Great Art

In 2021, when the gavel fell at Christie’s on the sale of Mike Winkelmann’s Everydays series—a compilation of 5,000 digital artworks—it made a thunderous announcement: Non-fungible tokens had arrived. The ludicrous world of CryptoKitties and Bored Apes had just produced a piece of art worth $69.3 million (at least according to the highest bidder). On that day, the traditional art market—the largest unregulated market in the world—put its stamp of approval on a very new and carnivalesque digital reality. But what did it mean for these two worlds to collide?

Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., won the world heavyweight championship at the age of 22, the same year he joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He would go on to become the first and only three-time (in succession) world heavyweight champion. Nicknamed "The Greatest", Ali was as well known for his unique boxing style, consisting of the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope, as he was for the catchphrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee".

This book is written to and for women as an homage to all women of all races, religions, and cultures who desire a better life, believe greatness is possible, but struggle with the process of accomplishment. As you journey through the pages of this book, you will find the strength, empowerment, and encouragement to become the creation you were initially born to be. Living your best life does not require you to change everything about you that makes you unique: it is simply improving upon the areas of your life that have limited your ability to become the best version of yourself. It does ...

The story of Miles' career is the story of the golden age of jazz. It is the story of the transition from big bands to small ensembles. It is the story of developing and exploring improvised music in small combos: trios, quartets, quintets, and sextets. Miles was at the forefront of every major style and genre of jazz that took place over a rapidly maturing arc from just after World War II through the sixties. This period was twenty-five years of explosive creativity and accelerated musical development. The breadth and depth of Miles’ impact, influence, and creative output are staggering....

This audiobook narrated by William Hope examines how Emerson, Thoreau, and William James forged resilience from devastating loss and changed the course of American thought.

A Great Gay Book: Stories of Growth, Belonging & Other Queer Possibilities is a gorgeously designed collection of essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, profiles, as well as new material from many of today's biggest LGBTQ+ creatives.

In the public imagination, Ernest Hemingway looms larger than life. But the actual person behind the legend has long remained elusive. Now, his son Patrick shares the letters they exchanged over two decades, offering a glimpse into how one of America’s most iconic writers interacted with his children. These letters reveal a father who wished for his children to share his interests—hunting, fishing, travel—and a son who was receptive to the experiences his father offered.

A master class of 27 lessons, drawn from 27 diverse narratives, for novelists, storytellers, filmmakers, graphic designers, and more. Author Daniel Joshua Rubin unlocks the secrets of what makes a story work, and then shows how to understand and use these principles in your own writing. The result is “an invaluable resource” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), offering priceless advice like escalate risk, with an example from Pulp Fiction.

What do we do with the art of monstrous men? Can we love the work of Roman Polanski and Michael Jackson, Hemingway and Picasso? Should we love it? Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is history an excuse? What makes women artists monstrous? And what should we do with beauty, and with our unruly feelings about it? Claire Dederer explores these questions and our relationships with the artists whose behaviour disrupts our ability to apprehend the work on its own terms.

Does speaking in public scare you? Or, do your presentations fail to get the compelling response you want? If so, this book is for you. Discover the secrets great lawyers use to succeed in the most intimidating arena of persuasion, the courtroom. Through interviews, analysis, and easy-to-follow steps, you’ll see how to use these secrets yourself to dramatically improve your speech or presentation. Studies have shown that people who speak well are considered more trustworthy and knowledgeable. As a result, they persuade with ease. That advantage can be yours, and it’s all here in this ...

Set in Calcutta, London, the glacier-locked wilds of the Karakoram, and on Everest itself, The Last Englishmen is also the story of a generation. The cast of this exhilarating drama includes Indian and English writers and artists, explorers and Communist spies, Die Hards and Indian nationalists, political rogues and police informers. Key among them is a highborn Bengali poet named Sudhin Datta, a melancholy soul torn, like many of his generation, between hatred of the British Empire and a deep love of European literature, whose life would be upended by the arrival of war on his Calcutta doorstep.

Do you have a hard time negotiating with people? Are you always the first one to compromise or too tough to generate great deals? This book will address your fear and obstacles in negotiation. You will soon reap the benefits of being a great negotiator if you follow the steps in this book, even if you have never had any business experiences before.

Michael Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it’s been said that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his case in this wise, enlightening, and hilarious book that not only collects the best of Jewish humor passed down from generation to generation, but explains the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.

Kendall Taylor examines the dalliance between the southern belle and the French pilot from a fresh perspective. Drawing on conversations and correspondence with Jozan's daughter, as well as materials from the Jozan family archives, Taylor sheds new light on this romantic triangle. More than just a casual fling, Zelda's tryst with Edouard affected Scott as much as it did his wife - and ultimately influenced the author's most famous creation, Jay Gatsby. Were it not for Zelda's affair with the pilot, Scott's novel might be less about betrayal and more about lost illusions.

This imagined retelling of Jho Low’s story, based on real events, gives listeners an insider’s view of the glitzy, glamorous world of wealth and privilege, as well as a close-up look at this enigmatic protagonist’s high-stakes fall from grace. The narrator is quirky yet eloquent, at times thoughtful and other times brash, as he leads readers through the corridors of power, where the line between friend and foe blurs. As secrets unravel and fortunes teeter on the edge, readers get a front-row seat to the dark underbelly of high finance and the price of unchecked ambition and greed.

From the Renaissance master Andrea del Sarto who faked a Raphael masterpiece at the request of his Medici patrons, to the Vermeer counterfeiter Han van Meegeren who duped the avaricious Hermann Goering, to the frustrated British artist Eric Hebborn, who began forging to expose the ignorance of experts, art forgers have challenged "legitimate" art in their own time, breaching accepted practices and upsetting the status quo.

Michael Krasny has been telling Jewish jokes since his bar mitzvah, and it's been said that he knows more of them than anyone on the planet. He certainly states his case in this wise, enlightening, and hilarious book that not only collects the best of Jewish humor passed down from generation to generation but explains the cultural expressions and anxieties behind the laughs.

Britain's most esteemed scholar of 16th and 17th century literature, Frank Kermode is also a noted author and professor. In this Modern Library Chronicle, he uses the context of the Elizabethan Era to link each of Shakespeare's plays to their probable years of creation. By portraying the bard's England in terms of its society, economy, and arts, Kermode provides an invaluable guide to understanding Shakespeare?s works.

To appreciate the meaning and beauty of great works of art, we must be familiar with the lives of the geniuses who created them. For in the personalities and life stories of great artists is the key to their masterpieces.

Unlike most artists, Van Gogh developed very slowly, beginning with work as an art dealer that exposed him to many great works. He undertook this work for several years, after which he spent time as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church. Thereafter, he drifted for several years before returning home to his parents’ house, where he took up painting, largely self-taught with books on anatomy and painting. His great works all date from the later years of his life.