No one is better poised to write the biography of JamesHerriot than the son who worked alongside him in the Yorkshireveterinary practice when Herriot became an internationallybestselling author. Now, in this warm and poignant biography, JimWight ventures beyond his father's life as a veterinarian to revealthe man behind the stories--the private individual who refused toallow fame and wealth to interfere with his practice or his family.With access to all of his father's papers, correspondence,manu*s, and photographs--and intimate recollections of thefarmers, locals, and friends who populate the James Herriotbooks--only Jim Wight could write this definitive biography of theman who was not only his father but his best friend.
In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recountsher extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to theworld stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977,she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused onthe empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa.Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personallosses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathaicontinued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and torestore democracy to her beloved country . Infused with herunique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story ofcourage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspiregenerations to come.
An erudite history of medicine...a welcome addition to anymedical collection. -- Booklist How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have usbelieve that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhumantalents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. Butas renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nulandshows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, thetheory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women Who have shaped theworld of medicine have been not only very human people but alsovery much the products of their own times and places. Presentingcompelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers,Doctors gives us the extraordinary story of the development ofmodern medicine -- told through the lives of thephysician-scientists whose deeds and determination paved the way.Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, toAndreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offeredinval
Acclaimed British historian Anthony Everitt delivers a compelling account of the former orphan who became Roman emperor in A.D. 117 after the death of his guardian Trajan. Hadrian strengthened Rome by ending territorial expansion and fortifying existing borders. And - except for the uprising he triggered in Judea - his strength-based diplomacy brought peace to the realm after a century of warfare.
A majestic literary biography, a truly new, surprisingly freshportrait. -- Newsday A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice National Book Critics Circle Award finalist A biography wholly worthy of the brilliant woman it chronicles. .. . It rediscovers Virginia Woolf afresh." --The Philadelphia Inquirer While Virginia Woolf--one of our century's most brilliant andmercurial writers--has had no shortage of biographers, none hasseemed as naturally suited to the task as Hermione Lee. Subscribingto Virginia Woolf's own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness ofidentity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude ofperspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer andthe woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictionsintact. Such issues as sexual abuse, mental illness, and suicideare brought into balance with the immensity of her literaryachievement, her heroic commitment to her work, her generosity andwit, and her sanity and strength. It
How does he assess the information that is brought to him? Howdoes his personal or political philosophy, or a moral sense,sustain him? How does he draw inspiration from those around him?How does he deal with setbacks and disasters? In this brilliantclose-up look at Winston Churchill's leadership during the SecondWorld War, Gilbert gets to the heart of the trials and strugglesthat have confronted the world's most powerful leaders, even up tocurrent politicians such as George Bush and Tony Blair. Basing the book on his intimate knowledge of Churchill's privateand official papers, Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s officialbiographer, looks at the public figure and wartime propaganda, toreveal a very human, sensitive, and often tormented man, whonevertheless found the strength to lead his nation forward from thedarkest and most dangerous of times.
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
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
Musician, composer, producer, arranger, and pioneering entrepreneur Quincy Jones has lived large and worked for five decades alongside the superstars of music and entertainment -- including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Will Smith, and dozens of others. Q is his glittering and moving life story, told with the style, passion, and no-holds-barred honesty that are his trademarks. Quincy Jones grew up poor on the mean streets of Chicago’s South Side, brushing against the law and feeling the pain of his mother’s descent into madness. But when his father moved the family west to Seattle, he took up the trumpet and was literally saved by music. A prodigy, he played backup for Billie Holiday and toured the world with the Lionel Hampton Band before leaving his teens. Soon, though, he found his true calling, inaugurating a career whose highlights have included arranging albums for Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Count Basie; comp
As the boomer generation moves onward through the milestonesof life, 1960s nostalgia holds tremendous meaning today. Andnothing more eloquently symbolizes the counterculture era than thepeace sign. How did this simple sketch become so powerful an image?Peace: The Biography of a Symbol tells the surprising story of thesign in words and pictures, from its origins in the nucleardisarmament efforts of the late 1950s to its adoption by theantiwar movement of the 1960s, through its stint as a mass-marketedcommodity and its enduring relevance now. As the symbol’s popularity blossomed, so did an entiregeneration, and author Ken Kolsbun’s expertly selected images—fromhis own collections as well as a variety of historicalarchives—illustrate both the sign itself and the larger historythat it helped to shape. Along the way, the book recounts thecontroversy inspired by the peace symbol, bringing to light severaltrials that challenged its very existence. Drawing on exclusivearchival interviews with Ger
