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Crockett of Tennessee: A Novel Based on the Life and Times of David Crockett
by Cameron JuddThis historical fiction novel traces the life of David (Davy) Crockett from his early poverty-stricken life in the Tennessee Territory to his death defending the Alamo. In between are a strained relationship with his father, a cattle drive, an aborted attempt to become a sailor, two marriages, war with the Creeks, his tenure as Congressman, and various scrapes brought about by his friendship with Persius Tarr, and other events.
Crockett of Tennessee: A Novel Based on the Life and Times of David Crockett
by Cameron JuddFinalist for the Spur Award: The thrilling adventures of an American icon come alive in this vivid and authentic retelling of his remarkable story From humble beginnings in rural Tennessee to his heroic death defending the Alamo, frontiersman, adventurer, and politician David &“Davy&” Crockett embodies the spirit and ideals of the national character. Even during his lifetime, tales of the sharpshooting, skilled woodsman were—to his delight—told, retold, and elaborated on. As a US congressman, the former Creek War militiaman steadfastly opposed President Andrew Jackson&’s Indian Removal Act. As a soldier, he made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for an independent Texas. Nearly two centuries after his untimely demise, he remains a legendary figure in American lore. In this fictional account of Crockett&’s life, author Cameron Judd offers a nuanced portrait of the man behind the myth. He depicts Crockett&’s triumphs as a hunter, cattle drover, warrior, and legislator in riveting detail and poignantly illustrates his subject&’s hardscrabble youth and complicated relationship with his father. Meticulously researched and rich in vibrant action, Crockett of Tennessee captures the charisma, ambition, and bravery of the man known as the &“King of the Wild Frontier.&”
Crockett: The Real-Life Adventures of the Frontier Legend
by Buddy Levy&“A great myth-busting story, written in a taut narrative style that is guaranteed to keep the reader up all hours turning the pages.&” —Martin Dugard, coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Killing Lincoln (with Bill O&’Reilly)Crack open the most in-depth, exciting portrait of Davy Crockett ever written, from acclaimed bestselling adventure-history author Buddy Levy. Inside is more than just the tale of the coonskin-cap-wearing frontiersman who heroically sacrificed himself at the Battle of the Alamo, but of the real man behind the King of the Wild Frontier myth. From a humble childhood and meager education, the legendary adventurer David Crockett led a distinguished life, winning three elections as a congressman and earning a presidential nomination. Buddy Levy reveals the fascinating truth of Crockett, beyond the newspaper spins and folkloric celebrity status, as a figure that both embraced and clashed with the identity of the American Old West. He was charismatic, down-to-earth, pioneering, independent to a fault, and his adventures have been warped beyond recognition by Hollywood hype. But in this beautifully written narrative, Davy Crockett emerges as never before: a rugged individual, a true American original, and an enduring symbol of the Western frontier.
Crocodile Fever: A True Story of Adventure
by Lawrence EarlCrocodile Fever, first published in 1954, is a fascinating look at the life and adventures of Bryan Herbert Dempster. Dempster, born in South Africa, was perhaps the first white man to successfully hunt crocodiles, not for sport but to obtain their skins for his livelihood. The book details the risks and special techniques he developed by long trial-and-error to hunt these river creatures, as well as his personal struggles with his failing health, his estranged family, and impassive government officials. Much of the hunting took place in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi River, now completely inundated by the Kariba Dam and part of the world's largest man-made lake. Included are 16 pages of photographs. Author Lawrence Earl was an internationally known journalist, novelist, and photographer.
Cromwell and His Women
by Julian WhiteheadOliver Cromwell, a pivotal and often contentious character, has long been the focus of many historical works that chart his meteoric rise from being a middle-aged farmer from East Anglia with no previous military experience, who rose to command the army and become one of England’s greatest generals. Like him or loath him, Oliver Cromwell is a giant of English history. With a deft hand and strong narrative, Whitehead guides us through the remarkable life and career of Oliver Cromwell from a unique perspective. He explores not only the effect the women in Cromwell’s life had on him, but how his career in turn dramatically altered their lives. We learn of his close relationship with his mother, who lived with him throughout her long life, and of his deep attachment to his wife Elizabeth, who he married at 22 and without whom it is doubtful he would have achieved all he did.
Cromwell's Failed State and the Monarchy
by Timothy VenningThe history of Oliver Cromwell’s short-lived Commonwealth is a tale of regicide, dictatorship, internal conflict and war in seventeenth-century Britain.After defeating King Charles I in the English-British Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell established the Commonwealth of England. Under this unique experiment in the governance of Britain, the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in the Protectorate, with Cromwell as Lord Protector, 1649 to 1660. But this ambitious new state would soon collapse.Cromwell faced turbulence and problems from all sides. There were political, religious, and constitutional dilemmas at home and military threats from abroad—even from the Dutch, the Protectorate's natural ally. Finally, with Cromwell's death in 1658 and succession of his son, the hapless Richard Cromwell, the 'failed state' collapsed with the restoration of the Stuart dynasty in 1660. Thus Britain returned to royal, aristocratic and gentry rule.
Cromwell, Our Chief Of Men
by Antonia FraserThe bestselling historian's biography of a decisive figure in England's history.No Englishman has made more impact on the history of his nation than Oliver Cromwell; few have been so persistently maligned in the folklore of history. The central purpose of Antonia Fraser's book is the recreation of his life and character, freed from the distortions of myth and Royalist propaganda.Cromwell was a man of contradictions and surprising charm. This decisive and ruthless commander was also a country gentleman and a passionate connoisseur of music. Of Cromwell's fitness for high office, this fascinating biography leaves no doubt. Under his rule English prestige abroad rose to a level unequalled since Elizabeth I, yet his campaign in Ireland has cast a shadow over his reputation.Antonia Fraser displays great insight into this complex man and reveals a totally unexpected Cromwell, far removed from the received stereotype.
Cromwell, Our Chief Of Men
by Lady Antonia FraserThe bestselling historian's biography of a decisive figure in England's history.No Englishman has made more impact on the history of his nation than Oliver Cromwell; few have been so persistently maligned in the folklore of history. The central purpose of Antonia Fraser's book is the recreation of his life and character, freed from the distortions of myth and Royalist propaganda.Cromwell was a man of contradictions and surprising charm. This decisive and ruthless commander was also a country gentleman and a passionate connoisseur of music. Of Cromwell's fitness for high office, this fascinating biography leaves no doubt. Under his rule English prestige abroad rose to a level unequalled since Elizabeth I, yet his campaign in Ireland has cast a shadow over his reputation.Antonia Fraser displays great insight into this complex man and reveals a totally unexpected Cromwell, far removed from the received stereotype.
Cromwell, Our Chief of Men
by Antonia FraserBiography of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, by a leading British historian.
Cromwell: The Lord Protector (Grove Great Lives Ser.)
by Antonia FraserThe national-bestselling author of Mary Queen of Scots delivers a masterful biography of the Puritan rebel Oliver Cromwell: &“Rich and extraordinary&” (The New York Times). In Cromwell, award-winning biographer Antonia Fraser tells of one of England&’s most celebrated and controversial figures, often misunderstood and demonized as a puritanical zealot. Oliver Cromwell rose from humble beginnings to spearhead the rebellion against King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649, and led his soldiers into the last battle against the Royalists and King Charles II at Worcester, ending the civil war in 1651. Fraser shows how England&’s prestige and prosperity grew under Cromwell, reversing the decline it had suffered since Queen Elizabeth I&’s death. &“A classic above almost all others in its class.&” —The Oxford Times
Cronkite
by Douglas BrinkleyFor decades, Walter Cronkite was known as "the most trusted man in America." Millions across the nation welcomed him into their homes, first as a print reporter for the United Press on the front lines of World War II, and later, in the emerging medium of television, as a host of numerous documentary programs and as anchor of the CBS Evening News, from 1962 until his retirement in 1981. Yet this very public figure, undoubtedly the twentieth century's most revered journalist, was a remarkably private man; few know the full story of his life. Drawing on unprecedented access to Cronkite's private papers as well as interviews with his family and friends, Douglas Brinkley now brings this American icon into focus as never before. Brinkley traces Cronkite's story from his roots in Missouri and Texas through the Great Depression, during which he began his career, to World War II, when he gained notice reporting with Allied troops from North Africa, D-day, and the Battle of the Bulge. In 1950, Edward R. Murrow recruited him to work for CBS, where he covered presidential elections, the space program, Vietnam, and the first televised broadcasts of the Olympic Games, as both a reporter and later as an anchor for the evening news. Cronkite was also witness to--and the nation's voice for--many of the most profound moments in modern American history, including the Kennedy assassination, Apollos 11 and 13, Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the Iran hostage crisis. Epic, intimate, and masterfully written, Cronkite is the much-anticipated biography of an extraordinary American life, told by one of our most brilliant and respected historians.
Cronkite's War
by Tom Brokaw Walter Cronkite Maurice IssermanA giant in American journalism in the vanguard of "The Greatest Generation" reveals his World War II experiences in this National Geographic book. Walter Cronkite, an obscure 23-year-old United Press wire service reporter, married Betsy Maxwell on March 30, 1940, following a four-year courtship. She proved to be the love of his life, and their marriage lasted happily until her death in 2005. But before Walter and Betsy Cronkite celebrated their second anniversary, he became a credentialed war correspondent, preparing to leave her behind to go overseas. The couple spent months apart in the summer and fall of 1942, as Cronkite sailed on convoys to England and North Africa across the submarine-infested waters of the North Atlantic. After a brief December leave in New York City spent with his young wife, Cronkite left again on assignment for England. This time, the two would not be reunited until the end of the war in Europe. Cronkite would console himself during their absence by writing her long, detailed letters -- sometimes five in a week -- describing his experiences as a war correspondent, his observations of life in wartime Europe, and his longing for her. Betsy Cronkite carefully saved the letters, copying many to circulate among family and friends. More than a hundred of Cronkite's letters from 1943-45 (plus a few earlier letters) survive. They reveal surprising and little known facts about this storied public figure in the vanguard of "The Greatest Generation" and a giant in American journalism, and about his World War II experiences. They chronicle both a great love story and a great war story, as told by the reporter who would go on to become anchorman for the CBS Evening News, with a reputation as "the most trusted man in America."Illustrated with heartwarming photos of Walter and Betsy Cronkite during the war from the family collection, the book is edited by Cronkite's grandson, CBS associate producer Walter Cronkite IV, and esteemed historian Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of History at Hamilton College.
Cronkite's War
by Tom Brokaw Walter Cronkite Maurice IssermanA giant in American journalism in the vanguard of "The Greatest Generation" reveals his World War II experiences in this National Geographic book. Walter Cronkite, an obscure 23-year-old United Press wire service reporter, married Betsy Maxwell on March 30, 1940, following a four-year courtship. She proved to be the love of his life, and their marriage lasted happily until her death in 2005. But before Walter and Betsy Cronkite celebrated their second anniversary, he became a credentialed war correspondent, preparing to leave her behind to go overseas. The couple spent months apart in the summer and fall of 1942, as Cronkite sailed on convoys to England and North Africa across the submarine-infested waters of the North Atlantic. After a brief December leave in New York City spent with his young wife, Cronkite left again on assignment for England. This time, the two would not be reunited until the end of the war in Europe. Cronkite would console himself during their absence by writing her long, detailed letters -- sometimes five in a week -- describing his experiences as a war correspondent, his observations of life in wartime Europe, and his longing for her. Betsy Cronkite carefully saved the letters, copying many to circulate among family and friends. More than a hundred of Cronkite's letters from 1943-45 (plus a few earlier letters) survive. They reveal surprising and little known facts about this storied public figure in the vanguard of "The Greatest Generation" and a giant in American journalism, and about his World War II experiences. They chronicle both a great love story and a great war story, as told by the reporter who would go on to become anchorman for the CBS Evening News, with a reputation as "the most trusted man in America."Illustrated with heartwarming photos of Walter and Betsy Cronkite during the war from the family collection, the book is edited by Cronkite's grandson, CBS associate producer Walter Cronkite IV, and esteemed historian Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of History at Hamilton College.Now this historical portrait is new in paperback.
Crooked Brooklyn: Taking Down Corrupt Judges, Dirty Politicians, Killers, and Body Snatchers
by Jerry Schmetterer Michael VecchioneA thrilling memoir from the former chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Rackets Division, who took on organized crime, crooked cops, and con men, rarely losing a caseFrom 2001 to 2013, Mike Vecchione was chief of the Rackets Division in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, which was the largest urban prosecution agency in the country. Vecchione grappled with organized crime and dirty politicians, during which he supervised, investigated, and prosecuted major felony cases.Crooked Brooklyn is a gritty story of corruption, greed and law enforcement. Vecchione navigated a political minefield and expertly rose to the judicial challenges of directing investigations into a wide variety of crimes, from bribe-taking judges to cold-blooded killers. He was responsible for taking down:- Three state Supreme Court judges- One of the most powerful political bosses in the country- Two cops who worked as assassins for the Mafia- A State Assemblywoman- An FBI agent- A corrupt oral surgeon who was secretly selling bones from the recently deceased to medical supply companiesUnbelievable and unforgettable, Crooked Brooklyn is filled with characters and stories ripped straight from the tabloids, great for fans who enjoy Law & Order, readers of true crime and those hungry for details about the system that keeps us safe.
Crooked Paths Made Straight: A Blind Teacher's Adventures Traveling Around The World
by Deborah Kent Isabelle L. D. Grant<P>In 1959, two years before she retired from teaching, Dr. Isabelle Grant set off on a yearlong journey around the world with Oscar, her long white cane, in her hand. She had been totally blind for the past twelve years. <P>In Crooked Paths Made Straight, she shares the story of her journey during which she visited twenty-three countries from Great Britain to Fiji. In Karachi, she traveled the streets by rickshaw and struggled to master the Urdu language. In India, she explored the Taj Mahal, and in Burma she slept in a room where lizards raced up and down the walls. <P>At a time when both women and blind people were generally seen as too helpless for solo travel, Grant fearlessly defied conventions. A dedicated teacher with a lifelong commitment to learning, her mission was to learn all she could about education in the countries she visited, in particular the education provided to blind children. <P>Completed in 1965, Crooked Paths Made Straight recounts Grant's journey, a story of dreams deferred that did not shrivel but sprang to life again and again.
Crooked River City: The Musical Life of Nashville's William Pursell (American Made Music Series)
by Terry Wait KlefstadA pianist, arranger, and composer, William Pursell is a mainstay of the Nashville music scene. He has played jazz in Nashville’s Printer’s Alley with Chet Atkins and Harold Bradley, recorded with Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline, performed with the Nashville Symphony, and composed and arranged popular and classical music.Pursell’s career, winding like a crooked river between classical and popular genres, encompasses a striking diversity of musical experiences. A series of key choices sent him down different paths, whether it was reenrolling with the Air Force for a second tour of duty, leaving the prestigious Eastman School of Music to tour with an R&B band, or refusing to sign with the Beatles’ agent Sid Bernstein. The story of his life as a working musician is unlike any other—he is not a country musician nor a popular musician nor a classical musician but, instead, an artist who refused to be limited by traditional categories.Crooked River City is driven by a series of recollections and personal anecdotes Terry Wait Klefstad assembled over a three-year period of interviews with Pursell. His story is one not only of talent, but of dedication and hard work, and of the ins and outs of a working musician in America. This biography fills a crucial gap in Nashville music history for both scholars and music fans.
Crooked Snake: The Life and Crimes of Albert Lepard
by Lovejoy BotelerIn 1968, during Albert Lepard’s fifth escape from a life sentence at Parchman Penitentiary, he kidnapped Lovejoy Boteler, then eighteen years old, from his family’s farm in Grenada, Mississippi. Three decades later, still beset by half-buried memories of that time, Boteler began researching his kidnapper’s nefarious, sordid life to discover how and why this terrifying abduction occurred.Crooked Snake: The Life and Crimes of Albert Lepard is the true story of Lepard, sentenced to life in Parchman for the murder of seventy-four-year-old Mary Young in 1959. During the course of his sentence, Lepard escaped from prison six times in fourteen years. In Crooked Snake, Boteler pieces together the story of this cold-blooded murderer's life using both historical records and personal interviews—over seventy in all—with ex-convicts who gravitated to and ran with Lepard, the family members who fed and sheltered the fugitive during his escapes, the law officers who hunted him, and the regular folks who were victimized in his terrible wake.Throughout Crooked Snake, Boteler reveals his kidnapper’s hardscrabble childhood and tracks his whereabouts before his incarceration and during his jailbreaks. Lepard’s escapes take him to Florida, Michigan, Kansas, California, and Mexico. Crooked Snake captures a slice of history and a landscape that is fast disappearing. These vignettes describe Mississippi’s countryside and spirit, ranging from sharecropper family gatherings in Attala County’s Seneasha Valley to the twenty-thousand-acre Parchman farm and its borderlands teeming with alligator, panther, bear, and wild boar.
Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir
by Danny RamadanA queer Syrian refugee reckons with a life spent out of place.&“Writing this memoir is a betrayal.&” So begins this electrifying personal account from Danny Ramadan, a celebrated novelist who has long enjoyed the shield his fiction provides. Now, to tell the story of his life, he must revisit dark corners of his past he&’d rather forget and unearth memories of a city he can no longer return to.Starting with his family&’s humble beginnings in Damascus, he takes readers on an epic, border-crossing journey: to the city&’s underground network of queer safe homes; to a clandestine party at a secluded villa in Cairo; through Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East, a reckless hoax that threatens the safety of Syria&’s LGBTQ+ community, and a traumatic six-week imprisonment; to beaches and sunsets with friends in Beirut; to an arrival in Vancouver that&’s not as smooth as it promised to be; and ultimately to a life of hard-won comfort and love.What emerges is a powerful refutation of the oversimplified refugee narrative—a book that holds space for joy alongside sorrow, for nuance and complicated ambivalences. Written with fearless intimacy, Crooked Teeth is a singular achievement in which a master storyteller learns that his greatest story is his own.
Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography
by Dave Zimmer Henry DiltzCrosby, Stills & Nash created some of the most indelible songs and beautiful harmonies of the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” "Woodstock,” "Teach Your Children. ” This copiously illustrated account of the trio’s personal and musical history tells the story behind the songs. Longtime CSN chronicler Dave Zimmer, with the full cooperation of the band, traces all of the performers from their musical roots to their first song together in L. A. ’s storied Laurel Canyon; from their addition of Neil Young to Woodstock; and through their stormy years of creative conflicts, reunions, and reconciliations. This new edition has been fully reconfigured and updated to celebrate the trio’s 40th anniversary and to accommodate over 300 photos, as well as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s controversial Living with War tour.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup
by David Browne"In what is the most comprehensive biography of the group to date, Browne compiles a fun and fast-paced music history.... an authoritative chronicle." --Publishers WeeklyThe first and most complete narrative biography of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, by acclaimed music journalist and Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne Even in the larger-than-life world of rock and roll, it was hard to imagine four more different men. David Crosby, the opinionated hippie guru. Stephen Stills, the perpetually driven musician. Graham Nash, the tactful pop craftsman. Neil Young, the creatively restless loner. But together, few groups were as in sync with their times as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Starting with the original trio's landmark 1969 debut album, the group embodied much about its era: communal musicmaking, protest songs that took on the establishment and Richard Nixon, and liberal attitudes toward partners and lifestyles. Their group or individual songs--"Wooden Ships," "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "After the Gold Rush," "For What It's Worth" (with Stills and Young's Buffalo Springfield), "Love the One You're With," "Long Time Gone," "Just a Song Before I Go," "Southern Cross"--became the soundtrack of a generation. But their story would rarely be as harmonious as their legendary and influential vocal blend. In the years that followed, these four volatile men would continually break up, reunite, and disband again--all against a backdrop of social and musical change, recurring disagreements and jealousies, and self-destructive tendencies that threatened to cripple them both as a group and as individuals. In Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup, longtime music journalist and Rolling Stone writer David Browne presents the ultimate deep dive into rock and roll's most musical and turbulent brotherhood on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Featuring exclusive interviews with David Crosby and Graham Nash along with band members, colleagues, fellow superstars, former managers, employees, and lovers-and with access to unreleased music and documents--Browne takes readers backstage and onstage, into the musicians' homes, recording studios, and psyches, to chronicle the creative and psychological ties that have bound these men together--and sometimes torn them apart. This is the sweeping story of rock's longest-running, most dysfunctional, yet pre-eminent musical family, delivered with the epic feel their story rightly deserves.
Cross Bronx: A Writing Life
by Peter QuinnIn his inimitable prose, master storyteller Peter Quinn chronicles his odyssey from the Irish Catholic precincts of the Bronx to the arena of big-league politics and corporate hardball.Cross Bronx is Peter Quinn’s one-of-a-kind account of his adventures as ad man, archivist, teacher, Wall Street messenger, court officer, political speechwriter, corporate scribe, and award-winning novelist. Like Pete Hamill, Quinn is a New Yorker through and through. His evolution from a childhood in a now-vanished Bronx, to his exploits in the halls of Albany and swish corporate offices, to then walking away from it all, is evocative and entertaining and enlightening from first page to last. Cross Bronx is bursting with witty, captivating stories.Quinn is best known for his novels (all recently reissued by Fordham University Press under its New York ReLit imprint), most notably his American Book Award–winning novel Banished Children of Eve. Colum McCann has summed up Quinn’s trilogy of historical detective novels as “generous and agile and profound.” Quinn has now seized the time and inspiration afforded by “the strange interlude of the pandemic” to give his up-close-and-personal accounts of working as a speechwriter in political backrooms and corporate boardrooms:“In a moment of upended expectations and fear-prone uncertainty, the tolling of John Donne’s bells becomes perhaps not as faint as it once seemed. Before judgment is pronounced and sentence carried out, I want my chance to speak from the dock. Let no man write my epitaph. In the end, this is the best I could do.” (from the Prologue)From 1979 to 1985 Quinn worked as chief speechwriter for New York Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo, helping craft Cuomo’s landmark speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention and his address on religion and politics at Notre Dame University. Quinn then joined Time Inc. as chief speechwriter and retired as corporate editorial director for Time Warner at the end of 2007. As eyewitness and participant, he survived elections, mega-mergers, and urban ruin. In Cross Bronx he provides his insider’s view of high-powered politics and high-stakes corporate intrigue.Incapable of writing a dull sentence, the award-winning author grabs our attention and keeps us enthralled from start to finish. Never have his skills as a storyteller been on better display than in this revealing, gripping memoir.
Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsThe story of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's experiences in the remote Florida hamlet of Cross Creek, where she lived for thirteen years.
Cross My Heart
by Ferne McCannFerne McCann is a TV personality, style icon and influencer and for the first time she's telling her story.In Cross My Heart, Ferne tells her own story in her own words. She lifts the lid on love and heartbreak, the ups and downs behind the scenes of ITV''s much loved reality TV show, TOWIE and what really went on in the I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! jungle, the show that was the best thing that ever happened to her. It promises to be candid, moving and, above all, a story told with Ferne's characteristic wit and honesty.
Cross Rhodes
by Mark Vancil Dustin RhodesHe first burst onto the scene in the nineties, covered in gold face paint and exhibiting a one-of-a- kind flamboyant style that bewildered his foes and thrilled his fans. Inside the ring, Goldust is as tough as they come, known for using outrageous mind games and taking down his opponents with unparalleled ruthlessness. It's no surprise, then, that wrestling is in his blood; Goldust is the son of Dusty Rhodes, "The American Dream." What is it like to be the son of a wrestling icon and follow him into the same profession? In this no-holds-barred account, Dustin Rhodes speaks frankly and openly about his journey. He talks about being a young boy who desperately missed his dad. A young man who only wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and threw aside a football scholarship to eke out a meager existence in regional wrestling. A green wrestler struggling to prove to his peers that his work, not his name, had gotten him to where he was. Rhodes describes how, in the midst of a painful five-year estrangement with his father, he finally made a name for himself as Goldust and then let it all go, tumbling into a descent of self-medication that led him away from a red-hot career as a WWE Superstar and nearly cost him his life. When he finally hit bottom, Rhodes knew where to look for help from the family he always had: his father and World Wrestling Entertainment. When he got clean and sober and was offered the chance to wrestle for WWE, he snapped up the offer. The everyday existence of life on the road, working with and watching the new Superstars-- like his brother Cody Rhodes--has reminded Rhodes of why he loves being a wrestler. Cross Rhodes is an intimate portrait of one man's road to redemption and a unique glimpse into one of the most famous families in WWE.
Cross of Snow: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Nicholas A. BasbanesA major literary biography of America's best-loved nineteenth-century poet, the first in more than fifty years, and a much-needed reassessment for the twenty-first century of a writer whose stature and celebrity were unparalleled in his time, whose work helped to explain America's new world not only to Americans but to Europe and beyond. From the author of On Paper ("Buoyant"--The New Yorker; "Essential"--Publishers Weekly), Patience and Fortitude ("A wonderful hymn"--Simon Winchester), and A Gentle Madness ("A jewel"--David McCullough).In Cross of Snow, the result of more than twelve years of research, including access to never-before-examined letters, diaries, journals, notes, Nicholas Basbanes reveals the life, the times, the work--the soul--of the man who shaped the literature of a new nation with his countless poems, sonnets, stories, essays, translations, and whose renown was so wide-reaching that his deep friendships included Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Julia Ward Howe, and Oscar Wilde.Basbanes writes of the shaping of Longfellow's character, his huge body of work that included translations of numerous foreign works, among them, the first rendering into a complete edition by an American of Dante's Divine Comedy. We see Longfellow's two marriages, both happy and contented, each cut short by tragedy. His first to Mary Storer Potter that ended in the aftermath of a miscarriage, leaving Longfellow devastated. His second marriage to the brilliant Boston socialite--Fanny Appleton, after a three-year pursuit by Longfellow (his "fiery crucible," he called it), and his emergence as a literary force and a man of letters.A portrait of a bold artist, experimenter of poetic form and an innovative translator--the human being that he was, the times in which he lived, the people whose lives he touched, his monumental work and its place in his America and ours.