New Release Books in Biographies & Memoirs

Jeffrey Frank, author of the bestselling Ike and Dick, returns with the first full account of the Truman presidency in nearly thirty years, recounting how so ordinary a man met the extraordinary challenge of leading America through the pivotal years of the mid-20th century. The nearly eight years of Harry Truman’s presidency—among the most turbulent in American history—were marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan; the first use of an atomic weapon; the beginning of the Cold War; creation of the NATO alliance; the founding of the United Nations; the Marshall Plan to rebuild the wreckage of postwar Europe; the Red Scare; and the fateful decision to commit troops to fight in Korea. Historians have tended to portray Truman as stolid and decisive, with a homespun manner, but the man who emerges in The Trials of Harry S. Truman is complex and surprising. He believed that the point of public service was to improve the lives of one’s fellow citizens, and was disturbed by the brutal treatment of African Americans. Yet while he supported stronger civil rights laws, he never quite relinquished the deep-rooted outlook of someone with Confederate ancestry reared in rural Missouri. He was often carried along by the rush of events and guided by men who succeeded in refining his fixed and facile view of the postwar world. And while he prided himself on his Midwestern rationality, he could act out of emotion, as when, in the aftermath of World War II, moved by the plight of refugees, he pushed to recognize the new state of Israel. The Truman who emerges in these pages is a man with generous impulses, loyal to friends and family, and blessed with keen political instincts, but insecure, quick to anger, and prone to hasty decisions. Archival discoveries, and research that led from Missouri to Washington, Berlin and Korea, have contributed to an indelible, and deeply human, portrait of an ordinary man suddenly forced to shoulder extraordinary responsibilities, who never lost a schoolboy’s romantic love for his country, and its Constitution.

In this provocative, impassioned memoir, Jerad W. Alexander reveals what it was like to be raised on war, vividly recreating the masculine fantasies of American heroism and patriotism that animated his childhood--and at the same time brilliantly dismantling those myths. To many outsiders, joining the military can be a path out of a difficult life, a chance to acquire vocational training, a college scholarship, a patriotic career. But to those, like Alexander, whose parents, stepfather, and grandparents served, and who grew up on American military bases around the world, enlisting was a way of life. The only way. Young Jerad''s obsession with all things military--from guns to war games to the trappings of uniforms, medals, and the movies and books of Vietnam--was bottomless, and as soon as he was able, he joined the US Marines. Only then, on the ground in Iraq, part of the same war his parents had fought before him--a war we are still embroiled in today, years later--did he begin to question all that he had taken on faith. With courage and raw power, Alexander brings to the fore vital questions: Is America in fact exceptional? Are the "bad guys" actually easy to identify? And most important, are our causes always just? This powerful debut joins the canon of essential war literature--books like Anthony Swofford''s Jarhead or Tim O''Brien''s The Things They Carried--helping readers understand the violent and self-replicating mythology of American patriotism, from the eloquent perspective of an enlisted man--not some elite warrior, but a simple volunteer.

A book about the story of Lou''s life, as told by Lou himself.

No information is currently available. 400pp., 100K.

Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon; his work has defined our childhoods, and even more than twenty-five years after his death his books continue to find new readers. Theodor Geisel, however, led a life that goes much deeper than the prolific and beloved children''s book author. He had a successful career as a political cartoonist, and his political leanings can be felt throughout his books. Jones introduces us to this complicated man, who introduced generations to the wonders of reading while teaching young people about empathy and how to treat others well. -- adapted from jacket

They believed they would live forever. So begins Mira Ptacin''s haunting account of the women of Camp Etna--an otherworldly community in the woods of Maine that has, since 1876, played host to generations of Spiritualists and mediums dedicated to preserving the links between the mortal realm and the afterlife. Beginning her narrative in 1848 with two sisters who claimed they could speak to the dead, Ptacin reveals how Spiritualism first blossomed into a national practice during the Civil War, yet continues--even thrives--to this very day. Immersing herself in this community and its practices--from ghost hunting to releasing trapped spirits to water witching-- Ptacin sheds new light on our ongoing struggle with faith, uncertainty, and mortality. Blending memoir, ethnography, and investigative reportage, The In-Betweens offers a vital portrait of Camp Etna and its enduring hold on a modern culture that remains as starved for a deeper sense of connection and otherworldliness as ever.

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Morris comes a revelatory new biography ofThomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history.

A portrait of the divergent lives of Thomas Jefferson''s three daughters reveals how his white daughters struggled with the realities of lives they were ill-prepared to manage, while the daughter he fathered with a slave did not achieve freedom until adulthood.

Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella caused a seismic shift in hip-hop when they decided to form N.W.A in 1986. Suddenly rap became gangsta and relevant on the West Coast. With their hard-core image, bombastic sound, and lyrics that were by turns poetic, lascivious, socially conscious, and downright in-your-face, N.W.A spoke the truth about life on the streets of Compton, California--at the time a hotbed of poverty, drugs, gangs, and unemployment. Their hood tales offered a sharp contrast to the cozy, comfortable images of thriving middle-class life emanating from television screens across America. For the group, making music was not about being nice or projecting a false reality. It was all about expressing themselves. Through firsthand interviews and exhaustive research, Los Angeles Times music reporter Gerrick D. Kennedy transports readers back in time and offers a front-row seat to N.W.A''s early days and the drama and controversy that followed the incendiary group as they rose to become multiplatinum artists. Kennedy leaves nothing off the table in his pursuit of the full story behind the group''s most pivotal moments, including Ice Cube''s decision to go solo after their debut studio album became a smash hit, the forming of Ruthless Records, the group''s confrontation with the FBI over their inflammatory lyrics, incidents of physical assault, Dr. Dre''s decision to launch Death Row Records with Suge Knight, N.W.A''s impact on the 1992 LA riots, Eazy-E''s battle with AIDS, and much more. A riveting and illuminating work of music journalism, [this book] captures a defining moment in rap music, when N.W.A made it altogether social, freaky, enterprising, and gangsta. They forced us all to take notice. For that reason alone, their story must be told."--Dust jacket flap.

Two highly decorated Navy SEALs, now successful businessmen, demonstrate how to lead and win in business and in life with principles learned on the battlefield, in a revised edition that includes a new foreword, photo insert and Q-and-A section.

A collection of personal stories and reflections based on the memoirs of Junko Tabei, the first woman to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits. Honouring High Places is a compelling collection of highlights from Junko Tabei''s stirring life that she considered important, inspiring and interesting to mountaineering culture. Until now, her works have been available only in Japanese, and RMB is honoured to be sharing these profound and moving stories with the English-speaking world for the first time. The collection opens on Mount Everest, where the first all-women''s expedition is met with disaster but pushes on against all odds. The story then shifts to the early years of Tabei''s life and reflects on her countryside childhood as a frail girl with no talent for sport, and cultural expectations that ignored her passion for mountains. With reminiscences of the early days of female climbers on Everest, the deaths of fellow mountaineers, Tabei''s pursuit of Mount Tomur, a cancer diagnosis, and efforts to restore a love for nature in the surviving youth of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, this beautifully curated collection of essays captures the essence of a notable time and the strength of character of one of the 20th and 21st centuries'' female mountaineering pioneers.

"Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and co-founder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been revealed through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well. Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty is a frank and reflective, heartfelt and humorous portrayal as written by her granddaughter, Kate Hennessy" -- Publisher''s website

The first biography of America''s greatest twentieth-century sculptor, Alexander Calder: an authoritative and revelatory achievement, based on a wealth of letters and papers never before available, and written by one of our most renowned art critics. Alexander Calder is one of the most beloved and widely admired artists of the twentieth century. Anybody who has ever set foot in a museum knows him as the inventor of the mobile, America''s unique contribution to modern art. But only now, forty years after the artist''s death, is the full story of his life being told in this biography, which is based on unprecedented access to Calder''s letters and papers as well as scores of interviews. Jed Perl shows us why Calder was--and remains--a barrier breaker, an avant-garde artist with mass appeal. This beautifully written, deeply researched book opens with Calder''s wonderfully peripatetic upbringing in Philadelphia, California, and New York. Born in 1898 into a family of artists--his father was a well-known sculptor, his mother a painter and a pioneering feminist--Calder went on as an adult to forge important friendships with a who''s who of twentieth-century artists, including Joan Miró, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, and Piet Mondrian. We move through Calder''s early years studying engineering to his first artistic triumphs in Paris in the late 1920s, and to his emergence as a leader in the international abstract avant-garde. His marriage in 1931 to the free-spirited Louisa James--she was a great-niece of Henry James--is a richly romantic story, related here with a wealth of detail and nuance. Calder''s life takes on a transatlantic richness, from New York''s Greenwich Village in the Roaring Twenties, to the Left Bank of Paris during the Depression, and then back to the United States, where the Calders bought a run-down old farmhouse in western Connecticut. New light is shed on Calder''s lifelong interest in dance, theater, and performance, ranging from the Cirque Calder, the theatrical event that became his calling card in bohemian Paris to collaborations with the choreographer Martha Graham and the composer Virgil Thomson. More than 350 illustrations in color and black-and-white--including little-known works and many archival photographs that have never before been seen--further enrich the story.

Tells the "story of the U.S. Navy''s most famous aviator duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper''s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy''s first black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn''t even serve him in a bar"--Amazon.com.

The Women Who Made New York reveals the untold stories of the phenomenal women who made New York City the cultural epicenter of the world. Many were revolutionaries and activists, like Zora Neale Hurston and Audre Lorde. Others were icons and iconoclasts, like Fran Lebowitz and Grace Jones. There were also women who led quieter private lives but were just as influential, such as Emily Warren Roebling, who completed the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge when her engineer husband became too ill to work.--Amazon.com

"THE INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLER! When Pablo Escobar died in 1993, his seventeen-year-old son initially vowed revenge. But Juan Pablo quickly recognized that reaction entailed following in his father''s footsteps--something neither he nor his father ever wanted. Their lives in immense danger, Juan Pablo, his mother, and his sister assumed new identities and fled to Argentina, where he would spend the next two decades grappling with his father''s legacy. Now an architect and advocate of drug policy reform, Juan Pablo breaks his silence to tell his side of the story, shedding new light on the infamous kingpin--the man who was also his loving father"--

Since bursting onto the scene in the mid 70s, the pop duo Captain and Tennille have long defined the sparkling, optimistic idea of everlasting love, both in their music and through their image as a happy and, seemingly, unbreakable couple. But underneath the image was an entirely different story that the fans never saw: a woman who fought a lonely struggle against the controlling and often bizarre behavior of her emotionally inaccessible husband. Toni Tennille: A Memoir is a visceral account of Toni Tennille s life from her childhood in the segregated South to her thrilling rise to fame in the world of pop music to where she is now: no longer one-half of a famed couple, but a stronger woman for all she has experienced both the good and the bad."

The race to the crown -- The birth of "pocket Hercules"--The lonely, naughty princess -- An impossible, strange madness -- "Awful scenes in the house"--Becoming queen: "I shall not fail" -- The coronation: "a dream out of the Arabian nights" -- Learning to rule -- A scandal in the palace -- Virago in love -- The bride: "I never, never spent such an evening" -- Only the husband, not the master -- The palace intruders -- King to all intents: "like a vulture into his prey" -- Perfect, awful, spotless prosperity -- Annus Mirabilis: the revolutionary year -- What Albert did: the Great Exhibition of 1851 -- The Crimea: ''This unsatisfactory war'' -- London boils over -- Royal parents: "everything passes so quickly!" -- "Who will call me Victoria now?" -- "The whole house seems like Pompeii." -- Resuscitating the widow at Windsor -- The queen''s stallion -- The faery queen awakes -- Enough to kill any man -- Two ironclads colliding: the queen and Mr. Gladstone -- The monarch in a bonnet -- The "poor munshi" -- The diamond empire -- The end of the Victorian Age - "The streets were indeed a strange sight

Tells the story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki through the eyes of Sachiko Yasui, who was six when the devastation was wrought, describing her experiences in the aftermath of the attack as well as her long journey to find peace.

"In We the People, renown journalist, Fox political analyst, and bestselling author Juan Williams examines the lives of the men and women in the 20th century who have extended the Founding Fathers'' original vision of the country and reshaped what America is"--

"The story of Daniel Ellsberg and his decision to steal and publish secret documents about America''s involvement in the Vietnam War"--

In one way or another, Donald Trump has been a topic of conversation in America for almost forty years. No one in the world of business-not Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Warren Buffett-has been as famous as Trump for as long. First associated with high-profile real estate development in 1970s Manhattan, his name has since become synonymous with success defined by wealth and luxury.What does one make of a grown man who, when he argues with women, stoops to insulting their appearance and habitually courts controversy? What if the same man were among the most prominent people in the world, and a privately generous person who once handed a dying child a $50,000 check so that he could enjoy the last months of his life? Add to the picture a kind of resilience that has allowed him to stage countless comebacks and truly a boundless level of optimism, and you get a figure so compelling that he cannot be dismissed simply because of his personality.Drawing upon exclusive interviews and detailed research, Michael D''Antonio presents the full story of Donald Trump, a man who, for all of his excesses, is perfectly adapted to our world.

Draws on recently declassified documents to chronicle Nixon''s presidency, presenting a portrait of a brilliant man overcome by his deep insecurities and his distrust of his cabinet, Congress, and the American people.

A woman describes her mother''s heroic survival during the Holocaust, a woman who, as a teenager, was a close friend of Anne Frank''s family and who ultimately fled to Belgium to work with the Resistance after her parents were arrested in 1943.

This political biography reveals the turbulent life of Ernest Francois Eugene Douwes Dekker, born on Java in 1879, whose life spanned a critical period in late colonial and early Indonesian national history. His story flows in novel-like fashion from the battle fields of South Africa, internment camps in Sri Lanka, work as a journalist and teacher in Java, to service as a political advisor and close friend of President Soekarno. Paul W. van der Veur is professor emeritus of Ohio University.

Relates the story of the only French writer to be executed for treason during World War II, from his rise during the 1930s to his trial and death in front of a firing squad.

In the Aftermath of Genocide: The U.S. Role in Rwanda deepens understanding of the violence-the Rwandan genocide and the Congolese war-that engulfed Central Africa in the midnineties, and America''s policy response to the crises. Author Robert E. Gribbin draws on his thirty years of diplomatic experience in the region to analyze U.S. perceptions of Rwanda in the years before the genocide and to recount the unfolding of the terrible event itself. Most important, he describes what happened afterwards-how the new government and people of Rwanda, together with their international partners, confronted devastation, picked up the pieces, and began to forge a new nation. They had to reestablish viable government, deliver justice to those guilty of genocide, repatriate over a million refugees, and confront an insurgency at home and a war in the Congo. In the Aftermath of Genocide is an insider''s account of these crucial events. It recounts what the U.S. government knew, or did not know, and what it did, or did not do, about them.

''A MOTHER WARRIOR IS . . . a mother who hears there is no hope for her child and, instead of retreating and mourning, breaks down walls, weaves her way through obstacles, follows her intuition even when people tell her she is crazy. She is a mother who believes in hope.'' - From Mother Warriors STORIES OF HOPE AND RECOVERY FROM A NATION OF PARENTS OF AUTUSTIC CHILDREN Across the country, parents are fighting Herculean battles against an intransigent medical community that refuses to believe that autism can be healed. Mothers are going into battle for proper diagnosis and effective treatment, often at great personal cost. Jenny McCarthy knows what it''s like-she put her career and personal life on hold when she realized something was wrong with her son, Evan. Her sacrifice has brought national awareness to the controversy over the causes and treatment of autism. Now, Jenny wants everyone to know that there are other warriors out there, and their stories will inspire and inform anyone facing a similar struggle. Miracles happen every day, but rarely are the miracle makers celebrated. Mother Warriors introduces everyday heroes who fought doctors, schools, psychologists, and even their own families to get the help they needed to successfully heal their children. Accompanied by a list of autism resources and a comprehensive directory of DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctors, Mother Warriors is an inspiring and practical tool that will empower parents to join the fight against autism and reclaim their children''s lives.

Sindiwe Magona - author, poet, playwright essayist, storyteller, actor, and inspirational speaker - has recently retired from the United Nations in New York after twenty years and relocated to her home country, South Africa. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work in women''s issues, the plight of children, and the fight against apartheid and racism. Siphokazi Koyana has put this collection together as a celebration of Magona''s homecoming and a mark of her achievement. Scholars from three continents - Africa, Europe and North America - have contributed critical analyses of Magona''s works, as well as interviews with the writer.