Showing results for "American Biographies" in Entertainment & Celebrity

Charles Fletcher Lummis began his spectacular career in 1884 by walking from Ohio to start a new job at the three-year old Los Angeles Times. By the time of his death in 1928, the 3,500 mile "tramp across the continent" was just a footnote in his astonishingly varied career: crusading journalist, author of nearly two dozen books, editor of the influential political and literary magazine Out West, Los Angeles city librarian, preserver of Spanish missions, and Indian rights gadfly.

In Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton's America—tells the story of one of the great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained 'colonial boy' traveled to America, in search of Africa, only to return to Nigeria and transform his sound into a battering ram against the state—creating a new musical language of resistance called Afrobeat.

Cuando El chavo del ocho se estrenó en los años 70, el programa ofrecía un retrato poco común de la vida de la clase trabajadora que resonó en la gente de toda América Latina. En el pico de su popularidad, 350 millones de personas lo sintonizaban cada semana. Y durante casi 50 años, el legado de “el chavo” se mantuvo vivo a través de una creciente base de fans multigeneracional y sus retransmisiones diarias. Hasta 2020, cuando El Chavo dejó de emitirse repentinamente.

Forty-seven years of joyous celebrations after victories and crushing disappointments after defeats are encompassed in Marv Levy: Where Else Would You Rather Be?, but it is about more than just touchdowns and interceptions - it’s about how a person like Marv Levy, dedicated to his life’s work, can begin his career as the obscure assistant coach of a high school junior varsity team and decades later lead a team to the Super Bowl.

There’s an African proverb that says “It takes a village to raise a child”. Hollywood producer and best-selling author DeVon Franklin offers a personal twist: It Takes a Woman. In this riveting and soul-stirring Audible Original, Franklin introduces us to the women who raised him—a “village of love” that selflessly came together to shape him into the man he is today.

Win one for The Gipper. Has there ever been a better-known and widely-used exhortative phrase in sports? Not likely. But who was the "Gipper", this mythical-like sports figure whose nickname has aroused, in turn, awe, wonderment, curiosity, and amusement since the second decade of the 20th century, and why is his story important? Answering those questions is the formidable task taken on here by veteran sportswriter Jack Cavanaugh.

When Jagat Murari, a young film student in post-war America, finds himself at the feet of one of cinema’s true giants – Orson Welles – during the making of Macbeth in 1947, the lessons he absorbs on that set will shape not only his future, but also the future of Indian cinema. Returning to...

“With American on Purpose, Craig Ferguson somehow manages to avoid the pitfalls of self-indulgence and self-importance that plague most (okay, all) Hollywood autobiographies. He has, instead, written a book that is hilarious and irrepressibly daft, yet also kind, poignant, and undeniably wise...

Barbara Leaming's Marilyn Monroe is a complex, sympathetic portrait that will totally change the way we view the most enduring icon of American sexuality. To those who think they have heard all there is to hear about Marilyn Monroe, think again. Leaming's book tells a brand-new tale of sexual, psychological, and political intrigue of the highest order.

From master storyteller and New York Times bestselling Historian H. W. Brands comes the definitive biography of a visionary and transformative president In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth...

When a potentially career-ending shoulder injury left quarterback Drew Brees without a team - and facing the daunting task of having to learn to throw a football all over again - coaches around the NFL wondered, Will he ever come back? After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving more than 80 percent of the city underwater, many wondered, Will the city ever come back?

Newly updated, the definitive biography of the forty-seventh Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, which examines the fascinating life of a man who has shaped Washington politics for more than four decades, including his years in the Obama White House. Raised in the working-class towns...

*A New York Times Bestseller* A major new biography of John F. Kennedy Jr. from a leading historian who was also a close friend, America’s Reluctant Prince is a deeply researched, personal, surprising, and revealing portrait of the Kennedy heir the world lost too soon. Through the lens of...

A portrait of a woman, an era, and a profession: the first thoroughly researched biography of Meryl Streep—the “Iron Lady” of acting, nominated for nineteen Oscars and winner of three—that explores her beginnings as a young woman of the 1970s grappling with love, feminism, and her...

Be warned - this raw, unpolished adventure across the States contains alligator wrestling, leather chaps and Vegas weddings. As a multi-award winning comedian and travel journalist, Dom Joly's take on any destination is always witty, sharp, hilarious and irreverent - even more so when that destination is the backwaters of the USA.

Performed by Jim Morrison, Patti Smith, Liz Phair, Oliver Ray, Tom Robbins, Frank Lisciandro, Anne Morrison Chewning, Sefton Graham, and Ian Morrison. Includes Jim Morrison’s final poetry recording, now available for the first time, at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles on his 27th...

From their beginnings as teenagers experimenting in a San Fernando Valley garage dubbed "The Hell Hole" to headlining major music festivals around the world, discover the whole story of Bad Religion's forty-year career in irreverent style.Do What You Want's principal storytellers are the four...

Believe, Sachin Tendulkar told him - and he took it to heart, getting the word etched on his arm as a tattoo. In this book, Suresh Raina takes us through the challenges he faced as a young cricketer. He was bullied in school and at cricket camps, but he always punched above his weight...

Hard-working, dedicated, inventive, and ready to tackle any genre - that was Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise. Despite all the praise and awards, Wise could easily be called one of Hollywood's always working blue-collar directors. He helmed everything from B movies to Academy Award-winning blockbusters, all while managing to live a quiet life amid the glitz, glamour, and scandal of Tinsel Town. How this soft-spoken man managed to tame mega-stars' egos while directing film classics remains a mystery.

The gold-standard biography of the band Led Zeppelin—revised and updated with new material for fans of the band and this beloved rock classic. “One of the most notorious rock biographies ever written.” —Chicago Tribune The members of Led Zeppelin are major deities in the pantheon of rock...