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Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli: A Strange Romance
by Daisy HayThe first biography to give Mary Anne Lewis her due and to examine her singular marriage to Benjamin DisraeliWhen Mary Anne Lewis met Benjamin Disraeli, she was married to Wyndham Lewis, a rich, mildly successful politician at the center of nineteenth-century British high society. The three became friends and with his deep pockets Wyndham helped Disraeli—young, ambitious, and swimming in debt—get his start in the political arena. Mary Anne even referred to him as her "Parliamentary protégé." But when Wyndham suddenly died of a heart attack, Mary Anne's friendship with Disraeli (fifteen years her junior) soon evolved into a peculiarly romantic and undoubtedly advantageous marriage: Mary Anne avoided life as a widow, while Benjamin used her financial means to stay out of prison and make a run for office. Anecdotally the Disraelis cultivated an outrageous reputation. Once asked if he had read any new novels, Benjamin reportedly replied, "When I want to read a novel, I write one." Mary Anne, on the other hand, supposedly once told Queen Victoria that she always slept with her arms around her husband's neck. "My wife is a very clever woman," Benjamin said, "but she can never remember who came first, the Greeks or the Romans." An unusual story of Victorian romance and politics, Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli moves beyond the anecdotes to reveal the interior life of one of Britain's most influential couples. Often eclipsed by Benjamin, Mary Anne had at least as much political acumen as her husband, and this dual biography shows that she was frequently his voice of reason. In the wake of British Romanticism, Daisy Hay examines the paths available to women like Mary Anne, and chronicles a relationship that is surprising, unconventional, and deeply inspiring.
Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire
by Kathleen SharpThe Wassermans ruled over twentieth-century Hollywood by building MCA, the world's largest talent agency, which ultimately devoured the global multibillion-dollar conglomerate, Universal Studios. Hounded by antitrust prosecutors, attacked by lesser rivals, and betrayed by their own proteges, this supremely powerful couple vanquished their enemies while extending their influence beyond Sunset Strip, into governors' mansions, Senate chambers, the White House, and international boardrooms. Lew was uber-agent to legendary stars, a pioneering TV producer, and a film mogul with a Midas touch. He was a boss to sixty-two labor unions, a diplomat, political kingmaker, and cultural statesman. His wife and champion, Edie, was the daughter of a Cleveland mob attorney, the queen of Hollywood's social A-list, and Lew's secret agent who used her cunning and charm to help him. For more than sixty years, the couple played a central role in shaping the Golden Age of TV, the glamorization of Las Vegas, and the development of the blockbuster film (Psycho, Jaws, E.T). Based on hundreds of interviews, and featuring the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Ted Kennedy, Errol Flynn, Jane Wyman, the Reagans and Clinton, this fascinating dual biography uncovers how the Wasserman's built the world's largest entertainment incorporation.
Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and into Legend
by Gretchen Holbrook GerzinaLucy Terry was a devoted wife and mother, and the first known African-American poet. Abijah Prince, her husband, was a veteran of the French and Indian Wars and an entrepreneur. Together they pursued what would become the cornerstone of the American dream — having a family and owning property where they could live, grow, and prosper. When bigoted neighbors tried to run them off their own property, they asserted their rights, as they would do many times, in court. Merging comprehensive research and grand storytelling, Mr. and Mrs. Prince reveals the true story of a remarkable pre-Civil War African-American family, as well as the challenges that faced African-Americans who lived in the North. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina is the author and editor of several books, including Carrington, Black London (a New York Times notable book), Black Victorians/Black Victoriana, and Frances Hodgson Burnett. She is the Kathe Tappe Vernon Professor in Biography at Dartmouth College, where she is the first African-American woman to chair an Ivy League English Department. She has won grants from Fulbright and the National Endowment for Humanities and hosts “The Book Show,” a nationally syndicated weekly radio program that airs on ninety stations across the country. “Compelling ... History and mystery mix in this tale to make Mr. and Mrs. Prince as absorbing as it surprising and informative.” — Christian Science Monitor
Mr. Associated Press: Kent Cooper and the Twentieth-Century World of News (The History of Media and Communication)
by Gene AllenBetween 1925 and 1951, Kent Cooper transformed the Associated Press, making it the world’s dominant news agency while changing the kind of journalism that millions of readers in the United States and other countries relied on. Gene Allen’s biography is a globe-spanning account of how Cooper led and reshaped the most important institution in American--and eventually international--journalism in the mid-twentieth century. Allen critically assesses the many new approaches and causes that Cooper championed: introducing celebrity news and colorful features to a service previously known for stodgy reliability, pushing through disruptive technological innovations like the instantaneous transmission of news photos, and leading a crusade to bring American-style press freedom--inseparable from private ownership, in Cooper’s view--to every country. His insistence on truthfulness and impartiality presents a sharp contrast to much of today’s fractured journalistic landscape. Deeply researched and engagingly written, Mr. Associated Press traces Cooper’s career as he built a new foundation for the modern AP and shaped the twentieth-century world of news.
Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century
by Jennifer Homans&“A fascinating read about a true genius and his unrelenting thirst for beauty in art and in life.&”—MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOVBased on a decade of unprecedented research, the first major biography of George Balanchine, a broad-canvas portrait set against the backdrop of the tumultuous century that shaped the man The New York Times called &“the Shakespeare of dancing&”—from the bestselling author of Apollo&’s AngelsArguably the greatest choreographer who ever lived, George Balanchine was one of the cultural titans of the twentieth century—The New York Times called him &“the Shakespeare of dancing.&” His radical approach to choreography—and life—reinvented the art of ballet and made him a legend. Written with enormous style and artistry, and based on more than one hundred interviews and research in archives across Russia, Europe, and the Americas, Mr. B carries us through Balanchine&’s tumultuous and high-pitched life story and into the making of his extraordinary dances.Balanchine&’s life intersected with some of the biggest historical events of his century. Born in Russia under the last czar, Balanchine experienced the upheavals of World War I, the Russian Revolution, exile, World War II, and the Cold War. A co-founder of the New York City Ballet, he pressed ballet in America to the forefront of modernism and made it a popular art. None of this was easy, and we see his loneliness and failures, his five marriages—all to dancers—and many loves. We follow his bouts of ill health and spiritual crises, and learn of his profound musical skills and sensibility and his immense determination to make some of the most glorious, strange, and beautiful dances ever to grace the modern stage.With full access to Balanchine&’s papers and many of his dancers, Jennifer Homans, the dance critic for The New Yorker and a former dancer herself, has spent more than a decade researching Balanchine&’s life and times to write a vast history of the twentieth century through the lens of one of its greatest artists: the definitive biography of the man his dancers called Mr. B.
Mr. Basketball: George Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Birth of the NBA
by Michael SchumacherDrawing on interviews with former teammates, opponents, coaches, friends, and rivals, a definitive portrait of the first dominant big man in professional basketball celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of George Mikan's debut with the Lakers, chronicling his college and professional career and critically assessing his key influence on the evolution of the modern NBA.
Mr. Beethoven
by Paul GriffithsShortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths PrizeBased on the German composer's own correspondence, this inventive, counterfactual work of historical fiction imagines Beethoven traveling to America to write an oratorio based on the Book of Job.It is a matter of historical record that in 1823 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (active to this day) sought to commission Beethoven to write an oratorio. The premise of Paul Griffiths&’s ingenious novel is that Beethoven accepted the commission and traveled to the United States to oversee its first performance. Griffiths grants the composer a few extra years of life and, starting with his voyage across the Atlantic and entry into Boston Harbor, chronicles his adventures and misadventures in a new world in which, great man though he is, he finds himself a new man. Relying entirely on historically attested possibilities to develop the plot, Griffiths shows Beethoven learning a form of sign language, struggling to rein in the uncertain inspiration of Reverend Ballou (his designated librettist), and finding a kindred spirit in the widowed Mrs. Hill, all the while keeping his hosts guessing as to whether he will come through with his promised composition. (And just what, the reader also wonders, will this new piece by Beethoven turn out to be?) The book that emerges is an improvisation, as virtuosic as it is delicate, on a historical theme.
Mr. Blue Jeans: A Story about Levi Strauss
by Maryann N. WeidtTraces the life of the immigrant Jewish peddler who went on to found Levi Strauss & Co., the world's first and largest manufacturer of denim jeans.
Mr. Bonapart of Corisca
by John Kendrick BangsNapoleon's father, Charles Bonaparte, was the honored progenitor of thirteen children, of whom the man who subsequently became the Emperor of the French, by some curious provision of fate, was the second. That the infant Napoleon should have followed rather than led the procession is so foreign to the nature of the man that many worthy persons unfamiliar with the true facts of history have believed that Joseph was a purely apocryphal infant, or, as some have suggested, merely an adopted child; but that Napoleon did upon this occasion content himself with second place is an incontrovertible fact. Nor is it entirely unaccountable. It is hardly to be supposed that a true military genius, such as Napoleon is universally conceded to have been, would plunge into the midst of a great battle without first having acquainted himself with the possibilities of the future. A reconnoitre of the field of action is the first duty of a successful commander; and hence it was that Napoleon, not wishing to rush wholly unprepared into the battle of life, assigned to his brother Joseph the arduous task of first entering into the world to see how the land lay. Joseph having found everything to his satisfaction, Napoleon made his appearance in the little island of Corsica, recently come under French domination the 15th day August, 1769.
Mr. Britling Sees It Through: A Novel (Casemate Classic War Fiction #7)
by H. G. WellsA moving novel of one Englishman's experience as his country goes to war, from the author of who gave us The Time Machine and The Invisible Man. Mr. Britling considers himself an optimist. But as the Great War begins, he finds himself forced to reassess many of the things he thought he was sure of. As refugees from Belgium arrive in the town of Matching's Easy, telling frightening tales of what they have seen, Mr. Britling sees men dressed in khakis everywhere he looks. and his family's tutor, a German, is forced to return home. Then comes the change that scares him the most: His own son, Hugh, only seventeen, enlists in the Territorials, the British Army's volunteer reserve. Day by day and month by month, Britling observes the unfolding events and public reaction to the war as his ordinary life is shaken in ways large and small. As Wells's characters try to keep their bearings in a world suddenly changed beyond recognition, Mr. Britling must wrestle with outrage, grief, and attempts at rationalization as he resolves to "see it through." Whether science fiction or not, H. G. Wells's stories always reflect deep human truths. Written in 1916, when the outcome of the conflict was still uncertain, this is both a fascinating portrait of Britain at war and a rare inside look at H. G. Wells himself, as Mr. Britling was a largely autobiographical character.
Mr. Capone: The Real—and Complete—Story of Al Capone
by Robert J. SchoenbergAll I ever did was to sell beer and whiskey to our best people. All I ever did was to supply a demand that was pretty popular. Why, the very guys that make my trade good are the ones that yell the loudest about me. Some of the leading judges use the stuff. When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on silver trays on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.-- Al Capone
Mr Charlotte Brontë: The Life of Arthur Bell Nicholls
by Alan H. AdamsonAlan Adamson's biography takes recent scholarship into account and adds new material about Nicholl's family, education, and early life in Ireland to give a more balanced view. The book explores why Brontë, cool and often hostile towards Nicholls in the early days of his curacy at Haworth, came to respect and love him, and how Patrick Brontë, her difficult father, grew to rely on him after her death.
Mr. China
by Tim ClissoldLa increíble historia de un banquero de Wall Street que viaja a China con cuatrocientos millones de dólares y aprende, de la manera más dura, que ese país no juega con las mismas reglas de Occidente. A principios de los noventa, cuando China abrió finalmente sus puertas a los negocios, Wall Street de inmediato quiso entrar. La llegada de los banqueros de Nueva York, con sus especializaciones en Harvard, sus camisas de rayas y sus mocasines con borlas, listos para negociar con los viejos amos chinos, crea el escenario perfecto para un choque entre los billones de Wall Street y la cultura más antigua del mundo. Tomada de la vida real, ésta es la historia de un recio banquero que se traslada a China buscando la gloria. Decidido a montarse en la gran ola de la inversión, se une con un ex guardia rojo y un inglés que habla mandarín. Entre los tres consiguen cuatrocientos millones de dólares y compran fábricas por todo el país. Pero cuando creen que con los contratos que han firmado tienen todo bajo control, comienzan a darse cuenta de que en China las cosas no funcionan de la manera que ellos conocen y son testigos de cómo desaparecen sus millones. "Ésta es una historia increíble... bien escrita, que absorbe completamente la atención y es muy divertida." Literary Review "Todas las compañías que tienen sede en China deberían armar a sus ejecutivos con una copia de esta sorprendente, divertida y culturalmente comprensiva historia de los peligros de hacer negocios en el salvaje oeste asiático". "Los libros del año" de The Economist
Mr. China
by Tim ClissoldThe incredible story of a Wall Street banker who went to China with $400,000,000 and learned the hard way how (not) to do business there . . . In the early nineties, China finally opened for business and Wall Street wanted in on the act. When the investment bankers arrived from New York with their Harvard MBAs, pinstripes and tasselled loafers, ready to negotiate with the Old Cadres, the stage was set for collision. This is the true story of a tough Wall Street banker who came to China looking for glory. He teamed up with an ex-Red Guard and a Mandarin-speaking Englishman. Together, they raised over $400,000,000 and bought up factories all over China. Only as they watched those millions slide towards the abyss did they start to understand that China really doesn't play by anyone else's rules. Tim Clissold was there at the beginning of China's transformation and he's still there, doing business. In this new edition of his hugely successful book he describes just how much - and how little - has changed in China since his story began.
Mr. China's Son
by Claire Chik He LiyiHe Liyi's autobiography recounts nearly all the major events of China's recent history, including the Japanese occupation, and the recent social and economic changes occurring in the post-Deng China.
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography
by Justin KaplanMark Twain, the American comic genius who portrayed, named, and in part exemplified America's "Gilded Age," comes alive -- a presence felt, an artist understood -- in Justin Kaplan's extraordinary biography. <P><P> With brilliant immediacy, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain brings to life a towering literary figure whose dual persona symbolized the emerging American conflict between down-to-earth morality and freewheeling ambition. As Mark Twain, he was the Mississippi riverboat pilot, the satirist with a fiery hatred of pretension, and the author of such classics as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. As Mr. Clemens, he was the star who married an heiress, built a palatial estate, threw away fortunes on harebrained financial schemes, and lived the extravagant life that Mark Twain despised. Kaplan effectively portrays the triumphant-tragic man whose achievements and failures, laughter and anger, reflect a crucial generation in our past as well as his own dark, divided, and remarkably contemporary spirit. <P> The book begins as the thirty-one-year-old Mark Twain, carrying bottled within himself the experience of his boyhood in Hannibal and his coming-of-age on the Mississippi and on Nevada's silver-rush frontier, quits San Francisco and the old elemental America of the open spaces. He is heading east for the burgeoning new urban America of commerce, invention, finance, and status, where he is destined to marry well, hobnob with the rich and influential, throw away fortunes on tragically alluring schemes...and produce literary works that fulfill and go beyond the vocation he has already acknowledged: "to excite the laughter of God's creatures." He is heard, seen, made palpable. The texture of his marriage with Olivia Langdon, the protean presence of Mark Twain on the lecture platform, his friendships and enmities -- virtually all his closest relationships partook of both -- spring to life. His writing and publishing experience is organically re-created. His endurance in the face of personal tragedy, his unrivaled charm, his compulsion to quarrel, his humility and his vanity are evoked and felt. His wit rings through the book. "Honest poverty is a gem that even a King might be proud to call his own, but I wish to sell out. I have sported that kind of jewelry long enough." Thus the young Mark Twain, on the eve of world fame, spoke his disgust at a money-centered society in that blatantly philistine voice that he chose for his most savage satirical declarations. But all his life -- racked by his own ambivalences -- he was to embrace the values of that society. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain brilliantly conveys this towering literary figure who was himself a symbol of the peculiarly American conflict between moral scrutiny and the drive to succeed. Mr. Clemens lived the Gilded Life that Mark Twain despised. The merging and fragmenting of these and other identities, as the biography unfolds, results in a magnificent projection of the whole man; the great comic spirit; and the exuberant, tragic human being, who, his friend William Dean Howells said, was "sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature."<P> Winner of the National Book Award<P> Pulitzer Prize Winner
Mr. CSI: How a Vegas Dreamer Made a Killing in Hollywood, One Body at a Time
by Todd Gold Anthony E. ZuikerThe creator of CSIdelves into the mysteries of his father’s tragic death and his own unlikelyrise in Hollywood using the very techniques he has honed by working on his hitshows, CSI, CSI: Miami,and CSI: New York.Deeply felt and insightful, Anthony Zuiker’s searingmemoir of dreams and losses, successes and heartbreaks, is not only abehind-the-scenes look at television’s most-watched drama, but an essentialguide for aspiring script writers and filmmakers, featuring practical tips andinspiring lessons to help tomorrow’s writers succeed today. Fans of crimedramas, anyone who dreams of unraveling the mysteries of their own story, andeveryone who dreams of making it big will find themselves immediately drawn inby the one-of-a-kind story of the man who made it: Mr. CSI.
Mr. Democrat: Jim Farley, the New Deal and the Making of Modern American Politics
by Daniel ScroopScroop (history, U. of Liverpool) takes on the background of this most powerful and neglected man, detailing the growth of Farley's perception that politics is a noble profession requiring the support and acumen of business. Scroop makes it clear that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's choice of Farley as his campaign manager was well-reasoned and that although Farley made mistakes, more mistakes were made about him by those who feared his motives and abilities just as they feared every other architect of the New Deal. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Mr. Dickens and His Carol: A Novel
by Samantha Silva“A charming, comic, and ultimately poignant story about the creation of the most famous Christmas tale ever written. It’s as foggy and haunted and redemptive as the original; it’s all heart, and I read it in a couple of ebullient, Christmassy gulps.” —Anthony Doerr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Light We Cannot SeeLaced with humor, rich historical detail from Charles Dickens’ life, and clever winks to his work, Samantha Silva's Mr. Dickens and His Carol is an irresistible new take on a cherished classic. Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in. Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.
Mr Eternity: The Story of Arthur Stace
by Roy Williams Elizabeth MeyersAlmost every day for 35 years, Arthur Stace spent hours writing a single word – Eternity – on and around the streets of Sydney. Sometimes his mission took him much further afield, to country New South Wales and even to Melbourne.Stace’s identity was a mystery for more than two decades. Then, after his ‘unmasking’ in 1956, he became a reluctant folk hero. By the time he died, in 1967, his was a household name and the word Eternity was ingrained in the soul of Sydney. It still is.In this long-awaited biography, the full story of Arthur Stace’s life is told for the first time in vivid and often surprising detail. Drawing upon many original sources, some never before made public, this book will engross Christians and non-believers alike – anyone who loves a great Australian story.
Mr. Ferris and His Wheel (Into Reading, Trade Book #5)
by Kathryn Davis Gilbert FordNIMAC-sourced textbook
Mr. Ferris and His Wheel
by Gilbert Ford Kathryn Gibbs DavisCapturing an engineer's creative vision and mind for detail, this fully illustrated picture book biography sheds light on how the American inventor George Ferris defied gravity and seemingly impossible odds to invent the world's most iconic amusement park attraction, the Ferris wheel. A fun, fact-filled text by Kathryn Gibbs Davis combines with Gilbert Ford's dazzling full-color illustrations to transport readers to the 1893 World's Fair, where George Ferris and his big, wonderful wheel lifted passengers to the skies for the first time.
Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine
by Thomas GrahamArguably no man did more to make over a city—or a state—than Henry Morrison Flagler. Almost single-handedly, he transformed the east coast of Florida from a remote frontier into the winter playground of America’s elite.Mr. Flagler’s St. Augustine tells the story of how one of the wealthiest men in America spared no expense in transforming the country’s “Oldest City” into the “Newport of the South.” He built railroads into remote areas where men feared to tread and erected palatial hotels on swampland. He funded hospitals and churches and improved streets and parks. The rich and famous flocked to his invented paradise.In tracing Flagler’s life and second career, Thomas Graham reveals much about the inner life of the former oil magnate and the demons that drove him to expand a coastal empire southward to Palm Beach, Miami, Key West, and finally Nassau. Graham also gives voice to the individuals history has forgotten: the women who wrote tourist books, the artists who decorated the hotels, the black servants who waited tables, and the journalists who filed society columns in the newspapers.Filled with fascinating details that bring the Gilded Age to life, this book will stand as the definitive history of Henry Flagler and his time in Florida.
Mr. Funny Pants
by Michael ShowalterI was at my wit's end. I'd had enough of this job, this life, and my relationship had broken up. Should I eat chocolate, or go to India, or fall in love? Then I had a revelation: Why not do all three, in that order? And so it was that I embarked on a journey that was segmented into three parts and was then made into a major motion picture. Later, I woke up on an airplane with a hole in my face and a really bad hangover. I was ushered brusquely off the plane by my parents who took me to a rehab where I tested positive for coke, classic coke, special k (the drug), Special K (the cereal), mushrooms, pepperoni, and Restless Leg Syndrome. It was there that I first began painting with my feet.But rewind...the year was 1914. I was just a young German soldier serving in the trenches while simultaneously trying to destroy an evil ring with some help from an elf, a troll, and a giant sorcerer, all while cooking every recipe out of a Julia Child cookbook. What I'm trying to say is that there was a secret code hidden in a painting and I was looking for it with this girl who had a tattoo of a dragon! Let me clarify, it was the 1930s and a bunch of us were migrating out of Oklahoma, and I was this teenage wizard/CIA operative, okay? And, um then I floated off into the meta-verse as a ball of invisible energy that had no outer edge...Ugh, okay. None of this is true. I'm just kind of a normal guy from New Jersey who moved to New York, got into comedy, wrote this book about trying to write this book, and then moved to Alaska, became the mayor of a small town, spent $30,000 on underwear, and now I'm going to rule the world!!!