Text: English, French (translation)

Overview: The name Erasmus of Rotterdam conjures up a golden age of scholarly integrity and the disinterested pursuit of knowledge, when learning could command public admiration without the need for authorial self-promotion. Lisa Jardine, however, shows that Erasmus self-consciously created his own reputation as the central figure of the European intellectual world. Erasmus himself--the historical as opposed to the figural individual--was a brilliant, maverick innovator, who achieved little formal academic recognition in his own lifetime. What Jardine offers here is not only a fascinating study of Erasmus but also a bold account of a key moment in Western history, a time when it first became possible to believe in the existence of something that could be designated "European thought."--

Greenman was born in 1910 in London to a Jewish family; in 1913 he and his widowed father settled in Rotterdam. Greenman failed to escape to England when the war began, and in 1940 was caught by the German occupation. He lost his British identity papers and, because of bureaucratic procrastination on the part of Dutch officials and of the Swiss consulate that represented British interests, could not prove his British nationality. He was deported to Westerbork in October 1942, with his wife and son. In January 1943 the family was sent to Birkenau, where Greenman's wife and child were killed immediately, and he was used for slave labor. He was also a victim of "medical experiments" in the camp. In September 1943 he was transferred to the Monowitz camp, and in January 1945, after a death march to Gleiwitz, he was transported to Buchenwald, where he was liberated. After the war he settled in Britain. His father survived, since he was married to a non-Jew.

Acclaim for Leo Melamed Escape to the Futures "A well-written, fascinating memoir of a remarkable man of many parts, who arrived in the United States at age 9, fleeing the Holocaust. Almost single-handedly, he transformed a minor commodity exchange into the leading futures market in the world. His influence was and remains worldwide." —Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow Hoover Institution, Stanford University "There are only a few people who have revolutionized big portions of the business world. Warren Buffett did it in investing, Bill Gates in software. Leo Melamed, author of this book, is in that same league. He truly revolutionized futures trading in the United States, and in the world. This book tells how." —Ambassador Clayton Yeutter Past President of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Former U.S. Trade Representative "A grizzled old Merc trader once assured me that nobody ever lost by being long on Leo. Why that's so, this endlessly fascinating personal history makes clear. It shows how an immigrant boy, after surviving unimaginable horrors, drew on the 'elan, combativeness, and sophisticated conviction' learned from his equally remarkable father to build the CME and to lay the foundations of the modern, Chicago-based, financial services industry." — Merton H. Miller 1990 Nobel Laureate Emeritus Professor University of Chicago Graduate School of Business "Leo tells it all. To say there would not have been a financial futures industry without Leo is probably only a slight exaggeration!!!" — John Damgard President Futures Industry Association "Escape to the Futures tells the remarkable story of a young boy's escape from the Nazis and the impact of his life on the financial markets of the world. It also serves as yet another poignant reminder of the immeasurable losses —in the arts, sciences, professions, and everyday life—humanity suffered because of the Holocaust." — Benjamin Meed President American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors He is one of the most powerful figures in the world of finance—a visionary who pioneered the modern futures industry and launched the International Monetary Market (IMM). Yet, Leo Melamed was not born to wealth and influence. His is an extraordinary rags-to-riches tale of intelligence, drive, savvy, timing, and the overpowering force of a uniquely charismatic personality. Now the inside story of the remarkable life and career of Leo Melamed is revealed in this long-awaited autobiography. A Holocaust survivor, Leo Melamed had barely begun the first grade in 1939 when he and his parents fled their native Poland one step ahead of the oncoming Nazi juggernaut. Crossing Siberia en route to a brief stay in Japan—just months before Pearl Harbor—the family arrived in the United States to begin life anew. They settled in Chicago, where young Leo became a product of the inner city and embraced his new country and its culture. Seeking part-time employment while attending law school, Leo Melamed answered a classified ad that would change his life. Hired by what he presumed was a law firm named Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Bean, he found himself on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. "I was Alice stepping through the Looking Glass into a world of not just one Mad Hatter, but hundreds. The shouting among the traders, the movement of their bodies and hands, captivated me like nothing before . . . there was a life force on that floor that was magical and exciting, and though I didn't understand what was going on, I wanted to be a part of it." Leo Melamed became much more than just a part of it. From modest beginnings as a pork belly trader, he led the Chicago Merc for the next quarter of a century, introducing finance to an industry that was the exclusive domain of agriculture. As his reputation as a financial genius grew, so did the tales of his larger-than-life personality. In Leo Melamed: Escape to the Futures, you'll meet the man behind the legend. Written with the assistance of award-winning journalist Bob Tamarkin, this enthralling memoir deftly weaves intimate personal details with behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the most momentous financial events of our century—including Leo's role as advisor to the White House after the Hillary Rodham Clinton cattle futures trading episode. You'll read fascinating accounts of his dealings with political powerhouses like Bob Dole, Tip O'Neill, Dan Rostenkowski, and others. Offering penetrating insights into the workings of a multibillion dollar industry, this is a story that has as much to say about human nature as it does about the nature of today's markets. Hailed as both hero and tyrant, Leo Melamed is undeniably one of the most colorful and intriguing personalities of our time. This intimate, revealing personal account is not to be missed.

Landscape architect, urban planner, teacher, and social visionary: over the course of a sixty-year career, Lawrence Halprin (1916-2009) reshaped the spaces we inhabit and our ways of moving through them. The New York Times called him "the tribal elder of American landscape architecture" and the critic Ada Louise Huxtable credited him with creating what "may be one of the most important urban spaces since the Renaissance." His bold use of abstract imagery could evoke the landscape of the American West in a sequence of city squares and fountains, while his plan for repurposing an abandoned factory near San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf showed how adaptive use of a historic structure could turn commercial development into urban theater. A man who deeply loved cities, he left as one of his most important legacies the five thousand acres of coastline, hedgerows, and meadows that became Sonoma County's environmentally sensitive and enormously influential Sea Ranch. Featuring more than ninety black-and-white and one hundred color reproductions of photographs, plans, and sketchbooks, A Life Spent Changing Places is Halprin's own account of how a young boy who listened to the fireside chats of FDR on the radio became the man who designed the memorial to that president in the nation's capital. It is a book about the invention and reinvention of an extraordinary man over the span of decades and how he helped to reframe the world around him.

This book needs no introduction. The hardback edition was the hottest seller of 2004. WH Smith cited it as the record holder for most copies of an autobiography sold in one week. In fact it has turned out to be the surprise darling of the book trade! Now, at last, the paperback edition is available and Katie has brought it right up-to-date with full details of her love for Peter, their new life together, their engagement and their impending wedding. She also reveals the projects she has been working on and what the future holds for her career. No book buyer will want to miss out on the next instalment of Katie's life - so fasten your seatbelts for another rollercoaster ride.

Notes from the Other Side of Night is a diary-memoir written upon Juliana Geran Pilon's return to her native Romania in 1975, which she had left along with her family when she was just fourteen. Poetically weaving together modern insight and realities with childhood perceptions, Pilon tells the haunting stories of her parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends. Although the scenery of her native home had remained essentially unchanged since her childhood, Pilon recalls streets that are no more, homes and churches that have been demolished. Yet, the hills and forests, the flowers and mountains, the heat of old Bucharest, remained the same. The scenes and characters described in this book are simply unforgettable. Despite the many tragedies it describes--anti-semitism, political imprisonment, and judicial execution were ruthless realities under communism--Notes from the Other Side of Night is not a depressing book. Pilon writes with a detached melancholy about events and characters that illustrate Hannah Arendt's terrifying "banality of evil." But she remembers, as well, those few who managed to remain human beings until the end. Ultimately, hope triumphs in this memoir. This edition includes a new foreword, which discusses the initial writing and publication of this and previous editions.

Three times Judy Leden has been the champion of the world—twice in hang gliding and once in paragliding—and 6 times British Women's Champion. In Patagonia, she realized her dream of flying wing-tip to wing-tip with Andean condors. This is her autobiography.

485 page hardcover 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 approximate, 3 page center photos in black and white.Cofounder and director of The Living Theatre.

"Eugenio Zolli is a prophet for our time, charged with asking a single question: Why? This question was a grace from God that set him off on his course as a scholar and a mystic. In trying to explore the missing link between the Old and New Testament, he discovered the love of God for all humanity. In this way, his life experience led him to an accomplishment in Jesus Christ, in itself a prophecy of the New World mentioned in the Holy Scripture"--

Is Faith Darwin Asbury really Grace Paley? Or is it coincidental that the personal history, politics, and relationships of the fictional Asbury seem to mirror those of the well-known author? And do other characters in Paley's stories represent individuals she has known, in scenes and entire episodes she has experienced? A writer who translates her life into art not only saves her own life, according to Paley, but offers others the revelation of its meaning. That idea is at the core of Judith Arcana's biographical reading of this strongly autobiographical writer. Grace Paley's Life Stories interweaves details about Paley with critical discussions of her works, examining her as a woman, mother, activist, and Jew. Arcana visited and interviewed Paley at her homes in Vermont and New York over a period of several years. She also interviewed Paley's family, friends, and colleagues. Such extensive research is unmatched in Paley scholarship; Arcana's focus on the political crucible of Paley's consciousness is rare in contemporary literary criticism.

Beginning with the first Jewish settler, Moses David, the important role that Windsor Jews played in the development of Ontario's south is mirrored in this 200-year chronicle. the founding pioneer families transformed their Eastern European shtetl into a North American settlement; many individuals were involved in establishing synagogues, schools, and an organized communal structure in spite of divergent religious, political, and economic interests. Modernity and the growing influences of Zionism and Conservative/Reform Judaism challenged the traditional and leftist leanings of the community's founders. From the outset, Jews were represented in city council, actively involved in communal organizations, and appointed to judicial posts. While its Jewish population was small, Windsor boasted Canada's first Jewish Cabinet members, provincially and federally, in David Croll and Herb Gray. As the new millennium approached, jews faced shrinking numbers, forcing major consolidations in order to ensure their survival.

A master historian offers an eloquent and personal auto-history of his life and his ideas Twenty years ago, John Lukacs paused to set down the history of his own thoughts and beliefs in Confessions of an Original Sinner, an adroit blend of autobiography and personal philosophy. Now, in Last Rites, he continues and expands his reflections, this time integrating his conception of history and human knowledge with private memories of his wives and loves, and enhancing the book with footnotes from his idiosyncratic diaries. The resulting volume is fascinating and delightful--an auto-history by a passionate, authentic, brilliant, and witty man. Lukacs begins with a concise rendering of a historical understanding of our world (essential reading for any historian), then follows with trenchant observations on his life in the United States, commentary on his native Hungary and the new meanings it took for him after 1989, and deeply personal portraits of his three wives, about whom he has not written before. He includes also a chapter on his formative memories of May and June 1940 and of Winston Churchill, a subject in some of Lukacs's later studies. Last Rites is a richly layered summation combined with a set of extraordinary observations--an original book only John Lukacs could have written. Praise for Confessions of an Original Sinner: "[Lukacs] is an often witty and always fascinating--even entertaining--writer."--Washington Post

In an autobiographical memoir directed to his young son Dylan, the film and theater critic uses stories and anecdotes to present the story of his life and the life lessons he has learned.

Hardcover. Jacket shows a few superficial scores, with very minor wear on upper and lower edges. Spine ends of hardcover and jacket are bumped; minimal wear on leading corners of jacket and hardcover. Page block head foxed with a smudge on face; penned number on rear pastedown. Pages are sound and clean throughout; all text clear. TS

Over the course of his career, Jeff Corey (1914-2002) educated movie, television, and theater stars from James Dean to Jane Fonda in the art of acting. Though he worked with some of the most famous talents of his day, one of Corey's greatest pleasures was teaching regular people - accountants, schoolteachers, and lawyers - who had a secret desire to act. In his eyes, anyone could nurture his or her innate "mimetic impulse." Jack Nicholason, one of Corey's most famous students, said, "Acting is life study, and Corey's classes got me into looking at life as an artist." In Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How to Act, Jeff Corey narrates his life story first as a successful young actor in Hollywood and later as one of the industry's most revered acting instructors. Corey made a name for himself as a strong character actor in films like The Killers (1946), Home of the Brave (1951). However, everything changed in 1951, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Corey refused to name names before the committee and was promptly blacklisted, forcing him to walk away from his vibrant career as an actor. Later that year, Corey began work as an acting teacher in a small studio, and almost overnight, he became one of the most sought-after instructors in Hollywood, with students such as Kirk Douglas, Rob Reiner, and Tony Perkins. In 1962, when the blacklist ended, Corey was one of the industry's first trailblazers to seamlessly reboot his acting career and he secured roles in some of the classic films of the era, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), True Grit (1969), and Little Big Man (1970), in which he starred as the legendary Wild Bill Hickok. The major action of Corey's life was to capture the human heart: in conflict, in terror, in love, and in all of its small triumphs. His memoir, which he wrote with his daughter Emily Corey, provides a unique and personal perspective of the man whose teaching inspired some of Hollywood's biggest names to excel in the roles that made them famous--Dust jacket

International fashion icon Jeanne Beker dishes on her life on and off the runway More than 30 years ago, Jeanne Beker set out to live a life that was not just great, but extraordinary . In Finding Myself in Fashion , she recalls some of the high and low points of the turbulent past decade. Personally, she dealt with heartbreak (the end of her marriage) and rediscovered romance. Professionally, she suffered setbacks that became learning experiences leading to new career paths. She travelled the world with FQ Magazine ; witnessed epic events and conducted intimate interviews as a fashion reporter; launched her own clothes labels; wrote newspaper columns; and hosted or appeared on innumerable television shows. Through it all, both at home and at work, she stuck to her youthful resolution. This is Jeanne's candid account of a life lived to the max.

"According to tradition, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Depicted there in suprising and contradicting ways, and both for and against his people, bringer of the tablets of law which he then breaks. By way of a series of possible portraits-including one of a female Moses-Jean-Christophe Attias follows the metamorphoses of the Hebrew liberator through ages and cultures. Drawing on rabbinical sources as well as the Bible itself, he examines the words of the texts and especially their silences. He discovers here a fragile prophet, teacher of a Judaism of the spirit, of wandering, and of incompleteness. The Judaism of Moses speaks to believers and others-to Jews, of course, but also far beyond them, inviting its hearers to have done with tribal pride, the violence of weapons, and the tyranny of a special place"--