About fathers and sons. It’s about memory and identity, and an insidious illness that can rob a person of both.It’s also a detective story, an investigation into the improbable journey of a baseball bat from one of the most iconic moments in baseball history to a 12-year-old boy’s bedroom.

    This impeccably British character created by author Ian Fleming has starred in 23 EON-produced films, played by 6 different actors over five decades. To celebrate 50 years of this innovative franchise, EON Productions opened their archives of photos, designs, storyboards, and production materials to editor Paul Duncan, who spent two years researching over one million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation. The result is the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made, beginning with Dr. No (1962) and ending with the upcoming Skyfall (2012), including the spoof Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983). The stunning imagery is accompanied by an oral history recounted by over 150 cast and crew members, relating the true inside story of how the Bond films were made. Containing previously unpublished photography and artwork, as well as production memos from filming, this book is a comprehensive tribute to the legend of James Bond.Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the most successful and longest-running film franchise in cinema history! Made with unrestricted access to the Bond archives, this XL tome recounts the entire history of James Bond in words and pictures Among the 1,100 images are many previously unseen stills, on-set photos, memos, documents, storyboards, posters, and designs, plus unused concepts, and alternative designs Behind-the-scenes stories from the people who were there: producers, directors, actors, screenwriters, production designers, special effects technicians, stuntmen, and other crew members Includes every Bond film ever made, from Dr. No (1962) to Skyfall (2012) Special bonus included with the first print run of the book only: an original strip of film from Dr. No James Bond films © 1962–2012 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved.Also available in 2 Art Editions, each limited to 250 copies.

    This New York Times Notable Book of the Year is a trip down memory lane to the days when baseball was king and baseball cards ruled the schoolyard. In fuller-than-living-color, the authors present more than two hundred baseball cards with outrageously funny bios, accompanied by definitive observations on trading, hoarding, collecting, flipping, "and other aberrations of the baseball card life." With a new introduction, this irreverent and affectionate look at baseball in the halcyon days of the 1950s ("before the graphics got better and the game got worse") is sure to appeal to even the most sober of baseball fans.

    In fact, for the first two years they were published, Wacky Packages were the only Topps product to achieve higher sales than their flagship line of baseball cards. The series has been relaunched several times over the years, most recently to great success in 2007.Known affectionately among collectors as “Wacky Packs,” as a creative force with artist Art Spiegelman, the stickers were illustrated by such notable comics artists as Kim Deitch, , Bill Griffith, Jay Lynch, and Norm Saunders.This first-ever collection of Series One through Series Seven (from 1973 and 1974) celebrates the 35th anniversary of Wacky Packages and is sure to amuse collectors and fans young and old.

     The perfect gift for graduates or for the holidays, this title encourages readers to express their own unique creativity and sense of humor.

    First identified as valuable in the 1930s, when the whole notion of card collecting was still young, the T206 Wagner has remained the big score for collectors who have scoured card shows, flea markets, estate sales, and auctions for the portrait of baseball's greatest shortstop.Only a few dozen T206 Wagners are known to still exist. Most, with their creases, stains, and dog-eared corners, look worn and tattered, like they've been around for almost a century. But one—The Card—appears to have defied the travails of time. Thanks to its sharp corners and its crisp portrait of Honus Wagner, The Card has become the most famous and desired baseball card in the world.Over the decades, as The Card has changed hands, its value has skyrocketed. It was initially sold for $25,000 by a small card shop in a nondescript strip mall. Years later, hockey great Wayne Gretzky bought it at the venerable Sotheby's auction house for $451,000. Then, more recently, it sold for $1.27 million on eBay. Today worth over $2 million, it has transformed a sleepy hobby into a billion-dollar industry that is at times as lawless as the Wild West. The Card has made men wealthy, certainly, but it has also poisoned lifelong friendships and is fraught with controversy—from its uncertain origins and the persistent questions about its provenance to the possibility that it is not exactly as it seems.Now for the first time, award-winning investigative reporters Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson follow the trail of The Card from a Florida flea market to the hands of the world's most prominent collectors. They delve into a world of counterfeiters and con men and look at the people who profit from what used to be a kids' pastime, as they bring to light ongoing investigations into sports collectibles. O'Keeffe and Thompson also examine the life of the great Honus Wagner, a ballplayer whose accomplishments have been eclipsed by his trading card, and the strange and fascinating subculture of sports memorabilia and its astonishing decline.Intriguing and eye-opening, The Card is a ground-breaking look at a uniquely American hobby.

    Fascinating sidebars and contemporary documents tells the story of the war in the voices of those who experienced it. The interactive CD-ROM features a multimedia Civil War strategy game. 800+ photos, many in color. 3-D maps. Printed endpapers. Full-cloth case.

    Its portrayal of the Duke of Windsor as a Nazi sympathizer--who would stop at nothing to hide it--is sure to make headlines. Black-and-white photographs.

    But from the 1930s to the 1960s, he was the voice of New York City. Readers of The New Yorker cherished his intimate sketches of the people who made the city tick—from Mohawk steelworkers to Staten Island oystermen, from homeless intellectual Joe Gould to Old John McSorley, founder of the city’s most famous saloon. Mitchell’s literary sensibility combined with a journalistic eye for detail produced a writing style that would inspire New Journalism luminaries such as Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, and Joan Didion.   Then, all of a sudden, his stories stopped appearing. For thirty years, Mitchell showed up for work at The New Yorker, but he produced . . . nothing. Did he have something new and exciting in store? Was he working on a major project? Or was he bedeviled by an epic case of writer’s block?   The first full-length biography of Joseph Mitchell, based on the thousands of archival pages he left behind and dozens of interviews, Man in Profile pieces together the life of this beloved and enigmatic literary legend and answers the question that has plagued readers and critics for decades: What was Joe Mitchell doing all those years?   By the time of his death in 1996, Mitchell was less well known for his elegant writing than for his J. D. Salinger–like retreat from the public eye. For thirty years, Mitchell had wandered the streets of New York, chronicling the lives of everyday people and publishing them in the most prestigious publication in town. But by the 1970s, crime, homelessness, and a crumbling infrastructure had transformed the city Mitchell understood so well and spoke for so articulately. He could barely recognize it. As he said to a friend late in life, “I’m living in a state of confusion.”   Fifty years after his last story appeared, and almost two decades after his death, Joseph Mitchell still has legions of fans, and his story—especially the mystery of his “disappearance”—continues to fascinate. With a colorful cast of characters that includes Harold Ross, A. J. Liebling, Tina Brown, James Thurber, and William Shawn, Man in Profile goes a long way to solving that mystery—and bringing this lion of American journalism out of the shadows that once threatened to swallow him.  Praise for Man in Profile   “[An] authoritative new biography [about] our greatest literary journalist . . . Kunkel is the ideal biographer of Joseph Mitchell: As . . . a writer and craftsman worthy of his subject.”—Blake Bailey, The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)   “A richly persuasive portrait of a man who cared about everybody and everything.”—London Review of Books“Mitchell’s life and achievements are brought vividly alive in [this] splendid book.”—Chicago Tribune“A thoughtful and sympathetic new biography.”—Ruth Franklin, The Atlantic   “Excellent . . . A first-rate Mitchell biography was very much in order.”—The Wall Street Journal

    Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks's greatest creation may have been himself.As The Atlantic Monthly noted, "Todd McCarthy . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work." "A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed." -- The New York Times Book Review; "Hawks's life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy's wise and funny Howard Hawks." -- The Wall Street Journal; "Excellent . . . a respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood's most versatile director." -- Newsweek.

    For more than ten years, the author was granted access to DeLay's classes and lessons at Juilliard and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and this book reveals DeLay's deep intuition of each student's needs. An exploration of the mysteries of teaching and learning, it includes a feast of anecdotes about an extraordinary character.

    This small volume, first published in 1971, became one of his signature works. Taken between 1920 and 1970, these photographs capture people reading in many parts of the world. Readers in every conceivable place—on rooftops, in public parks, on crowded streets, waiting in the wings of the school play—are caught in a deeply personal, yet universal, moment. Kertész's images celebrate the absorptive power and pleasure of this solitary activity and speak to readers everywhere. Fans of photography and literature alike will welcome this reissue of this classic work that has long been out of print.

    No matter where else on earth conflicts raged, leaders on both sides understood that whoever won the Battle of the Atlantic would win the war. From the start, Germany had the advantage with the diabolically devised encryption machine known as Enigma. Breaking the Enigma codes became the singleminded obsession of a brilliant band of mathematicians, chess champions, and linguists who labored on behalf of the Allied cause behind closed doors at an English estate called Bletchley Park. In this book, cryptologist David Kahn recounts the story of the dramatic race between codemakers and codebreakers, focusing on the personalities involved, describing the at-sea captures of encryption keys that led to the Allied breakthrough, and depicting the enormous impact this information had on the most cataclysmic war in history. B&W photos.

    The sports page chronicles man's triumphs." So the adage goes, never more true than when surveying 100 years of American history through its coverage of sports. From Bobby Knight to Bobby Fischer, from Secretariat to Sugar Ray, from Butkus to the Babe, the 20th century abounds with classic figures in sports history. Their compelling stories fuel our collective memory. In the pieces assembled here, The Best American Sports Writing of the Century captures these indelible moments in words worth a thousand pictures. Working with series editor Glenn Stout (Best American Sports Writing 1999 etc.), Pulitzer-Prize winner David Halberstam (The Summer of '49, Playing For Keeps:Michael Jordan & the World He Made) selects the century's most engaging sports journalism. While the task was surely a challenge, the result is a near-seamless retrospective of contemporary athleticism. The pieces are contemporaneous with the events recounted, infusing the entire collection with an intimate immediacy. You are there — with Joe DiMaggio, Junior Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Branch Rickey — again & again. The writing is uniformly excellent, mixing some familiar choices with otherwise overlooked gems. However, one criticism must be noted: This is for fans of men's endeavors, for women hardly appear in the 800-plus pages. No exquisite essays on Wilma Rudolph's struggles to achieve Olympic gold. No mention of Chris Evert's importance to tennis. No hymns of praise for Peggy Fleming's inspiring skating. Nohyperboleabout Shirley Muldowney's drag racing prowess. No Mary Decker, no Nancy Lopez, no Picabo Street. Perhaps a companion volume is in the offing. For capturing 10 decades of achievement by the men, tho, no tribute could be finer. Whether rejoicing on the quietude of fishing (Thomas McGuane, The Longest Silence, 1969) or the cacophony of Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning heroics (Red Smith, Miracle of Coogan's Bluff, 1951), the writing is evocative and timeless. Some athletic greats are viewed as their careers are poised to explode (Tiger Woods in 1997's The Chosen One, by Gary Smith). Others are glimpsed in the rearview mirror: DiMaggio in 1966's The Silent Season of a Hero, by Gay Talese; Ty Cobb in 1961's The Fight to Live, by Al Stump; & Billy Conigliaro in 1989's "A Brother's Keeper," by Mike Lupica. In a marvelous choice, Halberstam concludes the book with six essays on Ali. The selections represent the full spectrum of his athletic and public career, from cocksure Cassius Marcellus Clay (Murray Kempton, "The Champ and the Chump," 1964) to reflective disciple of Islam (Dick Schaap, "Muhammad Ali Then and Now," 1971) to resurrected warrior in Manila (Mark Kram, "Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great," 1975) & beyond.

    the eighth edition of Total Baseball: the ultimate baseball encyclopedia is the most striking, compelling and comprehensive single volume ever devoted to America's pastime.