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The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life
by Ann Burack-WeissWhen she started working with the aged more than forty years ago, Ann Burack-Weiss began storing the knowledge and skills she thought would help when she got old herself. It was not until she hit her mid-seventies that she realized she had packed sneakers to climb Mount Everest, not anticipating the crevices and chasms that constitute the rocky terrain of old age. The professional gerontological and social work literature offered little help, so she turned to the late-life works of beloved women authors who had bravely climbed the mountain and sent back news from the summit. Maya Angelou, Colette, Simone de Beauvoir, Joan Didion, Marguerite Duras, M. F. K. Fisher, Doris Lessing, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, May Sarton, and Florida Scott-Maxwell were among the many guides she turned to for inspiration. In The Lioness in Winter, Burack-Weiss blends an analysis of key writings from these and other famed women authors with her own wisdom to create an essential companion for older women and those who care for them. She fearlessly examines issues such as living with loss, finding comfort and joy in unexpected places, and facing disability and death. This book is filled with powerful passages from women who turned their experiences of aging into art, and Burack-Weiss ties their words to her own struggles and epiphanies, framing their collective observations with key insights from social work practice.
Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We're Saying Now
by Ann Imig<p>Irreverent, thought-provoking, hilarious, and edgy: a collection of personal stories celebrating motherhood, featuring #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jenny Lawson and Jennifer Weiner, and many other notable writers. <p><i>Listen to Your Mother</i> is a fantastic awakening of why our mothers are important, taking readers on a journey through motherhood in all of its complexity, diversity, and humor. Based on the sensational national performance movement, Listen to Your Mother showcases the experiences of ordinary people of all racial, gender, and age backgrounds, from every corner of the country. This collection of essays celebrates and validates what it means to be a mother today, with honesty and candor that is arrestingly stimulating and refreshing. The stories are raw, honest, poignant, and sometimes raunchy, ranging from adoption, assimilation to emptying nests; first-time motherhood, foster-parenting, to infertility; single-parenting, LGBTQ parenting, to special-needs parenting; step-mothering; never mothering, to surrogacy; and mothering through illness to mothering through unsolicited advice. Honest, funny, and heart-wrenching, these personal stories are the collective voice of mothers among us. Whether you are one, have one, or know one, Listen to Your Mother is an emotional whirlwind that is guaranteed to entertain, amuse, and enlighten.</p>
Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing
by Arlene RomoffImagine what it would be like not to hear a sound--no music, no friendly voices, no children's laughter. Arlene Romoff doesn't have to imagine how it would feel: she lived it. Although she was born with normal hearing, in her late teens it began to slip away, as if someone were lowering the volume of the world around her. Over the next twenty-five years, Arlene began a long, slow descent into deafness so profound that no hearing aid or assistive device could help. The experience was devastating.But then Arlene opted for what she considers a miracle: She got a cochlear implant. Using electrodes threaded into the cochlea, an internal computer chip, and an external computer processor, cochlear implants bypass the damaged portion of the cochlea and stimulate the auditory nerve directly, allowing sound to reach the brain. Amazingly, she could hear again.Arlene's journey, however, isn't just about the magic of technology. What she endured reveals as much about the strength of the human spirit, about the wonders of chance and fate, and about making the most of what life dishes out. For Arlene, events seemed to unfold almost as if they were a part of some elaborate plan: just when she went deaf, her insurance company began paying for the implants. And ten years later, when her old cochlear implant finally failed she received new state-of-the-art technology and underwent yet another metamorphosis--one that helped her continue to counsel others in a similar situation.LISTENING CLOSELY will give you a chance to walk in Arlene Romoff's shoes, to understand the pain of her loss and the joy of once again being able to hear the music of the world. Those suffering from hearing loss--or who have loved one who is--will find Arlene's very special journey both inspirational and informative.
Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi
by Hayden HerreraThroughout the twentieth century, Isamu Noguchi was a vital figure in modern art. From interlocking wooden sculptures to massive steel monuments to the elegant Akari lamps, Noguchi became a master of what he called the "sculpturing of space." But his constant struggle—as both an artist and a man—was to embrace his conflicted identity as the son of a single American woman and a famous yet reclusive Japanese father. "It's only in art," he insisted, "that it was ever possible for me to find any identity at all." In this remarkable biography of the elusive artist, Hayden Herrera observes this driving force of Noguchi's creativity as intimately tied to his deep appreciation of nature. As a boy in Japan, Noguchi would collect wild azaleas and blue mountain flowers for a little garden in front of his home. As Herrera writes, he also included a rock, "to give a feeling of weight and permanence." It was a sensual appreciation he never abandoned. When looking for stones in remote Japanese quarries for his zen-like Paris garden forty years later, he would spend hours actually listening to the stones, scrambling from one to another until he found one that "spoke to him." Constantly striving to "take the essence of nature and distill it," Noguchi moved from sculpture to furniture, and from playgrounds to sets for his friend the choreographer Martha Graham, and back again working in wood, iron, clay, steel, aluminum, and, of course, stone. Throughout his career, Noguchi traveled constantly, from New York to Paris to India to Japan, forever uprooting himself to reinvigorate what he called the "keen edge of originality." Wherever he went, his needy disposition and boyish charm drew women to him, yet he tended to push them away when things began to feel too settled. Only through his art—now seen as a powerful aesthetic link between the East and the West—did Noguchi ever seem to feel that he belonged.Combining the personal correspondence of and interviews with Noguchi and those closest to him—from artists, patrons, assistants, and lovers—Herrera has created an authoritative biography of one of the twentieth century's most important sculptors. She locates Noguchi in his friendships with such artists as Buckminster Fuller and Arshile Gorky, and in his affairs with women including Frida Kahlo and Anna Matta Clark. With the attention to detail and scholarship that made her biography of Gorky a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Herrera has written a rich meditation on art in a globalized milieu. Listening to Stone is a moving portrait of an artist compulsively driven to reinvent himself as he searched for his own "essence of sculpture."
Literary Luminaries of the Berkshires: From Herman Melville to Patricia Highsmith
by Bernard A. DrewThe literary history behind this beautiful mountain region. The Massachusetts Berkshires have long been a mecca for literary greats, from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Edith Wharton to Sinclair Lewis and Joan Ackermann. The Green River in Great Barrington inspired William Cullen Bryant&’s poetry. Charles Pierce Burton&’s childhood hometown, Adams, became the setting for his frolicking Boys of Bob&’s Hill children&’s books. During an interlude in Lenox, Patricia Highsmith consulted a local undertaker for details to use in The Talented Mr. Ripley. In this book, Bernard A. Drew brings together a fascinating chronicle of some 250 wordsmiths who took inspiration from the hills and valleys of the Berkshires.
Literary Philadelphia: A History of Poetry & Prose in the City of Brotherly Love
by Thom Nickels&“Peppered with many . . . unexpected literary treasures . . . A wonderful introduction to/overview of [Philadelphia&’s] abundant literary heritage&” (Philly.com). Since Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin put type to printing press, Philadelphia has been a haven and an inspiration for writers. Local essayist Agnes Repplier once shared a glass of whiskey with Walt Whitman, who frequently strolled Market Street. Gothic writers like Edgar Allan Poe and George Lippard plumbed the city&’s dark streets for material. In the twentieth century, Northern Liberties native John McIntyre found a backdrop for his gritty noir in the working-class neighborhoods, while novelist Pearl S. Buck discovered a creative sanctuary in Center City. From Quaker novelist Charles Brockden Brown to 1973 US poet laureate Daniel Hoffman, author Thom Nickels explores Philadelphia&’s literary landscape. Includes photos
Little Green: Growing Up in the Chinese Cultural Revolution
by Chun YuI was born in a small city near the East Sea,when the Great Cultural Revolution began.My name is Little Green,my country Zhong Guo, the Middle Kingdom.When I was ten years old,our leader had died and the revolution ended.And this is how I remember it.When Chun Yu was born in a small city in China, she was born into a country in revolution. The streets were filled with roaming Red Guards, the walls were covered with slogans, and reeducation meetings were held in all workplaces. Every family faced danger and humiliation, even the youngest children.Shortly after Chun’s birth, her beloved father was sent to a peasant village in the countryside to be reeducated in the ways of Chairman Mao. Chun and her brother stayed behind with their mother, who taught in a country middle school where Mao’s Little Red Book was a part of every child’s education. Chun Yu’s young life was witness to a country in turmoil, struggle, and revolution—the only life she knew.This first-person memoir of a child’s view of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is a stunning account of a country in crisis and a testimony to the spirit of the individual—no matter how young or how innocent.
Little Italy
by Chris DorerOriginally called Alta Villa (the "high place"), Little Italy was settled in 1915 by a group of northern Italian immigrants who came to Arkansas looking for an opportunity to achieve the American dream. Though smaller than other Italian colonies in the state, like Tontitown or Lake Village, Little Italy's centralized location and skilled winemakers created the perfect atmosphere for a Prohibition-era oasis where central Arkansans could purchase clean, safe alcohol at a time when thousands throughout the nation had died because of poisonous, alcoholic brews. Recognizing the value of this operation, regional politicians allowed the residents of Little Italy to continue producing wine and cognac, thus establishing the community as a regional curiosity and a popular weekend travel destination.
The Little Magazine in Contemporary America
by Ian Morris Joanne DiazLittle magazines have often showcased the best new writing in America. Historically, these idiosyncratic, small-circulation outlets have served the dual functions of representing the avant-garde of literary expression while also helping many emerging writers become established authors. Although changing technology and the increasingly harsh financial realities of publishing over the past three decades would seem to have pushed little magazines to the brink of extinction, their story is far more complicated. In this collection, Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz gather the reflections of twenty-three prominent editors whose little magazines have flourished over the past thirty-five years. Highlighting the creativity and innovation driving this diverse and still vital medium, contributors offer insights into how their publications sometimes succeeded, sometimes reluctantly folded, but mostly how they evolved and persevered. Other topics discussed include the role of little magazines in promoting the work and concerns of minority and women writers, the place of universities in supporting and shaping little magazines, and the online and offline future of these publications. Selected contributors Betsy Sussler, BOMB; Lee Gutkind, Creative Nonfiction; Bruce Andrews, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E; Dave Eggers, McSweeney’s; Keith Gessen, n+1; Don Share, Poetry; Jane Friedman, VQR; Amy Hoffman, Women’s Review of Books; and more.
The Little Virtues: Essays
by Natalia Ginzburg“As far as the education of children is concerned,” states Natalia Ginzburg in this collection of her finest and best-known short essays, “I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but a love of one’s neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.” Whether she writes of the loss of a friend, Cesare Pavese; or what is inexpugnable of World War II; or the Abruzzi, where she and her first husband lived in forced residence under Fascist rule; or the importance of silence in our society; or her vocation as a writer; or even a pair of worn-out shoes, Ginzburg brings to her reflections the wisdom of a survivor and the spare, wry, and poetically resonant style her readers have come to recognize. “A glowing light of modern Italian literature . . . Ginzburg’s magic is the utter simplicity of her prose, suddenly illuminated by one word that makes a lightning streak of a plain phrase. . . . As direct and clean as if it were carved in stone, it yet speaks thoughts of the heart.” —The New York Times Book Review
Live Peace: Joy Balazo and Young Ambassadors for Peace
by Margaret Reeson'We can't change what happened. We can only change what happens next.'As an experienced worker for human rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Joy Balazo was troubled by the many examples of conflict she was observing. In 2001, while working for the Uniting Church of Australia, she devised a practical model of workshops and networks to sow 'seeds of peace' among young people living on opposite sides of conflict. This was named Young Ambassadors for Peace. Joy has used this model in many contexts, including Asian cities and Pacific islands, to help hundreds of people work for peace in their own broken communities.'Joy Balazo's work with Young Ambassadors for Peace has transformed and saved lives, and probably avoided wars. She has spent a lifetime building peaceful communities in areas damaged by generations of conflict. Margaret Reeson has captured Joy's life, passion and drive beautifully. The reader can visualise Joy's fiery determination and strength of faith. We also see a very human Joy, who has learnt to acknowledge mistakes, but never gives up. This book provides the peacemaker with key messages about respect, trust, faith and perseverance' (Jennifer Scott, Arbitrator and mediator).'Joy Balazo is one of my heroes - living her faith in practical yet potentially world-changing ways. Margaret Reeson tells her story compellingly, from Joy's traumatic experience during turmoil in the Philippines to her broad engagement in human rights in many countries.This is not just a 'ripping yarn', but a glimpse into living-memory history through the eyes of one petite person with a huge heart, dauntless determination and a fearless faith - it will keep you enthralled' (Jill Tabart, Former National President of the Uniting Church in Australia).
The Lives of Robert Ryan (Wesleyan Film Ser.)
by J R JonesAn &“engrossing new biography&” of the actor famed for his menacing onscreen persona—and his offscreen work for peace and civil rights (Film Quarterly). The Lives of Robert Ryan is an in-depth look at the gifted, complex, intensely private man Martin Scorsese called &“one of the greatest actors in the history of American film.&” The son of a Chicago construction executive with strong ties to the Democratic machine, Ryan became a star after World War II on the strength of his menacing performance as an anti-Semitic murderer in the film noir Crossfire. Over the next quarter century, he created a gallery of brooding, neurotic, and violent characters in such movies as Bad Day at Black Rock, Billy Budd, The Dirty Dozen, and The Wild Bunch. His riveting performances expose the darkest impulses of the American psyche during the Cold War. At the same time, Ryan&’s marriage to a liberal Quaker and his own conscience launched him into a tireless career of peace and civil rights activism that stood in direct contrast to his screen persona. Drawing on unpublished writings and revealing interviews, film critic J.R. Jones deftly explores the many contradictory facets of Robert Ryan&’s public and private lives, and how these lives intertwined in one of the most compelling actors of a generation. &“Engaging . . . Jones describes a complex man who grappled publicly with the world&’s demons and privately with his own, among them alcohol and depression.&” —Associated Press &“Jones has done a superb job . . . A masterly biography.&” —Library Journal Includes photographs
Living in the Sound of the Wind: A Personal Quest for W.H. Hudson, Naturalist and Writer from the River Plate
by Jason WilsonW. H. Hudson was brought up on the pampas, where he learnt from gauchos about frontier life. After moving to London in 1874, Hudson lived in extreme poverty. Like his friend Joseph Conrad, Hudson was an exile, adapting to England. He never returned to Argentina.Wilson unravels Hudson’s English dream, his natural history rambles, and his work to protect birds. He remains both a complex witness to his homeland before mass immigration and to his England of the mind, before the urban sprawl.Praise for Jason Wilson: Tireless, shrewd, erudite Jason Wilson, mixing hard fact and anthology, provides the perfect outfit of allusion and comparative experience - Jonathan Keates, ObserverPut his treasure trove into your pocket. - Anthony Sattin, Sunday TimesThe idea is so simple that it must be original. This inaugural book might prove to be a landmark. - Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph
Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager
by Michael Calvin*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2015*A man punches the wall in a strategic show of anger. Another complains he has become a stranger to those he loves. A third relies on “my three a day: coffee, Nurofen and a bottle of wine.” Yet another admits he is an oddity, who would prefer to be working in cricket. A fifth describes his professional life as “a circus”. These are football managers, live and uncut. Arsene Wenger likens the job to “living on a volcano: any day may be your last”. He speaks with the authority of being the longest serving manager in the English game, having been at Arsenal for 17 years. The average lifespan of a Football League manager is 17 months. Fifty three managers, across all four Divisions, were sacked, or resigned, in the 2012-13 season. There were fifty seven managerial changes in the 2013-14 season. What makes these men tick? They are familiar figures, who rarely offer anything more than a glimpse into their personal and professional lives. What shapes them? How and why do they do their job? Award-winning writer Michael Calvin provides the answers.Insecurity is a unifying factor, but managers at different levels face different sets of problems. Depending on their status, they are dealing with multi-millionaires, or mortgage slaves. Living on the Volcano charts the progress of more than 20 managers, in different circumstances and in different phases of their career. Some, like Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez, are at the peak of their profession. Others, like Chris Hughton, Brian McDermott and Gary Waddock, have been sacked, and are seeking a way back into the game. They offer a unique insight into a trade which is prone to superficial judgement and savage swings in fortune. Management requires ruthlessness and empathy, idealism and cunning. Stories overlap, experiences intermingle, and myths are exposed.
Living the Braveheart Life: Finding the Courage to Follow Your Heart
by Randall Wallace"Every man dies. Not every man really lives." --William Wallace, Braveheart More than twenty years ago Braveheart captured the hearts of moviegoers around the world. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five. Now, for the first time, author and screenwriter Randall Wallace shares the journey that led him to the famous Scottish warrior and how telling the story of William Wallace changed the direction of his life and career--from that surprising first moment in Edinburgh, Scotland, to selling the script to a major Hollywood studio. Part autobiography, part master class, Living the Braveheart Life invites us to explore five major archetypes in Braveheart that resonate not only in Randall's life but in the modern-day lives of both men and women: the Father, Teacher, Warrior, Sage, and Outlaw. Join blockbuster film director Randall Wallace on the journey of his creative and personal life. Discover why thousands of moviegoers continue to say Braveheart is their all-time favorite film and how its creator and architect came to believe that he must write as if his life depended on it. Living the Braveheart Life is a challenge to all of us to engage in the greatest battle of all--the one inside the human heart. "I don't think I've ever read anything like it . . . a prescription for what ails the contemporary soul." --Steven Pressfield, screenwriter & author of The War of Art Front Flap During his prolific Hollywood career, Randall Wallace has amassed an enviable body of work. Films such as The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers, and Secretariat have become box office standards. Yet no film defines his life and career more than Braveheart, written from a well of deep personal passion, steeped in years of reflection. With roots in small-town Tennessee, Randall's hunger for adventure and unlimited horizons leads him to Duke University. There he sits under the tutelage of Thomas A. Langford, whose infectious love and learning and faith light up a classroom and a young man's vision of life's possibilities. A decade later, while on a trip to Scotland, Randall is introduced to an unfamiliar statue with an inscription that bears his last name. After hearing the first fragments of the Scottish hero's tale, Randall recognizes the seeds of a truly great story. His William Wallace and his band of warriors forever changed the way we view love, war, and freedom. Living the Braveheart Life is a personal narrative of how an epic feature film came to life and breathed life into its author. It is the kind of book that will change the way we approach our internal battles, creative or personal. Welcome to a master class in storytelling from the consummate storyteller.
Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet
by Jesse ItzlerEntrepreneur Jesse Itzler will try almost anything. He brazenly pretended to be an established hip-hop artist to secure a meeting with a studio head-and it led to a record deal. He convinced a bunch successful business executives to invest in an unprecedented business plan- and it turned into Marquis Jet. He sincerely offered to run a 100-mile race in Spanx to get the attention of the beautiful founder of the company-and ended up marrying her. His life is about being bold and risky. And it's brought him plenty of rewards. So when Jesse felt himself drifting on autopilot, he hired a rather unconventional trainer to live with him for a month-an accomplished Navy SEAL widely considered to be "the toughest man on the planet"!Living with a SEAL is like a buddy movie if it starred the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air... and Rambo. Jesse is about as easy-going as you can get. SEAL is...not. He even shows up at Jesse's apartment with an inflatable raft just in case the Itzler family ever has to escape Manhattan by crossing the Hudson River. Jesse and SEAL's escapades soon produce a great friendship, and by the time SEAL leaves, Jesse is in the best shape of his life, but he gains much more than muscle. At turns hilarious and inspiring, Living with a SEAL ultimately shows you the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone.
Lois McMaster Bujold
by Edward JamesReaders have awarded Lois McMaster Bujold four Hugo Awards for Best Novel, a number matched only by Robert Heinlein. Her Vorkosigan series redefined space opera with its emotional depth and explorations of themes such as bias against the disabled, economic exploitation, and the role of women in society. Acclaimed science fiction scholar Edward James traces Bujold's career, showing how Bujold emerged from fanzine culture to win devoted male and female readers despite working in genres--military SF, space opera--perceived as solely by and for males. Devoted to old-school ideas such as faith in humanity and the desire to probe and do good in the universe, Bujold simultaneously subverted genre conventions and experimented with forms that led her in bold creative directions. As James shows, her iconic hero Miles Vorkosigan--unimposing, physically impaired, self-conscious to a fault--embodied Bujold's thematic concerns. The sheer humanity of her characters, meanwhile, gained her a legion of fans eager to provide her with feedback, expand her vision through fan fiction, and follow her into fantasy.
Lone Voyager: The Extraordinary Adventures Of Howard Blackburn Hero Fisherman Of Gloucester
by Joseph E. GarlandLike countless Gloucester fishermen before and since, Howard Blackburn and Tom Welch were trawling for halibut on the Newfoundland banks in an open dory in 1883 when a sudden blizzard separated them from their mother ship. Alone on the empty North Atlantic, they battled towering waves and frozen spray to stay afloat. Welch soon succumbed to exposure, and Blackburn did the only thing he could: He rowed for shore. He rowed five days without food or water, with his hands frozen to the oars, to reach the coast of Newfoundland. Yet his tests had only begun.So begins Joe Garland's extraordinary account of the hero fisherman of Gloucester. Incredibly, though Blackburn lost his fingers to his icy misadventure, he went on to set a record for swiftest solo sailing voyage across the Atlantic that stood for decades. Lone Voyager is a Homeric saga of survival at sea and a thrilling portrait of the world's most fabled fishing port in the age of sail.--Print Ed.
The Looked After Kid, Revised Edition: My Life in a Children’s Home
by Paolo HewittPlaced in care at a very early age, Paolo Hewitt went to live with a foster family where he endured extreme abuse and humiliation. Following years of abuse he was sent to Burbank children's home at the age of ten where he met a gang of children. Like him, they were outsiders struggling to find their place in the world. Paolo paints a vivid picture of his coming of age in the children's home; of bruising fights, failed love, brushes with the law and enduring friendships, and describes how his salvation eventually comes through his passion for music and literature. Gripping and perceptive, The Looked After Kid is is a testament to the resilience of children who 'go to sleep at night believing the world to be a dark and terrible place', but wonderfully emerge from the darkness to shine their lights on all.
Lord Fear
by Lucas MannLucas Mann was only thirteen years old when his brother Josh--charismatic and ambitious, funny and sadistic, violent and vulnerable--died of a heroin overdose. Although his brief life is ultimately unknowable, Josh is both a presence and an absence in the author's life that will not remain unclaimed. As Josh's story is told in kaleidoscopic shards of memories assembled from interviews with his friends and family, as well as from the raw material of his journals, a revealing, startling portrait unfolds. At the same time, Mann pulls back to examine his own complicated feelings and motives for recovering memories of his brother's life, searching for a balance between the tension of inevitability and the what ifs that beg to be asked. Through his investigation, Mann also comes to redefine his own place in a family whose narrative is bisected by the tragic loss. Unstinting in its honesty, captivating in its form, and profound in its conclusions, Lord Fear more than confirms the promise of Mann's earlier book, Class A; with it, he is poised to enter the ranks of the best young writers of his generation.From the Hardcover edition.
The Lost Christmas Puppy
by Linda SteliouLittle Linda was three years old when she told Father Christmas a secret. 'What I want more than anything is to have a puppy of my own to love'. But with every Christmas that went by, no puppy appeared. Linda grew into a busy working mum and wife, and her dreams of a puppy were pushed to the back of her mind. It wasn't until a special visitor one Christmas Eve, that she began to remember the wish she had made sixty years earlier. . .Fans of Christmas at the Ragdoll Orphanage and The Lost Christmas Puppy will love this book full of charming and touching stories. This is an unforgettable true story about childhood, love, and how an animal can change anyone's life.
The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity
by Andrew GaileyWinner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2016Frederick Hamiton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, enjoyed a glittering career which few could equal. As Viceroy of India and Governor-General of Canada, he held the two most exalted positions available under the Crown, but prior to this his achievements as a British ambassador included restoring order to sectarian conflict in Syria, helping to keep Canada British, paving the way for the annexation of Egypt and preventing war from breaking out on India's North-West Frontier.Dufferin was much more than a diplomat and politician, however: he was a leading Irish landlord, an adventurer and a travel writer whose Letters from High Latitudes proved a publishing sensation. He also became a celebrity of the time, and in his attempts to sustain his reputation he became trapped by his own inventions, thereafter living his public life in fear of exposure. Ingenuity, ability and charm usually saved the day, yet in the end catastrophe struck in the form of the greatest City scandal for forty years and the death of his heir in the Boer War.With unique access to the family archive at Clandeboye, Andrew Gailey presents a full biography of the figure once referred to as the 'most popular man in Europe'.
The Lost Imperialist: Lord Dufferin, Memory and Mythmaking in an Age of Celebrity
by Andrew GaileyWinner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2016Frederick Hamiton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, enjoyed a glittering career which few could equal. As Viceroy of India and Governor-General of Canada, he held the two most exalted positions available under the Crown, but prior to this his achievements as a British ambassador included restoring order to sectarian conflict in Syria, helping to keep Canada British, paving the way for the annexation of Egypt and preventing war from breaking out on India's North-West Frontier.Dufferin was much more than a diplomat and politician, however: he was a leading Irish landlord, an adventurer and a travel writer whose Letters from High Latitudes proved a publishing sensation. He also became a celebrity of the time, and in his attempts to sustain his reputation he became trapped by his own inventions, thereafter living his public life in fear of exposure. Ingenuity, ability and charm usually saved the day, yet in the end catastrophe struck in the form of the greatest City scandal for forty years and the death of his heir in the Boer War.With unique access to the family archive at Clandeboye, Andrew Gailey presents a full biography of the figure once referred to as the 'most popular man in Europe'.
The Lost Tudor Princess: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas
by Alison WeirFrom New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir comes the first biography of Margaret Douglas, the beautiful, cunning niece of Henry VIII of England who used her sharp intelligence and covert power to influence the succession after the death of Elizabeth I. Royal Tudor blood ran in her veins. Her mother was a queen, her father an earl, and she herself was the granddaughter, niece, cousin, and grandmother of monarchs. Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, was an important figure in Tudor England, yet today, while her contemporaries--Anne Boleyn, Mary, Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I--have achieved celebrity status, she is largely forgotten. <P>Margaret's life was steeped in intrigue, drama, and tragedy--from her auspicious birth in 1530 to her parents' bitter divorce, from her ill-fated love affairs to her appointment as lady-in-waiting for four of Henry's six wives. In an age when women were expected to stay out of the political arena, alluring and tempestuous Margaret helped orchestrate one of the most notorious marriages of the sixteenth century: that of her son Lord Darnley to Mary, Queen of Scots. Margaret defiantly warred with two queens--Mary, and Elizabeth of England--and was instrumental in securing the Stuart ascension to the throne of England for her grandson, James VI. The life of Margaret Douglas spans five reigns and provides many missing links between the Tudor and Stuart dynasties. Drawing on decades of research and myriad original sources--including many of Margaret's surviving letters--Alison Weir brings this captivating character out of the shadows and presents a strong, capable woman who operated effectively and fearlessly at the very highest levels of power. <br> <b> NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE INDEPENDENT </b>
LOU ANDREAS SALOMÉ
by Lázaro Droznes Pablo BarrantesDramatic fiction illustrating an extraordinary woman's rapport with three extraordinary men: Nietzsche, Rilke and Freud. Lou Andreas-Salomé had a love affair with Rilke, an intimate friendship with Nietzsche and a pupil, confidant propinquity with Freud. A muse of a woman who without a doubt had a vast influence on these, at the time, relatively unknown men.