Charles Ives, perhaps the quintessential American composer of the twentieth century, drew on his childhood experiences in a small New England town in his music. Through his close relationship with his father, George, a Civil War bandmaster, Ives developed a powerful feeling for nineteenth-century rural America. This book--the first full-scale psychoanalytic biography of a major composer--examines the lives of the two men and shows how a knowledge of their relationship as father and son, teacher and pupil, is central to an understanding of Ives's work. Stuart Feder, a psychoanalyst with training in musicology, demonstrates that George exerted so pervasive an influence on Charles's creative life that Ives's music may be seen as the result of an unconscious fantasy of posthumous collaboration between father and son. The music bears George's mark, not only in its incorporation of hymn tunes, parlor ballads, Civil War marches, and other homely sources that derived from his youth, but also in its use of technical musical devices attributed to George. Moreover, the span of Ives's creative life reveals another connection to his father: Charles's musical productivity began to wane in his forties, as he approached the age at which his father died. Dr. Feder examines the influence of George's teaching and storytelling on Charles's years as a composer. Ives's later decline is traced psychologically and medically. Using Ives's music as an essential part of his data, Dr. Feder demonstrates how music can illuminate and be expressive of the inner life of its creator.

Designed primarily for use by students and theatre generalists, this volume contains biographical sketches, arranged alphabetically, of over 300 individuals distinguished for their stage directing. It includes both contemporary directors and those who are no longer working. Emphasis is on artists who have international reputations, especially those whose work has had an impact on American theatre. Each entry profiles the director's life and assesses the significance of his or her accomplishments, provides a list of productions not mentioned in the narrative, and includes a bibliography. The work also includes appendixes, providing a selected bibliography, and indexes of names and plays.

The first book to analyze and celebrate Baltimore's underappreciated jazz tradition, Music at the Crossroads shines new light on legends such as Eubie Blake and Cab Calloway, honors neglected figures such as Ellis Larkins, Hank Levy, and Ethel Ennis, pays tribute to the legacies of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Left Bank Jazz Society, and analyzes the current Baltimore jazz scene.

Thanks to Steve Parkhouse's wonderfully vivid illustrations and Jim McCarthy's clever distillation of the script that rewrote rock 'n' roll and much else besides, the Pistols' story returns to the rough and tumble of the comic strip from which it derived so much of its initial inspiration.

Just after recording with John Coltrane in 1963, baritone singer Johnny Hartman (1923-1983) told a family member that "something special" occurred in the studio that day. He was right - the album, containing definitive readings of "Lush Life" and "My One and Only Love," resides firmly in the realm of iconic; forever enveloping listeners in the sounds of romance. In The Last Balladeer, author Gregg Akkerman skillfully reveals not only the intimate details of that album but the life-long achievements and occasional missteps of Hartman as an African-American artist dedicated to his craft. This book carefully follows the journey of the Grammy-nominated vocalist from his big band origins with Earl Hines and Dizzy Gillespie to featured soloist in prestigious supper clubs throughout the world. Through exclusive interviews with Hartman's family and fellow musicians (including Tony Bennett, Billy Taylor, Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks, and others), accounts from friends and associates, newly discovered recordings and studio outtakes, and in-depth research on his career and personal life, Akkerman expertly recollects the Hartman character as a gentleman, romantic, family man, and constant contributor to the jazz scene. From his international concerts in Japan, Australia, and England to his steady presence as an American nightclub singer that spanned five decades, Hartman personifies the "last balladeer" of his kind, singing with a sentiment that captured the attention of Clint Eastwood, who brought Hartman's songs to the masses in the film The Bridges of Madison County. In the first full-length biography and discography to chronicle the rhapsodic life and music of Johnny Hartman, the author completes a previously missing dimension of vocal-jazz history by documenting Hartman as the balladeer who crooned his way into so many hearts. Backed by impeccable research but conveyed in a conversational style, this book will interest not only musicians and scholars but any fan of the Great American Songbook and the singers who brought it to life.

In 2002, David Bowie and Mick Rock created Moonage Daydream, the defining document of the life and times of Ziggy Stardust. Twenty years later, it remains the closest readers will get to understanding Bowie through his own words.

Alongside over 600 photographs taken by Mick Rock, Bowie’s personal and often humorous commentary gives unprecedented insight into his work and the creation of his most memorable persona. Readers can see how Bowie singlehandedly challenged and elevated 1970s culture through his style, his inspirations ranging from Kubrick to Kabuki, and his creative spirit, which endures through the decades. Moonage Daydream is the essential David Bowie book.

First published as a signed limited edition, Moonage Daydream sold out in a matter of months and became lore among David Bowie fans. Now, on the 50th anniversary of Bowie’s acclaimed album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the book is available again. Published in a new larger format, this uncut edition keeps to Bowie and Rock’s original vision, allowing us to explore Moonage Daydream the way the authors intended.

Though he appeared in only six films, James Dean is still frequently discussed some 30 years after his death in an accident at the age of 24. This book provides full production information, plot synopses, review excerpts, and critical commentary for Dean's roles in Fixed Bayonets (1951), Sailor Beware (1951), Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952), East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956). It also details his stage, radio, and television work, and includes an extensive annotated bibliography. This comprehensive guide synthesizes the tremendous amount of information available about Dean's life and legacy. Included are chapters on his work in stage, film, radio, and television; entries in each chapter provide production information, plot synopses, review excerpts, and critical commentary about each of his performances. The book also examines his unrealized projects and his survival in various tributes and recordings. An extensive annotated bibliography directs the reader to sources of additional information about Dean's fascinating hold on the American imagination.

What keeps you from overcoming obstacles in your life and walking in peace and joy in the Lord? Can you free yourself from the bondage of your past mistakes and learn to develop an identity in Christ? After a lifetime of regret, Robert "Stonewall" Jackson asked himself these hard questions, and the answers he found radically altered his world.

With writing that is honest and self-disclosing, The Life and Legend of Robert "Stonewall" Jackson reveals how Jackson overcame drugs, addiction, and mental and physical war trauma to emerge a survivor. What's more, it shares the awesome power of how developing a relationship with Christ held the key to his success.

From his stint playing with the Oakland Raiders to his time in prison for drug dealing, Jackson uses personal anecdotes to illustrate how God has worked in his life. He explores the doubts, fears, and perplexities he experienced and demonstrates how he found comfort and guidance in his faith. Today an award-winning bodybuilder and caregiver to his grandchildren, Jackson is committed to a close relationship with Christ and a strong dedication to total body fitness.

No matter what age or life journey you are currently experiencing, God's grace and the value of believing in yourself can turn things around. Let Jackson's story inspire and motivate you to change your life

Elinor Remick Warren's distinguished career as a composer, concert pianist, and accompanist for renowned singers spanned seventy-five years of American musical history. She began writing music in 1904 at age four. Her first published composition, a song, was accepted by G. Schirmer in 1916. Thereafter, her compositions appeared regularly through 1990. Her full oeuvre is cataloged here along with performance information, discography, and review and critical commentary, all of which is carefully documented, cross-referenced, and indexed. A biographical sketch is supplemented by a long interview conducted by the author with Warren four years before the composer's death in 1991. Among the useful appendixes are textual sources for Warren's many vocal compositions.

Dr. George Washington Sheafor was a Baptist evangelist and pastor who lived during the years that the United States was growing, the population was moving westward, and new territories and states were being added. His teaching and preaching ministry spanned seventy-six years, beginning in 1892 through his death at age 96 in 1968. His pioneer ministry began in Arizona while it was still a territory. As a young man he worked on a ranch taming wild horses off the range and preached to some of the ranch hands with whom he worked. He attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, and was mentored by Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist of his day. He also studied the life and teachings of Andrew Murray and patterned his life after this great English teacher and preacher. He began preaching revival meetings in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. During his pastoral ministry, he served in Comanche and Brownwood, Texas; Lawton, Oklahoma; and in Lancaster, Texas. Dr. Sheafor's pastoral ministry changed in 1941 when he became a Bible teacher at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. His name is synonymous with the teaching of Bible prophecy. In all of his teaching and preaching, Dr. Sheafor majored on the wonderful promises that God has given to every born-again believer. He presented the joy and the glory to be experienced by every believer in the Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, and the New Heaven and New Earth. His wealth of knowledge concerning prophecy was inimitable and he was loved and admired by all who heard him speak, including many of the professors at Dallas Theological Seminary and Dr. W.A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas for all of the twenty-three years that Dr. Sheafor taught the class that now bears his name.

View, through the eyes of a child and teenager, the scene of growing up in the glamorous Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s During childhood, the author visited or auditioned at almost every major movie studio in Tinseltown. What was it like to work on the set of Hal Roach's Little Rascals? To be given a screen test with one of Hollywood's greatest directors? To be told "never again to call" the office of Columbia Pictures studio boss, Harry Cohn? To receive from one of the Marx Brothers, the gift of a camera? Author Laura June Kenny experienced all this and more. Her memoir provides a unique look at a Hollywood and a Southern California that is no more, and cannot be replaced. Born disadvantaged in the worst year of the Great Depression, her fate was to be discovered and to be loved by a disparate group of people who inspired her to reach for the "real stars," and thereby find her stardom. Filled with rare photos from the author's own collection, this is the story of a Hollywood moppet turned teacher, writer, public speaker, emcee, wife, mother, grandmother, and what she learned along the way

This groundbreaking biography of a brilliant but disturbed performer explores the paradox of the man and the artist. Based on more than 100 interviews, this intelligent profile explores Morrison's roots; the hard times he went through in London, New York, and Boston; the making of his seminal albums "Moondance" and "Astral Weeks"; and the disastrous business arrangements that left Morrison hungry and penniless while his songs were topping the charts. Detailed are the breakdown of Morrison's marriage, the creative drought that followed, and his triumphant reemergence. In addition, this biography attempts to explain the forbidding aspects of Morrison's persona, such as paranoia, hard drinking, misanthropy, as well as why, in the words of his one-time singing partner Linda Gail Lewis, Morrison's music "brings happiness to other people, not him." Also included is a Van Morrision sessionography that spans 1964 to 2001.

There have been many books written on the Hollywood legend, James Dean, but never before have we had a chance to hear from the real Jimmy Dean. Now, for the first time, Dean speaks in his own words as he is channeled through Patricia A. Leone, a long-time admirer of the motion picture star and metaphysical practicioner. James Dean/ The Lost Memoirs is an incrediably realistic look into Dean's life, transporting the reader to another place and time. As you read each entry in his journal you become closer than ever before to the man behind the legend. Five decades ago this farm boy took the world by storm, and the fascination with Dean continues to this very day. Now, through this book, we are privvy not only to this legendary actor's own words, but also his own most private and innermost thoughts. He writes with intensity about his insecurity concerning acting, his stormy relationship with Pierre Angeli, his broken heart over the death of his mother, his constant flirtation with death, and encounters with Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe, Shelly Winters, Rock Hudson, Martin Landau, Elizabeth Taylor and Sal Mineo. He also devuleges intimate details about others who had the opportunity to be called his friends. The author, in a remarkable series of channeled sessions with Dean that were conducted over the course of several months, was able to break through to the other side and give Dean this opportunity on the 50th anniversary of his death to share with us his own epiloge to his life. It is the real and intimate side of Jimmy Dean, one that has never been presented to the public before. This remarkable book is must reading for Dean fans. It is written in journal form just as the star, himself, might have written it, and includes his thoughts, memories, and opinions beginning with the death of his mother at age nine until the day just before his fatal motorcycle accident on September 30, 1955.

In SCAR TISSUE Anthony Kiedis, charismatic and highly articulate frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recounts his remarkable life story, and the history of the band itself. Raised in the Midwest, he moved to LA aged eleven to live with his father Blackie, purveyor of pills, pot, and cocaine to the Hollywood elite. After a brief child-acting career, Kiedis dropped out of U.C.L.A. and plunged headfirst into the demimonde of the L.A. underground music scene. He formed the band with three schoolfriends - and found his life's purpose. Crisscrossing the country, the Chili Peppers were musical innovators and influenced a whole generation of musicians.;But there's a price to pay for both success and excess and in SCAR TISSUE, Kiedis writes candidly of the overdose death of his soul mate and band mate, Hillel Slovak, and his own ongoing struggle with an addiction to drugs.;SCAR TISSUE far transcends the typical rock biography, because Anthony Kiedis is anything but a typical rock star. It is instead a compelling story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption.

Though chiefly remembered as the dance partner of Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers had many other significant achievements in the entertainment world. She was a dancer, singer, comedienne, and Academy Award winning dramatic actress, as well as the highest paid Hollywood star in 1942. Miss Faris provides a detailed record of Ginger Roger's life and career, painting a picture of her as one of the most versatile performers in the United States. The volume begins with a short biography of Ginger Rogers, along with a succinct chronology of the major events in her life and career. These portions of the book provide a context for the chapters that follow, which contain annotated entries for her stage, film, radio, and television performances. The entries provide production information and cast listings, along with excerpts from reviews and critical commentaries. An extensive annotated bibliography lists books, magazine and newspaper articles, and movie trade publications that provide further information about Ginger Rogers's fascinating career.

Peter Sellers's explosive talent made him a beloved figure in world cinema and continues to attract new audiences. With his darkly comic performances in Dr. Strangelove and Lolita and his outrageously funny appearances as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films, he became one of the most popular movie stars of his time. Sellers himself identified most personally with the character he played in Being There--an utterly empty man on whom others projected what they wanted, or needed, to see. In this lively and exhaustively researched biography, Ed Sikov offers unique insight into Sellers's comedy style. Beginning with Sellers' lonely childhood with a mother who wouldn't let go of him, through his service in the Royal Air Force and his success on BBC Radio's The Goon Show, Sikov goes on to detail his relationships with co-stars such as Alec Guinness, Sophia Loren, and Shirley MacLaine; his work with such directors as Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, and Blake Edwards; his four failed marriages; his ridiculously short engagement to Liza Minnelli; and all the other peculiarities of this eccentric man's unpredictable life. The most insightful biography ever written of this endlessly fascinating star, Mr. Strangelove is as comic and tragic as Peter Sellers was himself.

Journey of an American Muslim is an epic journey into the life of the author. It's a biography that is uncompromising in its authenticity and honesty. Muslims and non-Muslims will appreciate its candor as the author shares his experiences in the four phases of his development into his life as a Muslim in America. In this book you will discover: -The major influences that encouraged the Author to study and later become a Muslim. -How the Author transitioned from being a very "zealous" Muslim in the beginning; to discovering "spirituality" while taking more risks in his practice of the Muslim life; to becoming an open minded "truth seeker" who happens to be Muslim. -In candid detail how the Author survived multiple marriages (learning experiences), the loss of two good paying professional jobs, foreclosure of his home and working at Wal-Mart for 3 1/2 years earning what he considers "survival income." Journey of an American Muslim is a personal journey and an odyssey of major proportions for any human being. Muslim or non-Muslim, to have to experience. One wonders how on could survive such a personal drama, financial upheaval and professional setbacks. This author not only experienced the epic journey, but lived to tell about it.