12 results for "Biography"

Folk music: a Bob Dylan biography in seven songs

Marcus, Greil
"Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen. In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan's story through seven of his most transformative songs. Marcus's point of departure is Dylan's ability to "see myself in others." Like Dylan's songs, this book is a work of implicit patriotism and creative skepticism. It illuminates Dylan's continuing presence and relevance through his empathy-his imaginative identification with other people. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own."--
Yale University Press 2022 273 pages

Elie Wiesel: confronting the silence

Berger, Joseph
"As an orphaned survivor and witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) compelled the world to confront the Holocaust with his searing memoir Night. How did this soft-spoken man from a small Carpathian town become such an influential figure on the world stage. Drawing on Wiesel's prodigious literary output and interviews with his family, friends, scholars, and critics, Joseph Berger seeks to answer this question."--
Yale University Press 2023-01-01 342 pages

The Beatles White album and the launch of Apple

Bruce Spizer
"The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple " is the tenth book on the Beatles by critically acclaimed Beatles author/historian Bruce Spizer. His latest book covers all aspects of the Beatles 1968 double album titled "The Beatles," but more commonly referred to as "The White Album" due to its pure white cover. The book opens with chapters of the start of Apple and the first four singles released by Apple, including the Beatles single "Hey Jude"/"Revolution." The book then moves on to chapters about how "The White Album" was received upon its release in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Other chapters deal with the turbulent year 1968, details on the recording sessions and recollections from fans. The book contains 150 color and original black and white images through.
498 Productions, L.L.C. 2018-11-22 183 pages

Last days at hot slit: the radical feminism of Andrea Dworkin

Dworkin, Andrea
"Radical feminist author Andrea Dworkin was a caricature of the manhater in the popular imagination as well as a polarizing figure within the women's movement, infamous for her antipornography stance in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, more than a decade after her death, this timely collection of her writing showcases the prescience of her analyses: of the genocidal character of sexual violence; of the devastating nihilism of white male supremacy, and of the toll it takes--especially on those who resist. This rediscovery of Dworkin's work will serve as a flashpoint for crucial feminist conversations today. Why is the cost of speaking out against abuse and inequality still so high? Why is the problematic work of brilliant women forced into oblivion, when that of flawed great men is embraced? What can we learn from the bitter divisions and discarded ideas of previous generations?"--Page 4 of cover.
Semiotext(e) 2019-03-05 407 pages

Arthur Miller: American witness

Lahr, John
"Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915-2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller's life--his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller's role as a public intellectual--this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller's psychology and his plays. Concentrating largely on Miller's most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller's early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, Focus; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible, providing an original interpretation of Miller's work and his personality."--
Yale University Press 2022-01-01 244 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

The last waltz: the Strauss dynasty and Vienna

Suchet, John
"Captured in a beautiful package, including more than fifty color photographs, The Last Waltz tells the intriguing story of of the Viennese Strauss family known for producing some of the best known, best loved music of the nineteenth century. Johann and Josef Strauss, the Waltz Kings, composed hundreds of instantly recognizable and enduring melodies, including The Blue Danube Waltz, Tales from the Vienna Woods, Voices of Spring and The Radetzky March. Their iconic music has been featured on the scores of nearly a thousand films. Yet despite their success, this was a family riven with tension, feuds and jealousy, living in a country that was undergoing seismic upheaval. Through the personal and political chaos, the Strauss family continued to compose music to which the Viennese -- anxious to forget their troubles -- could dance and drank champagne, even as their country hurtled towards oblivion at the hands of the First World War. Classical music expert and radio host John Suchet skillfully portrays this gripping story, capturing the family dramas, the tensions, triumphs and disasters against the turbulent backdrop of Austria in the nineteenth century, from revolution to regicide." --
Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press 2015 277 pages

Thrown Among the Bones My Life in Fiction

Patricia Schonstein
Thrown Among the Bones -- My Life in Fiction is a candid account of Patricia Schonstein's creative, deeply lived life as a novelist. Annotated with extracts from her writings, this generous memoir welcomes you behind the scenes, into her Workshop and Costumery. She shows how her own life configures with the scaffolding of her fictions; how characters take up roles both archetypal and simple to tackle existential questions; and how urban landscapes and wilderness serve as the neon-spangled theatres of her story telling."--
African Sun Press 2021 318 pages