Biographies & Memoirs - Books

Wild Men: The Playboy Interview

Biographies & Memoirs

About the Series: In mid-1962, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was given a partial transcript of an interview with Miles Davis. It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the past half century. To celebrate the interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have assembled 13 compilations of the magazine’s most (in)famous interviews—from big mouths and wild men to sports gods and literary mavericks. Here is our collection of 12 interviews with the most unpredictable eccentrics.

Finding Me

Biographies & Memoirs

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • A HARPERS BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF 2022 • A PARADE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • A MARIE CLAIRE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK“It’s clear from the first page that Davis is going to serve a more intimate, unpolished account than is typical of the average (often ghost-written) celebrity memoir; Finding Me reads like Davis is sitting you down for a one-on-one conversation about her life, warts and all.”—USA Today“[A] fulfilling narrative of struggle and success….Her gorgeous storytelling will inspire anyone wishing to shed old labels.”—Los Angeles TimesIn my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.

J.M.W. Turner

Biographies & Memoirs

In this second volume in the Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd brings us a man of humble beginnings, crude manners, and prodigious talents, the nineteenth-century painter J. M. W. Turner.Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London in 1775. His father was a barber, and his mother came from a family of London butchers. “His speech was recognizably that of a Cockney, and his language was the language of the streets.” As his finest paintings show, his language was also the language of light. Turner’s landscapes—extraordinary studies in light, colour, and texture—caused an uproar during his lifetime and earned him a place as one of the greatest artists in history.Displaying his artistic abilities as a young child, Turner entered the Royal Academy of Arts when he was just fourteen years old. A year later his paintings appeared in an important public exhibition, and he rapidly achieved prominence, becoming a Royal Academician in 1802 and Professor of Perspective at the Academy from 1807–1837. His private life, however, was less orderly. Never married, he spent much time living in taverns, where he was well known for his truculence and his stinginess with money. Peter Ackroyd deftly follows Turner’s first loves of architecture, engraving, and watercolours, and the country houses, cathedrals, and landscapes of England. While his passion for Italy led him to oil painting, Turner’s love for London remained central to his heart and soul, and it was within sight of his beloved Thames that he died in 1851. His dying words were: “The sun is God.”Also available in ACKROYD’S BRIEF LIVESChaucer

Newton

Biographies & Memoirs

When Newton was not yet twenty-five years old, he formulated calculus, hit upon the idea of gravity, and discovered that white light was made up of all the colors of the spectrum. By 1678, Newton designed a telescope to study the movement of the planets and published Principia, a milestone in the history of science, which set forth his famous laws of motion and universal gravitation. Newton’s long-time research on calculus, finally made public in 1704, triggered a heated controversy as European scientists accused him of plagiarizing the work of the German scientist Gottfried Leibniz. In this third volume in the acclaimed Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd provides an engaging portrait of Isaac Newton, illuminating what we think we know about him and describing his seminal contributions to science and mathematics. A man of wide and eclectic interests, Newton blurred the borders between natural philosophy and speculation: he was as passionate about astrology as astronomy and dabbled in alchemy, while his religious faith was never undermined by his determination to interpret a modern universe as a mathematical universe. By brining vividly to life a somewhat puritanical man whose desire to experiment and explore bordered on the obsessive, Peter Ackroyd demonstrates the unique brilliance of Newton’s perceptions, which changed our understanding of the world.

Any Means Necessary: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

Biographies & Memoirs

*Includes pictures of Malcolm X and important people, places, and events in his life. *Explains the origins of the name Malcolm X. *Includes some of Malcolm X's most famous quotes, and a detailed description of his "The Ballot or The Bullet" speech. *Includes a Table of Contents "Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary." – Malcolm X At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, while much of the nation’s attention was given to peaceful protests, boycotts, and figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., a young man named Malcolm Little was rising through the ranks to become one of the leaders and public faces of the Nation of Islam. As Malcolm X, he would come to be one of the most controversial figures in 20th century America, hailed as a bold human rights activist by some and reviled as a violent racist by others. What everyone can agree on, however, is that Malcolm X was one of the most influential black leaders of the 20th century. After being imprisoned for crimes committed as a teenager, Malcolm X converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam while in jail. Once he was freed in 1952, he began a steady ascent to become the face of the Nation, a platform from which he gained notoriety for advocating the Nation’s teachings about black supremacy. Whereas Dr. King was pushing for fuller integration and desegregation, X and the Nation of Islam advocated total separation. Other Civil Rights organizations deemed X and the Nation to be too extremist, and in response X labeled them “stooges”. Today, one of the best known aspects of Malcolm X’s life was his assassination in 1965 by members of the Nation of Islam following his split from the group over differences with leader Elijah Muhammad. In addition to making a pilgrimage to Mecca, X continued to be politically active, founding a number of groups and speaking to many more in an attempt to heighten political awareness. Over the last two years of his life, he faced several threats from the Nation of Islam, which culminated with his assassination on February 21, 1965, as he was addressing the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Any Means Necessary: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X looks at the turbulent life and legacy of the famous leader, while humanizing the man and discussing lesser known facts about him, including how he chose the name Malcolm X, and whether he was advocating more peaceful protest at the end of his life. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Malcolm X like you never have before, in no time at all.

John Brown

Biographies & Memoirs

John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was a white American abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. During the 1856 conflict in Kansas, Brown commanded forces at the Battle of Black Jack and the Battle of Osawatomie. Brown's followers also killed five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie. In 1859, Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended with his capture. Brown's trial resulted in his conviction and a sentence of death by hanging. Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five men and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on all counts and was hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party to end slavery. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.

Hunting the Grizzly

Biographies & Memoirs

At 3 a.m. on the morning of February 14, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt’s mother Mittie dies of typhoid fever. Eleven hours later his wife of four years, Alice, dies of an undiagnosed case of kidney failure, two days after the birth of their infant daughter. The illness had gone undetected because of her pregnancy. Roosevelt notes in his diary for that day, “The light has gone out of my life.” Theodore Roosevelt was twenty-seven years old at the time. The son of a wealthy New York City family, he had grown up a sickly, asthmatic child and had occupied himself with the study of natural history. To compensate for his physical weakness he had pursued a strenuous life. In 1881, a year out of Harvard, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he was to become a leader of the reform Republicans. Meanwhile he was writing. His 'The Naval War of 1812' (1882) established his professional reputation as a serious historian, and he published several books on hunting, the outdoors, and current political issues as well as frontier history. But now, with the near simultaneous death of his wife and mother, Roosevelt leaves politics behind and goes to the frontier, becoming a rancher in the Dakotas “Badlands.” On the banks of the Little Missouri, he learns to ride Western style, rope, and hunt. He rebuilds his life and begins writing about the frontier existence for Eastern magazines as well publishing three books. His description of confrontations with grizzly bears, in the following piece, make us realize that we are in the company of one of the most unusual of American presidents.

Twelve Years a Slave

Biographies & Memoirs

In 1841, Solomon Northup was a free black man, married with three children and living in upstate New York, when he was tricked into going to Washington DC. There, he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, eventually ending up on a plantation in the Red River area of Louisiana. For twelve years he experienced and witnessed the arbitrary beatings and whippings, around-the-clock back-breaking work, and countless other degradations that came with being enslaved in the antebellum south. Through the sympathetic ear of a white man and with miraculous timing, he was eventually freed and returned home. He then wrote this memoir and contributed to the abolitionist movement before disappearing from the pages of history.Like Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Twelve Years a Slave stands in stark contrast to the era’s bucolic propaganda that the enslaved in the south were well treated, well provided for, and made “part of the family.” As a first-hand account, it exposes slavery for what it is: barbaric, dehumanizing, and evil.

Alt hvad jeg ved om kærlighed

Biographies & Memoirs

At blive voksen i medgang og modgang – det er noget, journalist og forfatter Dolly Alderton kender til. Igennem sine klummer i Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph og Marie Claire, og hitpodcastet The High Low, har hun kastet sig hovedkulds ud i datingkulturen i en digital tidsalder, venskaber som de ser ud i starten af voksenlivet, kampen for at få sig en karriere og en plads i verden. I denne bog fortæller hun levende og sjovt om at blive forelsket, om ikke at være forelsket nok i sig selv, om katastrofale fester med Rod Steward-tema, om at blive droppet og om at opdage, hvor vigtige venskaber er, når man skal finde vej i tilværelsen. Alt hvad jeg ved om kærlighed er en underholdende og indsigtsfuld, feministisk og hjertevarm debut fra en britisk stemme, der ifølge flere anmeldere er Englands nye Caitlin Moran, en Norah Ephron for det 21. århundrede. Hun væver personlige fortællinger, skarpe observationer, lister, opskrifter og vignetter sammen til en historie, der vækker genklang hos kvinder i alle aldre om en tid i livet, hvor alt stadig er udefineret og åbent.

Souvenirs – suivi d'annexes

Biographies & Memoirs

Nouvelle édition 2019 sans DRM de Souvenirs de Paul Verlaine augmentée d'annexes (Biographie).ERGONOMIE AMÉLIORÉE :L'ouvrage a été spécifiquement mis en forme pour votre liseuse.- Naviguez par simple clic de chapitre à chapitre ou de livre à livre.- Accédez instantanément à la table des matières hyperliée globale.- Une table des matières est placée également au début de chaque titre.A PROPOS DE L'ÉDITEUR : Les éditions Arvensa sont les leaders de la littérature classique numérique.Leur objectif est de vous faire connaître les oeuvres des grands auteurs de la littérature classique en langue française à un prix abordable tout en vous fournissant la meilleure expérience de lecture sur votre liseuse.Tous les titres sont produits avec le plus grand soin. Le service qualité des éditions Arvensa s’engage à vous répondre dans les 48h.

Writing, Lifestyle, and Attitude

Biographies & Memoirs

At the beginning of 2020, I started writing articles on Medium. I had originally believed I'd write only one a month, but it quickly turned into a weekly thing as I had so much fun. So I kept writing them, week after week. This is the second year of articles collected. There's a lot more about writing in this volume, as well as the continuing plague, living with aging, and some DIY stuff as well. Finally it concludes my farewell to Medium. I'm still writing essays once a week, but I've moved everything to Patreon instead. So come explore something new! Learn about the craft, and business, of writing, as well as living with attitude.

A Moveable Feast

Biographies & Memoirs

Ernest Hemingway’s classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, now available in a restored edition, includes the original manuscript along with insightful recollections and unfinished sketches.Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring works. Since Hemingway’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published.Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, editor of this edition, the book also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of literary luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Maddox Ford, and insightful recollections of Hemingway’s own early experiments with his craft.Widely celebrated and debated by critics and readers everywhere, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

Twelve Years a Slave

Biographies & Memoirs

Solomon Northup tells the story of his life, the thrilling story of a free colored man, kidnapped in Washington in 1841, sold into slavery, and, after a twelve years' bondage, reclaimed by State Authority from a cotton plantation in Louisiana. The narrative of Mr. Northup's strange misfortunes, resulting in a twelve years' servitude, is of thrilling interest, not only with regard to the upcoming movie. The description of scenes and sufferings may well entitle it to be called a key and companion book to Mrs. Stowe's " Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Blackbeard: The Life and Legacy of History's Most Famous Pirate

Biographies & Memoirs

Includes historic illustrations of Blackbeard and important people, places, and events in his life. Includes a profile of Blackbeard from the famous English pirate history "A General History of the Pyrates". Discusses common legends about Blackbeard and his appearance, separating fact from fiction. Includes a Table of Contents. "So our Heroe, Captain Teach, assumed the Cognomen of Black-beard, from that large Quantity of Hair, which, like a frightful Meteor, covered his whole Face, and frightened America more than any Comet that has appeared there a long Time. This Beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant Length; as to Breadth, it came up to his Eyes; he was accustomed to twist it with Ribbons, in small Tails, after the Manner of our Ramilies Wiggs, and turn them about his Ears." - Charles Johnson, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates It would be an understatement to say that pop culture's perception of piracy and pirates has been primarily influenced by Captain Edward Teach, known to the world as Blackbeard, the most famous pirate of all time. An English pirate who terrorized the high seas near the Carolinas in the early 18th century, a period often referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy, Blackbeard was the gold standard, and in the 300 years since his death he has inspired legends that have spanned books like Treasure Island, movies, and even theme park rides. Of course, like any legendary figure, Blackbeard is remembered today based more on myths than reality. People continue to let their imaginations go when it comes to Blackbeard, picturing a pirate who captured more booty than any other pirate, hid buried treasure, and lit his hair on fire before battle. People have long claimed that his ghost still haunts the Atlantic Ocean, and his contemporaries were so scared of him that they claimed to have seen his headless body swim around his pirate boat three times. The myths and legends surrounding Blackbeard tend to obscure the life he really lived, but his piracy was also notorious enough to capture headlines during his time. The British Crown put a higher price on his head than any other pirate of the era, and when an author writing under the pseudonym Charles Johnson wrote about Blackbeard in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, a legend was born. Blackbeard: The Life and Legacy of History's Most Famous Pirate looks at the mysterious life and death of Blackbeard, separating fact from fiction while analyzing his lasting legacy. Along with pictures depicting Blackbeard and important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about the famous pirate like you never have before, in no time at all.

The Divine Comedy by Dante, Illustrated, Purgatory, Volume 4

Biographies & Memoirs

It is is biographical book. It was the hour, when of diurnal heat No reliques chafe the cold beams of the moon, O'er powered by earth, or planetary sway Of Saturn; and the geomancer sees His Greater Fortune up the east ascend, Where gray dawn checkers first the shadowy cone; When 'fore me in my dream a woman's shape There came, with lips that stammered, eyes aslant, Distorted feet, hands maimed, and colour pale.

Cozinha confidencial

Biographies & Memoirs

Com doses iguais de perspicácia e maldade, o chef de cuisine e romancista faz o impensável: conta todos os segredos dos restaurantes, dos mais sórdidos aos mais divertidos, junto com as falcatruas e safadezas do negócio. Como contraponto, doses generosas de escândalo autobiográfico, em meio a drogas variadas e uma animada atividade sexual.Uma blitz impiedosa nos restaurantes: eis como se pode resumir Cozinha confidencial. Chef de um dos bistrôs mais badalados de Manhattan, o Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain, que é também romancista, fez o impensável neste livro: com doses iguais de perspicácia, maldade e humor, contou todos os segredos da profissão, dos mais sórdidos aos mais divertidos, junto com as falcatruas e safadezas do negócio. Mas não só isso: dono de um interessantíssimo trajeto pessoal, é com prazer indisfarçável que ele aproveita para fazer também um pouco de escândalo autobiográfico.Como escreve Nina Horta na orelha, "em meio a nuvens de fumaça de maconha, quantidades importantes de cocaína, outras várias drogas e uma animada atividade sexual, Bourdain mistura lembranças e comentários, com direito a mafiosos e Frank Sinatra, muito derramamento de sangue, bebedeiras gigantescas, pitadas de suspense e uma alegria atordoante no ar". Enquanto expõe as entranhas dos restaurantes - de lavagem de dinheiro ao uso "criativo" de ingredientes com data de vencimento no limite -, Bourdain vai dando conselhos úteis. Restaurante com banheiro sujo, por exemplo, deve ser riscado sumariamente da lista. Banheiro é facílimo de lavar, ele lembra. Se estiver sujo, imagine a cozinha...

Twelve Years a Slave

Biographies & Memoirs

"Twelve Years a Slave" is a slave narrative of Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free African-American man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold into slavery. Northup worked on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before his release. Director Steve McQueen, who adapted this memoir into his critically acclaimed film of the same name, compared Northrup's memoir at par with Anne Frank's diary in terms of national hero status and in giving the first-hand account of brutality of slavery. Excerpt: "Having been born a freeman, and for more than thirty years enjoyed the blessings of liberty in a free State—and having at the end of that time been kidnapped and sold into Slavery, where I remained, until happily rescued in the month of January, 1853, after a bondage of twelve years—it has been suggested that an account of my life and fortunes would not be uninteresting to the public. Since my return to liberty, I have not failed to perceive the increasing interest throughout the Northern States, in regard to the subject of Slavery." Solomon Northup (1807–1863?) was the son of a freed slave and free woman of color and a farmer, professional violin and landowner in New York before his kidnapping by the slave catchers. After his freedom he became an active abolitionist and gave more than two dozen speehes about his experiences as a slave, to build momentum against slavery.

Charlie Chaplin

Biographies & Memoirs

A brief yet definitive new biography of one of film's greatest legends: perfect for readers who want to know more about the iconic star but who don't want to commit to a lengthy work.He was the very first icon of the silver screen and is one of the most recognizable of Hollywood faces, even a hundred years after his first film. But what of the man behind the moustache? Peter Ackroyd's new biography turns the spotlight on Chaplin's life as well as his work, from his humble theatrical beginnings in music halls to winning an honorary Academy Award. Everything is here, from the glamor of his golden age to the murky scandals of the 1940s and eventual exile to Switzerland. There are charming anecdotes along the way: playing the violin in a New York hotel room to mask the sound of Stan Laurel frying pork chops and long Hollywood lunches with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This masterful brief biography offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp vividly to life.

Twelve Years a Slave (Illustrated)

Biographies & Memoirs

Solomon Northup was born a free man in New York State. At the age of 33 he was kidnapped in Washington D.C. and placed in an underground slave pen. Northup was transported by ship to New Orleans where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next 12 years working as a carpenter, driver, and cotton picker. This narrative reveals how Northup survived the harsh conditions of slavery, including smallpox, lashings, and an attempted hanging. Solomon Northup was among a select few who were freed from slavery. His account describes the daily life of slaves in Louisiana, their diet and living conditions, the relationship between master and slave, and how slave catchers used to recapture runaways. Northup's first person account published in 1853, was a dramatic story in the national debate over slavery that took place in the nine years leading up to the start of the American Civil War

The Memoirs of Jacques CasaNova de Seingalt

Biographies & Memoirs

Volume 8 of The Memoirs of Jacques CasaNova de Seingalt continues his tale of unrequited love for a nun. It was translated by Arthur Machen.

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