'Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious.' (Inscription on Kaspar Hauser's tombstone.) In 1828 a teenage boy was discovered on the streets of Nuremberg. Barely able to walk, he clutched a letter in his hand. This youth, Kaspar Hauser, who couldn't properly speak or write, was soon to become an ......
Katharine Hepburn: grande dame of American actresses, fierce individualist, and living legend. Nominated for 12 Academy Awards and winner of four, Hepburn achieved stardom against formidable odds. The woman behind the legend emerges in this sympathetic yet clear-eyed portrait of her exceptional life and loves. Filled with accounts of her ......
Throughout the better part of the twentieth century, and in performance halls, classrooms, and communities throughout the world, the wellspring of Katherine Dunham's remarkable career can be traced to the intersection of dance, culture, and society. More than a recounting of Dunham's accomplishments as a dancer and choreographer, this biography is ......
One of the Lost Generation modernists who gathered in 1920s Paris, Kay Boyle published more than forty books, including fifteen novels, eleven collections of short fiction, eight volumes of poetry, three children's books, and various essays and translations. Yet her achievement can be even better appreciated through her letters to the literary and ......
Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family
The Kennedys endure as American icons because of the mix between power and vulnerability that so many of them embodied. Our fascination and connection to them comes most strongly through the wives, whose pain, heartbreak, and grief seemed immensely public and lonely and personal at the same time. The Tragic Lives of the Kennedy Wives examines five ......
The Forgotten History of Plastic Surgery in Prisons
Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man.
The Life and Times of Sam Ward, Man-About-Washington in the Gilded Age
King of the Lobby tells the story of how one man harnessed delicious food, fine wine, and good conversation to the task of becoming the most influential lobbyist of the Gilded Age.Sam Ward was a colorful character. Scion of an old and honorable family, best friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and charming man-about-Washington, Ward held his own ......
Acclaimed by leading historians and critics when it appeared shortly after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this foundational biography wends through the corridors in which King held court, posing the right questions and providing a keen measure of the man whose career and mission enthrall scholars and general readers to this day. Updated ......
