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Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror
by Victor SebestyenVictor Sebestyen's riveting biography of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin—the first major biography in English in nearly two decades—is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century but also a fascinating portrait of Lenin the man.Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess, and the English classics, Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Sebestyen traces the story from Lenin's early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenin's life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife, and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade, Inessa Armand, reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.With Lenin's personal papers and those of other leading political figures now available, Sebestyen gives is new details that bring to life the dramatic and gripping story of how Lenin seized power in a coup and ran his revolutionary state. The product of a violent, tyrannical, and corrupt Russia, he chillingly authorized the deaths of thousands of people and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for a greater ideal. An old comrade what had once admired him said that Lenin "desired the good . . . but created evil." This included his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to horrifying new heights.In Lenin, Victor Sebestyen has written a brilliant portrait of this dictator as a complex and ruthless figure, and he also brings to light important new revelations about the Russian Revolution, a pivotal point in modern history.(With 16 pages of black-and-white photographs)
Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution (European History In Perspective Ser.)
by James D. WhiteA political and intellectual biographical study of Lenin which focuses on those aspects of his thought and political activities that had a bearing on the accession of the Bolsheviks to power in Russia in 1917 and the creation of the Soviet state. The book places Lenin in the context of his times and shows his relationship to other socialist thinkers. In particular it locates Lenin within the development of Marxist thought in Russia. Its historiographical chapter reveals the political factors which influenced the way biographies of Lenin were written in the Soviet Union. The book makes extensive use of first-hand materials including sources from the Russian archives.
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony
by Brian MoynahanShostakovich's Seventh Symphony was first played in the city of its birth on 9 August, 1942. There has never been a first performance to match it. Pray God, there never will be again. Almost a year earlier, the Germans had begun their blockade of the city. Already many thousands had died of their wounds, the cold, and most of all, starvation. The assembled musicians - scrounged from frontline units and military bands, for only twenty of the orchestra's 100 players had survived - were so hungry, many feared they'd be too weak to play the score right through. In these, the darkest days of the Second World War, the music and the defiance it inspired provided a rare beacon of light for the watching world. Setting the composition of Shostakovich's most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it, Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a magisterial and moving account of one of the most tragic periods in history.
Leningrad: Siege and Symphony
by Brian MoynahanIn Leningrad: Siege and Symphony, Brian Moynahan sets the composition of Shostakovich's most famous work against the tragic canvas of the siege itself and the years of repression and terror that preceded it.Drawing on extensive primary research in archives as well as personal letters and diaries, he vividly tells the story of the cruelties heaped by the twin monsters of the 20th century, Stalin and Hitler, on a city of exquisite beauty, and of its no less remarkable survival.Weaving Shostakovich's own story and that of many others into the context of the maelstrom of Stalin's purges and the Nazis' brutal invasion of Russia, Leningrad: Siege and Symphony is a magisterial and moving account of one of the most tragic periods of the twentieth century. (P)2013 WF Howes Ltd
Leningrad: State of Siege
by Michael Jones"All offers of surrender from Leningrad must be rejected,” wrote Adolph Hitler on September 29, 1941, at the outset of Operation Barbarossa. "In this struggle for survival, we have no interest in keeping even a proportion of the city’s population alive. ” During the famed 900-day siege of Leningrad, the German High Command deliberately planned to eradicate the city’s population through starvation. Viewing the Slavs as sub-human, Hitler embarked on a vicious program of ethnic cleansing. By the time the siege ended in January 1944, almost a million people had died. Those who survived would be marked permanently by what they endured as the city descended into chaos. In Leningrad, military historian Michael Jones chronicles the human story of this epic siege. Drawing on newly available eyewitness accounts and diaries, he reveals the true horrors of the ordeal--including stories long-suppressed by the Soviets of looting, criminal gangs, and cannibalism. But he also shows the immense psychological resources on which the citizens of Leningrad drew to survive against desperate odds. At the height of the siege, for instance, an extraordinary live performance of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony profoundly strengthened the city’s will to resist. A riveting account of one of the most harrowing sieges of world history, Leningrad also portrays the astonishing power of the human will in the face of even the direst catastrophe.
Lennon Revealed
by Larry KaneA quarter of a century after his death, the questions remain: what was John Lennon really like, what drove him to the heights of creativity and the depths of despair, and why do his music and message still resonate for millions around the world? Now acclaimed broadcast journalist and author Larry Kane uncovers the mysteries of Lennon's life and implodes the myths surrounding it. Kane definitely has the right credentials for the job. He was the only American reporter to travel in the Beatles' official entourage to every stop on their history-making first American tours, and he stayed in touch with Lennon until an assassin ended the former Beatles' life in 1980. Lennon Revealed is filled with revelations about John Lennon's path from public glory to personal crisis, and ultimately to his inspiring rebirth and the triumph of his spirit. Drawing on extensive personal accounts and extraordinary new interviews with more than 100 confidants-most notably, Yoko Ono-Kane presents stunning revelations and brings the reader closer than ever to the man who, in life and in death, has had an incalculable impact on humanity. Includes an exclusive DVD featuring the final interview with Lennon and Paul McCartney, conducted by Larry Kane.
Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon
by Jeff BurgerJohn Lennon was a highly opinionated and controversial figure with a commanding personality and quick wit. He spoke candidly about his intense, sometimes tumultuous relationship with Yoko Ono, his split with the Beatles, his squabbles with Paul McCartney, and just about everything else, baring his emotional ups and downs for all to see. By the time he granted his--and this book's--final interview, only hours before his death, he had become one of the most famous people on the planet. Lennon on Lennon is an authoritative anthology of some of Lennon's most illuminating interviews. The majority have not been previously available in print, and several of the most important have not been widely available in any format. This material paints a revealing picture of the artist in his own words and offers a window into the cultural atmosphere of the sixties and seventies.
Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll
by Greg LaurieA nationally best-selling author and pastor draws lessons of hope and transformation in the perils of excess, the agonies of repentance, and the wonder of redemption found in the life stories of several icons of pop music and rock and roll. From the author of Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon comes Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus, which traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees—a great place to look up and finally meet their Maker. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus chronicles the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to today, giving the book an all-encompassing study of pop music history. Through his personal memories, coupled with his carefully crafted observational research, Greg Laurie not only looks deeply into the hearts and souls of these unusual people but bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey down the secluded halls of the music industry with the individuals who crafted modern-day masterpieces. Readers will enjoy never-before-published accounts of the biggest recording artists of our time and hear testimonies from rockers of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. More importantly, every reader will find a deeper sense of God&’s presence, even in times of loneliness and desolation.
Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life
by Tim RileyIn his commanding new book, the eminent NPR critic Tim Riley takes us on the remarkable journey that brought a Liverpool art student from a disastrous childhood to the highest realms of fame.Riley portrays Lennon's rise from Hamburg's red light district to Britain's Royal Variety Show; from the charmed naiveté of "Love Me Do" to the soaring ambivalence of "Don't Let Me Down"; from his shotgun marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1962 to his epic media romance with Yoko Ono. Written with the critical insight and stylistic mastery readers have come to expect from Riley, this richly textured narrative draws on numerous new and exclusive interviews with Lennon's friends, enemies, confidantes, and associates; lost memoirs written by relatives and friends; as well as previously undiscovered City of Liverpool records. Riley explores Lennon in all of his contradictions: the British art student who universalized an American style, the anarchic rock 'n' roller with the moral spine, the anti-jazz snob who posed naked with his avant-garde lover, and the misogynist who became a househusband. What emerges is the enormous, seductive, and confounding personality that made Lennon a cultural touchstone.In Lennon, Riley casts Lennon as a modernist hero in a sweeping epic, dramatizing rock history anew as Lennon himself might have experienced it.
Lenny Bruce Is Dead: A Novel
by Jonathan GoldsteinThis startlingly original debut from This American Life contributor Jonathan Goldstein is, according to a Vice Magazine reviewer, "the cleanest dirty book I've ever read." It's a snapshot of the mind of Josh, a rather confused young man who must cope with his father's listlessness and his own overwhelming lust, not to mention the arrival of the Moschiach, inventor of the infamous Love Lotion.Lenny Bruce Is Dead walks a tightrope between the searingly funny and the poignant. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll long for some Love Lotion of your own. And you won't forget Josh–ineptitude, scatological neuroses, urban angst, self–deprecating humor and all.
Lento y salvaje: La manera nómada e independiente de vivir la música y cantar la vida el compositor de McEnroe
by Ricardo LezónLa descarnada y emotiva autobiografía de Ricardo Lezón, líder de la icónica banda McEnroe. En aquel tiempo, pese a vivir una vida ordenada, todo estaba desordenado en mí, tanto como las frases incomprensibles que escribía y que en su fondo guardaban ese desconcierto de quien no encaja ni sabe dónde encajar. La extraña armonía que desprenden es la de un hombre perdido que sabe que siempre lo estará. Resistir a la tristeza aun dudando de si el corazón batido volverá a latir como antes. Seguir a flote gracias al salvavidas de la música, refugio al que acudir y donde guarecerse cuando fuera todo se tambalea. O para conseguir que todo se tambalee. Dejar que te arrase el gozo que provoca un nuevo amor, una nueva canción, con la seguridad de que no hay otro camino. Desarmarse siempre ante lo natural. Esta es la autobiografía de Ricardo Lezón, líder de la icónica banda McEnroe, que cumple veinte años de vida, con más de siete álbumes publicados y cientos de miles de kilómetros de carretera y escenario. La de McEnroe es la historia de un éxito extraño, de veinte años dedicándose a la música sin convertirla nunca en un trabajo, dejando crecer siempre la semilla de lo espontaneo, con la confianza de sus propios pasos. En este libro, narrado con mucha pluma y sensibilidad, Ricardo Lezón baja al suelo el mito del rock and roll. Un libro muy sincero escrito por el autor de algunas de las mejores canciones del indie español.Lento y salvaje es el relato de un hombre construyendo su paisaje. La historia sencilla de alguien que camina a través de la ansiedad, la tristeza, la esperanza y la alegría con el paso frágil pero terco de quien encuentra el sentido y la paz en la belleza.
Lenços pretos, chapéus de palha e brincos de ouro
by Susana Moreira MarquesGuiada pelo livro de Maria Lamas As mulheres do meu país, Susana Moreira Marques percorre o país ao encontro da memória das mulheres portuguesas do passado, numa viagem que vai em busca de uma herança esquecida. Pelo caminho, compõe um retrato de quem somos agora e redescobre um legado para o futuro. Lenços pretos, chapéus de palha e brincos de ouro é um livro múltiplo: Um relato de viagem que tem como guia As mulheres do meu país, escrito no final dos anos 1940 por Maria Lamas, figura de proa do activismo político em Portugal.Um ensaio sobre os textos que as mulheres não escreveram e as vidas que elas não viveram, e que poderiam ter mudado a visão da História. A narrativa autobiográfica de uma escritora que tenta encontrar e desvendar a sua própria história nas histórias das mulheres anónimas que povoam o nosso imaginário.Susana Moreira Marques viaja pelas aldeias ruidosas do passado e as aldeias-museu do presente; passa por hotéis modernos onde já chegou o progresso de ter um quarto só para si; encontra mulheres que ainda vivem no silêncio de antigamente; procura registar velhas memórias e fazer perguntas que sejam úteis hoje: começa a desenhar as mulheres do país do futuro.
Leo Messi
by Roy Apps Chris KingWe've all got a dream, right? <P><P> Growing up in Rosario, Argentina was tough for a kid - especially a little one like Lionel Messi. But Lionel didn't want to be little - he wanted to be a LEGEND! <P>This is the story of Lionel's discovery, his first football matches for Newell's Old Boys and then the huge decision that would change his life FOREVER... <P>It takes blood, sweat and tears to get to the top of any sport, and these short, inspirational biographies show just how tough it can be. <P>Each is written by expert author Roy Apps for kids with a reading age of 7 (but could also be enjoyed by pre-teens) and illustrated with black-and-white artwork. <P>The stories focus on top athletes and sport personalities, with each dramatic story bringing to life the skill, determination and luck needed to break through into top level competition.
Leo Messi (EDGE: Dream to Win #18)
by Roy AppsWe've all got a dream, right? Growing up in Rosario, Argentina was tough for a kid - especially a little one like Lionel Messi. But Lionel didn't want to be little - he wanted to be a LEGEND! This is the story of Lionel's discovery, his first football matches for Newell's Old Boys and then the huge decision that would change his life FOREVER...It takes blood, sweat and tears to get to the top of any sport, and these short, inspirational biographies show just how tough it can be. Each is written by expert author Roy Apps for kids with a reading age of 7 (but could also be enjoyed by pre-teens) and illustrated with black-and-white artwork. The stories focus on top athletes and sport personalities, with each dramatic story bringing to life the skill, determination and luck needed to break through into top level competition.This title is published by Franklin Watts EDGE, which produces a range of booksto get children reading with confidence. EDGE - for books kids can't put down.
Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices
by Michael Broyles Denise Von GlahnLeo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices traces the meteoric rise and heretofore inexplicable disappearance of the Russian-American, futurist-anarchist, pianist-composer from his arrival in the United States in 1906 through a career that lasted nearly a century. Outliving his admirers and critics by decades Leo Ornstein passed away in 2002 at the age of 108. Frequently compared to Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, for a time Ornstein enjoyed a kind a celebrity granted few living musicians. And then he turned his back on it all. This first, full-length biographical study draws upon interviews, journals, and letters from a wide circle of Ornstein's friends and acquaintances to track the Ornstein family as it escaped the horrors of the Russian pogroms, and it situates the Russian-Jewish-American musician as he carved out an identity amidst World War I, the flu pandemic, and the Red Scare. While telling Leo Ornstein's story, the book also illuminates the stories of thousands of immigrants with similar harrowing experiences. It also explores the immeasurable impact of his unexpected marriage in 1918 to Pauline Mallet-Prevost, a Park Avenue debutante. Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices finds Ornstein at the center of several networks that included artists John Marin, William Zorach, Leon Kroll, writers and activists Paul Rosenfeld, Waldo Frank, Edmund Wilson, and Clair Reis, the Stieglitz Circle, and a group of English composers known as the Frankfurt Five. Ornstein's story challenges directly the traditional chronology and narrative regarding musical modernism in America and its close relation to the other arts.
Leo Smith: A Biographical Sketch (The Royal Society of Canada Special Publications)
by Pearl McCarthyLEO SMITH—cellist, journalist, composer, and teacher—was one of the most picturesque and frequently idolized artists on the Canadian scene. His career spanned the years between the old music and the new, between the time when artistic education was private and the time when people fasten their cultural hopes on public education and government funds, between the last days when white gloves were worn to drawing room musicales and the days when men dash to recitals without ties. Throughout this period, Leo Smith not only composed and performed for the public, but carried his public with him into the new era. His history, then, provides a changing picture of the Canadian cultural scene through one of the most formative periods in the country's social history. To the crowds at large popular concerts such as the Toronto Proms, this elderly, contented musician represented the epitome of the music maker. In his music, Leo Smith bridged the gap between the old orthodoxies and new idioms, and as a teacher of theory and composition, he showed a younger generation, intent on yet newer innovations, how to be consistent as creative experimentalists. And in the last years of his life he moved out of the scholar's study into the hurly-burly of a metropolitan newspaper to become one of Canada's most trenchant and informed music critics. Pearl McCarthy's biography vividly recapitulates the Canadian musical scene between 1910 and 1952 and provides a coda to the career of an important influecne in Canadian music.
Leo Sowerby (American Composers)
by Joseph SargentFrom the 1920s to the 1940s, Leo Sowerby created popular secular works while his sacred compositions led admirers to call him the “dean of American church musicians.” Yet in time, Sowerby’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Canticle of the Sun and the rest of his corpus lost favor with the A-list symphonies and prominent musicians who had once made him a fixture in their repertoires. Joseph Sargent’s biography offers the first focused study of Sowerby’s life and work against the backdrop of the composer’s place in American music. As Sargent shows, Sowerby’s present-day marginalization as a composer relates less to the quality of his work than the fact that today’s historiographical practices and canon-building activities minimize modern church music. Sargent’s re-evaluation draws on a wide range of perspectives and composer’s music and writings to enrich detailed analyses of musical works and a career-spanning consideration of Sowerby’s musical language and aesthetic priorities.
Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America
by Paul E. GottfriedThis book offers an original interpretation of the achievement of Leo Strauss, stressing how his ideas and followers reshaped the American conservative movement. The conservative movement that reached out to Strauss and his legacy was extremely fluid and lacked a self-confident leadership. Conservative activists and journalists felt a desperate need for academic acceptability, which they thought Strauss and his disciples would furnish. They also became deeply concerned with the problem of 'value relativism', which self-described conservatives thought Strauss had effectively addressed. But until recently, neither Strauss nor his disciples have considered themselves to be 'conservatives'. Contrary to another misconception, Straussians have never wished to convert Americans to ancient political ideals and practices, except in a very selective rhetorical fashion. Strauss and his disciples have been avid champions of American modernity, and 'timeless' values as interpreted by Strauss and his followers often look starkly contemporary.
Leo Thorsness: Vietnam: Valor in the Sky (Medal of Honor #3)
by Michael P. SpradlinFor middle-grade readers, the true story of a pilot in the U.S. Air Force who received the Medal of Honor for his great acts of aerial valor. Lieutenant Colonel Leo K. Thorsness was a Wild Weasel pilot in the Vietnam War, targeting enemy missile sites. On a 1967 mission, when his wingmen ejected from their burning aircraft, Thorsness initiated attacks on enemy planes and other daring maneuvers in order to protect them. Two weeks later, he was shot down and would become a P. O. W. for the next six years.This is the third nonfiction middle-grade book in the Medal of Honor series, which profiles the courage and accomplishments of recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest and most prestigious personal military decoration, awarded to recognize U.S. military service members who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary acts of valor.
Leo Tolstoy in Conversation with Four Peasant Sectarian Writers: The Complete Correspondence
by Andrew DonskovAndrew Donskov takes a critical look not only at Tolstoy’s attitude towards the peasant class he so often championed for their simple ways and freedom from upper-class sophistication and pretentiousness, but more importantly, gives voice to representatives of the peasant class itself. The theme of the peasantry is central throughout most of Tolstoy’s long career. His obsession with this class is seen not just as a matter of social or humanitarian concern, but as a response to the questions of “how to live a good life” and “what is the meaning of life that an inevitable death will not destroy?” These questions plagued him his entire life. The letters he exchanged with the four major peasant sectarian writers (Bondarev, Zheltov, Verigin, and Novikov) reveal that Tolstoy was matched as a profound thinker by his correspondents, as they converse on religious-moral questions, the meaning of life and how one should strive to find it, and on a wide array of burning social and personal problems. Reading through the analysis and the extensively annotated letters as a unified whole, elucidates the progressive development of the ideas they shared (and where these diverged) and which guided Tolstoy’s and his correspondents’ lives. Juxtaposing Tolstoy’s letters with those of his four sectarian correspondents makes them even more significant as it shows them in their original context – a dialogue, or conversation. Also, with the aim to present the conversation in an even broader context, Andrew Donskov briefly discusses Tolstoy’s relationship with peasants in general as well as with each of the four individual writers in particular. In addition, he provides a background sketch of two major religious groups, namely the Doukhobors and the Molokans, both of which still claim sizeable populations of followers in North America today. Originally published in 2008 by the Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa under the title Leo Tolstoy and Russian peasant sectarian writers: Selected correspondence, the expanded University of Ottawa Press edition includes 44 letters never published in English, out of the total 155 letters. Correspondence translated by John Woodsworth. Published in English.
Leo Wilm's Memories of the Waffen-SS: An SS-Heimwehr Danzig, SS-Totenkopf-Division, and 9. SS-Panzer-Division “Hohenstaufen” Veteran Remembers
by Rolf Michaelis Leo WilmA firsthand account of Leo Wilm&’s six years at war in the Waffen-SS
Leo and His Circle: The Life of Leo Castelli
by Annie Cohen-SolalLeo Castelli reigned for decades as America's most influential art dealer. "Leo and His Circle" tells the story of his astonishing life and career.
Leo: The Art of Living Well and Finding Happiness According to Your Star Sign
by Sally KirkmanYou are a Leo. You are the creative expert and shining light of the zodiac.The signs of the zodiac can give us great insight into our day-to-day living as well as the many talents and qualities we possess. But in an increasingly unpredictable world, how can we make sense of them? And what do they mean? This insightful and introductory guide delves deep into your star sign, revealing unique traits and meanings which you didn't know. Along the way, you will discover how your sign defies your compatibility, how to improve your health and what your gifts are. ***The Pocket Astrology series will teach you how to live well and enhance every aspect of your life. From friendship to compatibility, careers to finance, you will discover new elements to your sign and learn about the ancient art of astrology. Other audiobooks in the series include: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius,Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Leon Battista Alberti: Writer and Humanist
by Martin McLaughlinThe first book in English to examine Leon Battista Alberti&’s major literary works in Latin and Italian, which are often overshadowed by his achievements in architectureLeon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) was one of the most prolific and original writers of the Italian Renaissance—a fact often eclipsed by his more celebrated achievements as an art theorist and architect, and by Jacob Burckhardt&’s mythologizing of Alberti as a "Renaissance or Universal Man." In this book, Martin McLaughlin counters this partial perspective on Alberti, considering him more broadly as a writer dedicated to literature and humanism, a major protagonist and experimentalist in the literary scene of early Renaissance Italy. McLaughlin, a noted authority on Alberti, examines all of Alberti&’s major works in Latin and the Italian vernacular and analyzes his vast knowledge of classical texts and culture.McLaughlin begins with what we know of Alberti&’s life, comparing the facts laid out in Alberti&’s autobiography with the myth created in the nineteenth century by Burckhardt, before moving on to his extraordinarily wide knowledge of classical texts. He then turns to Alberti&’s works, tracing his development as a writer through texts that range from an early comedy in Latin successfully passed off as the work of a fictitious ancient author to later philosophical dialogues written in the Italian vernacular (a revolutionary choice at the time); humorous works in Latin, including the first novel in that language since antiquity; and the famous treatises on painting and architecture. McLaughlin also examines the astonishing range of Alberti's ancient sources and how this reading influenced his writing; what the humanist read, he argues, often explains what he wrote, and what he wrote reflected his relentless industry and pursuit of originality.
Leon Bibel: Forgotten Artist of the New Deal
by Richard HawLeon Bibel (1913–1995) was a prolific modern American artist who painted, printed, stamped, etched, sketched, and carved. He produced pieces that ranged from social realism to dreamy expressionism and was an aesthetic experimentalist, never working for too long in any medium or style. And despite Bibel's obvious talent, his work would have languished in obscurity were it not for the New Deal programs like the Federal Art Project and Public Works of Art Project. Leon Bibel, the first biography of this eclectic artist, recounts his life from his birth in Szczebrzeszyn, Poland, in 1913, to his death in New Jersey in 1995. After immigrating to the United States in the 1920s, Bibel came of age during the Great Depression, when New Deal agencies recognized his abilities and supported his artistic endeavors. Working-class artists faced challenges after these programs folded, and Bibel would later spend twenty years as a New Jersey chicken farmer before resurrecting his art career in the 1960s. Historian Richard Haw shows how Bibel's life was defined by the New Deal, his visionary artwork shaped by the era's commitment to social and economic justice. With reproductions of more than 240 of Bibel's works, most in vivid color, this book reveals how he depicted everything from the trauma of unemployment to the dignity of work, from the horrors of lynching to the pleasures of everyday life.