Biografier

A scandal-drenched account of the fall of one of England's great aristocratic dynasties.

In Breaking the Taboo, as well as telling her own story, Theo Clarke presents the stories and experiences of mothers and fathers from all different backgrounds that show the undiscussed realities of childbirth trauma and poor maternity care. This urgent book will start a conversation that is as essential as it is overdue.

Discover the many lives of Peter Matthiessen - writer, naturalist, activist, CIA agent, Zen master - in this kaleidoscopic biography of an American literary giant.Author of The Snow Leopard, co-founder of the Paris Review and the only writer to have ever won the National Book Award for both fiction and nonfiction, Peter Matthiessen was a towering figure of twentieth-century American literary culture. He was also, briefly, an undercover agent for the fledgling CIA; an environmental activist; an advocate for Native American rights and California farmworkers; friends with the likes of Truman Capote and William Styron; and a daring explorer who visited every continent on Earth, scaling the Himalayas and floating through the Amazon on a balsawood raft.Across these many lives, Matthiessen was always searching for what he called his 'true nature' - an enlightened state of being, without ego - and this spiritual quest ultimately led him, even as he inflicted great pain on three wives and multiple children, to the highest ranks of Zen.Readers and critics have struggled to reconcile Matthiessen's extraordinarily varied achievements and literary output, which included everything from experimental novels to advocacy journalism. Now, for the first time, drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, acclaimed biographer Lance Richardson pulls together the seemingly disparate threads of Matthiessen's story. With page-turning immediacy, Richardson illuminates how the writer's uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism and labour exploitation - to express, eloquently and presciently, that 'in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge'.'Splendidly readable ... [Richardson] writes with flair and erudition' The Observer on House of Nutter'Illuminating and vividly drawn' Sunday Telegraph on House of Nutter

The first publication devoted to Tamio Wakayama’s remarkable photographic career, Enemy Alien shares unpublished photos and a memoir by the artist about his life working alongside activist movements and in vibrant communities, from the civil rights–era American South to the Powell Street Festival in Vancouver.Wakayama was born in New Westminster, British Columbia mere months before Pearl Harbor and was soon forcibly relocated with his parents to an internment camp for Japanese Canadians. This early childhood experience of injustice would shape the rest of his life and practice. Later, as a young man, Wakayama was vacationing in Tennessee when the Birmingham Church Bombing happened; inspired by a deep sympathy for the activists, he drove straight to Birmingham, met John Lewis, and began working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta, first as a cleaner and driver and soon as a photographer. For two years Wakayama produced campaign material and documented SNCC activists and actions in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama, including the 1964 Freedom Summer. After leaving the US, he photographed Indigenous and Doukhobor communities in Canada, everyday life in Japan and Cuba, and finally settled in Vancouver, where he joined the resurging Nikkei community and the Redress Movement, and for decades photographed the Powell Street Festival.The centerpiece of the heavily illustrated publication is Wakyama’s unpublished memoir, Soul on Rice, which includes numerous photo spreads. Essays by Eva Respini and Paul Wong situate the artist’s practice within a broader art-historical context, and an interview with Mayumi Takasaki, Wakayama’s partner of forty years, offers an intimate perspective on his life and work. Photos and texts throughout the book are contextualized with archival material such as contact sheets, newspaper articles and the artist’s correspondence. Enemy Alien is co-published with the Vancouver Art Gallery in association with an exhibition of the same name, curated by Paul Wong.

A woman's poignant account of her impoverished upbringing in isolated rural communities and her mother’s struggle to give her children more than she had.

Encourage diversity in outdoor wilderness areas by reading interviews with 20 people of color who have active roles in nature.During his travels around the country as a wildlife photographer, Dudley Edmondson made a concerning observation: he was the only person of color in many of the wilderness locations he visited. He began asking himself some important questions:“Why am I not seeing many people of color in the parks?”“Where are the voices of African Americans when it comes to decisions about wild spaces?”“Shouldn’t everyone care about the involvement of all Americans in these issues?”The matter was far too important to let go. Instead, Dudley turned it into a project, seeking out people of color who thrive in the outdoors and asking them about their experiences, passions, and hopes for the future. He met with policymakers, park rangers, outdoor sports enthusiasts, and others with nature-centered careers. The compilation of his interviews became the groundbreaking book Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places.In these interviews, Dudley gets at the heart of what drew each individual to the outdoors, how they first became involved with nature, why they value those experiences, and why they believe people of color are underrepresented in this country’s natural landscape. He explores the connection between this topic and issues like social justice, racial prejudice, personal safety, economics, and cultural traditions.“I am honored to let the insightful individuals that I interviewed during the course of writing this book explain how all of these subjects come together in this complex social problem,” says Dudley.Black & Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places features 20 personal stories from across the USA, told by African Americans with strong connections to the natural world. There is a bit of American history—and personal history—in every account. Each takes you on a fascinating journey through the life of a stranger. The portraits are insightful, revealing, and entertaining. They provide a foundation for discussion about the future of our wild places and hopefully encourage people of color to take up the torch of conservation and carry it forward on behalf of all future generations of Americans.

When I wrote this story, I never imagined that my lifelong fishing partner and I would find ourselves in the Caribbean. I also never thought I would have false teeth, but here we are. Even more surprising, I never thought any of our crew, my partner, or I would be holding automatic rifles. But there we were, facing thieves who had forty or more of our lobster traps stacked on their deck.Their boat looked like a refuge from the storm, but when I saw a barrel emerge from a broken window, I knew it was time to pull the trigger. Three men crawled up onto the boat's roof, rifles in hand. I opened fire with my AR-15. The first guy dropped his rifle, and it clattered to the deck.I fired a burst straight up and shouted, "Start the engine and throw our traps over the side, and maybe this boat will get you home!"

Influential! Brave! Groundbreaking! Discover and celebrate the amazing stories and achievements of some of America's most inspiring artists, athletes, scholars, advocates and activists, political and civic leaders, entrepreneurs, physicians, educators, and more. Explore the vibrant experiences and vital roles of LGBTQ people in America!

A poignant and revelatory memoir from acclaimed novelist and actor Denise Nicholas that offers an intimate exploration of her multifaceted life, delving deeply into themes of artistic self-invention, race, and grief. Growing up as a middle-class Black girl in 1950s Detroit, Denise Nicholas experienced the vibrant culture and harsh realities of a racially segregated city, which profoundly influenced her perspective on identity. In her early twenties, she dropped out of the University of Michigan to tour the Deep South with the Free Southern Theater at the height of the civil rights movement, a path that ultimately ignited her lifelong commitment to social justice and activism. A few short years later she would launch from stage work to meteoric national fame as a series lead on the groundbreaking ABC-TV show Room 222, a role that earned her three consecutive Golden Globe nominations.With eloquence, vulnerability, and resolve, Nicholas mines her six-decade journey through TV and film stardom and the complexities of her three marriages, reflecting on the personal, professional, and societal pressures that influenced both her acting work and her relationships. Nicholas navigates the intersections of love and identity, exploring how her experiences  in Hollywood shaped her understanding of success, intimacy, and commitment. Her narrative is rich with anecdotes from her career in Hollywood, as an actor and, later, a successful writer first for television and eventually as an acclaimed novelist providing a backdrop to the struggles and achievements that marked her path. She candidly discusses the challenges she faced as a trailblazing actress of color, shedding light on the systemic barriers and biases within the entertainment industry. But at the deepest level, this memoir is a heartfelt exploration of grief, as Nicholas recounts the profound losses—including the unsolved targeted slaying of her sister, the telling of which occupies the center of her story—that have shaped her.  Her reflections on mourning and resilience paint a vivid, moving portrait of how to journey through healing to new dimensions of self-discovery. Through her powerful, stylish, and profoundly evocative storytelling, Nicholas not only chronicles her own remarkable life but also provides a resonant narrative of what it means to live, work, and succeed as a Black woman in America over the past half-century.

Secret wartime letters, a volatile love triangle, an unmarked grave, a noble heritage-a revelatory mother-daughter memoir about discovery, love, and forgiveness.Sorting through her late mother's possessions, Halina St. James found a secret stash of letters. They told how her mother, Maria, was abducted as a teenager in Ukraine by Nazis and sent to Germany as a slave.After the war, Maria found herself pregnant in a displaced persons camp. She married the father, an older man from a noble Polish family. But her life changed when her husband introduced his friend, a young Polish freedom fighter. In Canada, the younger man betrayed his friend and ran off with Maria and Halina.The letters made Halina realize how little she knew of her mother or her heritage.The Golden Daughter is the gripping story of a mother and daughter shaped by forces they had no control over.After uncovering truths hidden for a century, Halina was finally able to make peace with her mother, her father-and herself.

The incredible true story of how a motley crew of Toronto folk quietly revolutionized the medium of children's television with minimal budgets and maximum imagination.Between 1952 and 2000, Toronto experienced a golden age in the production of local children's television programs. Starting with the very first broadcast on CBC, a fascinating nexus of media professionals, educators, and children's entertainers, most with no formal training, came together with the purpose to elevate the medium -- at the time the most powerful communications tool in the world &mdash and use it as an educational tool rather than simply a platform to sell product.This era was truly the Wild West of TV -- there was no rule book. Toronto's diverse population allowed for a unique mix of perspectives and talent to embrace the challenge and run with it.Sometimes successful, sometimes not, the work created during this era remains etched in the minds of several generations, including programs such as The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, Polka Dot Door, Uncle Bobby, Today's Special, The Elephant Show and the many Degrassi series.

This study describes how Walter Gropius of former Bauhaus fame transformed himself from the image of the omnipotent "Master-Builder" to the humble "Grope" of later years. Having come as an emigree from his native Germany to the US, he had to cope with quite a different office culture based on teamwork: Not the "single genius" but a collective approach to problem solving was the order of the day, coupled with a conciliatory manner of debate among equals. With that, his legendary firm "The Architects Collaborative" (called TAC for short) in Boston was to become the star of the profession in the USA, over the course of some 50 years. Thanks to the combined talent and vigorous input of seven younger partners, the firm succeeded in gaining large commissions at home and internationally. The well-designed school and campus buildings in New England found their equivalent in large university projects such as in Baghdad and Tunisia. Internally, the special aura at TAC was personified by a strong collective spirit of individuals in their own right. In turn, the office attracted a highly motivated staff of apprentices from all around the world. Grope's personal charm, his humor and encouragement of young people got him life-long affection. Not the least, his pledge for the role of women in the profession left its mark on a whole new generation of architects' offices to follow. The author was a member of this team from 1962 to 1964 and kept in touch with Grope until his death in 1969. An eye-witness account setting straight TAC's merits to "Mid-Century Modernism".