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Showing 601 - 620 of 1463 items
By David Leeming. 1994
James Baldwin was one of the great writers of the last century. In works that have become part of the…
American canon-Go Tell It on a Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, Another Country, The Fire Next Time, and The Evidence of Things Not Seen-he explored issues of race and racism in America, class distinction, and sexual difference. A gay, African American writer who was born in Harlem, he found the freedom to express himself living in exile in Paris. When he returned to America to cover the Civil Rights movement, he became an activist and controversial spokesman for the movement, writing books that became bestsellers and made him a celebrity, landing him on the cover of Time.In this biography, which Library Journal called "indispensable,” David Leeming creates an intimate portrait of a complex, troubled, driven, and brilliant man. He plumbs every aspect of Baldwin’s life: his relationships with the unknown and the famous, including painter Beauford Delaney, Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, and childhood friend Richard Avedon; his expatriate years in France and Turkey; his gift for compassion and love; the public pressures that overwhelmed his quest for happiness, and his passionate battle for black identity, racial justice, and to "end the racial nightmare and achieve our country.”Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Jed Perl, Sandra Calder Davidson. 2013
Alexander Calder was one of the most original artists of the twentieth century and a major figure in American art.…
Renowned for his mobiles and stabiles, he also created the beloved Calder Circus, an early performance piece now preserved at the Whitney Museum. He was a contemporary and friend of Marcel Duchamp and Joan Miró and collaborated with Martha Graham. His wife, Louisa, was a grandniece of Henry and William James, a liberal society girl from Boston who loved to entertain. Both were characters, full of joie de vivre. When they moved their family to Roxbury, Connecticut, they became a mainstay in a community that included Arthur Miller and Saul Steinberg, who would come to their parties.In this unique and beautiful work, Sandra Calder Davidson remembers growing up as the daughter of this larger-than-life pair and celebrates the family--the children and grandchildren--that grew out of their loving home. Sandra has a gift for caricaturing people as animals--her father as a circus lion, Louisa as a nippy fox--and the book is organized around these portraits, accompanied by vivid recollections and anecdotes about the subjects. The "other critters" include, besides Miller and Steinberg, other family friends and whimsical fauna she has encountered, like St. Louis Cardinal fans in full cardinal regalia or a Florida gator at a cocktail party for retirees.Celebrating family and the joyful dance of life, here is a book with the freshness and grace of a Calder mobile.By Krista Schlyer. 2015
What do you do when your world ends? At twenty-eight years old, Krista Schlyer sold almost everything she owned and…
packed the rest of it in a station wagon bound for the American wild. Her two best friends joined her--one a grumpy, grieving introvert, the other a feisty dog--and together they sought out every national park, historic site, forest, and wilderness they could get to before their money ran out or their minds gave in. The journey began as a desperate escape from urban isolation, heartbreak, and despair, but became an adventure beyond imagining. Chronicling their colorful escapade, Almost Anywhere explores the courage, cowardice, and heroics that live in all of us, as well as the life of nature and the nature of life. This eloquent and accessible memoir is at once an immersion in the pain of losing someone particularly close and especially young and a healing journey of a broken life given over to the whimsy and humor of living on the road.By Lucinda Hawksley. 2018
A biography of a Victorian-era woman who grew up as the daughter of novelist Charles Dickens—and found a creative career…
of her own. Katey Dickens was born into a house of turbulent celebrity and grew up surrounded by fascinating, famous, and infamous people. From a very young age, she knew her vocation was to be an artist. Lucinda Hawksley charts the life of a celebrated portrait painter who redefines our preconceptions about Victorian women. Living to be almost ninety, Katey survived an unconventional marriage, love affairs, heartbreak, depression, and the challenges of being a female artist in a male-dominated era. Compelling and illuminating, this biography of Katey Dickens tells the story of a spirited woman who found fame at the center of the first celebrity phenomenon; it also uncovers the reality of what it was like to be a child of Charles and Catherine Dickens.By Steven Naifeh, Gregory White Smith. 2011
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who galvanized readers with their Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Jackson Pollock, have written another…
tour de force—an exquisitely detailed, compellingly readable portrait of Vincent van Gogh. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials to bring a crucial understanding to the larger-than-life mythology of this great artist: his early struggles to find his place in the world; his intense relationship with his brother Theo; and his move to Provence, where he painted some of the best-loved works in Western art. The authors also shed new light on many unexplored aspects of Van Gogh’s inner world: his erratic and tumultuous romantic life; his bouts of depression and mental illness; and the cloudy circumstances surrounding his death at the age of thirty-seven. Though countless books have been written about Van Gogh, no serious, ambitious examination of his life has been attempted in more than seventy years. Naifeh and Smith have re-created Van Gogh’s life with an astounding vividness and psychological acuity that bring a completely new and sympathetic understanding to this unique artistic genius. NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER Praise forVan Gogh: The Life “Magisterial. ”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “This generation’s definitive portrait of the great Dutch post-Impressionist. ”—Time “A tour de force . . . an enormous achievement . . . Reading his life story is like riding an endless roller coaster of delusional highs and lows. . . . [A] sweepingly authoritative, astonishingly textured book. ”—Los Angeles Times “Marvelous . . . [Van Gogh] reads like a novel, full of suspense and intimate detail. . . . In beautiful prose, Naifeh and Smith argue convincingly for a subtler, more realistic evaluation of Van Gogh, and we all win. ”—The Washington Post “Brilliant . . . At once a model of scholarship and an emotive, pacy chunk of hagiography. ”—The Daily Telegraph(London) ANEW YORK TIMESNOTABLE BOOK NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYTHE WASHINGTON POST • THE WALL STREET JOURNAL • SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE• NPR •THE ECONOMIST • NEWSDAY• BOOKREPORTERBy Arthur Hoyle. 2014
Henry Miller was one of the most distinctive voices in twentieth-century literature. Better known in Europe than in his native…
America for most of this career, he achieved international success and celebrity during the 1960s when his banned "Paris" books-beginning with Tropic of Cancer-were published here and judged by the Supreme Court not to be obscene. Until then he had toiled in relative obscurity and poverty. The Unknown Henry Miller recounts Miller's career from its beginnings in Paris in the 1930s but focuses on his years living in Big Sur, California, from 1944 to 1961, during which he wrote many of his most important books, including The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, married and divorced twice, raised two children, painted watercolors, and tried to live out an aesthetic and personal credo of self-realization.Written with the cooperation of the Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and other estates, The Unknown Henry Miller quotes extensively from Miller's correspondence in order to offer the reader direct experience of the author and man. It also draws on material not available to previous biographers, including interviews with Lepska Warren, Miller's third wife, and revelations from unpublished portions of Anais Nin's diaries. Behind the "bad boy" image, the author finds a man with devoted friendships, whose challenge of literary sexual taboos was part of a broader assault on the dehumanization of man and commercialization during the postwar years. He puts Miller's alleged misogyny in the context of his satire of sexual mores in general, and makes the case for restoring this groundbreaking writer to his rightful place in the American literary canon.By Lyn Kidder. 2014
Ruidoso, New Mexico, has long offered a cool, verdant haven to the many visitors who come to escape the desert…
heat. Commercial development of the area was hampered by the sheer difficulty in getting there--"You just picked your way through the sand dunes, following someone else's tire tracks," an early visitor recalled. Eventually, the first private cabins in Ruidoso were built in 1915 and a few primitive lodging facilities were added in the 1920s and 1930s. The local economy slowed during the Great Depression, but visitors still came to the cool pines. World War II brought an influx of servicemen from nearby air bases, but it was during the period of postwar enthusiasm that the town really began to grow. Word spread about the little town in the tall pines, due in large part to the efforts of one of its newest residents--photographer Carmon Phillips.By Jan Greenberg, Sandra Jordan. 2001
Vincent van Gogh-- one of the 19th century' s most brilliant artists-- will forever be remembered as the Dutchman who…
cut off his ear. But this incident only underscores the passion that consumed him-- a passion that, when he took up painting at age 27, infused his work. Whether painting a portrait, a landscape, or a still life, van Gogh sought to capture the vibrant spirit of his subject. It didn't matter that others found his work too unconventional. Van Gogh persevered. And as he moved from the cold climate of Holland to balmy southern France, he pioneered a new technique and style. In a career spanning only a decade, van Gogh painted many great works, yet fame eluded him. This lack of recognition increased his self-doubts and bitter disappointments. Today, however, van Gogh stands as a giant among artists. [This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 6-8 at http://www.corestandards.org.] Winner of the Sibert HonorBy Robert Benchley. 2016
When Robert Benchley died in 1945, his obituaries read like love-letters from the world. Here is a collection of his…
short, whimsical, hilarious articles which show why.With befuddled and heroic bewilderment Benchley faces his problems. Among others are the mislaid locomotive, a dachshund who sued for libel, and a songbird who was "out to get" Benchley.It ends with five sizzling chapters of his "Untold Story," starting when, as an innocent young man from the country (Boston), he arrived in the city (New York) looking for pitfalls. (It was a holiday and they were all closed.)"...it is a saga of the gaga, and probably not far from his masterpiece."--New York TimesA rare gem of a book!Illustrated by Gluyas WilliamsBy Donald Hall. 2018
New essays from the vantage point of very old age, once again “alternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny,”* from the former…
poet laureate of the United States * New York Times Donald Hall lived a remarkable life of letters, one capped most recently by the New York Times bestseller Essays After Eighty, a “treasure” of a book in which he “balance[s] frankness about losses with humor and gratitude” (Washington Post). Before his passing in 2018, nearing ninety, Hall delivered this new collection of self-knowing, fierce, and funny essays on aging, the pleasures of solitude, and the sometimes astonishing freedoms arising from both. He intersperses memories of exuberant days—as in Paris, 1951, with a French girl memorably inclined to say, “I couldn’t care less”—with writing, visceral and hilarious, on what he has called the “unknown, unanticipated galaxy” of extreme old age. “Why should a nonagenarian hold anything back?” Hall answers his own question by revealing several vivid instances of “the worst thing I ever did," and through equally uncensored tales of literary friendships spanning decades, with James Wright, Richard Wilbur, Seamus Heaney, and other luminaries. Cementing his place alongside Roger Angell and Joan Didion as a generous and profound chronicler of loss, Hall returns to the death of his beloved wife, Jane Kenyon, in an essay as original and searing as anything he's written in his extraordinary literary lifetime.By Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, Lady Thelma Furness. 2017
In 1921 there burst upon the New York social scene the famous Morgan twins, Thelma and Gloria, whose names in…
the decade that followed came to spell glamour and excitement in that magic world of the “international set.” Two continents thrilled to Thelma Furness’s romances with Richard Bennett, Lord Furness, the Prince of Wales, Aly Khan, and Edmund Lowe. The whole world followed with bated breath the searing custody trial over young Gloria that pitted mother against daughter and shook the Vanderbilts and society. While much has been written from the outside about all of this, the two principals have never before disclosed the real truth behind the rumors and the headlines. And exciting as are their personal adventures and escapades, their story is also a portrait of an era.In every age there have been certain women who through a combination of beauty and personality have attracted the love and admiration of rich or famous men, and who seem to be the embodiments of the feminine charm of the period. The Edwardian era had its Lily Langtry, the Napoleonic its Josephine, the eighteenth century its Du Barry and its Lady Hamilton—and so on back to antiquity. In our time, among those women who have come close to fitting this role are Lady Furness and Gloria Vanderbilt.From childhood each had the elusive qualities that characterize the femme fatale. Both knew the love of many men, both suffered deeply, and now both have happily risen above the vicissitudes of their checkered careers and face the future with gallantry, humor, and without rancor or bitterness over the past. In this spirit, and with all sincerity, they have set down the story of their lives.In Double Exposure, we are given a matchless picture of life among the great—and the near-great—in the now-vanished world between the two wars. Above all, we come to know the minds and hearts and philosophy of life and love of two fascinating women, and something of the nature of fascination itself.By Mark Lamster. 2018
When Philip Johnson died in 2005 at the age of 98, he was still one of the most recognizable--and influential--figures…
on the American cultural landscape. The first recipient of the Pritzker Prize and MoMA's founding architectural curator, Johnson made his mark as one of America's leading architects with his famous Glass House in New Caanan, CT, and his controversial AT&T Building in NYC, among many others in nearly every city in the country--but his most natural role was as a consummate power broker and shaper of public opinion.Johnson introduced European modernism--the sleek, glass-and-steel architecture that now dominates our cities--to America, and mentored generations of architects, designers, and artists to follow. He defined the era of "starchitecture" with its flamboyant buildings and celebrity designers who esteemed aesthetics and style above all other concerns. But Johnson was also a man of deep paradoxes: he was a Nazi sympathizer, a designer of synagogues, an enfant terrible into his old age, a populist, and a snob. His clients ranged from the Rockefellers to televangelists to Donald Trump.Award-winning architectural critic and biographer Mark Lamster's THE MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE lifts the veil on Johnson's controversial and endlessly contradictory life to tell the story of a charming yet deeply flawed man. A rollercoaster tale of the perils of wealth, privilege, and ambition, this book probes the dynamics of American culture that made him so powerful, and tells the story of the built environment in modern America.By Deborah Copaken Kogan. 2000
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to Romania to Haiti, Kogan takes her readers on a heartbreaking yet surprisingly hilarious journey through…
a mine-strewn decade, seamlessly blending her personal battles with the historical ones it was her job to record. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.By Duncan Hannah. 2018
A celebrated New York City painter's rollicking and vividly immediate account of his life amid the city's glamorous demimondes in…
their most vital era as an aspiring artist, roaring boy, dandy, cultural omnivore, and far-from-obscure object of desire. Duncan Hannah arrived in New York City from Minneapolis in the early 1970s as an art student hungry for experience, game for almost anything, and with a prodigious taste for drugs, girls, alcohol, movies, rock and roll, books, parties, and everything else the city had to offer. He also happened to be outrageously, androgynously beautiful, attracting the attention of the city's most prominent gay scenemeisters, who found his adamant heterosexuality a source of immense frustration. Taken directly from the notebooks Hannah kept throughout the seventies, Twentieth-Century Boy is a louche, sometimes lurid, and incredibly entertaining report from a now almost mythical time and place, full of outrageously bad behavior, naked ambition, gender-bending celebrities, fantastically good music and evaporating barriers of taste and decorum. At its center: a young man in the mix and on the make, determined to forge an identity for himself as an artist while being at risk from his own heedless appetites. A time capsule from a scary, seedy, but irresistible time and place.By Geoff Edgers, Nancy Harrison, John Hinderliter. 2014
Stanley Lieber was just seventeen when he got his first job at Timely Comics in 1939. Since then, the man…
now known as Stan Lee has launched a comic book empire, made Marvel Comics a household name, and created iconic superheroes such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four. Stan Lee is still dreaming up caped crusaders and masked vigilantes in his nineties. Who Is Stan Lee? tells the story of a New York City kid with a superhero-sized imagination.By Stephanie True Peters, Shamel Washington. 2019
An illustrated book of biographies highlighting the inspiring and innovative qualities of forty very different men throughout history, for fans…
of Heroes for My Son and Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.Our history books are full of great men, from inventors to explorers to presidents. But these great men were not always good men. It's time for our role models to change. This book pays tribute to Mr. Rogers, Barack Obama, Hayao Miyazaki, and more: men whose masculinity is grounded in compassion and care. These men have varying worldviews and are accomplished in a range of fields, but they share important commonalities. They served their communities. They treated people with respect. They lifted others up. And they went on to create change, inspire others, and, indeed, do great things--not in spite of their goodness, but because of it.These men's stories will educate, entertain, and encourage the next generation of writers, activists, entrepreneurs, and other leaders of all genders to do better and be better--to be truly groundbreaking.By Sarah Fabiny, Who Hq. 2019
Brush up your knowledge on popular American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell with this exciting Who Was? title.Norman Rockwell often…
painted what he saw around him in nostalgic and humorous ways. After hearing President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress in 1943, he was inspired to create paintings that described the principles for universal rights: four paintings that portray iconic images of the American experience. Over the course of his lifetime, he painted 322 covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Of his work, he has said: "Maybe as I grew up and found the world wasn't the perfect place I thought it to be, I consciously decided that if it wasn't an ideal world, it should be, and so painted only the ideal aspects of it."By Helen Traubel, Richard G. Hubler. 2018
This charming autobiography captures the life story of a fascinating woman: a Missouri girl-turned-world-class soprano who remained true to her…
roots through it all.Born and reared in St. Louis and proud of her origins, Helen Traubel grew up in a modest German-American family. She spent her teens and twenties singing with church choirs and quartets in the city, studying under first- rate teachers. She did not leave Missouri for New York until she was in her early thirties. Although she replaced the great Kirsten Flagstad at the Metropolitan Opera, she refused to confine herself to singing before elite crowds and prided herself on reaching a larger, more general audience via nightclubs, radio, television, and theater.St. Louis Woman is filled with candid and amusing stories as full of zest as Traubel herself. One such story details her audition for the Ford Hour, during which she suffered a terrible case of poison ivy, and the booth technicians interrupted her performance with laughter. Furious, she announced she would sing no more and started to leave. Without explanation, the technicians asked her to continue. Traubel later discovered that the higher-ups had called down to the technicians demanding they stop playing the Flagstad record and let that kid sing.The qualities that made Traubel such a notable individual are captured in this entertaining book. Her strong, independent character shines through. Outspoken and at times brutally honest, Traubel recounts her experiences at the Met, as both a popular performer and a teacher. She tells of exasperating moments when she was coaching famous pupil Margaret Truman. This is not a fact-laden examination of the singer’s Wagnerian repertory or a study of high opera; rather this engaging book introduces the reader to a nationally renowned performer who, despite her unmatched talent, retained her hometown identity and lived her life as a St. Louis woman.By Joe E. Brown, Ralph Hancock. 2018
HOW ONE MAN FOUND A WAY OF LAUGHTER AND GAVE IT TO THE WORLDEvery American has at one time or…
another known the pleasure of watching Joe E. Brown. Mirth-maker Joe, clown-prince of movies, radio and TV, however, is more than just a dispenser of gaiety and laughter.Ralph Hancock, famed foreign correspondent, has drawn a most accurate picture of one of the country’s outstanding citizens. You’ll laugh with, and feel sympathy for comedian Joe—the grease-painted Pagliacci of the footlights—as you read of a lifetime of all the human emotions.Joe E. Brown was born to bring laughter into the world. From the first day he realized people enjoyed him, he knew he was meant to continue in his role as self-appointed Ambassador of goodwill. Joe’s formula was simple and refreshing: Always leave ‘em laughing, even before you say goodbye.Co-author Hancock skilfully weaves a heart-warming tale of a humourist but—more important—a humanitarian who has never hesitated to cooperate with a cause which is pledged to the advancement of the human race.Laughter may be a wonderful thing, but it is also the tender tale of a father who knows the pleasures and sorrows of raising a family. The story of Joe E. Brown is a lifelike portrait of one of America’s most beloved personalities.By Alonzo Fields. 2019
My 21 Years in the White House, first published in 1960, is the fascinating account by Alonzo Fields of his…
service as head butler under 4 presidents: Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower. Fields (1900-1994) began his employment at the White House in 1931, and kept a journal of his meetings with the presidents and their families; he would also meet important people like Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth of England, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, presidential cabinet members, senators, representatives, and Supreme Court Justices. He would also witness presidential decision-making at critical times in American history -- the attack on Pearl Harbor, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the desegregation of the military, and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea. As Fields often told his staff, “...remember that we are helping to make history. We have a small part ... but they can't do much here without us. They've got to eat, you know.” Included are sample menus prepared for visiting heads-of-state and foreign dignitaries.