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Great Women Sculptors

The beautifully printed, encyclopedic Great Women Sculptors brings together more than 300 artists who have been excluded from institutions and canons on the basis of gender.
The beautifully printed, encyclopedic Great Women Sculptors brings together more than 300 artists who have been excluded from institutions and canons on the basis of gender.
NonfictionSocial ScienceLGBTQ+

American Teenager

Nico Lang’s powerful American Teenager closely follows seven transgender young adults, rendering complex, searing and sensitive portraits of their lives.
Nico Lang’s powerful American Teenager closely follows seven transgender young adults, rendering complex, searing and sensitive portraits of their lives.
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Review

Review by bookpagedev

Books a mother can love There’s no better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than with a gift book that immortalizes the maternal role. Joyce Ostin’s Hollywood Moms, a volume of radiant photographs, does just that. In Ostin’s touching tribute to womanhood, some of Tinseltown’s biggest names shed their glamorous facades, and the results are simple, stripped-down pictures that reveal the buoyancy, serenity and joy inherent in the mother-daughter relationship.

Much in the limelight, these mothers have daughters named Coco and Collette, Stella and Chelsea, girls with above-average genes who are, in the end, just regular girls. More than 50 black and white photos feature the likes of dynamic duo Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson; Madonna and a saucer-eyed Lourdes Leon; Melanie Griffith and Stella Banderas (inheritor of Antonio’s brooding stare). Anecdotes and poems from the moms themselves and Carrie Fisher’s introduction to the book offer fresh insights into the mother-daughter connection. With an intuitive eye, Ostin has captured this classic bond, revealing the reality behind the fantasy the private sides of these very public women. Ostin, a two-time breast cancer survivor, will donate all of the proceeds from Hollywood Moms to cancer research.

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces,” wrote George Santayana, and his statement is proven true by a volume of stunning pictures called Family: A Celebration of Humanity. Photographers from around the world some of them Pulitzer Prize winners have captured the unit in its many configurations (a family, after all, can be as small as two or as large as two dozen). There are brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, children and pets; there are families in poverty and families who flourish. Spanning the globe, the book touches down in Russia, Mexico, South Africa, Australia and the United States, and the multiplicity of cultures makes for some wonderful visual juxtapositions. Artful, honest and at times, graphic (the photo of a baby, fresh from the womb, its umbilical unwound like a telephone cord, is not a sight for the weak-eyed), Family, the first volume in a series by M.I.L.K. Publishing, Ltd., offers timeless images of humanity at its best. M.I.L.K., an acronym for Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship, hopes to develop a collection of photographs showcasing diversity in family, friendship and love, and will publish two more books in September.

Two new titles celebrate one of the world’s most famous moms, that icon of family and fashion, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The woman who founded a modern-day dynasty and helped set style standards throughout the ’60s and ’70s is the inspiration behind Jay Mulvaney’s Jackie: The Clothes of Camelot. Filled with fabulous, Camelot-era photographs, Mulvaney’s book features Jackie’s dreamy dresses, frocks like confections from Oleg Cassini and other designers done in sugary pink, pastel blue and vivid tangerine, clothes fit for a queen or a First Lady. Those classic suits boxy, modest and perfectly chic are included, too. With over 300 photos and sections on Jackie’s fashion influences, her casual wear and her style during the post-Camelot years, this volume presents a well-rounded fashion portrait of one of the White House’s most regal matriarchs. Mulvaney, author of Kennedy Weddings: A Family Album, contributes lucid captions that set the context for the costumes. Dominick Dunne provides the book’s introduction.

Jackie Style by Pamela Clarke Keogh is part biography, part beauty book. Covering the former First Lady’s childhood in New York, her years at Vassar, her time in the White House and her work as an editor at Doubleday, this volume offers a behind-the-scenes look at Jackie’s life while providing advice on how to make her style your style. Jackie’s makeup and fashion ideas are included, along with never-before-seen photos and sketches, and exclusive interviews. Keogh, author of the bestselling Audrey Style, has created a loving tribute, which has an introduction by fashion designer Valentino.

Both Jackie titles are being published to coincide with a May retrospective of Kennedy’s White House wardrobe at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, an exhibit that will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Camelot.

Books a mother can love There’s no better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than with a gift book that immortalizes the maternal role. Joyce Ostin’s Hollywood Moms, a volume of radiant photographs, does just that. In Ostin’s touching tribute to womanhood, some of Tinseltown’s biggest names shed their glamorous facades, and the results are simple, […]
Memoir

At home in the country

Review by bookpagedev

Miichael Korda’s Country Matters belongs to a genre of books chronicling the lives of urbanites who forsake the luxuries of the city for the unpredictable joys and frustrations of rural life. Some of these books, such as Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun and Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, have an international flair. Others, such as Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska’s Simple Living: One Couple’s Search for a Better Life, bring the tale a bit closer to home. Wherever they’re set, such books are appealing most obviously, perhaps, to those who have made the plunge into country life and those who dream of doing so, but also, truth be told, to just about anyone anywhere who has ever owned and maintained a home.

Korda’s manifestation of this tale begins with the day over 20 years ago when he and his wife bought an 18th century farmhouse in Dutchess County, 90 miles north of New York City. Up to that point, Korda, editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster and a best-selling author, had been accustomed to living a cosmopolitan life, having been born in England and spending time in Europe and Beverly Hills before finally settling in New York City. He met his wife Margaret, who had been born into a farming family in England, while riding a horse through Central Park. Within a short time the two were married and searching for a place in the country where they could put down roots. Eventually, they found the house of their dreams and increasingly came to think of their country farmhouse as their home.

On one level, Korda’s book is a humorous look at what it takes to restore, repair and maintain an old house. The narrative’s real charm, however, lies in its depiction of the clash between Korda’s original notions of genteel country living and the realities of modern rural life. Dutchess County, the Kordas find, is no rural idyll. Yet, despite all of the differences between these urbanites and the rural culture that surrounds them, they gradually come to feel at home, and it is their transformation from outsiders to community members that lies at the story’s heart.

Vivian A. Wagner, Ph.D., writes from New Concord, Ohio.

 

Miichael Korda’s Country Matters belongs to a genre of books chronicling the lives of urbanites who forsake the luxuries of the city for the unpredictable joys and frustrations of rural life. Some of these books, such as Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun and Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, have an international flair. Others, […]
Arts & Culture

Review

Review by bookpagedev

he Metaphysical Club, a group that discussed philosophical questions, held its first meeting in January 1872, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of numerous social and discussion gatherings where intellectual work was done before universities assumed that role, it disbanded after nine months. The club was not even identified by name until 1907, when one of the participants, Charles S. Peirce, the philosopher-logician who coined the term “pragmatism,” referred to it in an unpublished manuscript.

The group included two men who were to have a major impact on American thought for years to come: William James in psychology and philosophy and future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in law. The pivotal figure, though, was Chauncey Wright, a freelance thinker who wrote book reviews, whose role model was Socrates and who seemed to live for serious conversation. From their probing explorations over the years emerged an understanding about ideas and the philosophy we know as pragmatism. Their intellectual heir, John Dewey, was America’s most influential public intellectual for the first half of the 20th century.

Pragmatism, which emphasizes that ideas should never become ideologies and that skepticism and tolerance are crucial, developed out of many strands of 19th century thought. In his enlightening new book, The Metaphysical Club, New York University English professor Louis Menand, who also writes for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, follows these men whose search for a new way of looking at things in the years following the Civil War led them to question many assumptions of their culture and to find better ways to deal with the challenges of modern society. What James, Holmes, Peirce and Dewey “had in common was not a group of ideas, but a single idea an idea about ideas. They all believed that ideas are not ‘out there’ waiting to be discovered, but are tools . . . that people devise to cope with the world in which they find themselves. They believed that ideas are produced not by individuals, but by groups of individuals. . . . They believed that ideas do not develop according to some inner logic of their own, but are entirely dependent, like germs, on their human carriers and the environment. And they believed that since ideas are provisional responses to particular and unreproducible circumstances, their survival depends on their adaptability.” Menand traces the individual routes to this conclusion. Holmes, for example, was the only one of the four who fought in the Civil War. He was wounded and saw friends killed. “The lesson Holmes took from the war can be put in a sentence,” Menand writes. “It is that certitude leads to violence.” But most human beings had certitude about something. Democracy, Holmes believed, is what should keep competing conceptions from becoming violent. Holmes lived until 1934, and the chief struggle in that period was between capital and labor. The author writes, “Nearly every judicial opinion for which he became known constituted an intervention in that struggle, and his fundamental concern was almost always to permit all parties the democratic means to make their interests prevail.” James used Peirce’s term to identify his own views when he “invented pragmatism that is, he named his own philosophical views after a principle Peirce had published 20 years earlier in an article, based on his Cambridge Meta- physical Club paper, called ‘How to Make Our Ideas Clear’ in order to defend religious belief in what he regarded as an excessively scientific and materialistic age.” Menand’s book is part biography, part intellectual history and part demonstration of the interplay of ideas, personalities and cultural context. The author conveys all of this with a sure hand, guiding the reader through what may be unfamiliar territory. In addition, he shows how discussions long ago continue to influence our society today. For this reviewer, The Metaphysical Club was sheer pleasure.

Roger Bishop is a regular contributor to BookPage.

he Metaphysical Club, a group that discussed philosophical questions, held its first meeting in January 1872, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of numerous social and discussion gatherings where intellectual work was done before universities assumed that role, it disbanded after nine months. The club was not even identified by name until 1907, when one of the […]
Biography

Review

Review by bookpagedev

lives have garnered more interest or received more scrutiny than Elvis Presley’s. Over 600,000 tourists visit Graceland each year, and the King continues to be one of RCA’s top record sellers. Elvis’ life and death also contain a great deal of mystery, and perhaps no part remains more mysterious than his relationship with Colonel Tom Parker. Parker managed Presley’s career, handling publicity, cutting deals and receiving commissions of 25 and later 50 percent. Although many argued that his commissions were too high and that he often failed to serve Elvis’ best interest, he remained his manager for 22 years. James L. Dickerson’s Colonel Tom Parker is a journey toward understanding the man who wielded power over Elvis and everyone else who fell into his orbit. Dickerson explores Parker’s mysterious origins and provides telling information about the early relationship between the Colonel and Elvis. Parker believed the singer’s charisma and ambition would take him far, so he slowly worked to usurp the duties of Elvis’ manager Bob Neal by ingratiating himself to Presley and his parents. Yet the Colonel’s shady deals and hard-nosed tactics were evident to many from the very beginning.

A great deal of disagreement remains over whether Parker mismanaged Elvis’ career, and many are critical of his failure to take a more proactive stance with Presley’s drug use. Colonel Tom Parker doesn’t try to defend the man from these charges. Instead, it explores his carnival background, addiction to gambling and fear of authority, providing information that clarifies why Parker behaved the way he did. Colonel Tom Parker is a brisk, enjoyable read, perfect for Elvis fans, serious or casual. Author of Goin’ Back to Memphis and Dixie Chicks, among other titles, Dickerson pulls the reader into the drama of the story. His insider knowledge of the music industry allows him to present his material in a lucid fashion. While the questions surrounding the perplexing relationship between an ex-carnival barker and a country boy who hit the big time may never be completely answered, Colonel Tom Parker leaves the reader with a provocative story and fresh insights.

Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., is a writer in Appomattox, Virginia.

lives have garnered more interest or received more scrutiny than Elvis Presley’s. Over 600,000 tourists visit Graceland each year, and the King continues to be one of RCA’s top record sellers. Elvis’ life and death also contain a great deal of mystery, and perhaps no part remains more mysterious than his relationship with Colonel Tom […]
Biography

Review

Review by bookpagedev

We often identify authors by their most famous works and investigate no further. But a writer’s output is, of course, only the tip of the iceberg. Readers interested in delving into the life experiences that shape an author will delight in Jackie Wullschlager’s Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller, a scholarly, detailed biography of one of the world’s most renowned writers. Born in Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805, in a small cottage in the poorest part of the village, Andersen spent his life trying to escape his humble origins. He once described his uneducated parents as "full of love" but "ignorant of life and of the world." His rise to fame removed him physically from Odense and placed him in the homes and palaces of the noblemen and royalty with whom he wished to identify, but the psychological scars of his true heritage created an identity crisis that remained throughout his life.

According to Wullschlager, Andersen’s fairy tales equal self-portraits. The triumphant Ugly Duckling, the loyal Little Mermaid, the steadfast Tin Soldier the stories of these characters show Andersen’s own ability to empathize with pain, sorrow and rejection.

Andersen’s life was significantly influenced by his travels, the patronage of royalty and wealthy friends and his association with other 19th century artists. Wullschlager includes fascinating stories, rich with historical detail, of his relationship with such notables as Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Franz Listz and the Grimm brothers. The first to write fairy tales for adults as well as for children, Andersen composed narratives that compel readers to confront their innermost thoughts and fears. Soul-searching satires of humankind’s foibles and absurdities are woven into the fabric of his tales tales that, according to Wullschlager, reveal Andersen’s own inner conflict: a battle between achieving acceptance and success and rebelling against conventional constraints. Exploring the circumstances that contributed to the literary genius of Hans Christian Andersen and tracing those influences throughout his prolific works, Wullschlager has created a fascinating psychological profile of the legendary author.

Elizabeth Davis is a former marketing director for Turner Broadcasting System.

 

We often identify authors by their most famous works and investigate no further. But a writer’s output is, of course, only the tip of the iceberg. Readers interested in delving into the life experiences that shape an author will delight in Jackie Wullschlager’s Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller, a scholarly, detailed biography […]
Memoir

Review

Review by bookpagedev

In 1965, poet and memoirist Kathleen Norris a shy, sheltered 17-year-old left her home in Hawaii and traveled several thousand miles to Bennington College in Vermont. As Norris recounts in The Virgin of Bennington, her fourth memoir, the distance between Honolulu and New England was more than geographical. Though academically rigorous, Bennington in the ’60s was a playground for wealthy, "artsy" girls, members of the various branches of the East Coast elite. "I had no idea," Norris says, ". . . that I was signing on for a crash course in the turbulent dynamics of place and culture." Overwhelmed by her peers’ hedonism affairs with professors and heavy drug use Norris retreated into herself, wrote poetry and critical essays, and earned a reputation as a prig. At 21, she was still a virgin, a complete anomaly at Bennington.

But after four years of college life, Norris succumbed; she developed a crush on a married professor a man who, she discovered years later, had engaged in countless affairs with students and doggedly pursued him. Her quest took her to New York, where she through the professor’s connections landed a dream job as the assistant to Betty Kray, then-director of the Academy of American Poets. When the affair fizzled, Norris was crushed; but the failed romance became, in a way, a windfall. For it drew Norris closer to Kray by all accounts an extraordinary woman, friend to every major mid-century poet and inventor of any number of innovative arts and education programs (as well as a talented writer herself, evidenced by the letters included in Norris’ book). Kray tutored Norris in everything from fashion to revision techniques to social etiquette and introduced her to James Wright, Diane Wakoski, Galway Kinnell, Richard Howard and a number of other poets. The book is filled with Norris’ appreciative remembrances of these luminaries who taught her, in essence, how to be a poet. "Even in casual conversation they often imparted great wisdom on the joys and demands of the writing life," Norris says. Populated with some of the 20th century’s most compelling writers, 0679455086 is a lively, jumbled tale full of literary history. Norris, author of the best-selling Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, has written a fascinating coming-of-age story.

Joanna Smith Rakoff is the book editor for Shout magazine.

 

In 1965, poet and memoirist Kathleen Norris a shy, sheltered 17-year-old left her home in Hawaii and traveled several thousand miles to Bennington College in Vermont. As Norris recounts in The Virgin of Bennington, her fourth memoir, the distance between Honolulu and New England was more than geographical. Though academically rigorous, Bennington in the ’60s […]

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