He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widelyread authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the mostfamous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own truestory has never been fully told. At last, the fascinating truth isrevealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer SelinaHastings. Granted unprecedented access to Maugham’s personalcorrespondence and to newly uncovered interviews with his onlychild, Hastings portrays the secret loves, betrayals, integrity,and passion that inspired Maugham to create such classics as TheRazor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage. Hastings vividly presents Maugham’s lonely childhood spentwith unloving relatives after the death of his parents, a traumathat resulted in shyness, a stammer, and for the rest of his lifean urgent need for physical tenderness. Here, too, are his adulttriumphs on the stage and page, works that allowed him a glitteringsocial life in which he befriended and sometimes fell out with suchluminaries as Do

"They've said some crazy things about me over the years. I mean, okay: 'He bit the head off a bat.' Yes. 'He bit the head off a dove.' Yes. But then you hear things like, 'Ozzy went to the show last night, but he wouldn't perform until he'd killed fifteen puppies . . .' Now me, kill fifteen puppies? I love puppies. I've got eighteen of the f**king things at home. I've killed a few cows in my time, mind you. And the chickens. I shot the chickens in my house that night. It haunts me, all this crazy stuff. Every day of my life has been an event. I took lethal combinations of booze and drugs for thirty f**king years. I survived a direct hit by a plane, suicidal overdoses, STDs. I've been accused of attempted murder. Then I almost died while riding over a bump on a quad bike at f**king two miles per hour. People ask me how come I'm still alive, and I don't know what to say. When I was growing up, if you'd have put me up against a wall with the other kids from my street and asked me which one o

Gies recalls how, during WW II, she, her husband and some of their coworkers sheltered her boss Otto Frank, his family and several other Jews in a secret annex of their Amsterdam office building. PW found that although Gold's retelling is "disappointing," Gies's "sincerity, humility and courage emerge . . . and will not fail to inspire." Photos. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This explosive, revelatory history of the early years ofpsychoanalysis shows that the bitterly unresolvable split betweenJung and Freud pivoted around a former patient and lover of Jung'swhose story and own potentially important theoretical contributionsto psychoanalysis were blocked by both men. "A huge scholarly work. . . gripping."--The New York Times.

In a book that is both biography and the most exciting form ofhistory, here are eighteen years in the life of a man, AlbertEinstein, and a city, Berlin, that were in many ways the definingyears of the twentieth century. Einstein in Berlin In the spring of 1913 two of the giants of modern sciencetraveled to Zurich. Their mission: to offer the most prestigiousposition in the very center of European scientific life to a manwho had just six years before been a mere patent clerk. AlbertEinstein accepted, arriving in Berlin in March 1914 to take up hisnew post. In December 1932 he left Berlin forever. “Take a goodlook,” he said to his wife as they walked away from their house.“You will never see it again.” In between, Einstein’s Berlin years capture in microcosm theodyssey of the twentieth century. It is a century that opens withextravagant hopes--and climaxes in unparalleled calamity. These aretumultuous times, seen through the life of one man who is at oncewitness to and architect of his day--and

In this fascinating and meticulously researched book,bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of themost universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, andreveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India andthe British Empire. They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s mostglamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a piousmiddle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet ArthurHerman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined asthe twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead theirnations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and becomelocked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fates ofcountries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Here is a sweepingepic with a fascinating supporting cast, and a brilliant narrativeparable of two men whose great successes were always haunted bypersonal failure—and whose final moments of triumph wereovershadowed by the loss of what they held

在线阅读本书 Book De*ion An American classic rediscovered by each generation, The Storyof My Life is Helen Keller’s account of her triumph overdeafness and blindness. Popularized by the stage play and movie TheMiracle Worker, Keller’s story has become a symbol of hope forpeople all over the world. This book–published when Keller was only twenty-two–portrays thewild child who is locked in the dark and silent prison of her ownbody. With an extraordinary immediacy, Keller reveals herfrustrations and rage, and takes the reader on the unforgettablejourney of her education and breakthroughs into the world ofcommunication. From the moment Keller recognizes the word “water”when her teacher finger-spells the letters, we share her triumph as“that living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, setit free!” An unparalleled chronicle of courage, The Story of MyLife remains startlingly fresh and vital more than a centuryafter its first publication, a timeless testament to an indo

As a young guardsman, Grigory Potemkin caught the eye ofCatherine the Great with a theatrical act of gallantry during thecoup that placed her on the throne. Over the next thirty years hewould become her lover, co-ruler, and husband in a secret marriagethat left room for both to satisfy their sexual appetites. Potemkinproved to be one of the most brilliant statesmen of the eighteenthcentury, helping Catherine expand the Russian empire and deftlymanipulating allies and adversaries from Constantinople toLondon. This acclaimed biographyvividly re-creates Potemkin’s outsized character andaccomplishments and restores him to his rightful place as acolossus of the eighteenth century. It chronicles the tempestuousrelationship between Potemkin and Catherine, a remarkable loveaffair between two strong personalities that helped shape thecourse of history. As he brings these characters to life,Montefiore also tells the story of the creation of the Russianempire. This is biography as it is meant to be: both inti

A secret life, A tragic death, A towering legacy. 有人这样形容他：“他英年早逝却成就颇丰，他的研究让他青史留名”。他就是阿兰?图灵，二十世纪的一位伟大人物。然而，在70年代之前，他的名字还不为人知，因为他在破译德国英格玛(enigma)密码机方面的贡献还没有被公开。图灵的故事令人着迷，而在他自杀之后，他的名气不降反升，因为人们更加深刻地认识到他对逻辑学、数学、计算、人工智能以及计算生物学所做出的贡献。为纪念图灵诞辰一百周年，特将图灵母亲所著的传记再版。数学家马丁?戴维斯为该版重新作序，另外此版还附上了首次公布的图灵哥哥的回忆录。但哥哥的回忆录和图灵母亲的传记之间的差别透露出了矛盾，也可以使读者从新的角度了解图灵本人，以及图灵和家人的关系。 阿兰?图灵传奇的一生虽引人注意，但了解他生平详情的人并不多。他的母

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blueeyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic renegades,broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such revered films as TheHustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, TheVerdict, The Color of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was alsoan oddity in Hollywood: the rare box-office titan who cared aboutthe craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for the stayingpower of his marriage, and the humble celebrity who madephilanthropy his calling card long before it was cool. The son of a successful entrepreneur, Newman grew up in aprosperous Cleveland suburb. Despite fears that he would fail tolive up to his father’s expectations, Newman bypassed the familysporting goods business to pursue an acting career. Afterstruggling as a theater and television actor, Newman saw his starrise in a tragic twist of fate, landing the role of boxer RockyGraziano in Somebody Up There Likes Me when James Dean was killedin a car a

“Number One” was a phrase my father—and, for that matter, mymother—repeated time and time again. It was a phrase spoken by myparents’ friends and by their friends’ children. Whenever adultsdiscussed the great Chinese painters and sculptors from the ancientdynasties, there was always a single artist named as Number One.There was the Number One leader of a manufacturing plant, theNumber One worker, the Number One scientist, the Number One carmechanic. In the culture of my childhood, being best waseverything. It was the goal that drove us, the motivation that gavelife meaning. And if, by chance or fate or the blessings of thegenerous universe, you were a child in whom talent was evident,Number One became your mantra. It became mine. I never begged myparents to take off the pressure. I accepted it; I even enjoyed it.It was a game, this contest among aspiring pianists, and although Imay have been shy, I was bold, even at age five, when faced with afield of rivals. Born in China to parents whose mu

Immensely learned, self-educated in an era when formal schoolingwas denied to women, Mary Wortley Montagu was an admired poet, aconsistently scandalous doyenne of eighteenth-century Londonsociety, and, in a period when letter-writing had been elevated toan art form, one of the greatest letter writers in the Englishlanguage. Her epistles, meant for both public and privateconsumption, are the product of a mind distinguished by itsadventurousness, its indifference to convention, and its eagernessnot only to acquire knowledge but to convey it with unmitigatedstyle and grace.

The first complete, unvarnished history of Southern rock’slegendary and most popular band, from its members’ hardscrabbleboyhoods in Jacksonville, Florida and their rise to worldwide fameto the tragic plane crash that killed the founder and the band’srise again from the ashes. In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie VanZant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band toplay covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds and thecountry and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming theirband after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee SeniorHigh School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiringmusicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties,and bars throughout the South. During the next decade LynyrdSkynyrd grew into the most critically acclaimed and commerciallysuccessful of the rock bands to emerge from the South since theAllman Brothers. Their hits “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”became classics. The

Einstein believed in humanity, in a peaceful world of mutualhelpfulness, and in the high mission of science. Intended as a pleafor these beliefs, this book, like no other provides a complete keyto the understanding of this distinguished man's personality.

The only thing the writers in this book have in common is thatthey've exchanged sex for money. They're PhDs and dropouts, soccermoms and jailbirds, $2,500-a-night call girls and $10 crack hos,and everything in between. This anthology lends a voice to anunderrepresented population that is simultaneously reviled andworshipped. Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys is a collection of shortmemoirs, rants, confessions, nightmares, journalism, and poetrycovering life, love, work, family, and yes, sex. The editors gatherpieces from the world of industrial sex, including contributionsfrom art-porn priestess Dr. Annie Sprinkle, best-selling memoiristDavid Henry Sterry (Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man forRent), sex activist and musical diva Candye Kane, women and menright off the streets, girls participating in the first-everNational Summit of Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, and RuthMorgan Thomas, one of the organizers of the European Sex Work,Human Rights, and Migration Conference. Se

How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is aclassic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford’soutsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in thisengaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set offthe consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to themasses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted byconsumerism. He believed in giving his workers a living wage,though he was entirely opposed to union labor. He had a warm andloving relationship with his wife, but sired a son with anotherwoman. A rabid anti-Semite, he nonetheless embraced AfricanAmerican workers in the era of Jim Crow. Uncovering the man behind the myth, situating his achievementsand their attendant controversies firmly within the context ofearly twentieth-century America, Watts has given us acomprehensive, illuminating, and fascinating biography of one ofAmerica’s first mass-culture celebrities.

The definitive story of one of the greatest dynasties inbaseball history, Joe Torre's New York Yankees. When Joe Torre took over as manager of the Yankees in 1996, theyhad not won a World Series title in eighteen years. In that timeseventeen others had tried to take the helm of America’s mostfamous baseball team. Each one was fired by George Steinbrenner.After twelve triumphant seasons—with twelve straight playoffappearances, six pennants, and four World Series titles—Torre leftthe Yankees as the most beloved manager in baseball. But dealingwith players like Jason Giambi, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera,Roger Clemens, and Randy Johnson is what managing is all about.Here, for the first time, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci take readersinside the dugout, the clubhouse, and the front office, showingwhat it took to keep the Yankees on top of the baseball world.

At sixteen, Edward Beauclerk Maurice impulsively signed upwith the Hudson's Bay Company -- the company of GentlemanAdventurers -- and ended up at an isolated trading post in theCanadian Arctic, where there was no communication with the outsideworld and only one ship arrived each year. But he was not alone.The Inuit people who traded there taught him how to track polarbears, build igloos, and survive ferocious winter storms. Helearned their language and became completely immersed in theirculture, earning the name Issumatak, meaning “he who thinks.” In The Last Gentleman Adventurer, Edward Beauclerk Mauricerelates his story of coming of age in the Arctic and transports thereader to a time and a way of life now lost forever.

So much has how been said and written about the life andcareer of Michael Jackson that it has become almost impossible todisentangle the man from the myth. This book is the fruit of over30 years of research and hundreds of exclusive interviews with aremarkable level of access to the very closest circles of theJackson family - including Michael himself. Cutting through tabloidrumours, J. Randy Taraborrelli traces the real story behind MichaelJackson, from his drilling as a child star through the blooming ofhis talent to his ever-changing personal appearance and bizarrepublicity stunts. This major biography includes thebehind-the-scenes story to many of the landmarks in Jackson's life:his legal and commercial battles, his marriages to Lisa MariePresley and Debbie Rowe, his passions and addictions, his children.Objective and revealing, it carries the hallmarks of all ofTaraborrelli's best-sellers: impeccable research, brilliantstorytelling and definitive documentation.