Billy Wilder on Assignment

Billy Wilder on Assignment
Author: Billy Wilder
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0691214557

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, chosen by Tom Stoppard "A revelation."—Marc Weingarten, Washington Post Acclaimed film director Billy Wilder’s early writings—brilliantly translated into English for the first time Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance reporter, first in Vienna and then in Weimar Berlin. Billy Wilder on Assignment brings together more than fifty articles, translated into English for the first time, that Wilder (then known as "Billie") published in magazines and newspapers between September 1925 and November 1930. From a humorous account of Wilder's stint as a hired dancing companion in a posh Berlin hotel and his dispatches from the international film scene, to his astute profiles of writers, performers, and political figures, the collection offers fresh insights into the creative mind of one of Hollywood’s most revered writer-directors. Wilder’s early writings—a heady mix of cultural essays, interviews, and reviews—contain the same sparkling wit and intelligence as his later Hollywood screenplays, while also casting light into the dark corners of Vienna and Berlin between the wars. Wilder covered everything: big-city sensations, jazz performances, film and theater openings, dance, photography, and all manner of mass entertainment. And he wrote about the most colorful figures of the day, including Charlie Chaplin, Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Prince of Wales, actor Adolphe Menjou, director Erich von Stroheim, and the Tiller Girls dance troupe. Film historian Noah Isenberg's introduction and commentary place Wilder’s pieces—brilliantly translated by Shelley Frisch—in historical and biographical context, and rare photos capture Wilder and his circle during these formative years. Filled with rich reportage and personal musings, Billy Wilder on Assignment showcases the burgeoning voice of a young journalist who would go on to become a great auteur.

The Vienna Assignment

The Vienna Assignment
Author: Olen Steinhauer
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2009-08
Genre: Defectors
ISBN: 0007333927

Krimi. A member of the homicide department of the people's militia, State Security Officer Brano Sev is sent to the village of his birth to interrogate a potential defector, but his mission is complicated by a murder in which he becomes the prime suspect

Seen from a Distance

Seen from a Distance
Author: Paul Hoffman
Publisher: Hillcrest Publishing Group
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2012-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1937600602

SEEN FROM A DISTANCE is the story of Cusack, an Iraq war veteran now working for a private security firm. Alienated from his past and haunted by it, too, he lives determinedly in the here and now. His assignment is surveillance of an elderly professor, W.S. Tyler, whose dead son-in-law had ties to a shadowy Senegalese rebel army, accused by the U.S. government of being a terrorist organization. Cusack's preferred method of surveillance - the detached technology of camera and microphone is abruptly abandoned in favor of a role which puts him in Tyler's classroom and soon thereafter in a complicated relationship with his family. Cusack's boss, increasingly obsessed with Tyler, drags Cusack into his hidden agenda where deadly unforeseen events occur in rapid succession and the situation spins rapidly out of control. In the end, Cusack is confronted with choices that will change his future as radically as his earlier choices fixed his past. Seen From A Distance can be read as a character study, or a dramatic adventure or considered for its parallels to political events of the recent past. At every level, it is a terrific read.

Records of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference for the Trademark Registration Treaty

Records of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference for the Trademark Registration Treaty
Author: World Intellectual Property Organization
Publisher: WIPO
Total Pages: 471
Release: 1975
Genre: Law
ISBN:

The Records of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference on the Trademark Registration Treaty, 1973, contain the most important documents relating to that Conference which were issued before, during and after it. The Diplomatic Conference on the Trademark Registration Treaty was one of three diplomatic conferences which took place within the framework of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference on Industrial Property, 1973.

Surge of Power

Surge of Power
Author: Gordon Froede
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2003
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1411603281

After the end of the Cold War, the political map of the world is being redrawn by two surviving world powers, but a former KGB agent foils their plan...

General David S. Stanley, USA

General David S. Stanley, USA
Author: Dennis W. Belcher
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2014-06-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786476451

Medical student turned professional soldier David S. Stanley offered forty years of service to his country on the western frontier and during the Civil War. He participated in some of most important Civil War battles, including the Battle of Iuka, the Battle of Corinth, the Battle of Stones Rivers, the Battle of Resaca, the Battle of Spring Hill, and the Battle of Franklin. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Franklin where he was shot while rallying his troops. Stanley was a complex individual who showed concern for his soldiers and ferocity in battle. As Rosecrans' chief of cavalry, he deserves much credit for making the Union cavalry an important and daunting power in the Western Theater. He also commanded the IV Army Corps at the end of the war. Stanley was a formidable adversary of his enemies and he clashed with William T. Sherman, Jacob Cox and William B. Hazen. This biography covers not only his military career but also his personal life, including his conversion to Roman Catholicism and problem with alcohol.

The Last Amateur

The Last Amateur
Author: Stephen L. Dyson
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2014-08-13
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1438452616

The authoritative biography of a nineteenth-century polymath. This fascinating biography tells the story of William J. Stillman (1828–1901), a nineteenth-century polymath. Born and raised in Schenectady, New York, Stillman attended Union College and began his career as a Hudson River School painter after an apprenticeship with Frederic Edwin Church. In the 1850s, he was editor of The Crayon, the most important journal of art criticism in antebellum America. Later, after a stint as an explorer-promoter of the Adirondacks, he became the American consul in Rome during the Civil War. When his diplomatic career brought him to Crete, he developed an interest in archaeology and later produced photographs of the Acropolis, for which he is best known today. In yet another career switch, Stillman became a journalist, serving as a correspondent for The Times of London in Rome and the Balkans. In 1871, he married his second wife, Marie Spartali, a Pre-Raphaelite painter, and continued to write about history and art until his death. One of the later products of the American Enlightenment, he lived a life that intersected with many strands of American and European culture. Stillman can indeed be called “the last amateur.” “The Last Amateur is a meticulously researched and highly nuanced portrait of William J. Stillman, an important journalist, artist, and critic of mid-nineteenth-century America. Stephen L. Dyson provides outstanding context and a convincing case as to why Stillman deserves to be better known due to his keen intellect, prodigious output, and insightful views on art and culture. It’s refreshing to see an academic who blends deep scholarship with an ability to write in a readable style that will satisfy both the scholar and the general readers. The result is a timeless classic.” — Paul Grondahl, author of Mayor Corning: Albany Icon, Albany Enigma “The Last Amateur is a complex and intriguing life history of a personality very much within the circles of the intellectual debates of the mid- and late nineteenth century on art, aesthetics, archaeology, geopolitics (especially in the eastern Mediterranean), and the development of photography. Stillman was sort of a Zelig character, and although he had an important influence on many of these areas of culture and society, he has been relatively little studied. The book is an important step in shedding light on the character and importance of Stillman.” — Harvey K. Flad, coauthor of Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie

Refugee Connection

Refugee Connection
Author: James A. Carlin
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 221
Release: 1989-06-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1349110582

A review of the refugee flows and the dislocations of people caused by oppression, persecution and armed conflict since World War II, this book also gives a first-hand account of the humanitarian efforts of governments, voluntary agencies and individuals in responding to these emergencies.