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Mencken on Mencken: A New Collection of Autobiographical Writings

by H. L. Mencken S. T. Joshi

"Mencken weighs 172 pounds, is 5 feet 10 inches in height and not beautiful. His chief amusement, after reading, is piano-playing, this he does very crudely. He takes no exercise except walking and is a moderate eater and drinker. He sometimes drinks as little as one bottle of beer a week, though this doesn't happen very often." So wrote H. L. Mencken about himself, in a brief sketch of his life penned in 1905.Perhaps America's foremost literary stylist and most mordant wit, Mencken's most engaging writing told about his own life and experiences. In Mencken on Mencken, veteran Mencken editor and scholar S. T. Joshi has assembled a hefty collection of the best of Mencken's autobiographical pieces that have not appeared previously in book form. These forty-four selections cover a wide variety of topics ranging from incidents from Mencken's everyday life to reflections on friends and colleagues to his careers as author, journalist, and editor, to his travels abroad. As a journalist in Baltimore, Mencken encountered many unusual characters: a professional mourner hired by a beer distiller, a wagon driver who slept through the great Baltimore fire of 1904, a confirmed bachelor who left town to avoid the clutches of a predatory widow. He provides accounts of literary figures he knew, such as Theodore Dreiser, and ruminations on his work at the Baltimore Sun and as editor for the magazines Smart Set and the American Mercury. In an essay titled "What I Believe," he eschews humor and writes straightforwardly of his longtime scorn for the idea of religion, and in his journalist mode he reflects on a half-century of attending political conventions, drawing on his vast inside knowledge to savage the corruption and incompetence of the political class. A superb travel writer, Mencken gives us a rollicking account of beer-drinking in Munich, astute observations of political unrest in Cuba, and carefully drawn scenes from a long tour he and his wife made of the Mediterranean in 1934.Joshi has thoroughly annotated the pieces and also compiled an extensive glossary of names and terms that Mencken mentions. Mencken on Mencken offers a fully rounded self-portrait of one of America's most colorful personalities and most extraordinary men of letters.

Mencken: A Life

by Fred Hobson

Ever in control, H. L. Mencken contrived that future generations would see his life as he desired them to. He even wrote Happy Days, Newspaper Days, and other books to fit the pictures he wanted: first, the carefree Baltimore boy; then, the delighted, exuberant critic of American life.But he only told part of the truth. Over the past twenty-five years, vital collections of the writer's papers have become available, including his literary correspondence, a 2,100-page diary, equally long manuscripts about his literary and journalistic careers, and numerous accumulations of his personal correspondence. The letters and diaries of Mencken's intimates have been uncovered as well.Now Fred Hobson has used this newly accessible material to fashion the first truly comprehensive portrait of this most original of American originals.NOTE: This edition does not include photographs.

Mendel's Daughter: A Memoir

by Martin Lemelman Gusta Lemelman

A graphic memoir, illustrated with black-and-white drawings and photography, follows the author's mother's dramatic escape from Nazi persecution, in a visual transcription of her childhood in 1930s Poland, her victimization under the Nazi regime, and struggles to survive.

Mendeleev Rock

by Andrei Kuzechkin Pavel Kostin

These two novels by Debut Prize finalists present typical provincial towns in central Russia and a gallery of modern-day types: radically minded youths, ruthless thugs, drunken intellectuals, the local elite, and failed fortune seekers. The heroes are yearning for faraway glamorous cities and trying to find their identities. They suffer through various weird misadventures, but for many readers their tales may be a survival guide. A vivid portrait of the younger generation in today's Russia: stunned by their first painful contacts with harsh reality. The authors will present the book at BEA 2011 in New York.

Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest For The Elements

by Paul Strathern

The wondrous and illuminating story of humankind's quest to discover the fundamentals of chemistry, culminating in Mendeleyev's dream of the Periodic Table. In 1869 Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev was puzzling over a way to bring order to the fledgling science of chemistry. Wearied by the effort, he fell asleep at his desk. What he dreamt would fundamentally change the way we see the world. Framing this history is the life story of the nineteenth-century Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleyev, who fell asleep at his desk and awoke after conceiving the periodic table in a dream-the template upon which modern chemistry is founded and the formulation of which marked chemistry's coming of age as a science. From ancient philosophy through medieval alchemy to the splitting of the atom, this is the true story of the birth of chemistry and the role of one man's dream. In this elegant, erudite, and entertaining book, Paul Strathern unravels the quixotic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements.

Mending

by Dorothy Hsu

MENDING is a diary of one widow's thoughts and emotions ... of the questions she asked and the answers she found ... of a faith that helped her accept a new life ... without fear ... without shame ... or bitterness.

Mending the World: Stories of Family by Contemporary Black Writers

by Rosemarie Robotham

The many facets of black family life have not always been fully visible in American literature. Black families have often been portrayed as chaotic, fractured, and emotionally devastated, and historians and sociologists are just beginning to acknowledge the resilience and strength of African American families through centuries of hardship. In Mending the World, a host of beloved writers celebrate the richness of black family life, revealing how deep, complicated, and joyous modern kinship can be. From Jamaica Kincaid's portrait of a young girl moving away from her mother to better know herself to Alice Walker's reflection on the joy and pain of her relationship with her own daughter; from Edwidge Danticat's fictional evocation of a young woman rocked by revelations about her parents to James McBride's elegy for his stepfather, this inspiring volume presents-through fiction, memoir, and poetry-a multi-layered and optimistic portrait of today's black America.

Mengele: Unmasking The Angel Of Death

by David G. Marwell

A gripping biography of the infamous Nazi doctor, from a former Justice Department official tasked with uncovering his fate. Perhaps the most notorious war criminal of all time, Josef Mengele was the embodiment of bloodless efficiency and passionate devotion to a grotesque worldview. Aided by the role he has assumed in works of popular culture, Mengele has come to symbolize the Holocaust itself as well as the failure of justice that allowed countless Nazi murderers and their accomplices to escape justice. Whether as the demonic doctor who directed mass killings or the elusive fugitive who escaped capture, Mengele has loomed so large that even with conclusive proof, many refused to believe that he had died. As chief of investigative research at the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations in the 1980s, David G. Marwell worked on the Mengele case, interviewing his victims, visiting the scenes of his crimes, and ultimately holding his bones in his hands. Drawing on his own experience as well as new scholarship and sources, Marwell examines in scrupulous detail Mengele’s life and career. He chronicles Mengele’s university studies, which led to two PhDs and a promising career as a scientist; his wartime service both in frontline combat and at Auschwitz, where his “selections” sent innumerable innocents to their deaths and his “scientific” pursuits—including his studies of twins and eye color—traumatized or killed countless more; and his postwar flight from Europe and refuge in South America. Mengele describes the international search for the Nazi doctor in 1985 that ended in a cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the dogged forensic investigation that produced overwhelming evidence that Mengele had died—but failed to convince those who, arguably, most wanted him dead. This is the riveting story of science without limits, escape without freedom, and resolution without justice.

Menin Gate North: In Memory and In Mourning (In Memory and in Mourning)

by Paul Chapman

This is a comprehensive and highly emotive volume, borne of years of intensive research and many trips to the battlefields of the Great War. It seeks to humanize the Menin Gate Memorial (North), to offer the reader a chance to engage with the personal stories of the soldiers whose names have been chiseled there in stone. Poignant stories of camaraderie, tragic twists of fate and noble sacrifice have been collated in an attempt to bring home the reality of war and the true extent of its tragic cost. It is hoped that visitors to the battlefields, whether their relatives are listed within or not, will find their experience enriched by having access to this treasure trove of stories.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

by Rhoda Janzen

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her injured. Needing a place to rest and pick up the pieces of her life, Rhoda packed her bags, crossed the country, and returned to her quirky Mennonite family's home, where she was welcomed back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she get over her heartbreak by dating her first cousin - he owned a tractor, see.) Written with wry humor and huge personality - and tackling faith, love, family, and aging - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

by Rhoda Janzen

A hilarious and moving memoir—in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron—about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisisNot long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn't just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda's good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin—he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.Written with wry humor and huge personality—and tackling faith, love, family, and aging—Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

Menopause: the True Story

by Christa D'Souza

'The final step to equality has to be turning the menopause into a topic we can happily discuss, and even celebrate. In these pages, Christa D'Souza puts us firmly on that path.' - MARIELLA FROSTRUP'Been there... survived that... but how I wish I'd had this menopause tour guide to get me through. Brilliant and beautifully written.' - CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR'Warm, witty and wise. No woman - or man, come to that - should be without this book.' - CRESSIDA CONNOLLYThere has never been a better time to be a menopausal woman. Technology is such that 60 really is the new 40 (or even 35). But, for Christa D'Souza, some nagging questions remain... What is the point of us now that we are officially biologically irrelevant? Are hormones safe, even if you've had cancer? Is there a cut-off point for plaits? In this fabulously confessional romp through the menopause, D'Souza tells us what it was like for her, and what it will be like for you. She meets a bunch of menopausal nuns in San Francisco, goes hunter-gathering with the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, interviews experts around the world to get the latest science... and discovers along the way some surprising silver linings to this key milestone of maturity. Menopause: the memoir is a treat of a book - liberating, empowering and unexpectedly moving in its truth-telling.

Mental Maps in the Early Cold War Era, 1945-1968

by Jonathan Wright Steven Casey

The early Cold War was a period of dramatic change. New superpowers emerged, the European powers were eclipsed, colonial empires tottered. Political leaders everywhere had to make immense adjustments. This volume explores their hopes and fears, their sense of their place in the world and of the constraints under which they laboured.

Mental Traveler: A Father, a Son, and a Journey through Schizophrenia

by W. J. Mitchell

How does a parent make sense of a child’s severe mental illness? How does a father meet the daily challenges of caring for his gifted but delusional son, while seeking to overcome the stigma of madness and the limits of psychiatry? W. J. T. Mitchell’s memoir tells the story—at once representative and unique—of one family’s encounter with mental illness and bears witness to the life of the talented young man who was his son. Gabriel Mitchell was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age twenty-one and died by suicide eighteen years later. He left behind a remarkable archive of creative work and a father determined to honor his son’s attempts to conquer his own illness. Before his death, Gabe had been working on a film that would show madness from inside and out, as media stereotype and spectacle, symptom and stigma, malady and minority status, disability and gateway to insight. He was convinced that madness is an extreme form of subjective experience that we all endure at some point in our lives, whether in moments of ecstasy or melancholy, or in the enduring trauma of a broken heart. Gabe’s declared ambition was to transform schizophrenia from a death sentence to a learning experience, and madness from a curse to a critical perspective. Shot through with love and pain, Mental Traveler shows how Gabe drew his father into his quest for enlightenment within madness. It is a book that will touch anyone struggling to cope with mental illness, and especially for parents and caregivers of those caught in its grasp.

Mental: Lithium, Love, and Losing My Mind

by Jaime Lowe

A riveting memoir and a fascinating investigation of the history, uses, and controversies behind lithium, an essential medication for millions of people struggling with bipolar disorder. It began in Los Angeles in 1993, when Jaime Lowe was just sixteen. She stopped sleeping and eating, and began to hallucinate—demonically cackling Muppets, faces lurking in windows, Michael Jackson delivering messages from the Neverland Underground. Lowe wrote manifestos and math equations in her diary, and drew infographics on her bedroom wall. Eventu­ally, hospitalized and diagnosed as bipolar, she was prescribed a medication that came in the form of three pink pills—lithium.In Mental, Lowe shares and investigates her story of episodic madness, as well as the stabil­ity she found while on lithium. She interviews scientists, psychiatrists, and patients to examine how effective lithium really is and how its side effects can be dangerous for long-term users—including Lowe, who after twenty years on the medication suffers from severe kidney damage. Mental is eye-opening and powerful, tackling an illness and drug that has touched millions of lives and yet remains shrouded in social stigma. Now, while she adjusts to a new drug, her pur­suit of a stable life continues as does her curiosity about the history and science of the mysterious element that shaped the way she sees the world and allowed her decades of sanity. Lowe travels to the Bolivian salt flats that hold more than half of the world’s lithium reserves, rural America where lithium is mined for batteries, and tolithium spas that are still touted as a tonic to cure all ills. With unflinching honesty and humor, Lowe allows a clear-eyed view into her life, and an arresting inquiry into one of mankind’s oldest medical mysteries.

Mentally Incontinent

by Joe Peacock

The 21 stories in this book were chosen by the more than 500,000 readers of the author's website over the course of three years, thereby producing the world's first Internet-based, reader-edited book.

Mentor

by Tom Grimes

A chance encounter by two writers, one young, one older, develops into a wonderful friendship neither expected. Frank Conroy, the author of the classic memoir Stop-Time, meets Tom Grimes, an aspiring writer and an applicant to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which Conroy directs. First as teacher and student - and gradually as friends-their lives become entwined, and through both successes and disappointments, their bond deepens. Exquisitely written, Mentor is an honest and heartbreaking exploration of the writing life and the role of a very important teacher.

Mentor: A Memoir

by Tom Grimes

An intimate look at the writing life, the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, the fickle publishing world, and an extraordinary friendship with Frank Conroy. A chance encounter between two writers, one young, one older, develops into a wonderful friendship neither expected. Frank Conroy, author of the classic memoir Stop-Time, meets Tom Grimes, an aspiring writer and an applicant to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which Conroy directs. First as teacher and student--and gradually as friends--their lives become entwined, and through both successes and disappointments, their bond deepens. Exquisitely written, Mentor is an honest and heartbreaking exploration of the writing life and the role of a very important teacher.

Mentor: A Memoir

by Tom Grimes

An intimate look at the writing life, the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, the fickle publishing world, and an extraordinary friendship with Frank Conroy. A chance encounter between two writers, one young, one older, develops into a wonderful friendship neither expected. Frank Conroy, author of the classic memoir Stop-Time, meets Tom Grimes, an aspiring writer and an applicant to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which Conroy directs. First as teacher and student--and gradually as friends--their lives become entwined, and through both successes and disappointments, their bond deepens. Exquisitely written, Mentor is an honest and heartbreaking exploration of the writing life and the role of a very important teacher.

Mentor: A Memoir

by Tom Grimes

An intimate look at the writing life, the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, the fickle publishing world, and an extraordinary friendship with Frank Conroy. A chance encounter between two writers, one young, one older, develops into a wonderful friendship neither expected. Frank Conroy, author of the classic memoir Stop-Time, meets Tom Grimes, an aspiring writer and an applicant to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which Conroy directs. First as teacher and student--and gradually as friends--their lives become entwined, and through both successes and disappointments, their bond deepens. Exquisitely written, Mentor is an honest and heartbreaking exploration of the writing life and the role of a very important teacher.

Mentors, Muses & Monsters

by Elizabeth Benedict

For Denis Johnson, it was Leonard Gardner's cult favorite Fat City; for Jonathan Safran Foer, it was a brief encounter with Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai; Mary Gordon's mentors were two Barnard professors, writers Elizabeth Hardwick and Janice Thaddeus, whose lessons could not have been more different. In Mentors, Muses & Monsters, edited and with a contribution by Elizabeth Benedict, author of the National Book Award finalist Slow Dancing, thirty of today's brightest literary lights turn their attention to the question of mentorship and influence, exploring the people, events, and books that have transformed their lives. The result is an astonishing collection of stirring, insightful, and sometimes funny personal essays. In her communications with contributors, Benedict noticed a longing to thank the people who had changed their lives, and to acknowledge them the best way a storyteller can, by revealing the intricacies of their connection. These writers look back to when something powerful happened to them at an unpredictable age, a moment when a role model saw potential in them, or when they came to understand they possessed literary talent themselves. As most of these encounters occurred when the writers were young -- unsure of who they were or what they could accomplish -- several pieces radiate a poignant tenderness, and almost all of them express enduring gratitude. When Joyce Carol Oates describes her public-rivalry-turned-wary-professional-acquaintanceship with Donald Barthelme, we are privy to the fascinating sight of one of today's most important writers being directly, personally affected by another influential writer. When Sigrid Nunez reveals what it was like to be Susan Sontag's protégé, we get a glimpse into the private life and working philosophy of a formidable public intellectual. And when Jane Smiley describes her first year at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, she offers an intimate portrait of a literary milieu of enduring significance for American literature. Rich, thought-provoking, and often impassioned, these pieces illuminate not only the anxiety but the necessity of influence -- and also the treasures it yields. By revealing themselves as young men and women in search of direction and meaning, these artists explore the endlessly varied paths to creative awakening and literary acclaim.

Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped

by Russell Brand

Russell Brand explores the idea of mentoring and shares what he's learned from the guidance of his own helpers, heroes and mentors.Could happiness lie in helping others and being open to accepting help yourself? Mentors – the follow up to the New York Times bestseller Recovery – describes the benefits of seeking and offering help."I have mentors in every area of my life, as a comic, a dad, a recovering drug addict, a spiritual being and as a man who believes that we, as individuals and the great globe itself, are works in progress and that through a chain of mentorship we can improve individually and globally, together . . . One of the unexpected advantages my drug addiction granted is that the process of recovery that I practise includes a mentorship tradition. "I will encourage you to find mentors of your own and explain how you may better use the ones you already have. Furthermore, I will tell you about my experiences mentoring others and how invaluable that has been on my ongoing journey to self-acceptance and how it has helped me to transform from a bewildered and volatile vagabond to a (mostly) present and (usually) focussed husband and father."—Russell Brand Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped describes the impact that a series of significant people have had on the author – from the wayward youths he tried to emulate growing up in Essex, through the first ex-junkie sage, to the people he turns to today to help him be a better father. It explores how we all – consciously and unconsciously – choose guides, mentors and heroes throughout our lives and examines the new perspectives they can bring.

Mentre Stiro

by Valerie Hockert Nicole Stella

Cos'è successo ai vestiti antipiega? Tina si chiede mentre stira un paio di pantaloni a pinocchietto, con non poca fatica. Ripercorre la storia dei tessuti, dal perma press, ai vestiti senza pieghe, alle fibre naturali, fino a quelli che ancora oggi devono essere stirati, proprio quando la vita dovrebbe essere più semplice. Mentre Tina sta stirando la camicia del marito, si chiede perchè lui sia così ostinato ad indossare completi eleganti, con giacca e cravatta, nel suo lavoro da stock broker. Riflette anche su che tipo curato sia, e come ogni cosa debba essere in ordine. Se qualcosa è fuori posto, lui impazzisce. Parlando di impazzire... Mentre Tina stira un vestito che ha indossato ad una festa a cui ha partecipato con il marito, riflette sui bei momenti che erano soliti passare insieme e si chiede che cosa sia accaduto tra loro.

Menus, Munitions and Keeping the Peace: The Home Front Diaries of Gabrielle West 1914–1917

by Avalon Weston

When Gabrielle West wrote diaries about her war to send to her much missed favorite brother in India she had no idea that a hundred years later they would be of interest to anyone.Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Vicars daughter Gabrielle joined the Red Cross and worked as a volunteer cook in two army convalescent hospitals. She then secured paid positions in the canteens of the Farnborough Royal Aircraft Factory and then the Woolwich Arsenal, where she watched Zeppelin raids over London during her night shifts. Having failed a mental arithmetic test to drive a horse-drawn bread van for J. Lyons, she was among the first women enrolled in the police and spent the rest of the war looking after the girls in various munitions factories.Gabrielle wrote about and drew what she saw. She had no interest in opinion or politics. She took her bicycle and her dog Rip everywhere and they appear in many of her stories. She had a sharp eye and sometimes a sharp pen.At the end of the war she was simply sent home. She spent the rest of her life caring for relatives. She lived to 100 and never married. The First World War was her big adventure.These days, the reader might feel MI5 should worry about those detailed line drawings of the processes in the factories being sent by Royal Mail across the world but a hundred years ago?

Menzies Campbell: My Autobiography

by Menzies Campbell

Menzies (Ming) Campbell is one of the few politicians in Britain who is universally admired and respected by people of all parties and by the voting public.Born into an ordinary Glasgow family, Ming spent much of his youth striving to become an international athlete. He describes vividly what it was like to take part in both the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games while still relatively inexperienced. Such was his ability that he held the UK 100 metres record from 1967 to 1974. His interest in politics deepened after he began his successful legal career and he became an MP at the age of 46. His outspoken but statesmanlike views on the conduct of British foreign policy made him well known as a parliamentary performer, particularly during the controversial invasion of Iraq. Even his struggle to overcome cancer, movingly described in this book for the first time, didn't prevent him performing his duties as Deputy Leader to great acclaim. His characteristically candid look behind the scenes of the politics and personalities of the past twenty years is of great interest.This is a memoir to be enjoyed for its honesty, warmth and wit as well as its insights. It's the story of one man's efforts to succeed in a world where the qualities he embodies are rarely apparent - and seldom valued.

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