"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

A gathering ofbrilliant and viciously funny recollections from one of thetwentieth century’s most famous literary enfants terribles. Written in 1980 but published here for the first time, thesetexts tell the story of the various farces that developed aroundthe literary prizes Thomas Bernhard received in his lifetime.Whether it was the Bremen Literature Prize, the Grillparzer Prize,or the Austrian State Prize, his participation in the acceptanceceremony—always less than gracious, it must be said—resulted inscandal (only at the awarding of the prize from Austria’s FederalChamber of Commerce did Bernhard feel at home: he received thatone, he said, in recognition of the great example he set forshopkeeping apprentices). And the remuneration connected with theprizes presented him with opportunities for adventure—of thenew-house and luxury-car variety. Here is a portrait of the writer as a prizewinner: laconic,sardonic, and shaking his head with biting amusement at the w

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 an engaging book that sweeps from the Gilded Age to the1960s, award-winning author Laura Claridge presents the firstauthoritative biography of Emily Post, who changed the mindset ofmillions of Americans with Etiquette, a perennial bestseller andtouchstone of proper behavior. A daughter of high society and one of Manhattan’s mostsought-after debutantes, Emily Price married financier Edwin Post.It was a hopeful union that ended in scandalous divorce. But thetrauma forced Emily Post to become her own person. After writingnovels for fifteen years, Emily took on a different sort ofproject. When it debuted in 1922, Etiquette represented afifty-year-old woman at her wisest–and a country at its wildest.Claridge addresses the secret of Etiquette’s tremendous success andgives us a panoramic view of the culture from which it took itsshape, as its author meticulously updated her book twice a decadeto keep it consistent with America’s constantly changing sociallandscape. Now, nearly fifty years aft

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.

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

Plutarch's Lives, written at the beginning of the secondcentury A.D., is a brilliant social history of the ancient world byone of the greatest biographers and moralists of all time. In whatis by far his most famous and influential work, Plutarch revealsthe character and personality of his subjects and how they ledultimately to tragedy or victory. Richly anecdotal and full ofdetail, Volume I contains profiles and comparisons of Romulus andTheseus, Numa and Lycurgus, Fabius and Pericles, and many morepowerful figures of ancient Greece and Rome. The present translation, originally published in 1683 inconjunction with a life of Plutarch by John Dryden, was revised in1864 by the poet and scholar Arthur Hugh Clough, whose notes andpreface are also included in this edition.

Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmentheir lives. But in 1649 Parliament was hard put to find a lawyerwith the skill and daring to prosecute a king who claimed to beabove the law. In the end, they chose the radical lawyer JohnCooke, whose Puritan conscience, political vision, and love ofcivil liberties gave him the courage to bring the king to trial. Asa result, Charles I was beheaded, but eleven years later Cookehimself was arrested, tried, and executed at the hands of CharlesII. Geoffrey Robertson, a renowned human rights lawyer, provides avivid new reading of the tumultuous Civil War years, exposinglong-hidden truths: that the king was guilty, that his executionwas necessary to establish the sovereignty of Parliament, that theregicide trials were rigged and their victims should be seen asnational heroes. Cooke’s trial of Charles I, the first trial of ahead of state for waging war on his own people, became a forerunnerof the trials of Augusto Pinochet, Slobodan Milosevic

Let It Blurt is the raucous and righteous biography of LesterBangs (1949-82)--the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romanticvisionary of rock criticism. No writer on rock 'n' roll ever livedharder or wrote better--more passionately, more compellingly, morepenetratingly. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling boozeand Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that eruptedfrom the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice.Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher,louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which hecharted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He wastreated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, PattiSmith, Richard Hell, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Debbie Harry,and other luminaries. Let It Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of LesterBangs's fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story,as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in theirmost turbulent and creative years

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.

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.

Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists,and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and,later, of German-American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties,built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities,and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But theirvery success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism,and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in aGermany that had declared Jews the enemy. Ron Chernow's hugely fascinating history is a groupportrait of a clan whose members were renowned for theirbrilliance, culture, and personal energy yet tragically vulnerableto the dark and irrational currents of the twentieth century. "Splendid.... Chernow does a wonderful job fleshing outthe lives of the major characters in this family drama."

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) The Periodic Table is largely a memoir of the years beforeand after Primo Levi’s transportation from his native Italy toAuschwitz as an anti-Facist partisan and a Jew. It recounts, in clear, precise, unfailingly beautiful prose, thestory of the Piedmontese Jewish community from which Levi came, ofhis years as a student and young chemist at the inception of theSecond World War, and of his investigations into the nature of thematerial world. As such, it provides crucial links and backgrounds,both personal and intellectual, in the tremendous project ofremembrance that is Levi’s gift to posterity. But far from being aprologue to his experience of the Holocaust, Levi’s masterpiecerepresents his most impassioned response to the events thatengulfed him. The Periodic Table celebrates the pleasures of love andfriendship and the search for meaning, and stands as a monument tothose things in us that are capable of resisting and enduring inthe face of tyranny. From the Hardcover

Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, and dazzling,the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s greatest and mostversatile writers, is the ideal subject for Peter Ackroyd. Poewrote lyrical poetry and macabre psychological melodramas; inventedthe first fictional detective; and produced pioneering works ofscience fiction and fantasy. His innovative style, images, andthemes had a tremendous impact on European romanticism, symbolism,and surrealism, and continue to influence writers today. In this essential addition to his canon of acclaimed biographies,Peter Ackroyd explores Poe’s literary accomplishments and legacyagainst the background of his erratic, dramatic, and sometimessordid life. Ackroyd chronicles Poe’s difficult childhood, hisbumpy academic and military careers, and his complex relationshipswith women, including his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin.He describes Poe’s much-written-about problems with gambling andalcohol with sympathy and insight, showing their connections toP

In the tradition of our best-selling Secret Lives of the U.S.Presidents (120,000 copies in print), here are outrageous anduncensored profiles of the world's greatest artists, complete withhundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downrightbizarre facts. Consider: Michelangelo had such repellant body odorthat his assistants couldn't stand working for him. Pablo Picassodid jail time for ripping off several statues from the Louvre.Gabriel Dante Rossetti's favorite pet was a wombat that slept onhis dining room table. Vincent van Gogh sometimes ate paintdirectly from the tube. Georgia O'Keeffe liked to paint in thenude. Salvador Dal concocted a perfume from dung to attract theattention of his future wife. With outrageous anecdotes abouteveryone from Leonardo (accused sodomist) to Caravaggio (convictedmurderer) to Edward Hopper (alleged wife beater), Secret Lives ofGreat Artists is an art history lesson you'll never forget

Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literarybiographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, PeterAckroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--andbrings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. Withcharacteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us insixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the industry,the animals, even the flowers–that would appear in Shakespeare’splays. He takes us through Shakespeare’s London neighborhood andthe fertile, competitive theater world where he worked as actor andwriter. He shows us Shakespeare as a businessman, and as a constantreviser of his writing. In joining these intimate details withprofound intuitions about the playwright and his work, Ackroyd hasproduced an altogether engaging masterpiece.

Fidel Castro is perhaps the most charismatic and controversialhead of state in modern times. A dictatorial pariah to some, he hasbecome a hero and inspiration for many of the world's poor,defiantly charting an independent and revolutionary path for Cubaover nearly half a century. Numerous attempts have been made to get Castro to tell his ownstory. But only now, in the twilight of his years, has he beenprepared to set out the details of his remarkable biography for theworld to read. This book is nothing less than his living testament.As he told reporters, his desire to finish checking its text wasthe one thing that kept him going through his recent illness. Hepresented a copy of the book in its Spanish edition to his compadrePresident Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. In these pages, Castro narrates a compelling chronicle thatspans the harshness of his elementary school teachers; the earlyfailures of the revolution; his intense comradeship with CheGuevara and their astonishing, against-all-odds victory over thedic

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

“I have been incredibly fortunate over the course of mycareer to have been associated with some extraordinary dramatic andmusical productions, and also some rather spectacular disasters.Looking back, I can find gifts and life lessons in everyone.” The legendary Patti LuPone is one of the theatre’s most belovedleading ladies. Now she lays it all bare, sharing the intimatestory of her life both onstage and off--through the dizzying highsand darkest lows--with the humor and outspokenness that have becomeher trademarks. With nearly 100 photographs, including an 8-page four-color insert,and illuminating details about the life of a working actor, frominspired costars and demanding directors to her distinctperspective on how she developed and honed her Tony Award–winningperformances, Patti LuPone: A Memoir is as inspirational asit is entertaining. And though the title might say “a memoir,” thisis ultimately a love letter to the theatre by a unique Americanartist. Raised on Long Island’s North Shor

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.