- Table View
- List View
Once Upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan
by Ian BellHalf a century ago a youth appeared from the American hinterland and began a cultural revolution. The world is still coming to terms with what he did. How he did it - and why - has never been fully explored.In Once Upon a Time, award-winning writer Ian Bell draws together the tangled strands of the many lives of Bob Dylan in all their contradictory brilliance. For the first time, the laureate of modern America is set in his entire context: musical, historical, literary, political and personal.In this acclaimed book, full of new insights into the legendary singer, his songs, his life and his era, the artist who invented himself in order to reinvent America is uncovered. Once Upon a Time is a biographical study of a personality that has splintered and reformed, time after time, in a country forever struggling to understand itself. Dylan has become the puzzle that illuminates. Here, in the first part of a major two-volume work, the puzzle is explained.
Time Out of Mind: The Lives of Bob Dylan
by Ian BellBy the middle of the 1970s, Bob Dylan’s position as the pre-eminent artist of his generation was assured. The 1975 album Blood on the Tracks seemed to prove, finally, that an uncertain age had found its poet.Perverse or driven, Dylan refused the role. By the decade’s end, the counter-culture’s poster child had embraced conservative, evangelical Christianity. Fans and critics alike were confused; many were aghast. Still the hits kept coming.Then Dylan faltered. His instincts, formerly unerring, deserted him. In the 1980s, what had once appeared unthinkable came to pass: the ‘voice of a generation’ began to sound irrelevant, a tale told to grandchildren.Yet in the autumn of 1997 something remarkable happened. Having failed to release a single new song in seven long years, Dylan put out the equivalent of two albums in a single package. He called it Time Out of Mind. So began the renaissance, artistic and personal, that culminated in 2012’s acclaimed Tempest.In the concluding volume of his groundbreaking study, Ian Bell explores the unparalleled second act in a quintessentially American career. It is a tale of redemption, of an act of creative will against the odds, and of a writer who refused to fade away.Time Out of Mind is the story of the latest, perhaps the last, of the many Bob Dylans. This one might yet turn out to have been the most important of them all.
Laughter is the Best Medicine: Laugh And Cry With Australia's Clown Doctors, And Meet The Children Who Inspire Them
by Jean-Paul BellYou see, I'm not really a doctor. Not a medical doctor, that is. I'm something a bit more unusual. I reckon I have the best job in the whole world - I'm a clown doctor.' Jean-Paul BellImagine being a child in hospital, away from the home and feeling sad, frightened, lonely or in pain. This is where the Clown Doctors step in to help with their own quirky style of 'medicine'. Join this very special troupe as they do their rounds in children's hospitals all over Australia, bringing laughter and joy to more than 100,000 patients and their families each year. Meet Dr B Loony and Dr Twang, Dr Know-It-All and others when they conduct their clown rounds through children's and emergency wards, intensive care, burns and oncology units, dispensing jokes and songs with skill and compassion. And always with the aim of helping families, hospital staff, and especially the children to forget their illnesses and fears for a while and return to a world that is about fun and play. Welcome to a day in the lives of the Clown Doctors, filled with special moments, courage, tears, smiles and laughter.
Industrialization And Imperialism, 1800-1914: A Biographical Dictionary (The\great Cultural Eras Of The Western World Ser.)
by Jeffrey A. BellThis book presents an age of nationalism, imperialism, modernization, industrialism, and great cultural achievement, stretching from 1800, when Europe was awash in the wake of the French Revolution, the reign of terror, and the coming rise of Napoleon, to Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914. Concise biographical entries provide basic information on the great talents of the era--Beethoven, the Romantic poets, Hegel--as well as leaders in the modernization and industrialization of Western culture. Included are figures who played major roles on the imperialist and nationalist stage, those--such as Darwin and Planck--who made significant contributions to science, and those who struggled for women's rights and Abolition in the United States.
The Undercurrents: A Story Of Berlin
by Kirsty BellThe Undercurrents: A Story of Berlin is a dazzling work of biography, memoir and cultural criticism told from a precise vantage point: a stately nineteenth-century house on Berlin’s Landwehr Canal, a site at the centre of great historical changes, but also smaller domestic ones. When her marriage breaks down, Kirsty Bell – a British-American writer, in her mid-forties, adrift – becomes fixated on the history of her building and of her adoptive city. Taking the view from her apartment window as her starting point, she turns to the lives of the house’s various inhabitants, to accounts penned by Walter Benjamin, Rosa Luxemburg and Gabriele Tergit, and to the female protagonists in the works of Theodor Fontane, Irmgard Keun and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. A new cultural topography of Berlin emerges, one which taps into energetic undercurrents to recover untold or forgotten stories beneath the city’s familiar narratives. Humane, thought-provoking and moving, The Undercurrents is a hybrid literary portrait of a place that makes the case for radical close readings: of ourselves, our cities and our histories.
Stronger: Changing Everything I Knew About Women’s Strength
by Poorna BellIf you are the girl, the woman who feels like she is never enough, that she will never be as strong, as good, as capable, I am here to tell you that you are enough. I am here to tell you that while it shouldn’t have been your burden, you can write a different story.Stronger will change what you think you know about strength and, most importantly, empower you to go on your own journey to discover what strength looks like for you.Now a competitive amateur powerlifter who can lift over twice her own bodyweight, Poorna Bell is perfectly placed to start a crucial conversation about women’s strength and fitness, one that has nothing to do with weight loss. In Stronger she challenges the notions taught to us as girls, and examines how all of us can tap into our reservoir of inner strength to make us our strongest selves mentally and physically. Describing taking up weightlifting after the death of her husband, she shows how discovering her own strength helped her to find the confidence that physical pursuits can amplify – the confidence that has been helping men to succeed for centuries – and that women can find too.In these pages, Poorna tells not only her own story but those of a range of women, investigating intersections of race, age and social background. Part memoir, part manifesto, Stronger explodes old-fashioned notions and long-held beliefs about getting strong and explores the relationship between mental and physical strength.Whether you’re into weightlifting, running, swimming, yoga or don’t consider yourself to be sporty at all, Poorna shows how finding strength can work for you, regardless of age, ability or background.
Virginia Woolf: A Biography
by Quentin BellAs the nephew of Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell enjoyed an initimacy with his subject granted to few biographers. Originally published in two volumes in 1972, his acclaimed biography describes Virginia Woolf's family and childhood; her earliest writings; the formation of the Bloomsbury Group; her marriage to Leonard Woolf; the mental breakdown of the years 1912-15; the origins and growth of the Hogarth Press; her friendships with T. S. Eliot, Katherine Mansfield and Vita Sackvill-West; her struggles to write The Waves and The Years; and the political and personal distresses of her last decade. Compelling, moving and entertaining, Quentin Bell's biography was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize. It is a fitting tribute to a remarkable and complex woman, one of the greatest writers of the century.
Virgin on Insanity: Coming of age on the world's toughest mountains
by Steve BellOutwardly, ‘Britain’s most experienced teenage Alpinist’ is a brave young mountaineer. But he’s not experienced at all, at least not in the way he really wants to be. Behind his death-defying climbs there lurks a great deal of fear – fear of the opposite sex, fear of failure, fear of not being ‘man enough’.He seeks manhood in the mountains, yet he believes he will only truly gain it by losing something. Harrowing escapades in Scotland, the Alps and Alaska are interspersed by excruciating sexual encounters and unsettling hitch-hiking rides. When the mountains fail him, he seeks meaning with a religious cult in Colorado. Eventually he succeeds in his quest, only to find that he’s lost more than he bargained for.Virgin on Insanity by Steve Bell is a coming-of-age story of high adventure, youthful insecurity and immature love. The situations might be extreme, but the deeper issues will be familiar to many.
Right or Wrong: The Memoirs Of Lord Bell
by Tim BellTim Bell is the original 'spin doctor'; the Chairman of Bell Pottinger public relations, and one of the best known figures in UK media communications. Right or Wrong is his highly personal account of political, commercial and social life from the '70s to the present day. With a refreshingly uncompromising manner, Bell applies his acerbic wit and resolutely right wing sensibility to everything from managing Margaret Thatcher's election campaigns to his dealings with Ronald Reagan, F.W. de Klerk, the Saatchi brothers, and his late friend David Frost, to name a few. Born into a resolutely middle-class suburban family during the war, he left school at the age of 18 for a job as chart-boy at ABC Television. Rising through the ranks of the burgeoning West End advertising industry, in 1970 he became a co-founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi agency. Bell's main claim to fame, however, was developing campaigns for the Conservative Party during the general elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987, each of which put Margaret Thatcher into Downing Street, and for which he was awarded a knighthood. In his time, he has worked with some of the greatest names of modern politics, business, and media and on world events, historical and controversial alike. First hand memories spill across the pages as Tim Bell gives his ring-side account of key political moments such as the miner`s strike, the Cold War, the poll tax riots, the end of Apartheid and the demise of Margaret Thatcher. Controversial, irreverent and outspoken, this is a book that is as polarising as Tim Bell himself. It will attract admiration and rage in equal measure. And he would not have it any other way.Right or Wrong was shortlisted for the Political Biography of the Year in the Political Book Awards 2015.
Right or Wrong: The Memoirs of Lord Bell
by Tim Bell Charles Vallance David HopperTim Bell is the original 'spin doctor'; the Chairman of Bell Pottinger public relations, and one of the best known figures in UK media communications. Right or Wrong is his highly personal account of political, commercial and social life from the '70s to the present day. With a refreshingly uncompromising manner, Bell applies his acerbic wit and resolutely right wing sensibility to everything from managing Margaret Thatcher's election campaigns to his dealings with Ronald Reagan, F.W. de Klerk, the Saatchi brothers, and his late friend David Frost, to name a few. Born into a resolutely middle-class suburban family during the war, he left school at the age of 18 for a job as chart-boy at ABC Television. Rising through the ranks of the burgeoning West End advertising industry, in 1970 he became a co-founder of the Saatchi & Saatchi agency. Bell's main claim to fame, however, was developing campaigns for the Conservative Party during the general elections of 1979, 1983 and 1987, each of which put Margaret Thatcher into Downing Street, and for which he was awarded a knighthood. In his time, he has worked with some of the greatest names of modern politics, business, and media and on world events, historical and controversial alike. First hand memories spill across the pages as Tim Bell gives his ring-side account of key political moments such as the miner`s strike, the Cold War, the poll tax riots, the end of Apartheid and the demise of Margaret Thatcher. Controversial, irreverent and outspoken, this is a book that is as polarising as Tim Bell himself. It will attract admiration and rage in equal measure. And he would not have it any other way.Right or Wrong was shortlisted for the Political Biography of the Year in the Political Book Awards 2015.
Sketches In Pen And Ink: A Bloomsbury Notebook
by Vanessa BellVanessa Bell, artist, sister of Virginia Woolf, wife of Clive Bell and lover of Duncan Grant, is one of the most fascinating and modern figures of the Bloomsbury set, but unlike most of them she rarely put pen to writing paper. When she did, she was witty and illuminating about their early lives. The eldest of the Stephen family, she grew up with Virginia in Victorian gloom at Hyde Park Gate and later blossomed in bohemian style in Bloomsbury. From the twenties to the forties she lived and painted at Charleston Farmhouse like a heroine of the sixties and seventies, at the centre of a colourful world of family, friends, artists and intellectuals. Sketches in Pen and Ink is a unique collection of largely unpublished memoirs - most of them written to be read at meetings of the Memoir club, in which Vanessa writes with wit and charm about herself, her childhood, her remarkable family and friends, her moving relationship with Roger Fry, and her art. Her daughter, Angelica Garnett, has written a vivid and personal introduction which adds considerably to our understanding of this extraordinary woman and artist.
Jolly Green Giant
by David BellamyDavid Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir will be packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. It is the story of how a city boy, brought up in the middle of London, went for a trip into the countryside one day, an event which was to transform his life by setting in motion the amazing love of nature which would make famous this larger-than-life character. In his infectious style he illumines on, amongst other things, the fact that his father, the manager of a branch of Boots, had to grease his hair straight - because in those days managers of Boots weren't allowed to have curly hair! Then there was the time he and his brother discovered an exploded bomb, kept in the garden shed - and then accidentally blew off the front of the house with it. He reveals his secret passion is ballet dancing - and how his mother only found out about it when she saw him on stage at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon. His career as an academic, then author, broadcaster, consultant and television personality, spans 35 years and his main passion - campaigning for the environment - have led to many adventures including his being twice imprisoned in the Third World.
A Natural Life
by David BellamyDavid Bellamy is a natural story teller whose memoir is packed full of funny anecdotes and observations. He depicts wonderfully a childhood of discovery and adventure growing up in Carshalton during the second world war. Despite rationing and evacuation, these were happy days of tremendous freedom spent roaming the wonderland of the surrounding countryside searching for bugs, beetles and bits of old shrapnel which young Bellamy and his brother would smuggle home to their father's shed for their firework-making sessions. His growing love of nature is interwoven with loving, often hilarious, portraits of the various characters he meets along the way. From his days as a student in fifties London to his trial by fire lectureship at Durham University with a young wife and ever-growing family to support, Bellamy reveals his many great loves from sports cars to ballet. He also writes of his more serious concerns, with his reputation for being outspoken and undeterred in the face of big enterprises and corporations revealed in his battles and campaigns.
William Burrell: A Collector’s Life
by Martin Bellamy Isobel MacDonaldIn 1944, Glasgow received one of the greatest gifts ever made to any city in the world: a collection of over 6,000 artworks of many types spanning centuries and civilisations. The benefactors were Glasgow-born shipping magnate Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell.Burrell’s business success him to amass an extraordinary collection, which he housed in the family home at Hutton Castle in the Scottish borders. When he decided to leave the collection to the nation, he considered donating it to London-based galleries before deciding on Glasgow Corporation, together with the residue of his estate to provide a suitable building. It was many years before the right location was found, and The Burrell Collection finally opened in 1983.This new biography is based on recent research, full access to the Burrell archive and in-depth knowledge of the collection. Sir William was a complicated and private man who shunned publicity, adored his wife, but had a tumultuous relationship with his daughter. In politics Conservative, he campaigned for better housing conditions as long as this didn’t cause further expense to the taxpayer. The authors take a candid and considered view of who William Burrell the man was, what sparked his passion for collecting, and what his gift continues to mean to the city.
The Long Journeys Home: The Repatriations of Henry ‘Opukaha‘ia and Albert Afraid of Hawk (The Driftless Connecticut Series & Garnet Books)
by Nick BellantoniHenry p kaha ia (ca. 1792–1818), Native Hawaiian, and Itankusun Wanbli (ca. 1879–1900), Oglala Lakota, lived almost a century apart. Yet the cultural circumstances that led them to leave their homelands and eventually die in Connecticut have striking similarities. p kaha ia was orphaned during the turmoil caused in part by Kamehameha's wars in Hawai'i and found passage on a ship to New England, where he was introduced and converted to Christianity, becoming the inspiration behind the first Christian missions to Hawai'i. Itankusun Wanbli, Christianized as Albert Afraid of Hawk, performed in Buffalo Bill's "Wild West" as a way to make a living after his traditional means of sustenance were impacted by American expansionism. Both young men died while on their "journeys" to find fulfillment and both were buried in Connecticut cemeteries. In 1992 and 2008, descendant women had callings that their ancestors "wanted to come home" and began the repatriation process of their physical remains. CT state archaeologist Nick Bellantoni oversaw the archaeological disinterment, forensic identifications and return of their skeletal remains back to their Native communities and families. The Long Journeys Home chronicles these important stories as examples of the wide-reaching impact of American imperialism and colonialism on Indigenous Hawaiian and Lakota traditions and their cultural resurgences, in which the repatriation of these young men have played significant roles. Bellantoni's excavations, his interaction with two Native families and his participation in their repatriations have given him unique insights into the importance of heritage and family among contemporary Native communities and their common ground with archaeologists. His natural storytelling abilities allow him to share these meaningful stories with a larger general audience.
The Murder of King James I
by Alastair Bellany Thomas CogswellA year after the death of James I in 1625, a sensational pamphlet accused the Duke of Buckingham of murdering the king. It was an allegation that would haunt English politics for nearly forty years. In this exhaustively researched new book, two leading scholars of the era, Alastair Bellany and Thomas Cogswell, uncover the untold story of how a secret history of courtly poisoning shaped and reflected the political conflicts that would eventually plunge the British Isles into civil war and revolution. Illuminating many hitherto obscure aspects of early modern political culture, this eagerly anticipated work is both a fascinating story of political intrigue and a major exploration of the forces that destroyed the Stuart monarchy.
New Approaches to Decolonizing Fashion History and Period Styles: Re-Fashioning Pedagogies
by Ashley BelletNew Approaches to Decolonizing Fashion History and Period Styles: Re-Fashioning Pedagogies offers a wide array of inclusive, global, practical approaches for teaching costume and fashion history. Costume designers, technicians, and historians have spent the last several years re-evaluating how they teach costume and fashion history, acknowledging the need to refocus the discourse to include a more global perspective. This book is a collection of pedagogical methods aimed to do just that, with an emphasis on easy reference, accessible activities, and rubrics, and containing a variety of ways to restructure the course. Each chapter offers a course description, syllabus calendar, course objectives, and learning outcomes, as well as sample activities from instructors across the country who have made major changes to their coursework. Using a combination of personal narratives, examples from their work, bibliographies of helpful texts, and student responses, contributors suggest a variety of ways to decolonize the traditionally Western-focused fashion history syllabus. This collection of pedagogical approaches is intended to support and inspire instructors teaching costume design, costume history, fashion history, period styles, and other aesthetic histories in the arts.
Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face: 12 Things Boxing Teaches You About Life
by Tony Bellew**THE PULL-NO-PUNCHES GUIDE TO LIFE**'Tony is a champion who knows the hardest battle is always with yourself. Everyone who reads this book will find a change to make in their own life ' ANT MIDDLETON This book will change lives.' TOM MARCUS, author of No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller Soldier, Spy'When your job is to stand in front of a very big man who wants to knock you unconscious, you learn what's important in life. In the ring there's nowhere to hide. I was never the biggest or the strongest but I made the most of what I had - I had heart and I had grit and I always put time into the mental game. Now it's time for you to come into the ring with me.'Tony " Bomber " Bellew is one of the most unmissable boxers Britain has ever produced. Whether you loved him or hated him, you couldn't ignore him. His journey from chubby kid growing up in a rough part of Liverpool to world champion is a story of willpower, resilience and dedication. Now he's here to take you inside the ring and help you understand that whatever your goals, there's plenty you can learn there.Over 12 rounds, Tony will show readers the world of boxing - the highs, the lows and the knockout blows. From what the boxing gym can teach us all about our strengths and weaknesses to how to hit the canvas and get back up again, this is the closest thing to having a world champion boxer in your corner.
Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War
by Vanya Eftimova BellingerFor generations, among those who revere the work of Carl von Clausewitz, the role of his beloved wife, née Marie von Brühl, in shaping his seminal work on military theory has been a subject of intense speculation. It seems certain that without her On War would never have been published. But as historian and Clausewitz scholar Vanya Eftimova Bellinger establishes in this ground-breaking biography of the "other" Clausewitz, Marie was far more than merely a supportive wife who facilitated her husband's legacy. Marie's 1810 marriage to von Clausewitz did not make sense by most accounts (least of all to her mother). She was a wealthy, cultured, and politically engaged young woman; he was a minor Prussian officer. But the bond between Marie and Claus was forged by love, a deep sense of trust, and a meeting of the minds over common interests. A newly discovered archive of correspondence reveals the extent of Marie's influence on her husband, beginning with the very early days of the courtship and lasting until his premature death. The two came to a "collaborative opinion" on many topics, from the moral implications of war to the emotional constitution of true leadership. Marie's involvement, too, adds insight about the role of class and gender relations in a time when women were excluded from politics-the perspective of a spouse and caretaker on the home-front, observing the physical and emotional effects of combat. The issues that Marie von Clausewitz raised about the hardships of war - such as the social isolation and treatment of veterans, and the use of violence to achieve political and economic rights - still resonate today. This biography sheds light on an extraordinary life and mind, offering the first comprehensive and compelling look at the woman behind the composition of On War.
Marie von Clausewitz: The Woman Behind the Making of On War
by Vanya Eftimova BellingerFor generations, among those who revere the work of Carl von Clausewitz, the role of his beloved wife, née Marie von Brühl, in shaping his seminal work on military theory has been a subject of intense speculation. It seems certain that without her On War would never have been published. But as historian and Clausewitz scholar Vanya Eftimova Bellinger establishes in this ground-breaking biography of the "other" Clausewitz, Marie was far more than merely a supportive wife who facilitated her husband's legacy. Marie's 1810 marriage to von Clausewitz did not make sense by most accounts (least of all to her mother). She was a wealthy, cultured, and politically engaged young woman; he was a minor Prussian officer. But the bond between Marie and Claus was forged by love, a deep sense of trust, and a meeting of the minds over common interests. A newly discovered archive of correspondence reveals the extent of Marie's influence on her husband, beginning with the very early days of the courtship and lasting until his premature death. The two came to a "collaborative opinion" on many topics, from the moral implications of war to the emotional constitution of true leadership. Marie's involvement, too, adds insight about the role of class and gender relations in a time when women were excluded from politics-the perspective of a spouse and caretaker on the home-front, observing the physical and emotional effects of combat. The issues that Marie von Clausewitz raised about the hardships of war - such as the social isolation and treatment of veterans, and the use of violence to achieve political and economic rights - still resonate today. This biography sheds light on an extraordinary life and mind, offering the first comprehensive and compelling look at the woman behind the composition of On War.
Lost and Found: My Story
by Lynda Bellingham'Looking back, perhaps the single biggest problem was fear. Fear of failure, fear of other people - but mostly fear of myself. It has taken many years to discover who I really am. It's never too late to find yourself, however lost you may be ...'In Lynda Bellingham's blisteringly honest autobiography, the much-loved actress and Loose Women panellist reveals the truth about her life, including her search for her birth mother, only to lose her again to Alzheimer's, and her many years married to an abusive man while playing the 'nation's mum' in the Oxo adverts.But Lynda never lost her sense of humour, and among the darker moments she recalls hilarious anecdotes from her time on stage and screen. Lost and Found is an inspiring story of getting through the tough times with the strong spirit of a survivor, and finally finding true love.
There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You: The uplifting bestseller
by Lynda BellinghamBy turns, it is riotous, deeply serious, practical and sad. Reading it is like being at her kitchen table with a glass of wine to hand. (Daily Telegraph)Lynda Bellingham was a tremendously gifted storyteller with a rich collection of tales of love, loss and laughter and this memoir brings her kind heart, courage and emotion to the page in vivid detail. There's Something I've Been Dying To Tell You is a brave memoir about Lynda's battle with cancer, facing death she found joy and shared it with millions. Her story is an affecting and at times heart-breaking one but it is so often laugh-out-loud too and ultimately the way Lynda told her life story serves as a great inspiration to us all. Woven into this very moving and brave story are extraordinary, colourful tales of her acting and family life that will enlighten and entertain as well as the journey that Lynda has taken to find the family of her birth father having already suffered heartache in her search for her birth mother. In the search for her father's family, Lynda finds a family with a history in entertainment showing that acting was always in the blood.This book was written in Lynda's final months and revealed for the first time, and in great detail, her fight with cancer and how her life was transformed since her diagnosis. This edition includes a brand new chapter written by Lynda's husband Michael about his love for her, her love of life and her glorious final send-off.
Brave: How I Rebuilt My Life After Love Turned To Hate
by Adele BellisControl. Jealousy. Isolation. Blame. Anger. Violence.The inspiring true story of a young woman who suffered a terrifyingly abusive relationship culminating in a horrific acid attack from the man who claimed to love her.
Chopin and His World
by Jonathan D. Bellman Halina GoldbergA new look at the life, times, and music of Polish composer and piano virtuoso Fryderyk ChopinFryderyk Chopin (1810–49), although the most beloved of piano composers, remains a contradictory figure, an artist of virtually universal appeal who preferred the company of only a few sympathetic friends and listeners. Chopin and His World reexamines Chopin and his music in light of the cultural narratives formed during his lifetime. These include the romanticism of the ailing spirit, tragically singing its death-song as life ebbs; the Polish expatriate, helpless witness to the martyrdom of his beloved homeland, exiled among friendly but uncomprehending strangers; the sorcerer-bard of dream, memory, and Gothic terror; and the pianist's pianist, shunning the appreciative crowds yet composing and improvising idealized operas, scenes, dances, and narratives in the shadow of virtuoso-idol Franz Liszt. The international Chopin scholars gathered here demonstrate the ways in which Chopin responded to and was understood to exemplify these narratives, as an artist of his own time and one who transcended it. This collection also offers recently rediscovered artistic representations of his hands (with analysis), and—for the first time in English—an extended tribute to Chopin published in Poland upon his death and contemporary Polish writings contextualizing Chopin's compositional strategies. The contributors are Jonathan D. Bellman, Leon Botstein, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Halina Goldberg, Jeffrey Kallberg, David Kasunic, Anatole Leikin, Eric McKee, James Parakilas, John Rink, and Sandra P. Rosenblum. Contemporary documents by Karol Kurpiński, Adam Mickiewicz, and Józef Sikorski are included.
Chopin and His World (PDF)
by Jonathan D. Bellman Halina GoldbergA new look at the life, times, and music of Polish composer and piano virtuoso Fryderyk ChopinFryderyk Chopin (1810–49), although the most beloved of piano composers, remains a contradictory figure, an artist of virtually universal appeal who preferred the company of only a few sympathetic friends and listeners. Chopin and His World reexamines Chopin and his music in light of the cultural narratives formed during his lifetime. These include the romanticism of the ailing spirit, tragically singing its death-song as life ebbs; the Polish expatriate, helpless witness to the martyrdom of his beloved homeland, exiled among friendly but uncomprehending strangers; the sorcerer-bard of dream, memory, and Gothic terror; and the pianist's pianist, shunning the appreciative crowds yet composing and improvising idealized operas, scenes, dances, and narratives in the shadow of virtuoso-idol Franz Liszt. The international Chopin scholars gathered here demonstrate the ways in which Chopin responded to and was understood to exemplify these narratives, as an artist of his own time and one who transcended it. This collection also offers recently rediscovered artistic representations of his hands (with analysis), and—for the first time in English—an extended tribute to Chopin published in Poland upon his death and contemporary Polish writings contextualizing Chopin's compositional strategies. The contributors are Jonathan D. Bellman, Leon Botstein, Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, Halina Goldberg, Jeffrey Kallberg, David Kasunic, Anatole Leikin, Eric McKee, James Parakilas, John Rink, and Sandra P. Rosenblum. Contemporary documents by Karol Kurpiński, Adam Mickiewicz, and Józef Sikorski are included.