5053 results for "Biography"

A history of the grandparents I never had

Jablonka, Ivan
Ivan Jablonka's grandparents' lives ended long before his began: although Matès and Idesa Jablonka were his family, they were perfect strangers. When he set out to uncover their story, Jablonka had little to work with. Neither of them was the least bit famous, and they left little behind except their two orphaned children, a handful of letters, and a passport. Persecuted as communists in Poland, as refugees in France, and then as Jews under the Vichy regime, Matès and Idesa lived their short lives underground. They were overcome by the tragedies of the twentieth century: Stalinism, the mounting dangers in Europe during the 1930s, the Second World War, and the destruction of European Jews. Jablonka's challenge was, as a historian, to rigorously distance himself and yet, as family, to invest himself completely in their story. Imagined oppositions collapsed - between scholarly research and personal commitment, between established facts and the passion of the one recording them, between history and the art of storytelling. To write this book, Jablonka traveled to three continents; met the handful of survivors of his grandparents' era, their descendants, and some of his far-flung cousins; and investigated twenty different archives. And in the process, he reflected on his own family and his responsibilities to his father, the orphaned son, and to his own children and the family wounds they all inherited. A History of the Grandparents I Never Had cannot bring Matès and Idesa to life, but Jablonka succeeds in bringing them, as he soberly puts it, to light. The result is a gripping story, a profound reflection, and an absolutely extraordinary history.
Stanford University Press 2016 334 pages

Arthur Szyk preserved: institutional collections of original art : the essential compendium of publicly held works

Ungar, Irvin,Lyons, Samantha
Arthur Szyk (pronounced "Shick") was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1894 and died in New Canaan, Connecticut, in 1951. He was considered the greatest miniaturist and painter-illuminator of his era, and the leading political artist in America during World War II. He was internationally recognized and celebrated, and his works of art continue to be exhibited worldwide. This catalogue of institutional holdings of Arthur Szyk's art was created to provide the best jumping off point for those interested in surveying his originals for the purpose of research, scholarship, and curatorial possibilities. 'Arthur Szyk Preserved' illustrates where Szyk's work can be found today. Ultimately, this catalogue recognizes and celebrates the public institutions that serve as vital caretakers of Arthur Szyk's art and legacy. It is hoped that this publication will encourage them to more fully promote public awareness of Szyk's art and the breadth and beauty of his works in multiple and creative ways.
Historicana 2023 96 pages

Machu my Picchu: searching for sex, sanity, and a soul mate in South America

Bahr, Iris
Amy Sedaris meets Woody Allen in an uproarious memoir of self discovery. In her critically acclaimed memoir Dork Whore, Iris Bahr finally lost her virginity in the summer between high school and Brown University. In this book, she’s ready for love a year later—but not much wiser. Through all of her uproarious capers, she tries to reconcile her craving for mindblowing sex with her desire for a meaningful relationship—all in an attempt to become an adult. Sort of.
Skirt! 2011-09-13 244 pages

Well-kept ruins

Cixous, Hélène
'In the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany sits the city of Osnabrück. This is where, in 1648, the Peace of Westphalia was signed, bringing the Thirty Years' War and one of the most calamitous periods of European history to an end. But the city was later to witness another calamity. Today, as one walks through Old Synagogue Street in a rich neighborhood of Osnabrück, one might miss noticing a pile of pale stones held together by chicken wire that sits between two fashionable homes. These are the well-kept ruins from behind which stares a gaping space--a place of memory and oblivion. Four polished plaques tell the tale of the horror-filled night of November 9, 1938--today known as Kristallnacht--when the synagogue that had stood on this spot was desecrated, looted, set on fire, and eventually demolished by Hitler's forces. On the same day, ninety parishioners were imprisoned by the Gestapo and eventually sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Osnabrück was also home to Eve Klein, a member of the city's early-twentieth-century Jewish community and the mother of author Hélène Cixous. In Well-Kept Ruins, Cixous returns to the historic city in 2019 and reflects on the remains of the synagogue that "express the life lost, the life kept." Walking the streets of the city, plumbing the depths of the past along with her own family's history, looking deep into the future, and punctuating her poetic prose with haunting photographs, Cixous explores the ruins at the heart of humanity. Part memoir, part philosophical meditation, Well-Kept Ruins is a genre-defying and timely reflection of the contemporary human condition.'--Publisher description.
Seagull Books 2022 147 pages

A time to speak

Lewis, Helen
15 March 1939: German troops enter Prague and for Czechoslovakian Jews the terror begins. This is the story of one of the survivors. Helen Lewis was a young wife studying philosophy and attending a prestigious school of dance in Prague. In 1942 she and her husband Paul were deported to Terezin, the Jewish ghetto, and then to Auschwitz, where they were separated. A Time to Speak is the story of her survival. Told with impeccable integrity, there is wit and candor in her tale as well as sorrow, and a controlled anger, which never diplays itself in rancor. This is a memorable book of love and loss, friendship and betrayal, terror and humor, joy and despair, good and evil, death and survival. Helen Lewis does not speculate, she never invents. This is only truth, witnessed truth.
Carroll & Graf 1994 132 pages

Gil Cohen: aviation artist

Cohen, Gil
A celebration of the work of one of America's top aviation artists. Many of the works of American artist and illustrator Gil Cohen can be found at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and the Pentagon, as well as in other important public and private collections. After spending decades as a respected illustrator for magazines and book publishers, Cohen chose to turn his attention to aviation and military themes. His more recent paintings vividly depict the human aspects of America's wars, showing soldiers and aviators in battle and at rest. One of Cohen's recurring observations is that, unfortunately, some of humankind's most remarkable feats of engineering are often created for the purpose of war. Cohen's paintings are collected worldwide, and his clients include the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Coast Guard; Paramount Pictures; Random House; Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Bantam Books; Harlequin Books; and Boeing-Sikorsky.
Boston Mills Press 2009 143 pages