1560 results for "Biography"

Secret Notes

David Bronstein,Sergey Voronkov
The passing of David Bronstein was the saddest chess news of 2006, but at least his many fans now have the chance to read his collection of memoirs and games from his long career. Much of the material appeard in Russian several years ago, but this is the first English translation. Bronstein's love of the game, and his special rapport with chess amateurs, shines through especially strongly. English players will find details of his visits to Hastings, appearances for Charlton in the London League, and friendship with numerous chess fans in the UK. Lovers of more sinister gossip and conspiracy theories will enjoy his account of the alleged shenanigans at Zurich 1953, and his secret preparation with Korchnoi bevor the latter's 1974 match with Karpov. Any lover of chess will find hours of delight in this book, which is a worthy tribute to one of the games's immortals. Review by Steve Giddins. David Bronstein describes the chess personalities he has met in various countries over the past decade, and annotates 40 of his best games from this period. He also recalls the most significant events from his earlier career, gives his impressions of contemporaries such as Larsen, Spassky and Korchnoi (including a secret training match against the latter played in 1971), and expresses his outspoken views on modern chess.
Edition Olms 2007 232 pages

Queen, Empress, Concubine Fifty Women Rulers from the Queen of Sheba to Catherine the Great

Claudia Gold
"The number of women who have ruled as queens or empresses, or governed as presidents or prime ministers, remains but a small subset of the total of those who have attained ultimate political power. But this elite group of women have reached the hights of political and ceremonial leadership, including some of the most charismatic figures." -- BOOK JACKET.
Quercus 2009-09-19 254 pages

Name Dropping

Chris Chase
In this autobiography, Alan King takes readers on a journey through his life, "name-dropping" some of the biggest stars in show business and revealing where he's come from, how he got where he is, and the rewards, both professional and personal, he enjoys today. "This is not going to be a tell-all book. My few dark secrets I'm taking to my grave, " Alan King assures us. Instead, this is the story of how a son of Russian immigrants - who came to this country in steerage - grew up to live in a mansion that had been built for Oscar Hammerstein.
Simon and Schuster 1997-09-04 224 pages

Family Man

Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin uses his wit and humour to enlighten readers with his intimacies as a father and husband in his poignantly funny nonfiction novel Family man. Trillin touches every subject under his family's sky, beginning with some child-rearing advice: "Try to get one that doesn't spit up. Otherwise, you're on your own." On children he simple states: "Your children are either the center of your life or they're not." His charming ruminations on fatherhood clearly prove that he has reveled in the role of father - writing songs for family movie musicals.
Wheeler Publishing 1998 214 pages

Chopin and Beyond My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal

Byron Janis
One of the world's greatest classical pianists reveals how the ""other world"" transformed his life and career By any measure, Byron Janis has had an extraordinary musical career. His discovery of two long-lost Chopin scores made headlines around the world, and he has been honored many times for his breathtaking performances of some of the most exciting and challenging works in the standard classical piano repertoire. As he retraces this remarkable journey in Chopin and Beyond , he shares something even more extraordinary: the other-worldly experiences that have shaped his life and music in surprising and profound ways. Shares milestones and memories from the life and musical career of one of the world's greatest pianists Includes lively anecdotes of famous classical musicians and other notable figures, including Vladimir Horowitz and Pablo Picasso Describes his long-secret but ultimately triumphant battle with arthritis Recounts the paranormal experiences that deepened his personal association with Chopin, effected near miraculous recoveries from serious accidents, and more Like the best music, Chopin and Beyond will open your mind to explore the wonder and possibility of a different world.
John Wiley & Sons Canada, Limited 2010-10 288 pages

Cagney & Lacey ... and Me

Barney Rosenzweig
"If they gave out Emmys for best book about an Emmy-award winning TV series, Executive Producer Barney Rosenzweig would have another to add to his huge collection. If you love Cagney & Lacey-as I do-this is a must read. Triple love it " -Rosie O'Donnell, comedian, actress, host of award-winning The Rosie O'Donnell Show , and co-host of The View " Cagney & Lacey ... and Me is terrific-a must-read for anyone interested in how the television business really works. From insecure stars with over-sized egos, to network executives blundering their way to success in spite of themselves, Barney Rosenzweig's chronicle of the rise and fall of the hit series Cagney & Lacey has it all: tempers, tears, greed, deceit, duplicity and sex-in short, more juicy melodrama than a daytime soap opera." -Steven Bochco, producer writer of award-winning series Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue "One of Hollywood's greatest producers is also a brilliant storyteller. Barney recounts tales from the front lines of network television battlefields-with candor, intelligence and inimitable wit. If you want to know how television really works, this is the book for you"-Linda Bloodworth and Harry Thomason, award-winning creators, writer, producers and director of Designing Women "Barney wrote a book?" -Peter Falk, Emmy-winning star of iconic television series, Columbo and twice nominated Academy Award star of motion pictures too numerous to mention "Just as William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade is considered a bible for screenwriters, Rosenzweig's new memoir offers a Master Class for television producers."- Kevin Howell, Publisher's Weekly
iUniverse 2007 408 pages

The Art of Leaving A Memoir

Ayelet Tsabari
WINNER OF THE CANADIAN JEWISH LITERARY AWARD FOR MEMOIR FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION An unforgettable memoir about a young woman who tries to outrun loss, but eventually finds a way home. Ayelet Tsabari was 21 years old the first time she left Tel Aviv with no plans to return. Restless after two turbulent mandatory years in the Israel Defense Forces, Tsabari longed to get away. It was not the never-ending conflict that drove her, but the grief that had shaken the foundations of her home. The loss of Tsabari's beloved father in years past had left her alienated and exiled within her own large Yemeni family and at odds with her Mizrahi identity. By leaving, she would be free to reinvent herself and to rewrite her own story. For nearly a decade, Tsabari travelled, through India, Europe, the US and Canada, as though her life might go stagnant without perpetual motion. She moved fast and often because--as in the Intifada--it was safer to keep going than to stand still. Soon the act of leaving--jobs, friends and relationships--came to feel most like home. But a series of dramatic events forced Tsabari to examine her choices and her feelings of longing and displacement. By periodically returning to Israel, Tsabari began to examine her Jewish-Yemeni background and the Mizrahi identity she had once rejected, as well as unearthing a family history that had been untold for years. What she found resonated deeply with her own immigrant experience and struggles with new motherhood. Beautifully written, frank and poignant, The Art of Leaving is a courageous coming-of-age story that reflects on identity and belonging and that explores themes of family and home--both inherited and chosen.
HarperCollins Publishers 2020-02-18 336 pages

Dostoevsky, His Life and Art (Classic Reprint)

Avrahm Yarmolinsky
Excerpt from Dostoevsky, His Life and Art He is bigger now: he has turned three. Nurse has just brought him into the parlour to show her charge off to the company. He kneels, facing the icon in the corner, and before them all he says his bedtime prayer: All my hope I place in thee, Mother of God; shelter me under thy mantle. What a clever little boy! The guests exclaim. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Fb&c Limited 2017-07-12 464 pages

City Room

Arthur Gelb
A New York Times Notable Book Arthur Gelb was hired by The New York Times in 1944 as a night copyboy—the paper’s lowliest position. Forty-five years later, he retired as its managing editor. Along the way, he exposed crooked cops and politicians, mentored a generation of our most-talented journalists, was the first to praise the as-yet-undiscovered Woody Allen and Barbra Streisand, and brought Joe Papp instant recognition. From D-Day to the liberation of the concentration camps, from the agony of Vietnam to the resignation of a President, from the fall of Joe McCarthy to the rise of the “Woodstock Nation,” Gelb gives an insider’s take on the great events of this nation's history—what he calls “the happiest days of my life.”
Penguin Group 2004-11-02 672 pages

One Soldier's War

Arkady Babchenko
An outstanding dispatch from the frontline of war - unsparing, unsentimental, blackly comic and brutally beautiful - by and ordinary soldier who tells it like it is. Arkady Babchenko was still a naove 18-year-old when he and his fellow teenage conscripts arrived in a camp just north of Chechnya. Fresh off the truck, the new recruit rapidly learned the meaning of savagery and fear, before he'd even been near the front line. By the time he started his active duty, he had developed a tough skin against the harsh treatments meted out by his seniors and grew hardened and cynical. With unblinking honesty, Arkady Babchenko traces his journey from innocence to experience, taking the raw and mundane reality of war and twists it into compelling, chilling - and eerily elegant - prose.
Portobello 2007 405 pages

A Dual Autobiography

Will Durant,Ariel Durant
In this readable autobiography by the authors of The Story of Civilization, Will & Ariel Durant celebrate & examine a lifetime of ideas, friendships, triumphs & love. The story of their life together, rich in anecdotes & with the countless famous people they knew, is a passionate record of their shared experience as lovers, as spouses, as world travelers & as the authors of one of the most famous successful works of scholarship in American literary history. Ariel & Will met & fell in love in 1912. He taught at New York's anarchist Ferrer Center, a young man already in love with the world of ideas, who had quit seminary to his family's chagrin in search of freedom. She was 14, so young that she roller-skated on her way to City Hall for her marriage, the daughter of penniless immigrants struggling to survive in the New World, inheritor of all the rebellious traditions & the determination to survive of the Russian ghetto from which her family came. Together they shared not only a burning love for each other but a hunger for ideas. Their book follows their intellectual journey, beginning with their interest in anarchism (which brought them close to Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman) & going on thru a long, shared lifetime that brought them honors, fame & acquaintance with almost every major literary & intellectual personality in Europe & the USA. Their book is frank & moving, at once a star-studded history of the decades thru which they lived & worked & an intimate tribute to an enduring love.
Simon and Schuster 1977 420 pages

My Grandfather's Gallery

Anne Sinclair
On September 20, 1940, a famous European art dealer disembarked in New York, one of many Jewish refugees fleeing Vichy France. Leaving behind his beloved Paris gallery, Paul Rosenberg had managed to save his family, but his paintings—masterpieces by Cézanne, Monet, Sisley and others—were not so fortunate. As he fled, dozens of works were seized by Nazi forces and the art dealer’s own legacy obliterated. More than a half century later, Anne Sinclair found a box filled with letters and plunged into a journey of discovery about who her mother's father really was. Drawing on his intimate correspondences with Picasso, Matisse, Braque and others, she traces the life of a legendary member of the Parisian art scene. Paul Rosenberg’s story is emblematic of millions of twentieth-century Jews. In My Grandfather's Gallery, Sinclair both reframes twentieth century art history and reclaims her family history. ‘A deeply moving story.’Paris Match
Text Publishing Company 2014-08-27 219 pages

No Pretty Pictures

Anita Lobel
The beloved Caldecott Honor artist now recounts a tale of vastly different kind -- her own achingly potent memoir of a childhood of flight, imprisonment, and uncommon bravery in Nazi-occupied Poland. Anita Lobel was barely five when the war began and sixteen by the time she came to America from Sweden, where she had been sent to recover at the end of the war. This haunting book, illustrated with the author's archival photographs, is the remarkable account of her life during those years. Poised, forthright, and always ready to embrace life, Anita Lobel is the main character in the most personal story she will ever tell.Anita Lobel was barely five years old when World War II began and the Nazis burst into her home in Krakow, Poland, changing her life forever. She spent the days of her childhood in hiding with her brother--who was disguised as a girl--and their Catholic nanny in the countryside, the ghetto, and finally in a convent where the Nazis caught up with her. She was imprisoned in a succession of concentration camps until the end of the war. Sent by the Red Cross to recuperate in Sweden, she slowly blossomed as she discovered books and language and art. Since coming to the United States as a teenager, Anita Lobel has spent her life making pictures. She has never gone back. She has never looked back. Until now. 00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List Anita Lobel was barely five years old when World War II began and the Nazis burst into her home in Krakow, Poland, changing her life forever. She spent the days of her childhood in hiding with her brother--who was disguised as a girl--and their Catholic nanny in the countryside, the ghetto, and finally in a convent where the Nazis caught up with her. She was imprisoned in a succession of concentration camps until the end of the war. Sent by the Red Cross to recuperate in Sweden, she slowly blossomed as she discovered books and language and art. Since coming to the United States as a teenager, Anita Lobel has spent her life making pictures. She has never gone back. She has never looked back. Until now.
HarperCollins 2000-02-02 193 pages

Friendly Fire How Israel Became Its Own Worst Enemy

Ami Ayalon,Anthony David
A highly decorated Israeli military officer, leader, and former director of the internal security service, Shin Bet, sees the light on what his country must do to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In this deeply personal journey of discovery, Ami Ayalon seeks input and perspective from Palestinians and Israelis whose experiences differ from his own. As head of the Shin Bet security agency, he gained empathy for 'the enemy' and learned that when Israel carries out anti-terrorist operations in a political context of hopelessness, the Palestinian public will support violence, because they have nothing to lose. Researching and writing Friendly Fire , he came to understand that his patriotic life had blinded him to the self-defeating nature of policies that have undermined Israel's civil society while heaping humiliation upon its Palestinian neighbours. 'If Israel becomes an Orwellian dystopia,' Ayalon writes, 'it won't be thanks to a handful of theologians dragging us into the dark past. The secular majority will lead us there motivated by fear and propelled by silence.' Ayalon is a realist, not an idealist, and many who consider themselves Zionists will regard as radical his conclusions about what Israel must do to achieve relative peace and security and to sustain itself as a Jewish homeland and a liberal democracy. 'How can a staunch Zionist who was raised on one of Israel's earliest settlements and trained as a kill-or-be-killed elite commando spearhead a campaign for peace with his enemies? The answer, in Ami Ayalon's captivating narrative, is an eye-opener for Palestinians and Israelis alike.' -Sari Nusseibeh, author of Once Upon a Country- a Palestinian life , former president of the Al-Quds University, and former Palestinian National Authority representative in Jerusalem ' Ayalon's aims and accomplishments are ... undeniably impressive ... Hope finds a prominent presence in what so many think is a hopeless, endless conflict.' - Kirkus Reviews 'Ami Ayalon discusses how he came to see a two-state solution with the Palestinians as the best way to ensure Israel's security, not just through analysing numbers and statistics, but through a humanistic approach. He discusses ... how his humanist paradigm not only allowed him to see how the Palestinians' grievances and aspirations are intertwined with Israel's security, but also how he still acknowledges and sympathises with the narratives of those in Israel whom he may disagree with.' -Jonah Naghi, The Times of Israel
Scribe Publications 2020-12 320 pages