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Albert Einstein
by Marie Hammontree Robert DoremusBefore Albert Einstein was an internationally renowned genius, he was a kid--learn all about his childhood and what makes him an all-star in American history!Albert Einstein is a household name synonymous with genius around the world. His work unlocked mysteries of the universe and also impacted everyday conveniences like remote controls and televisions. And while most are familiar with Einstein's adult wisdom (and wild hair), do you know what he was like as a child? From his passion for music--he played both the violin and the piano--to his early curiosity for understanding the mysteries of science, in this narrative biography you'll learn all about Albert Einstein's childhood and the influences that shaped the life of a remarkable man.
Albert Einstein, The Human Side: Glimpses from His Archives
by Albert EinsteinModesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in this illuminating selection of personal papers from the Albert Einstein Archives. The illustrious physicist wrote as thoughtfully to an Ohio fifth-grader, distressed by her discovery that scientists classify humans as animals, as to a Colorado banker who asked whether Einstein believed in a personal God. Witty rhymes, an exchange with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium about fine music, and expressions of his devotion to Zionism are but some of the highlights found in this warm and enriching book.
Albie's First Word: A Tale Inspired by Albert Einstein's Childhood
by Wynne Evans Jacqueline TourvilleHere's a beautiful historical fiction picture book--perfect for the Common Core--that provides a rare glimpse into the early childhood of Albert Einstein, the world's most famous physicist. Three-year-old Albie has never said a single word. When his worried mother and father consult a doctor, he advises them to expose little Albie to new things: a trip to the orchestra, an astronomy lecture, a toy boat race in the park. But though Albie dances with excitement at each new experience, he remains silent. Finally, the thoughtful, quiet child witnesses something so incredible, he utters his very first word: "Why?" Kids, parents, and teachers will be delighted and reassured by this joyous story of a child who develops a bit differently than others."More than a distinctive introduction to Albert Einstein, this book promotes both understanding of difference and scientific curiosity." --Kirkus Reviews, StarredFrom the Hardcover edition.
Albie's First Word: Read & Listen Edition
by Jacqueline TourvilleHere&’s a beautiful historical fiction picture book that provides a rare glimpse into the early childhood of Albert Einstein, the world&’s most famous physicist. Three-year-old Albie has never said a single word. When his worried mother and father consult a doctor, he advises them to expose little Albie to new things: a trip to the orchestra, an astronomy lecture, a toy boat race in the park. But though Albie dances with excitement at each new experience, he remains silent. Finally, the thoughtful, quiet child witnesses something so incredible, he utters his very first word: &“Why?&” Kids, parents, and teachers will be delighted and reassured by this joyous story of a child who develops a bit differently than others.This Read & Listen edition contains audio narration.
Aleister Crowley: Art, Sex, and Magick in the Weimar Republic
by Tobias ChurtonA biographical history of Aleister Crowley’s activities in Berlin from 1930 to 1932 as Hitler was rising to power • Examines Crowley’s focus on his art, his work as a spy for British Intelligence, his colorful love life and sex magick exploits, and his contacts with magical orders • Explores Crowley’s relationships with Berlin’s artists, filmmakers, writers, and performers such as Christopher Isherwood, Jean Ross, and Aldous Huxley • Recounts the fates of Crowley’s friends and colleagues under the Nazis as well as what happened to Crowley’s lost art exhibition Gnostic poet, painter, writer, and magician Aleister Crowley arrived in Berlin on April 18, 1930. As prophet of his syncretic religion “Thelema,” he wanted to be among the leaders of art and thought, and Berlin, the liberated future-gazing metropolis, wanted him. There he would live, until his hurried departure on June 22, 1932, as Hitler was rapidly rising to power and the black curtain of intolerance came down upon the city. Known to his friends affectionately as “The Beast,” Crowley saw the closing lights of Berlin’s artistic renaissance of the Weimar period when Berlin played host to many of the world’s most outstanding artists, writers, filmmakers, performers, composers, architects, philosophers, and scientists, including Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Ethel Mannin, Otto Dix, Aldous Huxley, Jean Ross, Christopher Isherwood, and many other luminaries of a glittering world soon to be trampled into the mud by the global bloodbath of World War II. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and diary material by Crowley, Tobias Churton examines Crowley’s years in Berlin and his intense focus on his art, his work as a spy for British Intelligence, his colorful love life and sex magick exploits, and his contacts with German Theosophy, Freemasonry, and magical orders. He recounts the fates of Crowley’s colleagues under the Nazis as well as what happened to Crowley’s lost art exhibition--six crates of paintings left behind in Germany as the Gestapo was closing in. Revealing the real Crowley long hidden from the historical record, Churton presents “the Beast” anew in all his ambiguous and, for some, terrifying glory, at a blazing, seminal moment in the history of the world.
Aleister Crowley
by Gary LachmanThis definitive work on the occult's "great beast" traces the arc of his controversial life and influence on rock-and-roll giants, from the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Black Sabbath. When Aleister Crowley died in 1947, he was not an obvious contender for the most enduring pop-culture figure of the next century. But twenty years later, Crowley's name and image were everywhere. The Beatles put him on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Rolling Stones were briefly serious devotees. Today, his visage hangs in goth clubs, occult temples, and college dorm rooms, and his methods of ceremonial magick animate the passions of myriad occultists and spiritual seekers. Aleister Crowley is more than just a biography of this compelling, controversial, and divisive figure--it's also a portrait of his unparalleled influence on modern pop culture.
Alexander The Great: A Very Short Introduction
by Hugh BowdenAlexander the Great became king of Macedon in 336 BC, when he was only 20 years old, and died at the age of 32, twelve years later. During his reign he conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the largest empire that had ever existed, leading his army from Greece to Pakistan, and from theLibyan desert to the steppes of Central Asia. His meteoric career, as leader of an alliance of Greek cities, Pharaoh of Egypt, and King of Persia, had a profound effect on the world he moved through. Even in his lifetime his achievements became legendary and in the centuries that followed his storywas told and retold throughout Europe and the East. Greek became the language of power in the Eastern Mediterranean and much of the Near East, as powerful Macedonian dynasts carved up Alexander's empire into kingdoms of their own, underlaying the flourishing Hellenistic civilization that emergedafter his death. But what do we really know about Alexander? In this Very Short Introduction, Hugh Bowden goes behind the usual historical accounts of Alexander's life and career. Instead, he focuses on the evidence from Alexander's own time - letters from officials in Afghanistan, Babylonian diaries, records fromEgyptian temples - to try and understand how Alexander appeared to those who encountered him. In doing so he also demonstrates the profound influence the legends of his life have had on our historical understanding and the controversy they continue to generate worldwide.
Alexander Payne: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
by Julie LevinsonSince 1996, Alexander Payne (b. 1961) has made seven feature films and a short segment of an omnibus movie. Although his body of work is quantitatively small, it is qualitatively impressive. His movies have garnered numerous accolades and awards, including two Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. As more than one interviewer in this volume points out, he maintains an impressive and unbroken winning streak. Payne's stories of human strivings and follies, alongside his mastery of the craft of filmmaking, mark him as a contemporary auteur of uncommon accomplishment. In this first compilation of his interviews, Payne reveals himself as a captivating conversationalist as well. The discussions collected here range from 1996, shortly after the release of his first film, Citizen Ruth, to the 2013 debut of his film, Nebraska. He also mentions the long process of bringing to fruition his most recent film, Downsizing. Over his career, he muses on many subjects including his own creative processes, his commitment to telling character-centered stories, and his abiding admiration for movies and directors from across decades of film history. Critics describe Payne as one of the few contemporary filmmakers who consistently manages to buck the current trend toward bombastic blockbusters. Like the 1970s director-driven cinema that he cherishes, his films are small-scale character studies that manage to maintain a delicate balance between sharp satire and genuine poignancy.
Alexander the Great
by Nick HunterKnow all about ancient Greece, the rise of Alexander to power, his victories, failures and what happened after his death.
The Alexiad of Anna Komnene
by Penelope BuckleyThis is the first full-scale study of the literary art of Anna Komnene's Alexiad. Her history of her father's reign is well-known and much used by Byzantinists and historians of the First Crusade, but the art with which it shapes its central character has not been fully examined or understood. This book argues that the work is both history and tragedy; the characterization of Alexios I Komnenos is cumulative; it develops; the models for his idealization change; much of the action takes place in his mind and the narrative relays and amplifies his thought while building a dense picture of the world in which he acts. Engaging critically and responsively with other texts, Komnene uses the full range of current literary genres to portray the ideal culture of his rule. She matches her art of literary control to his of government over the adverse forces of his time.
Alex's Wake: The Tragic Voyage of the St. Louis to Flee Nazi Germany-and a Grandson’s Journey of Love and Remembrance
by Martin GoldsmithAlex's Wake is a tale of two parallel journeys undertaken seven decades apart. In the spring of 1939, Alex and Helmut Goldschmidt were two of more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany aboard the St. Louis, "the saddest ship afloat" (New York Times). Turned away from Cuba, the United States, and Canada, the St. Louis returned to Europe, a stark symbol of the world's indifference to the gathering Holocaust. The Goldschmidts disembarked in France, where they spent the next three years in six different camps before being shipped to their deaths in Auschwitz.In the spring of 2011, Alex's grandson, Martin Goldsmith, followed in his relatives' footsteps on a six-week journey of remembrance and hope, an irrational quest to reverse their fate and bring himself peace. Alex's Wake movingly recounts the detailed histories of the two journeys, the witnesses Martin encounters for whom the events of the past are a vivid part of a living present, and an intimate, honest attempt to overcome a tormented family legacy.
Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis
by Alexis CoeAlice + Freda Forever is a gut-wrenching story of love, death, and the dangers of intolerance."—Bustle In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation—it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter—and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée's throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail—including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later. Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic, real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters, maps, artifacts, historical documents, newspaper articles, courtroom proceedings, and intimate, domestic scenes.
All Bets Are Off
by Arnie Wexler Steve JacobsonArnie Wexler's life as a gambler began on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, flipping cards, shooting marbles, and playing pinball machines. At age fourteen he found the racetrack, a bookie, and started playing the stock market. His obsession with gambling accelerated until a fateful day in 1968 when it all came crashing down.Wexler's gripping narrative leads us through the dungeon of a compulsive gambler's world--chasing the big win and coming up with empty pockets--and how his addiction drove him and his wife, Sheila, to the edge of life. With help, they managed to escape, and together they have devoted themselves to helping others with the problem they know so well.Arnie Wexler is a Certified Compulsive Gambling Counselor and runs a national hotline for compulsive gamblers. He was the executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey and the senior vice president of National Council on Problem Gambling. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Nightline, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, 48 Hours, and Crossfire, among others.Steve Jacobson was a sports reporter and columnist for Newsday for more than forty years with a great interest in all aspects of sports. He co-authored a number of books with notable sports personalities. He was named by Associated Press among the top sports columnists and twice was nominated by Newsday for the Pulitzer Prize.
All or Nothing: One Chef's Appetite for the Extreme
by Jesse SchenkerBlending Kitchen Confidential, Blood, Bones & Butter, and Breaking Bad, a culinary memoir that illuminates the highs and lows of addiction, anxiety, and ambition in the world of haute cuisine. Thirty-one-year-old Jesse Schenker has rocketed to the top of the culinary world. An Iron Chef winner and James Beard nominee, he was voted Best New Chef by New York Magazine, and his acclaimed Recette was named Best New Restaurant by the New York Times. But Jesse’s epic rise masks a little-known past filled with demons and obsession, genius and mania.Growing up in wealthy suburban Florida, Jesse was introduced to the culinary world—and the world of hard drugs. Becoming a high-school dropout addicted to heroin and crack, he was alienated from his family and wanted by the cops. By twenty-one, he had robbed, cheated, and lied to everyone in his life—and had overdosed, been shot at and nearly beaten to death. His eventual arrest motivated him to get clean.Jesse learned to channel his obsessiveness and need to get ever “higher” into his career. But his growing success fueled his anxiety, leading to panic attacks and hypochondria. In this startling and down to earth memoir, Jesse lays it all on the table for the first time, reflecting on his insatiable appetite for the extreme—which has led to his biggest triumphs and failures—and shares the shocking story of his turbulent life.
All the Happiness You Deserve
by Michael Piafsky"[A] wonderful read . . . delivered with a holism evocative of a John Irving novel.Beautifully written and deeply rewarding." -Booklist"Brilliant . . . Michael Piafsky is a word wizard . . . with prose so dramatic and suspenseful that the book becomes impossible to put down." -ForeWord Reviews"Beautifully rendered. . . .Piafsky writes with precision, finding meaning, and even beauty, in both the mundane and dramatic elements of an ordinary life." -Shelf UnboundThis dazzling debut novel follows its midwestern narrator from childhood to old age as he examines the touchpoints and transitions that define a life. Scotty's languorous journey takes him through the pivotal experiences common to so many American men: a middle-class childhood, college, marriage, fatherhood, cross-country moves, business success and failure, and aging. Piafsky frames his story with Tarot images that speak to the disconnectedness of society and the perplexing isolation of the human condition.Michael Piafsky is the director of creative writing at Spring Hill College in Alabama and a former editor of the Missouri Review. All the Happiness You Deserve is his first novel.
All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life
by Andrew M. CuomoIn this frank memoir—a story of duty, family, justice, politics, and resilience—Andrew Cuomo, New York State's fifty-sixth governor, reflects on his rise, fall, and rise again in politics, and the tough (but necessary) lessons he has learned along the way.Born to first-generation American parents in the working-class neighborhood of Queens, New York, Andrew M. Cuomo grew up in a family anchored by a shared belief in community, hard and honest work, and helping others. His father, Mario, led by example, as a tireless advocate for local residents, instilling in his son a passion for public service. From stapling up posters as a sixteen-year-old during his father's first political campaign to managing at twenty-five Mario's successful 1982 bid for New York State governor, Andrew Cuomo witnessed at a young age the power of politics to effect change for the common good. These experiences, reinforced by deeply held personal values, guided him, from novice campaign manager to visionary reform crusader to Clinton cabinet member—at thirty-nine—to groundbreaking governor of his home state. Laying out his unique approach to challenging the status quo, All Things Possible is not a traditional political memoir, but rather one man's revelatory reflection on a life defined by a commitment to public service, and the hard-won truths gleaned from both his struggles and his successes.In recounting his uphill battles to redefine the way America deals with homelessness, rehabilitate the legislative process in Albany, and bring marriage equality to New York, Cuomo presents an inspiring blueprint for greater political cooperation and efficacy. He also unflinchingly examines his failed 2002 gubernatorial bid, which heralded a dark period of political and personal turmoil, to illustrate why failure is inextricably bound up with success, why we should never forget where we come from, and the importance of balancing personal and professional commitments. And he proves, through all that he's achieved since his victory in the 2010 election, that our biggest triumphs lie not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.With 16-pages of color and black and white photos
Allen Klein: The Man Who Bailed Out the Beatles, Made the Stones, and Transformed Rock & Roll
by Fred GoodmanThe story of the notorious rock and roll manager, revealing new, behind-the-scenes details about some of the biggest bands in music history. Allen Klein was like no one the music industry had seen before. Though he became infamous for allegedly causing the Beatles&’ breakup and robbing the Rolling Stones, the truth is both more complex and more fascinating. As the manager of both groups—not to mention Sam Cooke, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Kinks, and numerous others—he taught young soon-to-be legends how to be businessmen as well as rock stars. While Klein made millions for his clients, he was as merciless with them as he was with anyone, earning himself an outsize reputation for villainy that has gone unchallenged until now. Through unique, unprecedented access to Klein&’s archives, veteran music journalist Fred Goodman tells the full story of how the Beatles broke up, the Stones achieved the greatest commercial success in rock history, and the music business became what it is today. &“Fred Goodman makes this world come alive, and any fan of rock or insider tales of the music industry will be in heaven reading about this fascinating, troubling character.&” —Judd Apatow &“Writing about contracts, percentages and deals can be tedious, but Goodman makes it as exciting as reading about an artist&’s sex life. The book explodes with inside dope.&” —Daily News (New York) &“Succeed[s] both as a compelling work of rock-&’n&’-roll history and as a cautionary business primer.&” —The Wall Street Journal
Alone in Antarctica: The First Woman to Ski Solo Across the Southern Ice
by Felicity AstonIn the whirling noise of our advancing technological age, we are seemingly never alone, never out-of-touch with the barrage of electronic data and information.Felicity Aston, physicist and meteorologist, took two months off from all human contact as she became the first woman -- and only the third person in history - to ski across the entire continent of Antarctica alone. She did it, too, with the simple apparatus of cross-country, without the aids used by her prededecessors - two Norwegian men - each of whom employed either parasails or kites.Aston's journey across the ice at the bottom of the world asked of her the extremes in terms of mental and physical bravery, as she faced the risks of unseen cracks buried in the snow so large they might engulf her and hypothermia due to brutalizing weather. She had to deal, too, with her emotional vulnerability in face of the constant bombardment of hallucinations brought on by the vast sea of whiteness, the lack of stimulation to her senses as she faced what is tantamount to a form of solitary confinement.Like Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Felicity Aston's Alone in Antarctica becomes an inspirational saga of one woman's battle through fear and loneliness as she honestly confronts both the physical challenges of her adventure, as well as her own human vulnerabilities.
Alpha Docs
by Daniel Muñoz James M. DaleIn the tradition of Scott Turow's One L and Atul Gawande's Better comes a real-time, real-life chronicle from an impassioned young doctor on the front lines of high-stakes cardiology. It takes drive, persistence, and plenty of stamina to practice cardiology at the highest level. The competition for training fellowship spots is intense. Hundreds of applicants from all over the world compete to be accepted into the Cardiovascular Disease Training Fellowship at Johns Hopkins. Only nine are chosen each year. This is the story of one of those fellows. In Alpha Docs, Daniel Muñoz, M.D., recounts his transformation from wide-eyed young medical student to caring, empathetic professional--providing a rare inside look into the day-to-day operations of one of the world's most prestigious medical institutions. The training is arduous and often unforgiving, as Muñoz and his colleagues are schooled by a staff of brilliant and demanding physicians. How they learn the art and science of untangling cardiac mysteries, how they live up to the standards of an iconic institution, how they survive the pressures and relentlessly push themselves to reach the top ranks of American medicine, supplies the beating heart of this gripping narrative. Readers accompany Muñoz as he interacts with his mentors, diagnoses and treats patients, counsels worried family members, and struggles to stay awake for days and nights on end. Lives are saved--and sometimes lost. But the rewards are immediate and the incentives powerful. As Muñoz confides after helping to rescue one man from the throes of a heart attack: "I knew where I wanted to be: not watching but doing, on the side of the glass where I can help shape a patient's fate. I would be a cardiologist." A unique yet universal story about striving to be the best in a high-risk, high-impact field, Alpha Docs provides fresh perspective on the state of America's healthcare system as it captures all the fulfillment and frustrations of life as a doctor in the twenty-first century.From the Hardcover edition.
Alpine Giggle Week
by Dorothy Parker Marion MeadeA little known, rediscovered letter: an SOS from a woman trapped on a Swiss mountaintop in a TB colony with no idea how to escape--that woman being Dorothy Parker. "Kids, I have started one thousand (1,000) letters to you, but they all through no will of mine got to sounding so gloomy and I was afraid of boring the combined tripe out of you, so I never sent them." Thus starts a little-known and until now unpublished letter by Dorothy Parker from a Swiss mountaintop. Parker wrote the letter in September 1930 to Viking publishers Harold Guinzburg and George Oppenheimer--she went to France to write a novel for them and wound up in a TB colony in Switzerland. Parker refers to the letter as a "novelette," yet there is nothing fictional about it. More accurately, the biting composition reads like a gossipy diary entry, typed out on Parker's beautiful new German typewriter. She namedrops notable figures like Ernest Hemingway and Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald while covering topics running from her various accidents and health problems to her opinions on dogs, literary critics and God. The writing is vintage Parker: uncensored, unedited, deliciously malicious, and certainly one of the most entertaining of her letters--or for that matter any letter--that you'll ever read. This edition features an introduction, notes, and annotations on notable figures by Parker biographer Marion Meade.
Always Another Dawn: The Story Of A Rocket Test Pilot
by Clay Blair Albert Scott CrossfieldAll his life Test Pilot Scott Crossfield has carried on a love affair with airplanes. As a child he learned secretly how to fly, and the unyielding ambition to become a superb aviator spurred him to overcome a serious childhood disease. Working for the NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), Crossfield achieved national renown testing the rocket-powered planes, X-1 and Skyrocket, taking them to amazing heights where "man had a new view of his life and the world." He has logged more rocket plane flights than most of the chief test pilots combined.Written in the tradition of Saint-Exupéry and Lindbergh, Scott Crossfield's inspiring autobiography is a testament to the adventure and achievement of the flight pioneers who dare to live beyond the clouds. Why is "death the handmaiden of the pilot" and how does it feel to face her fifteen miles above the ground? What can a pilot do when fear and panic overtake him? What is it like to be the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound? These are some of the questions Crossfield answers as he explains why he was prepared to devote so much of his time, his dreams, and his aspirations to an experimental plane called the X-15.Always Another Dawn tells of the birth of this plane; the daring of the men who painstakingly designed and built her, counting every extra pound a danger and creating innovations unprecedented in flight history. Here is the courage of the men who flew her, their every take-off a hazardous journey into the unknown.This book is the thrilling story of man's first faltering steps into space, of the great experiment and the great pilot who "set man on his path toward the stars."
Always on Strike
by Arnold SteadThough widely recognized as one of the Industrial Workers of the World's leading members and one of its most prominent militants, this is the first book-length biography of Frank Little. Little's life offers innumerable lessons for working class people facing many of the same economic injustices in today's world. Arnold Stead, PhD, is a poet, fiction writer, historian, playwright, and jazz and film critic. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and family.
Am I Getting Paid for This?
by Betty RollinWhen Betty Rollin graduated from college in the late 1950s, she couldn't find a husband and she didn't want to be a secretary. So, in the days before women's liberation, she started a career--or, as she puts it, "fell into--then groped my way in and out of--three careers."Am I Getting Paid For This? is a love story about work by the author of First, You Cry. It is the part funny, part not-so-funny story of her three careers--first acting, then writing, then television news broadcasting at NBC--and what work itself came to mean to Betty Rollin. Recreating the confusion and unhappiness as well as the considerable glitter of it all, Betty tells us how it felt to make the audition rounds; how she landed editing jobs at Vogue and then at Look, where her "star beat" found her hunting the Real Doris Day and trying not to doze in Dean Martin's golf cart; how it felt to wake up one morning as a network correspondent for NBC News--not entirely (some would say not even remotely) equipped to handle that job, but a quick study. Yet even the glamour and the unexpected triumphs did not prepare her for the realization that work had become the central focus of her life. And like many women before and since, she was both surprised and alarmed to find herself "feeling things like passion and excitement in what seemed to be the wrong room--the office."Am I Getting Paid For This? is a book for women of all ages, who will warm to this charming, smart, and funny woman who for the longest time didn't know where she was headed, but who finally found her way, with thanks to--as she puts it--"need, nerve, and a few kind friends."Betty Rollin is a writer and an award-winning journalist. A former correspondent for NBC News, she now contributes reports of PBS's "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly." Once a writer and editor for both Vogue and Look magazines, she has written for many national publication, including The New York Times. She is the bestselling author of six previous books, including First, You Cry, Last Wish, and Here's the Bright Side: Of Failure, Fear, Cancer, Divorce, and Other Bum Raps. She lives in New York City with her husband, a mathematician.
Amateur Gunners: The Great War Adventures, Letters and Observations of Alexander Douglas Thorburn
by Ian RonayneAfter training at St John's Wood in London and in Exeter, Alexander Douglas Thorburn was posted to the BEF in France, joining the 2/22nd London (Howitzer) Battery, Royal Field Artillery as a subaltern officer. After service in the Vimy Ridge sector, with his division, the 60th (2/2nd London) Division, he crossed the Mediterranean to join the British Army in Salonika. Following a further move in mid-1917, Thorburn arrived in Palestine where he saw service with the 74th (Yeomanry) Division during the advance on Jerusalem. A final move in 1918 took the now Captain Thorburn back to the Western Front to take part in the Advance to Victory during the closing months of the war. After the war, Thorburn wrote an account of his military service between 1916 and 1918, recording his experiences in France, Greece and Palestine as well as his initial training in England. He also wrote a series of observations on life as a gunner during the First World War. Both the account and observations were published as a book, Amateur Gunners, in 1933 by William Potter of Liverpool. Today, the book is out of print. In addition to the book, of which a small number of copies still exist of course, there are an extensive series of private letters written by Thorburn while on active service to his mother, father and other relatives. The letters are in the possession of Thorburn's only grandson. Together, the book and letters offer a fascinating insight into the life of a First World War artillery officer. Lucidly written in a candid style, Thorburn shows excellent observation, description and narration skills. While Amateur Gunners itself is worthy of reprint, when combined with Thorburn's private letters and historical context from author Ian Ronayne, this book offers a unique look at a gunner's experience during the Great War.