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The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet: A Memoir (American Lives)
by Kim AdrianClear-sighted, darkly comic, and tender, The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet is about a daughter’s struggle to face the Medusa of generational trauma without turning to stone. Growing up in the New Jersey suburbs of the 1970s and 1980s in a family warped by mental illness, addiction, and violence, Kim Adrian spent her childhood ducking for cover from an alcoholic father prone to terrifying acts of rage and trudging through a fog of confusion with her mother, a suicidal incest survivor hooked on prescription drugs. Family memories were buried—even as they were formed—and truth was obscured by lies and fantasies. In The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the Alphabet Adrian tries to make peace with this troubled past by cataloguing memories, anecdotes, and bits of family lore in the form of a glossary. But within this strategic reckoning of the past, the unruly present carves an unpredictable path as Adrian’s aging mother plunges into ever-deeper realms of drug-fueled paranoia. Ultimately, the glossary’s imposed order serves less to organize emotional chaos than to expose difficult but necessary truths, such as the fact that some problems simply can’t be solved, and that loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean saving them.
Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zapruder Film
by Alexandra ZapruderThe moving, untold family story behind Abraham Zapruder's film footage of the Kennedy assassination and its lasting impact on our world. Abraham Zapruder didn't know when he began filming President Kennedy's motorcade on November 22, 1963 that his home movie would change not only his family's life but American culture and history, as well. Now his granddaughter tells the whole story of the Zapruder film for the first time. With the help of personal family records, previously sealed archival sources, and interviews, she traces the film's complex journey through history, considering its impact on her family and the public realms of the media, courts, Federal government, and the arts community. Part biography, part family history, and part historical narrative, Zapruder shows how 26 seconds of film changed a family and raised some of the most important social, cultural, and moral questions of our time.
Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music
by David N. MeyerBorn to a wealthy Southern-Gothic family of alcoholics and suicides, Gram Parsons possessed a genius for the American sound. He led the Byrds to create the first country-rock album and taught the joys of American roots music to Mick Jagger. His album, Grievous Angel, remains a haunting masterpiece, but before it was released, Parsons, aged twenty-six, died from a lethal mix of morphine and barbiturates. Author David N. Meyer paints an unprecedented portrait of the man who brought together country music and rock and roll. Masterfully told, Twenty Thousand Roadsis a dazzling evocation of an artist, his music and his times.
Twenty Thousand Roads: Women, Movement, and the West
by Virginia ScharffA stirring look at Western history from the perspective of mobile, questing women. By showing how women did not merely domesticate the West, Scharff gives us a new vision: along with men conquering the vast plains we see how women mapped, named, fought over, challenged and changed the frontier.
Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
by Patrick Hamilton'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.The Midnight Bell, a pub on the Euston Road, is the pulse of this brilliant and compassionate trilogy. It is here where the barman, Bob, falls in love with Jenny, a West End prostitute who comes in off the streets for a gin and pep. Around his obsessions, and Ella the barmaid's secret love for him, swirls the sleazy life of London in the 1930s. This is a world where people emerge from cheap lodgings in Pimlico to pour out their passions, hopes and despair in pubs and bars - a world of twenty thousand streets full of cruelty and kindness, comedy and pathos, wasted dreams and lost desires.
Twenty-two Cents: Muhammad Yunus and the Village Bank
by Paula YooA biography of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who revolutionized global antipoverty efforts by developing the innovative economic concept of micro-lending.Growing up in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus witnessed extreme poverty all around and was determined to eradicate it. In 1976, as an Economics professor, Muhammad met a young craftswoman in the village of Jobra who needed to borrow five taka (twenty-two cents) to buy materials. No bank would lend such a small amount to an uneducated woman, so she was forced to borrow from corrupt lenders who charged an unfair interest rate, and left her without enough profit to buy food. Muhammad realized that what stood in the way of her financial security was just a few cents. Inspired, Muhammad founded Grameen Bank where people could borrow small amounts of money to start a job, and then pay back the bank without exorbitant interest charges. Over the next few years, Muhammad's compassion and determination changed the lives of millions of people by loaning the equivalent of more than ten billion US dollars in micro-credit. This has also served to advocate and empower the poor, especially women, who often have limited options. Twenty-two Cents is an inspiring story of economic innovation and a celebration of how one person-like one small loan-can make a positive difference in the lives of many.
Twenty-Two Months Under Fire [Illustrated Edition]
by Brig.-General Henry Page Croft C.M.G. M.P.Includes the First World War Illustrations Pack - 73 battle plans and diagrams and 198 photos"Reminiscences of a TA officer of the 1st Hertfordshire who served 22 months in France as company and battalion commander and finally brigade commander.When war broke out the author, a TA major, was commanding C Company of the 1st Battalion the Hertfordshire Regiment, a TA regiment. In January 1915 he succeeded to command of the battalion and in February 1916 he was appointed commander of the 68th Brigade, a position he held for the next six months, one of the few TA officers to have command of a brigade. So this story is of one who saw active service on the Western Front as a company, battalion and brigade commander in the space of twenty-two months. He was also MP for Christchurch from 1910 to 1918 and Bournemouth from 1918 to 1940 in which year he was created Baron of Bournemouth. The battalion landed in France on 6 November 1914 and a fortnight later joined the 4th Guards Brigade in 2nd Division and stayed with it till the Guards Division was formed in August 1915, when it was transferred to the 6th Brigade, still in 2nd Division. The time spent with the Guards Brigade had rubbed off on the battalion -- the author refers to them as the 'Herts Guards', perhaps with a touch of self-importance. There was plenty of action during this first year described in a series of short chapters, culminating in Croft's last action as a CO, the Battle of Loos; four months later he took over 68th Brigade in 23rd Division and the second part of the book is an account of this command."-Print ed.
Twenty Wagging Tales: Our Year of Rehoming Orphaned Dogs
by Barrie HawkinsAfter losing his beloved dog, Elsa, Barry can't face replacing her. When he accepts a rescue worker's proposal to become a dog foster parent he doesn’t realise what he is letting himself in for. This heart-warming collection of true furry tales follows the highs and lows of Barrie and his wife as they take on the challenge of rescuing dogs.
Twenty Wagging Tales: Our Year of Rehoming Orphaned Dogs
by Barrie HawkinsAfter losing his beloved dog, Elsa, Barry can't face replacing her. When he accepts a rescue worker's proposal to become a dog foster parent he doesn’t realise what he is letting himself in for. This heart-warming collection of true furry tales follows the highs and lows of Barrie and his wife as they take on the challenge of rescuing dogs.
Twenty Years as Military Attaché
by Col. Thomas Bentley MottA memoir written by Colonel T. Bentley Mott, reflecting on his time as a U.S. military attaché, serving in France, among other locales, and relating personal anecdotes about many early 20th century military and political figures, including Admiral Dewey, General Merritt, Czar Nicholas, Theodore Roosevelt, Pershing and others.Mott served the United States in various capacities during the Spanish-American War and World War I.
Twenty Years at Hull House
by Jane AddamsThe classic memoir of one of the Progressive Era’s most important reformers and social activists. If it is natural to feed the hungry . . . it is certainly natural to give pleasure to the young, comfort to the aged, and to minister to the deep-seated craving for social intercourse that all men feel. In 1889, Jane Addams and her partner, Ellen Starr, opened the first settlement house in the United States. On Chicago’s West Side, Hull House was devoted to the city’s poor and forgotten, from immigrants and unwed mothers to the elderly, homeless, and hungry. Its charter proclaimed its mission “to provide a center for higher civic and social life, to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago.” In Twenty Years at Hull House, Addams chronicles her revolutionary work from its conception in the Gilded Age through the dawn of the Progressive Era. A cofounder of the American Civil Liberties Union and the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Addams devoted her life to realizing a more noble vision of democracy. More than a personal memoir, Twenty Years at Hull-House is a landmark document of social theory and political history. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes (Prairie State Books)
by Jane AddamsPublished in 1910, this was Addams's most successful book; 80,000 copies were sold before her death in 1935. This annotated edition was issued on the occasion of the Hull-House centennial. "Twenty Years at Hull-House is an indispensable classic of American intellectual and social history, and remains a rich source of provocative social theory. Jane Addams was both an activist of courage and 'a thinker of originality and daring.' Her life and writings exemplify the integration of social thought and action. Addams and her associates at Hull-House had wide-ranging influence not only on the key reform movements of their time but also on major currents of philosophical, sociological, and political thought. Filled with careful empirical observations, reflections on everyday life, accounts of practical action, and prescriptions for public policy, this small volume also embodies such important theoretical contributions as 'The Necessity of Social Settlement,' 'A Decade of Economic Discussion,' 'Tolstoyism,' and 'Problems of Poverty.' Long acclaimed for its autobiographical and historical value, Twenty Years at Hull-House should be read today as much for its enduring insights, critical analyses, and persuasive vision."--Bernice A. Carroll, editor of Liberating Women's History: Theoretical and Critical Essays
Twenty Years at Hull House; with Autobiographical Notes
by Jane AddamsWhile on a trip to East London in 1883, Jane Addams witnessed a distressing scene late one night: masses of poor people were bidding on rotten vegetables that were unsalable anywhere else. <P> <P> Their pale faces were dominated by that most unlovely of human expressions, the cunning and shrewdness of the bargain-hunter who starves if he cannot make a successful trade, and yet the final impression was not of ragged, tawdry clothing nor of pinched and sallow faces, but of myriads of hands, empty, pathetic, nerveless, and workworn, showing white in the uncertain light of the street, and clutching forward for food which was already unfit to eat. <P> <P> This scene haunted Addams for the next two years as she traveled through Europe, and she hoped to find a way to ease such suffering. Five years later, she visited Toynbee Hall, a London settlement house, and resolved to replicate the experiment in the U.S. On September 18, 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr moved into the second floor of a rundown mansion in Chicago's West Side. From the outset, they imagined Hull-House as a "center for a higher civic and social life" in the industrial districts of the city. Addams, Starr, and several like-minded individuals lived and worked among the poor, establishing (among other things) art classes, discussion groups, cooperatives, a kindergarten, a coffee house, a lending library, and a gymnasium. In a time when many well-to-do Americans were beginning to feel threatened by immigrants, Hull-House embraced them, showed them the true meaning of democracy, and served as a center for philanthropic efforts throughout Chicago. <P> <P> Hull-House also provided an outlet for the energies of the first generation of female college graduates, who were educated for work yet prevented from doing it. In some respects, however, Addams's impressive work, often hailed by historians as "revolutionary," was nothing of the sort. She embraced the sexual stereotypes of her day, and, though she was clearly an independent woman, soothed public fears by acting primarily in the traditional roles of nurturer and caregiver. Hull-House was a rousing success, and it inspired others to follow in Addams's footsteps. Though Twenty Years at Hull-House is meant to be an autobiography, it is Hull-House itself that stands in the spotlight. Addams devotes the first third of the book to her upbringing and influences, but the remainder focuses on the organization she built--and the benefits accruing to those who work with the poor as well as to the poor themselves. At times Addams's prose is difficult to follow, but her ideals and her actions are truly inspiring. A classic work of history--and a model for today's would-be philanthropists. --Sunny Delaney
Twenty Years on the Pacific Slope: Letters of Henry Eno from California and Nevada, 1848-1871
by Turrentine Jackson Henry EnoThe Henry Eno letters from California and Nevada have been described as "one of the most interesting group of letters to have appeared in some years."* Twenty years of travel took Eno to out-of-the-way places on the Pacific Slope about which there is a dearth of information. His story is not merely another account or diary of the gold-rush era; it is even more closely related to the events on the West Coast after this period of high excitement was past. Eno's initial years were spent at Mokelumne Hill, a thriving mining camp, where professional men and politicians who were later to gain great prominence and success in the state of California were among his friends and associates. Here Henry Eno, like many men who came to the West in search of gold, became a small-time entrepreneur, was victimized by forces largely beyond his control, was wiped out financially, and forced to turn to other means of making a living.
Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging
by Julie Ryan McGueJulie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers—which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their adoptive parents aren&’t happy that their daughters want to locate their birth parents—and that is only the first of many obstacles Julie will come up against as she digs into her background. Julie&’s search for her birth relatives spans eight years and involves a search agency, a PI, a confidential intermediary, a judge, an adoption agency, a social worker, and a genealogist. By journey&’s end, what began as a simple desire for a family medical history has evolved into a complicated quest—one that unearths secrets, lies, and family members that are literally right next door.
Twice Adopted: An Important Social Commentator Speaks to the Cultural Ailments Threatening America Today
by Michael ReaganMichael Reagan's life is much more than just an interesting story. It is a testimony of how Christ allowed him to find healing from many of the issues that confront our culture today, such as sexual abuse, divorce, loneliness, the feeling of rejection, and the belief that God does not care about us. Michael Reagan's first adoption gave him an identity, but he did not find his true identity until he found Christ. In this book, Mike Reagan shows how others can meet a God who loves them, and who wants to embrace them and bring them healing, salvation, and meaning to life.
Twice As Hard: Navigating Black Stereotypes And Creating Space For Success
by Raphael Sofoluke Opeyemi SofolukeAn inspirational book about what it means to be Black in the working world, with practical steps on how to overcome prejudice to find successThis book is an exercise in building your network. We've spoken to over 40 successful business people to help you gain from their advice and create space for your own personal growth. Twice As Hard is an exploration of Black identity in the working world and a blueprint for success. You will learn what obstacles limit opportunity for Black professional progress, how to understand and overcome racial stereotypes, be productive, find purpose, and ultimately thrive in business.Authors Opeyemi and Raphael Sofoluke explore their own personal brand of ethics, the challenges they have faced in their careers, and the learnings they took from them, before inviting other successful business people in a broad range of industries to share their experiences and the practical measures they take to realise their goals, too. Featuring tips on entrepreneurship, as well as insights on the corporate world, this book aims to empower and inspire Black professionals, get everyone thinking and talking about their actions, and continue the fight for a truly inclusive, understanding society.
Twice Born: Memoirs of an Adopted Daughter
by Betty Jean LiftonIn this book, Betty Jean Lifton tells her own story of growing up at a time when adoptees were still in the closet. Twice Born recounts her early struggle with the loneliness and isolation of not knowing her birth parents; her identification, as a journalist in the Far East, with the orphans left behind by American soldiers in Japan and Vietnam; and the guilt she experiences over what feels like a betrayal of her adopted parents as she sets off on a forbidden quest to find her roots.
The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges
by Aatish TaseerIn The Twice-Born, Aatish Taseer embarks on a journey of self-discovery in an intoxicating, unsettling personal reckoning with modern India, where ancient customs collide with the contemporary politics of revivalism and revengeWhen Aatish Taseer first came to Benares, the spiritual capital of Hinduism, he was eighteen, the Westernized child of an Indian journalist and a Pakistani politician, raised among the intellectual and cultural elite of New Delhi. Nearly two decades later, Taseer leaves his life in Manhattan to go in search of the Brahmins, wanting to understand his own estrangement from India through their ties to tradition.Known as the twice-born—first into the flesh, and again when initiated into their vocation—the Brahmins are a caste devoted to sacred learning. But what Taseer finds in Benares, the holy city of death also known as Varanasi, is a window on an India as internally fractured as his own continent-bridging identity. At every turn, the seductive, homogenizing force of modernity collides with the insistent presence of the past. In a globalized world, to be modern is to renounce India—and yet the tide of nationalism is rising, heralded by cries of “Victory to Mother India!” and an outbreak of anti-Muslim violence.From the narrow streets of the temple town to a Modi rally in Delhi, among the blossoming cotton trees and the bathers and burning corpses of the Ganges, Taseer struggles to reconcile magic with reason, faith in tradition with hope for the future and the brutalities of the caste system, all the while challenging his own myths about himself, his past, and his countries old and new.
Twilight
by Henry Grunwald Mark G. AckermannIn 1992, when Henry Grunwald missed a glass into which he was pouring water, he assumed that he needed new eyeglasses, not that the incident was a harbinger of darker times. But in fact Grunwald was entering the early stages of macular degeneration -- a gradual loss of sight that affects almost 15 million Americans yet remains poorly understood and is, so far, incurable. Now, in Twilight, Grunwald chronicles his experience of disability: the clouding of his sight, and the daily struggle to overcome its physical and psychological implications; the discovery of what medicine can and cannot do to restore sight; his compulsion to understand how the eye works, its evolution, and its symbolic meaning in culture and art. Grunwald gives us an autobiography of the eye -- his visual awakening as a child and young man, and again as an older man who, facing the loss of sight, feels a growing wonder at the most ordinary acts of seeing. This is a story not merely about seeing but about living; not merely about losing sight but about gaining insight. It is a remarkable meditation.
Twilight at Monticello
by Alan Pell CrawfordTwilight at Monticello is something entirely new: an unprecedented and engrossing personal look at the intimate Jefferson in his final years that will change the way readers think about this true American icon. It was during these years-from his return to Monticello in 1809 after two terms as president until his death in 1826-that Jefferson's idealism would be most severely, and heartbreakingly, tested.Based on new research and documents culled from the Library of Congress, the Virginia Historical Society, and other special collections, including hitherto unexamined letters from family, friends, and Monticello neighbors, Alan Pell Crawford paints an authoritative and deeply moving portrait of Thomas Jefferson as private citizen-the first original depiction of the man in more than a generation.tizen-the first original depiction of the man in more than a generation. Here, told with grace and masterly detail, is Jefferson with his family at Monticello, dealing with illness and the indignities wrought by early-nineteenth-century medicine; coping with massive debt and the immense costs associated with running a grand residence; navigating public disputes and mediating family squabbles; receiving dignitaries and correspondingwith close friends, including John Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, and other heroes from the Revolution. Enmeshed as he was in these affairs during his final years, Jefferson was still a viable political force, advising his son-in-law Thomas Randolph during his terms as Virginia governor, helping the administration of his good friend President James Madison during the "internal improvements" controversy, and establishing the first wholly secular American institution of higher learning, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. We also see Jefferson's views on slavery evolve, along with his awareness of the costs to civil harmony exacted by the Founding Fathers' failure to effectively reconcile slaveholding within a republic dedicated to liberty.Right up until his death on the fiftieth anniversary of America's founding, Thomas Jefferson remained an indispensable man, albeit a supremely human one. And it is precisely that figure Alan Pell Crawford introduces to us in the revelatory Twilight at Monticello.'Crawford (Thunder on the Right) offers his own equally compelling look, in this case at Jefferson's life, post-presidency, from 1809 until his death in 1826. Then a private citizen, Jefferson was burdened by financial and personal and political struggles within his extended family. His beloved estate, Monticello, was costly to maintain and Jefferson was in debt. Newly studying primary sources, Crawford thoroughly conveys the pathos of Jefferson's last years, even as he successfully established the University of Virginia (America's first wholly secular university) and maintained contact with James Madison, John Adams, and other luminaries. He personally struggled with political, moral, and religious issues; Crawford shows us a complex, self-contradictory, idealistic, yet tragic figure, helpless to stabilize his family and finances. Historians and informed readers alike will find much to relish in both of these distinctive works of original scholarship. Both are recommended for academic and large public libraries.-Library Journal"In "Twilight at Monticello," Alan Pell Crawford treats his subject with grace and sympathetic understanding, and with keen penetration as well, showing the great man's contradictions (and hypocrisies) for what they were."-Wall Street Journal"Like all people, famous or almost unknown, Jefferson was a mass of contradictions. Crawford explores them masterfully, thus indeed presenting a new Jefferson for a new generation."-Houston Chronicle"...a worthy addition to the already enormous body of Thomas Jefferson scholarship. Crawford did his homework well, using literally dozens of sources to give us an unvarnished picture of the human side of one of America's greatest leaders in an entertaining, fast-moving narrative. You might never loom at Monticello in quite the same way again ...
Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War
by James MauroThe summer of 1939 was an epic turning point for America a brief window between the Great Depression and World War II. It was the last season of unbridled hope for peace and prosperity; by Labor Day, the Nazis were in Poland. And nothing would come to symbolize this transformation from acute optimism to fear and dread more than the 1939 New York World's Fair. A glorious vision of the future, the Fair introduced television, the fax machine, nylon, and fluorescent lights. The World of Tomorrow, as it was called, was a dream city built upon a notorious garbage dump The Great Gatsby's infamous ash heaps. Yet these lofty dreams would come crashing down to earth in just two years. From the fair's opening on a stormy spring day, everything that could go wrong did: not just freakish weather but power failures and bomb threats. Amid the drama of the World's Fair, four men would struggle against the coming global violence. Albert Einstein, a lifelong pacifist, would come to question his beliefs as never before. From his summer home on Long Island, he signed a series of letters to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic bomb an act he would later recall as the one great mistake in my life. Grover Whalen, the Fair's president, struggled in vain to win over dictators Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin, believing that his utopian vision had the power to stop their madness. And two New York City police detectives, Joe Lynch and Freddy Socha, who had been assigned to investigate a series of bomb threats and explosions that had terrorized the city for months, would have a rendezvous with destiny at the Fair: During the summer of 1940, in a chilling preview of things to come, terrorism would arrive on American shores and the grounds of the World's Fair. Yet behind this tragic tableau is a story as incredible as it is inspiring. With a colorful cast of supporting characters including Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, and FDR Twilight at the World of Tomorrow is narrative nonfiction at its finest, a gripping true-life drama that not only illuminates a forgotten episode of the nation's past but shines a probing light upon its present and its future.
Twilight Man: Love and Ruin in the Shadows of Hollywood and the Clark Empire
by Liz Brown&“In Twilight Man, Liz Brown uncovers a noir fairytale, a new glimpse into the opulent Gilded Age empire of the Clark family.&” —Bill Dedman, co-author of The New York Times bestseller Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune The unbelievable true story of Harrison Post--the enigmatic lover of one of the richest men in 1920s Hollywood--and the battle for a family fortune.In the booming 1920s, William Andrews Clark Jr. was one of the richest, most respected men in Los Angeles. The son of the mining tycoon known as "The Copper King of Montana," Clark launched the Los Angeles Philharmonic and helped create the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a man with secrets, including a lover named Harrison Post. A former salesclerk, Post enjoyed a lavish existence among Hollywood elites, but the men's money--and their homosexuality--made them targets, for the district attorney, their employees and, in Post's case, his own family. When Clark died suddenly, Harrison Post inherited a substantial fortune--and a wealth of trouble. From Prohibition-era Hollywood to Nazi prison camps to Mexico City nightclubs, Twilight Man tells the story of an illicit love and the battle over a family estate that would destroy one man's life. Harrison Post was forgotten for decades, but after a chance encounter with his portrait, Liz Brown, Clark's great-grandniece, set out to learn his story. Twilight Man is more than just a biography. It is an exploration of how families shape their own legacies, and the lengths they will go in order to do so.
Twilight of Empire: The Tragedy at Mayerling and the End of the Habsburgs
by Greg King Penny WilsonOn a snowy January morning in 1889, a worried servant hacked open a locked door at the remote hunting lodge deep in the Vienna Woods. Inside, he found two bodies sprawled on an ornate bed, blood oozing from their mouths. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary appeared to have shot his seventeen-year-old mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera as she slept, sat with the corpse for hours and, when dawn broke, turned the pistol on himself.A century has transformed this bloody scene into romantic tragedy: star-crossed lovers who preferred death together than to be parted by a cold, unfeeling Viennese Court. But Mayerling is also the story of family secrets: incestuous relationships and mental instability; blackmail, venereal disease, and political treason; and a disillusioned, morphine-addicted Crown Prince and a naïve schoolgirl caught up in a dangerous and deadly waltz inside a decaying empire. What happened in that locked room remains one of history’s most evocative mysteries: What led Rudolf and mistress to this desperate act? Was it really a suicide pact? Or did something far more disturbing take place at that remote hunting lodge and result in murder?Drawing interviews with members of the Habsburg family and archival sources in Vienna, Greg King and Penny Wilson reconstruct this historical mystery, laying out evidence and information long ignored that conclusively refutes the romantic myth and the conspiracy stories.
The Twilight of Imperial Russia (Galaxy Book; Gb419 Ser.)
by Richard CharquesThe fateful twenty-three years following the accession of the last of the Romanov Tsars formed the prologue to the Russian Revolution, and foreshadowed the motives and mental attitudes of Russian policy today. Richard Charques's detailed, vivid, and objective account of the reign of Nicholas II is based upon a wide study of Russian and other sources. It is given particular force and liveliness by the portrait gallery of the leading figures of the period; Nicholas II, the Tsaritsa Alexandra, Constantine Pobedonostsev, Sergius Witte, Lenin, Trotsky, Premier Stolypin, Miluikov, and Rasputin."Striking phrases, fine judgments, flashes of deep perception, flicker through these pages, illuminating the sad, sombre story, which Mr. Charques is not afraid to extend, by implication, into the present."--Observer (London)"Informative and well written, and the story of the last phase of the Romanovs is...movingly told."--New Statesman (London)"Mr. Charques writes with great lucidity and elegance; he has also unusual discernment, a healthy sense of historical reality, and a penetrating mind...Scrupulously fair."--Times Educational Supplement (London)"An uncommonly good book about the decline and fall of the Russian empire--lucid, incisive, well balanced, and extremely well written."--Chicago Sunday Tribune