Biography: arts and entertainment Books
Taylor & Francis The Life and Works of Andrzej Panufnik 1914â1991
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£39.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Transcending Boundaries My Dancing Life Childrens Literature and Culture
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£56.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd My Life in Art
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£43.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Duke Ellington and His World
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£104.50
Taylor & Francis Alice May Gilbert Sullivans First Prima Donna Forgotten Stars of the Musical Theatre
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£128.25
Taylor & Francis Ltd Josh White
Book SynopsisBorn in South Carolina, White spent his childhood as a lead boy for traveling blind bluesmen. In the early ''30s he moved to New York and became a popular blues star, then introduced folk-blues to a mass white audience in the 1940s. He was famed both for his strong Civil Rights songs, which made him a favorite of the Roosevelts, and for his sexy stage persona. The king of Café Society-also home to Billie Holiday--he was the one bluesman to consistently pack the New York nightspots, and the first black singer-guitarist to act in Hollywood films and star on Broadway. In the 1950s, White''s bitter compromise with the blacklisters left him with few friends on either end of the political spectrum. He spent much of the decade in Europe, then came back strong in the 1960s folk revival. By 1963, he was voted one of America''s top three male folk stars, but his health was failing and he did not survive the decade. Written in an engaging style, Society Blues portrays the difficult balancinTrade Review"Society Blues incorporates a skillful and thought-provoking critique of the ideological presuppositions that guide the promotion of authenticity. Wald achieves this goal by sticking to the details of White's career, not generalizing about its implications, yet the point comes across with clarity and conviction." -- David Sanjek, American Studies"[An] affectionate, careful biography." -- The Washington PostTable of Contents1: Southern Exposure 1914–1921; 2: Homeless and Hungry Blues 1921–1930; 3: Things about Coming my Way 1930–1936; 4: John Henry 1936–1939; 5: Raise A Ruckus (1940); 6: Marching Down Freedom's Road (1941); 7: Partnerships: Leadbelly and Libby Holman 1941–1943; 8: Cafe Society 1943–1945; 9: The House I Live in; 10: Apples, Peaches, and cherries 1946–1947; 11: Travels, Whiskey, and Women; 12: Broadway Hollywood, and Beyond 1947–1950; 13: Un-American Activities 1950; 14: Strange Fruit; 15: Across the Atlantic 1951; 16: You Know Baby 1952–1953; 17: Josh at Midnight 1954–1958; 18: Folk Revival; 19: House of the Rising Sun 1958–1963; 20: Goin' Down Slow 1963–1969; Epilogue
£32.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Duke Ellington and His World
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£29.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd William Forsythe and the Practice of Choreography
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£128.25
Cambridge University Press The Life of Elgar Musical Lives
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Richard Strauss Man Musician Enigma
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£45.59
Cambridge University Press Louis Spohr A Critical Biography
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£42.74
Cambridge University Press The Life of Richard Strauss Musical Lives
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£42.75
Cambridge University Press The Life of Richard Strauss Musical Lives
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Richard Strauss
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£98.52
Cambridge University Press The Life of Mozart Musical Lives
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press The Life of Charles Ives Musical Lives
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£39.90
Cambridge University Press The Life of Schubert Musical Lives
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£42.75
Cambridge University Press The Life of Schubert Musical Lives
Book SynopsisFranz Schubert's tragically short life was spent in one of Europe's most richly musical cities: a Vienna that worshipped Beethoven, adored Rossini, and thrilled to Paganini. Schubert, with the help of supportive friends who were themselves immersed in the arts, won fame for himself through songs and dances while aspiring to succeed with larger operas and symphonies. Christopher Gibbs considers how and what Schubert composed, taking a fresh look at this misunderstood figure, particularly the unfolding of his professional career, his relationship to Beethoven, the growth of his reputation and public image and the darker side of drinking, depression and sexual ambiguity. This searching and sympathetic biography questions the customary sentimental clichÃs and the recent revisionist views concerning this elusive genius.Trade Review' … a well-researched, warmly written, and refreshing new look at the Austrian composer.' The Library Journal' … timely and valuable … Mr Gibbs, with his solid grounding and balanced view, packs a great deal into a small space …'. New York Times' … timely and valuable … Gibbs, with his solid grounding and balanced view, packs a great deal into a small space and supplies a corrective still sorely needed, or, as he suggests, needed now more than ever, as seductive new theories mingle freely with comfortable old myths.' International Herald Tribune'A clear-sighted, brisk survey of the life.' Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine'The latest book in Cambridge's excellent series of short, non-specialist Musical Lives.' Guy Dammann, The Times Literary Supplement'The book in general is concise, scholarly and clearly written … and I learnt a lot from it about Schubert and about Viennese musical life in the 1820s that was new to me.' OperaTable of ContentsPrologue: Schubert yesterday; 1. Representing Schubert: 'A life devoted to art'; 2. Young Schubert: 'The master in the boy'; 3. Ingenious Schubert: 'The price of song'; 4. Popular Schubert: 'The turning point'; 5. Dark Schubert: 'A black-winged demon of sorrow and melancholy'; 6. Poor Schubert: 'Miserable reality'; 7. Late Schubert: 'Who shall stand beside Beethoven?'; 8. Immortal Schubert: 'Composing invisibly'; Epilogue: Schubert today; Notes; Further reading.
£25.64
Cambridge University Press The Life of Charles Ives Musical Lives
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£22.99
Cambridge University Press Visconti
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£21.84
Cambridge University Press The Life of Mendelssohn Musical Lives
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£37.05
Cambridge University Press The Life of Mendelssohn Musical Lives
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£28.99
Cambridge University Press The Life of Verdi Musical Lives
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£40.85
Cambridge University Press The Life of Verdi Musical Lives
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£29.44
Cambridge University Press The Life of Elgar Musical Lives
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£53.20
Cambridge University Press Arthur Miller A Critical Study
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£80.75
Cambridge University Press Leokadiya Kashperova
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£17.00
Cambridge University Press Elliott Carters String Quartet No. 1
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£47.49
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Genius in the Design The
Book SynopsisThe rivalry between the brilliant seventeenth-century Italian architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini is the stuff of legend. Enormously talented and ambitious artists, they met as contemporaries in the building yards of St. Peter''s in Rome, became the greatest architects of their era by designing some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and ended their lives as bitter enemies. Engrossing and impeccably researched, full of dramatic tension and breathtaking insight, The Genius in the Design is the remarkable tale of how two extraordinary visionaries schemed and maneuvered to get the better of each other and, in the process, created the spectacular Roman cityscape of today.
£15.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Bob Dylan Behind the Shades Revisited
Book SynopsisIn 1991 Clinton Heylin published what was considered the most definitive biography of Bob Dylan available. In 2001 he completely revised and reworked this hugely acclaimed book, adding new sections, substantially reworking text, and bringing the story up-to-date with Dylan''s explosive career in 2000. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited follows the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in the folk pantheon of Greenwich Village in the early ''60s, and his cataclysmic folk-rock metamorphosis at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. In the succeeding eighteen months, Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, and embarked on the legendary 1966 World Tour that culminated with an unforgettable concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Heylin details it all, along with the true story of Dylan''s motorcycle accident, his remarkable reemergence in the mid-''70s, the only exacting account of his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity, the Neverending Tour, and yet another incredible Dylan resurgence with his 1997 Grammy Album of the Year Award-winning Time Out of Mind.Deemed by The New Yorker as the most readable and reliable of all Dylan biographies, this book will give fans what they have always wanted -- a chance to get to know the man behind the shades.
£19.79
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Private Lives of the Impressionists
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£16.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Mozarts Women His Family His Friends His Music
Book Synopsis
£15.19
HarperCollins Publishers Inc George Balanchine
Book Synopsis
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Mozart
Book Synopsis
£20.69
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Madonna
Book SynopsisMaterial Girl . . . Immaculate sexpot . . . Superstar . . . Mother . . . Kabbalah enthusiast . . . For three decades she has defied categorization. . . . She remains one of our greatest living pop icons.Here is the groundbreaking biography that finally solves the mystery at the heart of Madonna''s chameleonlike existence. Drawing upon scores of candid interviews with producers, musicians, collaborators, lovers, and friends, Lucy O''Brien''s Madonna: Like an Icon explores the complex personality and legendary drive that have made Madonna the most famous female pop artist of our time. From her mother''s premature death to Madonna''s dynamic arrival on the New York club scene, from Like a Virgin to Evita and beyond, every stage of this dazzling star''s life and career is brilliantly illuminated—the stereotypes deconstructed, the lies exposed, the artist examined, the legend celebrated.
£14.20
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Dark Star
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£14.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Friedkin Connection
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£16.19
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Sinatras Century One Hundred Notes on the Man and
Book SynopsisTrade Review"He will hold your interest with his smart and passionate views. The book is the literary equivalent of a late-night session among Sinatra devotees sharing their favorite recordings over drinks, calling attention to the finer nuances of beloved tracks. Even an old Sinatra fan like me learned new things from Lehman." -- Ted Gioia, BookForum "Selective, idiosyncratic and short. Some of the observations are familiar, but the best make fresh comparisons and connections. And Lehman is strong on the way Sinatra's music continues to wend its way through the culture." -- Ben Yagoda, New York Times Book Review "David Lehman gives us a more nuanced study -Sinatra's Century. The book hits all the highlights -and dim days- of Sinatra's career, starting with his days as a big-band singer who blossomed into an idol for teenage girls. Let this book cast its spell." -- Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Lehman, an established poet, widens the frame of reference, thereby expanding the emotional resonance of the songs...Lehman tells us what those facts mean." -- Sibbie O'Sullivan, Washington Post "Like Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," Sinatra's Century offers multiple views of a subject that fascinates its author. His accomplishment is in not just telling Sinatra's story, but in describing the man's effect on all of us, then and now." -- Tom Toce, Los Angeles Review of Books "I would particularly recommend Sinatra's Century, a wonderful new book by the poet, editor, and essayist David Lehman. The book is at once short, fun to dip in and out of, full of quirky yet thoughtful lists of best albums and songs, with a poet's appreciation of Sinatra's craft." -- Ken Tucker, Yahoo TV "Mr. Lehman holds the reader by ferreting out of the voluminous files lots of choice quotes and anecdotes that reanimate Sinatra's gamy lost world." -- Wall Street Journal "Threaded through David Lehman's 100 notes are captivating observations, histories, insights and reflections likely to serve as interesting dinner party conversations." -- Beverly Hills Courrier "A poet and critic by trade, Lehman has composed a paean that devotes as much space to Sinatra's personality as to his singing...Well-written and unfailingly pleasing to read." -- Commentary
£19.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Sinatras Century One Hundred Notes on the Man and
Book SynopsisTrade Review"He will hold your interest with his smart and passionate views. The book is the literary equivalent of a late-night session among Sinatra devotees sharing their favorite recordings over drinks, calling attention to the finer nuances of beloved tracks. Even an old Sinatra fan like me learned new things from Lehman." -- Ted Gioia, BookForum "Selective, idiosyncratic and short. Some of the observations are familiar, but the best make fresh comparisons and connections. And Lehman is strong on the way Sinatra's music continues to wend its way through the culture." -- Ben Yagoda, New York Times Book Review "David Lehman gives us a more nuanced study -Sinatra's Century. The book hits all the highlights -and dim days- of Sinatra's career, starting with his days as a big-band singer who blossomed into an idol for teenage girls. Let this book cast its spell." -- Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Lehman, an established poet, widens the frame of reference, thereby expanding the emotional resonance of the songs...Lehman tells us what those facts mean." -- Sibbie O'Sullivan, Washington Post "Like Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," Sinatra's Century offers multiple views of a subject that fascinates its author. His accomplishment is in not just telling Sinatra's story, but in describing the man's effect on all of us, then and now." -- Tom Toce, Los Angeles Review of Books "I would particularly recommend Sinatra's Century, a wonderful new book by the poet, editor, and essayist David Lehman. The book is at once short, fun to dip in and out of, full of quirky yet thoughtful lists of best albums and songs, with a poet's appreciation of Sinatra's craft." -- Ken Tucker, Yahoo TV "Mr. Lehman holds the reader by ferreting out of the voluminous files lots of choice quotes and anecdotes that reanimate Sinatra's gamy lost world." -- Wall Street Journal "Threaded through David Lehman's 100 notes are captivating observations, histories, insights and reflections likely to serve as interesting dinner party conversations." -- Beverly Hills Courrier "A poet and critic by trade, Lehman has composed a paean that devotes as much space to Sinatra's personality as to his singing...Well-written and unfailingly pleasing to read." -- Commentary
£12.39
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Lee Krasner
Book Synopsis
£17.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc U2 by U2
Book Synopsis
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines
Book SynopsisEnchanted by the Hollywood movies she watched while growing up in affluent Tehran, Shohreh Aghdashloo dreamed of becoming an actress, despite her parents more practical plans. When she fell in love with her husband, Aydin, a painter thirteen years her senior, she made him promise he'd allow her to follow her passion. This title tells her story.Trade Review"Aghdashloo has a fascinating life story to tell, which she recounts in her memoir, The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines." -- Kirkus Reviews "The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines is one woman's straightforward account of the upheaval in Iran and her determination to overcome its impact on her life." -- Shelf Awareness
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Desilu
Book Synopsis
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Diana Vreeland
Book SynopsisDiana Vreeland has been called the fashion editor of the twentieth century. An epic self-mythologizer, she had an incredible aura of glamour, a great eye, and a genius for life. This title includes more than 300 illustrations, photographs, and drawings, many by the fashion photographers of her time such as Louise Dahl Wolfe, Irving Penn, and more.Trade Review"Diana Vreeland was the beacon of fashion for the twentieth century. She spotted, attracted, and showcased the most talented designers, photographers, illustrators, models, and fashion icons and gave their genius a glamorous theater. This book is a beautiful tribute to her." -- Diane Von Furstenberg "D.V. dazzled and dazed you, laughed, sang, and prophesized in a single sentence. She was a self-made triumph of spirit, distilling all the world's glories... In this wonderful book, you get to sit at her knee and see how she made herself-this quintessential all-tribe American." -- Lauren Hutton "Dwight gives new richness and poignancy to a personality appreciated primarily for her epigrammatic wit, dramatic flair, and compelling style... a nuanced portrait of a twentieth-century woman, socially liberated and intellectually unfettered, a modern careerist who never shed her Edwardian proprieties, a woman in full." -- Harold Koda, Director, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
£23.87
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Diane Von Furstenberg
Book Synopsis
£23.19
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Becoming Richard Pryor
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Absorbing, incisive...With skill and insight, Saul shows how both the best and the worst of Pryor could merge into a great body of work unmatched by anyone who was ever paid to make people laugh." -- USA Today "The most detailed and rigorously researched work on the comic's life and performances...Pryor was both the quintessential hipster and the vulnerable, damaged witness of his age...Becoming Richard Pryor captures these dimensions of the persona and the man behind it very well." -- Washington Post "Sharply observed...lays out the case that Pryor was not only a comic genius but 'a bellwether of the great changes of postwar American life, some of which he helped incite.'...Riveting." -- TIME magazine "A gripping read...The only book you need on its subject." -- Sunday Times (London) "A pop-culture masterpiece of exhaustive reporting, psychological insight and elegant writing." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer "Insightful and expansive, Scott Saul's remarkable biography of the now legendary comic chronicles how a sensitive brilliant man with a hardscrabble past mined his personal life for American entertainment, revolutionizing stand-up along the way." -- Playboy, "This Winter's Best Books" "Masterful." -- Newsweek "A fascinating, exhilarating read. Saul dives deeper and comes up with more treasure than previous biographers; he deftly traces the stamp that Pryor left on American culture at one of its more impressionable moments...I didn't want to put the book down and couldn't wait to get back to it." -- Michael Chabon, bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Telegraph Avenue "Becoming Richard Pryor is a compulsively readable book that sets a new gold standard for American biography. Scott Scaul's research is extraordinary; his writing his taut, elegant, and insightful; and he captures both the hilarity and pain that made Richard Pryor such a towering figure." -- Debby Applegate, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography and author of the forthcoming Madam: The Notorius Life and Times of Polly Adler "The Richard Pryor biography we've been waiting for." -- Deadspin "With Becoming Richard Pryor, Scott Saul gives us the fullest picture yet of a great and puzzling American figure. What starts as a procedural on the making of an artist becomes a story of a man desperate to be free." -- RJ Smith, author of The One: The Life and Music of James Brown "Pryor has had the good fortune to fall into the hands of a writer with the smarts to understand both his greatness and his madness. Becoming Richard Pryor is a first-rate biography." -- Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders and Raging Bulls "Becoming Richard Pryor takes you on a wild, tumultuous ride. Scott Saul's superb storytelling is a perfect match for his subject--he keeps you mesmerized, laughing, crying, stunned, hungry, and above all, surprised." -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original "Becoming Richard Pryor is a book that breaks new ground...Saul details the amazing way that Richard found his way out of the life for which he seemed destined and into the world of the performing arts." -- New York Times Book Review "This is a well-executed study that gives Pryor due credit as pioneer, intellectual and artist. Better written and more thoughtful than David and Joe Henry's Furious Cool. The latter remains worth reading, but this book is the place to start." -- Kirkus Reviews "Magisterial...Brilliantly reveals the glorious highs and lows of Pryor's life...Becoming Richard Pryor reveals itself to be not simply a biography, but the compassionate map of a terra incognita." -- Independent "Drawing on interviews with family and friends, unpublished journals and court records, Saul jauntily chronicles the year-by-year, and almost day-by-day, evolution of Richard Pryor. Glaringly honest, Saul shines a light on a revolutionary stand-up comic who perfected the art of dramatizing his own imperfections, and the world's." -- Publishers Weekly "Drawing on interviews with family and friends, unpublished journals and court records, Saul jauntily chronicles the year-by-year, and almost day-by-day, evolution of Richard Pryor. Glaringly honest, Saul shines a light on a revolutionary stand-up comic who perfected the art of dramatizing his own imperfections, and the world's." -- Booklist (starred review)
£23.79
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Unsinkable
Book SynopsisUnsinkable is the definitive memoir by film legend and Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds.In Unsinkable, the late great actress, comedienne, singer, and dancer Debbie Reynolds shares the highs and lows of her life as an actress during Hollywood’s Golden Age, anecdotes about her lifelong friendship with Elizabeth Taylor, her experiences as the foremost collector of Hollywood memorabilia, and intimate details of her marriages and family life with her children, Carrie and Todd Fisher.A story of heartbreak, hope, and survival, “America’s Sweetheart” Debbie Reynolds picks up where she left off in her first memoir, Debbie: My Life, and is illustrated with previously unpublished photos from Reynolds’s personal collection.Debbie Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, at the age of 84, just one day after the death of her daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher.Trade Review"Anyone who loves Hollywood and movies is bound to enjoy this lively, funny book, filled with candid recollections. Debbie was a movie-struck kid who experienced the last days of Hollywood's Golden Age, and I love her clear-eyed memories." -- Leonard Maltin "[Reynolds is] indisputably a grand dame of show business." -- NPR on UNSINKABLE "Lively." -- People on UNSINKABLE "Debbie Reynolds knows exactly how to steal the scene, wring tears, and most important, how to leave the audience feeling thoroughly entertained." -- New York Journal of Books on UNSINKABLE "Nothing could sink this lady." -- New York Post on UNSINKABLE
£13.26
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Jason Priestley A Memoir
Book Synopsis
£21.59
