- Table View
- List View
Who Wrote Shakespeare?
by James ShapiroThis ebook is an excerpt from Contested Will by James Shapiro, and originally appeared as the last section titled "Shakespeare." In this chapter, Shapiro succintly and eloquently makes the case for why no one else but Shakespeare could have written Shakespeare's plays.
The Whole Damn Deal: Robert Strauss and the Art of Politics
by Kathryn McgarrRobert S. Strauss was for many decades the quintessential Democratic power broker. Born to a poor Jewish family in West Texas, he founded the law firm that became Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and?while forever changing the nature of the Washington law firm?worked as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, special trade representative, ambassador to the Soviet Union and then Russia, and an advisor to presidents. As former first lady Barbara Bush wrote of Strauss in her memoir: ?He is absolutely the most amazing politician. He is everybodyOCOs friend and, if he chooses, could sell you the paper off your own wall. OCO But it isnOCOt the positions Strauss held that make his story fascinating; it is what he represented about the culture of Washington in his day. He was a master of the art of knowing everyone who mattered and getting things done. Based on exclusive access to Strauss, The Whole Damn Deal brings to life a vanished epoch of working behind the scenes, political deal making, and successful bipartisanship in Washington.
Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand
by John MarkoffTold by one of our greatest chroniclers of technology and society, the definitive biography of iconic serial visionary Stewart Brand, from the Merry Pranksters and the generation-defining Whole Earth Catalog to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism and the rise of a new planetary culture—the story behind so many other storiesStewart Brand has long been famous if you know who he is, but for many people outside the counterculture, early computing, or the environmental movement, he is perhaps best known for his famous mantra &“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.&” Steve Jobs&’s endorsement of these words as his code to live by is fitting; Brand has played many roles, but one of the most important is as a model for how to live. The contradictions are striking: A blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance, Brand went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran, but in California in the 1960s he became an artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the roof of his building, he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of the planet they shared from space, an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole Earth Catalog, the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture, which connected to a broader environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. At the same time, he has outraged purists because of his pragmatic embrace of useful technologies, including nuclear power, in the fight against climate change. The famous tagline promise of his catalog was &“Access to Tools&”; with rare exceptions he rejected politics for a focus on direct power. It was no wonder, then, that he was early to the promise of the computer revolution and helped define it for the wider world. Brand's life can be hard to fit onto one screen. John Markoff, also a great chronicler of tech culture, has done something extraordinary in unfolding the rich, twisting story of Brand&’s life against its proper landscape. As Markoff makes marvelously clear, the streams of individualism, respect for science, environmentalism, and Eastern and indigenous thought that flow through Brand&’s entire life form a powerful gestalt, a California state of mind that has a hegemonic power to this day. His way of thinking embraces a true planetary consciousness that may be the best hope we humans collectively have.
The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everthing Else
by Christopher R. BehaThis unique memoir of reading the classics to find strength and wisdom &“makes an elegant case for literature as an everyday companion&” (The New York Times Book Review). While undergoing a series of personal and family crises, Christopher R. Beha discovered that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics—the renowned &“five foot shelf&” of great world literature compiled in the early twentieth century by Charles William Eliot—to educate herself during the Great Depression. He decided to follow her example and turn to this series of great books for answers—and recounts the experience here in a smart, big-hearted, and inspirational mix of memoir and intellectual excursion that &“deftly illustrates how books can save one&’s life&” (Helen Schulman). &“As he grapples with the death of his beloved grandmother, a debilitating bout with Lyme disease and other major and minor calamities, Beha finds that writers as diverse as Wordsworth, Pascal, Kant and Mill had been there before, and that the results of their struggles to find meaning in life could inform his own.&” —The Seattle Times &“An important book [and] a sheer blast to read.&” —Heidi Julavits
The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens
by Paul MarianiA perceptive, enlightening biography of one the most important American poets of the twentieth century--Wallace Stevens--as seen through his lifelong quest to find and describe the sublime in the human experience.Wallace Stevens lived a richly imaginative life that found expression in his poetry. His philosophical questioning, spiritual depth, and brilliantly inventive use of language would be profound influences on poets as diverse as William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, and John Ashbery. The Whole Harmonium presents Stevens within the living context of his times, as well as the creator of a poetry which has had a profound and lasting impact on the modern imagination itself. Stevens established his career as an executive even as he wrote his poetry, becoming a vice president with an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut. His first and most influential book, Harmonium, was not published until he was forty-four years old. In these poems, Stevens drew on his interest in and understanding of modernism. Over time he became acquainted with the most accomplished of his contemporaries, Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams among them, but his personal style remained unique. He endured an increasingly unhappy marriage, losing himself by writing poetry in his study. Yet he had a witty, comic, and Dionysian side to his personality, including long fishing (and drinking) trips to Florida with his pals and a fascination with the sun-drenched tropics. People generally know two things about Wallace Stevens: that he is a "difficult" poet and that he was an insurance executive for most of his life. Stevens may be challenging to understand, but he is also greatly rewarding to read. Now, sixty years after Stevens's death, biographer and poet Paul Mariani shows how over the course of his life, Stevens sought out the ineffable and spiritual in human existence in his search for the sublime.
The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
by Gregory BoyleGregory Boyle, the beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir, returns with a call to witness the transformative power of tenderness, rooted in his lifetime of experience counseling gang members in Los Angeles. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention program in the world. Boyle&’s new book, The Whole Language, follows the acclaimed bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart, hailed as an &“astounding literary and spiritual feat&” (Publishers Weekly) that is &“destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality&” (Los Angeles Times), and Barking to the Choir, deemed &“a beautiful and important and soul-transporting book&” by Elizabeth Gilbert, and declared by Ann Patchett to be &“a book that shows what the platitudes of faith look like when they&’re put into action.&” In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, The Whole Language shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. When Saul was thirteen years old, he killed his abusive stepfather in self-defense; after spending twenty-three years in juvenile and adult jail, he enters the Homeboy Industries training and healing programs and embraces their mission. Declaring, &“I&’ve decided to grow up to be somebody I always needed as a child,&” Saul shows tenderness toward the young men in his former shoes, treating them all like his sons and helping them to find their way. Before coming to Homeboy Industries, a young man named Abel was shot thirty-three times, landing him in a coma for six months followed by a year and a half recuperating in the hospital. He now travels on speaking tours with Boyle and gives guided tours around the Homeboy offices. One day a new trainee joins Abel as a shadow, and Abel recognizes him as the young man who had put him in a coma. &“You give good tours,&” the trainee tells Abel. They both have embarked on a path to wholeness. Boyle&’s moving stories challenge our ideas about God and about people, providing a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and fewer barriers. Bursting with encouragement, humor, and hope, The Whole Language invites us to treat others—and ourselves—with acceptance and tenderness.
A Whole Lot of History
by Kimberley WalshIn 2002 - along with Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding and Nicola Roberts - Kimberley Walsh won a place in the Popstars The Rivals band Girls Aloud, and her life changed forever. Ten years later, after six platinum albums, twenty top-ten singles, a Brit Award, an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and a triumphant sell-out reunion tour, the girls have decided to go their separate ways. What better time for Kimberley - a professional, hardworking businesswoman as well as a multi-talented actress and songstress - to tell her story. What was it like behind the scenes of a such a hugely successful band? Was there any truth in the rumours of endless feuds within Girls Aloud? How did she manage to maintain such a strong loving relationship with her partner Justin during the 10 years she was in the band? And how does it feel when your best friend becomes the most famous person in the land? Full of the warmth and laughter that makes Kimberley such a national treasure, with lots of insider secrets revealed too, this book is like curling up on the sofa for a gossip with a friend. There is lots still to come from the UK's favourite Northern lass. Just watch this space.
A Whole Lot of History
by Kimberley WalshIn 2002 - along with Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding and Nicola Roberts - Kimberley Walsh won a place in the Popstars The Rivals band Girls Aloud, and her life changed forever. Ten years later, after six platinum albums, twenty top-ten singles, a Brit Award, an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and a triumphant sell-out reunion tour, the girls have decided to go their separate ways. What better time for Kimberley - a professional, hardworking businesswoman as well as a multi-talented actress and songstress - to tell her story. What was it like behind the scenes of a such a hugely successful band? Was there any truth in the rumours of endless feuds within Girls Aloud? How did she manage to maintain such a strong loving relationship with her partner Justin during the 10 years she was in the band? And how does it feel when your best friend becomes the most famous person in the land? Full of the warmth and laughter that makes Kimberley such a national treasure, with lots of insider secrets revealed too, this book is like curling up on the sofa for a gossip with a friend. There is lots still to come from the UK's favourite Northern lass. Just watch this space.
A Whole Lot of History
by Kimberley WalshIn 2002 - along with Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding and Nicola Roberts - Kimberley Walsh won a place in the Popstars The Rivals band Girls Aloud, and her life changed forever.Ten years later, after six platinum albums, twenty top-ten singles, a Brit Award, an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and a triumphant sell-out reunion tour, the girls have decided to go their separate ways. What better time for Kimberley - a professional, hardworking businesswoman as well as a multi-talented actress and songstress - to tell her story. What was it like behind the scenes of a such a hugely successful band? Was there any truth in the rumours of endless feuds within Girls Aloud? How did she manage to maintain such a strong loving relationship with her partner Justin during the 10 years she was in the band? And how does it feel when your best friend becomes the most famous person in the land? Full of the warmth and laughter that makes Kimberley such a national treasure, with lots of insider secrets revealed too, this book is like curling up on the sofa for a gossip with a friend. There is lots still to come from the UK's favourite Northern lass. Just watch this space.(P)2013 Headline Digital
Whole Lotta Led: Our Flight With Led Zeppelin
by Ralph Hulett Prochnicky JerryIn September 1968, four English lads gathered together for the first time in a small, stuffy London rehearsal room in a basement filled with wall-to-wall amplifiers. It was their first big tryout as musicians, and each of them was nervous. Would they come together as a band? Or would they crash and burn, becoming nothing but a rock footnote? Then the room exploded, with wailing chords, howling vocals, and a locked-tight rhythm section-a sonic assault of heretofore unknown power. Here for the first time was Led Zeppelin: the screaming rock guitar of Jimmy Page, the scorching blues vocals of Robert Plant, the driving jazz bass of John Paul Jones, and the power drumming of John Bonham. The session was amazing, electrifying, and stunning. The Zepp had arrived. There was no turning back. And rock entertainment would never be the same again. Told by the band, the musicians, the groupies, and the fans themselves, this chronicle of one of rock's greatest and most innovative bands comes alive with the hiss of turntables, the sweat of the crowd at the Fillmore East, the hustle and bustle of backstage life, and the electricity of small clubs where rock history was about to be made. It's a story about a band's influence on two impressionable guys, and the countless others who came to get the Led out and stayed to become part of rock 'n' roll legend. With exclusive and rare photos
Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin: The Illustrated History of the Heaviest Band of All Time
by Jon BreamThis second edition of the history of rock's heaviest band gives you even more reasons to rock!This all-star tribute features many of today's top rock journalists from Rolling Stone, CREEM, Billboard, and more, as well as reflections on the band from some of rock's greatest performers, including members of the Kinks, Aerosmith, Heart, Mott the Hoople, the Minutemen, the Hold Steady, and many more.Glorious concert and behind-the-scenes photography cover the band from the first shows in 1968 as the New Yardbirds through today. More than 450 rare concert posters, backstage passes, tickets, LPs and singles, t-shirts, buttons, and more illustrate the book. A discography and tour itinerary complete the package, making a book as epic as the band it documents.Created from the ashes of the Yardbirds by guitarist and session wizard Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin featured virtuoso bass player John Paul Jones, gonzo drummer John Bonham, and Robert Plant, a vocalist like no other before him. The band single-handedly defined what rock 'n' roll could be, leaving in their wake tales as tall or as real as we wanted them to be.All of that, plus exclusive commentary from Ray Davies of the Kinks, Steve Earle, Kid Rock, Ace Frehley of Kiss, Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, Lenny Kravitz, Dolly Parton, and many more make this book one that no fan of Led Zeppelin will want to miss!
A Whole New Life: An Illness and a Healing
by Reynolds PriceReynolds Price has long been one of America's most acclaimed and accomplished men of letters -- the author of novels, stories, poems, essays, plays, and a memoir. In A Whole New Life, however, he steps from behind that roster of achievements to present us with a more personal story, a narrative as intimate and compelling as any work of the imagination.In 1984, a large cancer was discovered in his spinal cord ("The tumor was pencil-thick and gray-colored, ten inches long from my neck-hair downward"). Here, for the first time, Price recounts without self-pity what became a long struggle to withstand and recover from this appalling, if all too common, affliction (one American in three will experience some from of cancer). He charts the first puzzling symptoms; the urgent surgery that fails to remove the growth and the radiation that temporarily arrests it (but hurries his loss of control of his lower body); the occasionally comic trials of rehab; the steady rise of severe pain and reliance on drugs; two further radical surgeries; the sustaining force of a certain religious vision; an eventual discovery of help from biofeedback and hypnosis; and the miraculous return of his powers as a writer in a new, active life.Beyond the particulars of pain and mortal illness, larger concerns surface here -- a determination to get on with the human interaction that is so much a part of this writer's much-loved work, the gratitude he feels toward kin and friends and some (though by no means all) doctors, the return to his prolific work, and the "now appalling, now astonishing grace of God."A Whole New Life offers more than the portrait of one brave person in tribulation; it offers honest insight, realistic encouragement and inspiration to others who suffer the bafflement of catastrophic illness or who know someone who does or will.
Whole Of A Morning Sky
by Grace Nichols'There is something holy about Georgetown at dusk. The Atlantic curling the shoreline . . .' It is 1960 and the Walcotts are moving into the city from the village of Highdam. School headmaster Archie Walcott knows that he will miss the openness of pastureland; his wife, Clara, the women and their nourishing 'womantalk and roots magic; and Gem, their daughter, her loved jamoon and mango trees. Their move into the rough and tumble Charlestown neighbourhood couldn't have come at a worse time, for the serenity of the city is exploded by political upheavals in the country's struggle for independence. Undercover moves - CIA-backed and supported by Britain attempt to bring down the Marxist government. Along with the sweep of events - strikes, riots, and racial dashes - daily life in the Charlestown yard and beyond gathers its own intensity. Archie's friend, Conrad, seeing and knowing all, moves with ease among the opposing groups, monocle to his eye, white mice in his pockets; through one terrible night the neighbourhood tenses as the Ramsammy's rum shop is threatened with burning; and Archie, troubled by the times, tries to keep a tight rein on his family. Young Gem, ever-watchful, responds with wonderment and curiosity to the new life around her. In this, her first adult novel, Grace Nichols richly and imaginatively evokes a world that was part of her own Guyanese childhood.
Whole Of A Morning Sky
by Grace Nichols'There is something holy about Georgetown at dusk. The Atlantic curling the shoreline . . .' It is 1960 and the Walcotts are moving into the city from the village of Highdam. School headmaster Archie Walcott knows that he will miss the openness of pastureland; his wife, Clara, the women and their nourishing 'womantalk and roots magic; and Gem, their daughter, her loved jamoon and mango trees. Their move into the rough and tumble Charlestown neighbourhood couldn't have come at a worse time, for the serenity of the city is exploded by political upheavals in the country's struggle for independence. Undercover moves - CIA-backed and supported by Britain attempt to bring down the Marxist government. Along with the sweep of events - strikes, riots, and racial dashes - daily life in the Charlestown yard and beyond gathers its Own intensity, Archie's friend, Conrad, seeing and knowing all, moves with ease among the opposing groups, monocle to his eye, white mice in his pockets; through one terrible night the neighbourhood tenses as the Ramsammy's rum shop is threatened with burning; and Archie, troubled by the times, tries to keep a tight rein on his family. Young Gem, ever-watchful, responds with wonderment and curiosity to the new life around her. In this, her first adult novel, Grace Nichols richly and imaginatively evokes a world that was part of her own Guyanese childhood.
The Whole Staggering Mystery: A Story of Fathers Lost and Found
by Sylvia BrownriggSylvia Brownrigg's &“wise, intimate, and deliciously entertaining memoir" (Carol Edgarian) reconstructs a poignant story of fathers lost and foundWhen Sylvia Brownrigg received a package addressed to her father that had been lost for over fifty years, she wanted to deliver it to him before it was too late. She did not expect that her father, Nick, would choose not to open it. A few years later, she and her brother finally did.Nick, an absent father, was a would-be writer and back-to-the-lander who lived off the grid in Northern California. Nick&’s own father, Gawen—also absent—had been a wellborn Englishman who wrote a Bloomsbury-like novel about lesbian lovers, before moving to Kenya and ultimately dying a mysterious death at age twenty-seven. Brownrigg was told Gawen had likely died by suicide.Reconstructing Gawen&’s short, colorful life from revelations in the package takes her through glamorous 1930s London and staid Pasadena, toward the last gasp of the British Empire in Kenya, and from there, deep into the California redwoods, where Nick later carved out a rugged path in the wilderness, keeping his English past at bay. Vividly weaving together the lives of her father and grandfather, through memory and imagination, Brownrigg explores issues of sexuality and silences, and childhoods fractured by divorce. In her uncovering of this lost family, she writes movingly of daughterhood and of parenthood, gradually making her own story whole.
The Whole Tooth: Stories from The Singing Dentist guaranteed to make your smile better
by Dr Milad ShadroohGet ready to be entertained and educated by Dr Milad Shadrooh, the UK's most celebrated dentist and YouTube sensation.Milad will have you alternately astounded and rolling with laughter as he drills down into the grisly details, touching on everything from the fascinating history of dentistry to the surprising secrets of life as a dentist. He confronts the fear that people associate with dental treatment and dispels the myths, while giving tips on how to create the perfect smile.So sit back, put on your safety goggles and prepare for the best trip to the dentist you've ever had.
The Whole Tooth: Stories from The Singing Dentist guaranteed to make your smile better
by Dr Milad ShadroohGet ready to be entertained and educated by Dr Milad Shadrooh, the UK's most celebrated dentist and YouTube sensation.Milad will have you alternately astounded and rolling with laughter as he drills down into the grisly details, touching on everything from the fascinating history of dentistry to the surprising secrets of life as a dentist. He confronts the fear that people associate with dental treatment and dispels the myths, while giving tips on how to create the perfect smile.So sit back, put on your safety goggles and prepare for the best trip to the dentist you've ever had.
The Whole Truth and Nothing But (Classics To Go)
by Hedda HopperFrom the dawn of the studio system to the decade it all came crashing down, Hedda Hopper was one of the Queens of Hollywood. Although she made her name as a star of the silent screen, she found her calling as a gossip columnist, where she had the ear of the most powerful force in show business: the public. With a readership of 20,000,000 people, Hopper turned nobodies into stars, and brought stars to their knees. And in this sensational memoir, she tells all. (Goodreads)
The Whole Works Of ... Jeremy Taylor: With A Life Of The Author And A Critical Examination Of His Writings By R. Heber...
by Jeremy Taylor Reginald HeberThe Whole Works Of ... Jeremy Taylor, With A Life Of The Author And A Critical Examination Of His Writings By R. Heber...
A Whole World: Letters from James Merrill
by James MerrillThe selected correspondence of the brilliant poet, one of the twentieth century's last great letter writers."I don't keep a journal, not after the first week," James Merrill asserted in a letter while on a trip around the world. "Letters have got to bear all the burden." A vivacious correspondent, whether abroad, where avid curiosity and fond memory frequently took him, or at home, he wrote eagerly and often, to family and lifelong friends, American and Greek lovers, confidants in literature and art about everything that mattered--aesthetics, opera and painting, housekeeping and cooking, the comedy of social life, the mysteries of the Ouija board and the spirit world, and psychological and moral dilemmas--in funny, dashing, unrevised missives, composed to entertain himself as well as his recipients. On a personal nemesis: "the ambivalence I live with. It worries me less and less. It becomes the very stuff of my art"; on a lunch for Wallace Stevens given by Blanche Knopf: "It had been decided by one and all that nothing but small talk would be allowed"; on romance in his late fifties: "I must stop acting like an orphan gobbling cookies in fear of the plate's being taken away"; on great books: "they burn us like radium, with their decisiveness, their terrible understanding of what happens." Merrill's daily chronicle of love and loss is unfettered, self-critical, full of good gossip, and attuned to the wicked irony, the poignant detail--a natural extension of the great poet's voice.
Whom God Wishes to Destroy…: Francis Coppola and the New Hollywood
by Jon LewisIn March 1980 Francis Coppola purchased the dilapidated Hollywood General Studios facility with the hope and dream of creating a radically new kind of studio, one that would revolutionize filmmaking, challenge the established studio machinery, and, most importantly, allow him to make movies as he wished. With this event at the center of Whom God Wishes to Destroy, Jon Lewis offers a behind-the-scenes view of Coppola's struggle--that of the industry's best-known auteur--against the changing realities of the New Hollywood of the 1980s. Presenting a Hollywood history steeped in the trade news, rumor, and gossip that propel the industry, Lewis unfolds a lesson about power, ownership, and the role of the auteur in the American cinema. From before the success of The Godfather to the eventual triumph of Apocalypse Now, through the critical upheaval of the 1980s with movies like Rumble Fish, Hammett, Peggy Sue Got Married, to the 1990s and the making of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, Francis Coppola's career becomes the lens through which Lewis examines the nature of making movies and doing business in Hollywood today.
Whoopi Goldberg: Comedian and Movie Star
by William CaperExamines the life and career of the versatile actress and comedian who overcame a drug addiction and became the first black female Academy Award winner since 1939.
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions
by Chris BartonA cool idea with a big splash You know the Super Soaker. It&’s one of top twenty toys of all time. And it was invented entirely by accident. Trying to create a new cooling system for rockets, impressive inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy. A love for rockets, robots, inventions, and a mind for creativity began early in Lonnie Johnson&’s life. Growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters, persistence and a passion for problem solving became the cornerstone for a career as an engineer and his work with NASA. But it is his invention of the Super Soaker water gun that has made his most memorable splash with kids and adults.
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-soaking Stream Of Inventions
by Chris Barton Don TateA cool idea with a big splash. You know the Super Soaker. It's one of top twenty toys of all time. And it was invented entirely by accident. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, impressive inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy. A love for rockets, robots, inventions, and a mind for creativity began early in Lonnie Johnson's life. Growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters, persistence and a passion for problem solving became the cornerstone for a career as an engineer and his work with NASA. But it is his invention of the Super Soaker water gun that has made his most memorable splash with kids and adults.
Whoosh!
by Chris Barton Don TateYou know the Super Soaker. It’s one of top twenty toys of all time. And it was invented entirely by accident. Trying to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, impressive inventor Lonnie Johnson instead created the mechanics for the iconic toy. A love for rockets, robots, inventions, and a mind for creativity began early in Lonnie Johnson’s life. Growing up in a house full of brothers and sisters, persistence and a passion for problem solving became the cornerstone for a career as an engineer and his work with NASA. But it is his invention of the Super Soaker water gun that has made his most memorable splash with kids and adults.