3040 results for "Biography"

Ties that bind: stories of love and gratitude from the first ten years of StoryCorps

David Isay
A celebration of the relationships that bring us strength, purpose, and joy Ties That Bind honors the people who nourish and strengthen us. StoryCorps founder Dave Isay draws from ten years of the revolutionary oral history project’s rich archives, collecting conversations that celebrate the power of the human bond and capture the moment at which individuals become family. Between blood relations, friends, coworkers, and neighbors, in the most trying circumstances and in the unlikeliest of places, enduring connections are formed and lives are forever changed. The stories shared in Ties That Bind reveal our need to reach out, to support, and to share life’s burdens and joys. We meet two brothers, separately cast out by their parents, who reconnect and rebuild a new family around each other. We encounter unexpected joy: A gay woman reveals to her beloved granddaughter that she grew up believing that family was a happiness she would never be able to experience. We witness lifechanging friendship: An Iraq war veteran recalls his wartime bond with two local children and how his relationship with his wife helped him overcome the trauma of losing them. Against unspeakable odds, at their most desperate moments, the individuals we meet in Ties That Bind find their way to one another, discovering hope and healing. Commemorating ten years of StoryCorps, the conversations collected in Ties That Bind are testament to the transformational power of listening.
The Penguin Press 2013 202 pages

Early sorrows: for children and sensitive readers

Kiš, Danilo
Originally published in Belgrade in 1969 and never before translated into English, Early Sorrows is a stunning group of linked stories that memorialize Danilo Kis's childhood. Kis, a writer of incomparable originality and eloquence, famous for his books The Encyclopedia of the Dead, Hourglass, and A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, was born in 1935 in Subotica, Yugoslavia, near the Hungarian border. "Back and forth over this land, during Danilo Kis's childhood, armies and ideologies washed with the brutal regularity of surf," William Gass noted in The New York Review of Books. "As a small boy and a Jew, in such circumstances, he was naturally surrounded by death and lies." All of the works of Danilo Kis show the crucial importance of his childhood experiences, but it is Early Sorrows that goes to the wellspring of his first bereavements. The twenty pieces that make up Early Sorrows strike various tones--from dreamy pastorals to exercises in horror. Kis's ingenuity, lyricism, and tonal subtlety are caught in all their luster by Michael Henry Heim. Early Sorrows centers on Andreas Sam, a highly intelligent boy whose life at first seems secure. His mother and sister dote on him; he excels at school; when he is hired out as a cowherd to help with the family's finances, he reads the day away in the company of his best friend, the dog. He can only sense that terrible things may be going on in the world. Soon soldiers are marching down the road, and then one day, many people from the village are herded together and taken away, among them, his father, the dreamer.
New Directions 1998 118 pages

The trial of Henry Kissinger

Hitchens, Christopher
With the detention of Augusto Pinochet, and intense international pressure for the arrest of Slobodan Milosovic, the possibility of international law acting against tyrants around the world is emerging as a reality. In this incendiary book, Hitchens takes the floor as prosecuting counsel and mounts a devastating indictment of a man whose ambitions and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter. He investigates and reveals Kissingers' involvement in: the deliberate mass killings of civilian populations in Indochina; the deliberate collusion in mass murder and assassination in Bangladesh; the personal suborning and planning of a murder, of a senior constitutional officer in a democratic nation that the USA was not war with - Chile; the incitement and enabling of a mass genocide in East Timor; and the personal involvement in the kidnap and murder of a journalist living in Washinton DC.
Verso 2001 159 pages

What is it all but luminous

Garfunkel, Art
From the golden-haired, curly-headed half of Simon & Garfunkel--a memoir (of sorts): artful, moving, lyrical; the making of a musician; the evolution of a man, a portrait of a life-long friendship and collaboration that became one of the most successful singing duos of their time. He writes about his life before, during, and after Simon & Garfunkel . . . about their folk-rock music in the roiling age that embraced and was defined by their pathbreaking sound.
Knopf 2017 241 pages

Typhoid Mary: an urban historical

Bourdain, Anthony
In 1906, at a prosperous Long Island summer home, a family falls ill and typhold is diagnosed. When Dr George Soper is called in to find the source of the contagion, he notices that the household cook has gone missing. She is Mary Mallon, the woman who would become known as Typhoid Mary. Soper, sanitary engineer turned sleuth, sees Mary as his Moriarty. He finds there has been an outbreak of typhoid fever in every household she has worked in over the past decade. Mary is a 'carrier', a seemingly healthy individual who passes on her dangerous germs, sometimes with fatal consequences. Now Soper must hunt the cook down before she can infect more unsuspecting victims. A poor Irish immigrant, Mary refuses to believe that she can harbour typhoid in her strong and healthy body, and she doesn't intend to go quietly. In this fascinating true story Bourdain, in an homage from one cook to another, follows Mary through the kitchens of New York, putting a human face to a desperate and unintentional murderer, and examines a time, and a life, with his inimitable style.
Bloomsbury 2005 160 pages

New York Jew

Kazin, Alfred
In this book, Alfred Kazin, who for more than 30 years has been one of the central figures of America's intellectual life, takes us into his own life and times. His autobiography encompasses a personal story openly told; an inside look at New York's innermost intellectual circles; strong and intimate revelations of many of the most important writers of the century; and brilliantly astute observations of the literary accomplishments, atmosphere, and fads of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s in the context of America's shifting political gales.
Syracuse University Press 1996-08-01 307 pages

All out! an autobiography

Ellis, Albert
This candid autobiography, the last work by renowned psychologist Albert Ellis, is a tour de force of stimulating ideas, colorful descriptions of memorable people and events, and straightforward, no-nonsense talk. Ellis, the creator of one of the most successful forms of psychotherapy―Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)―recounts the memorable episodes of his life; discusses how he coped with emotional problems at different stages of life; describes his love life; and subjects his own self-description to a ruthlessly honest critique. The heart of Ellis's book is his analysis of the psychological leitmotifs that have appeared again and again throughout his life. He describes the aim of this autobiography as follows: "As far as I can, I shall present my bad and good, stupid and intelligent, weak and strong points. Why? Because, following H. G. Wells's recommendation, I want to go as all-out as I can. I want to acknowledge my idiocies―and use REBT to feel sorry about but unashamed of them. I want to make the point―again a central tenet of REBT―that all humans are fabulously fallible―including, of course, me. We have no real choice about this, but we can unconditionally accept ourselves―our so-called essence or being―with our fallibility. That will momentously help us, probably encourage us to acquire unconditional self-acceptance (USA) and possibly inspire other people to give it to themselves, too." With a concluding chapter by Ellis's widow, Debbie Joffe Ellis, describing the final years of his life, this is the definitive summation of the life and work of one of psychology's most successful thinkers and practitioners.
Prometheus Books 2010 668 pages

Elizabeth I

Doran, Susan
Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, reigned from 1558 until her death in 1603 and is remembered not only as a powerful, often ruthless and successful monarch but also as a virtuous, gracious, and caring ruler. This new biography of Elizabeth I, by a leading scholar, reveals a tough and determined "Virgin Queen", whose education, wit, and wisdom enabled her to succeed in the often turbulent and hostile world of her reign. Charting Elizabeth's childhood, schooling, and family life as well as her relationships with her ministers and suitors, Susan Doran discusses her motivation and the personal qualities that sustained her as queen. Her years in power were often dominated by political intrigue, marriage proposals, disputes over the succession, plots against her life, and warfare. Elizabeth made clever use of events, such as the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and unique interests and attributes, such as her love of theatrical pageant, to enhance her reputation and status. In an era of political and religious upheaval, Elizabeth I emerges as one of the most skillful and formidable monarchs in history. Illustrated throughout with portraits, rare historical documents, and letters in Elizabeth's own hand, this book provides an engaging, authoritative account of Queen Elizabeth I's life and times.
New York University Press 2003-08 144 pages

Sharuko: Peruvian archaeologist Julio C. Tello = El arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello

Brown, Monica
"A picture biography of Julio C. Tello, considered to be the founder of modern Peruvian archaeology, that traces his life from an early interest in Peru's ancient cultures to his rise as the most distinguished Indigenous social scientist of the twentieth century. A map and an afterword with additional information, photograph, and source list are included."--
Children's Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, Inc 2020 32 pages

Quantum man: Richard Feynman's life in science

Krauss, Lawrence Maxwell
Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here the author, himself a theoretical physicist, offers a scientific biography: a narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits. An immensely colorful persona in and out of the office, Feynman revolutionized our understanding of nature amid a turbulent life. The author presents that life, from the death of Feynman's childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his reluctant rise as a scientific icon, seen through the science, providing a new understanding of the legacy of a man who has fascinated millions. A reflection on the issues that drive physics today, this work captures the story of a man who was willing to break all the rules to tame a theory that broke all the rules.
W.W. Norton 2011 350 pages

Abraham Joshua Heschel: a life of radical amazement

Zelizer, Julian E.
""When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying." So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith. In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel's early years and foundational influences-his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hassidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States, to study at Hebrew Union College and teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world"--
Yale University Press 2021-01-01 297 pages

Beethoven: the man revealed

Suchet, John
You know the music... but do you know the man? Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the world's best loved and most influential composers. His life - its dramas, conflicts, loves and losses - is played out in his music. Now John Suchet shows us the man behind the music in this compelling biography of a musical genius. He reveals a difficult and complex character, struggling to continue his profession as musician despite increasing deafness, alienating friends with unprovoked outbursts of anger one moment, overwhelming them with excessive kindness and generosity the next, living in a city in almost constant disarray because of war with France. This is the real Beethoven, and Suchet brings him faithfully and vividly to life.
Elliott and Thompson Limited 2020 443 pages

Raised by wolves: the turbulent art and times of Quentin Tarantino

Charyn, Jerome
When Quentin Tarantino was eight years old, and all the regular kids were lining up to see the latest from Disney, Tarantino's mother took him to see Carnal Knowledge. Sound about right? A high-school dropout who never attended film school, Tarantino got all the education he needed while working the register at Los Angeles's fabled Video Archives. His enthusiasms — for pop culture (foreign and domestic), eye-popping aesthetics, and genre films — would become notorious and infectious. The outrageous success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction essentially killed off Tarantino the man, and gave birth to Tarantino the myth. Here, from legendary novelist and historian Jerome Charyn, is a portrait of both the man AND the myth — and the mind behind them both. More than a biography, more than a critical study, Raised by Wolves is a feisty and astute reckoning with Tarantino en toto.
Thunder's Mouth Press 2006-05-24 195 pages