In 1971, French jazz critics Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli co-wrote Free Jazz/Black Power, a treatise on the racial and political implications of jazz and jazz criticism. It remains a testimo
William Faulkner once called the short story "the most demanding form after poetry." In that form, he achieved splendid success. He wrote over a hundred short stories, published nearly all of them dur
Too often remembered solely as the psychiatrist and cultural critic whose testimony in Senate subcommittees sparked the creation of the Comics Code, Fredric Wertham was a far more complex man. Author
Liv Ullmann (b. 1938) has played many roles over the course of her long life: actress, mother, activist, author, and director. Her lead performances in such Ingmar Bergman classics as Persona, Scenes
In little more than twenty years, playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) completed a ten-play cycle depicting African American life in the twentieth century, with each play taking place in a different d
Howard Hawks (1896-1977) is one of America's great film directors. During a career that spanned fifty years and produced more than forty films, this writer, producer, and director made highly successf
This is Whitney Balliett's long-awaited "big book." In it are all the jazz profiles he has written for The New Yorker during the past 24 years. These include his famous early portraits of Pee Wee Russ
Renowned jazz critic Whitney Balliett loves New York. A longtime columnist and critic for the New Yorker, he has written about the city's artistic side and night life for fifty years. In many ways his
Herpes simplex viruses are capable of causing a wide variety of infections, including genital herpes, which is so common a sexually transmitted disease that it affects one in five people in the United
William Faulkner claimed that it may be necessary for a writer to "rob his mother," should the need arise. "If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth
Joel and Ethan Coen (b. 1954, 1957) started their careers in obscurity on a shoestring budget cajoled from family and friends in Minneapolis. Working entirely outside the studio system, the Coen broth
Film -- Biography --> In this collection of interviews, Robert Aldrich (1918-1983) tells fascinating stories of making motion pictures with such film legends as Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palanc
Beginning in 1963 with the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique and reaching a high pitch ten years later with the televised mega-event of the "Battle of the Sexes"-the tennis match be
Thirty riveting months in the life of a common infantryman, one among the "citizen soldiers" who took the Allies to victory When drafted into the army in 1943, A. Cleveland Harrison was a reluctant e
BIOGRAPHY ‥ LITERARY CRITICISM--> The Beat movement nurtured many female dissidents and artists who contributed to Beat culture and connected the Beats with the second wave of the women's movement. Al
When Alan Brown published his well-received Haunted Places in the American South, a kind of seance swirled around him. Locals who knew ghost stories began haunting him with ghoulish reports from house
Of all the American filmmakers who emerged from the 1970s, Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939) may be the one most passionately revered by both critics and mainstream audiences. The Godfather and The Godf
John le Carre (b. 1931) is the pen name of David Cornwell. Under that pseudonym he has become the leading writer of contemporary spy thrillers. Tremendously popular and deeply influential, his novels
During the 1970s, the National Endowment for the Arts Photography Surveys granted money to photograph American cities at the bicentennial and years that followed. In Through the Lens of the City: NEA
In its formative years, America, birthplace of a revolution, wrestled with a volatile dilemma. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and many other founding fathers clashed. What was to be
This is the true, unvarnished life story of the girl who grew up to write The Awakening, a masterpiece published 100 years ago. With its portrayal of a woman whose sexual desires take her outside marr
Exceptionalism, the notion that Americans have a distinct and special destiny different from that of other nations, permeates every period of American history. It is the single most powerful force in
Although he belonged to an American generation of writers deeply influenced by the high modernist revolt "against nature" and against the self-imposed limits of realism to a palpable world, William Fa
"We're living a national ideology that's invisible to us because we're inside it." At the outset of his career E. L. Doctorow told Paul Levine, "History written by historians is clearly insufficient.
In 1969 Gerhard Kubik chanced to encounter a Mozambican labor migrant, a miner in Transvaal, South Africa, tapping a cipendani, a mouth-resonated musical bow. A comparable instrument was seen in the h
This book brings together an exceptional array of interviews, profiles, and press conferences tracing the half century that Orson Welles (1915- 1985) was in the public eye. Originally published or bro
Under the leadership of Samuel Adams, patriot propagandists deliberately and conscientiously kept the issue of slavery off the agenda as goals for freedom were set for the American Revolution. By com
Deeply rooted in the soil and culture of his native Greece, in its history, and in its contemporary political upheavals, Theo Angelopoulos (b. 1935) has chosen to make all his films, without exception
Although Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) holds an undisputed place in the pantheon of major filmmakers, mention of his name unjustly evokes images of monolithic gloom and despair. All of his pictures, incl
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) was one of Russia's most influential and renowned filmmakers, despite an output of only seven feature films in twenty years. Revered by such filmmaking giants as Ingmar Be
Offering lively currents, big woods, abundant wildlife, and plenty of solitude, the great number and variety of Mississippi's waterways debunk the stereotype of muddy, stagnant sloughs harboring cloud
What was the experience of war for a child in bombed and ravaged Germany? In this memoir the voice of innocence is heard. "This is great stuff," exclaims Stephen E. Ambrose. "I love this book." In thi
What do the comic book figures Static, Hardware, and Icon all have in common? Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans gives an answer that goes far beyond "tights and capes," an answer tha
Hank Williams (1923--1953) is revered in the top tier of the country-music pantheon, and his forlorn ballads are classics in the country songbook. An inspired, natural genius, Williams was the complet
A traditional yet fresh approach to grasping the power of Morrison's writing With essays by Yvonne Atkinson, Marc C. Conner, Susan Corey, Maria DiBattista, Barbara Johnson, Cheryl Lester, Katherine St
From his first feature film, Fear and Desire (1953), to his final, posthumously released Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick excelled at probing the dark corners of human consciousness. In doing so
"The most effective political statement I could make is in my art work. . . . The most radical kind of politics is language as plain truth." Leslie Marmon Silko, one of America's best known Native au
A biography in interviews of one of America's best-loved comic strip masters Through his comic strip Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000) has left his signatures on American culture -- Lucy's fake
The life and early death of a South Side guitar genius, the greatest unheralded Chicago blues-maker Jimi Hendrix called Earl Hooker "the master of the wah-wah pedal." Buddy Guy slept with one of Hook
Perhaps the most gifted and invigorating of the American independent film directors of the past two decades, Jim Jarmusch (b. 1953) has presented moviegoers with his uniquely personal vision, from his
