Best of
Biography-Memoir

1991

Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration


David Wojnarowicz - 1991
    Street life, drugs, art and nature, family, AIDS, politics, friendship and acceptance: Wojnarowicz challenges us to examine our lives -- politically, socially, emotionally, and aesthetically.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China


Jung Chang - 1991
    Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,” a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

The Jim Corbett Omnibus.


Jim Corbett - 1991
    The Jim Corbett Omnibus includes three enduring tales of Corbett's encounters with man-eaters.Man-eaters of Kumaon contains fascinating stories of tracking and shooting of man-eaters in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of the last century. The stories in The Temple Tiger display Corbett's acute awareness of sights, sounds, and life in the Indian forests, as well as his love for the human beings living in the hunting terrain. Finally, perhaps the most exciting of all of Corbett's jungle tales, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is a gripping narrative of a notorious leopard which spread terror in the hills of the colonial United Provinces.Dramatic yet reflective, Corbett's writings are coloured by his deep concern and sympathy for the natural world as well as the local people and their traditions and customs. This vividly illustrated collection will appeal equally to Corbett lovers and to those concerned with the environment and wildlife.Table Of ContentsMan-eaters of KumaonAuthor's NoteThe Champawat Man-eatersRobinThe Chowgarh TigersThe Bachelor of PowalgarhThe Mohan Man-eaterThe Fish of My DreamThe Kanda Man-eaterThe Pipal Pani TigerThe Thak Man-eaterJust TigersThe Temple Tiger and More Man-eaters of KumaonThe Temple TigerThe Muktesar Man-eaterThe Panar Man-eaterThe Chuka Man-eaterThe Talla Des Man-eaterEpilogueThe Man-eating Leopard of RudraprayagThe Pilgrim RoadThe Man-eaterTerrorArrivalInvestigationThe First KillLocating the LeopardThe Second KillPreparationsMagicA Near EscapeThe Gin-trapThe Hunters HuntedRetreatFishing InterludeDeath of a GoatCyanide PoisoningTouch and GoA Lesson in CautionA Wild Boar HuntVigil on a Pine-treeMy Night of TerrorLeopard Fights LeopardA Shot in the DarkEpilogue

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place


Terry Tempest Williams - 1991
    That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.

Modern Nature


Derek Jarman - 1991
    Facing an uncertain future, he nevertheless found solace in nature, growing all manner of plants. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness.Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life: his childhood, his time as a young gay man in the 1960s, his renowned career as an artist, writer and film-maker. It is at once a lament for a lost generation, an unabashed celebration of gay sexuality, and a devotion to all that is living.

Sold


Zana Muhsen - 1991
    When her father told her she was to spend a holiday with relatives in North Yemen, she jumped at the chance. Aged 15 and 13 respectively, Zana and her sister discovered that they had been literally sold into marriage, and that on their arrival they were virtually prisoners. They had to adapt to a completely alien way of life, with no running water, dung-plastered walls, frequent beatings, and the ordeal of childbirth on bare floors with only old women in attendance. After eight years of misery and humiliation Zana succeeded in escaping, but her sister is still there, and it seems likely that she will now never leave the country where she has spent more than half her life. This is an updated edition of Zana's account of her experiences.

Anne Sexton: A Biography


Diane Wood Middlebrook - 1991
    She held on to language for dear life and somehow -- in spite of alcoholism and the mental illness that ultimately led her to suicide -- managed to create a body of work that won a Pulitzer Prize and that still sings to thousands of readers. This exemplary biography, which was nominated for the National Book Award, provoked controversy for its revelations of infidelity and incest and its use of tapes from Sexton's psychiatric sessions. It reconciles the many Anne Sextons: the 1950s housewife; the abused child who became an abusive mother; the seductress; the suicide who carried "kill-me pills" in her handbag the way other women carry lipstick; and the poet who transmuted confession into lasting art.

Lost for Words


Deric Longden - 1991
    She was first featured in Diana's Story, which Longden wrote some years after his wife's death. Now the author's mother appears as the central character in this book, which takes the story forward to the time after Diana's death, and also back to Deric Longden's childhood. She makes her eccentric way through Marks & Spencer, converses with her two cats, offers comments on the fresh developments in her son's life, and finally endures the stroke that led eventually to her death.

Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind: The Authorized Biography


Stephen Larsen - 1991
    His teachings and literary works, including The Masks of God, have shown that beneath the apparent themes of world mythology lie patterns that reveal the ways in which we all may encounter the great mysteries of existence: birth, growth, soul development, and death. Biographers Stephen and Robin Larsen, students and friends of Campbell for more than 20 years, weave a rich tapestry of stories and insights that catalogue both his personal and public triumphs.

I Had Nowhere to Go


Jonas Mekas - 1991
    Displaced persons. Some of them eventually settle down and grow new roots; others continue travelling, waiting, dreaming or returning home. This book is a first hand account of the life, thoughts and feelings of a displaced person. It's a painful record of one person's experiences in a Nazi forced labor camp;five years in displaced persons camps;and the frist years as a young Lithuanian immigrant in New York City.

Patrick White: A Life


David Marr - 1991
    But I am a monster . . .' Patrick WhitePatrick White, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of more than a dozen novels and plays - including Voss, The Vivisector and The Twyborn Affair - lived an extraordinary life. David Marr's brilliant biography draws not only on a wide range of original research but also on the single most difficult and important source of all: the man himself. In the weeks before his death, White read the final manuscript, which for richness of detail, authority and balance is stunning.Throughout his exciting narrative, Marr explores the roots of White's writing and unearths the raw material of his remarkable art. He makes plain the central fact of White's life as an artist: the homosexuality that formed his view of himself as an outcast and stranger able to penetrate the hearts of both men and women. Gracefully written and exhaustively researched, Patrick White is a biography of classic excellence - sympathetic, objective, penetrating and as blunt, when necessary, as White himself.

Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison


James Riordan - 1991
    There have been numerous biographies about the self-proclaimed "Lizard King's" life and career. But none have examined his roots and childhood, the intellectual foundations of his music, his wild days with the Doors, and his enigmatic early death as completely and insightfully as Break On Through.More than simply a fascinating look at a rock legend whose cult following never stops growing, here is the definitive Morrison biography: his angry relationship with his father; the early tragedies and terrible events responsible for the darkness of his artistic vision; his private life and legal trials, including his infamous Miami obscenity bust; and the truth about his final hours. Based on extensive research and featuring dozens of rarely published photographs, this is the authoritative portrait of the poet, the grim visionary, the haunted man, and his haunting music.

Outlaw Journalist


William McKeen - 1991
    Thompson detonated a two-ton bomb under the staid field of journalism with his early magazine pieces and revelatory "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Fear and Loathing" campaign coverage in Rolling Stone. When Thompson was on, there was no one better at capturing who Americans were and what America was, be it in politics, at the Kentucky Derby, or in the Hells Angels' lair. William McKeen became friends with Thompson after writing a monograph on his journalism. McKeen now has interviewed many of Thompson's associates who wouldn't speak before, from childhood friends to colleagues, to assistants who sat around the Woody Creek, Colorado, kitchen control room late at night when Thompson did most of his work. McKeen gets behind the drinking and drugs to show the man and the writer—one who was happy to be considered an outlaw but took the calling of journalism as his life.

The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto


Mary Berg - 1991
    After 60 years of silence, 'The Diary of Mary Berg' is poised at last to gain the appreciation and widespread attention that it so richly deserves, and is certain to take it’s place alongside 'The Diary of Anne Frank' as one of the most significant memoirs of the twentieth century. From love to tragedy, seamlessly combining the everyday concerns of a growing teenager with a unique commentary on life in one of the darkest contexts of history. This is a work remarkable for its authenticity, detail, and poignancy. But it is not only as a factual report on the life and death of a people that 'The Diary of Mary Berg' ranks with the most noteworthy documents of the Second World War. This is the personal story of a life-loving girl’s encounter with unparalleled human suffering, a uniquely illuminating insight into one of the darkest chapters of history. Mary Berg was imprisoned in the ghetto from 1940 to 1943. Unlike so many others, she survived the war, having been rescued in a prisoner-of-war exchange due to her mother’s dual Polish-American nationality. Berg's diary was published in 1945 when she was still only 19, in an attempt to alert the world to the Nazi atrocities in Poland, when it was described as "one of the most heartbreaking documents yet to come out of the war" by the /New Yorker/. After the war, Berg remained in America in quiet anonymity.

I Come Quietly to Meet You An Intimate Journey in Gods Presence


Amy Carmichael - 1991
    Amy Carmichael remained faithful to God through times of material need, physical danger, pain, debilitating illness, disappointment, and attack by friends. From this crucible she guides readers into a deeper friendship with the Father who is always trustworthy. Formerly released as You Are My Hiding Place.

The Cat Who Went to Paris


Peter Gethers - 1991
    Then everything changed. Peter opened his heart to the Scottish Fold kitten and their adventures to Paris, Fire Island, and in the subways of Manhattan took on the color of legend and mutual love. THE CAT WHO WENT TO PARIS proves that sometimes all it takes is paws and personality to change a life.

I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone


Nina Simone - 1991
    She struck a chord with bluesy jazz ballads like "Put a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and powerful protest songs such as "Mississippi Goddam" and "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black," the anthem of the American Civil Rights movement.Here are the many lives and loves of Nina Simone, recounted in her unshakable voice.

Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography


John Gruen - 1991
    By the time of his death in 1990 at the age of thirty-one, Haring's career had moved from underground New York to the most prestigious galleries and museums in the world. Here Keith Haring's story is told by those who knew him—and by the artist himself. He candidly reflects on all aspects of his life, including his approach to art, being gay, and how he came to terms with AIDS. John Gruen masterfully combines Haring's own words with the observations of those who knew him best, including art dealer Leo Castelli; Madonna; artists Roy Lichtenstein, Francesco Clemente, and Kenny Scharf; Claude Picasso; Timothy Leary; and William Burroughs, among others. Haring emerges as both a courageous and enigmatic personality—a champion of art for all people.

Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter


Sam Chaiton - 1991
    They bring Lesra to Toronto to help with his education. While learning to read, Lesra finds a copy of Rubin Carter's The Sixteenth Round.Rubin Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Hurricane", was a #1 middleweight boxing contender who had been wrongfully imprisoned after a white jury found him guilty of the murder of three whites in 1966. A huge public outcry followed the publication of Carter's memoir The Sixteenth Round in 1974, culminating in a retrial, which was a virtual reenactment of the original travesty, with Carter receiving the same triple-life sentence.Inspired by Lesra's passion, his adopted Canadian family made contact with Carter and reinvigorated the legal battle. The Hurricane is the moving story of the eight year struggle Carter and his Canadian friends waged to win his exoneration and freedom.

George Orwell: The Authorised Biography


Michael Shelden - 1991
    Also included are sections from a copy of Down and Out in Paris and London with handwritten annotations by Orwell indicating how much of the book is based on real events. Michael Shelden is the author of Friends of Promise: Cyril Connolly and the World of Horizon.

Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910-1921


John Phillips - 1991
    This collection of Violet's letters explores her part in the affair and provides details of the other principals involved.

The Stephen King Story


George Beahm - 1991
    Because of his success, King has been endlessly interviewed, yet one question remains: What's the real story behind his phenomenal success? Now the editor of The Stephen King Companion answers that question. 32 pages of photos and illustrations.

I, Maya Plisetskaya


Maya Plisetskaya - 1991
    In this spirited memoir, Plisetskaya reflects on her personal and professional odyssey, presenting a unique view of the life of a Soviet artist during the troubled period from the late 1930s to the 1990s.Plisetskaya recounts the execution of her father in the Great Terror and her mother’s exile to the Gulag. She describes her admission to the Bolshoi in 1943, the roles she performed there, and the endless petty harassments she endured, from both envious colleagues and Party officials. Refused permission for six years to tour with the company, Plisetskaya eventually performed all over the world, working with such noted choreographers as Roland Petit and Maurice Béjart. She recounts the tumultuous events she lived through and the fascinating people she met—among them the legendary ballet teacher Agrippina Vaganova, George Balanchine, Frank Sinatra, Rudolf Nureyev, and Dmitri Shostakovich. And she provides fascinating details about testy cocktail-party encounters with Khrushchev, tours abroad when her meager per diem allowance brought her close to starvation, and KGB plots to capitalize on her friendship with Robert Kennedy. Gifted, courageous, and brutally honest, Plisetskaya brilliantly illuminates the world of Soviet ballet during an era that encompasses both repression and cultural détente.Still prima ballerina assoluta with the Bolshoi Ballet, Maya Plisetskaya also travels around the world performing and lecturing. At the Bolshoi’s gala celebrating her 75th birthday, President Vladimir Putin presented her with Russia’s highest civilian honor, the medal for service to the Russian state, second degree. Tim Scholl is professor of Russian language and literature at Oberlin College. Antonina W. Bouis is the prize-winning translator of more than fifty books, including fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs by such figures as Andrei Sakharov, Elena Bonner, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime


Lou Cannon - 1991
    Ronald Wilson Reagan, the first actor to be elected president, turned in the performance of a lifetime. But that performance concealed the complexities of the man, baffling most who came in contact with him. Who was the man behind the makeup? Only Lou Cannon, who covered Reagan through his political career, can tell us. The keenest Reagan-watcher of them all, he has been the only author to reveal the nature of a man both shrewd and oblivious. Based on hundreds of interviews with the president, the First Lady, and hundreds of the administration's major figures, President Reagan takes us behind the scenes of the Oval Office. Cannon leads us through all of Reagan's roles, from the affable cowboy to the self-styled family man; from the politician who denounced big government to the president who created the largest peace-time deficit; from the statesman who reviled the Soviet government to the Great Communicator who helped end the cold war.

I Cried, You Didn't Listen


Dwight Edgar Abbott - 1991
    Every year, the price of a four-year education at Stanford University buys each of these children horrifying physical, sexual, and psychological abuse behind the walls and fences of the California Youth Authority.At the age of nine, a family tragedy split up Dwight Abbott’s family, and forced him into the hands of the California Youth Authority. This is the chilling chronicle of his life behind bars—a story of brutality and survival; a dark journey showing how the systematic abuse of incarcerated children creates a cycle of criminal behavior that usually ends with prison or death.In its first serialization, I Cried, You Didn’t Listen won a Project Censored award for stories that are significant, yet under-reported in the mainstream media. This second edition contains an introduction by Books Not Bars, new pieces by the author, and writing from more recent victims of the CYA.Dwight Abbott, has been in and out of prison since his childhood. He is now serving multiple life sentences in Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, CA.

The Life of A.W. Tozer: In Pursuit of God


James L. Snyder - 1991
    W. Tozer, it is important to know who he was, including his relationship with God. In The Life of A. W. Tozer, James Snyder lets us in on the life and times of a deep thinker who was not afraid to “tell it like it is” and never compromised his beliefs. A. W. Tozer’s spiritual legacy continues today as his writings challenge readers to a deeper relationship and worship of God in reverence and adoration. Here is Tozer’s life story, from boyhood and his conversion at the age of seventeen, to his years of pastoring and writing more than 40 books, at least two regarded as Christian classics that continue to appear on best seller lists today. Examining Tozer’s life allows the reader to learn from a prophet with much to say against the compromises he observed in contemporary Christian living and the hope he found in his incredible God. “The Life of A. W. Tozer gives a behind the scenes look at the man and his message. We see God at work with hammer and chisel to shape Tozer’s life into a vessel capable of influencing all who desire to walk with God. No single author has influenced me personally more than A. W. Tozer. I thank God for his influence on my life.”Gary M. Benedict, President, The Christian and Missionary Alliance

Blind Courage: Journey of Faith


Bill Irwin - 1991
    Blind hiker's story of an eight-month thru-hike with his seeing-eye dog.

One from None


Henry Rollins - 1991
    

The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality


Joan Frances Casey - 1991
    And it wasn't the first time she had blanked out. She decided to give therapy another try. And after a few sessions, Lynn Wilson, an experienced psychiatric social worker, was shocked to discover that Joan had MPD--Multiple Personality Disorder. And as she came to know Joan's distinct selves, Lynn uncovered a nightmarish pattern of emotional and physical abuse, including rape and incest, that nearly succeeded in smothering the artistic and intellectual gifts of this amazing young woman.

Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow


Eve Golden - 1991
    Born into the pleasant middle-class world of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911, Harlow (nee Harlean Carpenter) was the daughter of a solid, if dull, dentist, whose wife had unfulfilled aspirations to a career in films. The family was hardly prepared for what came next. Jean became a bride at sixteen, was separated at eighteen, a film goddess at twenty, a wife again at twenty-one, and a widow within a few months of the wedding. Her husband, top MGM executive Paul Bern, committed suicide (it was widely and mistakenly believed) out of despair over impotence.Bern's suicide threatened to plunge Jean Harlow into a scandal that might have ended her career. But, driven by her irresistible sparkle, glamour, and sensuality, the young star's fortunes continued to skyrocket in unforgettable films like Red Dust, Dinner at Eight, Bombshell, Reckless, China Seas, and Libeled Lady as she appeared with the likes of Clark Gable, John and Lionel Barrymore, Mary Astor, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Spencer Tracy, and William Powell.She married a third time in 1933, was divorced a year later, only to become engaged to her sometime costar William Powell. Noting that the extremely well-paid Blonde Bombshell was perpetually on the ragged edge of bankruptcy, Powell hired a private detective to investigate Harlow's stepfather, Marino Bello, who - it turned out - had long been defrauding her. Despite this and the on-again, off-again engagement to Powell, Harlow seemed unstoppable. Then, in the midst of filming Saratoga in 1937, the twenty-six-year-old Platinum Girl succumbed to kidney failure.In this, the first biography of Harlow since Irving Shulman's sensationalistic and often inaccurate 1964 book, Eve Golden explores the woman behind the legends and the scandals. The world evoked here is at once glamorous, nostalgic, poignant, and tragic. Yet, in its way, the brief life of Jean Harlow is a story of success, of a triumphal struggle with Hollywood and the consequences of rapid fame. Golden's deeply researched narrative is lavishly illustrated with rare film stills, posters, and exclusive photographs from family archives. Harlow emerges not as an oversexed mannequin, but as a vulnerable, hard-working, and tremendously likable woman who molded herself into a remarkable actress. This is an important book about one of Hollywood's most extraordinary personalities.

A Low Life in High Heels: The Holly Woodlawn Story


Holly Woodlawn - 1991
    At the age of 16, Harold became Holly Woodlawn and skyrocketed to fame as a superstar in Warhol's movie Trash. "This is must reading".--Harvey Fierstein. Photographs.

Means of Escape: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Life and Death in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Vietnam


Philip Caputo - 1991
    Caputo intersperses imaginative retellings of events he witnessed with true accounts of how he became a writer, and what happened when he was sent to some of the most dangerous places in the world. He begins with his childhood and budding career in Chicago. Soon after, he was deep in the Sinai Peninsula searching for the last authentic Bedouin, and reporting from the front lines of the Yom Kippur War. In an eerie parallel to journalist Daniel Pearl's tragic murder, Caputo was held hostage for a week by Islamic extremists while reporting in Beirut. Later, he was singled out by a sniper, and received a bullet in his ankle and a chunk of wall in his head. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, he joined the Mujahideen for a clandestine mission and was nearly captured by Soviet forces. His observations on that war-torn country and its ethos are starkly relevant today.

Conversations with Elie Wiesel


Elie Wiesel - 1991
    Heffner—American historian, noted public television moderator/producer, and Rutgers University professor—Elie Wiesel covers fascinating and often perilous political and spiritual ground, expounding on issues global and local, individual and universal, often drawing anecdotally on his own life experience.We hear from Wiesel on subjects that include the moral responsibility of both individuals and governments; the role of the state in our lives; the anatomy of hate; the threat of technology; religion, politics, and tolerance; nationalism; capital punishment, compassion, and mercy; and the essential role of historical memory. These conversations present a valuable and thought-provoking distillation of the thinking of one of the world’s most important and respected figures—a man who has become a moral beacon for our time.From the Hardcover edition.

The Leading Lady: Dinah's Story


Betty White - 1991
    A world-class guide dog trained by the Leader Dog Foundation for the Blind, Dinah gave Tom, a man who has been blind since birth, his first real taste of independence. And she gave the entire Sullivan family—wife Patty, daughter Blythe, and son Tom, Jr.—unfaltering loyalty and love.Together, Tom and Dinah traveled this entire country countless times, and she led him safely through crowded airport terminals, city traffic, strange hotels, and onstage performances.But when Dinah reached the age of eleven, she began to lose her edge. Her eyes were no longer as sharp, her step not as sure. The once-assured guide dog became defensive and hesitant. Although Tom hated the idea of working with any dog but Dinah, it seemed to be his only choice, and Nelson, a black Labrador retriever, joined the family.Dinah, however, was not ready to settle back into a life of leisure in the Sullivan household while an interloper took over her job and her master. She stopped eating, began hiding away, and simply gave up on life. Yet Dinah's story has a whole new beginning…and her name is Betty White.In The Leading Lady, Tom and Betty, close friends for years who have become more like family thanks to their special golden girl, take turns talking about Dinah. Here is how the supercanine came into Tom's life; the hard work and frustration man and dog endured to become a team; and the adventures—some traumatic, some joyful—that cemented the bond between them. Here, too, is how Betty rescued this gallant lady in distress and how caring, courageous Dinah became a full-fledged member of Betty's family overnight, with a brand-new job to do. Most of all, here is the essence of Dinah, a dog who made a positive difference in every life she touched.

Summer Meditations


Václav Havel - 1991
    Yet even as he grapples with the challenges of political change, he affirms his belief in a politics motivated by moral responsibility; in an economy tempered by compassion; and in the central roles of art and culture in the transformation of society. Summer Meditations is not only a timely and necessary testament of events in Eastern Europe but a profound reflection upon the nature and practice of politics and a stirring call for morality, civility, and openness in public life throughout the world.

Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line


Ben Hamper - 1991
    For 10 years, Hamper, as did many of his fellow workers, showed up to work drunk and on drugs, was repeatedly laid off and called back, and battled continuously with foremen and supervisors.Eventually his talent for depicting these wretched work conditions formed into a column, called "Rivethead," that appeared in Midwest newspapers as well as in Mother Jones. This book is based on that column, which takes well-aimed potshots at American management and business and illuminates the world of the automobile builder and lunch pail carrier in hard-edged, vernacular prose.

The Sky My Kingdom: Memoirs of the Famous German World War II Test-Pilot


Hanna Reitsch - 1991
    As the war progressed, Reitsch was invited to fly many of Germany's latest, increasingly desperate designs, including the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt 163 Komet & several bombers to test mechanisms for cutting barrage balloon cables. After crashing a 5th Me163 flight she wrote a report before going unconscious & being hospitalized for five months. She became Hitler's favorite pilot. She was one of only two women awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class during WWII & the only one awarded the Luftwaffe Combined Pilot & Observer Badge with Diamonds. Surviving many accidents, she was badly injured several times. In the war's last days she was asked to fly Colonel-Gen. Robert Ritter von Greim to meet with Hitler. Berlin was surrounded by Red Army troops who'd progressed into the city center when they landed on a street to go to the Fuhrerbunker on 4/27. Their aircraft was the Fieseler Storch known for the rescue of Mussolini, adding to the legend of both Reitsch & the aircraft. She overheard Hitler laying out plans for Nazi commanders to commit mass suicide when the war was lost. She hoped to rescue the Propaganda Minister's six children, who'd been in the bunker since 4/22, but Joseph & Magda Goebbels wouldn't allow it. She escaped Berlin on 4/29, flying out thru heavy anti-aircraft fire. She was a devoted Nazi, adored Hitler & rejected concentration camp reports. Much later she said she'd been "disgusted" by what she witnessed in the 3rd Reich. She was held for 18 months by the US military for interrogation. After the war Germans were forbidden from flying, except, after some years, in gliders. In '52 she won 3rd place in the world gliding championship in Spain, the sole woman competing. She continued to break records including the women's altitude record (6848 meters), becoming German champion in '55.

Madeleine L'Engle: Author of "A Wrinkle in Time"


Doreen Gonzales - 1991
    L'Engle comes across as a woman with an abiding commitment to her family as well as a lifelong lust for learning and the more spiritual aspects of existence. There are a couple of awkward phrasings and a few places where unexplained questions persist. Some of the book's success is due to the author's direct contact with her subject; Gonzales has obviously interviewed her extensively. The bibliography is modest enough to entice rather than threaten reluctant younger readers and yet comprehensive enough to suggest to more scholarly readers that Gonzales has done her homework. While she is admiring and discreet, she has not sheltered or distorted the facts; even L'Engle's irritability in the morning hours comes through. The one shortfall of the book is the poor quality of some of the black-and-white photographs. Still, their informality and their unique, if somewhat second-rate photographic technique, give a sense of history to one of the great women in children's literature. --Ruth K. MacDonald, Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, IN

Through a Glass Darkly: The Life of Patrick Hamilton


Nigel Jones - 1991
    This biography makes full use of much of Patrick Hamilton's own letters and notes, and is sharply insightful in its picture of this contradictory writer.

Carl Sandburg: A Biography


Penelope Niven - 1991
    The first major biography of Carl Sandburg, this is a remarkable portrait of the populist, the journalist, the orator, the biographer of Lincoln, and, ultimately, the best-loved poet of America's heartland. 16 pages of photographs.

I'll Gather My Geese


Hallie Crawford Stillwell - 1991
    Hallie's father, considering this a dangerous place for a young woman of nineteen to live alone, told her he thought she was going on a wild goose chase. "Then I'll gather my geese," she told him, with determination and independence. These traits stayed with Hallie all her life, and were indispensable in her role as a ranch wife. Raised as a "proper" Southern woman, Hallie was not prepared for the difficulties she faced when she moved to her new home, the Stillwell Ranch, in 1918. But she quickly became an invaluable part of the workings on the ranch. She watched and learned from her husband, Roy Stillwell, and she adjusted to the new life-style that she grew to love. The ranch hands, who thought she would only last six months, came to respect her and her abilities to do as much work as any man on the ranch. They became a family. Then Roy and Hallie started a family of their own. Three children were a handful, and the Stillwell family split its time between the ranch and a home in town. On the ranch outside Marathon, near the Mexican border, work was hard and joy came in the simple things. After working cattle all day, relaxing under the arbor in front of the house was a pleasure. Hallie had a favorite rock out behind the house, and she often sat on it to watch the sun set, take a break from her energetic youngsters, or otherwise gain some tranquility and perspective.The ranch and its inhabitants survived two world wars, the depression, droughts, an influenza epidemic, as well as the everyday troubles of ranching in the Big Bend country. Hallie's story, told in a personal and engaging way, is fascinating reading for anyone interested in the history of pioneering ranching in Texas.

Up From The Rubble


Peter J. Dyck - 1991
    Readers can re-live those incredible days following World War II when the Dycks helped Mennonite refugees escape from war-torn Europe and to find new homes in South America and Canada. In addition to the epic story, the book contains many photos.Read a tribute to Peter Dyck. http://www.mpn.net/news/january10/pet...

Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait


David Dubal - 1991
    The book is a vivid account of their mutual passion for music and the piano. It reflects the struggles and triumphs of Vladimir Horowitz, a flaming genius who was also insecure and

Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story


Henrietta C. Mears - 1991
    Henrietta Mears had the courage and faith to dream big, and she inspired the people she touched to do the same.

Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham


Agnes De Mille - 1991
    32 pages of photographs.

Matisse, Picasso, Miro--as I Knew Them


Rosamond Bernier - 1991
    350 reproductions and photographs, 200 in full color.

The World Is My Home: A Memoir


James A. Michener - 1991
    Michener was “a Renaissance man, adventurous, inquisitive, unpretentious and unassuming, with an encyclopedic mind and a generous heart” (The New York Times Book Review). In this exceptional memoir, the man himself tells the story of his remarkable life and describes the people, events, and ideas that shaped it. Moving backward and forward across time, he writes about the many strands of his experience: his passion for travel; his lifelong infatuation with literature, music, and painting; his adventures in politics; and the hard work, headaches, and rewards of the writing life. Here at last is the real James Michener: plainspoken, wise, and enormously sympathetic, a man who could truly say, “The world is my home.”  Praise for The World Is My Home   “Michener’s own life makes one of his most engaging tales—a classic American success story.”—Entertainment Weekly   “The Michener saga is as full of twists as any of his monumental works. . . . His output, his political interests, his patriotic service, his diligence, and the breadth of his readership are matched only by the great nineteenth-century writers whose works he devoured as he grew up—Dickens, Balzac, Mark Twain.”—Chicago Tribune   “There are splendid yarns about [Michener’s] wartime doings in the South Pacific. There are hilarious cautionary tales about his service on government commissions. There are wonderful inside stories from the publishing business. And always there is Michener himself—analyzing his own character, assessing himself as a writer, chronicling his intellectual life, giving advice to young writers.”—The Plain Dealer   “A sweepingly interesting life . . . Whether he’s having an epiphany over a campout in New Guinea with head-hunting cannibals or getting politically charged by the melodrama of great opera, James A. Michener’s world is a place and a time worth reading about.”—The Christian Science Monitor

The Haunting of Sylvia Plath


Jacqueline Rose - 1991
    Jacqueline Rose stands back from the debates and looks instead at the swirl of controversy, recognizing it as a phenomenon in itself--one with much to tell us about how a culture selects and judges writers; how we hear women's voices; and how we receive messages from, to, and about our unconscious selves.

No Minor Chords: My Days in Hollywood


André Previn - 1991
    He was a quick learner, and he went on to win several Academy Awards and to fashion the scores of such films as "Gigi", "Porgy and Bess" and "My Fair Lady". In this memoir Previn recalls his years in Hollywood in the Golden Age from 1948 to 1964. Andre Previn is the author of "Music Face to Face" and "Andre Previn's Guide to Music".

Tex Johnston: Jet-Age Test Pilot


A.M. Johnston - 1991
    One of America's most daring and accomplished test pilots, Johnston helped develop the jet age at Bell Aircraft and Boeing. At Bell, he tested the XS-1, and at Boeing the XB-47 (the first six-jet engine bomber), the XB-52 bomber, and the 707 series of jets -- including a famous barrel-roll above a crowd gathered for the Gold Cup Hydroplane Races in Seattle, Wash.

Horizon Bound on a Bicycle: The Autobiography of Eyvind Earle


Eyvind Earle - 1991
    

John Wayne: My Father


Aissa Wayne - 1991
    The result is an affecting portrait that offers a new perspective on one of America's most enduring hero's humanity.

Submarine Diary: The Silent Stalking of Japan


Corwin Mendenhall - 1991
    submarines in the Pacific during World War II.

The Beethoven Compendium (A Guide to Beethoven's Life and Music)


Barry Cooper - 1991
    The Beethoven Comendium, written by four leading Beethoven scholars in the light of the latest research into this perennially fascinating figure, is the key to a full understanding of Beethoven:his charachter, his social life, his religious beliefs, his politics, his times, and above all, his music.

Goatwalking: a Guide to Wildland Living


Jim Corbett - 1991
    Corbett has spent much of his life as a cowboy, goat herder, range analyst, and teacher of wildland symbiotics. Now he offers a wealth of backcountry knowledge, illuminated by his strongly felt philosophy.

Bernard Shaw: The One-Volume Definitive Edition


Michael Holroyd - 1991
    In a single-volume format, Michael Holroyd's masterpiece of a biography offers new verve and pace; Shaw's world is more dramatically revealed as Holroyd counterpoints the private and public Shaw with inimitable insight and scholarship.

Cancer in Two Voices


Sandra Butler - 1991
    Winner of a 1992 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Homestead: Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility


Jane Kirkpatrick - 1991
    A NONFICTION ADVENTURE. VERY INTERESTING.CHECK OUR STORE FRONT FOR GREAT BOOKS & CDs. FAST SERVICE.-24-

Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed


John Stephens Gray - 1991
    Hedren, Western Historical Quarterly "[Gray] has applied rigorous analysis as no previous historian has done to these oft-analyzed events. His detailed time-motion study of the movements of the various participants frankly boggles the mind of this reviewer. No one will be able to write of this battle again without reckoning with Gray"-Thomas W. Dunlay, Journal of American History "Gray challenges many time honored beliefs about the battle. Perhaps most significantly, he brings in as much as possible the testimony of the Indian witnesses, especially that of the young scout Curley, which generations of historians have dismissed for contradictions that Gray convincingly demonstrates were caused not by Curley but by the assumptions made by his questioners . . . The contrasts in [this] book. . . restate the basic components of what still attracts the imagination to the Little Bighorn."-Los Angeles Times Book Review "Gray's analysis, by and large, is impressively drawn; it is an immensely logical reconstruction that should stand the test of time. As a contribution to Custer and Indian wars literature, it is indeed masterful."-Jerome A. Greene, New Mexico Historical Review John S. Gray was a distinguished historian whose books included the acclaimed Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876. Custer's Last Campaign is the winner of the Western Writers of American Spur award and the Little Bighorn Associates John M. Carroll Literary Award.

Jewels And Ashes


Arnold Zable - 1991
    Zable travels from Australia to the Eastern European countryside of his parents' remembrance to understand the present-the inner lives of those who, like his parents, survived the hatred but lost every trace of family. Winner of top Australian literary awards.

Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Very Private Life


Robert Bernard Martin - 1991
    Yet in his lifetime he was almost entirely unpublished, and only a handful of his close friends knew that he wrote poetry at all. On his death, many of Hopkins' poems, together with most of his other papers, were burned by his fellow Jesuits who did not realize what they had in their midst; and they were to guard closely what remained, until now. Robert Bernard Martin is the first biographer to have had unrestricted access to Hopkins' surviving papers. The result is as complete a biography of this astonishingly immediate poet as we are ever likely to achieve. It is also, in places, revelatory. Martin shows that the homosexuality many have found latent in Hopkins' poetry blossomed in his undergraduate love for a flamboyant friend Digby Dolben. He also shows how, though Hopkins' chaotic psyche needed the structure which life as a Jesuit gave him, the severity of its discipline inevitably constricted his creative faculty, at times almost to the point of strangulation. Despite the obscurity of Hopkins' life, his surviving work marks him as a central figure in English literature.

The Last Days of John Lennon: A Personal Memoir


Frederic Seaman - 1991
    Here is his revealing memoir of Lennon, including Lennon's virtual imprisonment in his apartment house, his obsession with food and sex, the Lennons's colossal shopping sprees, John and Yoko's fascination with the Occult, John's premonition of his violent death, and more. 24 pages of never-before-seen photographs. (Performing Arts)

Sobukwe and Apartheid


Benjamin Pogrund - 1991
    His long imprisonment, restriction, and early death were a major tragedy for our land and for the world.""Pogrund's book is welcome not just because it bears witness to the real complexity of black liberation politics but as a monument to a fine and remarkable man . . . who gave voice to the voiceless."--New Statesman & Society"This is a moving story well told. . . . It is based on unique knowledge and documents, written with all the fluency, commitment and authority of the reporter who himself enraged the regime by exposing conditions in South African prisons."--The Guardian, LondonThirty years ago, Robert Sobukwe led a mass defiance of the pass laws in South Africa. He persuaded blacks to present themselves at police stations and demand arrest, but the nonviolent protest turned to tragedy when the police opened fire, killing sixty-nine. It was March 21, 1960, at Sharpeville, Sobukwe's last day of liberty. He died nearly eighteen years later of lung cancer. Leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress, Sobukwe was both a colleague and rival of figures better known today: Tutu, Mandela, and Buthelezi. Because the Pan-Africanist idea was not in the end supported by the anti-Apartheid leadership, Sobukwe and his contributions have been largely forgotten. It is more than appropriate that his story be told now. Understanding his life is essential to a full understanding of the tensions among contemporary black leaders in South Africa.

The Jameses: A Family Narrative


R.W.B. Lewis - 1991
    LewisThis fascinating account of a remarkable American family, the Jameses, traces the origins, development, and flowering of perhaps the most outstanding intellectual family American has ever produced. Its most famous members - William James, foremost psychologist and progressive thinker of his time; Henry James, great novelist and man of letters; and their brilliant sister, Alice James, political radical and lifelong invalid - were devoted siblings who suffered from an inevitable (and sometimes unconscious) sense of rivalry. The two younger brothers - Garth Wilkinson (Wilky), a war hero wounded in the Civil War, and Robertson (Bob), who had troubles as an alcoholic - felt the James family pressures and had tragic stories of their own.Even if the James family hadn't given us both William the philosopher and psychologist, and Henry the novelist, the story of this quirky, wealthy, socially prominent clan would still be riveting. Full of incidents that would become legendary, The Jameses brings to life 150 years of unforgettable American history.

Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821


Margaret Law Callcott - 1991
    . . These superb letters are enhanced by able editing, both in footnotes and excellent essays at the beginning and end. --Washington Post Book WorldCallcott is a suberb editor; she has exhaustively researched every aspect of Calvert's life, and her introductory and concluding essays, including an account of George Calvert's relationship with a slave woman, which produced five children, contain much information of interest. --Elizabeth R. Baer, Belles LettresThese letters document the timeless elements of domestic life--family relationships, childbirth, illness, househld chores--but they offer far more than the familiar fare of the plantation mistress.--Patricia Brady, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight


Cecil R. Roseberry - 1991
    C. R. Roseberry's biography begins with Curtiss's years in Hammondsport, New York, his experiments with designing and learning to fly his own airplanes, and his many firsts in aviation history. Establishing one of the first aviation schools, Curtiss also developed a highly successful aviation company and designed one of the most popular early American planes--the Curtiss JN-4 (the Jenny).More than just a biography, this is also a well-documented history of the development of aviation and the key figures associated with it during the first three crucial decades of this century. Through an examination of Curtiss's dealings with people such as Alexander Graham Bell, his original partner, and Wilbur and Orville Wright, his most important rivals, Roseberry provides insight into the overall development of flight in America.Aviation enthusiasts, historians, those interested in American technology and industry, and all who enjoy a good story will welcome this book.

Wisdom of the 90's


George Burns - 1991
    But miracles seem to come easily for George, who is America's most beloved nonagenarian author. Here he delivers wit, charm and sage advice with laughter and the puff of a cigar. Photographs throughout.

Memories: The Autobiography of Ralph Emery


Ralph Emery - 1991
    Now he documents those years in this uplifting rags-to-riches story filled with anecdotes both humorous and touching. The story of a man who "is to country music what Dick Clark is to rock 'n' roll".--Ronnie Milsap. Photographs.

Secrets of the Universe: Essays on Family, Community, Spirit, and Place


Scott Russell Sanders - 1991
    Ranging from an autobiographical tour-de-force that describes a childhood spent with an alcoholic father to "Looking at Women," a reflection on male yearning and confusion, to a look at the place—or absence—of nature in recent American fiction.

Monet: The Ultimate Impressionist


Sylvie Patin - 1991
    In 1874 his Impression, Sunrise caused uproar among the critics and a revolution in painting. His inventiveness was inexhaustible: with the Haystacks, Poplars, Cathedrals and, finally, the enchanting Water-lilies of Givemy, Monet captured light in all its fleeting qualities. At last, almost blind - I fear the dark more than death- he feverishly produced near-abstract landscapes of water and reflection, a vision of nature that paved the way for the art of our own day. This book traces his career.