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The Magnificent Elmer
by Pearl Bernstein Gardner Gerald GardnerBorn in New York City in 1922, Elmer Bernstein was one of America's most celebrated composers--best known for the award-winning musical scores he developed for film, theatre, and television over a fifty-year career. His best-known work includes the scores he wrote for The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ghostbusters, and The Ten Commandments, among many others. He was nominated for fourteen Oscars, winning one for the score to Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967. He was also nominated for two Grammy Awards and won two Golden Globe awards.This debut memoir by Pearl Bernstein Gardner, his wife of twenty years, Galatea to his Pygmalion, provides a sweeping account of the great composer's life--from their time together as newlyweds living in a fifth-floor New York City walk-up to the glamour of the red carpet and the intrigues of Hollywood during the turbulent McCarthy period. The Bernsteins were also close friends with many prominent musicians, actors, directors, and writers of the day, including Frank Sinatra, Clifford Odets, Danny Kaye, Otto Preminger, and Cecil B. DeMille--and the portraits of their intimate conversations are both poignant and memorable.
A Friend Like Henry
by Nuala GardnerNow a New York Times Bestseller!"The incredible story of a family with an autistic son, Dale, who conquers his disability thanks to the special bond he forms with Henry, a golden retriever puppy ... This is a fascinating and inspiring real-life account."-Woman & HomeA Friend Like Henry: The remarkable true story of an autistic boy and the dog that unlocked his world When Jamie and Nuala Gardner chose a puppy for their son, Dale, they weren't an ordinary family choosing an ordinary pet. Dale's autism was so severe that the smallest deviation from his routine could provoke a terrifying tantrum. Family life was almost destroyed by his condition, and his parents spent most of their waking hours trying to break into their son's autistic world and give him the help he so desperately needed. But after years of constant effort and slow progress, the Gardners' lives were transformed when they welcomed a new member into the family, Henry, a gorgeous golden retriever puppy. The bond between Dale and his dog would change their lives ..."This touching story is an emotional rollercoaster." -Book Review"Emotionally charged, this is a story that raises powerful issues in a deeply personal and insightful manner." -Irish Examiner
A Friend Like Henry: The Remarkable True Story Of An Autistic Boy And The Dog That Unlocked His World
by Nuala GardnerThis is the inspiring account of a family's struggle to break into their son's autistic world - and how a beautiful retreiver dog made the real difference.Dale was still a baby when his parents realised that something wasn't right. Worried, his mother Nuala took him to see several doctors, before finally hearing the word 'autism' for the first time. Scared but determined that Dale should live a fulfilling life, Nuala describes her despair at her son's condition, her struggle to prevent Dale being excluded from a 'normal' education and her sense of hopeless isolation. Dale's autism was severe and violent and family life was a daily battleground.But the Gardner's lives were transformed when they welcomed a gorgeous Golden Retriever into the family. The special bond between Dale and his dog Henry helped them to produce the breakthrough in Dale they had long sought. From taking a bath to saying 'I love you', Henry helped introduce Dale to all the normal activities most parents take for granted, and set him on the road to being the charming and well-adjusted young man he is today.This is a heartrending and fascinating account of how one devoted and talented dog helped a little boy conquer his autism.
A Friend Like Henry: The Remarkable True Story Of An Autistic Boy And The Dog That Unlocked His World
by Nuala GardnerThis is the inspiring account of a family's struggle to break into their son's autistic world - and how a beautiful retreiver dog made the real difference.Dale was still a baby when his parents realised that something wasn't right. Worried, his mother Nuala took him to see several doctors, before finally hearing the word 'autism' for the first time. Scared but determined that Dale should live a fulfilling life, Nuala describes her despair at her son's condition, her struggle to prevent Dale being excluded from a 'normal' education and her sense of hopeless isolation. Dale's autism was severe and violent and family life was a daily battleground.But the Gardner's lives were transformed when they welcomed a gorgeous Golden Retriever into the family. The special bond between Dale and his dog Henry helped them to produce the breakthrough in Dale they had long sought. From taking a bath to saying 'I love you', Henry helped introduce Dale to all the normal activities most parents take for granted, and set him on the road to being the charming and well-adjusted young man he is today.This is a heartrending and fascinating account of how one devoted and talented dog helped a little boy conquer his autism.
Outlaw Biker: My Life at Full Throttle
by Mary Gardner Richard Deadeye" HayesOne thing I can say with certainty is that I have not had a dull life. I have been shot twice, stabbed, blown up, bitten by a rattlesnake and by a scorpion, plus had numerous car and motorcycle accidents...I've even been married twice.Here is the true-life story of Richard "Deadeye" Hayes in all its bad-ass, balls-to-the-wall glory. This is a man who stole a machine gun before he was seven and lost his left eye when a good friend shot him in the face. As a member--and then president--of the infamous Los Valientes Motorcycle Club, he broke more laws and had more fun than any six of the coolest guys you know.Butch told me the club had a hard time deciding whether to vote me in or kill me.I always hoped he was kidding.One of the last true Outlaw Bikers, Deadeye knows what it means to be a man, take shit from no one, and have tattoos that actually say something. Riding, drug dealing, and sending men to the hospital with his bare hands, Deadeye made himself a legend among bikers--all the while making sure his daughters never got mixed up with guys like him.I've always been of the belief that bikers are born, not made. Real bikers, that is. We must have an extra gene or something that gives us this I'll-live-like-I-want-whether-you-approve-of-it-or-not-and-fuck-your-rules attitude.In his own words, Deadeye tells it all. From earning his colors with an outlaw motorcycle club to his steady diet of drugs, sex, violence, and crime, this is his story: true to life, yet larger than life, and full throttle all the way.Richard "Deadeye" Hayes grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, and learned at an early age that the confines of school and authority bored him. To alleviate this minor problem, he created much larger ones such as bar fights, gunfights, knife fights, fistfights, drugs, drug dealers, drug dealing, and dealing in stolen goods. It is an understatement to say that Deadeye enjoys adventure and values a sense of humor. He currently serves as president of the Los Valientes Motorcycle Club. He lives in South St. Paul, Minnesota.Mary Gardner is the author of Salvation Run, Boat People, and two other novels. A former Woodrow Wilson Fellow with a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago, she teaches at the Loft, a community writing center in Minneapolis. Her shorter work has been published in The New York Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Friends Journal. In the winter she lives in St. Paul; she spends summers in her cabin in northwestern Minnesota."Colorful, fast-paced and fun." --Kirkus Reviews"Surely Deadeye Hayes has defied all actuarial tables to live long enough to write Outlaw Biker. I read an advance copy of this memoir at full throttle with fascination equal to passing an especially grisly wreck on the highway. The writing possesses sureness, authenticity, and maybe even a touch of poetry. If you have a rebellious teenage daughter, don't read this book any time soon. This may just be the best book ever written by an author who's been shot twice, stabbed once, and bitten by a rattlesnake!" --Geoffrey Leavenworth, author of Isle of Misfortune
Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner
by Martin GardnerThe autobiography of the beloved writer who inspired a generation to study math and scienceMartin Gardner wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and published more than seventy books on topics as diverse as magic, religion, and Alice in Wonderland. Gardner's illuminating autobiography is a candid self-portrait by the man evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould called our "single brightest beacon" for the defense of rationality and good science against mysticism and anti-intellectualism.Gardner takes readers from his childhood in Oklahoma to his varied and wide-ranging professional pursuits. He shares colorful anecdotes about the many fascinating people he met and mentored, and voices strong opinions on the subjects that matter to him most, from his love of mathematics to his uncompromising stance against pseudoscience. For Gardner, our mathematically structured universe is undiluted hocus-pocus—a marvelous enigma, in other words.Undiluted Hocus-Pocus offers a rare, intimate look at Gardner’s life and work, and the experiences that shaped both.
The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation
by Mark Lee Gardner"Fast-paced and highly absorbing." —Wall Street JournalA magisterial new history of the fierce final chapter of the "Indian Wars," told through the lives of the two most legendary and consequential American Indian leaders, who led Sioux resistance and triumphed at the Battle of Little BighornTrue West magazine's "Best Nonfiction Book of the Year" Winner of the Colorado Book AwardCrazy Horse and Sitting Bull: Their names are iconic, their significance in American history undeniable. Together, these two Lakota chiefs, one a fabled warrior and the other a revered holy man, crushed George Armstrong Custer’s vaunted Seventh Cavalry. Yet their legendary victory at the Little Big Horn has overshadowed the rest of their rich and complex lives. Now, based on years of research and drawing on a wealth of previously ignored primary sources, award-winning author Mark Lee Gardner delivers the definitive chronicle, thrillingly told, of these extraordinary Indigenous leaders.Both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull were born and grew to manhood on the High Plains of the American West, in an era when vast herds of buffalo covered the earth, and when their nomadic people could move freely, following the buffalo and lording their fighting prowess over rival Indian nations. But as idyllic as this life seemed to be, neither man had known a time without whites. Fur traders and government explorers were the first to penetrate Sioux lands, but they were soon followed by a flood of white intruders: Oregon-California Trail travelers, gold seekers, railroad men, settlers, town builders—and Bluecoats. The buffalo population plummeted, disease spread by the white man decimated villages, and conflicts with the interlopers increased.On June 25, 1876, in the valley of the Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and the warriors who were inspired to follow them, fought the last stand of the Sioux, a fierce and proud nation that had ruled the Great Plains for decades. It was their greatest victory, but it was also the beginning of the end for their treasured and sacred way of life. And in the years to come, both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defiant to the end, would meet violent—and eerily similar—fates.An essential new addition to the canon of Indigenous American history and literature of the West, The Earth Is All That Lasts is a grand saga, both triumphant and tragic, of two fascinating and heroic leaders struggling to maintain the freedom of their people against impossible odds.A Denver Post BestsellerA Spur Award Finalist, Best Western Historical NonfictionWinner of the John M. Carroll Literary Award
To Hell on a Fast Horse Updated Edition: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat
by Mark Lee GardnerFrom Spur Award-winning author Mark Lee Gardner, his classic dual biography of Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett, detailing Garrett’s riveting chase of the notorious bandit—now updated with a new afterword covering new developments in the Billy the Kid story.“So richly detailed, you can almost smell the gunsmoke and the sweat of the saddles.”—Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling authorBilly the Kid—a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William Bonney—was a horse thief, cattle rustler, charismatic rogue, and cold-blooded killer. A superb shot, the Kid gunned down four men single handedly and five others with the help of cronies. Two of his victims were Lincoln County, NM, deputies, killed during the Kid’s brazen daylight escape from the courthouse jail on April 28, 1881. After dspensing with his guards and filing through the chain securing his leg irons, The Kid danced a macabre jig on the jail’s porch before riding away on a stolen horse as terrified townspeople—and many sympathizers—watched. For new sheriff, Pat Garrett, the chase was on . . . To Hell on a Fast Horse recreates the thrilling manhunt for the Wild West’s most iconic outlaw. It is also the first “dual biography” of the Kid and Garrett, two larger-than-life figures who would not have become the stuff of legend without the other. Drawing on voluminous primary sources and a wealth of published scholarship, Mark L. Gardner digs beneath the myth to take a fresh look at these two men, their relationship, and what they would come to mean to a public enamored of a violent national past.
The Road to Shine
by Laurie GardnerFor anyone who's ever sensed that there must be something more . . . let the adventure begin.Using her own personal, professional, and exotic travel experiences, Laurie Gardner shows how we can derive life-changing insights and essential personal growth from any situation. Most importantly, we discover how to connect with our deepest desires and our highest selves, learning to honor our own intuition and truth.Laurie Gardner has Harvard degrees in comparative world religions, psychology, and education. She dedicated her career to spearheading an international public school reform movement and is a master practitioner in body/mind/spirit wellness.
The Life & Times of Chaucer
by John GardnerThe pinnacle of Gardner&’s medieval scholarship: a fascinating re-creation of the world of one of history&’s greatest writers In this exquisite biography, John Gardner brings to life Geoffrey Chaucer, illuminating his writings and their inspiration like never before. Through exhaustive research and expert storytelling, Gardner takes readers through Chaucer&’s varied career—from writing The Canterbury Tales to performing diplomatic work at the Parliament—and creates a fully realized portrait of an author whose work would remake the English language forever. Written with passion and insight, this a must-read for those interested in Chaucer and the medieval time period. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.
Airborne
by Ian GardnerCol. Ed Shames is that rare man who can call himself a true warrior. A member of Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame, Shames saw combat in some of the most ferocious battles of WW2. From jumping behind the lines of Normandy on D-Day with the 101st Airborne Division, to the near victory of Operation Market Garden, to the legendary stand at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, Shames fought his way across Europe and into Germany itself.In Airborne Shames and writer Ian Gardiner (Tonight We Die as Men) tell the gripping true story of what it was like to be at the spear point of WW2 in Europe. Neither the book nor TV series of Band of Brothers ever showed the real Ed Shames. Although he started as a private, combat soon forged Shames into a tough and inspired leader who would win a battle field commission in Normandy. Seemingly to always be where the fighting was, his two goals were to prevail in each fight with the Germans, and to keep his men alive. "Shames, you are the meanest, roughest son of a bitch I've ever had to deal with. But you brought us home," was the highest compliment he received from one of his men.Even though he was wounded in the Ardennes, Ed Shames never stopped fighting until Germany surrendered and the war was won. He has never stopped being a warrior.
A Synthesizing Mind: A Memoir from the Creator of Multiple Intelligences Theory
by Howard GardnerThe influential author and eminent authority on the human mind reflects on his groundbreaking work and the many forms of intelligence--including his own.Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind was that rare publishing phenomenon--a mind-changer. Widely read by the general public as well as by educators, this influential book laid out Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. It debunked the primacy of the IQ test and inspired new approaches to education; entire curricula, schools, museums, and parents' guides were dedicated to the nurturing of the several intelligences. In his new book, A Synthesizing Mind, Gardner reflects on his intellectual development and his groundbreaking work, tracing his evolution from bookish child to eager college student to disengaged graduate student to Harvard professor.
Blood and Sand: The BBC security correspondent’s own extraordinary and inspiring story
by Frank GardnerOn the June 6, 2004, while on assignment in Riyadh, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and cameraman Simon Cumbers were ambushed by Islamist gunmen. Simon was killed outright. Frank was hit in the shoulder and leg. As he lay in the dust, a figure stood over him and pumped four more bullets into his body at point-blank range...Against all the odds, Frank Gardner survived. Today, although partly paralysed, Frank continues to travel the world, reporting and making documentaries for the BBC. This acclaimed memoir was brought up to date with a new chapter that recounted his return to Saudi Arabia for the first time since he was shot and the story he tells continues to move and inspire, and remains an affirmation of his deep understanding of - and affection for - the Islamic world in these uncertain times.___'Gardner tells his remarkable tale well and bravely, with an astonishing lack of anger and enduring love and respect for the Islamic world' SUNDAY TIMES'Brave, unsentimental and genuinely inspiring' EVENING STANDARD 'What makes Gardner's moving, often humorous, deeply personal story so important is the fact that he has woven into it a brilliantly dispassionate, clear-eyed account of the Islamic world' SCOTSMAN'A witty, self-deprecating, inspiring testament' DAILY TELEGRAPH
The Court of Last Resort: The True Story of a Team of Crime Experts Who Fought to Save the Wrongfully Convicted
by Erle Stanley GardnerThe creator of Perry Mason’s Edgar Award–winning account of miscarriages of justice, wrongful convictions, legal battles, and landmark reversals. In 1945, Erle Stanley Gardner, noted attorney and author of the popular Perry Mason mysteries, was contacted by an overwhelmed California public defender who believed his doomed client was innocent. William Marvin Lindley had been convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl along the banks of the Yuba River, and was awaiting execution at San Quentin. After reviewing the case, Gardner agreed to help—it seemed the fate of the “Red-Headed Killer” hinged on the testimony of a colorblind witness. Gardner’s intervention sparked the Court of Last Resort. The Innocence Project of its day, this ambitious and ultimately successful undertaking was devoted to investigating, reviewing, and reversing wrongful convictions owing to poor legal representation, prosecutorial abuses, biased police activity, bench corruption, unreliable witnesses, and careless forensic-evidence testimony. The crimes: rape, murder, kidnapping, and manslaughter. The prisoners: underprivileged and vulnerable men wrongly convicted and condemned to life sentences or death row with only one hope—the devotion of Erle Stanley Gardner and the Court of Last Resort. Featuring Gardner’s most damning cases of injustice from across the country, The Court of Last Resort won the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Originating as a monthly column in Argosy magazine, it was produced as a dramatized court TV show for NBC.
Susan Isaacs: The First Biography (Routledge Library Editions: Psychology of Education)
by D.E.M. GardnerOriginally published in 1969, this is the first biography of Susan Isaacs, the first attempt to estimate her incalculable contribution to the theory and practice of the education of young children. As a pioneer of new teaching methods, Susan Isaacs will be remembered mainly for her work at the Malting House School in Cambridge in the 1920s, and her contribution was such that in 1933 the Department of Child Development at the University of London, Institute of Education was specially created for her; she was Head of the Department until 1943. But Susan Isaacs was also a psychoanalyst, and D.W. Winnicott in his Foreword refers to the time when he was supplying cases for her child analysis training: ‘I watched with interest her sensitive management of the total family situation, a difficult thing when one is engaged in learning while carrying out a psycho-analytic treatment involving daily sessions over years.’ D.E.M. Gardner, who was a close friend as well as student of Susan Isaacs, begins by describing Susan’s childhood in a Lancashire cotton town, and throughout the book she helps us to feel the force of Susan’s personality and intellect – ‘she was a truly great person, one who has had a tremendous influence for good on the attitude of parents and of teachers to the children in their care’.
Earning My Degree: Memoirs of an American University President
by David Pierpont GardnerDavid Pierpont Gardner. who was president of one of the world's most distinguished centers of higher learning, the University of California, from 1983 to 1992, provides an insider's account of what it was like for a very private, reflective man to live an extremely public life as leader of one of the most complex and controversial institutions in the country. A chronicle of how uncommon leadership and courage shaped a treasured and sometimes mystifying American institution.
Murder, Lies, and Cover-Ups: Who Killed Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and Princess Diana?
by David GardnerUncover the real truth behind mass media accounts of how they died, and learn the reason for their murders. These five deaths stopped the whole world in its tracks. We all famously recall where we were and what we were doing when JFK was assassinated, as well as the moments Elvis, Princess Diana, and Michael Jackson died. As for Marilyn Monroe, the candle flickered out long ago, but only now can the truth be told about how—and why—she died. After combing through thousands of recently declassified FBI files and interviewing key witnesses, crime analysts, and forensic experts during years of research, investigative writer David Gardner has unearthed new information that will transform the way we look at these iconic tragedies that have long fascinated and intrigued the general public. Murder, Lies, and Cover-Ups reveals that Elvis Presley died not as a self-obsessed caricature but as a genuine hero who may have signed his death warrant going undercover for the FBI; how Marilyn Monroe's secret affairs with JFK and his brother, Robert, left her in the crosshairs of a lethal conspiracy; why Princess Diana's death was no accident; who ordered President John F. Kennedy's assassination; and how on three occasions Michael Jackson “died” of painkiller drug overdoses in the months before his death. In the wake of new evidence and testimonies, Murder, Lies, and Cover-Ups provides many of the answers that have been elusive for so long, while explaining what it was about these enduring legends that made their legacies burn so bright.
The Pursuit of Happyness: The Life Story That Inspired the Major Motion Picture
by Chris Gardner Quincy TroupeThe astounding yet true rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who raised and cared for his son on the mean streets of San Francisco and went on to become a crown prince of Wall StreetAt the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city's working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, "HO-tels," soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station. Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district. More than a memoir of Gardner's financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family's cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream.
En busca de la felycidad (Pursuit of Happyness - Spanish Edition)
by Chris GardnerA la edad de veinte años y después de haber salido de la Marina, Chris Gardner, llegó a San Francisco para continuar una carrera prometedora en la medicina. Considerado un hijo prodigio de la investigación científica, sorprendió a todos y a sí mismo estableciendo su punto de vista en el competitivo mundo de las finanzas. Sin embargo, apenas había entrado a una posición de gran nivel en una empresa de prestigio, Gardner se encontró atrapado en una red de circunstancias increíblemente difíciles que lo dejaron como parte de los ciudadanos sin hogar y con un hijo pequeño. Motivado por la promesa que se hizo a sí mismo de nunca abandonar a sus propios hijos, los dos pasaron casi un año moviéndose entre refugios, moteles, comedores públicos, e incluso dormir en el baño público de una estación de metro. Gardner nunca cedió ante la desesperación e hizo una transformación asombrosa pasando de ser parte de la ciudad pobre e invisible a convertirse en un miembro de gran influencia en su área financiera. Más que un libro de memorias del éxito financiero de Gardner, esta es la historia de un hombre que rompió el ciclo de su propia familia en contraste con hombres que abandonan a sus hijos. Legendario, triunfante e increíblemente honesto, este libro evoca a héroes como Horatio Alger y Antwone Fishe, y apela a la esencia del sueño americano.
Dannemora: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State
by Charles A. GardnerThe Prison Break, the Manhunt, the Inside Story In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines—as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell—and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff. Now Charles A. Gardner—a lifelong resident of the community and a former correction officer who began his training at Clinton and ultimately oversaw the training of staff in twelve prisons, including Clinton—tells the whole story from an insider's point of view. From the lax ethics and sexual hunger that drove Joyce Mitchell to fraternize with Matt and Sweat, smuggle them tools, and offer to be their getaway driver, to the state budget cuts that paved the way for prison corruption, to the brave and tireless efforts to bring the escaped killers to justice, Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody—and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations
by Ava Gardner Peter EvansThe wickedly candid New York Times bestesller that Ava Gardner dared not publish during her lifetime--"the heartbreaking memoir of the ultimate heartbreaker" (Philadelphia Inquirer).Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars during the 1940s and '50s, an Oscar-nominated leading lady who co-starred with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others. But this riveting account of her storied life, including her marriage to Frank Sinatra, and career had to wait for publication until after her death--because Gardner feared it was too revealing. "I either write the book or sell the jewels," Gardner told coauthor Peter Evans, "and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels." The legendary actress serves up plenty of gems in these pages, reflecting with delicious humor and cutting wit on a life that took her from rural North Carolina to the heights of Hollywood's Golden Age. Tell-all stories abound, especially when Gardner divulges on her three husbands: Mickey Rooney, a serial cheater so notorious that even his mother warned Gardner about him; bandleader Artie Shaw, whom Ava calls "a dominating son of a bitch...always putting me down;" and Frank Sinatra ("We were fighting all the time. Fighting and boozing. It was madness. But he was good in the feathers"). "Her story is a raw-nerved revelation. . . . A vivid portrait" (Chicago Tribune). Witty, penetrating, unique in its voice, it is impossible to put down--"A complete delight" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations
by Ava Gardner Peter EvansAva Gardner was one of the most glamorous and famous stars in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. Her list of films includes The Killers, Showboat and Mogambo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress, and her co-stars included Clark Gable, Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Charlton Heston, and Richard Burton - the A-list of male Hollywood stars. Married three times - to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra - the first two lasted only about a year each whilst her marriage to Sinatra lasted several. She had a long-running affair with Howard Hughes, and a briefer one with George C. Scott, among others. In Ava Gardner, she has much to say about her husbands and lovers, and some of her co-stars, all of whom get Gardner's unflinchingly honest treatment. Ava Gardner is irresistibly candid and surprising. She began the book because, as she told Evans, 'it's either write the book or sell the jewels and I'm kinda fond of the jewels.' At the time of their collaboration Gardner was living in London, where she had lived for decades, smoking and drinking heavily. Having suffered a stroke that damaged the left side of her face and her left arm she had trouble sleeping and was often depressed - the glamorous wardrobes replaced by grey. Her story could itself have been depressing except for her wit and wickedness, which are on full display in this book. This book tells the story of her life as she wanted to tell it. Ava Gardner is the autobiography that Ava Gardner began with writer Peter Evans in 1988. She never finished it and decided against publishing it because of its frankness. She later collaborated on a tamer autobiography, which was published at her death in 1990. After Gardner's death, her estate authorised the book to be published much as she and Evans had originally conceived it.
The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great
by Alexander GardnerThe first-ever extensive biography of Tibet's most famous nonsectarian Buddhist lamaKnown as the “king of renunciates,” Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye (1813–1899) forever changed the face of Buddhism through collecting, arranging, and disseminating the various lineage traditions of Tibet across sectarian lines. His extensive treasury collections of profound Buddhist teachings continue to be taught and transmitted throughout the Himalayas by all major traditions and represent the breadth and profundity of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice. Jamgon Kongtrul was a polymath, dedicated retreatant, ritual expert, writer, and teacher from the eastern Tibetan kingdom of Derge. During the nineteenth century, while central Tibet experienced extreme sectarian divides, Jamgon Kongtrul, along with Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Chokgyur Lingpa, set about collecting, teaching, and transmitting the major practice traditions found in Tibet. Their activity—much of which did not adhere to the traditional divides of the Tibetan “schools” and included both tantric lineages coming from India as well as Tibetan treasure (terma) lineages—is one of the finest examples of Tibetan ecumenism, or Rimay, and Jamgon Kongtrul is perhaps the most famous among Tibet’s Rimay masters. This is the most accessible work available on Jamgon Kongtrul’s life, writings, and influence, written as a truly engaging historical biography. Alexander Gardner provides an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist teachers to have ever lived.
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
by Anne Gardiner Perkins"Perkins makes the story of these early and unwitting feminist pioneers come alive against the backdrop of the contemporaneous civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1970s, and offers observations that remain eerily relevant on U.S. campuses today." —Edward B. Fiske, bestselling author of Fiske Guide to Colleges"If Yale was going to keep its standing as one of the top two or three colleges in the nation, the availability of women was an amenity it could no longer do without."In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education.Or was it?The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Women is the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to resonate today.