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Fifty-five Years in Five Acts: My Life in Opera
by Astrid Varnay Donald ArthurFor Astrid Varnay, opera was the family business. The daughter of coloratura soprano Mária Jávor and dramatic tenor Alexander Várnay, she literally grew up backstage at the opera. Vocally and musically trained by her mother and mentor (and later husband) Hermann Weigert, she was just twenty-three years old when she made her unofficial debut at the Metropolitan Opera as a last-minute replacement for the suddenly ill Lotte Lehmann. Varnay's critically acclaimed performance as Sieglinde in Die Walküre catapulted her into the limelight. Varnay reflects on her remarkable life in opera, discussing her signature roles and performances, vocal preparation and technique, interpretive acting style, and her seamless transition from leading soprano to character roles, including her switch from Elektra to Klytemnästra in Strauss's Elektra. Her engaging and witty memoir is filled with frank, often critical, observations about many of the most significant vocal artists, conductors, and directors of the twentieth century. She describes her lifelong friendship with operatic idol Kirsten Flagstad, the years at the Met and conflicts with Rudolf Bing, her appearances at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, and her artistic rift with Herbert von Karajan.<P><P> This book is also listed in libraries as "55 Years in Five Acts: My Life in Opera"
Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the World: Design Museum Fifty (Design Museum Fifty)
by Design Museum Enterprise Limited Paula ReedThe Design Museum and fashion guru Paula Reed present Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1960s. The most exciting, influential and definitive looks of one of the most significant decades in fashion!The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, enterain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and carchitecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance. Building on the international success of the Design Museum Fifty series, including Fifty Shoes that Changed the World, Fifty Bags that Changed the World and Fifty Hats that Changed the World, this beautifully designed book - curated in the series by fashion guru Paula Reed - takes a fresh look at key fashion pieces from the 1960s. Featuring Mary Quant's miniskirts, Andre Courrèges' Moon Girls, denim-clad hippies and Celia Birtwell's Romantic Peasants, this book captures and explains every influential look of the decade. For anyone looking to buy vintage pieces to add to their wardrobes of contemporary items, this authoritative and inspiring book will prove to be an invaluable source of reference.
Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1970s: Design Museum Fifty (Design Museum Fifty)
by Design Museum Enterprise Limited Paula ReedThe Design Museum and fashion guru Paula Reed present Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1970s. The most exciting, influential and definitive looks of one of the most significant decades in fashion!The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, enterain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and carchitecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance.From Bianca Jagger in Halston and Diane Von Furstenberg's first wrap dress to the rise of punk and Biba, this beautiful book outlines and details the most influential looks of the decade. The 1970s have been a key influence on recent high street and catwalk fashion - here you find out why.With Paula Reed's lively and informative text and a wealth of fabulous photography, it is vital reading for design students, collectors of vintage and everyone who truly loves fashion.
Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1950s: Design Museum Fifty (Design Museum Fifty)
by Design Museum Enterprise Limited Paula ReedThe Design Museum and fashion guru Paula Reed present Fifty Fashion Looks that Changed the 1950s. The most exciting, influential and definitive looks of one of the most significant decades in fashion!The Design Museum's mission is to celebrate, enterain and inform. It is the world's leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to fashion, and carchitecture to graphics. It is working to place design at the centre of contemporary culture and demonstrates both the richness of the creativity to be found in all forms of design, and its importance.This beautiful reference work showcases 50 iconic outfits from one of fashion's most influential and exciting decades. From the bombshell glamour of Marilyn Monroe in 'How to Marry a Millionaire' to the immergence of teenage style, via the sculptural forms of Christian Dior's New Look and Balenciaga's double A-Line, it celebrates all of the important looks that revolutionised modern fashion. With Paula Reed's lively and informative text and a wealth of fabulous photography, it is vital reading for design students, collectors of vintage, and everyone who truly loves fashion.
Fifty Fabulous Years
by H. V. KaltenbornAutobiography of H. V. Kaltenborn, a radio commentator and news reporter from 1928 until 1953. His was a household name and almost everyone listened to his reports and analyses. --- LAST YEAR, SHORTLY AFTER MY SEVENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, it occurred to me that if I ever intended to do what I had so often been urged to do-to write the story of my life and times-I'd better do it. Perhaps I am already too old. In this accelerated century few persons wait to achieve the Biblical age of three score and ten before they look back to what has gone before. To record all that happened in seventy-two years seemed too much of a task. So I decided to make it a little easier for myself and the reader by skipping my first rather uneventful twenty and concentrate on the last fifty. When one half century ends and another begins should be an appropriate time to review the record of the last fifty years. Of course, it might be even better to wait until a full century has passed, but who could expect to live that long?
Fifty Days of Solitude: A Memoir
by Doris GrumbachA New York Times Notable Book: To truly understand herself, Doris Grumbach embraces solitude With a busy career as a novelist, essayist, reviewer, and bookstore owner, Doris Grumbach has little opportunity to be alone. However, after seventy-five years on the planet, she finally has her chance: Her partner has departed for an extended book-buying trip, and Grumbach has been given fifty days to relax, think, and write about her experience. In this graceful memoir, Grumbach delicately balances the beauty of turning one&’s back on everything with the hardship of complete aloneness. Even as she attends church and collects her mail, she moves like a shadow, speaking to no one. Left only to her books and music in the midst of a Maine winter, she must look within herself for solace. The result of this reflection is a powerful meditation on the meaning of aging, writing, and one&’s own company—and reaffirmation of the power of friends and companionship.
Fifty Cents and a Dream
by Jabari Asim Bryan CollierBooker dreamed of making friends with words, setting free the secrets that lived in books. Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington could only dream of learning to read and write. After emancipation, Booker began a five-hundred-mile journey, mostly on foot, to Hampton Institute, taking his first of many steps towards a college degree. When he arrived, he had just fifty cents in his pocket and a dream about to come true. The young slave who once waited outside of the schoolhouse would one day become a legendary educator of freedmen. Award-winning artist Bryan Collier captures the hardship and the spirit of one of the most inspiring figures in American history, bringing to life Booker T. Washington's journey to learn, to read, and to realize a dream.
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm
by Jeanne Marie LaskasJeanne Marie Laskas had a dream of fleeing her otherwise happy urban life for fresh air and open space — a dream she would discover was about something more than that. But she never expected her fantasy to come true — until a summer afternoon’s drive in the country. That’s when she and her boyfriend, Alex — owner of Marley the poodle — stumble upon the place she thought existed only in her dreams. This pretty-as-a-picture-postcard farm with an Amish barn, a chestnut grove, and breathtaking vistas is real . . . and for sale. And it’s where she knows her future begins. But buying a postcard — fifty acres of scenery — and living on it are two entirely different matters. With wit and wisdom, Laskas chronicles the heartwarming and heartbreaking stories of the colorful two- and four-legged creatures she encounters on Sweetwater Farm. Against a backdrop of brambles, a satellite dish, and sheep, she tells a tender, touching, and hilarious tale about life, love, and the unexpected complications of having your dream come true.
The Fifties: An Underground History
by James R. GainesA bold and original argument that upends the myth of the Fifties as a decade of conformity to celebrate the solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements, from historian James R. Gaines.In a fascinating and beautifully written series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals—people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts—who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet the legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her &“in between&” sexuality. Through years of hard work and self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories. Ruth Bader Ginsberg credited her for the argument that made sex discrimination illegal, but that was only one of her gifts to 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a national gay-rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book&’s unlikeliest pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring&’s Rachel Carson and MIT&’s preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from their very different perspectives—she in the living world, he in the theoretical one—converged on the then-heretical idea that our mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster. Their legacy is the environmental movement. The Fifties is a dazzling and provocative work of history that transforms our understanding of a seemingly staid decade and honors the pioneers of gay rights, feminism, civil rights, and environmentalism. The book carries the powerful message that change actually begins not in mass movements and new legislation but in the lives of de-centered, often lonely individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with themselves.
Fifth Seal (A.D. Chronicles, Book #5)
by Bodie Thoene Brock Thoenethis is the story of Mary and Joseph and the story of Jesus birth.
Fifth Quarter
by Jennifer AllenSubtitled: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter George Allen was a top-ranked NFL coach throughout the 1960s and 1970s, coaching in turn the Chicago Bears, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Washington Redskins. Raised in a home dominated by her three football obsessed older brothers and her father's relentless schedule, the author came of age in a cauldron of testosterone and a win-at-all-costs mentality. While the household was buffeted by the coach's tumultuous firings and hirings, which periodically propelled the family to a new city, Jennifer dreamed of being the first female quarterback in the NFL. But as she grew, she yearned mostly to be someone that her father would notice. In a world where only football mattered, what could she strive for, who could she become? Allen has written a memoir of the father she tried so hard to know, the family life that was wistfully sacrificed to his endless, fanatical pursuit of the Super Bowl. What emerges is a fascinating and singular behind-the-scenes look at professional football and a memorable, bittersweet portrait of a father and his daughter, told by an accomplished and assured writer.
The Fifth Book of Peace
by Maxine Hong KingstonThe Fifth Book of Peace begins as the author is driving home from her father's funeral and finds the exit to her neighbourhood blocked; a firestorm is devouring the Berkeley hills, including her house and all her earthly possessions, and most significantly the novel, The Fourth Book of Peace, that she has been working on. In this extraordinary book, The Fifth Book of Peace, Kingston describes the history of all the lost books of peace - both the three that figure in Chinese mythology, which scholars and laymen have searched for, hoping to find in them the antidote to The Art of War, and her own book, lost in the flames. Divided into four sections - 'Fire', 'Paper', 'Water' and 'Earth' - this book is neither fiction nor autobiography nor memoir, but a unique form of Chinese 'talk-story' in which real and imagined worlds intrude upon and enrich one another. From the anti-war protests in Hawaii to Kingston's own conversations with Vietnam veterans, the author takes us inside the hearts and minds of a host of characters, not least of whom is her own Mama, the veteran woman warrior Brave Orchid, who watches over her in the seminal years of rebuilding following the fire and her father's death.
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story - Expanded Edition
by Vivek TiwaryThis expanded edition includes a sketchbook and Beatles memorabilia bonus section with behind-the-scenes insights from writer Vivek Tiwary and artists Kyle Baker and Andrew Robinson--expanded to include eight pages unique to this edition!The Fifth Beatle recounts the untold true story of Brian Epstein—the visionary manager who created Beatlemania and guided the Beatles from basement gigs to unprecedented international stardom. It&’s also an uplifting, inspirational human story about the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. This critically acclaimed and multiple award winning graphic novel has been added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives! This new edition includes a revised sketchbook and Beatles memorabilia bonus section with behind-the-scenes insights from writer Vivek Tiwary and artist Andrew Robinson—expanded to include eight pages unique to this edition!&“If anyone was &‘The Fifth Beatle&’ it was Brian.&” –Paul McCartney#1 New York Times bestseller Eisner and Harvey Award winnerLambda Literary Award finalist (Best LGBT Graphic Novel)American Library Association Great Book for Teens&“Heartbreaking, exhilarating and unexpected . . . A complete triumph.&” —The Hollywood Reporter"Abounds with emotional moments . . . Filled with vibrant images." —The New York Times&“10/10 . . . Brilliant in every aspect.&” –IGN&’s Best Graphic Novel, 2013
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story (Anniversary Edition)
by Vivek J. Tiwary&“Heartbreaking, exhilarating and unexpected . . . A complete triumph.&”—The Hollywood Reporter &“10/10. A masterpiece . . . Brilliant in every aspect.&”—IGN&’s Best Original Graphic Novel, 2013The Fifth Beatle brings to life the true story of visionary Beatles manager Brian Epstein—the man who launched the Beatles to worldwide stardom.This 10th Anniversary edition of the critically acclaimed, award-winning international bestseller features a new cover, an accompanying musical soundtrack/playlist curated by writer Vivek J. Tiwary, a new introduction by legendary music manager Kelly Curtis (Pearl Jam), and an expanded sketchbook section.A visionary artist manager, Brian Epstein engineered Beatlemania—guiding the Beatles from basement gigs to unprecedented international stardom while wrestling with personal demons and the trappings of massive ambition and success. An award-winning, uplifting and inspiring human story about chasing your dreams, The Fifth Beatle also reveals an important, unsung chapter in the Beatles' history.Whether you&’re discovering the Brian Epstein story for the first time or an old fan revisiting this groundbreaking graphic novel, now a part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives Permanent Collection, a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story
by Vivek J. TiwaryThe Fifth Beatle is the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided The Beatles-from their gigs in a tiny cellar in Liverpool to unprecedented international stardom. Yet more than merely the story of "The Man Who Made The Beatles," The Fifth Beatle is an uplifting, tragic, and ultimately inspirational human story about the struggle to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Brian himself died painfully lonely at the young age of thirty-two, having helped The Beatles prove through "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" that pop music could be an inspirational art form. He was homosexual when it was a felony to be so in the United Kingdom, Jewish at a time of anti-Semitism, and from Liverpool when it was considered just a dingy port town.
Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman
by Sam WassonNow in paperback in time for the 60th anniversary of the film version Breakfast at Tiffany’s— the New York Times bestseller and first-ever complete account of Audrey Hepburn and the making of the film that Janet Maslin called “a bonbon of a book filled with delightful anecdotes”With a cast of characters that includes Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, and Gerald Clarke, this book offers a slice of social history seen through the lens of one of America’s most iconic films The images of Breakfast at Tiffany’s are branded into our collective memory: we can see Audrey Hepburn stepping out of that cab on the corner of 57th and 5th, and we can picture her again with George Peppard, huddled in an alleyway and wrapped in a kiss, as the rain pours down around them. Those moments are as familiar to us as any in whole the history of movies, but few of us know that that ending was not the film’s original ending. In fact, it was only one of two endings the filmmakers shot—and it almost didn’t make it in. The reasons why have to do with Tiffany’s cutting-edge take on sex in the city, namely, when to show it, and how to do it, without getting caught. If Truman Capote had it his way, his beloved Marilyn Monroe would have been cast as Holly, but crafty executives knew that she’d have the censors on red alert. So they went for Audrey. But would she go for them? Frightened at the prospect of playing a part so far beyond her accepted range—not to mention the part of call girl—Audrey turned inside out worrying if she should take her agent’s advice and accept the role. What would people think? America’s princess playing a New York bad girl? It seemed just too far…The First Little Black Dress is the first ever complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Drawing upon countless interviews with those involved in the film’s production, from actors to producer Richard Shepherd to Gerald Clarke, Capote’s biographer, Wasson brings us inside the world and indeed inside the mind of one of America’s greatest cinematic icons.Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties, before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the nation, changing fashion, film, and sex, for good. But that was the easy part. Getting Audrey there—and getting the right people behind her—that was the tough part.With the heart of a novelist and the eye of a critic, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, from script to screen and from rehearsal to “Action!” The First Little Black Dress presents Breakfast at Tiffany’s as we have never seen it before—through the eyes of those who made it.
The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan
by Elliot AckermanA powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war&’s echoing legacyElliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families. The official US government evacuation effort was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. With former colleagues and friends protecting the airport in Kabul, Ackerman joined an impromptu effort by a group of journalists and other veterans to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America's longest war. For Ackerman, it also became a chance to reconcile his past with his present. The Fifth Act is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week, the week the war ended. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves a personal history of the war's long progression, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9/11. It is a play in five acts, the fifth act being the story&’s tragic denouement, a prelude to Afghanistan's dark future. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war&’s trajectory will find a trenchant account here. But The Fifth Act also brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, American and Afghan, who fought the war with courage and dedication, and at great personal cost. Ackerman's story is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.
Fifteen Rounds a Minute: The Grenadiers at War, August to December 1914, Edited from Diaries and Letters of Major ‘Ma’ Jeffreys and Others
by Michael CrasterThis book, originally published in 1976, is an account of the first five months of the First World War, as seen by members of a battalion of the Grenadier Guards and told in their own words and a classic of military writing. Contrary to the popular view of that war, this was a period of movement as the Allies sought first to block the German's apparently irresistible march on Paris, then to push them back to the Belgian border until finally both sides engaged in the 'Race for the Sea' in an attempt to find and exploit the open flank. It was a phase that included the retreat from Mons, the Battles of the Marne and the Aisne and finally and most devastatingly the First Battle of Ypres.The book is based on the diary that was kept by the Battalion Second in Command, Major George (subsequently General the Lord) Jeffreys, known to everyone as 'Ma'. Described by Harold Macmillan as one of the greatest of commanding officers, he was one of only three officers who went to war with the Battalion in August 1914 who survived with it to the end of the year. Supplemented on occasion by the letters and diaries of his brother officers and others, it provides a very complete picture of those turbulent days.
La fiesta de los nadie
by Flor InfanteEste libro es una invitación a su fiesta, a tu fiesta: la fiesta de todos los nadie. La fiesta de los nadie es una invitación a transitar el caos y el orden de una vida que es la de Flor Infante, pero podría ser la tuya, la de todos. Es una invitación a reír, llorar, bailar, abrazar, soltar, compartir, perdonar y, sobre todo, pensarse. Con su mirada camaleónica de actriz y comediante, Flor recorre una serie de episodios en la vida de un nadie: desde el nacimiento, el desarrollo y la enfermedad, hasta la búsqueda vocacional, el enamoramiento, la ruptura y las andanzas de la maternidad. En ese camino, propone «saltar al vacío sin red». Dar juntos un salto íntimo y arries-gado, repleto de humor, epifanías, amores y despedidas.
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
by Eric Foner"A masterwork [by] the preeminent historian of the Civil War era."--Boston Globe Selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln's lifelong engagement with the nation's critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession, and civil war. Lincoln's greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth.<P><P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
Fierce Valor: The True Story of Ronald Speirs and his Band of Brothers
by Jared Frederick Erik DorrFans of Stephen E. Ambrose&’s Band of Brothers will be drawn to this complex portrait of the controversial Ronald Speirs, an iconic commander of Easy Company during World War II, whose ferocious courage in three foreign conflicts was matched by his devotion to duty and the bittersweet passions of wartime romance. His comrades called him &“Killer.&” Of the elite paratroopers who served in the venerated &“Band of Brothers&” during World War II, none were more enigmatic than Ronald Speirs. Rumored to have gunned down enemy prisoners and even one of his own disobedient sergeants, Speirs&’ became a foxhole legend amongst his troops. But who was the real Lieutenant Speirs? In Fierce Valor, historians Jared Frederick and Erik Dorr unveil the full story of Easy Company&’s longest-serving commander for the first time. Tested by trials of extreme training, military rivalry, and lost love, Speirs&’s international odyssey begins as an immigrant child in Prohibition-era Boston, continues through the bloody campaigns in France, Holland, and Germany, and sheds light on his lesser known exploits in Korea, the Cold War, and embattled Laos. Packed with groundbreaking research, Fierce Valor unveils a compelling portrait of an officer defined by boldness on the battlefield and a telling reminder that few soldiers escape the power of their own pasts.
The Fierce Urgency Of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and The Battle for The Great Society
by Julian E. ZelizerA majestic big-picture account of the Great Society and the forces that shaped it, from Lyndon Johnson and members of Congress to the civil rights movement and the media. Between November 1963, when he became president, and November 1966, when his party was routed in the midterm elections, Lyndon Johnson spearheaded the most transformative agenda in American political history since the New Deal, one whose ambition and achievement have had no parallel since. In just three years, Johnson drove the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts; the War on Poverty program; Medicare and Medicaid; the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities; Public Broadcasting; immigration liberalization; a raft of consumer and environmental protection acts; and major federal investments in public transportation. Collectively, this group of achievements was labeled by Johnson and his team the "Great Society. " In The Fierce Urgency of Now, Julian E. Zelizer takes the full measure of the entire story in all its epic sweep. Before Johnson, Kennedy tried and failed to achieve many of these advances. Our practiced understanding is that this was an unprecedented "liberal hour" in America, a moment, after Kennedy's death, when the seas parted and Johnson could simply stroll through to victory. As Zelizer shows, this view is off-base: In many respects America was even more conservative than it seems now, and Johnson's legislative program faced bitter resistance. The Fierce Urgency of Now animates the full spectrum of forces at play during these turbulent years, including religious groups, the media, conservative and liberal political action groups, unions, and civil rights activists. Above all, the great character in the book whose role rivals Johnson's is Congress-indeed, Zelizer argues that our understanding of the Great Society program is too Johnson-centric. He discusses why Congress was so receptive to passing these ideas in a remarkably short span of time and how the election of 1964 and burgeoning civil rights movement transformed conditions on Capitol Hill. Zelizer brings a deep, intimate knowledge of the institution to bear on his story: The book is a master class in American political grand strategy. Finally, Zelizer reckons with the legacy of the Great Society. Though our politics have changed, the heart of the Great Society legislation remains intact fifty years later. In fact, he argues, the Great Society shifted the American political center of gravity-and our social landscape-decisively to the left in many crucial respects. In a very real sense, we are living today in the country that Johnson and his Congress made.
Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York
by Alexander NemerovA dazzling biography of one of the twentieth century's most respected painters, Helen Frankenthaler, as she came of age as an artist in postwar New York"The magic of Alexander Nemerov's portrait of Helen Frankenthaler in Fierce Poise is that it reads like one of Helen's paintings. His poetic descriptions of her work and his rich insights into the years when Helen made her first artistic breakthroughs are both light and lush, seemingly easy and yet profound. His book is an ode to a truly great artist who, some seventy years after this story begins, we are only now beginning to understand."--Mary Gabriel, author of Ninth Street WomenAt the dawn of the 1950s, a promising and dedicated young painter named Helen Frankenthaler, fresh out of college, moved back home to New York City to make her name. By the decade's end, she had succeeded in establishing herself as an important American artist of the postwar period. In the years in between, she made some of the most daring, head-turning paintings of her day and also came into her own as a woman: traveling the world, falling in and out of love, and engaging in an ongoing artistic education. She also experienced anew--and left her mark on--the city in which she had been raised in privilege as the daughter of a judge, even as she left the security of that world to pursue her artistic ambitions.Brought to vivid life by acclaimed art historian Alexander Nemerov, these defining moments--from her first awed encounter with Jackson Pollock's drip paintings to her first solo gallery show to her tumultuous breakup with eminent art critic Clement Greenberg--comprise a portrait as bold and distinctive as the painter herself. Inspired by Pollock and the other male titans of abstract expressionism but committed to charting her own course, Frankenthaler was an artist whose talent was matched only by her unapologetic determination to distinguish herself in a man's world.Fierce Poise is an exhilarating ride through New York's 1950s art scene and a brilliant portrait of a young artist through the moments that shaped her.
Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman
by Robert L. O'ConnellWilliam Tecumseh Sherman was more than just one of our greatest generals. Fierce Patriot is a bold, revisionist portrait of how this iconic and enigmatic figure exerted an outsize impact on the American landscape--and the American character. America's first "celebrity" general, William Tecumseh Sherman was a man of many faces. Some of them were exalted in the public eye. Others were known only to intimates--his family, friends and lovers, and the soldiers under his command. In this rich and layered portrait, Robert L. O'Connell captures the man in full for the first time. From his early exploits in Florida, to his role in California at the start of the Gold Rush, through his brilliant but tempestuous generalship during the Civil War, and to his postwar career as a key player in the building of the transcontinental railroad, Sherman was, as O'Connell puts it, the "human embodiment of Manifest Destiny." Here is Sherman the military strategist of genius, a master of logistics whose uncanny grasp of terrain and brilliant sense of timing always seemed to land him in the right place at the most opportune moments. O'Connell shows how Sherman's creation of an agile, improvisational fighting force--the Army of the West--helped turn the tide of the Civil War and laid the foundation for modern U.S. ground forces. Then there is "Uncle Billy," Sherman's public persona, a charismatic hero to his troops and quotable catnip to the newspaper writers of his day. Here, too, is the private Sherman. He was born into one powerhouse family--his grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence--and was adopted into another. His foster father, Thomas Ewing, was an influential politician and cabinet member who helped provide key opportunities for Sherman throughout his career. But Sherman's fraught relationship with Ewing, coupled with his appetite for women, parties, and the high life of the New York theater, certainly complicated his already turbulent marriage to his foster sister Ellen, a relationship O'Connell likens to a mix of "gunpowder and gasoline"--altogether a family triangle that might have sprung from the pages of a Victorian novel. As he peels away the layers of the Sherman persona, O'Connell dispels a number of common misperceptions about his subject. He sheds new light on Sherman's relationship with Ulysses S. Grant, and also on his struggle against Nathan Bedford Forrest and the insurgency that was the other half of the Civil War along the Mississippi. Later he reveals Sherman's fabled march from Atlanta to the sea not as a campaign of unmitigated destruction, as it is often portrayed, but the careful execution of a necessary piece of strategy calculated to scare the South back into the Union. O'Connell's Sherman is no Attila, but a complicated soldier/statesman--perhaps the quintessential nineteenth-century American. Warrior, family man, American icon, William Tecumseh Sherman has finally found a biographer worthy of his protean gifts. A masterful character study whose myriad insights are leavened with its author's trademark wit, Fierce Patriot will stand as the essential book on Sherman for decades to come.
Fierce Optimism: Seven Secrets for Playing Nice and Winning Big
by Leeza GibbonsAttitude can be sexy-- a practical and inspirational guide for using kindness and positivity as a winning strategy from Celebrity Apprentice champion, Hollywood veteran, and New York Times bestselling author Leeza Gibbons.We live in a winner-take-all world, in which only the toughest thrive. On the surface, from the living room to the boardroom, it's certainly no place for nice. Civility and kindness are often the price of admission, and empowering communication is checked at the door.Leeza Gibbons is a culture changer who doesn't "mess with mean." She has fiercely redefined optimism, and used positive communication as an empowerment strategy to win with class. She refuses to to sacrifice kindness as she has succeeded in getting ahead. Working for decades in an intense, often merciless industry that rewards novelty, ruthlessness, and the next big thing she has applied smart principles and excelled through savviness--without having to sell her soul or fake it. But redefining nice does not mean being a pushover. As the winning contestant on the hit show Celebrity Apprentice, the former host of Entertainment Tonight relied on her fresh and authentic "no drama" mentality and smart strategies to outmaneuver the other contestants without disempowering them. Throughout the competition, Leeza kept her cool and, most importantly, remained true to herself and her values. In this book, she reveals the secrets of her years of success and bares the stories and vulnerable moments that led to where she is today. Her success is proof that optimism works. You can play it your way and still win.In Fierce Optimism Leeza combines stories from her own life and tales of other pioneering business leaders with core principles that others can apply to take them to the next level of success:* Engage optimism and kindness as your competitive edge* See success unshared as failure* Empower the team, and you win * Pay it forward by mentoring others* Be transparently youFilled with down-to-earth advice and empowering stories, Fierce Optimism makes clear that with kindness, authenticity, and smart teamwork, you can be nice--and win.