Classic Biography

In 1969, a twenty-something screenwriter with one movie credit to his name is approached by Jimi Hendrix's management after the legendary guitarist saw the obscure indie film in London and wanted to collaborate on a project of his own. Jonathan Stathakis had no idea how thrilling the next eighteen months would be, as he and Hendrix formed not just a working partnership but a unique friendship.

When he was arrested in July 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer had a severed head in the refrigerator, two more in the freezer, two skulls and a skeleton in a filing cabinet. But if anything could be more disturbing than the brute horror of this scene, it was the evidence that Dahmer had been using these human remains not only for sexual gratification but as part of a dark ritual of his own devising - to furnish a shrine to himself.

Berlin 1989, Wendezeit. An der durchlässig gewordenen Mauer entlang gehen zwei alte Männer, der Bürobote Theo Wuttke, genannt Fonty, und sein "Tagundnachtschatten" Hoftaller, der ewige Spitzel. Ihre Erinnerungen reichen über große Distanzen, beiden ist die Vergangenheit so nahe und gegenwärtig wie die sich überstürzenden Tagesereignisse. "Ein weites Feld" entwirft ein Panorama deutscher Geschichte von 1848 bis heute, es ist Berlin-Roman und Fontane-Biographie.

The Education of Henry Adams is among the oddest and most enlightening books in American literature. Henry Adams was the grandson of a president and the great-grandson of another one. He was also the son of the American Ambassador to England, and his secretery. As such he rubbed elbows, literally, with Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and with many of the great figures of his time.

The English Governess at the Siamese Court, written in 1870, vividly recounts the experiences of one Anna Harriette Leonowens as governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam, and translator and scribe for the King himself. Bright, young, and energetic, Leonowens was well-suited to her role and her writings convey a heartfelt interest in the lives, legends, and languages of Siam's rich and poor.

At thirteen years old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was now determined to conquer Italy. Together, they made three visits there the last when Mozart was seventeen, all vividly recounted here by acclaimed conductor Jane Glover. Father and son travelled from the theatres and concert salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome to Naples, poorer and more dangerous than the prosperous north, and to Venice, the carnivelesque birthplace of public opera.

It is something of a cliché to say that an actor’s life was like a movie he or she might have starred in, but in the case of Myrna Loy, the cliché is true. It is easy to picture her as a little girl, riding the range with her rancher father, sitting around the table and participating charmingly in family discussions of current events.

Plato recorded the final days of his mentor, Socrates, who was tried and condemned in Athens in 399 B.C. on trumped-up charges of being a heretic and corrupter of the young. This collection comprises 4 books: Euthyphro, in which Socrates engages Euthyphro in a debate on the steps of the courthouse where he is to stand trial, The Apology, in which Socrates argues on his own behalf, Crito, in which Socrates's friends and supporters visit him in prison and urge him to recant.

Partant de l'analyse des interdits misogynes, solides remparts d'une supériorité masculine dont la réalité paraît sérieusement ébranlée, Virginia Woolf définit les conditions d'existence et la spécificité de la création pour les femmes. Il faut d'abord "une chambre à soi", dont la portée va bien au-delà du matériel. Il suffit d'entrer dans n'importe quelle chambre de n'importe quelle rue pour que se jette à votre face toute cette force extrêmement complexe de la féminité.

Orlando: A Biography is a groundbreaking English novel by Virginia Woolf that explores English history, gender roles, and sexual politics in a way few books have before or since. Inspired by the life of Woolf's friend and lover Vita Sackville-West—herself an accomplished poet and novelist—the story follows the life of an aristocratic nobleman who changes from man to woman and goes on to live for centuries, meeting all of the most influential and powerful figures in English history.

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky was just five when he started learning the piano – in his small home-town in Russia. Most families like his had a piano but very few small boys could play it so well. Then he started writing music, too. Ideas for new music poured out of him, especially wonderful tunes. He wrote a lot of music for ballets as well as for big orchestras and small groups of instruments, such as string quartets (two violins, one viola, one cello).

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (January 6, 1946 to July 7, 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and co-founder of Pink Floyd. He was the band's frontman and primary songwriter for their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), and portions of their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). In April 1968, Barrett was ousted from Pink Floyd amid speculation of mental illness and his use of psychedelic drugs. In 1972, Barrett retired from public life and guarded his privacy until his death of pancreatic cancer in 2006. The following is from an August 1967 interview.

Jack the Ripper. Jeffrey Dahmer. John Wayne Gacy. Locusta of Gaul. If that last name doesn’t seem to fit with the others, it’s likely because our modern society largely believes that serial killers are a recent phenomenon. Not so, argues Debbie Feltonin fact, there’s ample evidence to show that serial killers stalked the ancient world just as they do the modern one.

This is the poignant and compelling story of perhaps the most naturally gifted musical genius of all time. Copiously illustrated with examples of his music, it tells of Mozart's extraordinary childhood travelling the courts of Europe, and of how, after a brief period of fame in Vienna, his fortunes declined until his early death and last resting place in a pauper's grave.

Nel 1851 Charles Dickens accompagna il detective Charles Frederick Field (1805-1874) in una nottata a giro per i sobborghi londinesi. Il racconto che ne scaturisce - pubblicato sotto forma di articolo sulla rivista Household Words - è l'acuta ricostruzione dello squallore notturno di una grande metropoli. Avventurandosi fra taverne malfamate, vicoli bui e quartieri in mano alla malavita, Dickens, Field e i loro uomini toccano con mano i pericoli che si celano nelle periferie vittoriane, offrendo a chi legge l'opportunità di rivivere un'epoca remota, ma non per questo morta e sepolta.

In 1849, Henry David Thoreau argued in his essay “Civil Disobedience” that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have the right to avoid such submission to permit the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was partly motivated by his abhorrence with slavery and the Mexican-American War. His work has inspired great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Martin Buber.

本书选取了老舍先生的一些经典散文和中短篇作品。这些作品多取材于人们的日常生活，通过平凡的场景反映普遍的社会冲突，挖掘对人民生存、命运的思考。这些文章或描写城市平民的生活轨迹，或书写知识分子的生活趣事，或描摹各地的风土人情，其作品充满生活情趣，其文笔细致入微，极尽渲染之笔触，更贯穿着老舍先生一贯的幽默风格，让人从轻快诙谐之中体味人生哲思

Welcome to Kansas, Notorious USA. This time you’ll have no better guide around the dark and deadly of the Great Plains than Katherine Ramsland, one of America’s most legendary true crime authors and researchers. Dr. Ramsland is a Wall Street Journal best-selling author who has turned her attention to the Sunflower State with an unflinching eye as she takes on some famous cases (the Clutter family murders - of course!) and some that are less well-known. With each story, she gives readers a look deep into the heart of darkness, Kansas-style.

This volume relates the stories of the Borgias and the Cenci. The former, a family of Spanish adventurers, came to dominate the Italian peninsula, and, when Rodergio Borgia became Pope Alexander VI, the world of Christendom, in the late 15th century. The Cenci was an aristocratic family, in which rampant sexual and domestic abuse led to murder and very public execution.

Considering herself unsuitable for any other contribution to the war effort, Monica Dickens opts for nursing, imagining herself gliding through the wards, serene in a pure white halo cap. On enrolment, however, she is promptly stripped of all illusions. Intelligent and headstrong, Monica struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and toils over the mountains of menial work that are a trainee's lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men and her secret writing project to keep her going.