In the tradition of bestsellers such as Shoe Dog, Authentic is a surprisingly candid, compelling memoir by a high school dropout who went on to establish one of the world's most iconic brands. You may not have known their creator, but you certainly know the shoes: for more than four generations, Vans shoes have been synonymous with cool. Now in Authentic, a memoir written by Paul Van Doren and published just before his May 2021 death, the charismatic founder of Vans shares his story of heading West and capturing the American dream. Authentic is a celebration of Van Doren's remarkable life and the iconic brand he built, beloved by skateboarders, creatives, and fans everywhere for its laid-back, colorful SoCal vibe, and famous for its people-oriented company culture. In Authentic, he shares his unlikely journey from high-school dropout to sneaker-industry legend. A blue-collar kid with no higher education and zero retail experience, Van Doren started out as a 16-year-old "service boy" at a local rubber factory. Over the next few decades, he leveraged a knack for numbers, a genius for efficiency, and the know-how to make a great canvas tennis shoe into an all-American success story. What began as a family shoe business has today evolved into a globally recognized brand with billions of dollars of annual revenue. Van Doren is not just an entrepreneur, he's an innovator. In 1966, when the first House of Vans store opened, there were no stand-alone retail stores just for sneakers. Paul's bold experiments in product design, distribution, and marketing (Why not sell custom shoes? Single shoes?), aided by legions of fans — skateboarders, surfers, even Sean Penn wearing Vans' famous checkerboard slip-on shoe in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High — made Vans a household name. But there was also back-breaking work, a shocking bankruptcy, family turmoil, and a profound shift in how customers think about athletic shoes. The book details Van Doren's personal life, but also hard-won business lessons learned over six turbulent decades in the shoe trade: the importance of deep-rooted values, of improvisation, of vision (and revision), and above all, of valuing people over profits. Authentic is Paul Van Doren's written legacy and his lessons for the innovators of tomorrow. Bracingly forthright and totally entertaining, Authentic is a business memoir by an American original.
In the tradition of bestsellers such as Shoedog, Authentic is a surprisingly candid, compelling memoir by a high school dropout who went on to establish one of the world's most iconic brands. Paul Van Doren is the founder of Vans--the shoe company beloved by skateboarders, creatives and fans everywhere for its laid-back, colorful SoCal vibe, and famous for its people-oriented company culture. How did Van Doren, who started as a 16-year-old "service boy" at a local rubber factory, establish a family shoe business that evolved into a globally recognized brand with annual revenue of more than four billion dollars? A blue-collar kid with no higher education and zero retail experience, Van Doren leveraged a knack for numbers, a genius for efficiency, and the know-how to make a great canvas tennis shoe into an all-American success story. In 1966, when the first House of Vans store opened, there were no stand-alone retail stores just for sneakers. Paul's bold experiments in product design, distribution, and marketing (Why not sell custom shoes? Single shoes?), aided by legions of fans--skateboarders, surfers, even Sean Penn wearing Vans' famous checkerboard slip on shoe in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High--made Vans a household name. But there was also back-breaking work, a shocking bankruptcy, family turmoil and a profound shift in how customers think about athletic shoes. Authentic details Van Doren's personal life, but also hard-won business lessons learned over six turbulent decades in the shoe trade: the importance of deep-rooted values, of improvisation, of vision (and revision), and above all, of valuing people over profits. Refreshingly forthright and totally entertaining, Authentic is a business memoir by an American original.
In the tradition of bestsellers such as Shoe Dog, Authentic is a surprisingly candid, compelling memoir by a high school dropout who went on to establish one of the world's most iconic brands. You may not have known their creator, but you certainly know the shoes: for more than four generations, Vans shoes have been synonymous with cool. Now in Authentic, a memoir written by Paul Van Doren and published just before his May 2021 death, the charismatic founder of Vans shares his story of heading West and capturing the American dream. Authentic is a celebration of Van Doren's remarkable life and the iconic brand he built, beloved by skateboarders, creatives, and fans everywhere for its laid-back, colorful SoCal vibe, and famous for its people-oriented company culture. In Authentic, he shares his unlikely journey from high-school dropout to sneaker-industry legend. A blue-collar kid with no higher education and zero retail experience, Van Doren started out as a 16-year-old "service boy" at a local rubber factory. Over the next few decades, he leveraged a knack for numbers, a genius for efficiency, and the know-how to make a great canvas tennis shoe into an all-American success story. What began as a family shoe business has today evolved into a globally recognized brand with billions of dollars of annual revenue. Van Doren is not just an entrepreneur, he's an innovator. In 1966, when the first House of Vans store opened, there were no stand-alone retail stores just for sneakers. Paul's bold experiments in product design, distribution, and marketing (Why not sell custom shoes? Single shoes?), aided by legions of fans — skateboarders, surfers, even Sean Penn wearing Vans' famous checkerboard slip-on shoe in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High — made Vans a household name. But there was also back-breaking work, a shocking bankruptcy, family turmoil, and a profound shift in how customers think about athletic shoes. The book details Van Doren's personal life, but also hard-won business lessons learned over six turbulent decades in the shoe trade: the importance of deep-rooted values, of improvisation, of vision (and revision), and above all, of valuing people over profits. Authentic is Paul Van Doren's written legacy and his lessons for the innovators of tomorrow. Bracingly forthright and totally entertaining, Authentic is a business memoir by an American original.
Elie tells the story of four modern American Catholics who made literature out of their search for God: Thomas Merton; Dorothy Day; Walker Percy; and Flannery OConnor.
Many philosophers have argued that free will may be no more than a flattering illusion. Few have gone on, however, to spell out what life would be like without that illusion. In The Spontaneous Self Dr. Breer explores the many ways in which our everyday experience is likely to be affected by giving up a belief in free will. Topics include guilt, pride, credit, blame, ambition, fear, identity, power, and love. His analysis of what we stand to gain and lose by changing our beliefs draws upon the results of an eight-year attempt to dispel the illusion of free will in his own life. The Spontaneous Self describes the cognitive-emotional techniques he devised for uprooting the illusion of free will and the personal transformation that followed when he put those techniques into practice.
From the author of Without Precedent and Indivisible, the gripping true story of how three men used espionage, betrayal, and sexual deception to help win the American Revolution. Unlikely Allies is the story of three remarkable historical figures. Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress as the American colonies struggled to break with England. Caron de Beaumarchais was a successful playwright who wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. And the flamboyant and mysterious Chevalier d'Éon—officer, diplomat, and sometime spy—was the talk of London and Paris. Is the Chevalier a man or a woman? When Deane is sent to France to convince the French government to support the revolutionary cause, he enlists the help of Beaumarchais. Together, they successfully smuggle weapons, ammunition, and supplies to New England just in time for the crucial Battle of Saratoga, which turned the tide of the American Revolution. And the catalyst for Louis XVI's support of the Americans against England was the Chevalier d'Éon, whose decision to declare herself a woman helped to lead to the Franco-American alliance. These three people spin a fascinating web of political intrigue and international politics that stretches across oceans as they ricochet from Versailles to Georgian London to the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Each man has his own reasons for wanting to see America triumph over the British, and each contends daily with the certainty that no one is what they seem. The line between friends and enemies is blurred, spies lurk in every corner, and the only way to survive is to trust no one. An edge-of-your-seat story full of fascinating characters and lavish with period detail and sense of place, Unlikely Allies is Revolutionary history in all of its juicy, lurid glory.
Thomas Merton was arguably the twentieth century's most widely published and widely read spiritual writer. This book explores Merton's prophetic writings and experience as they offer guidance for those seeking to experience God, to simplify their lives, to live more humanly, and to shape Christian community in the face of alienation, consumerism, noise, and technology. The book includes parts of three previously unpublished conference contributions by Merton on technology. Exploring Merton's thoughts on monastic renewal, prayer, radical simplicity, ecology, technology, war, peace and interfaith dialogue, Dekar reminds us why Merton was so influential and why he continues to be so.
Few American lives have been as celebrated--or as closely scrutinized--as that of Benjamin Franklin. Yet until now Franklin's biographers have downplayed his interest in mathematics, at best portraying it as the idle musings of a brilliant and ever-restless mind. In Benjamin Franklin's Numbers, Paul Pasles reveals a side of the iconic statesman, scientist, and writer that few Americans know--his mathematical side. In fact, Franklin indulged in many areas of mathematics, including number theory, geometry, statistics, and economics. In this generously illustrated book, Pasles gives us the first mathematical biography of Benjamin Franklin. He draws upon previously unknown sources to illustrate Franklin's genius for numbers as never before. Magic squares and circles were a lifelong fascination of Franklin's. Here, for the first time, Pasles gathers every one of these marvelous creations together in one place. He explains the mathematics behind them and Franklin's hugely popular Poor Richard's Almanac, which featured such things as population estimates and a host of mathematical digressions. Pasles even includes optional math problems that challenge readers to match wits with the bespectacled Founding Father himself. Written for a general audience, this book assumes no technical skills beyond basic arithmetic. Benjamin Franklin's Numbers is a delightful blend of biography, history, and popular mathematics. If you think you already know Franklin's story, this entertaining and richly detailed book will make you think again.
In 1988 Iain McCalman's seminal work, Radical Underworld, unravelled the complex and clandestine revolutionary networks of democrats that operated in London between 1790 and the beginnings of Chartism, to reveal an urban underworld of prophets, infidels, pornographers and rogue preachers where powerful satirical and subversive subcultures were developed. This present volume reflects and builds upon the diversity of McCalman's discoveries, to present fresh insights into the culture and operation of popular politics in the 'age of reform'. It is a coherent and integrated treatment of the subject that offers a window into this 'unrespectable' underworld and questions whether it was a blackguard subculture or a more complex and rich counter-culture with powerful literary, legal and political implications. This book brings together an international team of experienced scholars to explore the concepts and subjects pioneered by McCalman. The volume presents a focused and coherent review of popular politics, from the meeting rooms of a reform society and the theatre stage, to the forum of the courtroom and the depths of prison.
The first black writer in America to attain national prominence and establish an international reputation, Paul Laurence Dunbar is noted for his works written in black dialect. However, Dunbar also wrote in conventional English, producing sensitive and compelling poetry and fashioning innovative fiction. For the first time in publishing history, this eBook presents Dunbar’s complete works, with beautiful illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Dunbar's life and works * Concise introduction to Dunbar’s life and poetry * Excellent formatting of the poems * Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the poetry * Easily locate the poems you want to read * Includes Dunbar's complete novels and short stories, available in no other collection * Rare uncollected stories * Features Wiggins' seminal biography on the poet - discover Dunbar's literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please note: a few of Dunbar’s early short stories, which have only been rediscovered in recent years, are the result of dedicated scholarship and so will not be appearing in the eBook. Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to see our wide range of poet titles CONTENTS: The Life and Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar BRIEF INTRODUCTION: PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR The Poems LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Novels THE UNCALLED THE LOVE OF LANDRY THE FANATICS THE SPORT OF THE GODS The Short Story Collections FOLKS FROM DIXIE THE HEART OF HAPPY HOLLOW THE STRENGTH OF GIDEON AND OTHER STORIES IN OLD PLANTATION DAYS UNCOLLECTED SHORT STORIES The Short Stories LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF SHORT STORIES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Non-Fiction REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN NEGROES The Biography THE LIFE OF PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR by L. K. Wiggins Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of poetry titles or buy the entire Delphi Poets Series as a Super Set
This is the authoritative biography of writer, poet, and beat generation icon Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), whose novel On the Road catapulted him to the forefront of the literary world and influenced budding writers for generations to come. A legendaryfigure in the landscape of American literature, Kerouac lived a turbulent life, one more intimately connected to his literary output than perhaps any other writer. Restless traveler, alcoholic, dissolute but devoted Catholic, and genius, Kerouac lived hard with his compatriots of the beat movement--William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Neal Cassady. With them, he created a new type of American literature as well as an enduring literary mythology. Kerouac: The Definitive Biography recounts in gripping detail the story of this exceptional life and the key relationships that affected Kerouac's development as an artist, including those with his three wives, numerous girlfriends, and beloved mother. Most important, Kerouac is the first biography based wholly on the vast array of primary source materials contemporary to the events described--letters, postcards, diaries, journals, notebooks, newspaper and magazine articles, legal documents, and television andaudio transcripts--sources that provide an unparalleled view of the intimate thoughts and everyday world of Kerouac.
Dream Song is the story of John Berryman, one of the most gifted poets of a generation that included Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, and Dylan Thomas. Using Berryman's unpublished letters and poetry, as well as interviews with those who knew him intimately, Paul Mariani captures Berryman's genius and the tragedy that dogged him, while at the same time illuminating one of the most provocative periods in American letters. Here we witness Berryman's struggles with alcohol and drugs, his obsession with women and fame, and his friendships with luminary writers of the century. Mariani creates an unforgettable portrait of a poet who, by the time of his suicide at age fifty-seven, had won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award.
Jack Kerouac was one of America's great writers of the latter half of the 20th century, yet he endured a life characterized by persistent hardship and disillusion. Leading Kerouac scholar Paul Maher Jr. targets the writer's embattled insight of self as central to his life and work. He reveals how Kerouac's troubled interactions with alcohol, drugs, and spirituality stamped its importance on his autobiographical prose and poetry and created a singular language that united thoughts on the human condition and spiritual liberation. Becoming Kerouac: A Writer In His Time affixes Kerouac's life and art in a fresh way, giving readers a rich perspective from which to understand this 20th-century literary genius. Using unpublished archival material, Becoming Kerouac focuses on the writer's critical formative years ––1940 to 1957–– to demonstrate his growth as a novelist and poet. Maher contends that Kerouac developed his singular language to capture human consciousness as it never had before. His futilities catapulted American literature to reflect its restless post-World War II anxieties. Narrating the events that comprised Kerouac's life, biographers have long struggled to illustrate his complexness and the contradictions that shaped his determinations and dogged his relationships. But without consideration of the writing, the troubles in life fail to reveal their deeper resonances by skillfully analyzing the work while tracing the events. Maher achieves a full portrait, revealing struggles that problematize his work. Becoming Kerouac fuses Kerouac's life and art to comprehend this misunderstood literary genius.
Paul Lauter, an icon of American Studies who has been a primary agent in its transformation and its chief ambassador abroad, offers a wide-ranging collection of essays that demonstrate and reflect on this important and often highly politicized discipline. While American Studies was formerly seen as a wholly subsidiary academic program that loosely combined the study of American history, literature, and art, From Walden Pond to Jurassic Park reveals the evolution of an independent, highly interdisciplinary program with distinctive subjects, methods, and goals that are much different than the traditional academic departments that nurtured it. With anecdote peppered discussions ranging from specific literary texts and movies to the future of higher education and the efficacy of unions, From Walden Pond to Jurassic Park entertains even as it offers a twenty-first century account of how and why Americanists at home and abroad now do what they do. Drawing on his forty-five years of teaching and research as well as his experience as a political activist and a cultural radical, Lauter shows how a multifaceted increase in the United States’ global dominion has infused a particular political urgency into American Studies. With its military and economic influence, its cultural and linguistic reach, the United States is—for better or for worse—too formidable and potent not to be understood clearly and critically.
The Genius of Aldous Huxley is an attempt to make a critical analysis of Aldous Huxley’s novels, essays and plays. The significant results of his stance in terms of his critical heritage were threefold: the explicit message of the later fiction struck most readers as being detrimental to its artistry; criticism of Huxley’s craft often became indistinguishable from criticism of his ideas; the popular response to Huxley’s work continued to grow, but the critical reception declined. While they were looking to him for guidance, practically none of Huxley’s readers were prepared for the directions he took in the coming books. His critics had so consistently overlooked the deeper import of the earlier work that the new outspoken idealism seemed an abrupt reversal, if not a contradiction of attitudes. The shift of emphasis in Huxley’s work introduced during the war years a period of new ferment and trial for his critical reputation. The volume of response never slackened; if anything, it increased. He has revealed himself as one of the few capable makers of cultural synthesis in our time. His concern for mankind is so obvious that one can only think readers who see nothing in his later fiction but obsessions and bitterness are incapable of appreciating his intentions or his powers.
A perceptive, insightful biography of perhaps the most important American poet of the twentieth century, Wallace Stevens, by an accomplished biographer and poet who traces Stevens's lifelong artistic quest"--
In The Dawn of Industrial Agriculture in Iowa E. Paul Durrenberger recounts the transformation of Iowa’s family farms into today’s agricultural industry through the lens of the lives and writings of Iowa novelist Paul Corey and poet Ruth Lechlitner. This anthropological biography analyzes Corey’s fiction, Lechlitner’s poetry, and their professional and personal correspondence to offer a new perspective on an era (1925–1947) that saw the collapse and remaking of capitalism in the United States, the rise of communism in the Soviet Union, the rise and defeat of fascism around the world, and the creation of a continuous warfare state in America. Durrenberger tells the story that Corey aimed to record and preserve of the industrialization of Iowa’s agriculture and the death of its family farms. He analyzes Corey’s regionalist focus on Iowa farming and regionalism’s contemporaneous association in Europe with rising fascism. He explores Corey’s adoption of naturalism, evident in his resistance to heroes and villains, to plot structure and resolution, and to moral judgment, as well as his ethnographic tendency to focus on groups rather than individuals. An unusual and wide-ranging study, The Dawn of Industrial Agriculture in Iowa offers important insight into the relationships among fiction, individual lives, and anthropological practice, as well as into a pivotal period in American history.
The greatest cultural mystery in the Western World is, ?Who wrote the superb plays and sonnets published under the pen name of William Shakespeare Conventional wisdom, so often proved wrong as cultures evolve, currently favors William Shakspere of Stratford-on-Avon?a butcher's apprentice, grain speculator and real estate investor who never went to school, never owned a book, never traveled abroad, knew no foreign languages and never wrote anything except his crudely scrawled signature. Because of the raptorian grip of guild mythology and the threat of professional punishment, professors of English cling tenaciously to their Stratford Man, refusing to believe any data in favor of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Avalanche of Falsity documents impressive discoveries in favor of de Vere and describes the questionable methods professors use as they try desperately to counteract massive accumulating evidence against their illiterate candidate.
The New England Watch and Ward Society provides a new window into the history of American Protestantism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By suppressing obscene literature, gambling, and prostitution, the moral reform organization embodied Protestant efforts to shape public morality in an increasing intellectually and culturally diverse society.
The Beat Movement was one of the most radical and innovative literary and arts movements of the 20th century, and the history of the Beat Movement is still being written in the early years of the 21st century. Unlike other kinds of literary and artistic movements, the Beat Movement is self-perpetuating. After the 1950s generation, headlined by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs, a new generation arose in the 1960s led by writers such as Diane Wakoski, Anne Waldman, and poets from the East Side Scene. In the 1970s and 1980s writers from the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and contributors to World magazine continued the movement. The 1980s and 1990s Language Movement saw itself as an outgrowth and progression of previous Beat aesthetics. Today poets and writers in San Francisco still gather at City Lights Bookstore and in Boulder at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and continue the movement. It is now a postmodern movement and probably would be unrecognizable to the earliest Beats. It may even be in the process of finally shedding the name Beat. But the Movement continues. The Historical Dictionary of the Beat Movement covers the movement's history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on significant people, themes, critical issues, and the most significant novels, poems, and volumes of poetry and prose that have formed the Beat canon. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Beat Movement.
In the thirty-five years before the Civil War, as it became increasingly difficult for those outside the world of politics to have frank and open discussions about slavery, Paul D. Naish argues that many Americans displaced their most provocative criticisms and darkest fears about the institution onto Latin America.
Hide in Plain Sight completes Buhle and Wagner's trilogy on the Hollywood blacklist. When the blacklistees were hounded out of Hollywood, some left for television where many worked on children's shows like "Rocky and Bullwinkle." A number wrote adult sitcoms such as The Donna Reed Show, and M*A*S*H while some of them ultimately returned to Hollywood and made great films such as Norma Rae, and Midnight Cowboy. This is a thoughtful look at the rising fear of communism in America and the aftermath of the horror that was the McCarthy period, from two expert historians of the blacklist period.
The Architecture of Stanley D. Anderson, with James Ticknor and William Bergmann By: Paul Bergmann Stanley D. Anderson's standard of architecture has sustained the test of time. His designs for residences, commercial buildings, schools, and Gentlemen's Farms are still praised today for his attention to detail, solid design work, and high-quality standards. This picture book illustrates through historic photos and drawings from the firm's archive the classical styles that the firm members drew upon over many decades of work. Through his signature Country Georgian style, Anderson and his associates transformed Lake Forest. Designed for local history buffs, amateur and professional architects, and the simply curious, this book provides biographies and interior perspectives on the production of Anderson and his associates, William Bergmann and James Ticknor, and their distinctive interpretation of a transformative architectural style.
The Art and Craft of Political Theory provides a critical overview of the discipline’s core concepts and concerns and highlights its development of critical thinking and practical judgment. The field’s interdisciplinary strengths are deployed to grapple with emerging issues and engage afresh enduring ideals and quandaries. While conventional definitions of key concepts are provided, original and controversial perspectives are also explored, revealing continuity in a tradition of thought while emphasizing its diversity and innovations. The Art and Craft of Political Theory illustrates the analytic and interpretive skills, the moral and philosophic discernment, and the historical knowledge needed to appreciate a tradition of thought, to contest its claims, and to make good use of its insights. Topics include: science, ideology and normative theory biology, culture, human nature, power and violence ancient, modern and postmodern political thought liberty, equality, justice, reason and democracy racial, religious, gender and economic identities liberalism, socialism, capitalism, communism, anarchism, feminism and environmentalism social media, automation, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. This concise, lively and accessibly written book is essential reading for all students of political theory.
This collection of essays places issues central to literary study, particularly the question of the canon, in the context of institutional practices in American colleges and universities. Lauter addresses such crucial concerns as what students should read and study, how standards of "quality" are defined and changed, the limits of theoretical discourse, and the ways race, gender, and class shape not only teaching, curricula, and research priorities, but collegiate personnel actions as well. The book examines critically the variety of recent proposals for "reforming" higher education, and it calls into question many practices, like employing large numbers of part-timers, now popular with college managers. Offering concrete examples of a "comparative" method for teaching literary texts, and specific instances about "integrating" curricula, Canons and Contexts proposes realistic ideas for creating varied, spirited, and democratic classrooms and colleges.
A Brookings Institution Press and Governance Institute publication Paul C. Light examines and evaluates the 100 most significant investigations of policy failures, bureaucratic mistakes, and personal misconduct undertaken by the U.S. federal government between 1945 and 2012. Launched by Congress or the president, sometimes by both at the same time, the investigations at the core of this book were driven by the search for answers about significant breakdowns in government performance. Light reveals which investigations were most effective, and why.
It's not what you know. It's what they think you know. And they will think you know it all once you learn how to bullsh*t successfully. Because there's a difference between talking out of your ass and bullsh*tting like a pro--and if you want to sound in the know without getting called out, you better know how to do it right. What you want is to be able to control any conversation and keep cool under pressure with a combination of confidence and cunning. To help out, there's a section of useful facts to stick up your sleeve. Forget being a know-it-all. You'll tap into real appeal and have a lot more fun once you become a skilled bullsh*t artist. Guaranteed.
Although he called himself merely a "printer" in his will, Benjamin Franklin could have also called himself a diplomat, a doctor, an electrician, a frontier general, an inventor, a journalist, a legislator, a librarian, a magistrate, a postmaster, a promoter, a publisher -- and a humorist. John Adams wrote of Franklin, "He had wit at will. He had humor that when he pleased was pleasant and delightful... [and] talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he could adapt with great skill, to the promotion of moral and political truth." In Benjamin Franklin's Humor, author Paul M. Zall shows how one of America's founding fathers used humor to further both personal and national interests. Early in his career, Franklin impersonated the feisty widow Silence Dogood in a series of comically moralistic essays that helped his brother James outpace competitors in Boston's incipient newspaper market. In the mid-eighteenth century, he displayed his talent for comic impersonation in numerous editions of Poor Richard's Almanac, a series of pocket-sized tomes filled with proverbs and witticisms that were later compiled in Franklin's The Way to Wealth (1758), one of America's all-time bestselling books. Benjamin Franklin was sure to be remembered for his early work as an author, printer, and inventor, but his accomplishments as a statesman later in life firmly secured his lofty stature in American history. Zall shows how Franklin employed humor to achieve desired ends during even the most difficult diplomatic situations: while helping draft the Declaration of Independence, while securing France's support for the American Revolution, while brokering the treaty with England to end the War for Independence, and while mediating disputes at the Constitutional Convention. He supervised and facilitated the birth of a nation with customary wit and aplomb. Zall traces the development of an acute sense of humor throughout the life of a great American. Franklin valued humor not as an end in itself but as a means to gain a competitive edge, disseminate information, or promote a program. Early in life, he wrote about timely topics in an effort to reach a mass reading class, leaving an amusing record of early American culture. Later, Franklin directed his talents toward serving his country. Regardless of its origin, the best of Benjamin Franklin's humor transcends its initial purpose and continues to evoke undying laughter at shared human experiences.
From the bestselling author of Kennedy Weddings and Diana and Jackie comes a powerful and moving collection of the condolence letters Jacqueline Kennedy received after the assassination of John F. Kennedy In the weeks and months following the assassination of her husband, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy received more than one million letters. The impact of President Kennedy's death was so immense that people from every station in life wrote to her, sharing their feelings of sympathy, sorrow, and hope. She received letters from political luminaries such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and Charles De Gaulle. Hollywood stars like Lauren Bacall, Vivian Leigh, and Gene Kelly voiced their sympathy, as did foreign dignitaries including Queen Elizabeth II, the King and Queen of Greece, and the Prince of Monaco. Distinguished members of the arts and society—Ezra Pound, Noel Coward, Babe Paley, Langston Hughes, Oleg Cassini, Josephine Baker—offered their heartfelt condolences. And children, with the most heartbreaking sincerity, reached out to the First Lady to comfort her in her time of grief. More than just a compendium of letters, Dear Mrs. Kennedy uses these many voices to tell the unforgettable story of those fateful four days in November, when the world was struck with shock and sadness. It vividly captures the months that followed, as a nation---and a family---attempted to rebuild. Filled with emotion, patriotism, and insight, the letters are a poignant time capsule of one of the seminal events of the twentieth century. Dear Mrs. Kennedy offers a diverse portrait not only of the aftermath of the assassination, but of the Kennedy mystique that continues to captivate the world.
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