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Jimmy Stewart: A Wonderful Life
by Jonathan CoeOver a career that spanned forty-three years and seventy-seven films, Jimmy Stewart went from leading man to national idol. Classics such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, and, of course, It’s A Wonderful Life are far more than mere movies; they are visions of America as it wanted to be seen. With his inimitable (though widely mimicked) down-home drawl, Jimmy Stewart came to embody the ideal American male, lean, affably sarcastic, honorable, endearingly awkward. His double takes were memorable; his way of muttering his asides charmed audiences. Most of all, he was the man whose heart was always in the right place, and who would see always see his way clear to doing the right thing. “If Bess and I had a son,” Harry Truman once said, “we’d want him to be just like Jimmy Stewart.” Jonathon Coe traces Stewart’s beginnings in a small town in Pennsylvania, his amateur dramatics and college years at Princeton, and the early films and stardom through to his heroics as an air force pilot during World War II and his triumphant return to Hollywood. Though he was adored in black and white, Stewart’s mature work shows his range as an actor, his ability to play far more than just the good-natured leading man. By the time he retired from acting, Stewart had films credits that were unparalleled—and a place in the American heart that was unrivaled. Illustrated with 150 photographs, taken on and off the set, this handsome tribute gives us the private man as well as the screen legend and guides us through the whole wonderful life of Jimmy Stewart.
Jimmy Stewart: A Biography
by Marc EliotJimmy Stewart's all-American good looks, boyish charm, and deceptively easygoing style of acting made him one of Hollywood's greatest and most enduring stars. Despite the indelible image he projected of innocence and quiet self-assurance, Stewart's life was more complex and sophisticated than most of the characters he played. With fresh insight and unprecedented access, bestselling biographer Marc Eliot finally tells the previously untold story of one of our greatest screen and real-life heroes. Born into a family of high military honor and economic success dominated by a powerful father, Stewart developed an interest in theater while attending Princeton University. Upon graduation, he roomed with the then-unknown Henry Fonda, and the two began a friendship that lasted a lifetime. While he harbored a secret unrequited love for Margaret Sullavan, Stewart was paired with many of Hollywood's most famous, most beautiful, and most alluring leading ladies during his extended bachelorhood, among them Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Loretta Young, and the notorious Marlene Dietrich. After becoming a star playing a hero in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939 and winning an Academy Award the following year for his performance in George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story, Stewart was drafted into the Armed Forces and became a hero in real life. When he returned to Hollywood, he discovered that not only the town had changed, but so had he. Stewart's combat experiences left him emotionally scarred, and his deepening darkness perfectly positioned him for the '50s, in which he made his greatest films, for Anthony Mann (Winchester '73 and Bend of the River) and, most spectacularly, Alfred Hitchcock, in his triple meditation on marriage, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo, which many film critics regard as the best American movie ever made. While Stewart's career thrived, so did his personal life. A marriage in his forties, the adoption of his wife's two sons from a previous marriage, and the birth of his twin daughters laid the foundation for a happy life, until an unexpected tragedy had a shocking effect on his final years. Intimate and richly detailed, Jimmy Stewart is a fascinating portrait of a multi-faceted and much-admired actor as well as an extraordinary slice of Hollywood history. "Probably the best actor who's ever hit the screen." --Frank Capra. "He taught me that it was possible to remain who you are and not be tainted by your environment. He was not an actor ... he was the real thing." --Kim Novak. "He was uniquely talented and a good friend." --Frank Sinatra. "He was a shy, modest man who belonged to cinema nobility." --Jack Valenti. "There is nobody like him today." --June Allyson. "He was one of the nicest, most unassuming persons I have known in my life. His career speaks for itself." --Johnny Carson.
Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind the Legend
by Michael MunnMany of the stars of the silver screen in twentieth-century Hollywood became national icons, larger-than-life figures held up as paragons of American virtues. Unfortunately, the private lives of actors such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Errol Flynn rarely lived up to the idealistic roles they portrayed. However, James Stewart was known as the underdog fighter in many of his films and in real life. He was highly decorated for his bravery during his time as a bomber pilot during World War II and was adored for his earnest and kindly persona.Here many unknown sides of Stewart are revealed: his explosive temper, his complex love affairs, his service as a secret agent for the FBI, his innate shyness, and his passionate patriotism. Munn's personal touch shines through his writing, as he was a friend of Stewart and his wife, Gloria, and interviewed them as well as their colleagues and friends. This definitive biography reveals the childhood ups and downs that formed this cinema hero, explores the legendary Fonda-Stewart relationship, and recounts Stewart's experiences making acclaimed films that include The Philadelphia Story, Rear Window, Anatomy of a Murder, It's a Wonderful Life, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Jim's Book: The Surprising Story of Jim Penman - Australia's Backyard Millionaire
by Catherine MoolenschotMeet the man and uncover the story behind one of Australia’s most recognised brands We all know Jim’s. Maybe you just passed a Jim’s Mowing trailer on the road; or maybe there’s a Jim’s Cleaning van parked across the street each Tuesday morning; or maybe your best mate is laughing all the way to the bank after quitting the city and starting his new Jim’s Fencing franchise, but do you know the real story behind the Jim’s Group and its founder, Jim Penman? Brutally efficient, socially awkward, and a tireless perfectionist, Jim is as complex and fascinating as the Jim’s Group. This book is a warts-and-all look at his colourful life that delves deep into how he ignored conventional thinking to turn a few mowing rounds into a corporate juggernaut built on always putting the customer first. Jim’s unique approach revolutionised Australia’s business landscape, providing thousands of people the opportunity to create and grow their own businesses. Most Australians know very little about the man who created one of the nation’s most famous companies. For all of his success, Jim is remarkably unassuming and approachable. In this authorised biography, author Catherine Moolenschot sat down with Jim and over one hundred people who know him — from franchisees and franchisors, to family, friends, and adversaries — to get up close and personal with the surprising story of one of Australia’s biggest brands and the man who made it all happen. Jim’s Book tells the fascinating story of the man and the business that bears his name. Equal parts biography, history and philosophy, this book takes readers on a journey through one man’s remarkable life.
Jivannu Parodh
by Prabhudas Chaganlal Gandhiમારા બન્ને પિતામહ— જેમણે ઘરમાં સદાયે સન્માર્ગને જ પોષ્યો, જેમણે સિત્યાસી વર્ષની ઉંમર સુધી ઉત્સાહી વિદ્યાર્થીનું જીવન ગુજાર્યું, અને જેઓ છેલ્લી પળ સુધી ભગવદ્ગીતાનું જ શ્રવણ-મનન કરતાં કરતાં શાંતિપૂર્વક પોતાનું ખોળિયું ઉતારી ગયા એ મોટા બાપુજીને; તથા જેમણે સદાયે સાચી કેળવણી આપવા પાછળ પોતાના પ્રાણ પાથર્યા, જેમને એંશી વર્ષની ઉંમરે પણ જીવનના પ્રચંડ ઝંઝાવાતો વચ્ચે જુવાનના જોમથી ઘૂમતાં થાક ન જણાયો, અને જેઓ પળે પળે અનાસક્તિયોગના આચરણ દ્વારા વામનને વિરાટના, કૃપણને ઉદારના અને કાયરને પુરુષાતનના પ્રત્યક્ષ પાઠ ભણાવી ગયા, તે બાપુજીને ચરણે...
The Jive Talker
by Samson KambaluWhat do you do when it looks like the odds were stacked against you before you were even born, when you're having trouble feeding a family that just keeps growing, when you've got a little too much of an affection for Carlsberg Brown and when the life president of your country, Malawi, keeps shuffling around the public health system that employs you, forcing you and your family into perpetual nomadism? You catch up on your reading, adding I'm OK, You're OK and Nietzsche to the bathroom library. Holding on to your dignity, you keep dressing up in threadbare three-piece suits you ordered from London back when you could afford them. You raise your head high like a giraffe and call yourself a philosopher, not a civil servant. With a bottle of beer in hand you philosophize before your mystified kids at night -- on anything from football to Shakespeare -- and you look to the future with boundless optimism. In short, and most important, you talk jive. The father of Samson Kambalu is the "Jive Talker" of this vivacious and warm, bristling and hilarious memoir. Kambalu Senior died of AIDS in 1995, bequeathing to his son a passion for words and an imagination that transcended all limitations. Described by The Guardian newspaper as "one of the artists to color the future," Samson Kambalu is one of the most successful young conceptual artists on the contemporary art scene: he has been featured in Bloomberg New Contemporaries and he has won a Decibel Award; he has exhibited around the world, including at the Liverpool Biennial with Yoko Ono and the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006. He is currently on a five-year artist residency funded by the Arts Council England. In this utterly original, often subversive book, Samson Kambalu introduces us to his country of birth, Malawi, an impoverished nation in which no dissent is tolerated, where political opponents are "disappeared" and where a portrait of Life President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda is always guaranteed to be watching. It's also a place in which a little boy obsessed with Michael Jackson,Footloose, Nietzsche, girls, fashion and football can move beyond his station to become a rising star in international pop culture, creating a life-affirming expressionist philosophy, "Holyballism," along the way. Narrated with sass and charisma, The Jive Talker is a love letter to an Africa that is hardly understood, and it's a coming-of-age story that takes its place among the finest work by Tobias Wolff, Mary Karr and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
JLS: Forever and a Day
by JLSSince forming in 2007, JLS have achieved everything they'd hoped for and more. From four smash-hit albums and five number one singles, to BRIT and MOBO awards and sell-out tours, Oritsé, Marvin, JB, and Aston have proved themselves as one of Britain's biggest boybands ever. But all good things come to an end and in this, their last ever official book together, the boys share their favourite memories with the people they love most: their fans.Inside, they reflect on everything they've experienced in the last six years, as a band and in their own personal lives, while sharing exclusive photos and the secrets they've kept. Find out how they feel about juggling family and finding love with life on the road and recording in the studio; how special it feels to step out on stage in front of thousands of fans and why choosing to part from the best friends they could have ever found was the hardest decision of all.The highs, the lows; the good times and bad, this is JLS like you've never seen them before. Older, wiser and hotter than ever, this is their final farewell and a treasured keepsake for years to come.
Jo Cox: More in common
by Brendan Cox'Jo Cox's selfless service to others made the world a better place' Barack Obama, 44th President of the United StatesTHE NUMBER 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Jo's dedication to a fairer and kinder world beautifully told ...' Bear Grylls | 'A desperately tender account ... part love story, part grief memoir ... resolutely uplifting' Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian | 'Brave, inspiring, and full of love' Daily Express | 'A chance to get to know the woman behind the headlines - a tiny ball of energy with a heart as big as a lion, a person who wanted to make a difference' Lorraine Kelly, SunJo Cox's murder in June 2016 shocked the world. In the aftermath of her tragic death her husband Brendan Cox urged us to remember Jo's life and what she stood for and not the manner of her death. In this inspiring and impassioned portrait of Jo - as daughter, mother, wife, sister, MP and campaigner - we see how much she gave and much more she had to give. The values she embraced of togetherness, inclusion and compassion are needed now more than ever. A touching and very human portrait of an extraordinary woman, whose legacy has already inspired others. This summer over 100,000 events were part of The Great Get Together in honour of Jo. 'We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.'Winner of the Best Political Book by a non-Parliamentarian (Parliamentary Book Awards)All Brendan Cox's royalties will go to the Jo Cox Foundation.'Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full.'
Jo Cox: More in common
by Brendan Cox'Jo Cox's selfless service to others made the world a better place' Barack Obama, 44th President of the United StatesTHE NUMBER 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A desperately tender account ... part love story, part grief memoir ... resolutely uplifting' Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian | 'Brave, inspiring, and full of love.' Daily Express | 'A chance to get to know the woman behind the headlines - a tiny ball of energy with a heart as big as a lion, a person who wanted to make a difference' Lorraine Kelly, SunJo Cox's murder in June 2016 shocked the world. In the aftermath of her tragic death her husband Brendan Cox urged us to remember Jo's life and what she stood for and not the manner of her death. In this inspiring and impassioned portrait of Jo - as daughter, mother, wife, sister, MP and campaigner - we see how much she gave and much more she had to give. The values she embraced of togetherness, inclusion and compassion are needed now more than ever. A touching and very human portrait of an extraordinary woman, whose legacy has already inspired others. This summer over 100,000 events were part of The Great Get Together in honour of Jo. 'We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.'All Brendan Cox's royalties will go to the Jo Cox Foundation.'Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full.'
Jo Malone: My Story
by Jo MaloneKnown around the world for her eponymous brand of fragrances and now her brand-new venture Jo Loves, Jo Malone tells the remarkable and inspiring story of her rise from humble beginnings to beloved business success.<P><P> Jo Malone began her international fragrance and scented candle business in 1983 from her kitchen, where she made bath oils as thank-you gifts for her facial clients. She opened her first store in London in 1994, and in 1999 she sold the Jo Malone London brand to Estee Lauder Companies. Recently, she launched a new brand, Jo Loves, igniting the excitement of fashion and beauty converts all over the world.<P> Raised in government-subsidized housing in Kent in the early 1960s, Jo Malone left school as a teenager to care for her mother after she had a stroke. Jo had not been successful in school because of her dyslexia, but she had the ability to see and feel everything in scent. Her at-home beauty business and hand-made products became popular, and word of her talent spread until an international brand was born. After the sale of her company and the birth of her son, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment in New York. Thus began the second chapter of her life, and in this memoir, Jo tells her full amazing and inspiring personal story.
Jo Malone: My Story
by Jo MaloneKnown around the world for her eponymous brand of fragrances and now her brand-new venture Jo Loves (soon to debut in the US), Jo Malone tells the remarkable and inspiring story of her rise from humble beginnings to beloved business success.Jo Malone began her international fragrance and scented candle business in 1983 from her kitchen, where she made bath oils as thank-you gifts for her facial clients. She opened her first store in London in 1994, and in 1999 she sold the Jo Malone London brand to Estee Lauder Companies. Recently, she launched a new brand, Jo Loves, igniting the excitement of fashion and beauty converts all over the world. Raised in government-subsidized housing in Kent in the early 1960s, Jo Malone left school as a teenager to care for her mother after she had a stroke. Jo had not been successful in school because of her dyslexia, but she had the ability to see and feel everything in scent. Her at-home beauty business and hand-made products became popular, and word of her talent spread until an international brand was born. After the sale of her company and the birth of her son, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment in New York. Thus began the second chapter of her life, and in this memoir, Jo tells her full amazing and inspiring personal story.
Jo seré l'última: La història del meu captiveri i la meva lluita contra l'Estat Islàmic
by Amal Clooney Nadia MuradLa Nadia Murad va ser víctima de la gihad sexual de l'Estat Islàmic. Ara s'ha convertit en defensora dels drets humans, en la primera persona en ser anomenada Ambaixadora de Bona Voluntat per la Dignitat dels Supervivents del Tràfic de Persones de les Nacions Unides y ha estat nominada al Premi Nobel de la Pau. Aquesta és la seva història. El 15 d'agost de 2014, la vida de la Nadia Murad va canviar per sempre. Les tropes de l'Estat Islàmic van irrompre en el poblet del nord de l'Iraq on vivia, i on la minoria yazidita feia una vida tranquil·la, i hi van cometre una massacre. Van executar homes i dones, entre ells la seva mare i sis dels seus germans, i els van amuntegar en fosses comunes. A la Nadia, que aleshores tenia vint-i-un anys, la van segrestar juntament amb milers de noies i nenes, i la van vendre com a esclava sexual. Els soldats la van torturar i violar durant mesos, fins que unanit va aconseguir fugir de miracle pels carrers de Mossul. Així va començar per a ella el llarg i perillós viatge cap a la llibertat. De petita, la Nadia, una nena criada al camp, mai de la vida no hauria imaginat que un dia parlaria a l'assemblea de les Nacions Unides ni que seria nominada al Premi Nobel de la Pau. No havia trepitjat mai Bagdad, ni tan sols havia vist un avió. Avui, la història de la Nadia insta el món a parar atenció al genocidi del seu poble. És una crida a l'acció per aturar els crims de l'Estat Islàmic, un testimoni poderós de la força de la voluntat humana. Jo seré l'última és, alhora, una carta d'amor a un país desaparegut, a una comunitat vulnerable i a una família devastada per la guerra. El valor i el testimoni d'una noia poden canviar el món. Perquè no s'oblidi, perquè vol ser l'última persona que hagi deviure-la, la Nadia ens explica la seva història. Ressenyes:«Una narració crua i aterridora del genocidi religiós i de la vida en captivitat d'una jove supervivent yazidita sota l'Estat Islàmic. Amb detalls vívids i una emoció autèntica i esquinçadora, l'autora relata no solament la seva inimaginable tragèdia, sinó també la de tot un poble, el seu, ignorada pel món sencer. Una autobiografia devastadora, i inspiradora alhora, que empeny el lector a l'acció urgent.»Kirkus Reviews «Nadia Murad forma part d'aquesta llarga i invisible història de dones fortes i indomables a les quals ni la violació com a tàctica de guerra ha pogut doblegar, que segueixen en peu i estan disposades a trencar l'odiós silenci imposat i a exigir justícia i llibertat per a les seves germanes.»Times («Les 100 persones més influents del 2016») «La Nadia és més que una supervivent... És una dona valenta, amb empenta, decidida, obstinada i apassionada, que ha decidit aprofundir en ella mateixa i explicar els pitjors horrors als quals qualsevol de nos altres podria veure's sotmès, perquè altres persones no hagin de passar pel mateix.»Samantha Power, ambaixadora dels Estats Units a les Nacions Unides «La Nadia és un ésser humà extraordinari, amb un cor i una ànima meravellosos. Mai no parla d'ella; parla dels altres. És la seva manera de viure amb el dolor.»Murad Ismael, director executiu de Yazda [Keywords a canal]
Joachim Murat - Marshal of France and King of Naples
by Pickle Partners Publishing Andrew Hilliard AtteridgeThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. A first-rate biography of the famed Marshal Murat, the most famous cavalry leader of the Napoleonic Wars. Joachim Murat was born in Gascony, the department of Lot, and although his father was relatively affluent, no-one realized the spectacular rise that would lead him to a the crown of Naples and an indelible imprint on the history of his native France and all of Europe. Atteridge wrote a number of books on the men who worked as satellites to Napoleon, Emperor of the French, his commanders on the battlefield and the brothers he placed, or tried to place in power as a buffer to a vengeful Europe. Marshal Murat has often been caricatured as a dashing cavalry commander with little more brains than the horse he rode, however the portrait here painted is much more complex than the simplistic view carted out by some other historians. More than a superlative leader of cavalry, in the short campaigns of the emergent French army, he grew distant from Napoleon due to constant goadings and rebukes, he was a varied man, vain and pompous, a dedicated family man, yet possibly also cuckold. He was to find a ignominious grave, for firing squad, at Pizzo having attempted to emulate his former master's march on Paris in his adopted Naples. Highly recommended. Atteridge's book forms a companion to his other single volume biography of Marshal Ney and his work on the varied personalities on Napoleon's Brothers. Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1911 first edition, published in London by Metheun and Co. Ltd. Original - 338 pages. Author- Andrew Hilliard Atteridge (1844-1912) Linked TOC and 7 Illustrations and 3 maps.
Joachim Peiper and the Nazi Atrocities of 1944
by Stephen WynnJoachim Peiper held the rank of Obersturmbannführer in Nazi Germany’s fanatical Schutzstaffel, more commonly referred to as the SS. He spent the first two years of the war as an adjutant to the Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and leading member of the Nazi Party, Heinrich Himmler, where he would have witnessed at first hand the construction and implementation of numerous SS policies, many of which would have been in relation to ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust. In October 1941, having yearned for a chance at combat, he changed roles and became a commander in the Waffen-SS, although he still remained in regular contact with Himmler. As a member of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte, he saw service in the Soviet Union, Italy and Belgium. On 19 September 1943, he and his men were responsible for the murder of twenty-four Italian civilians at the village of Boves. On 17 December 1944, men under his command were responsible for what became known as the Malmedy massacre, involving the murder of eighty-four unarmed American prisoners of war. Following this, between 17 and 20 December, Peiper and his men were involved in the murder of a number of other American soldiers, as well as Belgian civilians. Peiper was never charged with the atrocities at Boves, but in 1946 he faced an American military tribunal for the Malmedy masssacre. Although found guilty and sentenced to death, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment but he was eventually released in 1956. In 1972, Peiper moved to the French village of Troves in north east France. On 14 July 1976, his home was attacked and set on fire. Overcome by smoke, he died in the flames.
Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography--the German and Early American Years
by Michael A. MeyerJoachim Prinz (1902-1988) was one of the most extraordinary and innovative figures in modern Jewish history. Never one for conformity, Prinz developed and modeled a new rabbinical role that set him apart from his colleagues in Weimar Germany. Provocative, strikingly informal and determinedly anti-establishment, he repeatedly stirred up controversy. During the Hitler years, Prinz strove to preserve the self-respect and dignity of a Jewish community that was vilified on a daily basis by Nazi propaganda. After immigrating to the United States in 1937, he soon became a prominent rabbi in New Jersey, drawing thousands to his unpredictable sermons. Prinz's autobiography, superbly introduced and annotated by Michael A. Meyer, offers a fascinating glimpse into the life and personality of this unconventional and influential rabbi.
Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (Hollywood Legends Series)
by Matthew KennedyJoan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal, distinctive cello voice, megawatt smile, luminous saucer eyes, and flawless timing, she came into widespread fame in Warner Bros. musicals and comedies of the 1930s, including Blonde Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade. Frequent co-star to James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart, friend to Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck, and Bette Davis, and wife of Dick Powell and Mike Todd, Joan Blondell was a true Hollywood insider. By the time of her death, she had made nearly 100 films in a career that spanned over fifty years. Privately, she was unerringly loving and generous, while her life was touched by financial, medical, and emotional upheavals. Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is meticulously researched, expertly weaving the public and private, and features numerous interviews with family, friends, and colleagues.
Joan Didion: and Other Conversations
by Melville HouseThe iconic writer whose prose was as influential and as it is unmistakably hers is joined in conversation with Sheila Heti, Hilton Als, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru and many more.Some writers define a generation. Some a genre. Joan Didion did both, and much more. Didion rose to prominence with her nonfiction collection, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, and she quickly became the writer who captured the zeitgeist of the washed-out, acid hangover of the 60s. But as a bicoastal writer of fiction and nonfiction whose writing ranged from personal essays and raw, intimate memoirs to reportage on international affairs and social justice, Didion is much harder to pin down than her reputation might suggest. This collection encompasses it all, in conversations that delve into her underappreciated mid-career works, her influences, the loss of her husband and daughter, and her most infamous essays. Far from the evasive, terse minimalist that has come to dominate the image of Joan Didion, what this collection reveals is a warm, thoughtful woman whose well earned legacy promises to live on for readers and writers for many generations to come.
Joan, Lady of Wales: Power & Politics of King John's Daughter
by Danna R. MesserThe first account of the life of the illegitimate daughter of King John of England and wife of Llwelyn the Great of Gwynedd.The history of women in medieval Wales before the English conquest of 1282 is one largely shrouded in mystery. For the Age of Princes, an era defined by ever-increased threats of foreign hegemony, internal dynastic strife and constant warfare, the comings and goings of women are little noted in sources. This misfortune touches even the most well-known royal woman of the time, Joan of England (d. 1237), the wife of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd, illegitimate daughter of King John and half-sister to Henry III. With evidence of her hand in thwarting a full scale English invasion of Wales to a notorious scandal that ended with the public execution of her supposed lover by her husband and her own imprisonment, Joan’s is a known, but little-told or understood story defined by family turmoil, divided loyalties and political intrigue.From the time her hand was promised in marriage as the result of the first Welsh-English alliance in 1201 to the end of her life, Joan’s place in the political wranglings between England and the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd was a fundamental one. As the first woman to be designated Lady of Wales, her role as one a political diplomat in early thirteenth-century Anglo-Welsh relations was instrumental. This first-ever account of Siwan, as she was known to the Welsh, interweaves the details of her life and relationships with a gendered re-assessment of Anglo-Welsh politics by highlighting her involvement in affairs, discussing events in which she may well have been involved but have gone unrecorded and her overall deployment of royal female agency.Praise for Joan, Lady of Wales“A seminal, original, and ground-breaking work of simply outstanding scholarship.” —Midwest Book Review
Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter
by Patricia Albers"Gee, Joan, if only you were French and male and dead." --New York art dealer to Joan Mitchell, the 1950s. She was a steel heiress from the Midwest--Chicago and Lake Forest (her grandfather built Chicago's bridges and worked for Andrew Carnegie). She was a daughter of the American Revolution--Anglo-Saxon, Republican, Episcopalian. She was tough, disciplined, courageous, dazzling, and went up against the masculine art world at its most entrenched, made her way in it, and disproved their notion that women couldn't paint.Joan Mitchell is the first full-scale biography of the abstract expressionist painter who came of age in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s; a portrait of an outrageous artist and her struggling artist world, painters making their way in the second part of America's twentieth century. As a young girl she was a champion figure skater, and though she lacked balance and coordination, accomplished one athletic triumph after another, until giving up competitive skating to become a painter. Mitchell saw people and things in color; color and emotion were the same to her. She said, "I use the past to make my pic[tures] and I want all of it and even you and me in candlelight on the train and every 'lover' I've ever had--every friend--nothing closed out. It's all part of me and I want to confront it and sleep with it--the dreams--and paint it."Her work had an unerring sense of formal rectitude, daring, and discipline, as well as delicacy, grace, and awkwardness.Mitchell exuded a young, smoky, tough glamour and was thought of as "sexy as hell." Albers writes about how Mitchell married her girlhood pal, Barnet Rosset, Jr.--scion of a financier who was head of Chicago's Metropolitan Trust and partner of Jimmy Roosevelt. Rosset went on to buy Grove Press in 1951, at Mitchell's urging, and to publish Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, et al., making Grove into the great avant-garde publishing house of its time. Mitchell's life was messy and reckless: in New York and East Hampton carousing with de Kooning, Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Jane Freilicher, Franz Kline, Helen Frankenthaler, and others; going to clambakes, cocktail parties, softball games--and living an entirely different existence in Paris and Vétheuil.Mitchell's inner life embraced a world beyond her own craft, especially literature . . . her compositions were informed by imagined landscapes or feelings about places. In Joan Mitchell, Patricia Albers brilliantly reconstructs the painter's large and impassioned life: her growing prominence as an artist; her marriage and affairs; her friendships with poets and painters; her extraordinary work. Joan Mitchell re-creates the times, the people, and her worlds from the 1920s through the 1990s and brings it all spectacularly to life.
Joan Myers Brown & The Audacious Hope Of The Black Ballerina
by Robert Farris Thompson Ananya ChatterjeaFounder of the Philadelphia Dance Company (PHILADANCO) and the Philadelphia School of Dance Arts, Joan Myers Brown's personal and professional histories reflect the hardships as well as the advances of African-Americans in the artistic and social developments of the second half of the twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries.
Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc
by Katherine J. Chen&“It is as if Chen has crept inside a statue and breathed a soul into it, re-creating Joan of Arc as a woman for our time.&”—Hilary Mantel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Booker Prize winner Wolf HallGirl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint? From the acclaimed author of Mary B comes a stunning, secular reimagining of the epic life of Joan of Arc. 1412. France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, becoming an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries. In Katherine J. Chen&’s hands, the myth and legend of Joan of Arc is transformed into a flesh-and-blood young woman: reckless, steel-willed, and brilliant. This meticulously researched novel is a sweeping narrative of her life, from a childhood steeped in both joy and violence, to her meteoric rise to fame at the head of the French army, where she navigates the perils of the battlefield and the equally treacherous politics of the royal court. Many are threatened by a woman who leads, and Joan draws wrath and suspicion from all corners, while her first taste of fame and glory leaves her vulnerable to her own powerful ambition. With unforgettably vivid characters, transporting settings, and action-packed storytelling, Joan is a thrilling epic, a triumph of historical fiction, as well as a feminist celebration of one remarkable—and remarkably real—woman who left an indelible mark on history.
Joan of Arc
by Helen CastorThe acclaimed historian Helen Castor--bestselling author and BBC broadcaster of She-Wolves, the story of England's queens before Elizabeth I--returns with the incredible story of Joan of Arc, as only a biographer of Castor's enormous talents can tell it.Helen Castor brings us afresh a gripping life of Joan of Arc. Instead of the icon, she gives us a living, breathing young woman, a roaring girl fighting the English and taking sides in a bloody civil war that was tearing apart fifteenth-century France.Here is a portrait of a nineteen-year-old peasant who hears voices from God; a teenager transformed into a warrior, leading an army to victory in an age that believed women should not fight. And it is also the story behind the myth we all know, a myth that began to take hold at her trial: that of the Maid of Orleans, the savior of France, a young woman burned at the stake as a heretic, a woman who, five hundred years later, would be declared a saint.Joan and her world are brought vividly to life in this startling new take on the medieval world.Castor brings us to the heart of the action, to a woman and a country in turmoil, a world where no one, not Joan herself or the people around her--princes, bishops, soldiers, or peasants--knew what would happen next.Adding complexity, depth, and fresh insight into Joan's life, showing her confronting the challenges of faith and doubt in a superstitious age, Castor's Joan of Arc is a rich history and biography that allows us to better understand this remarkable woman and her world.
Joan of Arc
by Shana CoreySensitively and dramatically told, this book brings the story of Joan of Arc to life, from her simple childhood to her tragic end.
Joan of Arc
by Mary GordonJoan of Arc was born in 1412 and grew up during a time of invasion and civil war. At thirteen, she began to hear the voices of saints and followed their directives, believing they were sent to her by God. At seventeen, she rode into battle to rescue France from English domination in the Hundred Years War and in 1431, aged only nineteen, she was put on trial for heresy and sorcery by an ecclesiastical court of the Inquisition, and burned at the stake. Joan radiated with deep piety, self-assurance, decisiveness, and shrewd intelligence as her responses to hostile questioning preserved in the records of the rigged trial demonstrate. In this glittering portrait of the illiterate peasant girl who became the saviour of France, Joan of Arc's energy, spirit and her heroism as the first to die for a Christian-inspired idea of nationalism, are beautifully portrayed.
Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured
by Kathryn HarrisonThe profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?Every era must retell and reimagine the Maid of Orleans's extraordinary story in its own way, and in Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, the superb novelist and memoirist Kathryn Harrison gives us a Joan for our time--a shining exemplar of unshakable faith, extraordinary courage, and self-confidence during a brutally rigged ecclesiastical inquisition and in the face of her death by burning. Deftly weaving historical fact, myth, folklore, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly and critical interpretation into a compelling narrative, she restores Joan of Arc to her rightful position as one of the greatest heroines in all of human history.