Biography

Hardcover. UK, White Owl/Pen & Sword, 20231st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 191 pages, b&w photos. Charlie Chaplin's career has been described, critiqued, and scrutinized. There are book-length studies on Chaplin's music hall career, his career at Keystone Studios and the Mutual Studios. Somehow, his tenure with First National studios, however, has been largely neglected, even though it was during this several-year contractual time period that Chaplin built and occupied his own studio for the first time, that he attempted and succeeded in filming a comedy feature (The Kid) and that he helped to set up United Artists, an organization that protected the salaries and creative freedom of actors in Hollywood. This period in Chaplin's story is especially interesting because such landmark moments are accompanied by Chaplin's first marriage and divorce, the death of his first child, his friendship with French silent film comedian Max Linder, World War I and the role he would play in it, and the production and release of several unsuccessful films that marked Chaplin's first creative blockage - one that threatened his future career. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lunenburg VT, Stinehour Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt lettering and color label on front cover. 165 pages, b&w photos. Hildegarde Lasell was a concert singer. "Miss Lasell sang with refinement and cultivation," commented a reviewer in 1936, "she is obviously a serious student of the meaning and values of the music she interprets." She appeared in her husband's two short avant-garde films. She played Madeline Usher in the silent horror film The Fall of the House of Usher (1928),and Lot's wife in the Biblical adaptation Lot in Sodom (1933).In the 1950s, she persuaded composer Alec Wilder to write an original soundtrack for the 1928 film. Watson was vice-president of the Rochester (NY)Historical Society, and wrote the history of the society's Woodside mansion in 1962. She received a medal from the Rochester Museum and Science Center in 1972, alongside fellow recipients including Robert Jastrow, Roger Tory Peterson, and Yousuf Karsh. Her memoir, The Edge of the Woods: A Memoir (1979) was published posthumously. Some of her correspondence with poet Marianne Moore was also published posthumously. Limited to 1,000 copies. Clean.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 562 pages. During John Dewey's lifetime (1859-1952), one public opinion poll after another revealed that he was esteemed to be one of the ten most important thinkers in American history. His body of thought, conventionally identified by the shorthand word "Pragmatism," has been the distinctive American philosophy of the last fifty years. His work on education is famous worldwide and is still influential today, anticipating as it did the ascendance in contemporary American pedagogy of multiculturalism and independent thinking. His University of Chicago Laboratory School (founded in 1896) thrives still and is a model for schools worldwide, especially in emerging democracies. But how was this lifetime of thought enmeshed in Dewey's emotional experience, in his joys and sorrows as son and brother, husband and father, and in his political activism and spirituality? Acclaimed biographer Jay Martin recaptures the unity of Dewey's life and work, tracing important themes through the philosopher's childhood years, family history, religious experience, and influential friendships. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1933, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 140 pages. Hardcover with price-clipped dust jacket. Clean, tight copy.

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. NY, Stein & Day, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, unclipped. Quarter bound in publisher's gray cloth over brick boards, gilt lettering on brown panel on spine, author's facsimile signature, gilt, on cover, green endpapers, 457 pages with 164 black & white plates and 39 black & white line drawings. Red top edge. Corners a bit rubbed. Dust jacket with edgewear, closed tear.

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.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, The Augustan Reprint Society Publication Number 257. Facsimile of the 1750 version of the 'conventionalized' story of Hannah Snell, who was a real person (1723-1792). Introduction by Dianne Dugaw. xiii, iv, 42 pages. Heroines such as Hannah Snell actually surface as commonplace, particularly in works catering to the lower classes. In 1750 the London printer Robert Walker, an important early newspaper publisher, presented his readers with two anonymous versions of The Female Soldier, the 46-page unillustrated octavo reproduced here and a more developed 187-page book which included engraved illustrations. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 663 pages. Clean copy. Edited and with an introduction by Leon Edel. This is the highly acclaimed fourth volume in the series that began with The Twenties and it is complimented with photographs and journal excerpts of some of the most interesting characters of the decade.

Hardcover. NY, Citadel Press, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly chipped dust jacket. Profusely illustrated review of Ingrid Bergman's films in the classic Citadel Press style. 242 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Lanham MD, Vestal Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 226 pages with b&w illustrations. This volume presents "the most complete filmography of Chaney's work ever compiled. For each of the actor's 158 known film appearances, [the author] includes cast and crew lists, plot synopsis, critical comments, and behind-the-scenes information. Complementing the text are 120 photographs, most of which are published here for the first time."

Hardcover. London, Hodder & Stoughton , 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon cloth with gilt titles on spine, 328 pages, index. Spender (1864-1926) was a leading journalist in England and later ran for office (and lost) as a Liberal candidate in 1922. He covered major events in British history for major newspapers like the Manchester Guardian and Daily News from 1899 until 1914. He was the father of poet Stephen Spender. A clean copy with minor shelf wear.

Softcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st pbk, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 417 pages, b&w illustrations. Hollywood celebrities feared her. William Randolph Hearst adored her. Between 1915 and 1960, Louella Parsons was America's premier movie gossip columnist and in her heyday commanded a following of more than forty million readers. This first full-length biography of Parsons tells the story of her reign over Hollywood during the studio era, her lifelong alliance with her employer, William Randolph Hearst, and her complex and turbulent relationships with such noted stars, directors, and studio executives as Orson Welles, Joan Crawford, Louis B. Mayer, Ronald Reagan, and Frank Sinatra-as well as her rival columnists Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Loved by fans for her "just folks," small-town image, Parsons became notorious within the film industry for her involvement in the suppression of the 1941 film Citizen Kane and her use of blackmail in the service of Hearst's political and personal agendas. As she traces Parsons's life and career, Samantha Barbas situates Parsons's experiences in the broader trajectory of Hollywood history, charting the rise of the star system and the complex interactions of publicity, journalism, and movie-making.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1st, 1925, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, purple cloth gilt lettering and decoration on spine, gilt medallion on front cover. 355 pages, color frontispiece. Illustrated with several B&W maps and reproductions. Mild fade to spine. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 270 pages. When Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, a banana hauler, a dockside hustler, and a plantation owner. He battled and conquered the United Fruit Company, becoming a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof that America is the land of opportunity, but also a classic example of the corporate pirate who treats foreign nations as the backdrop for his adventures. Rich Cohen's brilliant historical profile unveils Zemurray as a hidden kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary, driven by an indomitable will to succeed. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 408 pages, color illustrations, In this provocative and resonant autobiography, world-renowned artist and feminist icon Judy Chicago reflects on her extraordinary life and career. Judy Chicago is America's most dynamic living artist. Her works comprise a dizzying array of media from performance and installation to the glittering table laid for thirty-nine iconic women in The Dinner Party (now permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum), the groundbreaking Birth Project, and the meticulously researched Holocaust Project. She designed the monumental installation for Dior's 2020 Paris couture show and, in 2019, established the Judy Chicago Portal, which will help to accomplish her lifelong goal of overcoming the erasure that has eclipsed the achievements of so many women. The Flowering is her vivid and revealing autobiography, fully illustrated with photographs of her work, as well as never-before-published personal images and a foreword by Gloria Steinem. Black remainder line on bottom edge, otherwise clean and bright.

Hardcover. Binghamton NY, Medieval & Rennaissance Texts & Studies, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering and design to spine and front cover. 652 pages. Identical binding to the Harvard University Press set. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Binghamton NY, Medieval & Rennaissance Texts & Studies, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering and design to spine and front cover. pages 653-1247. Identical binding to the Harvard University Press set. Errata slip taped to front fly leaf, otherwise clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press , 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering and design to spine and front cover. The writings of Richard Hooker are of central interest to those studying English Renaissance thought and literature. In this, the third volume of a much-needed critical edition of the Works of Richard Hooker, are the posthumous books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Hooker planned the Laws in eight books, but he died shortly after publication of Book Five. Books Six, Seven, and Eight, which contain his analysis of jurisdiction, episcopacy, and the royal supremacy, are here transcribed from versions that have the most authority. The volume also includes Hooker's autograph notes toward those texts (brought to light by P. G. Stanwood in the course of his research) and the contemporary notes by George Cranmer and Edwin Sandys on a lost draft of Book Six. Mr. Stanwood's introduction lays to rest all doubts about the authenticity of the last three books as we have them, doubts current since publication of Walton's Life of Hooker in 1662.Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press , 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering and design to spine and front cover, 926 pages. Although Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is now known principally as the author of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in his lifetime the Tractates and Sermons brought him greater notoriety. Hooker's views on justification, the perseverance of faith, and the relationship of the Church of Rome to the reformed Church of England were widely reported, and texts of the tracts were extensively circulated in manuscript. Thanks to the meticulous editing of Laetitia Yeandle, Curator of Manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the contemporary impact of these debates can now be appreciated for the first time. These tracts provide a unique perspective on the turbulent world of late Elizabethan theology. In addition, they lay the doctrinal foundations of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity itself and-with the excellent commentary of Egil Grislis, Professor of Theology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, enable us to trace the intellectual formation of sixteenth-century England's most innovative and provocative theologian. The volume includes a newly discovered letter; three newly attributed sermon fragments; and analysis by P. F. Forte of Hooker's distinctive preaching style. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NY, Touchstone, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The first biography of arguably the most influential member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?s administration, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand, FDR?s de facto chief of staff, who has been misrepresented, mischaracterized, and overlooked throughout history until now. If you wanted access to Franklin, you had to get through Missy. She was one of his most trusted advisors, affording her a unique perspective on the president that no one else could claim, and she was deeply admired and respected by Eleanor and the Roosevelt children. Clean copy.

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.

Hardcover. NY, Harcourt, Inc., 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 312 pages, b&w illustrations. This is the extraordinary story of Eli Wallach's many years dedicated to his acting craft which began in Brooklyn and grew in his college years in Texas. He has worked with many of the stars in movies and has been in many well-known movies, but he will always be remembered as a Western badman in the Spaghetti Westerns of the 60s and 70s. 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.