The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy

The Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy
Author: Kevin D. Greene
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2018-09-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1469646501

Over the course of his long career, legendary bluesman William "Big Bill" Broonzy (1893–1958) helped shape the trajectory of the genre, from its roots in the rural Mississippi River Delta, through its rise as a popular genre in the North, to its eventual international acclaim. Along the way, Broonzy adopted an evolving personal and professional identity, tailoring his self-presentation to the demands of the place and time. His remarkable professional fluidity mirrored the range of expectations from his audiences, whose ideas about race, national belonging, identity, and the blues were refracted through Broonzy as if through a prism. Kevin D. Greene argues that Broonzy's popular success testifies to his ability to navigate the cultural expectations of his different audiences. However, this constant reinvention came at a personal and professional cost. Using Broonzy's multifaceted career, Greene situates blues performance at the center of understanding African American self-presentation and racial identity in the first half of the twentieth century. Through Broonzy's life and times, Greene assesses major themes and events in African American history, including the Great Migration, urbanization, and black expatriate encounters with European culture consumers. Drawing on a range of historical source materials as well as oral histories and personal archives held by Broonzy's son, Greene perceptively interrogates how notions of race, gender, and audience reception continue to shape concepts of folk culture and musical authenticity.

Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle
Author: Mickey Mantle
Publisher: Island Books
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1992-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780440212034

Mickey Mantle, the hayseed kid from Spavinaw, Oklahoma, was in his sixth year with the Yankees. He was already America's homerun king. He was about to become a national hero. 1956 would be a record-breaking season: the golden summer fans would remember forever. Now Mickey Mantle brings it all back just the way it happened--spectacular playing on field, crazy hijinks with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin off. There never was a time like it before in baseball. There never will be again. It was magic.

Timeless Experience

Timeless Experience
Author: Nancy Amendt-Lyon
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2016-05-11
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1443894281

For years, psychotherapists have known that Laura Perls was actively involved in the development of what today is known as Gestalt therapy, although her husband, Frederick Perls, officially authored the foundational texts. Laura Perls’s own professional publications are succinct and appreciated, but they are not numerous. The present volume, comprising Laura Perls’s heretofore unpublished writing, including journal entries, letters, poems, translations, short stories, and drafts for lectures and publications, offers a very personal perspective on one of the founders of Gestalt therapy. The extensive interview that Daniel Rosenblatt conducted with Laura Perls in 1972, published here for the first time in English, complements her literary texts, and provides valuable background information. Laura Perls’s history spans two world wars, flight from Nazi persecution, life on three continents, and many new beginnings. Together with her known works, these literary texts reflect the emergence of women into professional and public life during the 20th century by giving the reader insight into this time period and the influence of a woman on the development of a major school of Humanistic Psychology. The rich cultural background from which Laura Perls benefited and the authors whose works inspired her resonate in her literary texts, a treasure chest of personal reflections during the decades of her life from 1946 to 1985. In addition, a general overview of her life is provided, her theoretical and practical contributions to the origins and development of Gestalt therapy are described, and her legacy to the field of Gestalt therapy is elucidated. Laura Perls was known for making the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy a viable and important teaching community. For decades, she was the keeper of the flame of this foundational Gestalt institute. Best known for her concepts of contact and support, the creative use of experiments, and productive use of embarrassment, Laura Perls’s literary texts are finally made available here.

Willie Morris

Willie Morris
Author: Jack Bales
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2015-06-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476612315

William Weaks Morris was a writer defined in large measure by his Southern roots. A seventh generation Mississippian, he grew up in Yazoo City frequently reminded of his heritage. Spending his college years at the University of Texas and at Oxford University in England gave Morris a taste of the world and, at the very least, something to write home about. This volume is a comprehensive reference work dealing with Willie Morris' life and works. It is also a literary biography based on hundreds of primary sources such as letters, newspaper articles and interviews. The principal focus is on Morris' literary legacy, which includes works such as North Toward Home, New York Days and My Dog Skip.

South and West

South and West
Author: Joan Didion
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2017-03-07
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 152473280X

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “One of contemporary literature’s most revered essayists revives her raw records from a 1970s road trip across the American southwest ... her acute observations of the country’s culture and history feel particularly resonant today.” —Harper’s Bazaar Joan Didion, the bestselling, award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean, has always kept notebooks—of overheard dialogue, interviews, drafts of essays, copies of articles. Here are two extended excerpts from notebooks she kept in the 1970s; read together, they form a piercing view of the American political and cultural landscape. “Notes on the South” traces a road trip that she and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, took through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Her acute observations about the small towns they pass through, her interviews with local figures, and their preoccupation with race, class, and heritage suggest a South largely unchanged today. “California Notes” began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial. Though Didion never wrote the piece, the time she spent watching the trial in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the West and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here we not only see Didion’s signature irony and imagination in play, we’re also granted an illuminating glimpse into her mind and process.

The Rough Guide to the Beatles

The Rough Guide to the Beatles
Author: Chris Ingham
Publisher: Rough Guides
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781843531401

More than thirty years after they split, the Beatles remain the ultimate pop band - the most popular, the most respected, the most influential. This new Rough Guide covers the Fab Four from every angle, delving deep into their music and lyrics, their movies, their solo careers and much more. Features include: - The Life and the Music: from Liverpool clubs to world domination, from Beatlemania to the break-up and beyond, here's the story of the recordings and the gigs, as well as the haircuts, girlfriends, scandals and psychedelia. - The Canon: the inside track on the 50 essential Beatles songs. - Beatles On Screen: the movies, the promos, the TV appearances. - The Fifth Beatle: George Martin, Brian Epstein, 'Magic Alex' and others - the people closest to the Beatles. - Beatle Country: the landmarks of Beatles lore. - Beatleology: the best books, the weirdest cover versions, the most obsessive websites, the obscurest trivia.All you need is this!

Notebooks

Notebooks
Author: Margaret Rose Thornton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 868
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780300116823

Meticulously edited and annotated, Tennessee Williams's notebooks follow his growth as a writer from his undergraduate days to the publication and production of his most famous plays, from his drug addiction and drunkenness to the heights of his literary accomplishments.

Desolate Angel

Desolate Angel
Author: Dennis McNally
Publisher: Hachette Books
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0306875209

"A blockbuster of a biography . . . absolutely magnificent."--San Francisco Chronicle Jack Kerouac--"King of the Beats," unwitting catalyst for the '60s counterculture, groundbreaking author--was a complex and compelling man: a star athlete with a literary bent; a spontaneous writer vilified by the New Critics but adored by a large, youthful readership; a devout Catholic but aspiring Buddhist; a lover of freedom plagued by crippling alcoholism. Desolate Angel follows Kerouac from his childhood in the mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, to his early years at Columbia where he met Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, beginning a four-way friendship that would become a sociointellectual legend. In rich detail and with sensitivity, Dennis McNally recounts Kerouac's frenetic cross-country journeys, his experiments with drugs and sexuality, his travels to Mexico and Tangier, the sudden fame that followed the publication of On the Road, the years of literary triumph, and the final near-decade of frustration and depression. Desolate Angel is a harrowing, compassionate portrait of a man and an artist set in an extraordinary social context. The metamorphosis of America from the Great Depression to the Kennedy administration is not merely the backdrop for Kerouac's life but is revealed to be an essential element of his art . . . for Kerouac was above all a witness to his exceptional times.

The Genius and the Goddess

The Genius and the Goddess
Author: Jeffrey Meyers
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2012-01-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0252078543

The 1956 wedding of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller surprised the world. The Genius and the Goddess presents an intimate portrait of the prelude to and ultimate tragedy of their short marriage. Distinguished biographer Jeffrey Meyers skillfully explores why they married, what sustained them for five years, and what ultimately destroyed their marriage and her life. The greatest American playwright of the twentieth century and the most popular American actress both complemented and wounded one another. Marilyn craved attention and success but became dependent on drugs, alcohol, and sexual adventures. Miller experienced creative agony with her. Their marriage coincided with the creative peak of her career, yet private and public conflict caused both of them great anguish. Meyers has crafted a richly nuanced dual biography based on his quarter-century friendship with Miller, interviews with major players of stage and screen during the postwar Hollywood era, and extensive archival research. He describes their secret courtship. He also reveals new information about the effect of the HUAC anti-Communist witch-hunts on Miller and his friendship with Elia Kazan. The fascinating cast of characters includes Marilyn's co-stars Sir Laurence Olivier, Yves Montand, Montgomery Clift, and Clark Gab≤ her leading directors John Huston, Billy Wilder, and George Cuk∨ and her literary friends Dame Edith Sitwell, Isak Dinesen, Saul Bellow, and Vladimir Nabokov. Meyers offers the most in-depth account of the making and meaning of The Misfits. Written by Miller for Monroe, this now-classic film was a personal disaster. But Marilyn remained Miller's tragic muse and her character, exalted and tormented, lived on for the next forty years in his work.