Michael Jackson was the undisputed King of Pop and his untimely death has provoked tributes from around the world. With a colourful life spanning from 1968 when Michael was a member of the Jackson 5 to his recent announcement of a final comeback tour at the O2 in London, nobody can dispute the achievements of the man who was arguably the greatest artist of the millenium. This fully illustrated book offers an insightful tribute to the man behind Thriller, the world's best selling album of all time. Including sections on Michael's early life and the Jackson 5, the making of Off the Wall and Thriller, and the troubled years leading right up to his announcement of a comeback tour, this will be a comprehensive and fitting tribute to a legendary pop star, the likes of which the world will never be seen again.

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

With the utterance of a single line—“Doctor Livingstone, Ipresume?”—a remote meeting in the heart of Africa was transformedinto one of the most famous encounters in exploration history. Butthe true story behind Dr. David Livingstone and journalist HenryMorton Stanley is one that has escaped telling. Into Africa is anextraordinarily researched account of a thrilling adventure—definedby alarming foolishness, intense courage, and raw humanachievement. In the mid-1860s, exploration had reached a plateau. The seasand continents had been mapped, the globe circumnavigated. Yet onevexing puzzle remained unsolved: what was the source of the mightyNile river? Aiming to settle the mystery once and for all, GreatBritain called upon its legendary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone,who had spent years in Africa as a missionary. In March 1866,Livingstone steered a massive expedition into the heart of Africa.In his path lay nearly impenetrable, uncharted terrain, hostilecannibals, and deadly predators. W

modern-day classic. "Gift from the Sea is like a shell itself inits small and perfect form . . . It tells of light and life andlove and the security that lies at the heart."--New York Times BookReview.

William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was the most famous American ofhis age. He claimed to have worked for the Pony Express when only aboy and to have scouted for General George Custer. But what was hisreal story? And how did a frontiersman become a worldwidecelebrity? In this prize-winning biography, acclaimed author Louis S. Warrenexplains not only how Cody exaggerated his real experience as anarmy scout and buffalo hunter, but also how that experienceinspired him to create the gigantic, traveling spectacle known asBuffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. A dazzling mix of Indians, cowboys,and vaqueros, they performed on two continents for three decades,offering a surprisingly modern view of the United States and aremarkably democratic version of its history. This definitivebiography reveals the genius of America’s greatest showman, and thestartling history of the American West that drove him and hisperformers to the world stage.

Documentary history or gripping literature? One Life is both.Lampert's reconstruction of the lives of eight real people in NaziGermany explores the difficult choices faced by a wide range ofindividuals. Among them is Miriam P., a juvenile delinquent whofinds herself on a path to the gas chamber. And then there is therabid Nazi Wihelm K., who assumes the position of commissionergeneral in White Ruthenia only to fight for the lives of Jews inthe Minsk ghetto; a retiree who is sentenced to death forscribbling a few words of anti-Hitler graffiti in a public toilet;and a family man turned SS murderer. As the stories of people onboth sides of the terrible rift unfold, their interconnected livesbranch out in astonishing patterns, shaped by the logic of racismas well as by accidents and coincidences. Based on exhaustiveresearch in archives all over the world, Lampert's storiesre-create the horrors and terrible choices of that time in a way noconventional history could.

Amusing, irreverent, sophisticated and highly accessible,Einstein for Beginners is the perfect introduction to Einstein'slife and thought. Reaching back as far as Babylon (for the origins of mathematics)and the Etruscans (who thought they could handle lightning), thisbook takes us through the revolutions in electrical communicationsand technology that made the theory of relativity possible. In theprocess, we meet scientific luminaries and personalities ofimperial Germany, as well as Galileo, Faraday, and Newton; learnwhy moving clocks run slower than stationary ones, why nothing cango faster than the speed of light; and follow Albert's thought ashe works his way toward E = mc2, the most famous equation of thetwentieth century.

In a witty and elegant autobiography thattakes up where his bestelling Palimpsest left off, thecelebrated novelist, essayist, critic, and controversialist GoreVidal reflects on his remarkable life.Writing from his desks inRavello and the Hollywood Hills, Vidal travels in memory throughthe arenas of literature, television, film, theatre, politics, andinternational society where he has cut a wide swath, recountingachievements and defeats, friends and enemies made (and sometimeslost). From encounters with, amongst others, Jack and JacquelineKennedy, Tennessee Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Orson Welles,Johnny Carson, Francis Ford Coppola to the mournful passing of hislongtime partner, Howard Auster, Vidal always steers his narrativewith grace and flair. Entertaining, provocative, and often moving, Point to Point Navigation wonderfully captures the life ofone of twentieth-century America’s most important writers.

From the moment Jacqueline du Pré first held a cello at the ageof five, it was clear she had an extraordinary gift. At sixteen,when she made her professional debut, she was hailed as one of theworld's most talented and exciting musicians. But ten years later,she stopped playing virtually overnight, when multiple sclerosisremoved the feeling in her hands just before a concert. It tookfourteen more years for the crippling disease to take its finaltoll. In this uniquely revealing biography,Hilary and Piers du Pré have re-created the life they shared withtheir sister in astonishing personal detail, unveiling the privateworld behind the public face. With warmth and candor they recountJackie's blissful love of the cello, her marriage to the conductorDaniel Barenboim, her compulsions, her suffering, and, above all,the price exacted by her talent on the whole family. For proud asthey were of Jackie's enormous success, none of them was preparedfor the profound impact her genius would have on each of theirlives

"This man will either go insane or leave us all far behind," prophesied the great Impressionist Camille Pissarro. The man was Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), a vicar's son born at Groot-Zundert near Breda in Holland, who at that time was struggling to find buyers for his paintings. Van Gogh did indeed go at least to the brink of insanity. And he has long been recognised as one of the greatest modern artists.Van Gogh, who followed a variety of professions before becoming an artist, was a solitary, despairing and self-destructive man his whole life long. His truest friend was his brother Theo, who supported him unstintingly throughout and followed him to the grave just six months later.This richly illustrated study by two experts on van Gogh follows the artist from the early gloom-laden paintings in which he captured the misery of peasants and workers in his home parts, through the bright and colourful paintings he did in Paris, to the work of his final years under a southern sun in Arles, where he at last found

When Anne Rice stopped crafting stories about vampires andbegan writing about Jesus, many of her fans were shocked. Thisautobiographical spiritual memoir provides an account of how theauthor rediscovered and fully embraced her Catholic faith afterdecades as a self-proclaimed atheist. Rice begins with herchildhood in New Orleans, when she seriously considered entering aconvent. As she grows into a young adult she delves into concernsabout faith, God and the Catholic Church that lead her away fromreligion. The author finally reclaims her Catholic faith in thelate 1990s, describing it as a movement toward total surrender toGod. She writes beautifully about how through clouds of doubt andpain she finds clarity, realizing how much she loved God anddesired to surrender her being, including her writing talent, toGod. Covering such a large sequence of time and life events is noteasy, and some of the author's transitions are a bit jarring. Fansof Rice's earlier works will enjoy discovering more about her lifean

Christopher (Kit) Lukas’s mother committed suicide when hewas a boy. He and his brother, Tony, were not told how she died. Noone spoke of the family’s history of depression and bipolardisorder. The brothers grew up to achieve remarkable success; Tonyas a gifted journalist (and author of the classic book, CommonGround ), Kit as an accomplished television producer anddirector. After suffering bouts of depression, Kit was able toconfront his family’s troubled past, but Tony never seemed to findthe contentment Kit had attained–he killed himself in 1997. Writtenwith heartrending honesty, Blue Genes captures thedevastation of this family legacy of depression and details thestrength and hope that can provide a way of escaping itsgrasp.

In Lady Blue Eyes, Barbara Sinatra's firstpubliclove letter to the husband she adored, she celebratesthesensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heart-throb, and devotedfriend that she found in Frank.For more than two decades, Barbarawas always byhis side, traveling the globe and hostingglitteringevents for their famous friends, including presi-dents,kings, queens, Hollywood royalty, and musi-cal legends. Among themwere Sammy Davis Jr.,Princess Grace of Monaco, Bob Dylan, andRonaldReagan. Each night, as Frank publicly wooed hisbride withlove songs from a concert stage, she'd fallin love with him allover again.

Armed with a camera and a fresh cache of film and bankrolled by a Guggenheim Foundation grant, Robert Frank crisscrossed the United States during 1955 and 1956. The photographs he brought back form a portrait of the country at the time and hint at its future. He saw the hope of the future in the faces of a couple at city hall in Reno, Nevada, and the despair of the present in a grimy roofscape. He saw the roiling racial tension, glamour, and beauty, and, perhaps because Frank himself was on the road, he was particularly attuned to Americans' love for cars. Funeral-goers lean against a shiny sedan, lovers kiss on a beach blanket in front of their parked car, young boys perch in the back seat at a drive-in movie. A sports car under a drop cloth is framed by two California palm trees; on the next page, a blanket is draped over a car accident victim's body in Arizona. Robert Frank's Americans reappear 40 years after they were initially published in this exquisite volume by Scalo. Each photograph (there are

Based on ten years' astonishing new research, here is thethrilling story of how a charismatic, dangerous boy became astudent priest, romantic poet, gangster mastermind, prolific lover,murderous revolutionary, and the merciless politician who shapedthe Soviet Empire in his own brutal image: How Stalin becameStalin.

The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst unexpectedly ontothe eighteenth-century literary scene as a provocateur whose workselectrified readers. An autodidact who had not written anything ofsignificance by age thirty, Rousseau seemed an unlikely candidateto become one of the most influential thinkers in history. Yet thepower of his ideas is felt to this day in our political and sociallives. In a masterly and definitive biography, Leo Damrosch traces theextraordinary life of Rousseau with novelistic verve. He presentsRousseau's books -- The Social Contract, one of the greatest workson political theory; Emile, a groundbreaking treatise on education;and the Confessions, which created the genre of introspectiveautobiography -- as works uncannily alive and provocative eventoday. Jean-Jacques Rousseau offers a vivid portrait of thevisionary’s tumultuous life.

Here is the book that Rolling Stone called "the first Doorsbiography that feels like it was written for the right reasons, andit is easily the most informed account of the Doors' brief butbrilliant life as a group".

A swashbuckling Texan, a teller of tall tales, a womanizer,and a renegade, Fred Cuny spent his life in countries rent by war,famine, and natural disasters, saving many thousands of livesthrough his innovative and sometimes controversial methods ofrelief work. Cuny earned his nickname "Master of Disaster" for hisexploits in Kurdistan, Somalia, and Bosnia. But when he arrived inthe rogue Russian republic of Chechnya in the spring of 1995,raring to go and eager to put his ample funds from George Soros togood use, he found himself in the midst of an unimaginably savagewar of independence, unlike any he had ever before encountered.Shortly thereafter, he disappeared in the war-rocked highlands,never to be seen again. Who was Cuny really working for? Was he a CIA spy? Who killedhim, and why? In search of the answers, Scott Anderson traveled toChechnya on a hazardous journey that started as as a magazineassignment and ended as a personal mission. The result is agalvanizing adventure story, a chilling pic

"Authorized, intimate, and definitive, Ben Hogan: A Life isthe long-awaited biography of one of golf's greatest, mostenigmatic legends, narrated with the unique eloquence that has madeauthor James Dodson a critically acclaimed national bestseller. "One man is often credited with shaping the landscape of moderngolf. Ben Hogan was a short, trim, impeccably dressed Texan whosefierce work ethic, legendary steel nerves, and astonishing triumphover personal disaster earned him not only an army of adoring fans,but one of the finest careers in the history of the sport. Hogancaptured a record-tying four U.S. Opens, won five of six majortournaments in a single season, and inspired future generations ofprofessional golfers from Palmer to Norman to Woods. Yet for allhis brilliance, Ben Hogan was an enigma. He was an American herowhose personal life, inner motivation, and famed "secret" were thesource of great public mystery. As Hogan grew into a giant on thepro tour, the combination of his cool outward demeanor an

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.

A rich evocation of Nabokov's life and times, even as it offersincisive insights into his major works, including LOLITA, PNIN,DESPAIR, THE GIFT and others.