Biography

Hardcover. New York, Viking Studio, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 175 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap, though part of shrink-wrap is slightly torn. A collection of photographs taken in Memphis brings to life the legends of blues, jazz, rock and roll, and soul, including W.C. Handy, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, and others.

Hardcover. New York, Random House, reprint, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 339 pages. Hardcover with only minor wear to dust jacket. Black and white pictures throughout. Previous owner's embossed stamping on front-fly leaf and signature. Otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, McGraw-Hill , 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hatdcover, 364 pages, b&w photo illustrations. notes. bibliography. index. This is the definitive life story of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious "Angel of Death" Responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands of prisoners at Auschwitz, Mengele vanished into South America after World War II, where he remained free for more than three decades. How did he escape from the Allies? And how did he elude his pursuers? Granted exclusive and unrestricted access to the Mengele family papers and diaries, Posner and Ware have sifted through more than 5,000 pages of Mengele's writings to construct this extraordinary record of his life~from his childhood in Germany to the horrors of Auschwitz to his years in exile. previous owner's name, notation on front endpapers. Otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Panjandrum/Aris Books, 1st, April 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 251 pages plus index, b&w photographs. Light edge wear, rubbing to dust jacket. Else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abbeville, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 256 pages. Hank Ketcham, the self-styled "Merchant of Dennis," passed away in 2001 at the age of 81, but not before writing this engaging memoir. In this volume, the Dennis the Menace creator charmingly tells his own colorful story, starting when he was about "five-ana-half" and first picked up the "magic pencil." A child of the Great Depression from Seattle, Ketcham abandoned college for Hollywood, to pursue a dream of making drawings for Walt Disney films. Initially rebuffed at Disney, he persisted in huffing and puffing at the Mouse Factory door (all the while drawing "Andy Pandas, rabbits, squirrels, and monkeys" at Walter Lantz studio) until finally he was let inside to labor happily on Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia and a host of Donald Duck shorts. World War II intervened, but Photographer's Mate Ketcham was, nevertheless, able to resume his artistic career in the Navy, where, in Washington, D.C., he created cartoons for the War Bond program. Following the war, Ketcham developed into a successful freelancer, placing cartoons in The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post and Collier's.Then one fateful day, his harried wife screamed at him that his son Dennis was a menace! That, of course, sparked an idea that subsequently was sold to a newspaper syndicate in the fall of 1950. Within a year, Dennis the Menace was up to a hundred daily subscribers-a figure that climbed steadily.The Merchant of Dennis the Menace not only traces the humorous adventures of Hank Ketcham-with copious illustrations of his artistic development from a kid with an early knack for copying cartoon characters to a mature and masterful artist of everyday life in the Mitchell and Wilson households-it also offers a special insight into the life and times of the half-pint "Menace." In one unique section, Ketcham takes us behind the scenes of Dennis and provides complete backgrounds for all the major characters, including their genealogies. We are also treated to official model sheets, in-depth analysis of each character's personality and motivations, and an exclusive peek at the private sketches that Ketcham referred to of rooms in the Wilson and Mitchell homes, their backyards, and the neighborhood. To top it all off, the book includes a dozen of Ketcham's hand-picked, all-time favorite strips.

Hardcover. Ann Arbor, MI, Ardis, 1st English, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 565 pages. B/w illustrations throughout. Gilt title on spine. Decorated endpapers. Dust Jacket shows some wear due to age: yellowing, fraying and chipping to edges of front, spine and back, but still in tact. Cover boards clean, covered in teal fabric and in good shape. Pages clean, edges slightly yellowed. From the front flap: "...a landmark work in Russian theater scholarship, this study reveals Meyerhold in the context of his time, as seen by friends and enemies, actors and critics, and analyzes the development of his remarkable career as Russia's most celebrated and influential experimental director."

Hardcover. NY, Free Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. No artist looms so large in Western consciousness and culture as Michelangelo Buonarroti, the most celebrated sculptor of all time. And no place on earth provides a stone so capable of simulating the warmth and vitality of human flesh and incarnating the genius of a Michelangelo as the statuario of Carrara, the storied marble mecca at Tuscany's northwest corner. It was there, where shadowy Etruscans and Roman slaves once toiled, that Michelangelo risked his life in dozens of harrowing expeditions to secure the precious stone for his Pieta, Moses, and other masterpieces. Many books have recounted Michelangelo's achievements in Florence and Rome. Michelangelo's Mountain goes beyond all of them, revealing his escapades and ordeals in the spectacular landscape that was the third pole of his tumultuous career and the third wellspring of his art. Eric Scigliano brings this haunting place and eternally fascinating artist to life in a sweeping tale peopled by popes and poets, mad dukes and mythic monsters, scheming courtiers and rough-hewn quarrymen. In showing how the artist, land, and stone transformed one another, Scigliano brings fresh insight to Michelangelo's most cherished works and illuminates his struggles with the princes and potentates of Carrara, Rome, and Medici Florence, who raised intrigue to a high art.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 438 pages, illustrations in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. Swan Isle Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 180 pages. Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel (1900-83), known for his surrealist themes and unflinching social criticism, was an artist defined by intellectual ambition and controversy. An exile who produced some of his most famous work in Mexico and France during Franco's dictatorship, he left a complicated imprint on the creative landscape of the twentieth century and on generations of younger filmmakers--including his Mexican friend Claudio Isaac. Drawn from Isaac's personal papers, Midday with Bunuel: Memories and Sketches, 1973-1983 is an intimate and unconventional portrait of this cinematic icon--and memoir of Isaac's own artistic development.The text includes sketches, vignettes, and anecdotes from Isaac's notebooks, revealing his perspective first as a precocious boy and then as a young man. Isaac reflects on Bunuel's presence among a community of exiles, artists, actors, writers, and intellectuals in Mexico City. These are at once touching, perceptive, and critical glimpses into Bunuel's roles as husband and father, friend and colleague, surrealist, philosopher, and iconoclast during his last years. Throughout, Isaac's words reveal his deep admiration and affection for an older friend full of contradictions. Intimate photographs from the Isaac family archive complement the writing, and Bryan Thomas Scoular's careful translation makes this text available for the first time in English.

Softcover. Surrey UK, FAB Press, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 352 pages, b/w illustrations. The essential subterranean tract of 2005, Midnight Mavericks is a rollicking tour through the hearts and minds of today's most uncompromising artists from the lower depths of entertainment culture. Profiled are controversial underground icons, angry stand-up comedians, exploitation filmmakers, hardcore crime novelists and controversial cartoonists, including Abel Ferrara, John Waters, Andrew WK, Chris D, Mike Diana, Lydia Lunch and Jim Goad. Includes Sounds from the Underground, a bonus 70minute CD of interview excerpts and songs from the musicians featured in the book.

Hardcover. NY, Back Stage Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 320 pages. Foreword by Frank Rich. Henderson (curator of the White Barn Theater Museum in Westport, Connecticut, she's lectured and written extensively on theater), using the substantial archive of his writings, has assembled a suitable tribute to one of America's most influential creators of theater design. The book proceeds chronologically through Mielziner's life and long career, richly supplemented with photos and high quality color reproductions of the designer's watercolor and pencil drawings, and excerpts from his writings. He designed the original sets for A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, and Carousel and operas such as Don Giovanni. NOTE: While this book is bright and clean, it has a light musty odor.

Hardcover. New York, McGraw-Hill , 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 547 pages. Hardcover. SIGNED BY AUTHOR 0N PRELIMINARY PAGE. Previous owners bookplate on inside front cover. Illustrated with 8 pages of black & white photographs. Related article laid-in. No dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Birch Lane Press, 2nd pr., 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 407 pages, b&w photos. A biography of Mike Tyson traces the mismanagement of his career, his stormy marriage to actress Robin Givens, and his adventures with Donald Trump in an expose that portrays a man grappling with the burdens of fame and fortune. Illingworth does an exceptional job summarizing the life of Mike Tyson. Almost everything on Tyson is covered. From his troubled youth to his rise to stardom, and ultimately, his downfall; the shocking knock out loss to James "Buster" Douglas and later, his rape conviction of a beauty pageant. Illingworth also exposes the business side of Tyson's career. The contracts, the deals with ABC and HBO, the multi-million dollar figures, the lawsuits, etc... Other subjects include Tyson's self-destructive lifestyle, his marriage and divorce to Givens, and his conflicts with Don King. Clean copy.

Softcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1st pbk, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 530 pages. Books about thinkers require a kind of unity that their thought may not possess. This cautionary statement is especially applicable to Mikhail Bakhtin, whose intellectual development displays a diversity of insights that cannot be easily integrated or accurately described in terms of a single overriding concern. Clean, bright copy, as new.

Softcover. Jackson MS, University Press of Mississippi, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 312 pages. In this collection of more than a dozen interviews one of the giants of American comic strips talks about his life and his craft. The years spanning 1937 to 1986, when the interviews were conducted, embrace almost all of Caniff's career as he was producing the legendary Terry and the Pirates and his post-World War II masterpiece Steve Canyon. In long talks with such comics luminaries as Jules Feiffer and Will Eisner, Caniff (1907-1988) discusses his signature chiaroscuro style, his passion for realism in every detail, and his relationships with such other cartooning greats as Al Capp (Li'l Abner), Noel Sickles (Scorchy Smith), and Alex Raymond (Flash Gordon) As Caniff speaks earnestly about his art, his techniques, and his intentions, he discloses his inspirations. He based his characters on real persons and his material on contemporary politics and military issues. He gives candid opinions about the effects of the marketplace, business, and sales upon his art. "I would have created Blondie if I'd known that I could have sold it, you can be damn sure." He notes that the cause for terminating his association with Terry and the Pirates and his creation of Steve Canyon was neither lack of interest nor censorship but the opportunity to exert full creative control over his work.

Softcover. Seattle WA, University of Washington Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. A biography of the celebrated documentary photographer, Milton Rogovin, and catalogue that accompanied an exhibition at the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, in 2006. Rogovin (1909-2011) was an optometrist in Buffalo, NY, who turned to photography as a means of expression when he was discredited -- and thereafter lost his business -- by the HUAC committee in 1952. For the rest of his life he documented the lives of the working class around the world. Photographs by Milton Rogovin; text by Melanie Anne Herzog; foreword by Douglas R. Nickel; afterword by Catherine Linder Spencer. 176 pages; 126 duo-toned b&w plates + 21 text illustrations; 9 x 11 inches. Bibliography.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster , 11th pr., 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. Alexander King, one of the first editors of Life magazine, a collaborator on plays with Clare Booth Luce, and a book illustrator, tells, among other things, of undergoing four "cures" for drug addiction in a ten-year period. Dedicated nonconformist King describes his life and those around him with irony and humor. Paper tanning, clean copy.

Hardcover. Atlanta, Nexus Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 118 pages. Glossy color illustrated boards, color illustrated end-papers, color and black-and-white illustrations from photographs throughout, accompanying 16 page facsimile journal laid in (no publishing info) with reproductions of polaroids of Burke's. 'Mine Fields' (a sequel to Bill Burke's justly famous I Want To Take Picture), is Burke's scrapbook of his life and his pursuit of the history and daily life of Cambodia. Part adventure story, part personal confession, part travelogue, and always fascinating, Burke's negotiation of the mine fields of divorce and war is a compelling collage of photographs, found objects, stories, and the contrast between glorious ancient temples and the horrors of war and genocide.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth covers stamped in orange, yellow and white, 474 pages. The memoirs of a major American playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner for Street Scene. Clean 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. NY, Viking Press , 3rd pr., 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, unclipped dust jacket. The misadventures of the author, W. C. Fields, John Barrymore and John Decker in attempting to write the biography of the colorful Hollywood character, Sadakichi Hartmann. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1st, 1953, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. When the French designer Christian Dior presented his first collection in Paris in 1947, he changed fashion forever. Dior's "New Look" created a striking, romantic vision of femininity, luxury, and grace, making him-and his last name-famous overnight. One woman informed Dior's vision more than any other: his sister, Catherine, a Resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, and cultivator of rose gardens who inspired Dior's most beloved fragrance, Miss Dior. Yet the story of Catherine's remarkable life-so different from her famous brother's-has never been told, until now. Drawing on the Dior archives and extensive research, Justine Picardie's Miss Dior is the long-overdue restoration of Catherine Dior's life. The siblings' stories are profoundly intertwined: in Occupied France, as Christian honed his couture skills, Catherine dedicated herself to the Resistance, ultimately being captured by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbruck, the only Nazi camp solely for women. Seeking to trace Catherine's story as well as her influence on her brother, Picardie traveled to the significant places of Catherine's life, including Les Rhumbs, the Dior family villa with its magnificent gardens; the House of Dior in Paris; and La Colle Noire, Christian's chateau that he bequeathed to his sister. Remainder dot top edge.

Hardcover. Essex, Pequot Press, First Edition, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 69 pages. Hardcover. Gray cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Black & white illustrations throughout. Frontis illustration, The Harpist, A Portrait of Miss Florence by Alphonse Jonghers, tipped-in & in full color. Dust jacket with same full color image on bright blue background. Dj has age related wear to edges. Clean, unmarked. A nice copy.