This biography of Admiral Thomas C. Hart is important not only because it is the story of a man whose central guiding force in life was the U.S. Navy, but also because it is a study of some fifty-five significant years of American history. This book, based in part on the twenty-one volume Hart diary, investigates the forces and circumstances that shaped Hart’s actions during a memorable and influential career that spanned three wars and was followed by brief service in the U.S. Senate. From his earliest days on the faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was dedicated to academic reform, to his ‘second” career in elected office, Hart could always be found amid controversy. His appointment as commander of the Asiatic fleet, a billet he wanted and was led to believe he would get, was partly the result of uneasy relationship with FDR. Here, enlivened with Hart’s naval and diplomatic experiences in the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies, vantage points that provided him with an excellent perspective on the opening stages of the Pacific War. James Leutze provides us with Hart’s firsthand account of the Lanikai-Isabel incident, the hazardous foray ordered by Roosevelt in 1941. Although, ostensibly, the purpose of the maneuver was to garner information on the movements of the Japanese fleet, Hart clearly considered that Roosevelt’s intention was to provoke the Japanese. In descriptive detail, James Leutze relates Hart’s war experiences, both professional and private, and examines his controversial relationships with other, equally strong-minded naval leaders. Particularly burdensome at times were Hart’s difficulties with the brilliant, but egotistical and quixotic, Douglas MacArthur. Hart’s role as commander of the naval forces of the American, British, Dutch, and Australian military command is carefully analyzed by Leutze. The ABDA never became effective, and, because of Allied jealousies and internal political pressures, Hart was eventually removed from his command. Leutze shows us, with compassion, a man given heavy responsibility, and then virtually ignored by his own government. Blunt, outspoken, aloof, and occasionally referred to as “Terrible Tommy,” Admiral Thomas C. Hart was nevertheless respected and admired, an inspiration to his fellow officers. Here is the fascinating story of a man who had an enduring influence on U.S. naval and diplomatic history.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Son, we’re going to Hell." The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death. Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home. In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail. Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
First Published in 2002. This work reads Hawthorne's fiction inthe context of nineteenth-century medical and psuedomedical discourse that linked men of letters to debilitated invalids, a stereotype against which Hawthorne struggled throughout his career.
Are you an entrepreneur who is losing faith and wondering whether it's worth it to stick it out through the lean times? Take inspiration from this remarkable collection of tales about American businesspeople who struck it rich and hit the big time. Author James McCabe Jr. compiles a selection of accounts of some of the country's most brazen tycoons.
From James Rosenquist, one of our most iconic pop artists—along with Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein—comes this candid and fascinating memoir. Unlike these artists, Rosenquist often works in three-dimensional forms, with highly dramatic shifts in scale and a far more complex palette, including grisaille and Day-Glo colors. A skilled traditional painter, he avoided the stencils and silk screens of Warhol and Lichtenstein. His vast canvases full of brilliant, surreally juxtaposed images would influence both many of his contemporaries and younger generations, as well as revolutionize twentieth-century painting. Ronsequist writes about growing up in a tight-knit community of Scandinavian farmers in North Dakota and Minnesota in the late 1930s and early 1940s; about his mother, who was not only an amateur painter but, along with his father, a passionate aviator; and about leaving that flat midwestern landscape in 1955 for New York, where he had won a scholarship to the Art Students League. George Grosz, Edwin Dickinson, and Robert Beverly Hale were among his teachers, but his early life was a struggle until he discovered sign painting. He describes days suspended on scaffolding high over Broadway, painting movie or theater billboards, and nights at the Cedar Tavern with Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and the poet LeRoi Jones. His first major studio, on Coenties Slip, was in the thick of the new art world. Among his neighbors were Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin, and Jack Youngerman, and his mentors Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Rosenquist writes about his shows with the dealers Richard Bellamy, Ileana Sonnabend, and Leo Castelli, and about colorful collectors like Robert and Ethel Scull. We learn about the 1971 car crash that left his wife and son in a coma and his own life and work in shambles, his lobbying—along with Rauschenberg—for artists’ rights in Washington D.C., and how he got his work back on track. With his distinct voice, Roseqnuist writes about the ideas behind some of his major paintings, from the startling revelation that led to his first pop painting, Zone, to his masterpiece, F-III, a stunning critique of war and consumerism, to the cosmic reverie of Star Thief. This is James Rosenquist’s story in his own words—captivating and unexpected, a unique look inside the contemporary art world in the company of one of its most important painters.
This extensive collection of autobiographical writings by the author of The Turn of the Screw and The Portrait of a Lady offers a revelatory self-portrait and an inside glimpse into his famous family In 1911, deeply affected by the death of his brother William the year before, Henry James began working on a book about his early life. As was customary for James in his later years, he dictated his recollections to his secretary Theodora Bosanquet, who recalled how “a straight dive into the past brought to the surface treasure after treasure.” A Small Boy and Others (1913) and the two autobiographical books that followed—Notes of a Son and Brother (1914) and the incomplete, posthumously published The Middle Years—stand with his later novels as one of the enduring triumphs of his final years. Not only did James create one of the singular self-portraits in American literature, he also fashioned a richly detailed account of his renowned family, especially his father, the social philosopher Henry James Sr., his brother William, and his dear cousin Minny Temple, inspiration for the heroines of two of his greatest novels, The Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of the Dove. Rounding out the volume is a selection of eight other personal reminiscences and, as an appendix, his secretary’s insightful and affectionate memoir, “Henry James at Work.” LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.