Arts & Literature

A charismatic stage and screen actress. A model whose beauty inspired some of the most arresting images of the twentieth century. A visionary photographer. A revolutionary with deep commitments to communism. A woman whose life, loves, and death were controversial. Tina Modotti (1896-1942) was all of... More

This account of Beethoven reveals the life and times of a creative musician in Bonn and Vienna in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While paying due regard to the image of Beethoven as one of the most single-minded composers in the history of music, this biography places his work i... More

"Rosemary's baby has grown up and is running Hollywood. One of America's greatest industries has become one of the most destructive. Entertainment titans like Walt Disney, Morrie Ryskind, and Frank Capra have been replaced by people whose idea of a good Christmas movie involves Santa having sex in t... More

Now in paperback, the scandalous international sensation: brash, candid, and utterly hilarious, Luciano Pavarotti's longtime manager tells all. The name "Luciano Pavarotti" is as central to the world of opera as high C's and dueling sopranos. Pavarotti has had, quite inarguably, the most successful ... More

The Sound of Music is more than a classic movie. It is a cultural phenomenon. Seen by over one billion people, it won five Academy Awards, ran for almost five years in its initial release, was named the most popular film of all time by the People's Choice Awards, and became the longest running video... More

These are the personal memories of an elderly man who, as a child, was closely acquainted with Beethoven. Gerhard von Breuning, the son of one of Beethoven's oldest friends, was a favourite of the ageing composer, who delighted in the boy's frequent visits. His absorbing first-hand account gives us ... More

Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus rex is widely acknowledged as one of the most powerful and original music-theatre works of the twentieth century. This clear, concise guide is the first ever to be written on this work, and it describes the music and its staging in close detail.Stravinsky's Oedipu... More

Interviews with the people who knew Wood best - Robert Wagner, Warren Beatty, Paul Mazursky, and Leslie Caron - illuminate this engrossing, insightful, and critically acclaimed, bestselling biography.... More

Isamu Noguchi, born in Los Angeles as the illegitimate son of an American mother and a Japanese poet father, was one of the most prolific yet enigmatic figures in the history of twentieth-century American art. Throughout his life, Noguchi (1904-1988) grappled with the ambiguity of his identity as an... More

For more than thirty years, Jerry Garcia was the musical and spiritual center of the Grateful Dead, one of the most popular rock bands of all time. In "Dark Star, the first biography of Garcia published since his death, Garcia is remembered by those who knew him best. Together, they explore his rema... More

What does it mean to be "Chinese?" This controversial question has sparked off a never-ending process of image-making in Chinese and Chinese-speaking communities throughout the twentieth century. This introduction to Chinese national cinema, written by a leading scholar, covers three "Chinas": mainl... More

Traces the life of the eccentric pianist, descibes the fear of human contact that curtailed his public performing career, and assesses the unique qualities of his play... More

In the years between A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway matured as a writer against the backdrop of Cuban revolutions, African game trails, Key West impoverishment, and the Spanish Civil War. He experimented in fiction and nonfiction, pushing his limits as a writer, in ... More

Specially-commissioned essays by major scholars present a clear and comprehensive assessment of F. Scott Fitzgerald. No aspect of his career is overlooked--from his first novel published in 1920, through his more than 170 short stories, to his last unfinished Hollywood novel. Contributions present t... More

Georges Bataille (1897-1962) is widely recognised as one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. This is the first book in English to examine Bataille's work as a whole. It offers an accessible introduction to a complex and often ambiguous thinker.This is the first book in English t... More

Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 82-7 marked a new level of compositional attainment for the composer. This book considers both stylistic aspects of the works and their broader cultural context when performed for Parisian audiences during the 1780s. 17 music examples.Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 82-7 are seminal ... More

The first biography of the legendary film maker includes interviews with Harrison Ford, Lauren Bacall, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Kevin Kline, Candice Bergen, Donald Sutherland, and over 30 other film celebrities.The first biography of the legendary film maker includes interviews with... More

This engrossing biography of Diego Rivera, the brilliant Mexican artist and revolutionary, captures the explosively passionate nature that made Rivera one of the twentieth-century's most gifted and controversial painters.This engrossing biography of Diego Rivera, the brilliant Mexican artist and rev... More