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Mozart: A Life In Letters
by Wolfgang Amadeus MozartA selection of Mozart's letters, translated into English, complete with notes, linking commentary and chronology.
Mozart: Boy Wonder
by Marcia Amidon LustedWolfgang Amadeus Mozart had amazing talent at a very young age, forever changing the idea of what a child prodigy was.
Mozart: The Man Revealed
by John SuchetThe illustrated life-story of the world’s most beloved composer, bringing vividly to life the man himself, his influences, achievements, and the glittering milieu of the Habsburg empire in eighteenth-century Europe. We think we know the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's life. Austrian-born to a tyrannical father who worked him fiercely; unhappily married to a spendthrift woman; a child-like character ill at ease amid the aristocratic splendor of the Viennese court; a musical genius who died young thus depriving the world of future glories. Yet only that last point is actually true. In this comprehensive biography, John Suchet examines the many myths and misunderstandings surrounding the world's best-loved composer. From his early days as a child prodigy performing for the imperial royal family in Vienna to the last months of his short life, driven to exhaustion by a punitive workload, one thing remained constant: his happy disposition. Through trials and tribulations, grand successes and disheartening setbacks, Suchet shows us the real Mozart—blessed with an abundance of talent yet sometimes struggling to earn a living. His mischievous nature and earthy sense of humor, his ease and confidence in his own incredible abilities; these were traits that never left him. His music has brought comfort to countless generations; his life, though brief, is no less fascinating.
Mozart: The Reign of Love
by Jan SwaffordFrom the acclaimed composer and biographer Jan Swafford comes the definitive biography of one of the most lauded musical geniuses in history, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.At the earliest ages it was apparent that Wolfgang Mozart’s singular imagination was at work in every direction. He hated to be bored and hated to be idle, and through his life he responded to these threats with a repertoire of antidotes mental and physical. Whether in his rabidly obscene mode or not, Mozart was always hilarious. He went at every piece of his life, and perhaps most notably his social life, with tremendous gusto. His circle of friends and patrons was wide, encompassing anyone who appealed to his boundless appetites for music and all things pleasurable and fun.Mozart was known to be an inexplicable force of nature who could rise from a luminous improvisation at the keyboard to a leap over the furniture. He was forever drumming on things, tapping his feet, jabbering away, but who could grasp your hand and look at you with a profound, searching, and melancholy look in his blue eyes. Even in company there was often an air about Mozart of being not quite there. It was as if he lived onstage and off simultaneously, a character in life’s tragicomedy but also outside of it watching, studying, gathering material for the fabric of his art.Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: a man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls of Spain
by Bill HillmannWith a journalist's ear for detail, master-storyteller "Buffalo" Bill Hillmann narrates his decade-long journey of self-discovery, exploring his transformation from wasted ex-Golden Gloves champ lost in street brawls and cocaine deals on the Chicago streets to running with a world-renowned crew of mozos, masters in the art of running with the bulls. Includes a first-hand account of his infamous goring.
Mr Brown's War: A Diary from the Home Front
by Helen D MillgateRichard Brown kept a personal diary throughout the whole of the Second World War. He used it to record the course of the conflict as he perceived it, gleaned from the newspapers, the wireless and hearsay. As well as describing the development of the war, Brown captured a vivid image of life in wartime Britain, with rationing, blackout restrictions, interrupted sleep, the prospect of evacuation and the enormous burden placed on civilians coping with a full-time job as well as war work. Richard Brown was a well-informed man who made his own judgements. His attitude to the war is fascinating, as he never doubts ultimate victory, despite being impatient and critical of the conduct of the war. His observations range from the pithy to the humorous and scathing. Above all, his diaries reflect the moral and social attitudes of the period, and the desire to be fully involved in the war effort. They also totally refute the argument that the British public were kept in the dark.
Mr Charlotte Brontë: The Life of Arthur Bell Nicholls
by Alan H. AdamsonAlan Adamson's biography takes recent scholarship into account and adds new material about Nicholl's family, education, and early life in Ireland to give a more balanced view. The book explores why Brontë, cool and often hostile towards Nicholls in the early days of his curacy at Haworth, came to respect and love him, and how Patrick Brontë, her difficult father, grew to rely on him after her death.
Mr Eternity: The Story of Arthur Stace
by Roy Williams Elizabeth MeyersAlmost every day for 35 years, Arthur Stace spent hours writing a single word – Eternity – on and around the streets of Sydney. Sometimes his mission took him much further afield, to country New South Wales and even to Melbourne.Stace’s identity was a mystery for more than two decades. Then, after his ‘unmasking’ in 1956, he became a reluctant folk hero. By the time he died, in 1967, his was a household name and the word Eternity was ingrained in the soul of Sydney. It still is.In this long-awaited biography, the full story of Arthur Stace’s life is told for the first time in vivid and often surprising detail. Drawing upon many original sources, some never before made public, this book will engross Christians and non-believers alike – anyone who loves a great Australian story.
Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man
by Dylan JonesA witty, stylish and indispensable guide to being a modern man. It is tough being a man in the twenty-first century. First there are the big dilemmas, like how to get a pay rise and how to suck up to your boss. Then there are the minor irritations: how do you beat jet-lag, and how do you stop your trousers sliding off their hangers? And finally there are all those things you ought to know, but don't: how to jump-start a car, how to buy lingerie, how to stop smoking, how to tie a Windsor Knot, how to behave at a lap-dancing club ... the list is endless. Fear not. In Mr Jones Rules, the highly respected editor of GQ magazine, draws on his wealth of experience to give the final answer to these questions and more. It will be the must-have present for every husband, boyfriend and son this Christmas.
Mr Jones' Rules for the Modern Man
by Dylan JonesA witty, stylish and indispensable guide to being a modern man. It is tough being a man in the twenty-first century. First there are the big dilemmas, like how to get a pay rise and how to suck up to your boss. Then there are the minor irritations: how do you beat jet-lag, and how do you stop your trousers sliding off their hangers? And finally there are all those things you ought to know, but don't: how to jump-start a car, how to buy lingerie, how to stop smoking, how to tie a Windsor Knot, how to behave at a lap-dancing club ... the list is endless. Fear not. In Mr Jones Rules, the highly respected editor of GQ magazine, draws on his wealth of experience to give the final answer to these questions and more. It will be the must-have present for every husband, boyfriend and son this Christmas.
Mr Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder
by John WatersNo one knows more about everything - especially everything rude, clever, and offensively compelling - than John Waters. The man in the pencil-thin mustache, auteur of the transgressive movie classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, the original Hairspray, Cry-Baby, and A Dirty Shame, is one of the world's great sophisticates, and in Mr. Know-It-All he serves it up raw: how to fail upward in Hollywood; how to develop musical taste from Nervous Norvus to Maria Callas; how to build a home so ugly and trendy that no one but you would dare live in it; more important, how to tell someone you love them without emotional risk; and yes, how to cheat death itself. Through it all, Waters swears by one undeniable truth: "Whatever you might have heard, there is absolutely no downside to being famous. None at all."Studded with cameos of Waters's stars, from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracey Ullman, and illustrated with unseen photos from Waters's personal collection, Mr. Know-It-All is Waters's most hypnotically readable, upsetting, revelatory book - another instant Waters classic.'Waters doesn't kowtow to the received wisdom, he flips it the bird . . . [Waters] has the ability to show humanity at its most ridiculous and make that funny rather than repellent' Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post'Carsick becomes a portrait not just of America's desolate freeway nodes - though they're brilliantly evoked - but of American fame itself' Lawrence Osborne, The New York Times Book Review
Mr Midshipman VC: The Short Accident-Prone Life of George Drewry, Gallipoli Hero
by Quentin FalkOf the thirty-nine Gallipoli Victoria Crosses arguably none was more deserved than the medal earned by George Leslie Drewry.At just 20, he was the first officer of the Royal Naval Reserve to get the nations premier award for valour when part of the landing on V Beach at Cape Helles. In so doing he was badly wounded.Accident-prone, he survived falling into a bog as a child; he was knocked over by a car; as a novice merchantman he fell from the mast of his ship and on another occasion was shipwrecked after rounding Cape Horn and stranded on a deserted island.Tragically he died at Scapa Flow shortly before the end of The Great War, while in command of his first ship.Using contemporary sources, the author brings Drewrys life into sharp focus and describes the role of Snotty as midshipmen were then known. The result will appeal to addicts of real-life adventure and military historians
Mr Midshipman VC: The Short Accident-Prone Life of George Drewry, Gallipoli Hero
by Quentin FalkOf the thirty-nine Gallipoli Victoria Crosses arguably none was more deserved than the medal earned by George Leslie Drewry.At just 20, he was the first officer of the Royal Naval Reserve to get the nations premier award for valour when part of the landing on V Beach at Cape Helles. In so doing he was badly wounded.Accident-prone, he survived falling into a bog as a child; he was knocked over by a car; as a novice merchantman he fell from the mast of his ship and on another occasion was shipwrecked after rounding Cape Horn and stranded on a deserted island.Tragically he died at Scapa Flow shortly before the end of The Great War, while in command of his first ship.Using contemporary sources, the author brings Drewrys life into sharp focus and describes the role of Snotty as midshipmen were then known. The result will appeal to addicts of real-life adventure and military historians
Mr Nice & Mrs Marks: - Adventures with Howard
by Judy Marks'I have long wanted to write a book about my life and the extraordinary years I spent with my husband Howard Marks. I feel now is the time. I want to write it from a woman's perspective and describe what it was like to be married to such a charismatic drug smuggler.' Judy MarksHoward Marks's story has passed into hippie folklore. At one time, the world's then most wanted man had 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 registered companies. Thanks to the technical brilliance of his networking skills, it was estimated that he was trafficking as much as a tenth of all the marijuana smoked in the world. But this is only half the story. Intimately involved throughout was Marks's wife Judy. From living the high life hobnobbing with movie stars and euro trash to mixing it with the IRA and CIA, then the long, increasingly desperate years on the run, Mr Nice and Mrs Marks is about the exhilaration of their criminal life and the hell of not knowing what's happening when your husband stops telling you the truth. Now, for the first time, Judy tells her own side of the tale.
Mr Nice: An Autobiography
by Howard MarksThis candid crime memoir by Britain&’s most famous drug baron is &“frequently hilarious, occasionally sad, and often surreal&” (GQ). During the mid-1980s Howard Marks had 43 aliases, 89 phone lines, and owned 25 companies throughout the world. From local bars to recording studios to offshore banks—all of his &“businesses&” were in fact money laundering vehicles serving his one true business: dope dealing. Marks began dealing small amounts of hashish while doing a postgraduate philosophy course at Oxford, but soon he was moving much larger quantities. At the height of his career he was smuggling consignments of up to fifty tons from Pakistan and Thailand to America and Canada and had contact with organizations as diverse as MI6, the CIA, the IRA, and the Mafia. This is his extraordinary story. &“A folk legend.&”—Daily Mail, UK &“A racy yarn with plenty of globe-trotting color.&”—The Independent, UK
Mr Selfridge
by Lindy WoodheadIn 1909, the largest department store in London's West End, designed and built from scratch, opened in Oxford Street in a glorious burst of publicity. The mastermind behind the façade was American retail genius Harry Gordon Selfridge: maverick businessman, risk-taker, dandy and one of the greatest showmen the retail world has ever known. His talents were to create the seduction of shopping, and as his success and fame grew, so did his glittering lifestyle: mansions, yachts, gambling, racehorses - and mistresses. From the glamour of Edwardian England, through the turmoil of the Great War and the heady excesses of the 1920s and beyond, Selfridges Department Store was 'a theatre with the curtain going up at 9 o'clock each morning'. Mr Selfridge reveals the captivating story of the rise and fall of the man who revolutionised the way we shop. The third series of Mr Selfridge will air on ITV in January 2015. 'Lively and entertaining' Sunday Telegraph'Will change your view of shopping forever' Vogue'Harry Selfridge revolutionised the way we shop . . . fascinating' Daily Mail
Mr Snack and the Lady Water: Travel Tales From My Lost Years
by Brendan ShanahanAfter a decade spent on the road, renowned travel writer Brendan Shanahan is back with Mr Snack and the Lady Water, a collection of darkly funny and unexpected travel writing. In the title piece, Shanahan embarks on what is supposed to be a luxury cruise, only to find himself on a three-day endurance test aboard a leaking barge on China's Yangtze River in the company of a mysterious roommate, a pair of neurotic American spinsters and a thousand baseball-capped tourists. Other stories include his sight-unseen, online purchase of a house in Las Vegas, his brief career in Bollywood and a meditation on white guilt in post-apartheid South Africa. Road-soiled and a touch deviant, Shanahan's account of his 'lost years' are a comic master class, essential reading for anyone who has ever woken up in a strange bed or just stared at themselves in a hotel mirror at 3 am and asked 'Where am I?'
Mr Struth: The Boss
by David Mason Ian StewartBill Struth is the most celebrated Manager in the history of Rangers Football Club. In his 34 year tenure, he led the club to 30 major trophies and nurtured many of the club's greatest players. To them, he was simply 'Mr. Struth' - a father figure who guided them with the principle that, '... to be a Ranger is to sense the sacred trust of upholding all that such a name means in this shrine of football.'If these words set the ideals for his players to attain, his own personal life was clouded by moments of indiscretion which were to influence the course of his life and career. Drawing on family accounts and Rangers archives, the book explores his early life in Edinburgh and Fife, as well as his celebrated years in Glasgow. It recounts his career in professional athletics and in football with Heart of Midlothian, Clyde and ultimately, Rangers. It reflects on the legacy of the Struth era and his influences that remain at Ibrox today.
Mr Struth: The Boss
by David Mason Ian StewartBill Struth is the most celebrated Manager in the history of Rangers Football Club. In his 34 year tenure, he led the club to 30 major trophies and nurtured many of the club's greatest players. To them, he was simply 'Mr. Struth' - a father figure who guided them with the principle that, '... to be a Ranger is to sense the sacred trust of upholding all that such a name means in this shrine of football.'If these words set the ideals for his players to attain, his own personal life was clouded by moments of indiscretion which were to influence the course of his life and career. Drawing on family accounts and Rangers archives, the book explores his early life in Edinburgh and Fife, as well as his celebrated years in Glasgow. It recounts his career in professional athletics and in football with Heart of Midlothian, Clyde and ultimately, Rangers. It reflects on the legacy of the Struth era and his influences that remain at Ibrox today.
Mr. Adams's Last Crusade: John Quincy Adams's Extraordinary Post-Presidential Life in Congress
by Joseph WheelanWhen John Quincy Adams?the sixty-three-year-old former president, U. S. senator, secretary of state, and diplomat?was elected to the House of Representatives by his Massachusetts neighbors, he embarked on a spectacular late-life career. He became CongressOCOs most acerbic and influential critic of slavery as well as a tireless proponent for human freedoms and First Amendment rights. This remarkable congressional career utterly transformed him, the publicOCOs perception of him, and his legacy?in many ways redeeming his failed presidency. "Mr. AdamsOCOs Last Crusade" renders an insightful portrait of a man who placed his country above politics. "
Mr. Ambassador: Warrior for Peace
by Edward J. Perkins Connie CronleyThis book is about an inspirational Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, his life and career as the first black ambassador in apartheid South Africa, and various other accomplishments during his tenure which has left lasting impressions and tremendous impact on other diplomats.
Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet
by Mark Adams“A remarkable story. . . . It is to Mark Adams’s great credit that, in Mr. America, he has rescued from obscurity a man whose influence is still felt in this country more than a century after he muscled his way onto the national scene.” —Wall Street Journal“Hilarious. . . . Delightful. . . . If Macfadden hadn’t existed, we would have had to invent him.” —Washington Post Mr. America is the fascinating true story of Bernarr Macfadden, a self-made millionaire and founding father of bodybuilding, alternative medicine, and tabloid culture. Madfadden’s impact on popular American culture is everywhere, from yoga to raw food diets to US Weekly, and Mr. America vividly brings to life this charismatic and intriguing character.
Mr. Associated Press: Kent Cooper and the Twentieth-Century World of News (The History of Media and Communication)
by Gene AllenBetween 1925 and 1951, Kent Cooper transformed the Associated Press, making it the world’s dominant news agency while changing the kind of journalism that millions of readers in the United States and other countries relied on. Gene Allen’s biography is a globe-spanning account of how Cooper led and reshaped the most important institution in American--and eventually international--journalism in the mid-twentieth century. Allen critically assesses the many new approaches and causes that Cooper championed: introducing celebrity news and colorful features to a service previously known for stodgy reliability, pushing through disruptive technological innovations like the instantaneous transmission of news photos, and leading a crusade to bring American-style press freedom--inseparable from private ownership, in Cooper’s view--to every country. His insistence on truthfulness and impartiality presents a sharp contrast to much of today’s fractured journalistic landscape. Deeply researched and engagingly written, Mr. Associated Press traces Cooper’s career as he built a new foundation for the modern AP and shaped the twentieth-century world of news.
Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century
by Jennifer Homans&“A fascinating read about a true genius and his unrelenting thirst for beauty in art and in life.&”—MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOVBased on a decade of unprecedented research, the first major biography of George Balanchine, a broad-canvas portrait set against the backdrop of the tumultuous century that shaped the man The New York Times called &“the Shakespeare of dancing&”—from the bestselling author of Apollo&’s AngelsArguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—The New York Times called him &“the Shakespeare of dancing.&” His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine&’s tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.Balanchine&’s life intersected with some of the biggest historical events of his century. Born in Russia under the last czar, Balanchine experienced the upheavals of World War I, the Russian Revolution, exile, World War II, and the Cold War. A co-founder of the New York City Ballet, he pressed ballet in America to the forefront of modernism and made it a popular art. None of this was easy, and we see his loneliness and failures, his five marriages—all to dancers—and many loves. We follow his bouts of ill health and spiritual crises, and learn of his profound musical skills and sensibility and his immense determination to make some of the most glorious, strange, and beautiful dances ever to grace the modern stage.With full access to Balanchine&’s papers and many of his dancers, Jennifer Homans, the dance critic for The New Yorker and a former dancer herself, has spent more than a decade researching Balanchine&’s life and times to write a vast history of the twentieth century through the lens of one of its greatest artists: the definitive biography of the man his dancers called Mr. B.