3040 results for "Biography"

A prince of our disorder: the life of T.E. Lawrence

Mack, John E.
In this objective portrait of Lawrence of Arabia, John Mack draws on extensive interviews, War Office dispatches, and much previously unpublished correspondence to explore the relationship between Lawrence's inner life and his exploits in the Arab revolt against the Turks during the World War I. In addition to this psychiatric investigation, Mack also examines the existing historical, political, and sociological forces with which Lawrence had to contend, and which make his achievements all the more remarkable.
Oxford University Press 1990 561 pages

Lawfully wedded husband: how my gay marriage will save the American family

Derfner, Joel
When Joel Derfner's boyfriend proposed to him, there was nowhere in America the two could legally marry. That changed quickly, however, and before long the two were on what they expected to be a rollicking journey to married bliss. What they didn't realize was that, along the way, they would confront not just the dilemmas every couple faces on the way to the altar—what kind of ceremony would they have? what would they wear? did they have to invite Great Aunt Sophie?—but also questions about what a relationship can and can't do, the definition of marriage, and, ultimately, what makes a family. Add to the mix a reality show whose director forces them to keep signing and notarizing applications for a wedding license until the cameraman gets a shot she likes; a family marriage history that includes adulterers, arms smugglers, and poisoners; and discussions of civil rights, Sophocles, racism, grammar, and homemade Ouija boards—coupled with Derfner's gift for getting in his own way—and what results is a story not just of gay marriage and the American family but of what it means to be human.
The University of Wisconsin Press 2013-09-19 235 pages

The 188th Crybaby Brigade: a skinny Jewish kid from Chicago fights Hezbollah : a memoir

Chasnoff, Joel
Joel Chasnoff is twenty-four years old, an American, and the graduate of an Ivy League university. But when his career as a stand-up comic fails to get off the ground, Chasnoff decides it's time for a serious change of pace. Leaving behind his amenity-laden Brooklyn apartment for a plane ticket to Israel, Joel trades in the comforts of being a stereotypical American Jewish male for an Uzi, dog tags (with his name misspelled), and serious mental and physical abuse at the hands of the Israeli Army.
Free Press 2010-02-09 269 pages

Hans Bethe, prophet of energy

Bernstein, Jeremy
Hans Bethe, the German American physicist, was one of the world's leading scientific authority on energy. He spent a lifetime on energy-related questions and was a source of information about alternative sources of energy. This work provides a discussion of what the real options are in the energy field are. How much energy will we need, what it will cost, and what are its available sources? How does the process of energy conversion, whether nuclear, solar, or conventional oil and coal, actually work?
Basic Books 1980 212 pages

Shut up, I'm talking! Coming Out in Hollywood and Making It to the Middle

Stuart, Jason,Duffy, Dan
"Shut Up, I'm Talking! chronicles the life and career of actor and comedian Jason Stuart. It's the funny, poignant story of a gay Jewish boy whose life changed after seeing Funny Girl at a second-run movie theatre in Hollywood. "I thought to myself, I'm in love with Omar Sharif - who am I left to be but Barbra Streisand! And I'm a guy... Oy!" It's about surviving a crazy family who survived the Holocaust and clearing up the wreckage of one's past while learning how to become a man. Jason has appeared in over 200 films and TV shows and has had a long and varied career, from my coming out in 1993 on the Geraldo Rivera Show to having a major supporting role in the historical drama The Birth of a Nation playing "Joseph Randall" a white, heterosexual, Christian, slave owner in 1891 while being a gay liberal Jew! As a comedian he has headlined at all the major comedy clubs, appeared twice at prestigious Just for Laughs comedy festivals and did stand-up on Broadway with Joan Rivers and Sandra Bernhard. He was featured in Comedy Central's groundbreaking special Out There, and his own stand-up comedy special Making It to the Middle. Jason has acted with George Clooney, Faye Dunaway, Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury, John Lithgow, Laurie Metcalf, Alexandra Paul, Keanu Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marisa Tomei, Jon Voight, Damon Wayans and they are all in the book! His movies include Kindergarten Cop, Lost & Found, Vegas Vacation, Love Is Strange, Tangerine and on some of the most popular TV shows, Love, Sleepy Hollow, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Will & Grace, The Closer, George Lopez, House, Charmed, My Wife & Kids, The Drew Carey Show and Murder, She Wrote. Jason lives alone in Hollywood, takes care of his mom and is still looking for Mr. Right. He wrote the book with Dan Duffy, a filmmaker and author of The Half Book."--
CCB Publishing 2004 187 pages

Austerity baby

Wolff, Janet
"Austerity Baby might best be described as an "oblique memoir". Janet Wolff's fascinating volume is a family history - but one that is digressive and consistently surprising. The central underlying and repeated themes of the book are exile and displacement; lives (and deaths) during the Third Reich; mother-daughter and sibling relationships; the generational transmission of trauma and experience; transatlantic reflections; and the struggle for creative expression. Stories mobilised, and people encountered, in the course of the narrative include: the internment of aliens in Britain during the Second World War; cultural life in Rochester, New York, in the 1920s; the social and personal meanings of colour(s); the industrialist and philanthropist, Henry Simon of Manchester, including his relationship with the Norwegian explorer, Fridtjof Nansen; the liberal British campaigner and MP of the 1940s, Eleanor Rathbone; reflections on the lives and images of spinsters. The text is supplemented and interrupted throughout by images (photographs, paintings, facsimile documents), some of which serve to illustrate the story, others engaging indirectly with the written word."--Publisher's description.
Manchester University Press 2017 262 pages

Grayson Perry

Klein, Jacky
"Grayson Perry, renowned for his ceramic vases decorated with shocking, unconventional imagery, rose to fame in 2003 when he won the Turner Prize. Since then, Perry has remained an important voice in the arts and the contemporary discussion of gender--in 2016, he published the critically acclaimed book The Descent of Man. Perry's hard-hitting yet exquisite work, which also includes tapestry, prints, sculpture, and drawing, references his own upbringing and his life as a transvestite while engaging with broader issues, from war and religion to politics and sex. Grayson Perry, now in an expanded and updated edition to cover his work up to 2019, explores Perry's art through a discussion of his major themes and subjects. Jacky Klein's text is complemented by intimate and insightful commentaries on individual pieces by the artist, giving unique access to his imaginative world and creative processes. Over 225 of Perry's works are illustrated, as well as a rich selection of the visual material that has inspired him, from Afghan war rugs, Sumatran batiks, and medieval altarpieces to the paintings of Pieter Bruegel and the American Outsider artist Henry Darger." --Amazon.com.
Thames and Hudson 2020-07-28 364 pages

Somebody's gotta tell it: the upbeat memoir of a working-class journalist

Newfield, Jack
Jack Newfield has covered it all: he has documented he unfolding drama of the 1960s; followed the boxing careers of Ali and Tyson; taken on city hall; and kept his integrity intact in the rough world of tabloid politics. Somebody's Gotta Tell It is the clear-eyed memoir of a journalist whose love for his country, and passion for his profession, has never wavered.
St. Martin's Press 2002-04-20 336 pages

The lawful revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848-1849

Deák, István
Hungary's War of Independence was the bloodiest conflict of the European revolutionary era, exciting nationalist passions that burn hot till this day. The story of this dramatic time unfolds through the towering personality of Louis Kossuth--a principal actor in the dramatic events. He and his fellow noblemen sized the opportunity offered by the continent's upheavals to restore Hungary's sovereignty under the Habsburg Crown. They introduced many administrative, social, and economic reforms...only to run into the opposition of many of the country's most powerful forces. In 1949, Kossuth fled--never to return home again.
Columbia University Press 1979 415 pages

The choice: Poland, 1939-1945

Eber, Irene
Memoirs of a Jew born in 1927 in Halle. In 1938, together with other Jews of Polish origin, she and her family were deported to Poland; they settled in Mielec. Describes the Nazi occupation and the establishment of a ghetto. In March 1942 most of the ghetto's inhabitants were transferred to other ghettos or concentration camps. Eber and her family were sent to the Dębica ghetto, but she soon escaped. She found shelter with a Polish family, and hid in a chicken coop for almost two years. Her father was shot in a labor camp. After the war Eber discovered that her mother and sister had been saved by Oskar Schindler. In 1948, after living in a DP camp in Germany, Eber emigrated to the USA.
Schocken Books 2004 229 pages

A child's Christmas in Scarborough

Engel, Howard
Howard Engel has written the perfect parody of a present day Christmas in the suburbs. In his irreverant yet delightfully nostalgic style, Howard Engel tells a story of family, laughter and love. Engel's ear for the rhythm of Thomas' original book combined with his hilarious accounts of uncles, aunts and cousins stuffed into an overcrowded living room, draining the punch bowl and scavenging for presents, brilliantly captures the comic and nostalgic moments of the season.
Key Porter Books 1997 29 pages