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Willie Nelson: An Epic Life
by Joe Nick PatoskiFrom his first performance at age four, Willie Nelson was driven to make music and live life on his own terms. But though he is a songwriter of exceptional depth - "Crazy" was one of his early classics - Willie only found success after abandoning Nashville and moving to Austin, Texas.Red Headed Stranger made country cool to a new generation of fans. Wanted: The Outlaws became the first country album to sell a million copies. And "On the Road Again" became the anthem for Americans on the move. A craggy-faced, pot-smoking philosopher, Willie Nelson is one of America's great iconoclasts and idols.Now Joe Nick Patoski draws on over 100 interviews with Willie and his family, band, and friends to tell Nelson's story, from humble Depression-era roots, to his musical education in Texas honky-tonks and his flirtations with whiskey, women, and weed; from his triumph with #1 hit "Always On My Mind" to his nearly career-ending battles with debt and the IRS; and his ultimate redemption and ascension to American hero
Willie Nelson: The Outlaw
by Graeme ThomsonIn this intimate and engaging biography, Graeme Thomson interviews Nelson himself, his band and those who knew him best en route to discovering the real Willie Nelson. The Outlaw brilliantly describes a complex and compelling man whose life and music reflect something fundamental at the heart of twentieth-century America. Thomson's revealing portrait is a timely reminder of the stature and achievements of a true living legend. Covering everything from dirt poor beginnings in Texas, global fame in the 70s, four marriages, the death of a son and affairs with Amy Irving and Candice Bergen up to his current position as a 73-year-old pot smoking man of the road, Thomson's account emerges as the first detailed, clear-eyed account of Nelson's fascinating life.
Willie Wells: "El Diablo" of the Negro Leagues
by Bob LukeWillie Wells was arguably the best shortstop of his generation. As Monte Irvin, a teammate and fellow Hall of Fame player, writes in his foreword, "Wells really could do it all. He was one of the slickest fielding shortstops ever to come along. He had speed on the bases. He hit with power and consistency. He was among the most durable players I've ever known. " Yet few people have heard of the feisty ballplayer nicknamed "El Diablo. " Willie Wells was black, and he played long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Bob Luke has sifted through the spotty statistics, interviewed Negro League players and historians, and combed the yellowed letters and newspaper accounts of Wells's life to draw the most complete portrait yet of an important baseball player. Wells's baseball career lasted thirty years and included seasons in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. He played against white all-stars as well as Negro League greats Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O'Neill, among others. He was beaned so many times that he became the first modern player to wear a batting helmet. As an older player and coach, he mentored some of the first black major leaguers, including Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe. Willie Wells truly deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bob Luke details how the lingering effects of segregation hindered black players, including those better known than Wells, long after the policy officially ended. Fortunately, Willie Wells had the talent and tenacity to take on anything-from segregation to inside fastballs-life threw at him. No wonder he needed a helmet.
Willie Wells: "El Diablo" of the Negro Leagues
by Bob LukeThe first complete biography of an important Negro League baseball player from Austin, Texas.Willie Wells was arguably the best shortstop of his generation. As Monte Irvin, a teammate and fellow Hall of Fame player, writes in his foreword, &“Wells really could do it all. He was one of the slickest fielding shortstops ever to come along. He had speed on the bases. He hit with power and consistency. He was among the most durable players I&’ve ever known.&” Yet few people have heard of the feisty ballplayer nicknamed &“El Diablo.&” Willie Wells was black, and he played long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball&’s color barrier. Bob Luke has sifted through the spotty statistics, interviewed Negro League players and historians, and combed the yellowed letters and newspaper accounts of Wells&’s life to draw the most complete portrait yet of an important baseball player.Wells&’s baseball career lasted thirty years and included seasons in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. He played against white all-stars as well as Negro League greats Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O&’Neill, among others. He was beaned so many times that he became the first modern player to wear a batting helmet.As an older player and coach, he mentored some of the first black major leaguers, including Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe. Willie Wells truly deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bob Luke details how the lingering effects of segregation hindered black players, including those better known than Wells, long after the policy officially ended. Fortunately, Willie Wells had the talent and tenacity to take on anything—from segregation to inside fastballs—life threw at him. No wonder he needed a helmet.&“Willie Wells: &“El Diablo&” of the Negro Leagues is well researched and well written, so the average baseball fan should find it to be an entertaining read.&” —Dale Petroskey, president, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum &“The story of Willie Wells opens another window on the conditions and constraints of Jim Crow America, and how painfully difficult it can be, even now, to remedy the persistent effects of discrimination. Every baseball fan will love this story. Every American should read it.&” —Ira Glasser, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union, 1978-2001&“Reconstructing, indeed resurrecting, the career of a peripatetic Negro League baseball player is a daunting task. Negro and Major League great Monte Irvin tells us that his fellow Hall of Famer, shortstop Willie Wells, belongs on the same baseball page as Gibson, DiMaggio, Paige, and Feller. This fine biography by Bob Luke does a wonderful job in telling us why and how that is the case. We have here a Hall of Fame telling of the story of a true Hall of Famer.&” —Lawrence Hogan, author of Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African American Baseball
Willie's Game: An Autobiography
by Stanley Cohen Willie MosconiAmerica's greatest professional billiards player tells the story of his legendary life and career--from his days as a child prodigy to his record-breaking run of world championships Willie Mosconi's father never wanted him to play billiards. At night, the boy would lie awake listening to the clatter of balls downstairs in the family pool hall, and when his father wasn't around, he would climb onto an apple crate to practice his shots. When his dad started locking up the balls and cue, young Willie improvised with potatoes and a broom handle. By the time he was 7 years old, he was good enough to play against Ralph Greenleaf in a match billed as "The Child Prodigy vs. The World Champion." It was the start of a magnificent career that would include an unprecedented 15 world championships and the record for most consecutive balls run without a miss: 526. Nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards," Mosconi was instrumental in popularizing pool in America, serving as a consultant for iconic films such as The Hustler and The Color of Money and facing off against the famed hustler Minnesota Fats in 2 celebrated matches. Cowritten with journalist Stanley Cohen, Willie's Game is the colorful, captivating autobiography of an illustrious champion who lifted his sport to new heights and played by one simple rule: If you don't miss, you don't have to worry about anything else.
Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever
by Brian FairbanksThe tragic and inspiring story of the leaders of Outlaw country and their influence on today&’s Alt-County and Americana superstars, tracing a path from Waylon Jennings&’ survival on the Day the Music Died through to the Highwaymen and on to the current creative and commercial explosion of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell, and the Highwomen. On February 2, 1959, Waylon Jennings, bassist for his best friend, the rock star Buddy Holly, gave up his seat on a charter flight. Jennings joked that he hoped the plane, leaving without him, would crash. When it did, killing all aboard, on "the Day the Music Died," he was devastated and never fully recovered. Jennings switched to playing country, creating the Outlaw movement and later forming the Highwaymen supergroup, the first in country music, with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. The foursome battled addiction, record companies, ex-wives, violent fans, and the I.R.S. and D.E.A., en route to unprecedented mainstream success. Today, their acolytes Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Sturgill Simpson, and Taylor Swift outsell all challengers, and country is the most popular of all genres. In this fascinating new book, Brian Fairbanks draws a line from Buddy Holly through the Outlaw stars of the 60s and 70s, all the way to the country headliners and more diverse, up-and-coming Nashville rebels of today, bringing the reader deep into the worlds of not only Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson, and Jennings but artists like Chris Stapleton, Simpson, Bingham, and Isbell, stadium-filling masters whose stories have not been told in book form, as well as new, diverse artists like the Highwomen, Brittney Spencer, and Allison Russell. Thought-provoking and meticulously researched, Willie, Waylon, and the Boys ultimately shows how a twenty-one-year-old bass-playing plane crash survivor helped changed the course of American music.
Willie: The Game-Changing Story of the NHL's First Black Player (Nhl Ser.)
by Michael McKinley Willie O'ReeAn inspiring memoir that shows that anyone can achieve their dreams if they are willing to fight for them.In 1958, Willie O'Ree was a lot like any other player toiling in the minors. He was good. Good enough to have been signed by the Boston Bruins. Just not quite good enough to play in the NHL.Until January 18 of that year. O'Ree was finally called up, and when he stepped out onto the ice against the Montreal Canadians, not only did he fulfil the childhood dream he shared with so many other Canadian kids, he did something that had never been done before. He broke hockey's colour barrier. Just as his hero, Jackie Robinson, had done for baseball.In that pioneering first NHL game, O'Ree proved that no one could stop him from being a hockey player. But he soon learned that he could never be just a hockey player. He would always be a black player, with all that entails. There were ugly name-calling and stick-swinging incidents, and nights when the Bruins had to be escorted to their bus by the police. But O'Ree never backed down. When he retired in 1979, he had played hundreds of games as a pro, and scored hundreds of goals, his boyhood dreams more than accomplished.In 2018, O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in recognition not only of that legacy, but of the way he has built on it in the decades since. He has been, for twenty years now, an NHL Executive and has helped the NHL Diversity program expose more than 40,000 boys and girls of diverse backgrounds to unique hockey experiences. Inspiring, frank, and shot through with the kind of understated courage and decency required to change the world, Willie is a story for anyone willing to persevere for a dream.
Willie: The Life of Willie Morris
by Teresa NicholasIn 2000, readers voted Willie Morris (1934–1999) Mississippi's favorite nonfiction author of the millennium. After conducting over fifty interviews and combing through over eighty boxes of papers in the archives at the University of Mississippi, many of which had never been seen before by researchers, Teresa Nicholas provides new perspectives on a Mississippi writer and editor who changed journalism and redefined what being southern could mean. More than fifty photographs—some published here for the first time, including several by renowned photographer David Rae Morris, Willie's son—enhance the exploration. From an early age, Willie demonstrated a talent for words. At the University of Texas at Austin, he became a controversial editor of the Daily Texan. He later studied history as a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, England, but by 1960 he was back in Austin, working as editor for the highly regarded Texas Observer. In 1967 Willie became the youngest editor of the nation's oldest magazine, Harper's. His autobiography, North Toward Home, achieved critical as well as artistic success, and it would continue to inspire legions of readers for decades to come. In the final tally, he published hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, along with twenty-three books. His work covered the gamut from fiction to nonfiction, for both adults and children, often touching on the personal as well as the historical and the topical, and always presented in his lyrical prose. In 1980, he returned to his home state as writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi. In 1990, he married his editor at the University Press of Mississippi, JoAnne Prichard, and they made a home in Jackson. With his broad knowledge of history, his sensitivity, and his bone-deep understanding of the South, he became a celebrated spokesman for and interpreter of the place he loved.
Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression
by Nana-Ama DanquahThe first book to focus on Black women and depression, through the author’s “absorbing and inspirational” (Washington Post) personal journey. When Nana-Ama Danquah, a twenty-two-year-old single mother, began to suffer from a variety of depressive symptoms after giving birth to her daughter, she thought she was going crazy. Determined to portray strength in a world that often undervalues Black women’s lives, she shrouded her debilitating despair in silence and denial. But when she befriends other Black women who suffer with depression, she finds the support she needs to confront the traumatic childhood events that lie beneath her grief. Twenty-five years after its initial publication, as best-selling author Andrew Solomon writes in an illuminating foreword, Willow Weep for Me “remains a brave book . . . but at the time of its writing it was humblingly audacious.” Also including an afterword from the author, this groundbreaking classic is a powerful meditation on courage and a litany for survival. “An important and moving memoir. [Danquah] describes beautifully her experiences with depression.” —Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind
Willow in a Storm
by Kathy Murphy Taylor James Peter TaylorWritten in a stark, unsentimental style, this compelling memoir shows how one man survived a seemingly impossible existence. As a child, "Jimmy Pete" was repeatedly abused by his adoptive father and family acquaintances. He married young, had a daughter, drifted into crime and ultimately killed a banker accidentally in a botched robbery.Jailed for four decades, Taylor didn't join a gang. Instead, though heterosexual, he adopted a traditionally female role, depending on men for protection and ultimately becoming so comfortable as a woman that he considered changing his sex.Taylor colors his surprising story with vivid anecdotes, never shying away from the sexual and physical violence endemic to prison. The victim of attacks that left him blind and brain-impaired, he nonetheless finds the spiritual safety valve that filigrees this remarkable book, learning to live by "bending like the willow."
Willy Ley: Prophet of the Space Age
by Jared S. Buss"Beautifully written. Reveals the vicissitudes of an extraordinarily interesting life."--Michael J. Neufeld, author of Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War "Willy Ley has been a mystery among spaceflight historians for many years. His role as science writer, advocate, and popularizer is known to many but understood by few. This book unpacks that story."--Roger D. Launius, associate director of collections and curatorial affairs, National Air and Space Museum "Ley lit the fire of interplanetary enthusiasm in the hearts of generations of young space cadets. Long overdue, this biography establishes the details and the ups and downs of his career."--Tom D. Crouch, author of Lighter Than Air: An Illustrated History of Balloons and Airships "Beyond recovering the fascinating and many contradictory aspects of Ley's extraordinary life, Buss has provided a valuable case study of the complex relationship between science popularization, mass media, and scientific advocacy in the twentieth century."--Asif A. Siddiqi, author of The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857-1957 Willy Ley inspired young rocket scientists and would-be astronauts around the world to imagine a future of interplanetary travel long before space shuttles existed. This is the first biography of the science writer and rocketeer who predicted and boosted the rise of the Space Age. Born in Germany, Ley became involved in amateur rocketry until the field was taken over by the Nazis. He fled to America, where he forged a new life as a weapons expert and journalist during World War II and as a rocket researcher after the war. As America's foremost authority on rockets, missiles, and space travel, he authored books and scientific articles, while also regularly writing for science fiction pulp magazines and publishing what he termed romantic zoology--a blend of zoology, cryptozoology, history, and mythology. He even consulted for television's Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and the Disney program Man in Space, thrilling audiences with a romanticized view of what spaceflight would be like. Yet as astronauts took center stage and scientific intellectuals such as Wernher von Braun became influential during the space race, Ley lost his celebrity status. With an old-fashioned style of popular writing and eccentric perspectives influenced by romanticism and science fiction, he was ignored by younger historians. This book returns Willy Ley to his rightful place as the energizer of an era--a time when scientists and science popularizers mixed ranks and shared the spotlight so that our far-fetched, fantastic dreams could turn into the reality of tomorrow. Jared S. Buss is adjunct professor of history at Oklahoma City Community College.
Wilma Rudolph
by Meryl Henderson Jo HarperThe inspiring story of American track-and-field athlete Wilma Rudolph, who overcame childhood polio to win three Olympic gold medals, is told. Illustrations.
Wilma Rudolph
by Victoria SherrowA biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.
Wilma Rudolph
by Wayne CoffeyThis Olympic star overcame extraordinary adversity, including crippling polio, to become the fastest woman in the world by 1960.
Wilma Rudolph: Olympic Runner
by Jo HarperThe story of American track-and-field athlete Wilma Rudolph, who overcame childhood polio to win three Olympic gold medals, is told.
Wilma Rudolph: The Greatest Woman Sprinter in History (African-American Biographies)
by Anne SchraffWhen Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was the fastest woman in the world. Yet this amazing runner had spent much of her childhood unable to walk because of polio. Throughout her life, Rudolph never let public racism or personal hardships get in the way of her dreams. Harnessing the same determination that made her a great athlete, Rudolph went on to use her celebrity to help others. In this fast-paced, inspiring biography, author Anne Schraff tells the story of a world-class sports legend who considered her work with young people to be her most important legacy. Book jacket.
Wilma Rudolph: Walk, Run, Win (Fountas & Pinnell Classroom, Guided Reading Grade 2)
by Alice Cary Jani OrbanNIMAC-sourced textbook
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became The World's Fastest Woman
by Kathleen KrullBefore Wilma was five years old, polio had paralyzed her left leg. Everyone said she would never walk again. But Wilma refused to believe it. Not only would she walk again, she vowed, she'd run. And she did run--all the way to the Olympics, where she became the first American woman to earn three gold medals in a single olympiad.
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became The World's Fastest Woman (Soar To Success)
by David Diaz Kathleen KrullNIMAC-sourced textbook
Wilma's Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller (Big Words)
by Doreen RappaportAs a child in Oklahoma, Wilma Mankiller experienced the Cherokee practice of Gadugi, helping each other, even when times were hard for everyone. But in 1956, the federal government uprooted her family and moved them to California, wrenching them from their home, friends, and traditions. Separated from her community and everything she knew, Wilma felt utterly lost until she found refuge in the Indian Center in San Francisco. There, she worked to build and develop the local Native community and championed Native political activists. She took her two children to visit tribal communities in the state, and as she introduced them to the traditions of their heritage, she felt a longing for home.Returning to Oklahoma with her daughters, Wilma took part in Cherokee government. Despite many obstacles, from resistance to female leadership to a life-threatening accident, Wilma's courageous dedication to serving her people led to her election as the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. As leader and advocate, she reinvigorated her constituency by empowering them to identify and solve community problems.This beautiful addition to the Big Words series will inspire future leaders to persevere in empathy and thoughtful problem-solving, reaching beyond themselves to help those around them. Moving prose by award-winning author Doreen Rappaport is interwoven with Wilma's own words in this expertly researched biography, illustrated with warmth and vivacity by Linda Kukuk.
Wilma: An Alaska Tale of One Teacher, Two Teenagers, and Three Wolverines
by Dona AgostiWilma: An Alaska Tale of One Teacher, Two Teenagers, and Three Wolverines combines Alaska adventures and teenage life in the 1970s. It is the story of Pam Walker, Tom Lerner, and their junior high school biology teacher, William Marx. The action moves from an Anchorage classroom to the hilarious capture of a female wolverine named Wilma in the Alaska wilderness. A side trip to a science fair in Texas, a thrilling hunting expedition and a developing romance all culminate on a very realistic note. The antics of Wilma's kits, Wendy, and Willy, weave in and out of the narrative. The result is a young adult novel that is both entertaining and educational. There are very few wolverine novels published and those that do exist contain many inaccuracies. This story will give the reader an accurate understanding of this wary and difficult to observe animal. Students will be encouraged to get involved in their local science fairs.
Wilson
by A. Scott BergOne hundred years after his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson still stands as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, and one of the most enigmatic. And now, after more than a decade of research and writing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg has completed Wilson--the most personal and penetrating biography ever written about the 28th President. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of documents in the Wilson Archives, Berg was the first biographer to gain access to two recently-discovered caches of papers belonging to those close to Wilson. From this material, Berg was able to add countless details--even several unknown events--that fill in missing pieces of Wilson’s character and cast new light on his entire life. From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence , from the idealist determined to make the world “safe for democracy” to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century’s greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view – a book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson’s life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon – but Wilson the man.
Wilson
by A. Scott Berg"With the prescience that all truly great biographers possess, Berg discovered in Woodrow Wilson a figure who would understand Washington's current state of affairs."--Vanity Fair "A brilliant biography that still resonates in Washington today."--Doris Kearns Goodwin From Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author A. Scott Berg comes the definitive--and revelatory--biography of one of the great American figures of modern times. One hundred years after his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson still stands as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, and one of the most enigmatic. And now, after more than a decade of research and writing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg has completed Wilson--the most personal and penetrating biography ever written about the 28th President. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of documents in the Wilson Archives, Berg was the first biographer to gain access to two recently-discovered caches of papers belonging to those close to Wilson. From this material, Berg was able to add countless details--even several unknown events--that fill in missing pieces of Wilson's character and cast new light on his entire life. From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence , from the idealist determined to make the world "safe for democracy" to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century's greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view - a book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson's life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon - but Wilson the man.
Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era
by Gary M. PomerantzOn the night of March 2, 1962, in Hershey, PA, Wilt Chamberlain, a young & striking athlete celebrated as the Big Dipper, scored 100 points in a game against the N. Y. Knicks. As historic & revolutionary as the achievement was, it remains shrouded in myth. The game was not televised, & no N. Y. sportswriters showed up. Author Pomerantz brings to life a lost world of American sports. He tracked down Knicks & Phila. Warriors, fans, journalists, team officials, other NBA stars of the era, & basketball historians, to recreate the game that announced the Dipper¿s greatness. This is not only the dramatic story of a singular basketball game but a meditation on small towns, mid-century America, & one of the most intriguing figures in sports. Photos.
Win or Learn: MMA, Conor McGregor and Me: A Trainer's Journey
by John KavanaghConor McGregor's trainer tells the amazing story of his long road to success in the world's fastest-growing sportGrowing up in Dublin, John Kavanagh was a skinny lad who was frequently bullied. As a young man, after suffering a bad beating when he intervened to help a woman who was being attacked, he decided he had to learn to defend himself. Before long, he was training fighters in a tiny shed, and promoting the earliest mixed-martial arts events in Ireland. And then, a cocky kid called Conor McGregor walked into his gym ...In Win or Learn, John Kavanagh tells his own remarkable life story - which is at the heart of the story of the extraordinary explosion of MMA in Ireland and globally. Employing the motto 'win or learn', Kavanagh has become a guru to young men and women seeking to master the arts of combat. And as the trainer of the world's most charismatic champion, his gym has become a magnet for talented fighters from all over the globe. Kavanagh's portrait of Conor McGregor - who he has seen in his lowest moments, as well as in his greatest triumphs - is a revelation. What emerges from Win or Learn is a remarkable portrait of ambition, discipline, and persistence in the face of years and years of disappointment. It is a must read for every MMA fan - but also for anyone who wants to understand how to follow a dream and realize a vision.'For anyone interested in following their dream to the end of the line' Tony Parsons'It kept me up well past my bedtime' Sean O'Rourke, RTE Radio One'Remarkable' Irish Times'Kavanagh is open and honest about his upbringing ... The journey hasn't been easy, but Kavanagh's inbuilt determination has carried him all the way' Irish Examiner