Softcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pbk proof, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 420 pages. Publishers uncorrected proof with flyer promoting the title laid in. The first major biography of the great jazz pianist and singer, written with the full cooperation of his family. When he died in 1965, at age forty-five, Nat King Cole was already a musical legend. As famous as Frank Sinatra, he had sold more records than anyone but Bing Crosby. Written with the narrative pacing of a novel, this absorbing biography traces Cole's rise to fame, from boy-wonder jazz genius to megastar in a racist society. Daniel Mark Epstein brings Cole and his times to vivid life: his precocious entrance onto the vibrant jazz scene of his hometown, Chicago; the creation of his trio and their rise to fame; the crossover success of such songs as "Straighten Up and Fly Right"; and his years as a pop singer and television star, the first African American to have his own show.Epstein examines Cole's insistence on changing society through his art rather than political activism, the romantic love story of Cole and Maria Ellington, and Cole's famous and influential image of calm, poise, and elegance, which concealed the personal turmoil and anxiety that undermined his health.
Hardcover. Pittsburgh PA, GoodKnight Books, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 373 pages, color and b&w illustrations. Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, "The war made my mother who she was." Audrey Hepburn's war included participation in the Dutch Resistance, working as a doctor's assistant during the "Bridge Too Far" battle of Arnhem, the brutal execution of her uncle, and the ordeal of the Hunger Winter of 1944. She also had to contend with the fact that her father was a Nazi agent and her mother was pro-Nazi for the first two years of the occupation. But the war years also brought triumphs as Audrey became Arnhem's most famous young ballerina. Audrey's own reminiscences, new interviews with people who knew her in the war, wartime diaries, and research in classified Dutch archives shed light on the riveting, untold story of Audrey Hepburn under fire in World War II. Also included is a section of color and black-and-white photos. Many of these images are from Audrey's personal collection and are published here for the first time.
Hartford CT, Clapp and Benton, 1st, 1832, Book: Good, Hardcover, leather bound, 422 pages. A rare, early 19th-century account of the famed American President, focusing primarily on his career as a military officer and as a lawyer. This 1832 first edition of Goodwin's book includes a portrait frontispiece of Andrew Jackson. It is filled with information regarding his early childhood, civil life as lawyer senator and judge, as well as heroics in the War of 1812, the Creek War, and the American Revolution with an inclusion of his time in the presidency. Previous owner's name on verso of frontis. Covers show edgewear, top 2" of title page missing, frontispiece engraving of Jackson has a repaired tear. Still a solid copy, spine label with gilt title.
Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st US, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A magisterial achievement: part biography, part history, part moral meditation on the resurrection of torture as an instrument of political power in the twentieth century, The Good Listener tells the story of Helen Bamber, a good but complex woman now in her seventies, who has spent her life battling to bring the dark side of history into the light. In almost every situation in our century where mankind has demonstrated its capacity to intensify evil--during the Nazi Holocaust, in Algeria, Chile, Africa, the USSR, and Israel, as well as in postwar Britain and Germany--Bamber has served as a witness, an expert, or a reproach, as well as a repository of our collective memory of debasement. Her father, a Polish Jew, had been so obsessed by the Fascist threat that he would read to Helen from Goebbels' speeches, teaching her how corrupting and manipulative language can be. She went to Bergen-Belsen after World War II had ended, and upon her return to London she dedicated herself to caring for the young survivors of the camp. So began Bamber's brave devotion to the grim and dangerous task of undoing the work of the torturer--culminating, after her participation as a central force in Amnesty International, in her establishment in England of the Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Because Bamber's uncanny openness to others has been one of her great skills, Clean copy.
Softcover. Emeryville CA, Seal Press, 1st pbk, 2006, Softcover, 549 pages, b&w illustrations. Set amidst the political upheaval of the McCarthy trials, the Vietnam War, and the rise of the women's movement, Intimate Politics is a courageous and uncompromising account of one woman's personal and political transformation, and a fascinating portrayal of a key chapter in our nation's history.At eight years old, Bettina Aptheker watched her family's politics play out in countless living rooms across the country when her father, historian and U.S. Communist Party leader Herbert Aptheker, testified on television in front of the House on Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. Born into one of the most influential U.S. Communist families whose friends included W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Bettina lived her parents' politics witnessing first-hand one of the most dramatic upheavals in American history. She also lived with a terrible secret: incest at the hands of her famous father and a frightening and lonely life lived inside a home wrought with family tensions. Light marking to ten pages, otherwise a clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace , 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Illustrated with 16 pages of black and white photographs, 338 pages. With wry humor and sharp observation, playwright Pifer elegantly mixes memory and research to reconstruct the world of his South African boyhood from 1933 to 1945. Pifer's father, an idealistic mining engineer in search of challenge and stability during the Depression, found it in Africa, but his earnest American egalitarianism soon put him in conflict with Afrikaner mine overseers, and his career under magnate Sir Ernest Oppenheimer stalled. The author deftly evokes his family--"my mother had the freedom of a disobedient daughter"--and the isolation of the desert town of Oranjemund. The book is even more resonant in its snapshots of mid-century Southern Africa: the still-simmering enmity between Afrikaners and the English; the ripples from Hitler's war in what prior to WW I had been the German territory of South West Africa (currently Namibia). Pifer's knowing account of the travails of servants--"the chasm that exists between white mistress and African maid"--still rings true today. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Cleveland, World Publishing Company, 1st US, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 130 pages, illustrated in b&w by David Cobb. Falkus recollects his boyhood, spent fishing, sailing and wildfowling. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 366 pages. Though Bartolomeo Scala has long intrigued historians, he is a figure whose importance has only recently been appreciated. In Alison Brown's biography Scala emerges as a man of more ability and character than anyone has imagined him to be. We begin to understand why he was employed as chancellor for the almost unrivaled period of thirty-two years. Ms. Brown's study is not only the first extensive treatment of Scala's life but also a significant contribution to our knowledge of Italian Renaissance history and of the contrast between theory and practice in Medicean government. Blank bookplate on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Crown Publishers, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 251 pages. An true account of a couple's settling in the Great Smokey Mountains after living in the big city. Very detailed depiction of Appalachian life and written with humor. B&w illustrations by Glen Rounds.Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st US, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 188 pages, b&w illustrations, endpapers map. Rear of dj with 2"X1" piece missing from bottom edge. Otherwise very good.
Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 624 pages, black and white illustrations. The diplomat and historian George F. Kennan (1904-2005) ranks as one of the most important figures in American foreign policy and one of its most complex. Drawing on many previously untapped sources, Frank Costigliola's authoritative biography offers a new picture of a man of extraordinary ability and ambition whose idea of containing the Soviet Union helped ignite the Cold War but who spent the next half century trying to extinguish it. Clean copy.
Hardcover. San Francisco, Encounter Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 222 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON HALF TITLE PAGE. Clean, unmarked copy. Black and white pictures in center. Goodyear was an entrepreneur who actually made good on the ever-popular claim that his company would change the world. Korman, senior editor of Engineering News-Record, dryly traces the life of the rubber pioneer and American industrial legend in this part scientific history lesson and part American business story. Goodyear (1800-1860) became an inventor not out of any great scientific thirst; he was self-taught and wanted to make money. He earned success, but endured continual patent monopoly battles and numerous trips to debtors' prison as he steadfastly and compulsively held onto his dream of using rubber to change just about every aspect of life. (According to Korman, Goodyear frequently wore a coat made of rubber in his early inventing days to underscore the versatility of his product.) Korman waxes scientific at times, offering in-depth descriptions of how Goodyear cooked rubber and sulfur compounds, yet his technical discourses are not so esoteric that they will turn away amateurs. His book is also valuable for its accurate portrayal of factory life in the 1830s and '40s; his accounts of the aproned men who chopped rubber with axes and knives and the machines that ground it are lively examples of industrial age America. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1st, 1932, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt design and lettering, 437 pages. Includes [9] leaves of plates, illustrations, portraits, bibliographical references, and index. A fine biography on America's sixth President, and the second Adams to hold that office. Clark gives equal attention to Adams' early diplomatic career, his time in State politics, in the U.S. Senate, as Secretary of State, and of his extensive career as an elder-statesman after his Presidency. Spine gilt faded, corners worn, name on front endpapers, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 345 pages. Nick Flynn met his father when he was working as a caseworker in a homeless shelter in Boston. As a teenager he'd received letters from this stranger father, a self-proclaimed poet and con man doing time in federal prison for bank robbery. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City tells the story of the trajectory that led Nick and his father onto the streets, into that shelter, and finally to each other. Newspaper review laid in, Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Da Capo, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 512 pages. Over the course of her career, Nico was an ever-evolving myth: art film house actress, highly coveted fashion model, Dietrich of Punk, Femme Fatale, Chelsea Girl, Garbo of Goth, The Last Bohemian, Heroin Junkie. Lester Bangs described her as 'a true enigma.' At age 27, Nico became Andy Warhol's newest Superstar, featuring in his one commercial break out hit film Chelsea Girls and garnering the position of chanteuse for the Velvet Underground. It wasn't Nico's musical chops which got her the gig; it was her striking beauty. Her seeming otherworldly and unattainable presence was further amplified by her reputation for dating rock stars (Brian Jones, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, among others). She became famous for being Nico.
Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 297 pages, b&w illustrations. Based on interviews and oral histories conducted by Stewart Stern. Compiled and edited by David Rosenthal. Foreword by Melissa Newman; afterword by Clea Newman Soderlund. The raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an American icon. The greatest movie star of the past 75 years covers everything: his traumatic childhood, his career, his drinking, his thoughts on Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, his greatest roles, acting, his intimate life with Joanne Woodward, his innermost fears and passions and joys. With thoughts/comments throughout from Joanne Woodward, George Roy Hill, Tom Cruise, Elia Kazan and many others. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York , Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1930, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 433 pages, green cloth stamped in gilt and black, Scribner A on copyright page. A square and solid book with fading to spine and small stain to cover. Photo portrait of James, b&w illustrations by him. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf. Same page with a crease. Internally sound and clean.
Hardcover. New York, Random House, Incorporated, 1st Am, August 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 362 pages. Light edgewear, small closed tear to dust jacket. Light smudges on fore-edge. Else a clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. London, Routledge, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 212 pages, b&w illustrations. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the author with a note by the author laid-in. Light edgewear to dust jacket, faint foxing to top edge. Clean, tight copy. This book discusses the home life of Queen Victoria in the context of her marriage to Prince Albert and her relationships with her children. Whittle describes the purchase, remodeling and rebuilding of Osborne House and Balmoral Castle, a subject often given little attention in other books on the couple's life together.
Hardcover. Mexico, Fundacion Olga y Rufino Tamayo, Reprint, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 150 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Book text in Spanish. Former price tag residue on back of dust jacket. Color illustrations throughout.
Hardcover. San Francisco, Oceanic Publishing Company, 1st, 1920, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with white rules and lettering, 375 pages, b&w illustrations. Errata slip tipped-in. The book is a comprehensive reference guide for travelers interested in exploring the Pacific Ocean and its surrounding regions. The author shares his personal experiences and observations from his four decades of traveling the Pacific, including his encounters with the people, cultures, and landscapes of the various countries and islands he visited. In addition to providing practical travel advice, the book also offers a glimpse into the history, politics, and social customs of the Pacific region. With its vivid descriptions and engaging storytelling, a delightful read for armchair travelers. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Century Co., 1st, 1890, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 501 pages. Hardcover. AUTHORS SIGNED INSCRIPTION PASTED ON TITLE PAGE. 3/4 Leather marbled sections, raised bands on spine. Gilt titles and highlights. Marbled endpapers. Gilt top edge. Light rubbing to cover edges. Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, First Edition, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 221 pages. Hardcover. Brown cloth covers with gilt decoration to cover, gilt titles to spine. Full page, full color & bw illustrations throughout. Clean, unmarked text. A nice copy.
Hardcover. New York, Harper Collins, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 181 pages. Crisp photographs throughout. Some black and white, some color. Internally clean. Tight and clean copy. The noted designer shares his opinions on and memories of fifty years of fashion and its driving forces as well as Hollywood, men, women, and friendship.
Hardcover. New York , Belwin Mills Publishing , 1st U.S., 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 260 pages. Black cloth cover, very little wear. Dust jacket is worn on edges and corners. Many b&w photographs, and reproductions of documents, throughout.
Hardcover. Caldwell, Idaho, The Caxton Printers, 1st, 1938, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 265 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. Scarce. Illustrated by Anton Otto Fisher. A frank and detailed description of the life of a English deep-sea fisherman. Moderate edgewear to dust jacket, chipping most pronounced along top edge. Chipping to dust jacket spine as well. Foxing to all edges. Unmarked. A tight copy.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 181 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.
Hardcover. South Windsor, CT, Barney E. Daley, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 300+ pages. Hardcover. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. Bound in green cloth; gilt lettering & design on spine and front cover. From the introduction (Evan Lawn): "Whether one reads straight through or reads here and there in a checkered fashion, every reader will enjoy meeting Barney. ...And if the reader happens to be an historian, these memoirs will be prized as a treasure trove of living information about rural, daily life before electricity and indoor plumbing."
Hardcover. NY, Putnam, 1st , 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. 259 pages. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. With these interwoven autobiographical essays, Geoffrey Wolff, author of the acclaimed The Duke of Deception, recounts the moral (and immoral) education of a writer, friend, husband, and father, as he offers his spirited, elegant, and deeply felt observations on an extraordinary life: from wildly dysfunctional childhood Christmases to a concupiscent career teaching literature in Istanbul; from a victory over the chaos of drink to a life-affirming surrender to the majesty of the Matterhorn; and from a foundering friendship to the transcending love of family.
Hardcover. London, England, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, 574 pages. Hardcover. Previous owner's name on front flyleaf with small notations (pencil) throughout. Black cover boards (some light chipping), gilt title on spine. Spine slightly cocked, doesn't affect binding. Dust jacket unclipped, has agewear: chipping, fading, some small tears (see image). This book provides an intellectual biography of Hegel from the Gymnasium years until he went to his first academic post at Jena.
Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 240 pages. This stylish book re-creates the charmed life of two American expatriates in France at the turn of the 20th century-the noted artist Walter Gay and his wife, Matilda, whose glittering social circle included John Singer Sargent, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and many other artists and aristocrats. Narrated by witty excerpts from Matilda Gay's recently discovered journal, and richly illustrated with Walter Gay's remarkable, sought-after paintings of the rooms in which they and their friends lived, in Paris, Fontainebleau, Venice, and elsewhere, A Charmed Couple offers an intimate glimpse of a long-gone social milieu whose hold on the popular imagination continues to this day. WILLIAM RIEDER is a curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Author of numerous articles, most on European furniture, in such journals as Architectural Digest, Connoisseur, and Antiques, he lives in New York City. 128 illustrations, 55 in full color, 81/2 x 101/2".
Hardcover. Boston, New Harvest, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 174 pages. Hardcover. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Hoban has written an insightful book into what may have made Lucian Freud the great painter he came to be. From his early days in Germany with his grandfather, Sigmund Freud, to his subsequent life in London, where his family moved before the war, we see Lucian Freud gradually developing from an intense adolescent who often resorted to physical violence in conflicts with others to the powerful figure who changed the face of Realism. His many liaisons with women are described in detail: Hoban offers us a candid sketch of who the most prominent women in his life were, his problems with commitment and other moral conundrums we are forced to consider in his character, such as his questionable demand on his lovers that they use no form of birth control, resulting in at least 14 children, most out of wedlock. Along with that, Freud's gambling addiction and his love of risk are explored by Hoban in a way that allows us a glimpse into Freud's psyche that is invaluable for anyone wanting to understand in a more in depth way the factors that might have contributed to his enormous talents and output.
Hardcover. Germany, Hatje Cantz, reprint, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 480 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket with slip case. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color/ Black and white pictures throughout. Coinciding with renewed interest in James Ensor, this catalogue raisonne comes as an essential and definitive volume for Ensor buffs and all serious libraries of modern art. A legend in his own lifetime, Ensor (1860-1949) was--alongside Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch--a fearless independent whose work led directly to the development of German Expressionism and French Surrealism. Ensor achieved fame as the "painter of masks," and for his bizarre still lifes and grotesque carnival scenes, in harsh, contrasting, brilliant colors, evolving out of the traditional Flemish dance of death. Now, the reader can explore the Belgian painter's oeuvre thoroughly, in this opulently illustrated, full-color, slipcased catalogue raisonne. A comprehensive illustrated chronology offers additional details about the artist's life and work, and forms an integral part of this splendid, highly valuable contribution to art historical research, ensuring the legacy of a great artist who continues to inspire contemporary art.
Hardcover. London, Titan Books, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 256 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Color pictures in center, black and white pictures throughout.
Hardcover. Germany, Steidl, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 288 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap. Photographs of President Abraham Lincoln spanning over 20 years. Tight copy.
Hardcover. London, Jonathan Cape, 1st, 1955, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 205 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Darkening around edges of dust jacket, light wear on cloth cover boards, light soil on dust jacket, now protected in plastic. Previous owner's signature on end paper. Tight copy.
Hardcover. Cincinnati, OH, J.A. Brainerd, 1st, 1853, Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, 304 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Heavy wear to bottom spine, fabric cover frayed. Corners heavy rubbing and bumped. Gutter cracked in multiple places. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf. Light pencil markings.
Hardcover. Oxford UK, Basil Blackwell, 1st thus, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 283 pages. "These intimately revealing diaries, now translated into English for the first time, date mainly from the 1880s and 1890s, when Wedekind was leading a bohemian life in Berlin, Munich and Paris, savoring the artistic and erotic delights of a 'decadent' environment." In a bright dust jacket.
Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press], 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 365 pages, b&w illustrations. In a bright dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the title page. In 1834 Harvard dropout Richard Henry Dana Jr. sailed to California as a common seaman. His account of the voyage, Two Years Before the Mast, quickly became an American classic. Dana's sense of justice made him a lawyer who championed sailors and slaves, and his extraordinary advocacy put him at the center of some of the most consequential cases in American history.
Hardcover. Paris, Huillery, reprint, 1868, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, bound in half red calf over marbled boards. Frontispiece portrait, b&w engraved illustrations. Eugene Vidocq (1775-1857) was a French police officer and adventurer who rose in rank to become chief of a small, specialized detective force in Paris (the Police de Surete). He later organized a daring robbery which he was ironically put in charge of investigating. Eventually found out, he was dismissed from the police force and died in poverty and obscurity. First published 1n 1828. FRENCH TEXT.
Hardcover. London, Argus Books, 1st, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 391 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. B&w illustrations by Frank Pape. Dust jacket faded on spine, chipped. Cover boards have minor wear to black covers. Gilt lettering. Numbered 1490/1500 American copies. Internally good, and over all clean tight copy.
Hardcover. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 687 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Remainder mark on page block, otherwise clean, tight copy. Minor, if any, wear to covers.
Hardcover. NY, Arno Press, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark green cloth with gilt stamping, 220 pages including index. Reproduced in facsimile from the 1882 edition. One of Trollope's scarcer titles, especially in hardcover. No dust jacket issued.
Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1955, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket that's price-clipped, 316 pages. This book is a fascinating combination of literary detection and biography, capturing lives of extraordinary people who inspired memorable characters in ficiton.
Hardcover. NY, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 216 pages. World-class athlete, playboy, war correspondent, and heir to a Greek shipping fortune, Taki has over the last three decades moved among the rich, the powerful, the titled and the celebrated in London, New York, Gstaad, the Riviera?wherever fun or stimulation was to be had. But in 1984, while passing through Heathrow Airport, Taki was arrested for possession of cocaine and summarily sent to jail. Nothing to Declare is the hilarious and surprisingly wise account of the three months Taki spent in prison, a story filled with perilous day-to-day events as well as reflections on the glamorous life he has led. Clean copy.
Softcover. London, Illustrated London News , 1954, Original printed red card wrappers. Light rubbing of the covers, some thumbing of the leading edge; overall, this book is in good to very good condition. 68 pages. Gilt decorated red cover, color frontispiece portrait, gravure and color plates, photographs, illustrations, genealogical table. Contributors include Cyril Falls (Sir Winston Churchill in War), E.D. O'Brien (Sir Winston Churchill- the Man), Charles Petrie (Sir Winston Churchill's Place in History), Edward Winterton (Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament). Frontispiece by Yousuf Karsh.
Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 361 pages. During the Cold War years of the 1950s, William F. Knowland was one of the most important figures in American politics. As the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, the wealthy California newspaper heir was recognized and respected by millions. His influence with President Eisenhower led to Earl Warren's appointment as chief justice, and Knowland set in motion a U.S.-China policy that remains part of our international direction today. Yet he committed suicide in 1974, following a personal decline that included political humiliation, a ruined marriage, and the loss of his family fortune. This is the first full-scale biography of Bill Knowland, written by two journalists who came to know him after he left Washington in 1958. Gayle B. Montgomery was a political editor at the Oakland Tribune, the newspaper owned by Knowland's father, the power-wielding Joseph R. Knowland. James W. Johnson was a Tribune editorial writer. Both men worked with Knowland when he returned to the newspaper after giving up his Senate seat in a failed bid to become governor of California. Knowland lost the governorship race to Edmund G. (Pat) Brown; had he won, many observers felt Knowland would have had a clear shot at the White House. This is a book not only about Mr. Republican, but also one that illuminates the strengths and deficiencies of Republican party politics during the years when the party was at its zenith. In portraying the life of Bill Knowland, the authors cast a glaring light both on the machinations of political power and on the Republican establishment's aspirations in the Warren-Eisenhower era. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown , 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 306 pages, b&w photos. Best known for his sweet-natured character Latka on Taxi, Andy Kaufman was the most influential comic of the generation that produced David Letterman, John Belushi, and Robin Williams. A regular on the early days of Saturday Night Live (where he regularly disrupted planned skits), Kaufman quickly became known for his idiosyncratic roles and for performances that crossed the boundaries of comedy, challenging expectations and shocking audiences. Kaufmans death from lung cancer at age 35 (hed never smoked) stunned his fans and the comic community that had come to look to him as its lightning rod and standard bearer. Bob Zmuda, Kaufmans closest friend, producer, writer, and straight man, breaks his twenty-year silence about Kaufman and unmasks the man he knew better than anyone. He chronicles Kaufmans meteoric rise, the development of his extraordinary personas, the private man behind the driven actor and comedian, and answers the question most often asked: Did Andy Kaufman fake his own death?