Biographies & Memoirs - Books

Kit Carson

Biographies & Memoirs

Christopher Carson, whose renown as Kit Carson has reached almost every ear in the country, was born in Madison county, Kentucky, on the 24th of December, 1809. Large portions of Kentucky then consisted of an almost pathless wilderness, with magnificent forests, free from underbrush, alive with game, and with luxuriant meadows along the river banks, inviting the settler's cabin and the plough.There were then many Indians traversing those wilds. The fearless emigrants, who ventured to rear their huts in such solitudes, found it necessary ever to be prepared for an attack.But very little reliance could be placed even in the friendly protestations of the vagabond savages, ever prowling about, and almost as devoid of intelligence or conscience, as the wolves which at midnight were heard howling around the settler's door. The family of Mr. Carson occupied a log cabin, which was bullet-proof, with portholes through which their rifles could command every approach. Women and children were alike taught the use of the rifle, that in case of an attack by any blood-thirsty gang, the whole family might resolve itself into a military garrison. Not a tree or stump was left, within musket shot of the house, behind which an Indian could secrete himself.

The Narrative of Sojourner Truth

Biographies & Memoirs

This book showcases life of Sojourner Truth. Sojourner was born as a slave in the Northeast and into a house that spoke only Dutch. She became a free woman who spoke before crowds and met presidents of the United States. It also reflects the pain and inner soul of slaves.

Humble Pie

Biographies & Memoirs

Everyone thinks they know the real Gordon Ramsay: rude, loud, driven, stubborn. But this is his real story…In this fast-paced, bite-sized edition of his bestselling autobiography Ramsay tells the real story of how he became the world’s most famous and infamous chef: his difficult childhood, his brother’s heroin addiction, his failed first career as a footballer, his fanatical pursuit of gastronomic perfection and his TV persona – all the things that have made him the celebrated culinary talent and media powerhouse that he is today. Gordon talks frankly about:his tough childhood: his father’s alcoholism and violence and the effects on his relationships with his mother and siblingshis first career as a footballer: how the whole family moved to Scotland when he was signed by Glasgow Rangers at the age of fifteen, and how he coped when his career was over due to injury just three years laterhis brother’s heroin addiction.Gordon’s early career: learning his trade in Paris and London; how his career developed from there: his time in Paris under Albert Roux and his seven Michelin-starred restaurants.kitchen life: Gordon spills the beans about life behind the kitchen door, and how a restaurant kitchen is run in Anthony Bourdain-style.and how he copes with the impact of fame on himself and his family: his television career, the rapacious tabloids, and his own drive for success.Reviews‘Gordon Ramsay’s Humble Pie – so exuberantly angry boastful, cliche-ridden, expletive-laden and touchingly sincere that I can’t believe that a single sentence has been written by anyone but the failed footballer, great cook, telly star and businessman himself. He’s the genuine bollocks, as he’s so fond of saying, and this is the tale of his personal class struggle.’ – The Observer'Inspirational stuff.' Heat‘A mesmerising tale. It reads like a conversation and exudes personality. Ramsay finds it hard to dodge the f-word, but despite the defensiveness that comes accross, the book is an inspiration.’ Irish ExaminerAbout the authorGordon Ramsay's radical career change at 17 years old led him to London and to huge success as chef, restaurant-empire-builder and celebrity. Gordon has published nine bestselling recipe books and has starred in the hugely successful television series': the Bafta award-winning Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Hell's Kitchen and The F Word. In 2006 he was appointed OBE and saw the launch of his New York restaurant.

Mr. Murray's List of New and Recent Publications July, 1890

Biographies & Memoirs

It is a biographical book. Although most people have some conception and experience of the miracle of the age known as the railway, there are few who have even a general understanding of it, and fewer still who possess definite knowledge of its ramifications and details. Some such summary as Mr. Acworth gives is requisite to convey a real and lasting impression of the immensity of the organization and its daily effect upon the present conditions of life. Mr. Acworth has lost no time in following up his interesting book on English railways with a very readable companion volume. This is a concise review of the past history of Scottish railway enterprise, and a suggestive survey of the present outlook, with its notable activity of competition and exploitation. From both aspects Mr. Acworth’s book, with its admirable map of existing lines and lines in progress, is eminently satisfactory. Burning questions of amalgamation or of competitive and retaliatory policies are treated with discretion. They are discussed, as was inevitable, but discussed within sober and proper bounds.

Mi casco por almohada

Biographies & Memoirs

Las memorias de Robert Leckie constituyen uno de los más apasionantes relatos de un testigo directo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.En enero de 1942, poco después del ataque japonés a Pearl Harbor, se alistó en el cuerpo de marines de los Estados Unidos. Aquí se narra su odisea, desde el durísimo y apresurado entrenamiento en Carolina del Sur hasta las feroces batallas de la campaña del Pacífico.Sin escatimar detalle de las atrocidades y sacrificios de la guerra, retrata en toda la crudeza de qué madera están hechos los verdaderos soldados, cómo luchan y a menudo mueren en defensa de su país. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg y Gary Goetzman, creadores de la magistral serie Hermanos de sangre, han adoptado material de esta obra para la exitosa miniserie épica de HBO The Pacific, en la que James Badge Dale interpreta a Robert Leckie.

David

Biographies & Memoirs

Seit 3000 Jahren unvergessen: David – Hirte und Musiker, Krieger und Herrscher, Liebhaber und Liederdichter, Kämpfer und Beter, der Siegende, Leidende, Sterbende und Wiederkehrende. Der neue Band aus der Reihe 'Biblische Gestalten' handelt von den Quellen, die über David berichten, von der Zeit, in der er lebte und die er mitgestaltete, und von den Wirkungen, die er in Literatur, Musik, und darstellender Kunst auslöste. So entsteht ein facetten- und farbenreiches Bild des David, der in der europäischen Religions-, Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte in ganz außerordentlicher Weise präsent und wirksam ist.

Works of Martin Luther

Biographies & Memoirs

Presents critiques of four works of the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader and guides readers through the process of analyzing them from different critical angles, including moral theory and historical, racial, and rhetorical viewpoints.

Thaksin

Biographies & Memoirs

He made a fortune of two bilion US dollars in four years. He won four elections by landslides. He was overthrown by a coup and driven into exile. His opponents and supporters dressed themselves in red and yellow and fought battles on the streets.To some, he is a visionary, even a revolutionary. To others, he is greedy, deceitful, deluded, dangerous.This book was first published in 2004. Four new chapters provide a detailed account of the turmoil of Thai politics over the subsequent five years. About the authorsPasuk Phongpaichit is professor of economics at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Chris Baker is an independent writer. Together they have also written Thailand: Economy and Politics, Thaniland's Boom and Bust, and Thailand's Crisis.

Six Minutes To Freedom

Biographies & Memoirs

Dear President Bush,My name is Kimberly Anne Muse. I am writing this letter not for me but for my father, Kurt Frederick Muse. As you should know by now, he is a political prisoner in Panama. . .. Born in the United States and raised in Panama, Kurt Muse grew up with a deep love for his adopted country. But the crushing regime of General Manuel Noriega in the late 1980s threatened his, and a nation's, freedom. A nightmare of murder and unexplained disappearances compelled Kurt and a few trusted friends to begin a clandestine radio campaign, urging the people of Panama to rise up for their basic human rights. Six Minutes to Freedom is the remarkable tale of Kurt Muse's arrest and harrowing months of imprisonment; his eyewitness accounts of torture; and the plight of his family as they fled for their lives. It is also the heart-pounding account of the only American civilian ever rescued by the elite Delta Force. Timelier than ever, this is a thrilling and highly personal narrative about one man's courage and dedication to his beliefs. "A cliffhanger drama of survival against all odds." --Jeffery Deaver"A dramatic portrayal of idealism, courage, integrity, and fortitude." --John Douglas and Mark Olshaker "A must-read for anyone interested in how Delta Force operates." --John Weisman "Harrowing, entertaining, inspiring, and very, very readable." --Col. Lee A. Van Arsdale, U.S. Army Special Forces (Ret) "A thrilling chronicle that puts a human face on unspeakable actions." --Continental magazine A Featured Alternate of the Military Book Club

The Amityville Massacre: The DeFeo Family's Nightmare (A True Crime Short)

Biographies & Memoirs

From award winning criminologist R. Barri Flowers and the bestselling author of Murder of the Banker’s Daughter and Murder at the Pencil Factory comes a riveting new historical true crime short, The Amityville Massacre: The DeFeo Family’s Nightmare.In the wee hours of the morning on November 13, 1974, shots rang out in the upscale home at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York, a village within the town of Babylon. The house belonged to forty-three-year-old Ronald DeFeo, Sr. and his forty-two-year-old wife, Louise, who lived there with their five children, ranging in age from nine to twenty-three. The DeFeos and four of their children were shot to death, execution style, while in bed.The lone survivor of the family, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo, Jr., twenty-three, was suspected of being the shooter. The police investigation of the mass murder, the bizarre story within the story, insanity, the trial of the accused, and the aftermath, are explored in this truth is far scarier than fiction tale of darkness and horror.The case inspired The Amityville Horror movies and books, in delving into psychic phenomenon and the supernatural.The Amityville Massacre includes a complete bonus story, Murder in Bellevue: The Killing of Alan and Diane Johnson, as well as excerpts from other bestselling truce crime shorts by R. Barri Flowers.

The Color of Everything

Biographies & Memoirs

A renowned climber and National Geographic photographer shares his incredible adventures—and the early trauma that drove him to seek such heights.“An extraordinary memoir of mental illness that reads like a thriller.”—Amy Ellis Nutt, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Becoming Nicole“In order to escape madness, I will live madly. I will risk my life in order to save it.”Growing up in the mountains of Utah, Cory Richards was constantly surrounded by the outdoors. His father, a high school teacher and a ski patroller, spent years teaching Richards and his brother how to ski, climb, mountaineer, and survive in the wild. Despite a seemingly idyllic childhood, the Richards home was fraught with violence, grief, and mental illness. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and dropping out of high school, Richards subsumed himself in the worlds of photography and climbing, seeking out the farthest reaches of the world to escape the darkness. Then, in the midst of a wildly successful career in adventure photography, a catastrophic avalanche changed everything, forcing Richards to confront the trauma of his past, evaluate his own mental health, and learn to rewrite his story.The Color of Everything is a thrilling tale of risk and adventure, written by a man who has done it all: He’s stood at the top of the world, climbed imposing mountain faces alone in the dark, and become the only American to summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter. But it is also the story of a tumultuous life—a stirring, lyrical memoir that captures the profound musings of an unquiet mind grappling with the meaning of success, the cost of fame and addiction, and whether it is possible to outrun your demons. With exquisite prose and disarming candor, accompanied by stunning photos from his career, Richards excavates the roots of his trauma and shares what it took for him to climb out of it.

Primo Levi

Biographies & Memoirs

Drawing on twenty years of research, this is the definitive biography of Primo Levi.Over the last seventy years, Primo Levi (1919–87) has been recognized as the foremost literary witness of the extermination of the European Jews. In Primo Levi: An Identikit, a product of twenty years of research, Marco Belpoliti explores Levi’s tormented life, his trajectory as a writer and intellectual, and, above all, his multifaceted and complex oeuvre.Organized in a mosaic format, this volume devotes a different chapter to each of Levi’s books. In addition to tracing the history of each book’s composition, publication, and literary influences, Belpoliti explores their contents across the many worlds of Primo Levi: from chemistry to anthropology, biology to ethology, space flights to linguistics. If This Is a Man, his initially rejected masterpiece, is also reread with a fresh perspective. We learn of dreams, animals, and travel; of literary writing, comedy, and tragedy; of shame, memory, and the relationship with other writers such as Franz Kafka and Georges Perec, Jean Améry and Varlam Shalamov. Fundamental themes such as Judaism, the camp, and testimony innervate the book, which is complemented by photographs and letters found by the author in hitherto unexplored archives.This will be the definitive book on Primo Levi, a treasure trove of stories and reflections that paint a rich, nuanced composite portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most unique and urgent voices.

Just Boris

Biographies & Memoirs

A major and controversial new biography of one of the most compelling and contradictory figures in modern British life. Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just ‘Boris’ – the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimlet-eyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also a hugely ambitious figure with seemingly no huge ambitions to pursue – other than, perhaps, power itself. In this revealing biography, written from the vantage point of a once close colleague, Sonia Purnell examines how a shy, young boy from a broken home became our only box-office politician – and most unlikely sex god; how the Etonian product fond of Latin tags became a Man of the People – and why he wanted to be; how the gaffe-prone buffoon charmed Londonders to win the largest personal mandate Britain has ever seen; and how the Johnson family built our biggest – and blondest – media and political dynasty. The first forensic account of a remarkable rise to fame and power, Just Boris unravels this most compelling of political enigmas and asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.

The Life of a Slave Girl - Women's Slave Narratives

Biographies & Memoirs

This edition brings to you the most powerful voices of women who survived slavery in 18th and 19th century. Their life stories, their actions and their truth had an impact on the expansion of anti-slavery movement in the Northern States of America and British Empire and the subsequent abolition of slavery. Today, in our "modern" society, there are over 30 million girls and women who are victims of slavery. Some of the survivors are trying to fight with their voices. However, in this era - everybody is listening, but sadly nobody is reacting. This collection includes: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs) Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave The History of Mary Prince Behind The Scenes: Thirty Years a Slave & Four Years in the White House (Elizabeth Keckley) A Slave Girl's Story (Kate Drumgoold) From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom (Lucy A. Delaney) Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley (Margaretta Matilda Odell) Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed (Emma and Lloyd Ray) Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days (Annie L. Burton) Aunt Dice: The Story of a Faithful Slave (Nina Hill Robinson) Autobiography of a Female Slave (Martha Griffith Browne)

Encyclopaedic Biographies of Indian Laureates

Biographies & Memoirs

The Indian literary tradition is primarily one of verse and is also essentially oral. The earliest works were composed to be sung or recited and were so transmitted for many generations before being written down. As a result, the earliest records of a text may be later by several centuries than the conjectured date of its composition. Furthermore, perhaps because so much Indian literature is either religious or a reworking of familiar stories from the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the mythological writings known as Puranas, the authors often remain anonymous. Biographical details of the lives of most of the earlier Indian writers exist only in much later stories and legends. The book covers all the great Indian laureates.

Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance

Biographies & Memoirs

Carl Van Vechten was a white man with a passion for blackness who played a crucial role in helping the Harlem Renaissance, a black movement, come to understand itself. Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance is grounded in the dramas occasioned by the Harlem Renaissance, as it is called today, or New Negro Renaissance, as it was called in the 192s, when it first came into being. Emily Bernard focuses on writing—the black and white of things—the articles, fiction, essays, and letters that Carl Van Vechten wrote to black people and about black culture, and the writing of the black people who wrote to and about him. Above all, she is interested in the interpersonal exchanges that inspired the writing, which are ultimately far more significant than the public records would suggest.This book is a partial biography of a once controversial figure. It is not a comprehensive history of an entire life, but rather a chronicle of one of his lives, his black life, which began in his boyhood and thrived until his death. The narrative at the core of Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance is not an attempt to answer the question of whether Van Vechten was good or bad for black people, or whether or not he hurt or helped black creative expression during the Harlem Renaissance. As Bernard writes, the book instead ̶enlarges that question into something much richer and more nuanced: a tale about the messy realities of race, and the complicated tangle of black and white.”

JGV: A Life in 12 Recipes

Biographies & Memoirs

One of the most influential chef-restaurateurs of all time reflects on a career defined by surprising, delicious food.From his first apprenticeship in France to his Michelin-starred restaurant empire, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s cuisine is inspired by the freshest ingredients, the simplest techniques, and the drive to make the ordinary perfect. It all started at home.Jean-Georges was born in Alsace in eastern France to a family in the coal business. He spent his childhood watching, mesmerized, as his mother produced elaborate lunches each day at 12:30 p.m. sharp and exquisite dinners at exactly 7:30 p.m. Served rich goose stew and tender roasted local vegetables, Vongerichten’s palate was forever transformed, and such were the origins of his culinary genius.JGV is an invitation into the kitchen with a master chef. With humor and heart, Jean-Georges looks back on success and failure, sharing stories of cooking with legendary chefs Paul Bocuse and Louis Outhier, traveling in search of new and revelatory flavors, and building menus of his own in New York City, London, Singapore, São Paolo, and back in France. Every story is full of wisdom, conveyed with the magnanimity and precision that has made this chef a household name.Anchoring this remarkable memoir are twelve recipes that have defined Jean-Georges's career: an egg caviar still on his menu forty years after his mentor taught him the simple preparation; shrimp satay with a wine-oyster reduction from his landmark Lafayette restaurant; a pea guacamole that had President Obama tweeting; and more.Enlivened with his hand-drawn sketches and intimate photographs, JGV is a book for young chefs, as well as anyone who has ever stood at a stove and wondered what might be.

Why God Used D. L. Moody

Biographies & Memoirs

My subject is “Why God Used D. L. Moody,” and I can think of no subject upon which I would rather speak. For I shall not seek to glorify Mr. Moody, but the God who by His grace, His entirely unmerited favour, used him so mightily, and the Christ who saved him by His atoning death and resurrection life, and the Holy Spirit who lived in him and wrought through him and who alone made him the mighty power that he was to this world. Furthermore: I hope to make it clear that the God who used D. L. Moody in his day is just as ready to use you and me, in this day, if we, on our part, do what D. L. Moody did, which was what made it possible for God to so abundantly use him.

The Importance of Not Being Ernest

Biographies & Memoirs

An Ernest Hemingway Biography Like No Other“...illuminates his life and works in ways not seen before.” —Sigrid Nunez, National Book Award winner and author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through#1 New Release in Historical Latin America BiographiesDiscover Hemingway’s biography through the eyes of a fellow author and journalist. New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Mark Kurlansky turns his historical eye to the life of Ernest Hemingway. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, The Importance of Not Being Ernest shows the huge shadow Hemingway casts. The perfect gift for writers. By a series of coincidences, Mark Kurlansky’s life has always been intertwined with Ernest Hemingway's legend, starting with being in Idaho the day of Hemingway’s death. The Importance of Not Being Ernest explores the intersections between Hemingway’s and Kurlansky’s lives, resulting in creative accounts of two inspiring writing careers. Travel the world with Mark Kurlansky and Ernest Hemingway in this personal memoir, where Kurlansky details his ten years in Paris and his time as a journalist in Spain —both cities important to Hemingway’s adventurous life and prolific writing. Paris, Basque Country, Havana and Idaho. Get to know the extraordinary people he met there —those who had also fallen under the Hemingway spell, including a Vietnam veteran suffering from the same syndrome the author did, two winners of the Key West Hemingway look-alike contest, and the man in Idaho who took Hemingway hunting and fishing.In this unique gift for writers, find:A memoir full of entertaining and illuminative storiesLittle-known historical facts about Hemingway’s lifeAnecdotes about those who suffer from what the Kurlansky calls “hemitis”Readers of Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley in Search of America, or The Boys will love The Importance of Not Being Ernest.

El proceso de Macanaz

Biographies & Memoirs

«[Este libro] es bastante más que una biografía. Es en realidad toda una historia política de los reinados de Felipe V y Fernando VI y en particular de los quince primeros años del de aquel; Cuando los lectores aseguraron, tanto de Macanaz como de los Usos amorosos, que se leían ;como una novela;, la autora recibió ese comentario como el mejor elogio que podían hacerle.» Del prólogo de Pedro Álvarez de Miranda Este magnífico ensayo recoge la exhaustiva investigación que la autora realizó en el Archivo Histórico Nacional, el de Simancas y el de Affaires étrangères de París para esclarecer el complejo proceso seguido por parte de la Inquisición contra Melchor Rafael de Macanaz (Hellín, 1670-1760). Pensador, escritor, político regalista y fiscal general del Consejo de Castilla con Felipe V, Macanaz pasó gran parte de su vida exiliado en Francia. Conocedor de los secretos diplomáticos entre España, Francia y la Santa Sede, es un personaje clave para entender buena parte de nuestra historia.

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