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Lewis Moody: My Life in Rugby
by Lewis MoodyLewis 'Mad Dog' Moody has been a familiar face in English rugby for fifteen successful and, at times, painful years. The former Leicester and now Bath flanker has seen and done it all in a sport that has changed beyond recognition from his first forays into the sport to the huge spectacle that rugby, and especially test match rugby, has become. Known for his near-suicidal fashion of playing the game, Moody has achieved as much as anyone in the history of the sport, from league, cup and European honours with an iconic Leicester Tigers team alongside the likes of Martin Johnson and Neil Back, to a 2003 World Cup winners medal and an MBE when still a young man. A great deal of heartbreak would follow - pain, illness, self-doubt and dark days in the four years before the next World Cup campaign that saw Moody and England fall in the 2007 final but he re-emerged to finally captain his country to a third World Cup campaign in 2011. Mad Dog - An Englishman is the story, warts and all, of one of the most-loved and respected British sporting figures; a story that allows the reader into the inner sanctum of a top rugby star's life, from the early days of student and rugby dressing room mayhem, to the latter years of dedication to the cause, and utter professionalism against all odds. You may think some of Lewis Moody's adventures are well-known. You would be wrong. In this searingly honest autobiography the original 'Mad Dog' lays himself bare and, along the way, takes you on an incredible journey that will make you laugh, cry and understand what it takes to construct a career as successful as Lewis Moody's.
Léxico familiar
by Natalia GinzburgEl libro más fascinante de Natalia Ginzburg, por cuyas páginas autobiográficas se pasea en bata la historia de la Italia antifascista y donde brilla todo el talento de la autora. «Aunque esté basado en hechos reales, me gusta pensar que Léxico familiar va a leerse como una novela, pidiéndole a este libro todo lo que solemos pedir a la ficción.» Así se expresaba Natalia Ginzburg hablando de este magnífico texto que cuenta su infancia y su juventud, y donde aparecen los nombres reales de parientes y amigos, entre ellos Cesare Pavese y Elio Vittorini. Léxico familiar habla de los Levi, una familia judía y antifascista que vivió en Turín, en el norte de Italia, desde 1930 hasta 1950. Natalia era una de las hijas del profesor Levi y fue testigo privilegiado de los momentos íntimos de la familia, de ese parloteo entre padres y hermanos que se convierte en un idioma secreto. A través de este léxico tan peculiar vamos conociendo al padre y a la madre de Natalia, unas personas que inundan de vitalidad el libro; veremos también a los hermanos de la autora, a su primer esposo, a políticos de gran valía y a muchos de los intelectuales que animaban las tertulias en estas décadas tan importantes del siglo XX. La crítica ha dicho...«Ginzburg recrea los sentimientos y las relaciones, las simpatías y antipatías, los amores y odios de todas las familias, tan predecibles y caprichosos, pero también, una generación tras otra, la singularidad de los hijos.»Italo Calvino «Llegué a Natalia Ginzburg vestida con los trapos sucios del desarraigo. Ella se reveló ante mí como una mujer que vivía en mi cabeza sin saberlo. Ella me enseñó a lavar mi propia ropa, llorando.»Karina Sainz Borgo «Distante, divertida y melancólica. ¿De dónde viene su estilo? ¿Está conscientemente construido o inconscientemente ocultado? ¿Inventado o heredado?El sello de Ginzburg es inconfundible. [...] Ella nos dio un nuevo modelo para la voz femenina.»Rachel Cusk «Su obra cumbre. Autobiografía de infancia y juventud, se lee como novela. Por sus páginas pasea en bata la historia de la Italia antifascista de la mano de los Levy, su propia familia. Anécdotas cotidianas se mezclan con precisas y profundas reflexiones, rescatando los secretos y sucesos que se esconden en la intimidad de los que la rodean.»Miguel Polo, Gentleman «Léxico familiar son todas esas expresiones únicas que funcionan tanto como chistes privados como elementos de enorme capaz evocadora, capaces de volvernos niños en un momento sentados otra vez en el comedor familiar. Son las pequeñas historias que transcurren en la intimidad de la familia y que tanto significan para nosotros aunque las creamos olvidadas.»Cuchitril Literario «Una de las escritoras más influyentes del siglo XX. La sencillez de su estilo y la claridad de su prosa siguen seduciendo.»Aloma Rodríguez, Ahora «Natalia Ginzburg es una autora que hay que leer.»Luis Soravilla «Un libro fascinante y autobiográfico, por las páginas del cual se pasea en bata la historia de la Italia antifascista. Con su discreción y su sutileza habituales, Ginzburg siempre consigue hablar de nosotros cuando parece que en realidad habla solo de sí misma. Una escritora imprescindible en nuestra era.»Gentleman «No soy ella, pero aquí -en esta lectura, ante este libro-, por arte de literatura, me siento Natalia Ginzburg, quizá porque haya dicho algo de mí que yo no sospechaba, y espero que, al cerrar la última página de Léxico familiar, todos sus lectores nos reconozcamos en ella.»Elena Medel «Hay algo de Beckett en la prosa de Ginzburg; de Chéjov, que ella admiraba profundamente; y de las últimas obras de Shakespeare, donde la tragedia suele ocurrir entre bambalinas. Una de las ironías de la
Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse
by Kim WickensNATIONAL BESTSELLER • &“A vivid portrait of America&’s greatest stallion, the larger-than-life men who raced and bred him, and the dramatic times in which they lived.&”—Geraldine Brooks, author of HorseThe powerful true story of the champion Thoroughbred racehorse who gained international fame in the tumultuous Civil War–era South, and became the most successful sire in American racing historyThe early days of American horse racing were grueling. Four-mile races, run two or three times in succession, were the norm, rewarding horses who brandished the ideal combination of stamina and speed. The stallion Lexington, named after the city in Kentucky where he was born, possessed these winning qualities, which pioneering Americans prized. Lexington shattered the world speed record for a four-mile race, showing a war-torn nation that the extraordinary was possible even in those perilous times. He would continue his winning career until deteriorating eyesight forced his retirement in 1855. But once his groundbreaking achievements as a racehorse ended, his role as a sire began. Horses from his bloodline won more money than the offspring of any other Thoroughbred—an annual success that led Lexington to be named America&’s leading sire an unprecedented sixteen times. Yet with the Civil War raging, Lexington&’s years at a Kentucky stud farm were far from idyllic. Confederate soldiers ran amok, looting freely and kidnapping horses from the top stables. They soon focused on the prized Lexington and his valuable progeny. Kim Wickens, a lawyer and dressage rider, became fascinated by this legendary horse when she learned that twelve of Thoroughbred racing's thirteen Triple Crown winners descended from Lexington. Wickens spent years meticulously researching the horse and his legacy—and with Lexington, she presents an absorbing, exciting account that transports readers back to the raucous beginning of American horse racing and introduces them to the stallion at its heart.
L'exploration de l'Afrique
by Jack DonahueIl n'y a pas si longtemps, l'intérieur de l'Afrique était un livre scellé pour le monde civilisé. Les fontaines ensoleillées, les sables dorés, les plaines verdoyantes de l'Afrique étaient à retrouver dans les vers du poète ; mais il ne traitait ni de latitude ni de longitude. Les cartes présentaient une terra incognita, où les voyageurs modernes ont découvert des rivières, des lacs et des bassins alluviaux, ou montraient des déserts stériles, où des découvertes récentes trouvent des prairies riches et régulièrement inondées, parsemées de villes et de cités fortifiées, animées par des troupeaux de bétail, ou cultivées dans des plantations de maïs et de coton. Jack Donahue nous ramène au premier plan de l'ère de l'exploration africaine, au milieu du XIXe siècle, avec des récits à la première personne de ceux qui étaient là.
La ley y las armas: Biografía de Rodolfo Ortega Peña
by Pablo Waisberg Felipe CelesiaUna investigación nutrida de un conjunto de fuentes documentales y un centenar de entrevistas a quienes conocieron a Ortega Peña, compartieran o no sus ideas o sus afectos. El 31 de julio de 1974, en pleno centro de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, el diputado nacional Rodolfo Ortega Peña moría acribillado por la Alianza Anticomunista Argentina. El hecho marcaba el inicio de una violenta escalada en el accionar de la "Triple A" y ponía fin a la vida de un intelectual, abogado y político que expresaba como pocos la agitada historia argentina de esos tiempos. Hijo de una acomodada familia antiperonista, formado para ser un digno representante de su sector social, el "Pelado" Ortega Peña se convirtió en la antítesis de ese modelo: abogado de organizaciones sindicales y defensor de presos políticos, historiador revisionista, militante del peronismo de izquierda vinculado con organizaciones armadas, peronistas y no peronistas. La ley y las armas reconstruye la vida de ese hombre calificado por muchos como "francotirador" o "provocador", y al mismo tiempo recrea uno de los períodos más intensos de la vida política, sindical, social y cultural argentina: el que abarca desde la "década infame" hasta la última presidencia de Juan D. Perón. Felipe Celesia y Pablo Waisberg son los autores de esta minuciosa investigación, basada en un nutrido conjunto de fuentes documentales y un centenar de entrevistas a quienes conocieron a Ortega Peña, compartieran o no sus ideas o sus afectos. Captan así la imagen polifacética y a veces contradictoria, en lo público y lo privado, de quien juró como diputado de la Nación bajo la consigna "La sangre derramada no será negociada".
La leyenda de Pirosmani: ---
by Valerián MarkárovDrama histórico, acontecimientos que se tuvieron lugar en la región de Tiflis del Imperio ruso a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Con motivo del centenario de la muerte del gran pintor Nikó Pirosmani.
La leyenda del pincel indio (¡Arriba la Lectura!, Read Aloud Module 8 #2)
by Tomie DePaolaNIMAC-sourced textbook
Lezioni di Leadership apprese da Muhammar Gheddafi
by Federico Renzi Lisa GibsonTu probabilmente ti stai chiedendo, che tipo di lezioni di leadership si possono imparare da uno dei terroristi più noti del mondo? Dopo tutto, é passato alla storia come uno dei dittatori più brutali e malvagi proprio a causa delle sue cattive azioni. Probabilmente questo sará uno dei libri piú insoliti che leggerai riguardo alla leadership. Riguarda tanto l'autrice di questo viaggio Lisa Gibson quanto lo stesso Muammar Gheddafi. Il 21 dicembre, 1988 la loro vita entra collisione in uno dei modi più tremendi, quando il fratello di Lisa rimane ucciso in un attentato. Nonostante quello che ha subito, Lisa riesce ad incontrare il supposto mandante di que terribile attentato e dedica la sua vita ad aiutare la gente del paese che il suo supposto leader ha brutalizzato. Anche se pensi che non ci potrebbe essere nulla da imparare sulla leadership da un uomo come Gheddafi, il libro di Lisa ci dimostra che invece conoscere il personaggio ci puó aiutare. Scoprire che il tuo viaggio verso la leadership non riguarda tanto imparare "cosa non fare" nella leadership quanto invece imparare "cosa fare" quando si é un grande leader
LGBTQ+ Trailblazers of San Francisco
by Dr. William LipskyFamous and forgotten, they're all our fabulous ancestors. From Charles Warren Stoddard, the first openly gay San Franciscan, to Felicia "Flames" Elizondo, the exuberant transgender rights advocate, the LGBT community is integrally woven into the fabric of the city's history. Household names like Queen Califia, Charley Parkhurst, Elsa Gidlow, Jose Sarria and Harvey Milk are celebrated worldwide, while Bert LaRose, Mabel Edison and Clarence Lockett are now largely forgotten. Whether '49ers, bohemians, beatniks, boomers, hippies, clones or conformists, their fascinating stories contributed to the development of a vibrant community, many simply by being themselves. Join Dr. William Lipsky as he recounts their struggles and achievements in the City by the Bay.
L'Hôtel des Peines d'Amour: Vrais Récits d'Expériences de Rupture
by Leroy VincentL'Hôtel des Peines d'Amour: Vrais Récits d'Expériences de Rupture est un livre plein d'histoires vraies de personnes réelles parlant d'expériences de rupture. Ce livre est génial pour celui qui recherche l'amour et qui a eu quelques relations parmis les plus folles. Les ruptures sont réelles et peuvent avoir un effet à long terme.
Li Dazhao: China's First Communist (SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture)
by Patrick Fuliang ShanAs one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Dazhao (1889–1927) was a key figure in China's transition from empire to republic, from tradition to modernity, and from imperial rule to turbulent revolution. Patrick Fuliang Shan's biography of Li, the first English-language study in over half a century, draws on a wealth of Chinese-language primary and secondary sources to examine Li's early life, family, education, and career; his endeavors to introduce Western civilization to the Chinese; his switch to communism and his leadership role in the early Communist movement; his political maneuvers and revolutionary activities; and his tragic death at the hands of the warlord Zhang Zuolin. While its focus is on Li's personal odyssey and extraordinary journey, the book also presents an in-depth analysis of China's broad national experience and its march towards modernity.
Liar
by Rob RobergeA darkly funny, intense memoir about mental illness, memory and storytelling, from an acclaimed novelist. When Rob Roberge learns that he's likely to have developed a progressive memory-eroding disease from years of hard living and frequent concussions, he is terrified by the prospect of becoming a walking shadow. In a desperate attempt to preserve his identity, he sets out to (somewhat faithfully) record the most formative moments of his life--ranging from the brutal murder of his childhood girlfriend, to a diagnosis of rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, to opening for famed indie band Yo La Tengo at The Fillmore in San Francisco. But the process of trying to remember his past only exposes just how fragile the stories that lay at the heart of our self-conception really are. As Liar twists and turns through Roberge's life, it turns the familiar story of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll on its head. Blackly comic and brutally frank, it offers a remarkable portrait of a down and out existence cobbled together across the country, from musicians' crashpads around Boston, to seedy bars popular with sideshow freaks in Florida, to a painful moment of reckoning in the scorched Wonder Valley desert of California. As Roberge struggles to keep addiction and mental illness from destroying the good life he has built in his better moments, he is forced to acknowledge the increasingly blurred line between the lies we tell others and the lies we tell ourselves.From the Hardcover edition.
Liar Liar: Breaking the Silence on Sexual Assault (The\inspirational Ser.)
by Laurie KatzLike any student about to start university, Laurie Katz was excited to see what the year would bring. Little did she know that just three weeks into her first term, her life would come crashing down around her.What had started as a fun night out with friends ended with Laurie, alone with a terrible secret: she had been raped.Traumatised and confused, she set out to get justice against her attacker. But when the authorities at her university dismissed her case, and warned her that she could be expelled, she was left unsure where to turn. It seemed as though things couldn't get worse... then her attacker filed his own case.Laurie's story is a brave and honest reminder of the injustice still felt in society around sexual abuse. Set against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, Laurie demonstrates that sometimes it's hope that can set you free.
The Liars' Club
by Mary KarrThe dazzling, prizewinning, wickedly funny tale of Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood--the book that sparked a renaissance in memoirWhen it was published in 1995, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger's--a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. Now with a new introduction that discusses her memoir's impact on her family, this unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as "funny, lively, and un-put-downable" (USA Today) today as it ever was
The Liars' Club: A Memoir
by Mary Karr"Astonishing. . . one of the most dazzling and moving memoirs to come along in years. " -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times. "Mary Karr's God-awful childhood has a calamitous appeal. . . the choice in the book is between howling misery and howling laughter, and the reader veers toward laughter. Karr has survived to write a drop-dead reply to the question, 'Ma, what was it like when you were a little girl?'" -Time. "This book is so good I thought about sending it out for a back-up opinion. . . it's like finding Beethoven in Hoboken. To have a poet's precision of language and a poet's instinct into people applied to one of the roughest, ugliest places in America is an astonishing event. " -Molly Ivins, The Nation. "Elegiac and searching. . . her toughness of spirit, her poetry, her language, her very voice are the agents of rebirth on this difficult, hard-earned journey. " -New York Times Book Review. "Bold, blunt, and cinematic. . . nothing short of superb. " -Entertainment Weekly. "Overflows with sparkling wit and humor. . . Truth beats powerfully at the heart of this dazzling memoir. " -San Francisco Chronicle. "Karr lovingly retells her parents' best lies and drunken extravagances with an ear for bar-stool phraseology and a winking eye for image. The revelations continue to the final page, with a misleading carelessness as seductive as any world-class liar's. " -The New Yorker.
The Liars' Club: A Memoir (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition #37)
by Mary Karr Brian Rea Lena DunhamThe dazzling, prizewinning, wickedly funny tale of Mary Karr's hardscrabble Texas childhood--the book that sparked a renaissance in memoirWhen it was published in 1995, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr's comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger's--a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. Now with a new introduction that discusses her memoir's impact on her family, this unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as "funny, lively, and un-put-downable" (USA Today) today as it ever was
Liar's Poker: Rising Through The Wreckage on Wall Street
by Michael LewisIn this shrewd and wickedly funny book, Michael Lewis describes an astonishing era and his own rake's progress through a powerful investment bank. From an unlikely beginning (art history at Princeton?) he rose in two short years from Salomon Brothers trainee to Geek (the lowest form of life on the trading floor) to Big Swinging Dick, the most dangerous beast in the jungle, a bond salesman who could turn over millions of dollars' worth of doubtful bonds with just one call. With the eye and ear of a born storyteller, Michael Lewis shows us how things really worked on Wall Street. In the Salomon training program a roomful of aspirants is stunned speechless by the vitriolic profanity of the Human Piranha; out on the trading floor, bond traders throw telephones at the heads of underlings and Salomon chairman Gutfreund challenges his chief trader to a hand of liar's poker for one million dollars; around the world in London, Tokyo, and New York, bright young men like Michael Lewis, connected by telephones and computer terminals, swap gross jokes and find retail buyers for the staggering debt of individual companies or whole countries. The bond traders, wearing greed and ambition and badges of honor, might well have swaggered straight from the pages of Bonfire of the Vanities . But for all their outrageous behavior, they were in fact presiding over enormous changes in the world economy. Lewis's job, simply described, was to transfer money, in the form of bonds, from those outside America who saved to those inside America who consumed. In doing so, he generated tens of millions of dollars for Salomon Brothers, and earned for himself a ringside seat on the greatest financial spectacle of the decade: the leveraging of America.
Liar's Poker: Rising Through The Wreckage On Wall Street (Hodder Great Reads Ser. #10)
by Michael LewisThe time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar's Poker. Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street's premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar's Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years--a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis's knowing and hilarious insider's account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.
Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street (25th Anniversary Edition) (Hodder Great Reads Ser.)
by Michael LewisThe time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar's Poker. Before there was Flash Boys and The Big Short, there was Liar's Poker. A knowing and unnervingly talented debut, this insider's account of 1980s Wall Street excess transformed Michael Lewis from a disillusioned bond salesman to the best-selling literary icon he is today. Together, the three books cover thirty years of endemic global corruption--perhaps the defining problem of our age--which has never been so hilariously skewered as in Liar's Poker, now in a twenty-fifth-anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author. It was wonderful to be young and working on Wall Street in the 1980s: never before had so many twenty-four-year-olds made so much money in so little time. After you learned the trick of it, all you had to do was pick up the phone and the money poured in your lap. This wickedly funny book endures as the best record we have of those heady, frenzied years. In it Lewis describes his own rake's progress through a powerful investment bank. From an unlikely beginning (art history at Princeton?) he rose in two short years from Salomon Brothers trainee to Geek (the lowest form of life on the trading floor) to Big Swinging Dick, the most dangerous beast in the jungle, a bond salesman who could turn over millions of dollars' worth of doubtful bonds with just one call. As he has continued to do for a quarter century, Michael Lewis here shows us how things really worked on Wall Street. In the Salomon training program a roomful of aspirants is stunned speechless by the vitriolic profanity of the Human Piranha; out on the trading floor, bond traders throw telephones at the heads of underlings and Salomon chairmen Gutfreund challenges his chief trader to a hand of liar's poker for one million dollars.
Liar's Poker: From the author of the Big Short
by Michael LewisThe original classic that revealed the truth about ambition, greed and excess in London and Wall Street, by the author of bestsellers THE BIG SHORT and THE PREMONITION. __________The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar's Poker.Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street's premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush.From mere trainee to lowly geek, to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis's pell-mell progress through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in New York and London during the heady mid-80s when they were probably the world's most powerful and profitable merchant bank.Funny, frightening, breathless and heartless, Liar's Poker is the original story of hysterical greed and excessive ambition, one that is now more potent and enthralling than ever.__________'If you thought Gordon Gekko of the Wall Street movie was an implausibly corrupt piece of fiction, see how you like the real thing. This rip-the-lid-off account of the bond-dealing brouhaha is the work of a real-life bond salesman.' The Sunday Times'So memorable and alive . . . one of those rare works that encapsulate and define an era.' Fortune'The funniest book on Wall Street I've ever read.' Tom Wolfe'Wickedly funny' Daily Express'Hilarious' New York Times
Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotten
by Laura Veirs Tatyana FazlalizadehElizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere—from the sunny beaches of California to the rolling hills of England—knew her music. This lyrical, loving picture book from popular singer-songwriter Laura Veirs and debut illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh tells the story of the determined, gifted, daring Elizabeth Cotten—one of the most celebrated American folk musicians of all time. Plus, this is the fixed format version, which looks almost identical to the print edition.
Libby Larsen: Composing an American Life
by Denise Von GlahnLibby Larsen has composed award-winning music performed around the world. Her works range from chamber pieces and song cycles to operas to large-scale works for orchestra and chorus. At the same time, she has advocated for living composers and new music since cofounding the American Composers Forum in 1973. Denise Von Glahn 's in-depth examination of Larsen merges traditional biography with a daring scholarly foray: an ethnography of one active artist. Drawing on musical analysis, the composer 's personal archive, and seven years of interviews with Larsen and those in her orbit, Von Glahn illuminates the polyphony of achievements that make up Larsen 's public and private lives. In considering Larsen 's musical impact, Von Glahn delves into how elements of the personal ”a 1950s childhood, spiritual seeking, love of nature, and status as an important woman artist ”inform her work. The result is a portrait of a musical pathfinder who continues to defy expectations and reject labels.
Liberace: An American Boy
by Darden Asbury PyronMore people watched his nationally syndicated television show between 1953 and 1955 than followed I Love Lucy. Even a decade after his death, the attendance records he set at Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl, and Radio City Music Hall still stand. Arguably the most popular entertainer of the twentieth century, this very public figure nonetheless kept more than a few secrets. Darden Asbury Pyron, author of the acclaimed and bestselling Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell, leads us through the life of America's foremost showman with his fresh, provocative, and definitive portrait of Liberace, an American boy. Liberace's career follows the trajectory of the classic American dream. Born in the Midwest to Polish-Italian immigrant parents, he was a child prodigy who, by the age of twenty, had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Abandoning the concert stage for the lucrative and glittery world of nightclubs, celebrities, and television, Liberace became America's most popular entertainer. While wildly successful and good natured outwardly, Liberace, Pyron reveals, was a complicated man whose political, social, and religious conservativism existed side-by-side with a lifetime of secretive homosexuality. Even so, his swishy persona belied an inner life of ferocious aggression and ambition. Pyron relates this private man to his public persona and places this remarkable life in the rapidly changing cultural landscape of twentieth-century America. Pyron presents Liberace's life as a metaphor, for both good and ill, of American culture, with its shopping malls and insatiable hunger for celebrity. In this fascinating biography, Pyron complicates and celebrates our image of the man for whom the streets were paved with gold lamé. "An entertaining and rewarding biography of the pianist and entertainer whose fans' adoration was equaled only by his critics' loathing. . . . [Pyron] persuasively argues that Liberace, thoroughly and rigorously trained, was a genuine musician as well as a brilliant showman. . . . [A]n immensely entertaining story that should be fascinating and pleasurable to anyone with an interest in American popular culture. "-Kirkus Reviews "This is a wonderful book, what biography ought to be and so seldom is. "-Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph "[A]bsorbing and insightful. . . . Pyron's interests are far-ranging and illuminating-from the influence of a Roman Catholic sensibility on Liberace and gay culture to the aesthetics of television and the social importance of self-improvement books in the 1950s. Finally, he achieves what many readers might consider impossible: a persuasive case for Liberace's life and times as the embodiment of an important cultural moment. "-Publishers Weekly "Liberace, coming on top of his amazing life of Margaret Mitchell, Southern Daughter, puts Darden Pyron in the very first rank of American biographers. His books are as exciting as the lives of his subjects. "-Tom Wolfe "Fascinating, thoughtful, exhaustive, and well-written, this book will serve as the standard biography of a complex icon of American popular culture. "-Library Journal
Liberace Extravaganza!
by Connie Furr Soloman Jan JewettKnown for his spectacular performances, the magnificent Wladziu Valentino Liberace was a world-renowned star in the entertainment industry for more than four decades, and his dazzling, often outrageous costumes are what made him most memorable. In Liberace Extravaganza! the entertainer's sequined, bejeweled, and rhinestone-studded outfits, as well as his extravagant collection of furs, feather capes, sparkling bow ties, and custom-made shoes are exhibited in book form for the very first time.These mesmerizing costumes grew from Liberace's humble beginnings when, as a young man, he would perform in his brother's hand-me-downs. From there, his suits, worth as much as twenty-four thousand dollars, featured layers of silk and satin ruffles, Swarovski crystal rhinestones, and fourteen-karat white-gold, diamond-encrusted buttons, culminating in his "electric" costumes with four thousand light bulbs weighing more than twenty-five pounds.Michael Travis, Liberace's principal designer, has written the foreword for this breathtaking volume. Jim Lapidus, another of Liberace's designers, furrier Anna Nateece, and Ray Arnett, his producer, have contributed original sketches used to design Liberace's costumes. The result is a book that is one of a kind: a celebration of the legendary performer and a visual feast of the most extraordinary costumes ever created.With more than 260 full-color photographs
The Liberal Education of Charles Eliot Norton
by James C. TurnerOriginally published in 1999. James Turner's biography offers the first modern account of Norton's life and its significance, following him from his perilous travels across India as a young merchant to his role as his country's preeminent cultural critic. Turner shows how Norton developed the key ideas that still underlie the humanities—historicism and culture—and how his influence endures in America's colleges and universities because of institutions he developed and models he devised.