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Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour
Par Richard Zacks. 2016
From Richard Zacks, bestselling author of Island of Vice and The Pirate Hunter, a rich and lively account of how…
Mark Twain’s late-life adventures abroad helped him recover from financial disaster and family tragedy—and revived his world-class sense of humorMark Twain, the highest-paid writer in America in 1894, was also one of the nation’s worst investors. “There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate,” he wrote. “When he can’t afford it and when he can.” The publishing company Twain owned was failing; his investment in a typesetting device was bleeding red ink. After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars back when a beer cost a nickel, he found himself neck-deep in debt. His heiress wife, Livy, took the setback hard. “I have a perfect horror and heart-sickness over it,” she wrote. “I cannot get away from the feeling that business failure means disgrace.” But Twain vowed to Livy he would pay back every penny. And so, just when the fifty-nine-year-old, bushy-browed icon imagined that he would be settling into literary lionhood, telling jokes at gilded dinners, he forced himself to mount the “platform” again, embarking on a round-the-world stand-up comedy tour. No author had ever done that. He cherry-picked his best stories—such as stealing his first watermelon and buying a bucking bronco—and spun them into a ninety-minute performance. Twain trekked across the American West and onward by ship to the faraway lands of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, India, Ceylon, and South Africa. He rode an elephant twice and visited the Taj Mahal. He saw Zulus dancing and helped sort diamonds at the Kimberley mines. (He failed to slip away with a sparkly souvenir.) He played shuffleboard on cruise ships and battled captains for the right to smoke in peace. He complained that his wife and daughter made him shave and change his shirt every day. The great American writer fought off numerous illnesses and travel nuisances to circle the globe and earn a huge payday and a tidal wave of applause. Word of his success, however, traveled slowly enough that one American newspaper reported that he had died penniless in London. That’s when he famously quipped: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Throughout his quest, Twain was aided by cutthroat Standard Oil tycoon H.H. Rogers, with whom he had struck a deep friendship, and he was hindered by his own lawyer (and future secretary of state) Bainbridge Colby, whom he deemed “head idiot of this century.” In Chasing the Last Laugh, author Richard Zacks, drawing extensively on unpublished material in notebooks and letters from Berkeley’s ongoing Mark Twain Project, chronicles a poignant chapter in the author’s life—one that began in foolishness and bad choices but culminated in humor, hard-won wisdom, and ultimate triumph.From the Hardcover edition.Expect Great Things: The Life and Search of Henry David Thoreau
Par Kevin Dann. 2017
To coincide with the bicentennial of Thoreau's birth in 2017, this thrilling, meticulous biography by naturalist and historian Kevin Dann…
fills a gap in our understanding of one modern history's most important spiritual visionaries by capturing the full arc of Thoreau's life as a mystic, spiritual seeker, and explorer in transcendental realms.This sweeping, epic biography of Henry David Thoreau sees Thoreau's world as the mystic himself saw it: filled with wonder and mystery; Native American myths and lore; wood sylphs, nature spirits, and fairies; battles between good and evil; and heroic struggles to live as a natural being in an increasingly synthetic world. Above all, Expect Great Things critically and authoritatively captures Thoreau's simultaneously wild and intellectually keen sense of the mystical, mythical, and supernatural. Other historians have skipped past or undervalued these aspects of Thoreau's life. In this groundbreaking work, historian and naturalist Kevin Dann restores Thoreau's esoteric visions and explorations to their rightful place as keystones of the man himself.Nathanael Greene in South Carolina: Hero of the American Revolution (Military)
Par Leigh M. Moring. 2016
In December 1780, former Quaker turned general Nathanael Greene took command of the entire Southern Department. He reported only to…
George Washington himself. Leadership of the southern states to that point in the American Revolution had failed, as the British held all major southern cities, including the important port city of Charleston. Greene faced the British in several key battles in South Carolina in 1781 and ultimately was able to rid the state of the British and free Charleston, but not until 1782, long after the victory at Yorktown. Join author and historian Leigh Moring as she tells the forgotten story of General Nathanael Greene and the liberation of the Lowcountry at the end of the American Revolution.The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World
Par David Jaher. 2015
History comes alive in this textured account of the rivalry between Harry Houdini and the so-called Witch of Lime Street,…
whose iconic lives intersected at a time when science was on the verge of embracing the paranormal.The 1920s are famous as the golden age of jazz and glamour, but it was also an era of fevered yearning for communion with the spirit world, after the loss of tens of millions in the First World War and the Spanish-flu epidemic. A desperate search for reunion with dead loved ones precipitated a tidal wave of self-proclaimed psychics--and, as reputable media sought stories on occult phenomena, mediums became celebrities. Against this backdrop, in 1924, the pretty wife of a distinguished Boston surgeon came to embody the raging national debate over Spiritualism, a movement devoted to communication with the dead. Reporters dubbed her the blonde Witch of Lime Street, but she was known to her followers simply as Margery. Her most vocal advocate was none other than Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who believed so thoroughly in Margery's powers that he urged her to enter a controversial contest, sponsored by Scientific American and offering a large cash prize to the first medium declared authentic by its impressive five-man investigative committee. Admired for both her exceptional charm and her dazzling effects, Margery was the best hope for the psychic practice to be empirically verified. Her supernatural gifts beguiled four of the judges. There was only one left to convince...the acclaimed escape artist, Harry Houdini.David Jaher's extraordinary debut culminates in the showdown between Houdini, a relentless unmasker of charlatans, and Margery, the nation's most credible spirit medium. The Witch of Lime Street, the first book to capture their electric public rivalry and the competition that brought them into each other's orbit, returns us to an oft-mythologized era to deepen our understanding of its history, all while igniting our imagination and engaging with the timeless question: Is there life after death?From the Hardcover edition.Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola: Religion and Politics, 1490-1498
Par Girolamo Savonarola, Anne Borelli, Maria Pastore Passaro. 2006
Five hundred years after his death at the stake, Girolamo Savonarola remains one of the most fascinating figures of the…
Italian Renaissance. This wide-ranging collection, with an introduction by historian Alison Brown, includes translations of his sermons and treatises on pastoral ministry, prophecy, politics, and moral reform, as well as the correspondence with Alexander VI that led to Savonarola's silencing and excommunication. Also included are first-hand accounts of religio-civic festivities instigated by Savonarola and of his last moments. This collection demonstrates the remarkable extent of Savonarola's contributions to the religious, political, and aesthetic debates of the late fifteenth century.Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter
Par Prof. Kate Clifford Larson. 2015
They were the most prominent American family of the twentieth century. The daughter they secreted away made all the difference.…
Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter Rosemary attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the Queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet, Rosemary was intellectually disabled -- a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family. Major new sources -- Rose Kennedy's diaries and correspondence, school and doctors' letters, and exclusive family interviews -- bring Rosemary alive as a girl adored but left far behind by her competitive siblings. Kate Larson reveals both the sensitive care Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then -- as the family's standing reached an apex -- the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early twenties. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe's decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age twenty-three, and the family's complicity in keeping the secret. Rosemary delivers a profoundly moving coda: JFK visited Rosemary for the first time while campaigning in the Midwest; she had been living isolated in a Wisconsin institution for nearly twenty years. Only then did the siblings understand what had happened to Rosemary and bring her home for loving family visits. It was a reckoning that inspired them to direct attention to the plight of the disabled, transforming the lives of millions.Sojourner Truth's America
Par Margaret Washington. 2009
This fascinating biography tells the story of nineteenth-century America through the life of one of its most charismatic and influential…
characters: Sojourner Truth. In an in-depth account of this amazing activist, Margaret Washington unravels Sojourner Truth's world within the broader panorama of African American slavery and the nation's most significant reform era. Born into bondage among the Hudson Valley Dutch in Ulster County, New York, Isabella was sold several times, married, and bore five children before fleeing in 1826 with her infant daughter one year before New York slavery was abolished. In 1829, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a domestic, preached, joined a religious commune, and then in 1843 had an epiphany. Changing her name to Sojourner Truth, she began traveling the country as a champion of the downtrodden and a spokeswoman for equality by promoting Christianity, abolitionism, and women's rights. Gifted in verbal eloquence, wit, and biblical knowledge, Sojourner Truth possessed an earthy, imaginative, homespun personality that won her many friends and admirers and made her one of the most popular and quoted reformers of her times. Washington's biography of this remarkable figure considers many facets of Sojourner Truth's life to explain how she became one of the greatest activists in American history, including her African and Dutch religious heritage; her experiences of slavery within contexts of labor, domesticity, and patriarchy; and her profoundly personal sense of justice and intuitive integrity. Organized chronologically into three distinct eras of Truth's life, Sojourner Truth's America examines the complex dynamics of her times, beginning with the transnational contours of her spirituality and early life as Isabella and her embroilments in legal controversy. Truth's awakening during nineteenth-century America's progressive surge then propelled her ascendancy as a rousing preacher and political orator despite her inability to read and write. Throughout the book, Washington explores Truth's passionate commitment to family and community, including her vision for a beloved community that extended beyond race, gender, and socioeconomic condition and embraced a common humanity. For Sojourner Truth, the significant model for such communalism was a primitive, prophetic Christianity. Illustrated with dozens of images of Truth and her contemporaries, Sojourner Truth's America draws a delicate and compelling balance between Sojourner Truth's personal motivations and the influences of her historical context. Washington provides important insights into the turbulent cultural and political climate of the age while also separating the many myths from the facts concerning this legendary American figure.The Nightinghouls of Paris
Par Robert Mcalmon, Sanford J. Smoller. 2007
The Nightinghouls of Paris is a thinly fictionalized memoir of the darker side of expatriate life in Paris. Beginning in…
1928, the story follows the changes undergone by Canadian youths John Glassco and his friend Graeme Taylor during their (mis)adventures in Paris while trying to become writers. There they meet Robert McAlmon, who guides them through the city's cafes, bistros, and nightclubs, where they find writers and artists including Kay Boyle (with whom Glassco has a fling), Bill Bird, Djuna Barnes, Claude McKay, Hilaire Hiler, Peggy Guggenheim, and Ernest Hemingway. Fleeing France in late 1940, Robert McAlmon lost his notebook manuscripts and drafted The Nightinghouls of Paris from memory. Till now, it has existed solely as a typescript held by Yale University. Unlike most memoirs of American expatriates in the '20s, The Nightinghouls of Paris centers not only on writers, but also encompasses the racial, national, and social mélange they encountered in everyday life.Archie Green: The Making of a Working-Class Hero
Par Sean Burns, Nick Spitzer, David Roediger. 1972
Archie Green: The Making of a Working-Class Hero celebrates one of the most revered folklorists and labor historians of the…
twentieth century. Devoted to understanding the diverse cultural customs of working people, Archie Green (1917-2009) tirelessly documented these traditions and educated the public about the place of workers' culture and music in American life. Doggedly lobbying Congress for support of the American Folklife Preservation Act of 1976, Green helped establish the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, a significant collection of images, recordings, and written accounts that preserve the myriad cultural productions of Americans. Capturing the many dimensions of Green's remarkably influential life and work, Sean Burns draws on extensive interviews with Green and his many collaborators to examine the intersections of radicalism, folklore, labor history, and worker culture with Green's work. Burns closely analyzes Green's political genealogy and activist trajectory while illustrating how he worked to open up an independent political space on the American Left that was defined by an unwavering commitment to cultural pluralism.Historians as Expert Judicial Witnesses in Tobacco Litigation
Par Ramses Delafontaine. 2015
Historian Ramses Delafontaine presents an engaging examination of a controversial legal practice: the historian as an expert judicial witness. This…
book focuses on tobacco litigation in the U. S. wherein 50 historians have witnessed in 314 court cases from 1986 to 2014. The author examines the use of historical arguments in court and investigates how a legal context influences historical narratives and discourse in forensic history. Delafontaine asserts that the courtroom is a performative and fact-making theatre. Nonetheless, he argues that the civic responsibility of the historian should not end at the threshold of the courtroom where history and truth hang in the balance. The book is divided into three parts featuring an impressive range of European and American case studies. The first part provides a theoretical framework on the issues which arise when history and law interact. The second part gives a comparative overview of European and American examples of forensic history. This part also reviews U. S. legal rules and case law on expert evidence, as well as extralegal challenges historians face as experts. The third part covers a series of tobacco-related trials. With remunerations as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars and no peer-reviewed publications or communication on the part of the historians hired by the tobacco companies the question arises whether some historians are willing to trade their reputation and that of their university for the benefit of an interested party. The book further provides 50 expert profiles of the historians active in tobacco litigation, lists detailing the manner of the expert's involvement, and West Law references to these cases. This book offers profound and thought-provoking insights on the post-war forensification of history from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this way, Delafontaine makes a stirring call for debate on the contemporary engagement of historians as expert judicial witnesses in U. S. tobacco litigation.Politics in Socrates' Alcibiades
Par Andre Archie. 2015
This volume provides the first full, political and philosophically rigorous account of Plato's dialogue Alcibiades Major. The book argues that…
Alcibiades Major accomplishes its goal, which is to redirect Alcibiades' political ambitions, not by arguing for specific propositions based on specific premises. The dialogue accomplishes its goal by generalizing the notion of argument to include appeals to Alcibiades' doxastic attitudes toward his ability and knowledge to become a powerful ruler of the Greek people. One such doxastic attitude that Alcibiades holds about himself, and one that Socrates deftly disabuses him of, is that he does not have to cultivate himself to be competitive with the local, Athenian politicians. Socrates reminds Alcibiades that his true competitors are not Athenian politicians, but rather the Spartan and Persian kings. Consequently, the psychological momentum of the dialogue is motivated by Socrates' aim to engender the right sort of beliefs in Alcibiades.Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Par Ken Burns, Artemis Joukowsky. 2016
Official companion to the Ken Burns film premiering September 20, 2016, on PBS tells the little-known story of the Sharps,…
an otherwise ordinary couple whose faith and commitment to social justice inspired them to undertake dangerous rescue and relief missions across war-torn Europe, saving the lives of countless refugees, political dissidents, and Jews on the eve of World War II.In 1939, the Reverend Waitstill Sharp, a young Unitarian minister, and his wife, Martha, a social worker, accepted a mission from the American Unitarian Association: they were to leave their home and young children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help address the mounting refugee crisis. Seventeen ministers had been asked to undertake this mission and had declined; Rev. Sharp was the first to accept the call for volunteers in Europe.Armed with only $40,000, Waitstill and Martha quickly learned the art of spy craft and undertook dangerous rescue and relief missions across war-torn Europe, saving refugees, political dissidents, and Jews on the eve of World War II. After narrowly avoiding the Gestapo themselves, the Sharps returned to Europe in 1940 as representatives of the newly formed Unitarian Service Committee and continued their relief efforts in Vichy France.A fascinating portrait of resistance as told through the story of one courageous couple, Defying the Nazis offers a rare glimpse at high-stakes international relief efforts during WWII and tells the remarkable true story of a couple whose faith and commitment to social justice inspired them to risk their lives to save countless others.A companion documentary film was directed by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky.Alaska Hunting: Earthworms to Elephants
Par Jake Jacobson. 2013
Alaska Hunting: Earthworms to Elephants, a collection of 39 stories, is intended to be seasoning for a Hunters' pie, rural…
Alaska style. Most hunters extol the charismatic mega fauna, but pursuit of lesser game often takes center stage. Occasionally hunting discoveries lead to other endeavors, from jade mining to gold prospecting and fossil recovery. Possibilities are limitless. As we engage in hunting and fishing pursuits memories are laced with the big ones--the exceptional, genetically endowed giants--but some of the brightest memories are of average representatives of their species. What made them so memorable was the combination of circumstances under which they were taken--or lost. Companions, whether human or animal, often make the hunt memorable and its recollections of trophy quality.Boudicca: Britanniens Königin der Icener
Par Christina L w, Laurel A Rockefeller. 2016
Warum schreit der Rabe der Morrigan? Nur Britannier mit Herzen für wahre Freiheit wissen es! Im Jahre 43 n. Chr.…
scheint die römische Eroberung Britanniens nahezu gewiss - bis ein zufälliges Zusammentreffen von König Prasutagus der Icener und einer entflohenen Sklavin königlicher Herkunft vom Stamm der Aeduer in Gallien das Schicksal der britannischen Inseln für immer ändern. Erheben Sie sich für die Freiheit mit der wahren Geschichte von Boudicca, Britanniens Königin der Icener, und entdecken Sie eine der berührendsten Erzählungen aller Zeiten! Eine kreative, Non-Fiction Legendäre Frauen der Weltgeschichte-Biographie.Legendary Locals of Bozeman (Legendary Locals)
Par Rachel Phillips, Gallatin History Museum. 2016
From its inception as a supply town during Montana's gold rush in the 1860s, Bozeman has attracted visionaries, leaders, and…
pioneering thinkers. Bozeman's first mayor, John V. Bogert, established a precedent for keeping the city clean, safe, and orderly. City commissioner and tireless worker Mary Vant Hull spearheaded efforts to build a new library and to expand local parks and trails, and early physician Dr. Henry Foster successfully performed one of the first caesarean sections in Montana. Incredibly talented outdoor advocates and athletes like mountain climber Alex Lowe and long-distance runner Ed Anacker have complemented Bozeman's outdoor lifestyle. An emphasis on art, music, and culture began in the 1860s with piano and voice sensation Emma Weeks Willson. Today, artist Jim Dolan's sculptures are enjoyed all over town, and illusionist Jay Owenhouse wows children and adults with his live shows. Inspiring individuals like Cody Dieruf, who passed away from cystic fibrosis at the age of 23, and dedicated streetcar driver Larry O'Brien have added kindness and courage to local life.Victor and Evie: British Aristocrats in Wartime Rideau Hall
Par Dorothy Anne Phillips. 2017
In the middle of the Great War, Victor Cavendish, the ninth Duke of Devonshire, and his wife Lady Evelyn landed…
in Halifax in November 1916 so he could serve as the governor general of Canada. Throughout the difficult years of the First World War and its aftermath, the new governor general travelled extensively, oversaw policy, presided over Canada’s rejection of the British honours system, and walked a fine line between the colonial authorities and Canada’s desire for greater independence. Meanwhile, the duchess managed their home at Rideau Hall and fretted over propriety between her daughters and the young male staff who lived with them. In Victor and Evie, Dorothy Anne Phillips provides an intimate portrait of a family at the centre of Canadian social and political life. Utilizing letters released in 2005, the correspondence of an aide-de-camp, the duke’s diary, and other primary documents, Phillips constructs a detailed inquiry into the family’s relationships with each other and with the prominent people they met. This volume details their reactions to a number of dramatic events, including the conscription crisis, the Halifax Explosion, the influenza epidemic, the Winnipeg General Strike, the Prince of Wales’s tour across Canada, and the courtship of their daughter Dorothy by the young Harold Macmillan, the future British prime minister. An engaging account of politics, travel, love, and tragedy, Victor and Evie presents the life of a governor general and his family during a pivotal moment in early twentieth-century Canada.Boys Who Rocked the World: Heroes from King Tut to Bruce Lee
Par Michelle Roehm Mccann, David Hahn. 2012
Meet young men with grand goals in these profiles of forty-six movers and shakers who made their mark before they…
turned twenty.This engaging and thought-provoking collection of influential stories provides forty-six illustrated examples of strong, independent male role models, all of whom first impacted the world as teenagers or younger. This updated and expanded edition of Boys Who Rocked the World encompases a variety of achievements, interests, and backgrounds, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Steve Jobs to Crazy Horse and Stephen King--each with his own incredible story of how he created life-changing opportunities for himself and the world. Personal aspirations from today's young men are interspersed throughout the book, which also includes profiles of teenagers who are rocking the world right now--boys like John Collinson, the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, and Alec Loorz, who founded the nonprofit organization Kids vs. Global Warming. It's never too soon to start making a difference, and this empowering collection of accomplished young men makes for ideal motivation.Alcibiades II
Par Plato. 2003
The Second Alcibiades or Alcibiades II (Greek: Ἀλκιβιάδης βʹ) is a dialogue traditionally ascribed to Plato. In it, Socrates attempts…
to persuade Alcibiades that it is unsafe for him to pray to the gods if he does not know whether what he prays for is actually good or bad for him. There is dispute amongst scholars about the text's authenticity, and it is generally considered apocryphal.[1] The main criticisms of its authenticity revolve around its defective arguments, lack of humor, and style; those who consider it inauthentic date its composition to the 3rd or 2nd centuries BCE.One and Only: The Untold Story of On the Road
Par Gerald Nicosia. 2011
Beloved by both Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, Lu Anne Henderson's story has never been told. Lu Anne was a…
beautiful 15-year-old girl in Denver in 1945 when she met Neal, a fast-talking hurricane of male sexuality and vast promises. The two married, and soon they were hanging out with a group of would-be writers, including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. But Neal and Jack initially didn't like each other very much. Lu Anne taught them how to love each other -- in effect, making the Beat Generation possible, as well as giving Kerouac material for one of the seminal novels of the 20th century, On the Road. One and Only traces the immense struggles of Lu Anne's own life, which ranged from the split-up of her family to the ravages of abusive men, lingering illness, and the grief of losing the two most important men in her life. Lu Anne Henderson did not live to see the filming of On the Road by Walter Salles, but One and Only tells how Twilight's Kristen Stewart, through her work with both Nicosia and Anne Marie Santos (Lu Anne's daughter), came to find the key to playing Lu Anne in the film.Emma Albani: Victorian Diva (The Quest Library)
Par Darcy Dunton, Michelle Labrèche-Larouche. 1994