Biographies & Memoirs Books

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: George Washington

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: George Washington

Biographies & Memoirs

According to Wikipedia: "George Washington (February 22, 1732 - December 14, 1799) served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783. Because of his significant role in the revolution and in the formation of the United States, he is often revered by Americans as the "Father of Our Country."

A Life of General Robert E. Lee

A Life of General Robert E. Lee

Biographies & Memoirs

This biography was first published in 1876. According to Wikipedia: "Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870) was a career United States Army officer, an engineer, and the most celebrated general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War."

The Tao of Willie

The Tao of Willie

Biographies & Memoirs

Born in small-town Texas during the Great Depression, Willie Nelson was raised to believe in helping his neighbors and living without pretense. After many hardscrabble years as a poorly paid songwriter (often watching his work become a gold mine for other performers), Willie finally found his own voice—the gentle but unmistakably honest sound that has made him an American icon. Now the master of harmonization has created a guide to finding harmony in everyday life. Featuring vignettes from each chapter of his seventy-plus years (along with plenty of his favorite jokes), The Tao of Willie captures his views on money, love, war, religion, cowboys, and other essential Willie topics.Loosely based on the principles of the Chinese philosophy of the Tao Te Cheng, which Willie has admired and followed for much of his adult life, this inspiring and entertaining collection of "Willie wisdom" takes us from his roadhouse days, when he united redneck rockers with straitlaced country music fans, to the mega-sized benefit concerts and environmentalism that define his boundless heart. In the spirit of his fellow Texan Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, Willie's timeless insights sparkle with clarity: It's like having a one-on-one conversation with the sage himself.

Child Holocaust Survivors

Child Holocaust Survivors

Biographies & Memoirs

The majority of children who survived the Holocaust, whether in hiding or in labour and concentration camps, remained silent about their wartime experiences. Those who wanted to talk, were often silenced by well-meaning adults who advised them to forget the past and get on with their lives. The memories and traumas simmered for nearly forty years, each child growing into adulthood thinking they alone struggled with the problems of traumatic memory, identity confusion and other consequences. In the 1980's, there was a stirring of awareness amongst some child survivors about issues to be addressed. Small groups formed in the U.S.A. and Canada and gave birth to the child survivor movement, culminating in a large international gathering of "Hidden Children" in New York in 1991. This book comprises a compilation of talks offered to child Holocaust survivors, over a 25 year period - from the birth of self-awareness to present day awareness of the need to inform the next generations of their parent's experiences. Dasberg, Krell and Wiesel are themselves child survivors. Moskovitz founded the Los Angeles Child Survivor group following her pioneering study of child survivors. Gilbert has written and lectured extensively about children in the Holocaust. This book offers the child survivor an opportunity to reflect not only on survival but its effects. For the spouses and children it clarifies some of the dynamics unique to their families and for Mental Health professionals it provides insights into the effects of trauma as well as the remarkable resilience of traumatized children.

Nadie puede volar

Nadie puede volar

Biographies & Memoirs

Sin duda no resulta fácil aceptar la propia discapacidad o la de un ser querido. Desde que era una niña, en su Sicilia natal, Simonetta Agnello convivió con personas que padecían una minusvalía y que eran del todo aceptadas y formaban incluso parte de su entorno familiar: del ciego se decía que «no ve bien», del cojo que «le cuesta caminar», del gordo que «pesa bastante», del sordo que «hay que gritarle un poco», sin pensar en estas particularidades como defectos o discapacidades. Después en su madurez, y ya afincada en Londres, su hijo George le comunicará un día que padece esclerosis múltiple. Y de esa experiencia nacerá más tarde Nadie puede volar, un libro escrito a «cuatro manos», en el que la voz de Simonetta hace de contrapunto a la de su hijo, quien nos explica su enfermedad y nos enseña a través de ella a ver la vida de una manera distinta, pero, no por eso, menos divertida e interesante. «Poco a poco aceptaba la atrocidad de lo que nos había sucedido: una horrible enfermedad en la familia. Pero era también un reto. De la misma manera que no podemos volar, George no podría caminar, lo cual no le impediría disfrutar de la vida de otra forma. […] En la vida hay algo más que volar, y quizá también que caminar. Encontraríamos ese algo más.» Simonetta Agnello Hornby

Protecting Whitney

Protecting Whitney

Biographies & Memoirs

David Roberts was Whitney Houston's bodyguard, the real one. Roberts was hired in 1988 for Houston's UK portion of the Moment of Truth world tour. Accustomed to working for diplomats and Fortune 500 clients, Roberts had reservations about working with a pop star. But Houston's heart of gold won him over from the moment they met at Heathrow airport. There's a high bar for those who work in this business: you must be willing to die for your boss. Houston made that easy. Roberts got to travel the globe with one of the most fun-loving and generous souls he'd ever met. His memoir reveals heartwarming anecdotes of life with one of the world's most recognizable stars, including privately shared moments such as the birth of Bobbi Kristina. But there are also shocking and heartbreaking revelations. Roberts was present for some of Houston's most challenging ordeals. And he was helpless as he watched those who claimed to love and support her look the other way because they saw her voice box as a cash machine. His heart was ultimately shattered as he witnessed her succumb to the one threat he could not protect her from: herself.

I'd Hate Myself in the Morning

I'd Hate Myself in the Morning

Biographies & Memoirs

Ring Lardner, Jr.’s memoir is a pilgrimage through the American century. The son of an immensely popular and influential American writer, Lardner grew up swaddled in material and cultural privilege. After a memorable visit to Moscow in 1934, he worked as a reporter in New York before leaving for Hollywood where he served a bizarre apprenticeship with David O. Selznick, and won, at the age of 28, an Academy Award for the classic film, Woman of the Year, the first on-screen pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. In “irresistibly readable” pages (New Yorker), peopled by a cast including Carole Lombard, Louis B. Mayer, Dalton Trumbo, Marlene Dietrich, Otto Preminger, Darryl F. Zanuck, Bertolt Brecht, Bert Lahr, Robert Altman, and Muhammad Ali, Lardner recalls the strange existence of a contract screenwriter in the vanished age of the studio system—an existence made stranger by membership in the Hollywood branch of the American Communist Party. Lardner retraces the path that led him to a memorable confrontation with the House Un-American Activities Committee and thence to Federal prison and life on the Hollywood blacklist. One of the lucky few who were able to resume their careers, Lardner won his second Oscar for the screenplay to M.A.S.H. in 1970.

The Ultimate Daniel Boone Collection

The Ultimate Daniel Boone Collection

Biographies & Memoirs

Includes: •Charles River Editors’ original biography of Daniel Boone •Daniel Boone’s autobiography •Daniel Boone the Pioneer of Kentucky by John S.C. Abbott •Life and Times of Colonel Daniel Boone by Cecil B. Hartley •The First White Man of the West by Timothy Flint "Many heroic actions and chivalrous adventures are related of me which exist only in the regions of fancy. With me the world has taken great liberties, and yet I have been but a common man." – Daniel Boone The Wild West and the frontier have long held a special place in the narrative of American history, and all of the legends and folk heroes who lived in the 19th century owe their reputation to the original American frontier folk hero, Daniel Boone. Boone was literally a trailblazer: the legendary pioneer established his Wilderness Road by striking west into present-day Kentucky and establishing Boonesborough, one of the earliest white settlements west of the Appalachians. Hundreds of thousands of settlers would follow his path by the end of the 18th century.  While that was an important and proud legacy for the former Revolutionary War militiaman and Virginia State Assemblyman, Boone became known for the outsized tales and adventures associated with his foray into the frontier. Far and wide, people spoke of Boone’s expert marksmanship, his encounters with wild bears, and his hardscrabble frontier life, making him a living legend and the prototypical Western frontier folk hero in America. All of it bewildered and bemused the actual man himself, whose own words about his affinity for the backwoods made him sound more like Henry David Thoreau than anything else. Boone once noted, “Situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things…” Of course, that’s how nobody has chosen to remember Daniel Boone, and the legends and lore have long outstripped the man himself. The legend of Daniel Boone helped him become an inspiration and model for Americans on the frontier, while also serving to make him the embodiment of the American pioneer overseas. Lord Byron even mentions Boone in his classic Don Juan (Of the great names which in our faces stare,/The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky/Was happiest amongst mortals any where;/For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he/Enjoyed the lonely vigorous, harmless days/ Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.”) The Ultimate Daniel Boone Collection chronicles the life of the frontier hero, and the legends and mythmaking that have shaped his legacy, with an original biography by Charles River Editors, Boone’s autobiography, and three other classic biographies by John Abbott, Cecil Hartley and Timothy Flint. This collection also includes a Table of Contents and pictures. 

Augustus

Augustus

Biographies & Memoirs

The acclaimed historian and author of Caesar presents “a first-rate popular biography” of Rome’s first emperor, written “with a storyteller’s brio” (Washington Post).The story of Augustus’ life is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. He began as a teenage warlord whose only claim to power was as the grand-nephew and heir of the murdered Julius Caesar. Mark Antony dubbed him “a boy who owes everything to a name,” but he soon outmaneuvered a host of more experienced politicians to become the last man standing in 30 BC. Over the next half century, Augustus created a new system of government—the Principate or rule of an emperor—which brought peace and stability to the vast Roman Empire.   In this highly anticipated biography, Goldsworthy puts his deep knowledge of ancient sources to full use, recounting the events of Augustus’ long life in greater detail than ever before. Goldsworthy pins down the man behind the myths: a consummate manipulator, propagandist, and showman, both generous and ruthless. Under Augustus’ rule the empire prospered, yet his success was constantly under threat and his life was intensely unpredictable.

The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography

The Story of My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography

Biographies & Memoirs

Experience the inspiring and transformative story o Mahatma Gandhi's life in this deluxe hardbound edition. This autobiography chronicles Gandhi's journey from his early years to his role as a leader of India's struggle for independence. This autobiography offers deep insights into his personal life, principles, and philosophy. Includes profound insights into his philosophy of nonviolence and truth A beautiful cover design with insightful commentary Perfect for fans of history Explores themes of spirituality, nonviolence, and social justice Reveals the inner workings of a visionary leader's mind and heart

Undaunted Courage

Undaunted Courage

Biographies & Memoirs

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awesome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations.

Con Flaiano e Fellini a via Veneto

Con Flaiano e Fellini a via Veneto

Biographies & Memoirs

Attraverso lo sguardo dell'autore, osservatore e protagonista al tempo stesso, rivive in queste pagine la Roma degli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, con i suoi fermenti culturali e artistici, immortalata nel suo momento di massimo splendore e rievocata poi fino agli inizi del Duemila. È il racconto di quella stagione irripetibile che fu il secondo dopoguerra, con i caffè di via Veneto e di piazza del Popolo, salotti all'aperto e laboratori di idee, ritrovo di tanti attori, cineasti, pittori, scrittori e giornalisti. Russo ricorda le passeggiate con Carlo Levi, la frequentazione con Flaiano (di cui descrive ombrosità e passioni), le bizzarrie e il genio di Fellini (innamorato quanto lui della Roma del tempo). E poi ancora una galleria di personaggi che vanno da Maccari a Guttuso, da Moravia a Pasolini, dalla Magnani a Brancati ad altri ancora. La Dolce vita romana ripercorsa non con rimpianto ma con nostalgia, sentimento che si addice a un periodo tanto ricco di vitalità e di personalità d'eccezione.

Lettere dal carcere

Lettere dal carcere

Biographies & Memoirs

Quanto a lungo si deve urlare la parola «libertà» prima che acquisti davvero un valore? Quanto tempo deve passare prima che il domani sia un giorno nuovo? Per ventisette anni Nelson Mandela, l’uomo che avrebbe guidato il paese fuori dal regime di segregazione razziale che lo soffocava da quasi mezzo secolo, non è stato altro che una sigla: un anonimo numero di matricola che identificava un prigioniero come tanti in una delle strutture carcerarie del paese. Eppure proprio in quelle celle, nel silenzio dell’isolamento, nella fatica dei lavori forzati, ha preso forma il mito che avrebbe sgretolato il sistema di oppressione dell’élite bianca.Le Lettere dal carcere di Nelson Mandela sono un documento fondamentale del Novecento. La testimonianza unica e in presa diretta della determinazione, delle difficoltà e della fede nel progresso di una delle grandi icone politiche del nostro tempo: dal primo, durissimo periodo, quando gli era concesso di scrivere una sola lettera di cinquecento parole ogni sei mesi, agli scambi con le grandi personalità internazionali negli anni ottanta; dalle umiliazioni, vessazioni e privazioni di Robben Island – non gli fu permesso di partecipare al funerale della madre e nemmeno a quello del figlio Thembi – alle struggenti parole di amore e lotta inviate alla moglie Winnie, anche lei attivista e anche lei rinchiusa in prigione.Nel centenario della nascita di Nelson Mandela, il Saggiatore pubblica in contemporanea mondiale le sue inedite Lettere dal carcere, un epistolario di rara forza che ci permette di scoprire il volto umano di un gigante nel momento più duro della sua esistenza. Pagine che, pur raccontando un presente affannoso – la sofferenza della reclusione, le preoccupazioni per le persecuzioni politiche contro amici e parenti, l’angoscia di dover fare da padre ai propri figli senza avere nemmeno la possibilità di vederli –, ci parlano di speranza e di valori senza tempo. Perché il lungo cammino verso la libertà può iniziare anche nel freddo di una gabbia senza finestre, e la convinzione dell’inevitabilità dell’alba spazzare via da sola le tenebre più scure.

Meetings

Meetings

Biographies & Memoirs

Meetings sets forth the life of one of the twentieth-century's greatest spiritual philosophers in his own words. A glittering series of reflections and narratives, it seeks not to describe his life in its full entirety, but rather to convey some of his defining moments of uncertainty, revelation and meaning. Recalling the question on the infinity of space and time which nearly drove Buber to suicide at the age of fourteen, his adolescent 'seduction' by Nietzsche's work, his hero-worship of Ferdinand Lassalle and his love of Bach's music, Meetings has no equal as a portrait of an unique intellect in progress. Like Buber's great works Between Man and Man and The Way of Man, it evokes a tactile, earthly concept of meaning ultimately found, as Maurice Friedman writes in his introduction, 'not in conceptual or systematic thought but in the four-dimensional reality of events and meetings'.

Válka

Válka

Biographies & Memoirs

Ronomovaný americký novinář (např. Dokonalá bouře) se ve své knize věnuje nejextrémnější situaci, ve které se člověk může ocitnout - válce. Sebastian Junger se od roku 2007 do roku 2008 pohyboval řadu měsíců s vojáky americké výsadkářské jednotky v afghánském údolí Korengal, které se považuje za jednu z nejnebezpečnějších frontových oblastí v boji s Talibánem. Spolu s britským fotografem Timem Hetheringtonem doprovázeli vojáky na hlídkách a v zákopech. Zažil zde abstraktní válku - většina vojáků nikdy nepohlédla svým nepřátelům do očí. Všechno viděli jenom z dálky. Jungerovi nešlo při jeho novinářském pátrání o Afghánistán, ani o politiku; vojáci, se kterými se setkával, nikdy nemluvili o politických tématech, která jsou v pozadí této války. "Chtěl jsem zjistit něco jiného," říká Junger, "chtěl jsem vědět, co to dnes znamená, být vojákem."  V knize Válka si autor pokládá jednoduché otázky: čím válka fascinuje mladé muže? Jak válka změní člověka, který právě vyšel ze střední školy? Proč se někteří chovají jako čestní muži a jiní jako darebáci? Výsledkem spolupráce Jungera s Timem Hetheringtonem byl také velmi úspěšný film Restrepo, který získal Velkou cenu poroty na filmovém festivalu Sundance. Tim Hetherington zahynul 20. dubna 2011 při bojích v libyjské Misurátě, kde působil jako reportér v občanské válce.

Brave New Mom

Brave New Mom

Biographies & Memoirs

Any mother-to-be has to waddle through a landmine of expectations.Brave New Mom is the true account of an artist's valiant efforts at birth giving… and the mounting guilt after she finds out that her body can't produce more children. What wrong turn did she take? Could she have avoided the cesarean section?This short and quirky story will resonate with all the mothers crushed under the pressure of performance, by Michèle Laframboise, artist and science fiction writer. With sketches and pictures by the author's hand.

Sandstone Spine

Sandstone Spine

Biographies & Memoirs

* A cultural pilgrimage as well as an athletic one * Story blends personal adventure, middle-aged angst, the beauty of a landscape, history of exploration, and mysteries of the rise and fall of an ancient culture * By a critically acclaimed travel and adventure writer also famous for his exploits in Alaska's mountains * Includes photos by Greg Child of the landscape, Anasazi and Navajo ruins and rock art On September 1, 2004, three middle-aged buddies set out on one of the last geographic challenges never before attempted in North America: to hike the Comb Ridge in one continuous push. The Comb is an upthrust ridge of sandstone-virtually a mini-mountain range-that stretches almost unbroken for a hundred miles from just east of Kayenta, Arizona, to some ten miles west of Blanding, Utah. To hike the Comb is to run a gauntlet of up-and-down severities, with the precipice lurking on one hand, the fiendishly convoluted bedrock slab on the other-always at a sideways, ankle-wrenching pitch. There is not a single mile of established trail in the Comb's hundred-mile reach. The friends were David Roberts, writer, adventurer, famed mountaineer of decades past, at age 61 the graybeard of the bunch; Greg Child, renowned mountaineer and rock climber, age 47; and Vaughn Hadenfeldt, a wilderness guide intimately acquainted with the canyonlands, age 53. They came to the Comb not only for the physical challenge, but to seek out seldom-visited ruins and rock art of the mysterious Anasazi culture. Each brought his own emotions on the journey; the Comb Ridge would test their friendship in ways they had never before experienced. Searching for the stray arrowhead half-smothered in the sand or for the faint markings on a far sandstone boulder that betokened a little-known rock art panel, becomes a competitive sport for the three friends. Along the way, they ponder the mystery, bringing the accounts of early and modern explorers and archaeologists to bear: Who were the vanished Indians who built these inaccessible cliff dwellings and pueblos, often hidden from view? Of whom were they afraid and why? What caused them to suddenly abandon their settlements around 1300 AD? What meaning can be ascribed to their phantasmagoric rock art? What was their relationship to the Navajo, who were convinced the Anasazi had magical powers and could fly?

Confessions of a Journeyman Typesetter

Confessions of a Journeyman Typesetter

Biographies & Memoirs

Author, printer, and libertine Rétif de la Bretonne ("the French pornographer") was among the most eccentric public figures of eighteenth-century France. Gérard de Nerval, drawn to such eccentrics, examines the life of the man whose work the 1911 Britannica deems "unfit for general perusal."Genre: essay/biographyLength: 49,000 wordsTranslated from French (2012) by Juan LePuen