Biography
"A classic in the literature of survival." --Newsweek
On October 12, 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote, snow-peaked Andes Mountains. Ten weeks later, only 16 of the 45 passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks spent in the shelter of the plane's fuselage without food and scarcely any hope of a rescue. They survived by protecting and helping one another, and coming to the difficult conclusion that to live meant doing the unimaginable. Confronting nature at its most furious, two brave young men risked their lives to hike through the mountains looking for help--and ultimately found it.
An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcom X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.
In this now classic biography, reissued in a new edition for the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth, Linda Lear offers the astonishing portrait of an extraordinary woman who gave us some of the most beloved children's books of all time.
Potter found freedom from her conventional Victorian upbringing in the countryside. Nature inspired her imagination as an artist and scientific illustrator, but The Tale of Peter Rabbit brought her fame, financial success, and the promise of happiness when she fell in love with her editor Norman Warne. After his tragic and untimely death, Potter embraced a new life as the owner of Hill Top Farm in the English Lake District and a second chance at happiness. As a visionary landowner, successful farmer and sheep-breeder, she was able to preserve the landscape that had inspired her art. Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature reveals a lively, independent, and passionate woman, whose art was timeless, and whose generosity left an indelible imprint on the countryside. This anniversary edition is complete with a brand new foreword by James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and social media sensation who chronicles his world on Twitter and in his wonderful book, "A Shepherd's Life"."A lucid portrait of Friedan as a bold yet flawed advocate for women's equality."--Publishers Weekly The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921-2006), pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. In this biography, the first in more than twenty years, Rachel Shteir draws on Friedan's papers and on interviews with family, colleagues, and friends to create a nuanced portrait. Friedan, born Bettye Naomi Goldstein, chafed at society's restrictions from a young age. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. As a wife and mother, she struggled to balance her work and homemaking. Her malaise as a housewife and her research into the feelings of other women resulted in The Feminine Mystique (1963), which made her a celebrity. Using her influence, Friedan cofounded the National Organization for Women, the National Women's Political Caucus, and the National Association to Repeal Abortion Laws. She fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, universal childcare, and workplace protections for mothers, but she disagreed with the women's liberation movement over "sexual politics." Her volatility and public conflicts fractured key relationships. Shteir considers how Friedan's Judaism was essential to her feminism, presenting a new Friedan for a new era.
Many are asking, what is wrong with teaching, learning, schooling, and education, and what can be done? You will get the answers (panacea) from the letters of a mad public school teacher: intrepid, irascible, cantankerous, provocative, passionate, thought-provoking, iconoclastic, and enhanced with vitriolic demagoguery.
As a grad student / colleague said, Thanks for an enjoyable class on education issues in society. I also enjoyed your letters to the editor. I've been told that I say what other people think. Well, you write and publish what we're all thinking.
Chasity Strawder, a Black woman in northern Ohio, recounts her high risk pregnancy and healthcare disparities in this urgent memoir. She also tells stories of kindness, such as when her chiropractor gave her free treatments and herbs to assist with her pain. Her memoir is a powerful call to action for Black women’s maternal health and a universal story of motherhood. Strawder is a well-known advocate for black women's maternal health through Cuyahoga County.
Listen to an interview with Chasity on Lines of Loganberry on Spotify.
Claude Rains was "the greatest character actor of his age - possibly of all ages," according to film historian Richard Schickel. Classic credits include The Invisible Man, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Now, Voyager, Casablanca, Notorious and Lawrence of Arabia. A stage star in his native England, Rains didn't make his screen debut until age 43. Throughout his career, he hid behind a movie persona that was suave and sophisticated, but off camera he was insecure and had trouble expressing feelings. Good-natured, still he had few friends and was married six times. A proud naturalized American, Victorian values led him to repudiate Tinsel Town - he was happiest puttering around the 18th-century Pennsylvania farm that was his heart and soul.
As a teenager, Toby Cohen was thrilled to meet her screen idol backstage after his Broadway triumph. Based on her decades of research and exclusive interviews - with Rains' fifth wife, his sixth wife's children and nephews, his farm neighbors, the doctor who treated him in his final illness - Ms. Cohen has produced not just a biography, but an in-depth, compassionate analysis of a complicated man whose true self was "invisible" to all.
With never-before-published candid photographs.