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Sonia Sotomayor: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Meg GreeneThis insightful biography introduces readers to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a remarkable woman with a single-minded pursuit of educational excellence, who rose from poverty in a Bronx housing project to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.Sonia Sotomayor: A Biography is an overview of Justice Sotomayor's life and career from her childhood to her ascent to the Supreme Court. It is also an early assessment of her performance on the court, her relationships with her colleagues, and the particular influence she is likely to exert on future decisions.Sharing an inspirational, rags-to-riches story, the book begins with Sotomayor's childhood in an East Bronx housing project. It follows her to Princeton, where she was a student activist, and to Yale Law School. Equally important to an understanding of this influential judge is the discussion of her career as a prosecutor for the City of New York and as a judge in the District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court. Examining her reputation as a tough but fair jurist, the book explores the influence of these years which, at the time of her appointment, established her as the only Supreme Court justice with experience as a trial judge.
Sonia Sotomayor (National Geographic Readers)
by National Geographic Kids Barbara KramerConoce a una de las personas más reconocidas en Norteamérica hoy en día con esta biografía de la jueza de la Corte Suprema, Sonia Sotomayor.
Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor: Music, Manchester, and More: A Memoir
by Dave Haslam'Beautifully judged account of the Manchester scene . . . There is something of the fairy tale about Dave Haslam's sage joyful testament to the kind of life that nobody could ever plan, a happy aligning of a cultural moment and a young man who instinctively knew that it was his once upon a time' Victoria Segal, Sunday Times'Witty, sometimes dark, revealing, insightful, everything one could hope for from one of those folk without whom independent music simply wouldn't exist' Classic RockSonic Youth Slept on My Floor is writer and DJ Dave Haslam's wonderfully evocative memoir. It is a masterful insider account of the Hacienda, the rise of Madchester and birth of the rave era, and how music has sound-tracked a life and a generation.In the late 1970s Dave Haslam was a teenage John Peel listener and Joy Division fan, his face pressed against a 'window', looking in at a world of music, books and ideas. Four decades later, he finds himself in the middle of that world, collaborating with New Order on a series of five shows in Manchester. Into the story of those intervening decades, Haslam weaves a definitive portrait of Manchester as a music city and the impact of a number of life-changing events, such as the nightmare of the Yorkshire Ripper to the shock of the Manchester Arena terror attack.The cast of Haslam's life reads like a who's who of '70s, '80s and '90s popular culture: Tony Wilson, Nile Rodgers, Terry Hall, Neneh Cherry, Tracey Thorn, John Lydon, Johnny Marr, Ian Brown, Laurent Garnier and David Byrne. From having Morrissey to tea and meeting writers such as Raymond Carver and Jonathan Franzen to discussing masturbation with Viv Albertine and ecstasy with Roisin Murphy, via having a gun pulled on him at the Hacienda and a drug dealer threatening to slit his throat, this is not your usual memoir.
A sonnet to science: Scientists and their poetry (G - Reference, Information And Interdisciplinary Subjects Ser.)
by Sam IllingworthA sonnet to science presents an account of six ground-breaking scientists who also wrote poetry, and the effect that this had on their lives and research. How was the universal computer inspired by Lord Byron? Why was the link between malaria and mosquitos first captured in the form of a poem? Who did Humphry Davy consider to be an ‘illiterate pirate’? Written by leading science communicator and scientific poet Dr Sam Illingworth, A sonnet to sciencepresents an aspirational account of how these two disciplines can work together, and in so doing aims to inspire both current and future generations of scientists and poets that these worlds are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary in nature.
A sonnet to science: Scientists and their poetry
by Sam IllingworthA sonnet to science presents an account of six ground-breaking scientists who also wrote poetry, and the effect that this had on their lives and research. How was the universal computer inspired by Lord Byron? Why was the link between malaria and mosquitos first captured in the form of a poem? Who did Humphry Davy consider to be an ‘illiterate pirate’? Written by leading science communicator and scientific poet Dr Sam Illingworth, A sonnet to science presents an aspirational account of how these two disciplines can work together, and in so doing aims to inspire both current and future generations of scientists and poets that these worlds are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary in nature.
Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail
by Stephen TaylorA brilliant telling of the history of the common seaman in the age of sail, and his role in Britain’s trade, exploration, and warfare British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this exhilarating account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation’s destiny in their calloused hands.
Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
by Daniel SchulmanPraised as "fair-minded and inquisitive" by The Washington Post, and based on hundreds of interviews, the major biography about the wealthy and powerful Koch family -- one of the most influential dynasties of the modern age.Not long after the death of his father, Charles Koch, then in his early 30s, discovered a letter the family patriarch had written to his sons. "You will receive what now seems to be a large sum of money," Fred Koch cautioned. "It may either be a blessing or a curse." Fred's legacy would become a blessing and a curse to his four sons -- Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill -- who in the ensuing decades fought bitterly over their birthright, the oil and cattle-ranching empire their father left behind in 1967. Against a backdrop of scorched-earth legal skirmishes, Charles and David built Koch Industries into one of the largest private corporations in the world-bigger than Boeing and Disney -- and rose to become two of the wealthiest men on the planet. Influenced by the sentiments of their father, who was present at the birth of the John Birch Society, Charles and David spent decades trying to remake the American political landscape and mainline their libertarian views into the national bloodstream. Before the death of David in August 2019, the two brothers together controlled a machine that is a center of gravity within the Republican Party. To their supporters, they were liberating America from the scourge of Big Government. To their detractors, they were political "contract killers," as David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist, put it during the 2012 campaign.Bill, meanwhile, built a multi-billion dollar energy empire all his own, and earned notoriety as an America's Cup-winning yachtsman, a flamboyant playboy, and as a litigious collector of fine wine and Western memorabilia. Frederick lived an intensely private life as an arts patron, refurbishing a series of historic homes and estates.Sons of Wichita traces the complicated lives and legacies of these four tycoons, as well as their business, social, and political ambitions. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of our era, but so little is publicly known about this family, their origins, how they made their money, and how they lived their lives. Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives, business associates, and many others, Sons of Wichita is the first major biography about this wealthy and powerful family -- warts and all.
Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
by Daniel SchulmanLike the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but they have never been the subject of a major biography -- until now. Not long after the death of his father, Charles Koch, then in his early 30s, discovered a letter the family patriarch had written to his sons. "You will receive what now seems to be a large sum of money," Fred Koch cautioned. "It may either be a blessing or a curse." Fred's legacy would become a blessing and a curse to his four sons-Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill-who in the ensuing decades fought bitterly over their birthright, the oil and cattle-ranching empire their father left behind in 1967. Against a backdrop of scorched-earth legal skirmishes, Charles and David built Koch Industries into one of the largest private corporations in the world-bigger than Boeing and Disney-and they rose to become two of the wealthiest men on the planet. Influenced by the sentiments of their father, who was present at the birth of the John Birch Society, Charles and David have spent decades trying to remake the American political landscape and mainline their libertarian views into the national bloodstream. They now control a machine that is a center of gravity within the Republican Party. To their supporters, they are liberating America from the scourge of Big Government. To their detractors, they are political "contract killers," as David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist, put it during the 2012 campaign. Bill, meanwhile, built a multi-billion dollar energy empire all his own, and earned notoriety as an America's Cup-winning yachtsman, a flamboyant playboy, and as a litigious collector of fine wine and Western memorabilia. Frederick lived an intensely private life as an arts patron, refurbishing a series of historic homes and estates. Sons of Witchita traces the complicated lives and legacies of these four tycoons, as well as their business, social, and political ambitions. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of our era, but so little is publicly known about this family, their origins, how they make their money, and how they live their lives. Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives, business associates, and many others, Sons of Witchita is the first major biography about this wealthy and powerful family-warts and all.
Sontag: Her Life
by Benjamin MoserThe definitive portrait of one of the twentieth century's most towering figures: her writing and her radical thought, her public activism and her private face Susan Sontag was our last great literary star. Her brilliant mind, political activism and striking image made her an emblem of the seductions - and the dangers - of the twentieth-century world.Her writing on art and politics, feminism and homosexuality, celebrity and style, medicine and drugs, Fascism and Freudianism, Communism and Americanism, reflected the conflicted meanings of a most conflicted word: modernity. She was there when the Cuban Revolution began and the Berlin Wall came down, in Vietnam under American bombardment, in wartime Israel. Sontag tells these stories and examines the work upon which her reputation was based, exploring the private woman hidden behind the formidable public face.Drawing on hundreds of interviews conducted from Maui to Stockholm and from Manhattan to Sarajevo - and featuring nearly one hundred images, many never seen before - Sontag is the first book based on the writer's restricted archives, and on access to many people who have never before spoken about her, including Annie Leibovitz. It is an indelible portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers, who lived one of that century's most romantic - and most anguished - lives.
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
by Anita AnandShortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography PrizeWinner of the Eastern Eye Alchemy Festival award for LiteratureIn 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs, a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, its grounds stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary.Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality,a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War – and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse's uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields. Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary
by Anita AnandIn 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into Indian royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs, one of the greatest empires of the Indian subcontinent, a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, its grounds stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace and favor lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary. Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality, a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian Independence, the fate of the lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War – and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse's uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields. Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.
Sophia Loren: Movie Star Italian Style (Turner Classic Movies)
by Cindy De La HozThe first book on Sophia of its kind, Sophia Loren: Movie Star Italian Style is a photographic tribute to the beloved icon, recounting the star's extraordinary life and notable films.From the humblest of beginnings in her native Italy, Sophia Loren has gone on to have one of the most interesting paths in motion picture history. In a career spanning close to seven decades, she starred in epic blockbusters of the '50s, '60s, and '70s; dazzled in dramatic roles opposite the likes of Cary Grant, Marcello Mastroianni, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Marlon Brando; and turned heads in classics like Houseboat, Marriage Italian Style, Grumpy Old Men, and Two Women, for which she was awarded the first Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role given to the star of a foreign film.Sophia Loren is a photographic tribute to the beloved icon, taking you on an illustrative journey through her remarkable life, dearest relationships, and diverse film canon. Filled with hundreds of rare color and black-and-white photographs and featuring quotes by Sophia and those who have known her best, it's a volume as stunning as its ageless subject.
Sophia Loren: Movie Star Italian Style (Turner Classic Movies)
by Cindy De La Hoz Turner Classic MoviesThe first book on Sophia of its kind, Sophia Loren: Movie Star Italian Style is a photographic tribute to the beloved icon, recounting the star's extraordinary life and notable films.From the humblest of beginnings in her native Italy, Sophia Loren has gone on to have one of the most interesting paths in motion picture history. In a career spanning close to seven decades, she starred in epic blockbusters of the '50s, '60s, and '70s; dazzled in dramatic roles opposite the likes of Cary Grant, Marcello Mastroianni, John Wayne, Gregory Peck, and Marlon Brando; and turned heads in classics like Houseboat, Marriage Italian Style, Grumpy Old Men, and Two Women, for which she was awarded the first Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role given to the star of a foreign film.Sophia Loren is a photographic tribute to the beloved icon, taking you on an illustrative journey through her remarkable life, dearest relationships, and diverse film canon. Filled with hundreds of rare color and black-and-white photographs and featuring quotes by Sophia and those who have known her best, it's a volume as stunning as its ageless subject.
Sophia's Story: A story of the unspeakable horror of child abuse
by Susan McKayIn 1995, Sophia McColgan's father was sentenced to prison for the serial rape and abuse of his children over many years. He had first raped Sophia when she was only six. It had taken immense courage on the part of Sophia and her family to bring the murky, hidden world of family child abuse to the public gaze.Then, in 1998, Susan McKay published Sophia's Story, one of the most acclaimed Irish books of modern times. Now re-issued with a new introduction by Susan McKay, it records a triumph of the human spirit in the face of the most degrading and destructive betrayal of trust. Sophia McColgan, who now lives abroad, was Irish Person of the Year in 1998.
Sophie: dog overboard
by Emma PearseWhen Jan and Dave Griffith's beloved cattle dog, Sophie, fell overboard from the family yacht during rough weather, she feared the worst. But Sophie, a true Aussie battler, wasn't going to give up that easily. She swam six miles through shark-infested waters to a remote Whitsunday island where she survived for five months before being miraculously reunited with her amazed owners. Sophie, a highly domesticated dog, had been living ferally - and surviving. Yet one glimpse of her owners when they were reunited was enough for the old Sophie to re-emerge.This is an amazing, inspirational story of survival, loyalty and what binds animals and humans together.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the Avant-Garde: A Biography
by Roswitha MairSophie Taeuber-Arp was a quiet innovator whose fame has too often been yoked to that of her husband, Jean Arp. Over time, however, she has slowly come to be seen as one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the twentieth century. The Swiss-born Taeuber-Arp had a front row seat to the first wave of Dadaism and was, along with Mondrian and Malevich, a pioneer of Constructivism. Her singular artwork incorporated painting, sculpture, dance, fiber arts, and architecture, as hers was one of the first oeuvres to successfully bridge the divide between fine and functional art. Now Roswitha Mair has brought us the first biography of this unique polymath, illuminating not just Tauber-Arp’s own life and work, but also the various milieux and movements in which she traveled. No fan of the Dadaists and their legacy will want to miss this first English-language translation.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the Avant-Garde: A Biography
by Roswitha MairSophie Taeuber-Arp was a quiet innovator whose fame has too often been yoked to that of her husband, Jean Arp. Over time, however, she has slowly come to be seen as one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the twentieth century. The Swiss-born Taeuber-Arp had a front row seat to the first wave of Dadaism and was, along with Mondrian and Malevich, a pioneer of Constructivism. Her singular artwork incorporated painting, sculpture, dance, fiber arts, and architecture, as hers was one of the first oeuvres to successfully bridge the divide between fine and functional art. Now Roswitha Mair has brought us the first biography of this unique polymath, illuminating not just Tauber-Arp’s own life and work, but also the various milieux and movements in which she traveled. No fan of the Dadaists and their legacy will want to miss this first English-language translation.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the Avant-Garde: A Biography
by Roswitha MairSophie Taeuber-Arp was a quiet innovator whose fame has too often been yoked to that of her husband, Jean Arp. Over time, however, she has slowly come to be seen as one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the twentieth century. The Swiss-born Taeuber-Arp had a front row seat to the first wave of Dadaism and was, along with Mondrian and Malevich, a pioneer of Constructivism. Her singular artwork incorporated painting, sculpture, dance, fiber arts, and architecture, as hers was one of the first oeuvres to successfully bridge the divide between fine and functional art. Now Roswitha Mair has brought us the first biography of this unique polymath, illuminating not just Tauber-Arp’s own life and work, but also the various milieux and movements in which she traveled. No fan of the Dadaists and their legacy will want to miss this first English-language translation.
Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the Avant-Garde: A Biography
by Roswitha MairSophie Taeuber-Arp was a quiet innovator whose fame has too often been yoked to that of her husband, Jean Arp. Over time, however, she has slowly come to be seen as one of the foremost abstract artists and designers of the twentieth century. The Swiss-born Taeuber-Arp had a front row seat to the first wave of Dadaism and was, along with Mondrian and Malevich, a pioneer of Constructivism. Her singular artwork incorporated painting, sculpture, dance, fiber arts, and architecture, as hers was one of the first oeuvres to successfully bridge the divide between fine and functional art. Now Roswitha Mair has brought us the first biography of this unique polymath, illuminating not just Tauber-Arp’s own life and work, but also the various milieux and movements in which she traveled. No fan of the Dadaists and their legacy will want to miss this first English-language translation.
Sophie’s Boys
by Sophie Smith and Deborah FitzGeraldWhen Sophie and Ash discovered they were expecting triplets, it was much more exciting than daunting. But when Sophie went into labour at only 21 weeks, their world was turned upside down. Though they fought fiercely they could not escape tragedy. Tiny Henry lived for just one cherished hour, Evan for 10 days and Jasper was with them for only 58 days. Heartbroken and back in her empty home, Sophie realised she could not allow herself to drown in her grief. On Ash’s advice, she began to run. Step by step she regained some equilibrium. She became determined to turn her agony into something positive. Gathering supporters around her, she founded the Running for Premature Babies Foundation to raise money for the hospital unit that had cared for her sons. In their first Sydney half marathon, the group raised $80,000. Sophie and Ash had two more sons, Owen and Harvey, when tragedy revisited them. Ash was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. Sophie was forced once again into a world of pain and grief, caring for her beloved husband as well as their two young boys. Together, the family faced the reality of death with courage and tenderness. When Ash passed away in 2016, Sophie once again put one foot in front of the other, and ran. Not running from her pain, but towards something useful. Her charity, the Running for Premature Babies Foundation, has now raised well in excess of $2.5 million to help the thousands of premature babies born each year. Beautifully written and disarmingly honest, Sophie’s Boys is an inspiring and life-affirming tale of an irrepressible spirit, who found strength in tragedy.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Picasso, Provence, and Douglas Cooper
by John RichardsonThe Sorcerer's Apprentice is John Richardson's vivid memoir of the time he spent living with and learning from the deeply knowledgeable and temperamental art collector, Douglas Cooper. For ten years the two entertained a circle of friends that included Jean Cocteau, W. H. Auden, Tennessee Williams, and, most intriguingly, Pablo Picasso. Compulsively readable and beautifully illustrated, this book is both a triple portrait of the author, Cooper, and Picasso, and a revealing look at a crucial artistic period.
Sordid Sex Lives
by Nigel CawthorneWhat do the rich and famous really get up to behind closed doors? When does sexual passion become sordid perversion? Who are history's most shocking deviants and what are their sex secrets? The pages of this book reveal 45 shocking, scandalous - and often disturbing - stories of promiscuity and sexual perversion throughout the ages. Uncovered here are the orgies of Cleopatra and the incest of the Romans; the darkest fantasies of Michelangelo and the gross indecencies of the Marquis de Sade; as well as the insatiable desires of Rasputin, the degrading fetishes of Adolf Hitler, the unashamed exhibitionism of Tallulah Bankhead and the dirty thrills of Elvis Presley. 'Sordid Sex Lives' offers an insight into the shocking practices in which so many famous men and women have participated in. What motivates these sexual desires? Were they ever considered 'normal'? And what happened to those whose filthy secrets were found out? Bursting with real-life accounts, this is the most explicit and shocking account of the sex lives of history's most notorious characters.
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography
by Joakim Garff Bruce H. Kirmmse"The day will come when not only my writings, but precisely my life--the intriguing secret of all the machinery--will be studied and studied." Søren Kierkegaard's remarkable combination of genius and peculiarity made this a fair if arrogant prediction. But Kierkegaard's life has been notoriously hard to study, so complex was the web of fact and fiction in his work. Joakim Garff's biography of Kierkegaard is thus a landmark achievement. A seamless blend of history, philosophy, and psychological insight, all conveyed with novelistic verve, this is the most comprehensive and penetrating account yet written of the life and works of the enigmatic Dane who changed the course of intellectual history. Garff portrays Kierkegaard not as the all-controlling impresario behind some of the most important works of modern philosophy and religious thought--books credited with founding existentialism and prefiguring postmodernism--but rather as a man whose writings came to control him. Kierkegaard saw himself as a vessel for his writings, a tool in the hand of God, and eventually as a martyr singled out to call for the end of "Christendom." Garff explores the events and relationships that formed Kierkegaard, including his guilt-ridden relationship with his father, his rivalry with his brother, and his famously tortured relationship with his fiancée Regine Olsen. He recreates the squalor and splendor of Golden Age Copenhagen and the intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard found himself increasingly embattled and mercilessly caricatured. Acclaimed as a major cultural event on its publication in Denmark in 2000, this book, here presented in an exceptionally crisp and elegant translation, will be the definitive account of Kierkegaard's life for years to come.
Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography
by Joakim Garff Bruce H. Kirmmse"The day will come when not only my writings, but precisely my life--the intriguing secret of all the machinery--will be studied and studied." Søren Kierkegaard's remarkable combination of genius and peculiarity made this a fair if arrogant prediction. But Kierkegaard's life has been notoriously hard to study, so complex was the web of fact and fiction in his work. Joakim Garff's biography of Kierkegaard is thus a landmark achievement. A seamless blend of history, philosophy, and psychological insight, all conveyed with novelistic verve, this is the most comprehensive and penetrating account yet written of the life and works of the enigmatic Dane who changed the course of intellectual history. Garff portrays Kierkegaard not as the all-controlling impresario behind some of the most important works of modern philosophy and religious thought--books credited with founding existentialism and prefiguring postmodernism--but rather as a man whose writings came to control him. Kierkegaard saw himself as a vessel for his writings, a tool in the hand of God, and eventually as a martyr singled out to call for the end of "Christendom." Garff explores the events and relationships that formed Kierkegaard, including his guilt-ridden relationship with his father, his rivalry with his brother, and his famously tortured relationship with his fiancée Regine Olsen. He recreates the squalor and splendor of Golden Age Copenhagen and the intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard found himself increasingly embattled and mercilessly caricatured. Acclaimed as a major cultural event on its publication in Denmark in 2000, this book, here presented in an exceptionally crisp and elegant translation, will be the definitive account of Kierkegaard's life for years to come.
A Sorrow Beyond Dreams: A Life Story (Fsg Classics Ser.)
by Peter HandkeWinner of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature"My mother has been dead for almost seven weeks: I had better go to work before the need to write about her, which I felt so strongly at her funeral, dies away and I fall back into the dull speechlessness with which I reacted to the news of her suicide."So begins Peter Handke's extraordinary confrontation with his mother's death. In a painful and courageous attempt to deal with the almost intolerable horror of her suicide, he sets out to piece together the facts of her life, as he perceives them. What emerges is a loving portrait of inconsolable grief, a woman whose lively spirit has been crushed not once but over and over again by the miseries of her place and time. Yet well into middle age, living in the Austrian village of her birth, she still remains haunted by her dreams.