Best of
Biography

1978

Joseph Smith the Prophet


Truman G. Madsen - 1978
    This one the product of Truman Madsen's deep love for the subject and years of research illuminates specific facets of Joseph Smith s greatness. The topics discussed include Joseph Smith's First Vision; his personality and character (including perspectives on his family life); his spiritual gifts and attributes; his varied trials; his Kirtland Temple experience; doctrinal developments in the Nauvoo era; and the last months and martyrdom. The book is filled with fascinating detail about key events in the Prophet's life and his impact on people. The result is a vivid, riveting portrayal of this remarkable prophet. Those who knew Joseph Smith best testified that he lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people. This wonderful book by a beloved scholar will serve to confirm and strengthen that conviction for Latter-day Saints today.

A Childhood: The Biography of a Place


Harry Crews - 1978
    Crews was born in the middle of the Great Depression, in a one-room sharecropper's cabin at the end of a dirt road in rural South Georgia. If Bacon County was a place of grinding poverty, poor soil, and blood feuds, it was also a deeply mystical place, where snakes talked, birds could possess a small boy by spitting in his mouth, and faith healers and conjure women kept ghosts and devils at bay.At once shocking and elegiac, heartrending and comical, A Childhood not only recalls the transforming events of Crews's youth but conveys his growing sense of self in a world "in which survival depended on raw courage, a courage born out of desperation and sustained by a lack of alternatives."Amid portraits of relatives and neighbors, Bacon County lore, and details of farm life, Crews tells of his father's death; his friendship with Willalee Bookatee, the son of a black hired hand; his bout with polio; his mother and stepfather's failing marriage; his near-fatal scalding at a hog-killing; and a five-month sojourn in Jacksonville, Florida. These and other memories define, with reverence and affection, Harry Crews's childhood world: "its people and its customs and all its loveliness and all its ugliness." Imaginative and gripping, A Childhood re-creates in detail one writer's search for past and self, a search for a time and place lost forever except in memory.

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius


A. Scott Berg - 1978
     MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg took the literary world by storm upon its publication in 1978, garnering rave reviews and winning the National Book Award. A meticulously-researched and engaging portrait of the man who introduced the public to the greatest writers of this century, Berg's biography stands as one of the finest books on the publishing industry ever written. Unavailable for the last few years, MAX PERKINS is now being re-released (on the fiftieth anniversary of the great editor's death. The driving force behind such literary superstars as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, Max Evarts Perkins was the most admired book editor in the world. From the first major novel he edited (Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise) to the last (James Jones's bestselling From Here to Eternity), Perkins revolutionized American literature. Perkins was tirelessly committed to nurturing talent no matter how young or unproven the writer. Filled with colorful anecdotes about everything from Perkins's struggles to convince the old guard at Scribners to publish his visionary (and often controversial) authors to his falling out with one of his most brilliant discoveries, Thomas Wolfe, MAX PERKINS reveals with insight and humor the professional and personal life of one of the most legendary figures in the history of American publishing. Given unprecedented access to the correspondence between Perkins and his writers, Berg has fashioned a compellingly thorough biography that is as entertaining as it is informative. A vivid portrait of one man's life and a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the creation of literature, A. Scott Berg's MAX PERKINS: Editor of Genius is a masterful achievement in scholarship and writing.

The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal


Mikhail Tal - 1978
    Mikhail Tal, the 'magician from Riga' was the greatest attacking World Champion of them all, and this enchanting autobiography chronicles his extraordinary career with charm and humor.

Robert Kennedy and His Times


Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. - 1978
    Schlesinger, Jr., chronicles the short life of the Kennedy family's second presidential hopeful in "a story that leaves the reader aching for what cannot be recaptured" (Miami Herald). Schlesinger's account vividly recalls the forces that shaped Robert Kennedy, from his position as the third son of a powerful Irish Catholic political clan to his concern for issues of social justice in the turbulent 1960s. ROBERT KENNEDY AND HIS TIMES is "a picture of a deeply compassionate man hiding his vulnerability, drawn to the underdogs and the unfortunates in society by his life experiences and sufferings" (Los Angeles Times).

Legionnaire: Five Years in the French Foreign Legion


Simon Murray - 1978
    Yet in 1960, Simon Murray traveled alone to Paris, Marseilles, and ultimately Algeria to fulfill the toughest contract of his life: a five-year stint in the Legion. Along the way, he kept a diary.Legionnaire is a compelling, firsthand account of Murray’s experience with this legendary band of soldiers. This gripping journal offers stark evidence that the Legion’s reputation for pushing men to their breaking points and beyond is well deserved. In the fierce, sun-baked North African desert, strong men cracked under brutal officers, merciless training methods, and barbarous punishments. Yet Murray survived, even thrived. For he shared one trait with these hard men from all nations and backgrounds: a determination never to surrender.

The Meaning of Hitler


Sebastian Haffner - 1978
    In examining the inhumanity of a man for whom politics became a substitute for life, he discusses Hitler's bizarre relationships with women, his arrested psychological development, his ideological misconceptions, his growing obsession with racial extermination, and the murderous rages of his distorted mind. Finally, Haffner confronts the most disturbing question of all: Could another Hitler rise to power in modern Germany?

Raquela


Ruth Gruber - 1978
    A ninth-generation Jerusalemite, she found her true calling as a hospital and battlefield nurse, delivering babies in the infamous Athlit detention camp, where Holocaust survivors were interned by the British, and literally walking across minefields to tend to the wounded during the 1948 War of Independence.Surrounded by men of uncommon bravery, Raquela fell passionately in love with the handsome young captain of one of the refugee ships and had to choose between him and the brilliant and distinguished doctor who waited for her back in Jerusalem. Upon her return to Israel, she helped to found the first hospital in the desert frontier of Beersheba, where she delivered the babies of Bedouin women and Jewish immigrants, eventually organizing the hospitals credited with saving Israeli soldiers during the Six-Day War.  Alive with the courage of a rare woman and a rugged nation, Raquela tells the powerful and deeply moving story of an Israeli woman who knew passionate love, great danger, and shattering loss and who witnessed the darkest -- and most triumphant -- moments in the history of the Jewish people. This edition of Raquela, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1978, includes an introduction by best-selling novelist Faye Kellerman.

Biko


Donald Woods - 1978
    Donald Woods, Biko's close friend and a leading white South African newspaper editor, exposed the murder helping to ignite the black revolution.

The Tracker


Tom Brown Jr. - 1978
    The first track is the end of a string. At the far end, a being is moving; a mystery, dropping a hint about itself every so many feet, telling you more about itself until you can almost see it, even before you come to it. The mystery reveals itself slowly, track by track, giving its genealogy early to coax you in. Further on, it will tell you the intimate details of its life and work, until you know the maker of the track like a lifelong friend.In this powerful memoir, famous Pine Barrens tracker Tom Brown Jr. reveals how he acquired the skill that has saved dozens of lives--including his own. His story begins with the chance meeting between an ancient Apache and a New Jersey boy. It tells of an incredible apprenticeship in the Wild, learning all that is hidden from modern man. And it ends with a harrowing search in which far more than survival is at stake.

A Step Further: growing closer to God through hurt and hardship


Joni Eareckson Tada - 1978
    New 16-page photo section and illustrations by Joni.Originally published in 1978, A Step Further is Joni Eareckson Tada's response to thousands of letters she received from people puzzled about the "whys" of suffering. Joni answers these questions by taking a personal look at how God has used circumstances, people, and events in her own life and the lives of others.A Step Further has been used by individuals, in hospitals and rehab centers, and in scores of countries overseas to bring comfort and peace to those who are suffering. It is available in over 30 different languages.

Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton


John Lahr - 1978
    Less than one month later, Britain's most promising comic playwright was murdered by his lover in the London flat they had shared for fifteen years. Lahr chronicles Orton's working-class childhood and stagestruck adolescence, the scandals and disasters of his early professional years, and the brief, glittering success of his blistering comedies, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Loot, and What the Butler Saw.Prick Up Your Ears is a watershed biography; it paved the way for Orton's revival and ensured his rightful place in the English repertoire.

Zvi: The Miraculous Story of Triumph Over the Holocaust


Elwood McQuaid - 1978
    Millions of people have been touched, inspired, and encouraged by this story of a World War II waif in Warsaw, Poland. As a 10-year-old Jewish boy, Zvi was separated from his parents and forced to face the trials of survival in Adolph Hitler's crazed world. How he triumphed against all odds and found his way to Israel and faith in the Messiah is one of the greatest stories of our time. Now ZVI and the sequel, ZVI and the Next Generation, are combined in a new book, ZVI: The Miraculous Story of Triumph Over the Holocaust. The whole story -- together at last and updated with new information that will thrill your heart. This is a book you will find difficult to lay down.

Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist


Harry Haywood - 1978
    Black Bolshevik is the autobiography of Harry Haywood, the son of former slaves who became a leading member of the Communist Part USA and a pioneering theoretician on the Afro-American struggle.The author’s first-hand accounts of the Chicago race riot of 1919, the Scottsboro Boys’ defense, communist work in the South, the Spanish Civil War, the battle against the revisionist betrayal of the Party, and other history-shaping events are must reading for all who are interested in Black history and the working class struggle.

Cochrane: Britannia's Sea Wolf


Donald Serrell Thomas - 1978
    S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey are pale imitations of the deeds of Admiral Lord Thomas Cochrane, one of the most daring and successful real-life heroes the naval world has ever seen. In this fascinating account of his life, Donald Thomas fills in the details of Cochrane's winning exploits against the French navy, actions that earned him the title of "Sea Wolf" from Napoleon. Thomas's meticulous scholarship makes this biography a useful reference, and his vivid narrative, particularly the description of the battle of the Basque Roads in 1809 when Cochrane nearly achieved a victory like Napoleon's at the Nile, gives readers a memorable picture of the valiant sea warrior. The author describes with equal attention to detail Cochrane's political battles, including his vigorous campaign against corruption in the Admiralty and the sensational stock exchange fraud case mounted by his enemies that landed him in prison. But Cochrane fought back with his usual intensity, restoring his reputation and returning to sea in 1818 as a mercenary bound for South America. Once again, with nearly total disregard of danger, the admiral helped liberate Brazil and Chile from colonial rule. He died in 1860, just weeks before his eighty-fifth birthday. Thomas, a prizewinning poet and novelist as well as a noted biographer and University of Wales professor, eloquently demonstrates the rationale of Cochrane's burial as a hero in Westminster Abbey.

Brother Ray: Ray Charles' Own Story


Ray Charles - 1978
    In Brother Ray, he tells his story in an inimitable and unsparing voice, from the chronicle of his musical development to his heroin addiction to his tangled romantic life. Overcoming poverty, blindness, the loss of his parents, and the pervasive racism of the era, Ray Charles was acclaimed worldwide as a genius by the age of thirty-two. By combining the influences of gospel, jazz, blues, and country music, he invented, almost single-handedly, what became known as soul. And throughout a career spanning more than a half century, Ray Charles remained in complete control of his life and his music, allowing nobody to tell him what he could and couldn't do.As the Chicago Sun-Times put it, Brother Ray is "candid, explicit, sometimes embarrassing, often hilarious, always warm, touching and deeply human-just like his music."

The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1914-1920


Anaïs Nin - 1978
    "An enchanting portrait of a girl's constant search for herself" (Library Journal). Preface by Joaquin Nin-Culmell; Index; photographs and drawings. Translated by Jean L. Sherman.

American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964


William Manchester - 1978
    MacArthur, the public figure, the private man, the soldier-hero whose mystery and appeal created a uniquely American legend, portrayed in a biography that will challenge the cherished myths of admirers and critics alike.IllustrationsPreamble: ReveilleFirst Call Ruffles & Flourishes (1880-1917)Charge (1917-1918) Call to Quarters (1919-1935)To the Colors (1935-1941)Retreat (1941-1942) The Green War (1942-1944)At High Port (1944-1945)Last Post (1945-1950) Sunset Gun (1950-1951) Recall (1951) Taps (1951-1964)AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyCopyright AcknowledgmentsIndex

Starship & the Canoe


Kenneth Brower - 1978
    "In the tradition of Carl Sagan and John McPhee, a bracing cerebral voyage past intergalactic hoopla and backwoods retreats." "--Kirkus Reviews" "An unusual and often moving double biography...In their individual ways, the Dysons embody the extremes of twentieth century life--science and technology and the revolt against them." "--The New Yorker""A compelling and evocative biography of father and son...a highly moving allegory on the compelling ideologies of our times...Aside from any deeper meanings one could extract from this book, it is a lot of fun." "--San Francisco Chronicle"

Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy


Marie Chapian - 1978
    He is a God of love!" So shouted Jakob, the evangelist, as the German tanks roared across Yugoslavian soil, and machine guns, motorcycles and Messerschmitts screamed in the hills.Out of the sky came the Stukas. They nosed over, dropped their bombs and veered off into the cold blue. The wagon in front of them was hit. The donkey was dead, and the driver lay mutilated in the brush at the side of the road."This is war," said the gray-clad officer. "The only place you will be safe is in the grave."Weak and divided, the Yugoslavians fought back. Their ill-equipped guerrillas chewed on the German army like vermin on the flanks of a stallion. They cut phone lines, laid mines, dynamited bridges and blew up armored cars. Their stubborn war cry was, "Better grave than slave!" But, for every German they killed a hundred Yugoslavs were shot in retaliation.In the midst of this living hell, Jakob, Jozeca and other believers clung to God and prayed for both friend and foe. The enemies of their beloved homeland could burn their cities and towns, but they could not destroy their souls or quench their indomitable spirits.Marie Chapian went to Yugoslavia and interviewed peasants, gypsies, factory workers, doctors, laborers, and officials of the Communist party. She wanted to know how the Christians' faith was sustained through those terrible years of war, famine and cold. She learned that they had simply clung to God with an almost incredible fait

Forty Years of Murder


Keith Simpson - 1978
    The police found the whip in an attache case left in a railway cloakroom by Neville George Cleverly Heath.Another notorious killer, John George Haigh, boasted that the murder of Mrs Durand-Deacon could not be proved without the body, which he though he had totally destroyed in a bath of sulphuric acid. Keith Simpson probed in the gravel where the sludge had been tipped and picked out a stone with polished facets. 'A lucky find,' commented a police officer when laboratory tests confirmed it was a human gallstone. 'I was looking for it,' answered the pathologist. Haigh's victim had suffered from gallstones, which are covered with acid-resistant fat.Keith Simpson's life as Home Office Pathologist is the inside story of forty years of sensational murders, including the cases of the Luton sack murder, the Chalkpit murder, both Heath and Haigh, Hanratty and the A6 murder, the Kray Gang murder at the 'Blind Beggar', and the mystery of Lord Lucan and the murdered nanny. With his acute powers of deduction, aided by an eye for the minutest detail, Professor Simpson has helped to prove the guilt, and sometimes the innocence, of hundreds of people charged with murder. He has also travelled abroad widely, and his overseas cases include the murder of King Ananda of Siam, and a number in a Caribbean including that of Gale Benson, who was executed at the orders of the Black Power leader Michael X.

The Journals of Jim Elliot


Elisabeth Elliot - 1978
    At the age of 29, he left behind a young widow, a baby daughter, and volumes of personal journals written over many years. In 1978, Revell published the complete and unabridged journals, edited by his widow, Elisabeth, and the journals have stayed in print ever since. And it's no wonder-Jim Elliot was an intelligent thinker and strong writer in these personal, yet universal, musings about faith, work, and love. The Journals of Jim Elliot is a wonderful account of the life of a man who yearns to know God's plan for his life, details his fascinating missions work, and loves Elisabeth-first as a single man, then as a happily married one. The Journals of Jim Elliot will intrigue fans of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, readers interested in missions, and young people struggling to find God's plan for their lives.

The Life of Saint Dominic Savio


John Bosco - 1978
    

Jack's Book: An Oral Biography of Jack Kerouac


Barry Gifford - 1978
    Authors Barry Gifford and Lawrence Lee retraced Kerouac's life at home and on the road and talked with the prophets, musicians, poets, socialites, and working people who knew Jack Kerouac. Some are famous like Allen Ginsberg, Gore Vidal, William Burroughs, Gary Snyder, among others; and some are not like Jack's boyhood buddies, his lovers, and his barroom companions. All, however, have contributed to a remarkably vibrant, riveting portrait of a life. We see Jack at Columbia University and on the scene of Greenwich Village; speeding across the tarmac of America with Neal Cassidy ("Dan Moriarty" in Kerouac's classic novel, On the Road); at home with his possessive mother; in California, drinking wine and talking Buddhism; and finally, in Florida, where his life ends tragically at forty-seven years old. Jack's Book, like Kerouac's novels, makes a unique contribution to our understanding of a man and a generation that shaped the dreams and visions of those who followed.

Bloody Mary: The Life of Mary Tudor


Carolly Erickson - 1978
    Her death was a national holiday for 200 years. But, in this biography, Carolly Erickson tells of how she survived an agonizing adolescence and how after winning the throne, she met her challenges with courage.

The Value of Learning: The Story of Marie Curie


Ann Donegan Johnson - 1978
    A brief biography emphasizing the importance of learning in the life of the scientist who was awarded the Nobel prize for her work in chemistry.

Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir


Linnie Marsh Wolfe - 1978
    All readers who have admired Muir’s ruggedly individualistic lifestyle, and those who wish a greater appreciation for the history of environmental preservation in America, will be enthralled and enlightened by this splendid biography.The story follows Muir from his ancestral home in Scotland, through his early years in the harsh Wisconsin wilderness, to his history-making pilgrimage to California.This book, originally published in 1945 and based in large part on Wolfe’s personal interviews with people who knew and worked with Muir, is one that could never be written again. It is, and will remain, the standard Muir biography.

Shark Lady: True Adventures of Eugenie Clark


Ann McGovern - 1978
    An introduction to the life and career of the ichthyologist whose interest in fish began at the age of nine during weekly trips to the Aquarium in New York City.

Ordeal by Labyrinth: Conversations with Claude-Henri Rocquet


Mircea Eliade - 1978
    Claude-Henri Rocquet has elicited from Eliade brief versions of some of his most important theories and a great many interesting judgments.

RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon


Richard M. Nixon - 1978
    With startling candor, Nixon reveals his beliefs, doubts, and behind-the-scenes decisions, shedding new light on his landmark diplomatic and domestic initiatives, political campaigns, and historic decision to resign from the presidency.Memoirs, spanning Nixon’s formative years through his presidency, reveals the personal side of Richard Nixon. Witness his youth, college years, and wartime experiences, events which would shape his outward philosophies and eventually his presidency—and shape our lives. Follow his meteoric rise to national prominence and the great peaks and depths of his presidency.Throughout his career Richard Nixon made extensive notes about his ideas, conversations, activities, meetings. During his presidency, from November 1971 until April 1973 and again in June and July 1974, he kept an almost daily diary of reflections, analyses, and perceptions. These notes and diary dictations, quoted throughout this book, provide a unique insight into the complexities of the modern presidency and the great issues of American policy and politics.

The Value of Saving: The Story of Benjamin Franklin


Spencer Johnson - 1978
    A brief biography of the outstanding 18th-century printer, inventor, and statesman, emphasizing the value of saving in his life.

By Myself


Lauren Bacall - 1978
    You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."-Humphrey Bogart

Making Poldark: Memoir of a BBC/Masterpiece Theatre Actor


Robin Ellis - 1978
    This expanded edition includes an all-new chapter with recent photos documenting Robin’s return to television as part of the new series produced by Mammoth Screen on behalf of the BBC and Masterpiece/PBS, with Aiden Turner as the new Poldark.First broadcast in the 1970s, this saga of thwarted love, passion and swashbuckling adventure set against hard times in 18th century Cornwall became an international sensation, popular in over 40 countries around the world.The memoir also describes the behind-the-scenes story of the original BBC/Masterpiece Theater series, the ongoing effect of ‘Poldark perks’ on Robin’s life, and his transformation into a cookbook author.Making Poldark is also available as an audiobook, read by the author.

The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe


Julian Symons - 1978
    Symons reveals Poe as his contemporaries saw him a man struggling to make a living out of hack journalism and striving to find a backer for his new magazine, and a man whose life was beset by so many tragedies that he was often driven to excessive drinking and a string of unhealthy relationships. Fittingly written by another master in the art of crime writing, this volume brilliantly portrays the original creator of the detective story and reveals him as the genius and unashamed plagiarist that he was."

The Scientist: A Novel Autobiography


John C. Lilly - 1978
    The films "Day of the Dolphin" and "Altered States" were based on his research.

Michael Faraday: Father of Electronics


Charles Ludwig - 1978
    Here is the father of the electric motor, the dynamo, the transformer, the generator. Few persons are aware of the brilliant man’s deep Christian convictions and his determination to live by the Sermon on the Mount. For ages 12 to 15.

Audacity to Believe


Sheila Cassidy - 1978
    The moving story of Sheila Cassidy, who as a young doctor went to work in Chile and became caught in the terrible injustice of the country - injustice which led to her own arrest, imprisonment, torture and expulsion.

The Tulips Are Red


Leesha Rose - 1978
    

Snakes and Ladders


Dirk Bogarde - 1978
    It was an accident which altered his army career, a mistake which launched him into films. This second volume charts the ups and downs Bogarde experienced on the way to becoming one of the finest cinema actors of our time. It is also about the people who helped him in this game of 'snakes and ladders' - family and friends, actors and actresses, directors and producers, including Judy Garland.

The Way the Future Was: A Memoir


Frederik Pohl - 1978
    . .* What Isaac Asimov was like at 19.* The truth behind the great World SF Convention War of 1939.* How a teenager became a mover and shaker in the bizarre world of the pulp magazines.* The strange mating rites of the sf community.* How to represent most of the best sf writers and go broke.* The dreams of new worlds and universes behind a body of completely original writing that has enlarged the horizons of three generations of readers . . . and netted the writers ½¢ to 3¢ a word.From the moment he attended the first meeting of the Brooklyn chapter of the Science Fiction League, Fred Pohl was hooked. He and his friends founded and disbanded fan clubs with dizzying speed, then organized the fabled Futurians. At 19, he became editor of Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories, and, except for the war and a brief fling in the advertising business, has been almost totally involved in science fiction ever since.As an agent, he created the market for hardcover sf; as editor of Galaxy in the 60s, he shaped the field for most of a decade; his Star Science Fiction series pioneered the concept of original anthologies; and along with all that he produced a number of truly outstanding works of sf, including: The Space Merchants (with Cyril Kornbluth) and, most recently Man Plus and Gateway, voted the Best Novels of 1976 and 1977, respectively.It's been a long road, from the scruffy Ivory Tower where the Futurians denned to a time when much that was science fiction is now reality—and Fred Pohl retraces it with candor, wit, and abiding love.

Celine: A Biography


Frédéric Vitoux - 1978
    Photographs.

Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration


Philip S. Foner - 1978
    The ideas of the world-renowned Black American are represented on the arts, civil rights, socialism, and other topics.

The Basketball Diaries


Jim Carroll - 1978
    Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960's, set during his coming-of-age from 12 to 15, he was a rebellious teenager making a place and a name for himself on the unforgiving streets of New York City. During these years, he chronicled his experiences, and the result is a diary of unparalleled candor that conveys his alternately hilarious and terrifying teenage existence. Here is Carroll prowling New York City--playing basketball, hustling, stealing, getting high, getting hooked, and searching for something pure.

The Value of Sharing: The Story of the Mayo Brothers


Spencer Johnson - 1978
    The Mayo brothers, knowing the importance of sharing, enter a career in which they can share their knowledge, skills, and money with sick people and other doctors.

The Notebooks of F. Scott Fitzgerald


F. Scott Fitzgerald - 1978
    Scott Fitzgerald.

The Actors' Life


Charlton Heston - 1978
    

Arlene Francis: A Memoir


Arlene Francis - 1978
    

Montgomery Clift: A Biography


Patricia Bosworth - 1978
    -New York Times Book Review It stands as the definitive work on the gifted, haunted actor. -L

Broken Promise


E. Kent Hayes - 1978
    Abandoned by their parents en route to California, five children (the oldest 11 years old, the youngest 18 months old) learn to subsist on their own and to defy a juvenile court system that threatens to separate them.

The Interrogator: The Story of Hanns-Joachim Scharff, Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe


Raymond F. Toliver - 1978
    This Intelligence Officer gained the reputation as the man who could magically get all the answers he needed from the prisoners of war. In most cases the POWs being interrogated never realized that their words, small talk or otherwise, were important pieces of the mosaic Hanns Scharff was constructing for the benefit of Germany\s war effort. In the words of one erstwhile POW; What did Scharff get from me? Nothing, yet there is no doubt he got something. If you talked about the weather or anything else he no doubt got some information or confirmation from it. His technique was psychic, not physical. Another POW commented, Hanns Scharff could probably get a confession of infidelity from a Nun! They are right. To this day ex-POWs fret and worry over what they said or even might have implied during their interrogations, and over what use Scharff may have made of their slip-ups. This book delves into the question: What was this magic spell or formula used by Scharff which made prisoners drop their guard and converse with him even though they are conditioned to remain silent? The tortures and savagery of the North Koreans and North Vietnamese caused prisoners to resist to the death. Hanns Scharff\s methods broke down barriers so effectively that the USAF invited him to speak about his methods to military audiences in the United States after World War II. Raymond Toliver is also the author (with Trevor Constable) of Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History


Michael H. Hart - 1978
    Needless to say, the critics were wrong, and to date more than 60,000 copies of the book have been sold. Hart believed that in the intervening years the influence of some of his original selections had grown or lessened and that new names loomed large on the world stage. Thus, the publications of this revised and updated edition of The 100.As before, Hart's yardstick is influence: not the greatest people, but the most influential, the people who swayed the destinies of millions of human beings, determined the rise and fall of civilizations, changed the course of history. With incisive biographies, Hart describes their careers and contributions. Explaining his ratings, he presents a new perspective on history, gathering together the vital facts about the world's greatest religious and political leaders, inventors, writers, philosophers, explorers, artists, and innovators--from Asoka to Zoroaster. Most of the biographies are accompanied by photographs or sketches. Hart's selections may be surprising to some. Neither Jesus nor Marx, but Muhammad, is designated as the most influential person in human history. The writer's arguments may challenge and perhaps convince readers, but whether or not they agree with him, his manner of ranking is both informative and entertaining. The 100, revised and updated, is truly a monumental work. It promises to be just as controversial, just as thought-provoking, and just as successful as its predecessor--a perfect addition to any history or philosophy reference section.

Toscanini


Harvey Sachs - 1978
    When Harvey Sachs' Reflections on Toscanini was first published in 1978, it was acclaimed internationally as the definitive biography of the extraordinary maestro. Now Sachs has revised and expanded this classic book, further exploring the conductor's controversial musicianship, conducting, recordings, drastic rehearsal methods, and influence on repertory.

The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter


Margaret Lane - 1978
    

When Being Jewish Was A Crime


Rachmiel Frydland - 1978
    Perhaps more importantly, this is Frydland's account of how the God of his ancestors took over and occupied his life, delivering him from death -- spiritually, then physically--and led him into a ministry of proclaiming Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). Rachmiel Frydland was a Jew who suffered persecution under the Nazis; he was a believer in the Messiah who sometimes suffered rejection by Christians during his years as a fugitive. He challenges us to consider what our response might be in similar cases of inhumanity both now and in the future.

Letters to an Artist - From Vincent Van Gogh to Anton Ridder Van Rappard 1881-1885


Vincent van Gogh - 1978
    We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Samuel Beckett


Deirdre Bair - 1978
    A monumental work of scholarship - arguably the most important book about Beckett ever published - SAMUEL BECKETT is also fascinating reading. Beckett's life has been as rich as his writing is spare, and Deirdre Bair tells his story superbly: the upper-middle-class Irish childhood; the early years in Paris and Beckett's complex relationship to Joyce; the psychological anguish of his apprenticeship, poured out by Beckett in more than 300 remarkable, heretofore-unknown letters to a confidant, Thomas McGreevy; Beckett's heroic service with the French Resistance, also unknown till now; "the siege in the room," that extraordinary period after the Second World War during which Beckett created the first masterpieces that would make him world famous; Beckett's increasing involvement with the theatre and his desperate attempts to guard his privacy against the encroachments of celebrity.SAMUEL BECKETT chronicles Beckett's tumultuous relationship with his family, recounts the psychosomatic illnesses that have often kept him from writing, and traces (where they exist) the autobiographical strains in his work. The book tells of his relationships with publishers, actors, directors, and friends. Above all, it portrays Beckett himself, the poet of despair, the angular, enigmatic artist who, in the words of his Nobel Prize citation, "has transmuted the destitution of modern man into his exaltation."When Deirdre Bair began the research for this book, Beckett said he would not authorize it nor would he read it before it was published. To friends he wrote, "I am sure Mrs. Bair is a serious scholar and is out to do a fine book. I will neither help nor hinder her." After literally hundreds of interviews and years of research in Ireland, England, France, Italy, Spain, Northern Ireland, Canada and the United States, after correspondence with people living on every continent, Deirdre Bair has produced a book that is everything a scholar or a reader could hope for: SAMUEL BECKETT is one of the remarkable literary biographies of our time.Deirdre Bair received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a journalist on newspapers and magazines before returning to academic life and taking a M.A. and Ph.D. at Columbia University. She has taught at Trinity College (Connecticut) and Yale University, and teaches now in the English Department of the University of Pennsylvania. She is married, has two children, and lives in Connecticut. (Taken from the inside jacket material of the First Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Edition, 1978.)

Revolt on the Clyde


William Gallacher - 1978
    This autobiography relates to his early years in the Social Democratic Federation, the struggles to form workers' and soldiers' councils on Clydeside during the First World War and his meeting with Lenin in 1920. Gallacher gives a vivid account of the upheavals in Glasgow immediately following the war, which culminated in the Battle of George Square in 1919 and also describes the formation and turbulent early years of the British Communist Party of which he was a founding member. Revolt on the Clyde is a forceful and inspiring portrait of militant activity in an era whose struggles are still resounding today. First published in 1936, now with an introduction by Michael McGahey, former President of the Scottish Area of the National Union of Mineworkers, Gallacher's book provides us with valuable insights into key years of the formation of Scotland's distinctive political culture.

Hermann Hesse, Pilgrim of Crisis: A Biography


Ralph Freedman - 1978
    The stormy life story of the Nobel Prize-winning writer whose novels, selling millions, captivated a generation, shaping the counter-culture's infatuation with the East and mysticism, and youth's absorption in the passion of adolescent crisis.

John Garfield: His Life and Films


James N. Beaver Jr. - 1978
    

Face To Face


Ved Mehta - 1978
    

Errol Flynn: A Memoir


Earl Conrad - 1978
    (Biography).

The Bright Lights: A Theatre Life


Marian Seldes - 1978
    

Most of All They Taught Me Happiness


Robert Muller - 1978
    

Thomas More: A Lonely Voice Against the Power of the State


Peter Berglar - 1978
    Thomas More. Most people know that Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia about a perfect society and got his head chopped off by King Henry VIII. But there was much more to the man. More not only occupied England’s most powerful position under the king as Lord Chancellor, but was also a devoted family man, a Renaissance figure of renown throughout Europe, and the author of works of apologetics as well as poetry, fiction and plays. Even while awaiting execution in the Tower of London, his multi-volume “Tower writings” poured out, evidence of his deep faith and life of prayer. Peter Berglar, who has written ten biographies including one of St. Peter, and one of the earliest studies of Opus Dei and its founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá, deals in this new translation of the original German with the ultimate question: for what is life not worth living? When must it be purchased at a price that could devalue and perhaps destroy it? “It has been repeated in every generation. There will never be a lack of idols and dictators who demand this sacrifice.”

Beyond Defeat: The "Johnny" Johnson Story


James E. Johnson - 1978
    The provocative autobiography of an American patriot who used the weapon of love to conquer hate and live...Beyond Defeat.

White Coat, White Cane : The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Blind Physician


David Hartman - 1978
    

Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life


Milton Meltzer - 1978
    Detailing the adventures of Dorthea Lange, the book raises questions about the uses and effectiveness of the medium and examines her images of anxious mothers and hungry infants and sullen men waiting in long city breadlines.

Glenn Gould: Music and Mind


Geoffrey Payzant - 1978
    Few musicians of his time have had as much influence on the way people think about the art of music, its purpose, its effects, its practitioners, its audiences.Glenn Gould, Music and Mind was the first, and for many years the only, study of Gould's work. It is about Gould as a musical thinker, Gould as a literary artist, Gould as a glorious misfit.Geoffrey Payzant taught music at Mount Allison University and philosophy at the University of Toronto. He specialized in musical aesthetics, and was particularly fascinated by Glenn Gould and Eduard Hanslick. No one who takes an interest in performing or listening to music, or in thinking about it, can fail to be informed and delighted by Payzant's exploration of the music and mind of Glenn Gould.

My years with Ferrari


Niki Lauda - 1978
    

Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years' Personal Experience Among the Red Men of The Great West


Richard Irving Dodge - 1978
    

The Magic of the Swatchways


Maurice Griffiths - 1978
    

André Bazin


Dudley Andrew - 1978
    He is credited with almost single-handedly establishing the study of film as an accepted intellectual pursuit. Updating the paperback edition of 1977, Dudley Andrew has written a completely new introduction and provided an additional essay by Jean-Charles Tacchella."

To Dance: The Autobiography of Valery Panov


Valery Panov - 1978
    

Two Flamboyant Fathers


Nicolette Devas - 1978
    With still roaring Augustus John and the young Dylan Thomas wo was to marry her sister Catlin

The Brooke Book


Brooke Shields - 1978
    Photographs by the world's great photographers combine with autobiographical information and Brooke's poetry, drawings, short stories, and scrapbook clippings to chronicle the life of the thirteen-year-old child-woman model and actress.

Belles Saisons: A Colette Scrapbook


Robert Phelps - 1978
    This work helps to illuminate the mystery at the heart of this author.

Andy Russell's Adventures with Wild Animals


Andy Russell - 1978
    

The Beach Boys and the California Myth


David Leaf - 1978
    

Hitler: The Pictorial Documentary of His Life


John Toland - 1978
    Pictorial overview of the life and times of German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Fleetwood Mac -- Rumours


Mac Fleetwood - 1978
    Plus photos.

They Must Have Seen Me Coming


Louise Brindley - 1978
    

The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich & Thomas Mann 1871 - 1950 and 1875 - 1955


Nigel Hamilton - 1978
    Studies the political and artistic rivalry and emotional closeness of Thomas and Heinrich Mann, analyzing the cultural, social, and familial milieu in which the brothers developed and worked.

Untouchable The Autobiography of an Indian Outcaste


Hazari - 1978
    A well written look at life in India years ago.

The Life And Liberation Of Padmasambhava


Tsogyal Yeshe - 1978
    In this richly symbolic work of 108 cantos, the multidimensional nature of mind and consciousness is revealed in the stages of the Great Guru's life.

Stubby, Brave Soldier Dog


Richard Glendinning - 1978
    dog to see action in Europe.

Warrior in Two Camps: Ely S. Parker, Union General and Seneca Chief


William H. Armstrong - 1978
    Parker, the first native American to serve as commissioner of Indian Affairs. The name Ely Samuel Parker is seldom found among famous Indian chiefs. Indeed, the name seems somehow out of place in the company of men called Black Hawk or Crazy Horse or Geronimo. But the prosaic name is part of the story of an American Indian who chose to live his life in the white man's world. It is a story in which a frock coat replaces the traditional deerskin, and a surveyor's level and a soldier's orderly book take the place of the wampum belt and the war club.

Katherine Mansfield: A Darker View


Jeffrey Meyers - 1978
    A friend to Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, and Bertrand Russell, Mansfield left a literary legacy collected in The Garden Party, In a German Pension, and numerous anthologies. Biographies appearing after her death idealized her, but Meyers sets the record straight in his assessment of the author's life and career, revealing a woman with a self-destructive disdain for convention and respectability. Born and raised in New Zealand, Mansfield threw herself into several love affairs with men and women before living with literary critic John Middleton Murray. Meyers chronicles their tempestuous relationship (one that mixed abuse with devotion) and the years she fought a losing battle with tuberculosis.

The Life and Spirituality of John Newton


John Newton - 1978
    But it is worth recalling something of Newton's remarkable story. His parish ministry, practice of spiritual direction, and the integrity of his personal relationships make him a trustworthy guide for Christians today.

Skippy and Percy Crosby: The Life and Work of a Great American Cartoonist


Jerry Robinson - 1978
    

Confessions of a pentecostal (Radiant books)


Ada Brownell - 1978
    

Jason Lee: Winner of the Northwest


Charles Ludwig - 1978
    A biography of the missionary to the Indians who helped to open up Oregon to settlers.

Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman


Robert C. Bray - 1978
    

Digging in the Southwest


Ann Axtell Morris - 1978
    

James Jones: A Friendship


Willie Morris - 1978
    Morris, a former editor of Harper's and a prolific author in his own right, crafts a moving portrait that captures Jones's integrity, strength, and lust for life. Interwoven with recollections by Jones's colleagues, such as Irwin Shaw and William Styron, and his editors, Maxwell Perkins and Burroughs Mitchell, Morris sketches the pivotal events of Jones's life as well as small but defining moments of intimacy and compassion. Morris spins out Jones's experiences in the wartime Pacific, his storybook marriage, his self-imposed exile in Paris, and his return to East Hampton, Long Island. He also recounts Jones's race against the clock to finish Whistle, the culmination of his World War II trilogy, which Morris himself completed after his friend's death in 1977. An exquisite and lyrical rendering of an artist and his work, "James Jones: A Friendship" celebrates a rare bond that transcends both the vicissitudes of life and the finality of death."

Boy Who Dreamed of Rockets: How Robert Goddard Became the Father of the Space Age


Robert M. Quackenbush - 1978
    Includes instructions for a model multistage rocket and an explanation of rocket flight.

Roy Acuff: The Smoky Mountain Boy


Elizabeth Schlappi - 1978
    He was an artist whose devotion to his work boosted not only his own career, but also the credibility and popularity of his field. This country music legend helped bring the fledgling industry and its capital, The Grand Ole Opry, from the classification of regional entertainment to a certified national institution.His career began back in 1938, when this son of a small-town Baptist preacher made his first appearance on the famed stage in Nashville. This first step toward stardom transformed his life. Roy Acuff: The Smoky Mountain Boy draws upon personal interviews with Acuff's contemporaries, friends, and family as well as Acuff himself. This combination honors Acuff by tracing the roots of his career through the evolution of his musical style and his distinctive American art form. He died on November 23, 1992

On the Edges of Time


Rabindranath Tagore - 1978
    Through his work in creative and cultural spheres (as remembered by his son in this reminiscence) he became a true link between East and West.

Journey To Horseshoe Bend


Theodor G. Strehlow - 1978
    An Australian literary classic, it was written by TGH (Ted) Strehlow, author of the monumental Songs of Central Australia. It describes the final days of his father, Pastor Carl Strehlow, head of the Lutheran mission at Hermannsburg, as they travel, with Aboriginal companions, in extreme heat, along the dry riverbed of the Finke River, to the nearest railhead in search of medical assistance. They never reach help: the journey ends at Horseshoe Bend, with Pastor Strehlow’s death.Ted Strehlow grew up with Aborigines on the mission, and his knowledge of their customs and stories was unique. The book combines this knowledge, with a detailed awareness of the landscape and its sacred places, the battles that have been fought there, the lonely outposts of white settlement, and of the Biblical resonances of their own journey through this desert setting.

Richard the Lionheart


John Gillingham - 1978
    John Gillingham contends that the popular views of Richard are false, that they are based upon legend and not upon evidence. Strip away the legend and look at the evidence, study Richard on his home ground in the turbulent Duchy of Aquitaine, and a new picture of Richard emerges. He is still the crusading knight and patron of troubadours, but he is also a capable ruler with a clear eye for political realities. Indeed, in the sheer breadth of his vision, in the ability not only to conceive great enterprises but also to carry them out, he (though no Englishman) was one of the ablest kings ever to sit upon the throne of England.

The Terror of Tellico Plains : The Memoirs of Ray H. Jenkins


Ray H. Jenkins - 1978