph albums which the Fitzgeralds scrupulously kept as their personal record. That record contains a wealth of material that had never before published.In a unique and permanent way this book gives Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald's own story. The variety is surprising: a dance program of Zelda Sayre's; Scott's thoughts about his early loves in St. Paul, Minn.; a picture of the country club in Montgomery, Alabama, where the first two met; reviews of This Side of Paradise; poems to them from Ring Lardner; snapshots of their trips abroad; Scott's careful accounting of his earnings; a photograph of the house on Long Island where The Great Gatsby was conceived; the postcards drawn by Scott for his daughter. It all combines into a narrative in which the rare pictures and memorabilia are augmented by selections from Scott and Zelda's own writings, setting the spirit of a particular moment in their lives. Scottie Fitzgerald Smith says in her introduction, "We've tried hard to balance the literary with the personal, and the familiar with the more obscure...to make it their book, rather than a book about them."The Romantic Egoists has a special feature - a section of eight pages in color of Zelda Fitzgerald's paintings, most of them now reproduced for the first time.

    Patton (1885-1945) fought in North Africa and Sicily, as commander of the Third Army, spearheaded the Allies' spectacular 1944-1945 sweep through France, Belgium, and Germany. Martin Blumenson is the only historian to enjoy unlimited access to the vast Patton papers.This is the second volume, covering the war years 1940 to 1945, of General George S. Patton’s papers. The material includes private diaries, letters, speeches, reports, and orders. This provides own uncensored view of his remarkable life.

    In this intimate account of a very public life, she tells of her first (non-consensual) sexual experience, her romance with the Yankee Clipper, and her prescient vision of herself as "the kind of girl they found dead in the hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand." The Marilyn in these pages is a revelation: a gifted, intelligent, vulnerable woman who was far more complex than the unwitting sex siren she portrayed on screen. Lavishly illustrated with photos of Marilyn, this special book celebrates the life and career of an American icon—-from the unique perspective of the icon herself.

    "On a cold January morning in 1969, a young white graduate student from Massachusetts, stumbling along the dim trail of a long-defunct radical organization of the 1930s, the Alabama Sharecropper Union, heard that there was a survivor and went looking for him. In a rural settlement 20 miles or so from Tuskegee in east-central Alabama he found him—the man he calls Nate Shaw—a black man, 84 years old, in full possession of every moment of his life and every facet of its meaning. . . . Theodore Rosengarten, the student, had found a black Homer, bursting with his black Odyssey and able to tell it with awesome intellectual power, with passion, with the almost frightening power of memory in a man who could neither read nor write but who sensed that the substance of his own life, and a million other black lives like his, were the very fiber of the nation's history." —H. Jack Geiger, New York Times Book Review

    Raymond A. Spruance. Spruance, victor of the battles of Midway and the Philippine Sea and commander of the Fifth Fleet in the invasions of the Gilberts, the Marshalls, the Marianas, and Okinawa, is one of the towering figures in American naval history. Yet his reserved, cerebral personality did not make good copy for correspondents, and until the publication of The Quiet Warrior he remained an elusive figure. Thomas Buell has succeeded in evoking the nature of the man as well as recording the achievements of the admiral in this brilliant biography, which won the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement the year of its publication.

    Read James Greiner's Wager with the Wind to learn how a hero was born, and also how he made his courageous journey to the unknown skies of dealing with cancer.

    Ian Hunter's revealing tour diary was first published in 1974 to coincide with the band's global success. It gives an insight into life with a rock group on the road.

    Augustine Tolton (1854-1897) was the first black priest in the United States. Born into a black Catholic slave family, Father Tolton conquered almost insurmountable odds to become a Catholic priest, and at his early death at 43, this pioneer black American priest left behind a shining legacy of holy service to God, the Church and his people.With the thorough scholarly research and inspirational writing by Sister Caroline Hemesath, the great legacy of this first black priest, and his courage in the face of incredible prejudice within the Church and society, will be a source of strength and hope for modern Christians who face persecution for their faith, especially black Catholics who still experience similar prejudices. In American history, many black people have achieved, against great odds, success and made distinct contributions to our society and their fellowman. But Father Tolton faced a different source of prejudice—an opposition from within the Church, the one institution he should have been able to rely on for compassion and support.He endured many rebuffs, as a janitor spent long hours in the church chapel in prayer, and attended clandestine classes taught by friendly priests and nuns who saw in his eyes the bright spark of the love of God, devotion to the Church and a determination to serve his people. Denied theological training in America, these friends helped him to receive his priestly education, and ordination, in Rome. He later became the pastor of St. Monica's Church in Chicago and established a center at St. Monica's which was the focal point for the life of black Catholics in Chicago for 30 years.The author interviewed many people who knew Father Tolton personally, including St. Katharine Drexel, and presents a deeply inspiring portrait of a great American Catholic.Within this book are various illustrations and photographs.

    Introduction by the Author; Index; photographs. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

    The author recalls the adventure and danger of his espionage activities during the Second World War as a British agent posing as a Nazi supporter.

    Among his peers from California the self-taught Hawes was second only to Oscar Peterson. At the time of his celebration as New Star of the Year by downbeat magazine (1956), Hawes was already struggling with a heroin addiction that would lead to his arrest and imprisonment, and the interruption of a brilliant career. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy granted Hawes an Executive Pardon. In eloquent and humorous language Hampton Hawes tells of a life of suffering and redemption that reads like an improbable novel. Gary Giddins has called it "a major contribution to the literature of jazz." This book includes a complete discography and eight pages of photographs.

    However, only once in a while does a genius emerge whose work is of such brilliance and magnitude that it surpasses all existing levels. Charles Chaplin was such an artist and his extraordinary career is a stunning testament to both his own genius and to the development of that unique popular art form--the cinema.

    Photographs from personal albums and the Lewis archives. Index.

    Written with the full co-operation of Sondheim himself, it examines each of Sondheim's masterpieces - including West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods - as well as the other Sondheim productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in repertory, as revivals, as opera, on film, and on television. this account is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Sondheim and his associates.

    The New Wine Is Better

    Besides, there are other sources -- articles and news published in those times etc.The form is anecdotal -- that is told in the form of a story.Chandrasekhar Azad was the brightest among luminaries who fought for India’s independence. Born in a small no-name village to poverty-stricken parents, Azad ran away from home when he was very young boy and became a coolie in Mumbai, living on the streets. He then went to Varanasi to learn Sanskrit, participated in the non-cooperation movement and suffered flogging as a punishment. He then became a revolutionary and commanded a revolutionary movement in North India for the next decade. He would become the bosom friend of many families, inspiring thousands more, leading and guiding a band of revolutionaries like a brother. He struck terror in the hearts of his enemies but was a darling of his leaders and elders. A relatively uneducated man, he spread the message of patriotism everywhere he went. One day, he created history when he fought an unprecedented battle that had no parallel, and he left this earth one day in Allahabad’s Alfred Park.Azad was that tall leader who worked from underground to stitch together the remnants of a fractured revolutionary movement that had broken up after Ramprasad Bismil and other notables were imprisoned after the Kakori raid. Bismil was eventually given the death penalty. Azad was chosen to be the commander of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) by his peer revolutionaries. He achieved some amazing feats of valour in the short time he was on this earth. Azad was responsible for the political assassination of Saunders as retribution for killing Lala Lajpat Rai. He was also responsible for orchestrating the bombing in the legislative assembly to protest the introduction of two highly oppressive and unpopular bills designed to increase the dictatorial powers of the British in India. But much more than that, Azad inspired and organized many young people, inducted them into his revolutionary organization, and built a fighting force that stood up to British rule. He shepherded his organization through a period of ideological crisis that threatened to destroy it. Azad valiantly battled to hold it together, sometimes by discipline and at other times by diplomacy and negotiation. Then he fought a thrilling historic gun battle with the British and gave up his life at an incredibly young age of twenty-four.He was not a philosopher, but few understood the philosophic necessity of a revolutionary path in liberating the country better than him.He was not a propagandist. He could not hold a candle to Gandhiji’s magical powers of persuasion. Yet he managed to attract his own sizeable following of bright, idealistic young men.He was perhaps not the greatest organiser, but the way he stitched together an organization and ran it was in no way inferior to the achievement of a Mazzini or a Garibaldi.

    For this edition the author has added a thoughtful yet dramatic account of the working out of Balanchine's legacy, from the making of his controversial will to the present day. The author explores the intriguing legal, financial, and institutional subplots that unfolded after the death of the greatest choreographer of the century, but the central plot of his epilogue is the aesthetic issue: In the absence of their creator, can the ballets retain their wondrous vitality? Taper illuminates the fascinating transmission of Balanchine's masterworks from one generation to another, an unprecented legacy in the history of ballet, that most evanescent of the arts.

    (H.B.) Garlock and some months later his bride, Ruth, traveled to West Africa to bring the gospel to a place known as "the white man's grave."  Before We Kill and Eat You tells the Garlocks' fascinating real-life story of faith and calling in the face of malaria, cannibals and witch doctors.  Readers will be inspired and encouraged by tales, as if taken straight from the book of Acts, of blind men healed and of people raised from the dead.  Though many of their colleagues before them succumbed to death, H.B. and Ruth persevered in the midst of unbelievable hardship to reap an incredible harvest of believers that continues to this day.  RECOVER ONLY

    Against the backdrop of a glittering court, their relationship and personalities unfold toward the violent upheavals of revolution in 1789. This brilliantly researched dual biography celebrates two of history's least known and most consistently misrepresented royal figures.

    Journey with Ernest and Elisabeth from the horror of the Holocaust to salvation in Jesus the Messiah. Not only is this a powerful testimony of how God sustained several Jewish families during the worst nightmare of our time, it is also a tender love story. You won't be able to put it down!

    

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    She told him about their fight for freedom and justice.Langston loved his grandmother's stories. To learn more stories and bear more beautiful language, he began to read books. He fell in love with books and decided that one day he would write stories too, true stories about Black people.When he was only fourteen, Langston wrote his first poem, and for the rest of his life he was always writing -- stories and essays and, most of all, poems. He wrote about Black people as he saw them: happy, sad, mad, and beautiful. Through his writing he fought for freedom from inequality and injustice; and his gift of words inspired and influenced many other writers.Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker was one writer Langston influenced. In this moving and richly detailed portrait she celebrates the life of an extraordinary man. Accompanied by stunning paintings by artist Catherine Deeter, Langston Hughes: American Poet will introduce a whole new generation to the life and works of a great African American Poet of the twentieth century, and one of the most important poets of all time.

    Creatively obsessed with problems of race, identity, power, politics, and family dynamics, he wrote novels, stories, and lectures that continue to shape our understanding of the region's promises and problems. His experiments and inventions in form and style have influenced generations of writers.Originally published in 1974 as a two-volume edition and extensively updated and condensed in a 1991 reissue, Joseph Blotner's Faulkner: A Biography remains the quintessential resource on the Nobel laureate's life and work. The Chicago Tribune said, "This is an overwhelming book, indispensable for anyone interested in the life and works of our greatest contemporary novelist." That invaluable 1991 edition is now back in print.Blotner, a friend and one-time colleague of Faulkner's, brings a vivid, personalized tone to the biography, as well as a sense of masterful, comprehensive scholarship. Using letters, inter-views, reminiscences, critical work, and other primary sources, Blotner creates a detailed and nuanced portrait of Faulkner from his birth to his death. The revision of the original 1974 biography incorporates commentary on the plethora of Faulkner criticism, family memoirs, and posthumously published works that appeared in the wake of the first version. It also examines collections of letters and other materials that only came to light after the original publication.Featuring a detailed chronology of Faulkner's life and a genealogical chart of his family, Faulkner is authoritative and essential both for literary scholars and for anyone wanting to know about the life of one of the nation's foremost authors. Blotner's masterpiece is the template for all biographical work on the acclaimed writer.Joseph Blotner, Charlottesville, Virginia, is professor emeritus of English at University of Michigan and the author of several books, including Robert Penn Warren: A Biography, The Modern American Political Novel, and The Fiction of J. D. Salinger. His work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Yale Review, American Literature, and else-where.

    Dodie Smith is best known as the author of "I Capture the Castle" and The Hundred and One Dalmatians", but in her childhood memoir "Look Back with Love", she created another magical book which is just as enchanting and full of humour.

    Carole Lombard’s mother didn’t want to get on the plane. The stars were all wrong, she said, and her astrologer had warned her not to fly. But Carole Lombard was in a hurry. She’d spent the week on a whirlwind tour of the country, selling war bonds for the United States government, and she couldn’t bear another moment away from her husband, Clark Gable, Hollywood’s most dashing leading man. She flipped a coin—heads for the train, tails for the plane. Carole won. They flew. Her plane crashed into a mountainside shortly after it left Las Vegas, killing all aboard. This intimate biography by Warren G. Harris tells the story of Gable and Lombard, whose romance shocked the movie industry, and whose tragedy would change Hollywood forever.

    Professor J.C. Beaglehole, the leading authority on Pacific exploration, devoted himself for many years to the editing of Cook's copious Journals, a monument of scholarship in four massive volumes, and the Journal of Josepph Banks who accompanied Cook in the Endeavor. The Journals completed, Beaglehole turn to writing as the crown of his life's work this biography of Cook, which was completed but for a final checking when he died.This is not merely a chronological account of events in Cook's life but a deeply revealing study of the growth of a complex character, stubborn and passionate yet patient and judicious, seen in his actions as an unrivalled navigator and explorer and as a commander of men. Those who influenced Cook from childhood up, and those who sailed with him on his voyages, are as clearly and surely drawn as the man himself. The author's first-hand knowledge of the Pacific Islands and the coasts of New Zealand and Australia give a warmth and actuality to the narrative, while his impeccable scholarship and skill in handling the mass of documentary material, his wit, and his elegant literary style, confirm the expectration that this is one of the great historical biographies.

    Here is an inspiring account of how faith, determination, courage, and considerable ingenuity carry a family of missionaries through six years in a Himalayan jungle valley...

    While the role may have given him eternal life on the silver screen, it doomed him to a career plagued by typecasting. After a decade of trying vainly to broaden his range and secure parts to challenge his acting abilities, Lugosi finally resigned himself to a career as the world's most recognizable vampire. His last years were spent as a forgotten and rather tragic figure.

    Breckinridge was the vice president of the United States. Later he came closest to defeating Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. In a short time he became secretary of war in the Confederate cabinet. This -- the first -- comprehensive biography of this remarkable man and his generation covers one of the turbulent eras of the American past. Breckinridge was a Kentucky lawyer and veteran of the Mexican War when he was elected to the state legislature in 1849. Soon thereafter he was elected to Congress and in 1856 became James Buchanan's running mate. After his defeat by Lincoln in the 1860 election, he took his seat in the Senate and supported the Union on the question of succession. Because he opposed most of Lincoln's other policies, he was considered dangerous. When Lincoln ordered him arrested, even though no charges had been filed against him, Breckinridge escaped to the South and joined the Confederate army as a brigadier general. Later he was appointed secretary of war by Jefferson Davis. Prominent in every field he entered, Breckinridge was a leading statesman and soldier. As a moderate and earnest supporter of compromise, he became the symbol of peaceful reconciliation between the states after the Civil War.

    "He was precocious, alert, intelligent, brash, challenging, irreverent, literary, self-conscious, insecure, often ostentatiously crude, sometimes insufferable," Wallace Stegner says of Bernard DeVoto, who, in the words of a childhood acquaintance, was also "the ugliest, most disagreeable boy you ever saw." Between the disagreeable boy and the literary lion, a life unfolds, full of comedy and drama, as told in this definitive biography, which brings together two exemplary American men of letters. Born within a dozen years of one another in small towns in Utah, both men were, as Stegner writes, "novelists by intention, teachers by necessity, and historians by the sheer compulsion of the region that shaped us." From this unique vantage point, Stegner follows DeVoto's path from his beloved but not particularly congenial Utah to the even less congenial Harvard where, galvanized by the disregard of the aesthetes around him, he commenced a career that, over three and a half decades, would embrace nearly every sort of literary enterprise: from modestly successful novels to prize-winning Western histories, from the editorship of the Saturday Review to a famously combative, long-running monthly column in Harper's, "The Easy Chair." A nuanced portrait of a stormy literary life, Stegner's biography of DeVoto is also a window on the tumultuous world of American letters in the twentieth century.

    A monumental book that cuts through the headlines and dry reportage to create an intimate portrait of a great leader...Here is the President eager to see the fulfillment of his dreams for a troubled world...a man often sunk in apathy, weariness, and pain, yet able to resume his characteristic sprightliness in public and with cherished friends...a man sometimes vacillating in his decisions but driving himself to the end, until at last this exhausted giant was laid to rest in his beloved rose garden.

    In time, he married a Blackfoot woman, formed close friendships with many in the tribe, and lived with them off and on for the next seventy years until his death. Why Gone Those Times? is based on his experiences among the Blackfeet, who gave him the name Apikuni. Apikuni’s adventures include taming a wolf, raiding in Old Mexico, and stalking a black buffalo. Although Schultz was neither historian nor ethnologist, he filled his stories with Indian history and detailed descriptions of Blackfeet daily life and culture.

    

    Ms. Skinner's book captures her subject's zest for life, his phenomenal energy, and also his faults.--Family Life

    Drawing on masses of new and rediscovered material, the authors describe Gibran's boyhood in Lebanon, his family's impoverished years in turn-of-the century Boston, and his eventual friendship with that city's intellectual and artistic elite.

    Along with Louis Armstrong, he towered over jazz in the Twenties. And, together with Louis, he brought jazz to maturity

    

    Mosley, an accomplished journalist & biographer with a long list of books to his credit, offers a readable & entertaining biography of Hitler's onetime deputy. This isn't a scholarly work along the lines of the biographies of other Nazi personalities such as Ian Kershaw has done for Hitler, Peter Padfield for Himmler or Ralf Reuth for Goebbels. Don't look for meticulous endnotes or deep analysis. That isn't because Mosely didn't use sources. He did & lists them at the end. He gives a full-length portrait of Goering the man as he was in real life--bigger than life, that was Goering--& while Mosely is sometimes sympathetic, sometimes judgmental, he's honest & in the end he succeeded in capturing the essence of this intriguing & tragic figure. Mosely has one great advantage over other biographers, however: He actually met Goering before the war, was a guest at his estate in E. Prussia & after the war conducted extensive interviews with people who knew the Reichsmarshal intimately his whole life. That sets him apart from other biographers. While I disagree with Mosely's conclusion that his greatest fault was his lack of moral courage to stand up to Hitler, that certainly was a defect in his makeup. But this book proves that Goering had no control over his relationship with Hitler. He, like many others, couldn't stand up to Hitler because he worshipped him. In Goering's particular case, he was totally under the influence of the Fuhrer's charisma & so dependent upon him for so long that in the end it was impossible for him to contradict the dictator. When his god rejected him & then failed him, & Goering knew in the end that Hitler had failed him, there was nothing he could do but accept his fate. Those who condemn Goering because he didn't have the courage to defy his idol haven't been put to that test themselves. For serious students of the history of the 3rd Reich, this book is valuable.--Daniel J. Cragg (edited)

    WW2 Polish escape 1st edition 1st printing paperback vg+ condition In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

    What emerges is both a perspective appraisal of his work and a revealing life history of the man who was arguably the greatest artist of all time.

    Childhood in the cathedral city of Wells, summer holidays in Guernsey, and reminiscences of Edwardian clothes, nannies and aunts mark this autobiography by the popular novelist and writer of children's book and short stories.

     New York Times–bestselling author Phil Pepe takes readers along on Yogi Berra’s journey from St. Louis to New York’s Yankee Stadium, including all the stops along the way—from his days as a tack-puller in a women’s shoe factory, to a pre-game tribute in St. Louis, when he coined the phrase, “I want to thank all those that made this night necessary,” to his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pepe explores Yogi Berra as a boy, player, hero, coach, manager, husband, father, and jokester, including all of the “Yogi-isms,” in an absorbing treatment that is simultaneously comical, thoughtful, and biographical.   Famous Yogi-isms:   - About a popular restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” - On Little League Baseball: “I think it’s wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.” - On why the Yankees lost the 1960 World Series: “We made too many wrong mistakes.”

    Charles Ives (1874-1954) was publicly an insurance executive but privately a composer whose eccentric works and paradoxical life would intrigue, perplex, and inspire generations to come after him. Moving from Ives's childhood and years at Yale to his business and musical careers, the memories and reflections assembled in this Kinkeldey Award-winning volume provide a multifaceted and humanizing view of an American musical icon.

    Margaret Smith's classic work, Rabi'a the Mystic, describes the teaching, life and times of one of the great women of the Islamic tradition, Rabi'a of Basra. This study has never been bettered. It is now reissued unchanged, but with a new introduction by Professor Annemarie Schimmel. This emphasises the importance of the book - and of Rabi'a herself - and questions of major importance today: the nature of mystical belief and experience, the Sufi tradition, and the role of women in the Islamic world.

    O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes.Big Bend is the story of the Langfords' life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own. Langford's account is told with the help of Fred Gipson, author of Old Yeller and Hound Dog Man.

    The talent, charm and intelligence that have won her international acclaim shine through. But most of all, she displays that rare ability - to look at herself objectively. And it makes us love her all the more." -- Joan Crawford. 42 black and white photographs.

    As recounted in Joey's patented matter-of-fact, regular-guy tone, the target, a low-level numbers "controller," turns out to be an old acquaintance from the neighborhood, the client is a man who once tried to have Joey hit, and there are enough twists and double-backs—not to mention fascinatingly credible mob details and color—to keep Soprano fans up all night. This New York Times best-seller, soon to be a major motion picture from Paramount, is a true-crime classic.

    John McCabe follows Stan Laurel's career from his early days in British variety, his arrival in the United States, the first films, to his teaming up with Oliver Hardy in 1926 and their meteoric rise to fame.

    She grew up in a church as licentious as the world in which it was established: spiritually despondent and plagued by ignorance. Regardless of these tormenting conditions, she rose to the inimitability of Christian veneration. She had an unsteady and disorganized childhood, was tormented by sickness and abuse, and was imprisoned for years by the highest church authorities. She gave up her worldly goods at the demands of this church which led to her impoverishment. She survived her psychological and physical ruination by conquering pretentious royal conspiracies and reviling the malignancy of the papal inquisition. She committed her life to writing meditative books that illustrated profound truths lost to religious monarchs in a maze of their own confusion. She was finally condemned as a heretic, but her writings were so dynamic they shocked the whole country and even reached the indecorous palace of King Louis XIV. This is the story of a solitary woman whose pious diligence and dedication laid the bedrock of virtous obedience to the deeds of contemporaneous ministry.

    

    He discovered the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and Kiet Siel and the Basket Maker sites at Grand Gulch, Utah, and at Chaco Canyon he initiated the excavation of Pueblo Bonito, the largest prehistoric ruin in the United States. His discoveries are among the most important ever made by an American archaeologist.

    

    Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was born in Caerleon-on-Usk in South Wales, and looked back on his youth as an inspiration for much of his writing. He moved to London as a young man and lived the greater part of his adult life in the city, first as a book cataloguer, translator, journalist, and, for some years, as a touring actor. He achieved his first success, and notoriety, with The Great God Pan (1894). In this decade he wrote arguably his most important work, including the novel The Hill of Dreams (not published until 1907) and the prose poems, Orna¬ments in Jade (not published until 1924). In 1915 Machen was working for the London Evening News when the paper’s acting editor, Alfred Turner, commissioned thirty-five instal¬ments of the ‘Confessions of a Literary Man’. These were collected as Far Off Things by the publisher Martin Secker in 1922, and were enough of a success to cause Secker to commission a second memoir from Machen, Things Near and Far. These two wonderful books of reminiscence were first collected as The Autobiography of Arthur Machen by the Richards Press in 1951. This Tartarus Press edition includes a new, insightful Introduction by Stewart Lee.

    Wolfgang J. Mommsen shows the important links between these seemingly conflicting positions and provides a critique of Weber's sociology of power and his concept of democratic rule. First published in German in 1959, Max Weber and German Politics appeared in a revised edition in 1974 and became available in an English translation only in 1984. In writing this work, Mommsen drew extensively on Weber's published and unpublished essays, newspaper articles, memoranda, and correspondence.

    

    EARLY LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN covers extensively Lincoln's life from before he was even born, with the origins of the Lincoln family back to the early 17th century, through his education, his service in the Black Hawk War, his early dabblings in politics, his experiences and attitudes as a lawyer.

    

    

    

    Along the way, he did ink-on-white-paper sketches of passing scenes and landscapes. Many of them appear in this delightful collection of drawings, along with the artist's nostalgic, autobiographical commentary on the roads traveled and the sights seen.Here are delightful impressions of streams winding through snow-covered landscapes; old stone barns and farmhouses, covered bridges, farming tools and implements, spring houses, and trees—from sturdy sycamores to graceful aspens."The next thing to living one's life over is to make durable recollections of it," Sloane once remarked. Today, the pastoral landscapes, rustic homes, and traditional arts he encountered in his travels live on in these bittersweet glimpses of American life from a bygone era.

    

    

    He was the rebel leader Sam Adams, a plainspoken gent who scorned ruffles, refused to ride a horse, and had little regard for the King. This lively biography is a nice, personal look at a leader and his times.

    The author reports on the women's tour during the 1973 season, with a focus on Billie Jean King.

    Because of his holy life, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Although Padre Pio's earthly life has ended, devout admirers from the world over continue to stream into the town which has become synonymous with his name. They come seeking blessings, favors, and even miracles, as did countless believers before, while this inspiring stigmatist lived. Pio's life has been surrounded with accounts of unusual spiritual phenomena and astonishing gifts of knowledge above the natural order, and yet, with peculiar suffering as well. He had throngs of followers and devotees but was not spared the humiliation of detractors and the derision of harsh critics. Miss Gaudiose, drawing from years of on-the-scene observation, offers a devout though detached presentation of the life of this amazing mystic and of the loving power of the Savior beyond the pain.

    It illuminates her power and offers insights into the phenomenon of her art.

    

    

    

    

    It shows the statesman side, the soldier side and more of this first president.

    

    

    

    2, by Muggeridge, Malcolm

    These and other memorable tunes endeared Glenn Miller to millions in the Swing Era and all who recall those times. After playing trombone and arranging for leading orchestras of the Dorsey brothers, Ray Noble, Ben Pollack, and Red Nichols, Glenn Miller formed his own "sweet" band, which from 1938 to 1942 achieved widespread popularity second only to Benny Goodman's. Miller learned all he could from these and other bands like Jimmie Lunceford's and Artie Shaw's, going on to create a uniquely rich sound with clarinet over four saxes and four trombones ("three-part harmony sounds too thin," he once exclaimed). Simon tells of both the successes and hard times of Miller's illustrious career, up to his celebrated Army Air Force band and his untimely death.

    A contented, uneventful life is no life at all as far as I'm concerned. I said I thought life was a sick joke. That doesn't mean I'm a pessimist. It may be sick, but it's still a joke; it's still funny. I've no illusions about the absurdity of life, but I'm still cheerful about it. Twenty-six years ago, a short novel called Bonjour Tristesse, written by an unknown eighteen-year-old, was published in France. Called by one reviewer a beautifully written malicious little tale, the story about a young girl who drives her potential stepmother to suicide sold over one million copies, was translated into twelve languages and became a modern classic. Francoise Sagan, its young author, became a legend and her fast life-style a symbol of postwar cynicism. As celebrity-seeking journalists moved in and kept the public informed (and misinformed) about her expensive tastes, changing lovers, passion for drink, gambling and sports cars, Sagan continued to write novels, plays and film scripts, avoiding the public eye as much as possible. Now, in this extended interview prepared by her French publisher, we have the opportunity to meet the real woman behind the myth. At forty-five we find her witty, simple and dazzlingly profound as she talks about her childhood, love, loneliness, money, fame, politics, drinking, predilections, writing, the theatre and films, friendship, religion, happiness, death, marriage. In these conversations it is clear that Sagan speaks as she writes, and she writes superbly. To read Nightbird is to be in the company of a fascinating woman.

    Jungle Aviation and Radio Service taking Wycliffe Bible translators to the Earth's remotest regions

    At 26, she was establishing the methods of modern dance; at 32, he was the father of eight illegitimate children, the result of three past affairs. The biography chronicles their tempestuous romance through never-before published diaries and letters.