Contributors include Harold Bloom, Jules Feiffer, John Guare,Norman Mailer, Peter Matthiessen, Maggie Paley, Richard Price,James Salter, Robert Silvers, William Styron, Gay Talese, CalvinTrillin, Gore Vidal, and 200 other Plimpton intimates Norman Mailer said that George Plimpton was the best-loved man inNew York. This book is the party that was George’s life–and it’s abig one–attended by scores of famous people, as well aslesser-known intimates and acquaintances. They talk about his life:its privileged beginnings, its wild and triumphant middle, itsbrave, sad end. They say that George was a man of many parts: the“last gentleman,” founder and first editor of The ParisReview, the graceful writer who brought the NewJournalism to sports, and Everyman’s proxy boxer,trapeze artist, stand-up comic, Western movie villain, and Playboy centerfold photographer. George’s last years were awesome, truly so. His greatest gift wasto be a blessing to others–not all, truth be told–and that giften

THIS TIME TOGETHER is 100 percent Carol Burnett – funny,irreverent, and irresistible. Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses andperformers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen eachweek by millions of adoring fans and won twenty-five Emmys in itsremarkable eleven-year run. Now, in This Time Together ,Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching ormemorable story after another – reading it feels like sitting downwith an old friend who has wonderful tales to tell. In engaging anecdotes, Carol discusses her remarkable friendshipswith stars such at Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, andJulie Andrews; the background behind famous scenes, like the momentshe swept down the stairs in her curtain-rod dress in the legendary“Went With the Wind” skit; and things that would happen only toCarol – the prank with Julie Andrews that went wrong in front ofthe First Lady; the famous Tarzan Yell that saved her during amugging; and the time she faked a woode

He had a number one hit at eighteen. He was a millionaire withhis own record label at twenty-two. He was, according to Tom Wolfe,“the first tycoon of teen.” Phil Spector owned pop music. From theCrystals, the Ronettes (whose lead singer, Ronnie, would become hissecond wife), and the Righteous Brothers to the Beatles (togetherand singly) and finally the seventies punk icons The Ramones,Spector produced hit after hit. But then he became pop music's mostfamous recluse. Until one day in the spring of 2007, when his namehit the tabloids, connected to a horrible crime. In Tearing Downthe Wall of Sound , Mick Brown, who was the last journalist tointerview Spector before his arrest , tells the full story ofthe troubled musical genius.

Theodore Rex is the story—never fully toldbefore—of Theodore Roosevelt’s two world-changing terms asPresident of the United States. A hundred years before thecatastrophe of September 11, 2001, “TR” succeeded to power in theaftermath of an act of terrorism. Youngest of all our chiefexecutives, he rallied a stricken nation with his superhumanenergy, charm, and political skills. He proceeded to combat theproblems of race and labor relations and trust control while makingthe Panama Canal possible and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Buthis most historic achievement remains his creation of a nationalconservation policy, and his monument millions of acres ofprotected parks and forest. Theodore Rex ends with TRleaving office, still only fifty years old, his future reputationsecure as one of our greatest presidents.

In 1773, the great Samuel Johnson–then 63–and his young friendand future biographer, James Boswell, traveled together around thecoast of Scotland, each writing his own account of the 83-dayjourney. Published in one volume, the very different travelogues ofthis unlikely duo provide a fascinating picture not only of theScottish Highlands but also of the relationship between two menwhose fame would be forever entwined. Johnson's account contains elegant de*ions and analysesof what was then a remote and rugged land. In contrast, theScottish-born Boswell's journal of the trip focuses on thepsychological landscape of his famously gruff and witty companion,and is part of the material he was already collecting for hisfuture Life of Samuel Johnson, the masterly biography that wouldmake his name. Read together, the two accounts form both a unique classic oftravel writing and a revelation of one of the most famous literaryfriendships.

It’s Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop’sFirst Latino DJ is a gritty and gripping tale of one man’sstruggles to not only survive, but to triumph over adversity andabuse that will make your blood run cold. By conqueringunimaginable obstacles, Wiz offers inspiration to anyone who hasever wondered, “Why me?”

Over a career spanning 30+ years, Christopher Walken hasgenerated an enormous cult following. (If you need proof, justsearch for "cowbell" on YouTube.) Christopher Walken A to Z offersthe first biography of this quirky show-business legend, withentries on everything from Actor's Studio (the legendary theaterworkshop where Walken spent 11 years as a janitor) to Zombie Movies(one of his favorite film genres). Along the way, readers willdiscover: Walken has worked as a lion tamer. Walken has appeared in music videos for Madonna,Duran Duran, and Fatboy Slim. Walken is the most popular guest host in thehistory of Saturday Night Live. Walken has filmed a pilot for a cooking show,Cooking with Chris. Most incredibly,Walken has starred in some ofthe worst films of all time everything from Heaven's Gate toKangaroo Jack and Gigli and yet his popularity never wanes. Complete with more than 50 behind-the-scenesphotographs and tons of fascinating trivia, Christopher Walken A toZ offers a fascinatin

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic," TheRise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatestbiographies of our time. The publication of The Rise of TheodoreRoosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversaryof Theodore Roosevelt becoming president.

An enduring mystery in Mark Twain’s life concerns the events ofhis last decade, from 1900 to 1910. Despite many Twain biographies, no one has everdetermined exactly what took place during those final years afterthe death of Twain’s wife of thirty-four years and how thoseexperiences affected him, personally and professionally. For nearlya century, it was believed that Twain went to his death a beloved,wisecracking iconoclastic American (“I am not an American,” Twainwrote; “I am the American”), undeterred by life’s sorrows andchallenges. Laura Skandera Trombley, the preeminent Twainscholar at work today, suspected that there had to be more to thestory than the cultivated, carefully constructed version that hadbeen intact for so long. Trombley went in search of the one womanwhom she suspected had played the largest role in Twain’s lifeduring those final years and who possibly held the answers to herquestions about Twain’s life and writings. Now, in Mark Twain’s Other Woman, after

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “ The Social Network , themuch anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book TheAccidental Billionaires .” — The New York Times Best friends Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg had spent manylonely nights looking for a way to stand out among HarvardUniversity’s elite, comptetitive, and accomplished studentbody. Then, in 2003, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s computers,crashed the campus network, almost got himself expelled, and was inspired to create Facebook, the socialnetworking site that has since revolutionized communication aroundthe world. With Saverin’s funding their tiny start-up went from dorm room toSilicon Valley. But conflicting ideas about Facebook’s futuretransformed the friends into enemies. Soon, the undergraduateexuberance that marked their collaboration turned into out-and-outwarfare as it fell prey to the adult world of venture capitalists,big money, lawyers.

My life’s been a great story / In the ultimate war /Should I ill or do right? / Make peace or go raw?—Ice-T,“Exodus” He’s a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangstarap in the 1980s. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin“Fin” Tutuola on the top-rated TV drama Law Order:SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real storyof Ice-T—the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard—trulybegins. Ice is Ice-T in his own words—raw, uncensored, and unafraidto speak his mind. About his orphan upbringing on the gang-infestedstreets of South Central Los Angeles. About his four-year stint inthe U.S. Army’s famed “Tropic Lightning” outfit. About hissuccessful career as a hustler and thief, the car crash that nearlykilled him, and the fateful decision to turn away from a life ofcrime and forge his own path to international entertainmentstardom. Ice by Ice-T is both a tell-it-like-it-is tale of redemptionand a star-studded tour of the pop culture fi

The private letters of Truman Capote, lovingly assembled herefor the first time by acclaimed Capote biographer Gerald Clarke,provide an intimate, unvarnished portrait of one of the twentiethcentury’s most colorful and fascinating literary figures. Capote was an inveterate letter writer. He wrote letters as hespoke: emphatically, spontaneously, and passionately. Spanning morethan four decades, his letters are the closest thing we have to aCapote autobiography, showing us the uncannily self-possessed na?fwho jumped headlong into the post—World War II New York literaryscene; the more mature Capote of the 1950s; the Capote of the early1960s, immersed in the research and writing of In Cold Blood; andCapote later in life, as things seemed to be unraveling. Withcameos by a veritable who’s who of twentieth century glitterati,Too Brief a Treat shines a spotlight on the life and times of anincomparable American writer.