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Confessions of a Rock N Roll Name Dropper: My Life Leading Up to John Lennon's Last Interview
by Laurie KayeRock reporter Laurie Kaye interviewed John Lennon just hours before he was murdered n 1980 outside New York's famous Dakota apartments and even ran into assassin Mark David Chapman (whom she refuses to cite by name) on the street outside, and here she recounts the story of that fateful night, the centerpiece of this memoir about the life of a SoCal girl with a troubled childhood who got to live out her dream by interviewing many of the most famous rock stars of the time. Name dropping? Well, they say it ain&’t bragging if you really did it and Laurie Kaye has really done it. These stories about so many culturally important people are exciting and illuminating. I read this book with pleasure and amazement. I know that you will dig it, too! Chris Frantz - Drummer/co-founder Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club; author of Remain in Love On December 8, 1980, twenty-something rock journalist Laurie Kaye entered the legendary Dakota apartments on Manhattan&’s Upper West Side to co-conduct an interview with her longtime idol, John Lennon. It was the last interview Lennon would ever give—just hours later, outside that same building, Lennon was shot dead by a twenty-five-year-old man (whom Kaye refuses to refer to by name) whom Kaye herself had encountered after finishing the interview and stepping outside onto the street. Kaye has beaten herself up ever since over her failure to recognize that the assassin—who blocked her path and harassed her with questions like &“Did you talk to him?&” &“Did you get his autograph?&”—posed a danger and should have been reported. Now, as we approach the forty-fifth anniversary of Lennon's death, Kaye reflects how she rose from teen runaway from a dysfunctional family to expatriate studying Balinese dancing in Indonesia to journalist, writer, and producer with credits including RKO Presents The Beatles/The Beatles from Liverpool to Legend (at the tender age of twenty-one) and the Lord of the Rings DVD release, plus interviews with such titans of the music industry as Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Talking Heads, The Ramones, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger, whom she put on hold so that he could listen to her newscast before getting down to business. But it was the day she shared a loveseat with John Lennon and watched him push his iconic granny glasses down the length of his nose and smile at her in agreement that remains indelibly etched in her mind—both the best and worst day of her life. Laurie Kaye began her career in radio at KFRC-AM San Francisco, for years one of the nation&’s greatest top 40 stations, where she started as an intern and worked her way up to on-air reporter and anchor. She wrote and coproduced numerous radio rock specials for RKO, including RKO Presents the Beatles (later expanded and retitled as The Beatles from Liverpool to Legend), and The Top 100 of the 70&’s before moving on to write Dick Clark&’s weekly radio countdown show and syndicated newspaper column. Kaye then moved on to television and film as a writer, producer, and casting director, where she still works today, handling both creative content and line producing for docuseries pilots. This book won a Writer&’s Digest Award the year it was released - 4th place in the Memoir/Personal Essay category of their annual writing competition! Front cover by Grammy-winning artist and director Mick Haggerty.
Confessions of a Second Story Man: Junior Kripplebauer and the K&A Gang
by Allen M. HornblumFrom the 1950s to the 1970s, from Bar Harbor to Boca Raton, the ragtag crew known as the K&A Gang robbed wealthy suburban neighborhoods with assembly line skills. It was hard to imagine a more unlikely crew of successful thieves, writes Allen Hornblum. [They were] two-fisted, beer-guzzling, ear- and nose-biting hoodlums from a blue collar section of Philadelphia called Kensington. The gang infuriated homeowners up and down the East Coast, while baffling police. Confessions of a Second Story Man follows the gang as they move in and out of homes, courtrooms, and prisons, and even go on the run. Hornblum describes the transformation of the K&A Gang from a group of blue collar thieves to their work in conjunction with numerous organized crime families and their role in making Philadelphia the meth capitol of the nation. It is a compelling read about a fascinating bunch of hoodlums.
Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower: Finding Answers in Jesus for Those Who Don't Believe
by Tom KrattenmakerAn award-winning USA Today columnist makes the case for how a Jesus freed from religion and politics meets the need for meaning and purpose in secular America. Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation centered at Yale University that acknowledges--and seeks to address--the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America. What, they ask, gives a life meaning? What constitutes a life well led? In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker shares his surprising conclusion about where input and inspiration might best be found: in the figure of Jesus. And Jesus, not only as a good example and teacher, but Jesus as the primary guide for one's life. Drawing on sociological research, personal experience, and insights from fifteen years studying and writing on religion in American public life, Krattenmaker shows that in Jesus, nonreligious people like himself can find unique and compelling wisdom on how to honor the humanity in ourselves and others, how to build more peaceful lives, how generosity can help people and communities create more abundance, how to break free from self-defeating behaviors, and how to tip the scales toward justice. In a time when more people than ever are identifying as atheist or agnostic, Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower is a groundbreaking and compelling work that rediscovers Jesus--and our own best selves--for the world of today.
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
by M. E. ThomasAs M.E. Thomas says of her fellow sociopaths, we are your neighbors, co-workers, and quite possibly the people closest to you: lovers, family, friends. Our risk-seeking behavior and general fearlessness are thrilling, our glibness and charm alluring. Our often quick wit and outside-the-box thinking make us appear intelligent--even brilliant. We climb the corporate ladder faster than the rest, and appear to have limitless self-confidence. Who are we? We are highly successful, non-criminal sociopaths and we comprise 4% of the American population (that's 1 in 25 people!). Confessions of a Sociopath takes readers on a journey into the mind of a sociopath, revealing what makes the tick and what that means for the rest of humanity. Written from the point of view of a diagnosed sociopath, it unveils these men and women who are "hiding in plain sight" for the very first time. Confessions of a Sociopath is part confessional memoir, part primer for the wary. Drawn from Thomas' own experiences; her popular blog, Sociopathworld.com; and current and historical scientific literature, it reveals just how different - and yet often very similar - sociopaths are from the rest of the world. The book confirms suspicions and debunks myths about sociopathy and is both the memoir of a high-functioning, law-abiding (well, mostly) sociopath and a roadmap - right from the source - for dealing with the sociopath in your life, be it a boss, sibling, parent, spouse, child, neighbor, colleague or friend. As Thomas argues, while sociopaths aren't like everyone else, and it's true some of them are incredibly dangerous, they are not inherently evil. In fact, they're potentially more productive and useful to society than neurotypicals or "empaths," as they fondly like to call "normal" people. Confessions of a Sociopath demystifyies sociopathic behavior and provide readers with greater insight on how to respond or react to protect themselves, live among sociopaths without becoming victims, and even beat sociopaths at their own game, through a bit of empathetic cunning and manipulation.
Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen
by Julie Hines MabusIn the late 1960s, Patsy Channing, a stunningly beautiful young woman, was suspended from the venerable Mississippi State College for Women for breach of conduct. The resulting scandal reached all the way to the Columbus courthouse, and the press ate it up. But Patsy’s story starts long before that, living with a preoccupied and troubled mother in Memphis, Tennessee. As Patsy grows up, she buries the memories of her unspeakable childhood trauma and is determined to have a normal life. Music becomes her ticket out and a vehicle for the one thing she covets most—a chance to be crowned Miss America. In Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen, Julie Hines Mabus provides a peek into that world—a world struggling through the civil rights movement, reeling from the death of JFK, and cutting loose with the musical innovations from Memphis and Detroit. Patsy develops a close friendship with a guitarist at Stax Recording Studio, giving her firsthand exposure to the early Memphis Soul Sound created by such greats as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Sam & Dave. Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen opens and closes with the end of Patsy’s time at Mississippi State College for Women on that fateful spring morning in 1968 when she entered the Columbus courthouse. Patsy’s story, marked with tragedy and triumph, mirrors that of a growing and evolving South, where change never comes easy.
Confessions of a Special Agent: Wartime Service in the Small Scale Raiding Force and SOE
by Ernest Dudley Jack EvansMany are the tales of young men lying about their age to join the Army, yet Jack Evans sought far more at the age of just possibly just seventeen to act behind enemy lines as an agent of the Special Operations Executive.Evans had joined the RAF in 1940, despite being well under the legal age, and two years later was recruited into the SOE as a member of the Small Scale Raiding Force. Evans related his experiences with the SOE to author Ernest Dudley in the 1950s, in which he describes his training, including learning how to jump by parachute in preparation for an operation into France though he was withdrawn from the operation when his true age was disclosed. He then joined the SSRF, taking part in a number of raids upon Occupied France.Evans was then transferred to the Brandon Mission in Africa. This involved an eight-man team being parachuted into Tunisia to attack a railway line. In 1943 he was promoted to the rank of captain and parachuted into France, only to be captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III for the remainder of the war.Evans suffered considerable mental trauma from his time behind enemy lines and his internment at the hands of the Germans and was unable to settle into normal civilian life. His astonishing story, written so soon after the end of the war, was considered in many respects to be ahead of its time.
Confessions of a Street Addict
by James J. CramerIn the most candid look at Wall Street since Liar's Poker, James J. Cramer, cofounder of TheStreet.com, radio and television commentator, and for years one of Wall Street's premier money managers, takes readers on a no-holds-barred tour of life on Wall Streetrevealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt. Everyone on Wall Street knows Jim Cramer, and Cramer knows Wall Street better than anyone. For fifteen years he ran Cramer, Berkowitz, one of the Street's most successful hedge funds with a compounded annual return of 24% after all fees. In Confessions of a Street Addict he takes us from his fascination with the stock market as a middle-class kid in the Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard, where he began managing money. After an apprenticeship at Goldman, Sachs, Cramer set out on his own with his wife, Karen, the "Trading Goddess," as his partner. Cramer brilliantly describes the life of a money manager -- the frenetic pace, the constant pressure to outperform the market and other fund managers, and the shark-like attacks fund managers make as they circle a fund perceived to be in trouble. At the same time that he was managing money, Cramer was one of the best-known commentators on the financial markets. A former president of the Harvard Crimson, Cramer had been a newspaper reporter before he began managing money. While he was a fund manager, he wrote for SmartMoney and other publications, making him one of the first money managers to offer insight and analysis from inside the world of finance. With the rise of the Internet and online publishing, he co-founded TheStreet.com, the online financial Web site. In one of the most fascinating chapters in this book, Cramer takes us inside the IPO of TheStreet.com, where he found himself a knowledgeable but helpless onlooker as his own Web site came on the market at an unrealistically high price that it never reached again, a harbinger of the dot-com disasters that would soon haunt the stock market. Throughout the book Cramer is characteristically outspoken, outrageous, and candid about everyone, himself included. There has never been a high-wired, high-octane book about Wall Street like this one.
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS
by Richard YanceyTwelve years ago, Richard Yancey answered a blind ad in the newspaper offering a salary higher than what he’d made over the three previous years combined. It turned out that the job was for the Internal Revenue Service -- the most hated and feared organization in the federal government.So Yancey became the man who got in his car, drove to your house, knocked on your door, and made you pay. Never mind that his car was littered with candy wrappers, his palms were sweaty, and he couldn’t remember where he stashed his own tax records. He was there on the authority of the United States government.With "a rich mix of humor, horror, and angst [and] better than most novels on the bestseller lists" (Boston Sunday Globe), Confessions of a Tax Collector contains an astonishing cast of too-strange-for-fiction characters. But the most intriguing character of all is Yancey himself who -- in detailing how the job changed him and how he managed to pull himself back from the brink of moral, ethical, and spiritual bankruptcy -- reveals what really lies beneath those dark suits and mirrored sunglasses.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty inside the IRS
by Richard YanceyBeginning in the 1990s, Yancey worked for the Internal Revenue Service. At first he collected money from dilinquent taxpayers and was indifferent to the job, and then later he became more passionate as he worked to track down tax protesters. Soon he found that he was becoming obsessed with his job and began to feel isolated from everyone in his personal life.
Confessions of a Video Vixen
by Karrine SteffansPart tell-all, part cautionary tale, this emotionally charged memoir from a former video vixen nicknamed 'Superhead' goes beyond the glamour of celebrity to reveal the inner workings of the hip-hop dancer industry—from the physical and emotional abuse that's rampant in the industry, and which marked her own life—to the excessive use of drugs, sex and bling.Once the sought-after video girl, this sexy siren has helped multi-platinum artists, such as Jay-Z, R. Kelly and LL Cool J, sell millions of albums with her sensual dancing. In a word, Karrine was H-O-T. So hot that she made as much as $2500 a day in videos and was selected by well-known film director F. Gary Gray to co-star in his film, A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel. But the film and music video sets, swanky Hollywood and New York restaurants and trysts with the celebrities featured in the pages of People and In Touch magazines only touches the surface of Karrine Steffans' life.Her journey is filled with physical abuse, rape, drug and alcohol abuse, homelessness and single motherhood—all by the age of 26. By sharing her story, Steffans hopes to shed light on an otherwise romanticised industry and help young women avoid the same pitfalls she encountered. If they're already in danger, she hopes to inspire them to find a way to dig themselves out of what she knows first-hand to be a cycle of hopelessness and despair.UPDATE: As the music industry started to have its own reckoning with men who've behaved badly, even criminally, Confessions has been discussed in some quarters as an early warning bell, with Karrine as a feminist icon who shined a light when no one wanted her to and championed sex positivity before it was embraced. Now she talks about what it has been like to watch the tide turn and the lessons still to be learned.
Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst: A True Story of Inside Information and Corruption in the Stock Market
by Jennifer Reingold Dan ReingoldHere is the true story of a top Wall Street player's transformation from a straight-arrow believer to a jaded cynic, who reveals how Wall Street's insider game is really played.Dan Reingold was a top Wall Street analyst for fourteen years and Salomon Smith Barney analyst Jack Grubman's chief competitor in the red-hot sector of telecom. Reingold was part of the "Street" and believed in it.But in this action-packed, highly personal memoir written with accomplished Fast Company senior writer Jennifer Reingold the author describes how his enthusiasm gave way to disgust as he learned how deeply corrupted Wall Street and much of corporate America had become during the roaring stock market bubble of the 1990s.Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst provides a front-row seat at one of the most dramatic -- and ultimately tragic -- periods in financial history. Reingold recounts his introduction to the world of Wall Street leaks and secret deal-making; his experiences with corporate fraud; and Wall Street's alarming penchant for lavish spending and multimillion-dollar pay packages.Reingold spars with arch rival Grubman; fends off intense pressures from Wall Street bankers and corporate CEOs; and is wooed by Morgan Stanley's CEO, John Mack, and CSFB's über-banker Frank Quattrone.Reingold describes instances in which confidential deals are whispered days before their official announcement. He recalls the moment he learns that Bernie Ebbers's WorldCom was massively cooking its books. And he is shocked to have been an unwitting catalyst for a series of sexually explicit e-mails that would rock Wall Street; bring Jack Grubman to his knees; and contribute to the stepping aside of Grubman's boss, Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill.Some of Reingold's stories are outrageous, others hilarious, and many are simply absurd. But, together, they provide a sobering exposé of Wall Street: a jungle of greed and ego, a place brimming with conflicts and inside information, and a business absurdly out of touch with the Main Street it claims to serve.He shows how government investigators, headlines notwithstanding, never got to the heart of the ethical and legal transgressions of the era. And how they completely overlooked Wall Street's pervasive use of inside information, leaving investors -- even sophisticated professionals -- cheated. The book ends with a series of important policy recommendations to clean up the investing business.In the tradition of Liar's Poker and Den of Thieves, Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst is a no-holds-barred insider's account that will open the eyes of every investor.
Confessions of a Wall Street Insider: A Cautionary Tale of Rats, Feds, and Banksters
by Michael KimelmanAlthough he was a suburban husband and father, living a far different life than the "Wolf of Wall Street,” Michael Kimelman had a good run as the cofounder of a hedge fund. He had left a cushy yet suffocating job at a law firm to try his hand at the high-risk life of a proprietary trader - and he did pretty well for himself. But it all came crashing down in the wee hours of November 5, 2009, when the Feds came to his door-almost taking the door off its hinges. While his wife and children were sequestered to a bedroom, Kimelman was marched off in embarrassment in view of his neighbors and TV crews who had been alerted in advance. He was arrested as part of a huge insider trading case, and while he was offered a "sweetheart” no-jail probation plea, he refused, maintaining his innocence.The lion’s share of Confessions of a Wall Street Insider was written while Kimelman was an inmate at Lewisburg Penitentiary. In nearly two years behind bars, he reflected on his experiences before incarceration-rubbing elbows and throwing back far too many cocktails with financial titans and major figures in sports and entertainment (including Leonardo DiCaprio, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, to drop a few names); making and losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in daily gambles on the Street; getting involved with the wrong people, who eventually turned on him; realizing that none of that mattered in the end. As he writes: "Stripped of family, friends, time, and humanity, if there’s ever a place to give one pause, it’s prison . . . Tomorrow is promised to no one.” In Confessions of a Wall Street Insider, he reveals the triumphs, pains, and struggles, and how, in the end, it just might have made him a better person.Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Confessions of a Yakuza
by John Bester Junichi SagaThis is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn’t a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world.In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizing illegal dice games in Tokyo's liveliest entertainment area. He talks about his first police raid, and the brutal interrogation and imprisonment that followed it. He remembers his first love affair, and the girl he ran away with, and the weeks they spent wandering about the countryside together. Briefly, and matter-of-factly, he describes how he cut off the little finger of his left hand as a ritual gesture of apology. He explains how the games were run and the profits spent; why the ties between members of "the brotherhood" were so important; and how he came to kill a man who worked for him.What emerges is a contradictory personality: tough but not unsentimental; stubborn yet willing to take life more or less as it comes; impulsive but careful to observe the rules of the business he had joined.And in the end, when his tale is finished, you feel you would probably have liked him if you'd met him in person. Fortunately, Dr. Saga's record of his long conversations with him provides a wonderful substitute for that meeting.
Confessions of a Young Novelist (The Richard Ellmann lectures in modern literature)
by Umberto EcoUmberto Eco published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980, when he was nearly fifty. In these “confessions,” the author, now in his late seventies, looks back on his long career as a theorist and his more recent work as a novelist, and explores their fruitful conjunction. He begins by exploring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction—playfully, seriously, brilliantly roaming across this frontier. Good nonfiction, he believes, is crafted like a whodunnit, and a skilled novelist builds precisely detailed worlds through observation and research. Taking us on a tour of his own creative method, Eco recalls how he designed his fictional realms. He began with specific images, made choices of period, location, and voice, composed stories that would appeal to both sophisticated and popular readers. The blending of the real and the fictive extends to the inhabitants of such invented worlds. Why are we moved to tears by a character’s plight? In what sense do Anna Karenina, Gregor Samsa, and Leopold Bloom “exist”? At once a medievalist, philosopher, and scholar of modern literature, Eco astonishes above all when he considers the pleasures of enumeration. He shows that the humble list, the potentially endless series, enables us to glimpse the infinite and approach the ineffable. This “young novelist” is a master who has wise things to impart about the art of fiction and the power of words.
Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor
by Dr Tony BleetmanNote to customers: This book is also available under the title "You Can't Park There!: The Highs and Lows of an Air Ambulance Doctor". 'People get into this work for "the juice", meaning the adrenaline rush, but they don't tell you about the other juices - the mud, blood, snot and grot.' Confessions of an Air Ambulance Doctor is the first ever behind-the-scenes account of life onboard an air ambulance. The first of its kind to carry doctors and surgeons who can take the hospital to the patient. Drug addicts, lorry crashes, open-heart surgery, stab wounds, headless chickens, mating llamas, and strip routines – it’s all in a day’s work for emergency doctor Tony Bleetman and his team. Whether they are landing in the middle of the M1 or at a maximum security jail, Tony and his crew Helimed 999 are the first on the scene in the most critical of emergencies. This gripping read will make you laugh, cry and marvel at the wonders of life (and death) in equal measure.
Confessions of an Air Craft Pilot: Including Tales from the Pilot’s Seat
by Terry TozerHow do you know if the airline you are planning to fly with is safe? What should you be worried about? Is it, Turbulence, lightning or that the pilots might be asleep while the aircraft flies on, on autopilot? Does a pilot’s life conform to the cliché; a life of foreign adventure with off duty hours spent by the pool in some tropical paradise surrounded by attractive members of the opposite sex? Or is it a life of commercial pressure to cut corners to keep the show on the road irrespective of the rules? Surely it can’t be true that the pilots have to jack up a 70 ton aircraft themselves and change a wheel when they get a puncture. Find out what really happened with the expert investigation into the only crash that Concorde had. This and other detective stories that puzzled investigators are analysed by the author and presented in a highly readable form. Your questions are answered by providing the reader with a fly in the cockpit view of a series of real flights. Some result in accidents and incidents that demonstrate what the priorities for good safety are. Others are experiences from the author’s own flying career in both passenger airline flying to long haul cargo, with its hidden world of global commerce, military operations and more. Finally, the author offers a suggestion that would offer the passenger an easy way of choosing safe airlines; it could be the answer to equate choosing a flight with choosing other life altering purchases that are already in place.
Confessions of an Alien Hunter
by Seth ShostakAliens are big in America. Whether they've arrived via rocket, flying saucer, or plain old teleportation, they've been invading, infiltrating, or inspiring us for decades, and they've fascinated moviegoers and television watchers for more than fifty years. About half of us believe that aliens really exist, and millions are convinced they've visited Earth.For twenty-five years, SETI has been looking for the proof, and as the program's senior astronomer, Seth Shostak explains in this engrossing book, it's entirely possible that before long conclusive evidence will be found.His informative, entertaining report offers an insider's view of what we might realistically expect to discover light-years away among the stars. Neither humanoids nor monsters, says Shostak; in fact, biological intelligence is probably just a precursor to machine beings, enormously advanced artificial sentients whose capabilities and accomplishments may have developed over billions of years and far exceed our own.As he explores what, if anything, they would tell us and what their existence would portend for humankind and the cosmos, he introduces a colorful cast of characters and provides a vivid, state-of-the-art account of the past, present, and future of our search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
by John PerkinsThis is the story of John Perkins and his involvement in the behind the scenes business and political work as U.S corporations have attempted to dominate and control the world economy. This story crosses many administrations and how John was involved in major policies since 1970. These are his experiences and he reveals the underhanded ways we have taken over many national economies world wide.
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
by Thomas De Quincey"Thou has the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!" Determined to counter the lies about opium that had been told by travellers to the Orient and the medical profession, De Quincey describes his addiction, the consciousness alteringproperties of the drug, its pleasures and its pains.
Confessions of an English Opium Eater (Dover Thrift Editions: Biography/autobiography Ser.)
by Thomas De QuinceyAlthough he was an acute literary critic, a voluminous contributor to Blackwood's and other journals, and a perceptive writer on history, biography, and economics, Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859) is best known for his Confessions of an English Opium Eater.First published in installments in the London Magazine in 1821, the work recounts De Quincey's early years as a precocious student of Greek, his flight from grammar school and subsequent adventures among the outcasts and prostitutes of London, studies at Oxford University and his introduction to opium in 1804 (he hoped that taking the drug would relieve a severe headache). It was the beginning of a long-term addiction to opium, whose effects on his mind are revealed in remarkably vivid descriptions of the dreams and visions he experienced while under its influence.Describing the general style of the Confessions, an English critic of the period wrote in the London Monthly Review: "They have an air of reality and life; and they exhibit such strong graphic powers as to throw an interest and even a dignity round a subject which in less able hands might have been rendered a tissue of trifles and absurdities."In later years, De Quincey revised and expanded the first edition of the Confessions into a much longer, more verbose work which lacked the readable intensity of the original. The present edition reprints the first version, generally considered more impressive, and admired for its introspective penetration and journalistic astuteness.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
by Thomas De QuinceyWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD MARKSOnce upon a time, opium (the main ingredient of heroin) was easily available over the chemist's counter. The secret of happiness, about which philosophers have disputed for so many ages, could be bought for a penny, and carried in the waistcoat pocket: portable ecstasies could be corked up in a pint bottle. Paradise? So thought Thomas de Quincey, but he soon discovered that 'nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium'.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
by Thomas Dequincey"I here present you, courteous reader, with the record of a remarkable period in my life: according to my application of it, I trust that it will prove not merely an interesting record, but in a considerable degree useful and instructive." So begins "The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater." Originally published in two parts in the "London Magazine" in 1821, it is a gripping account of one Englishman's addiction to opium. Thomas De Quincey details the effects of his opium use and in so doing warns the reader of the dangers and terrors of serious drug addiction.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater: And Suspiria De Profundis - Primary Source Edition
by Thomas De QuinceyA timeless memoir of drug addiction from one of the leading intellectuals of the Victorian age At first, Thomas De Quincey found opium to be a harmless pleasure. A twenty-year-old intellectual living in nineteenth-century London, De Quincey took laudanum sparingly, spacing out his doses so their effect would not be dulled. But after years of casual use, intense stomach pains caused him to rely on the drug more and more, until he was taking opium daily, and living in a world divided between hallucinatory bliss and aching physical torment. De Quincey&’s account of his addiction made him a celebrity. His rhapsodies of hallucination influenced generations of authors, from Poe and Baudelaire to Jorge Luis Borges, and warned countless readers of the dangers of drug dependency.
Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-In-Chic Peek Behind the Pose
by Paris Hilton Merle GinsbergParis Hilton has a lifestyle most girls dream about. Her name is on everyone's lips -- but can she help it if she was born rich and privileged? Now, with a sly sense of humor and a big wink at her media image, Paris lets you in for a sneak peek at the life of a real, live heiress/model/actress/singer/it-girl and tells you how anyone can live a fairy-tale life like hers. "If you follow your own plans and dreams and you don't let anyone talk you out of them, then you'll start to get the hang of being an heiress. . . . All you need after that is a good handbag, a great pose, and very high heels, and you're on your way. (Long blond hair doesn't hurt, either. )"In her fabulous and very tongue-in-cheek -- and chic -- guide, you'll discover Paris's twenty-three rules for How to Be an Heiress (Never have only one cell phone when you can have many), Paris's list of Twelve Things an Heiress Would Never Do (Go out the night after the Oscars), and Three Things Most People Think Heiresses Shouldn't Do, But I Think They Should (Go out with broke guys). Paris also shares private information such as her memories of growing up with her sister, Nicky, and family photos; her favorite designers and her unique beauty secrets; what a night out with Paris is like; her personal gallery of fashion don'ts; and behind-the-scenes stories from both installments of her hit television series,The Simple Life. Of course no book by Paris would be complete without her pet teacup Chihuahua, Tinkerbell, and in these pages, the best-dressed dog in the world shares pages from her own secret diary. Featuring more than three hundred fabulous color photos of Paris,Confessions of an Heiressis a look at life from the unique perspective of a young woman who has the whole world at her stiletto-clad feet.
Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose
by Paris Hilton Merle Ginsberg Jeff VespaConfessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Cheek Peek Behind the Pose by Paris Hilton with Merle GinsbergA Learjet's view of the fast, fun world of PARIS HILTON -- packed with enough photos, advice, and inside scoop to help anyone live a glamorous life.Paris Hilton has a lifestyle most girls dream about. Her name is on everyone's lips -- but can she help it if she was born rich and beautiful? Now, with her trademark sense of humor, Paris looks back on her rise to fame and reveals the delicious details of her fairy tale life."People say they envy my lifestyle," says Paris, "but I'm convinced that anyone with a little imagination can live 'The Life.'" In her fabulous, tongue in-cheek -- and very chic -- guide, readers will learn Paris's thoughts on fashion don'ts ("I look like Army Barbie in that Pucci dress!") to romantic advice ("I like guys who are hot, funny, sweet, and loyal"), to celebrity tips ("Never have only one cell phone"). She also shares personal information on her lifelong friendship with sister Nicky; fashion shows and favorite designers; her famous friends; how she likes to travel; what modeling is like; her highly successful television show The Simple Life; a look at the glamorous life of her teacup chihuahua Tinkerbell -- the best dressed dog in the world; and a glimpse at her upcoming movie roles.Featuring beautiful, full-color pictures by famed photographer Jeff Vespa and his colleagues at WireImage, Confessions of an Heiress is a look at life from the unique perspective of a celebrity who has the whole world at her Jimmy Choo-clad feet.