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Out of the thousands of girls who journeyed westward during the late 30s to find fame and fortune in Hollywood, few were touched even briefly by the golden spotlight. But an 18 year old from Georgia, Evelyn Keyes (1916 – 2008), was to be singled out. A combination of beauty, personality and circumstance opened the gates for her. Cecil B. DeMille offered her a screen contract and her career was under way. When casting for Gone With The Wind began, she was the natural choiuce for Scarlett's younger sister, Suellen. Evelyn reached for the Hollywood high life of the late 30s and 40s; she was married to directors Charles Vidor and John Huston; patronised by Columbia mogul Harry Cohn; had a whirlwind around-the-world three year romance with Mike Todd. There were more films and romances before she married Artie Shaw. But her life was also rough and sometimes without compassion. She had intimate contact with the greats and near greats of Tinseltown and the jet set, and they all come to vivid life in this wityy, warm and unvarnished memoir - warts and all! Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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An original, meticulously researched and riveting study that re-examines the Salem Witchcraft hysteria. In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees - including the main accusers of witches - had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony’s leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God’s people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft “victims” described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting a net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, new light has been shed on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in history.
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White is best known as the author of The Once and Future King, which was the basis for the epic Lerner-Lowe Camelot. He was also a nature-lover, carpenter, sailor, philosopher, an alcoholic, a prodigious correspondent, a sometime-hermit and sometimes cranky, often tormented by drives he knew were unacceptable - yet he became a legend in his own lifetime, constantly exploring new fields of knowledge. He would see a skill, pursue it with passionate curiosity then having mastered it would move on to something else, whether it be painting or ploughing, hunting or the Arthurian legends, flying or falconry. He was a man of vivid imagination and humor, immoderate in all things, passionate, derisive and generous...exactly the right character to become a good author.
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The author, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts University Medical Center, draws from the careers and personal plights of such notable leaders as Lincoln, Churchill, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., JFK, and others from the past two centuries to build an argument that the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders - realism, empathy, resilience, and creativity - also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. By combining analysis of the historical evidence with the latest psychiatric research, Ghaemi demonstrates how he thinks these qualities have produced brilliant leadership under the toughest circumstances.individuals and society at large-however high the price for those who endure these illnesses.
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June, 1942. Johnnie Houlton has arrived in Britain from New Zealand under the Empire Training Scheme only a few months before. From then on and for the next few years, he was almost constantly in action or seeking action with 485 (NZ) Spitfire Squadron. He volunteered for service in Malta and sharply describes the drama of the convoy that took him there and the five months of siege conditions on the island. Houlton vividly recalls the atmosphere and the incidents of the air war from a pilot's-eye view, together with the development and technique of fighter operations - covering daylight bombing missions, low-level bombing and strafing and the formation of the Second Tactical Air Force in support of land forces. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners - including 15, 000 Australians - are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen - led by the indefatigable and popular `Chicken' Smallhorn - created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of the one and only season was between `Victoria? and the `Rest of Australia', which attracted 10, 000 spectators and a unique Brownlow Medal was awarded in this unlikely setting under the curious gaze of Japanese prison guards. Meet the main characters behind this spectacle: Peter Chitty, the farm hand from Snowy River country with unfathomable physical and mental fortitude, and one of eight in his immediate family who volunteered to fight and serve in WW2; `Chicken' Smallhorn, the Brownlow-medal winning little man with the huge heart; and `Weary' Dunlop, the courageous doctor, who cares for the POWs as they endure malnutrition, disease and often inhuman treatment. Illustrated with black and white photographs.
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De Vaca was one of hundreds of men who left Spain in 1527 on an expedition headed by Panfilo de Narvaez. The mission was to explore Florida. This is the eyewitness account of how an expedition of over 600 men and five ships was reduced to a band of four half-mad survivors who staggered into Mexico City, having unintentionally become the first Europeans to cross the American Southwest via Texas, Ne Mexico and Arizona. It is the quintessential travel horror story.