Wilfrid Sheed's Books

The House That George Built

With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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The House That George Built

With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

By: Wilfrid Sheed

From Irving Berlin to Cy Coleman, from “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to “Big Spender,” from Tin Pan Alley to the MGM soundstages, the Golden Age of the American song embodied all that was cool, sexy, and sophisticated in popular culture. For four glittering decades, geniuses like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen ran their fingers over piano keys, enticing unforgettable melodies out of thin air. Critically acclaimed writer Wilfrid Sheed uncovered the legends, mingled with the greats, and gossiped with the insiders. Now he’s crafted a dazzling, authoritative history of the era that “tripled the world’s total supply of singable tunes.” It began when immigrants in New York’s Lower East Side heard black jazz and blues–and it surged into an artistic torrent nothing short of miraculous. Broke but eager, Izzy Baline transformed himself into Irving Berlin, married an heiress, and embarked on a string of hits from “Always” to “Cheek to Cheek.” Berlin’s spiritual godson George Gershwin, in his brief but incandescent career, straddled Tin Pan Alley and Carnegie Hall, charming everyone in his orbit. Possessed of a world-class ego, Gershwin was also generous, exciting, and utterly original. Half a century later, Gershwin love songs like “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “The Man I Love,” and “Love Is Here to Stay” are as tender and moving as ever. Sheed also illuminates the unique gifts of the great jazz songsters Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington, conjuring up the circumstances of their creativity and bringing back the thrill of what it was like to hear “Georgia on My Mind” or “Mood Indigo” for the first time. The Golden Age of song sparked creative breakthroughs in both Broadway musicals and splashy Hollywood extravaganzas. Sheed vividly recounts how Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer spread the melodic wealth to stage and screen. Popular music was, writes Sheed, “far and away our greatest contribution to the world’s art supply in the so-called American Century.” Sheed hung out with some of the great artists while they were still writing–and better than anyone, he knows great music, its shimmer, bite, and exuberance. Sparkling with wit, insight, and the grace notes of wonderful songs, The House That George Built is a heartfelt, intensely personal portrait of an unforgettable era. A delightfully charming, funny, and most illuminating portrait of songwriters and the Golden Age of American Popular Song. Mr. Sheed’s carefully chosen depictions and anecdotes recapture that amazingly creative period, a moment in time in which I was so fortunate to be surrounded by all that magic.” –Margaret Whiting

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Page Count

370

Publisher

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812970187

ISBN 13

9780812970180

The House That George Built

With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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The House That George Built

With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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Page Count

370

Publisher

Random House

Published Date

ISBN 10

1588367223

ISBN 13

9781588367228

My Life as a Fan

A Memoir

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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My Life as a Fan

A Memoir

By: Wilfrid Sheed

In My Life as a Fan, Wilfrid Sheed shares how he arrived in this country as an English kid worried about his house being bombed and his country being invaded. Despite initial hesitatons when landing in the U.S., Sheed becomes a typical 10-year-old baseball nut and his personal Ellis Islands becomes the ballparks of the 1940s.

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Page Count

230

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0743217993

ISBN 13

9780743217996

FRANK MAISIE

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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FRANK MAISIE

By: Wilfrid Sheed

From Simon & Schuster, Frank and Maisie is an unforgettable memoir featuring the author's undauntable parents. The novelist and essayist, Wilfrid Sheed, presents an exuberant, often humorous memoir of his remarkable, undauntable parents—Maisie Ward and Frank Sheed—recounting their street-corner Catholic evangelism, their lecture and writing careers, and their marriage and relationship.

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0671628135

ISBN 13

9780671628130

In Love with Daylight

A Memoir of Recovery

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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In Love with Daylight

A Memoir of Recovery

By: Wilfrid Sheed

In this rare book, Sheed's words, like the recoveries he describes, are healing. With uncommon grace and contagious good humor, Sheed, a survivor of polio, depression, and cancer, offers a testimony of encouragement and hope that will bring his readers intelligent comfort and even a few laughs.

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Page Count

268

Published Date

ISBN 10

1888173874

ISBN 13

9781888173871

The Morning After... and Long After

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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The Morning After... and Long After

By: Wilfrid Sheed

Wilfrid Sheed (who The New York Times called "the best professional reviewer in the business & one of the best writers around") offers a dazzling collection of essays on his heyday as a reviewer & a judge for the Book of the Month Club.

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Page Count

376

Publisher

Common Reader Editions

Published Date

ISBN 10

1585790389

ISBN 13

9781585790388

Into Your Hands, Father

Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us

By: Wilfrid Stinissen

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Into Your Hands, Father

Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us

By: Wilfrid Stinissen

In the spiritual life, we need a central idea: something so basic and comprehensive that it encompasses everything else. According to Carmelite Father Wilfrid Stinissen, surrender to God, abandonment to the One who loves us completely, is that central reality. The life of Jesus shows us the centrality of abandonment, for it is truly the beginning and the end of his mission on earth. In this simple but profound book, Father Stinissen distinguishes three degrees or stages in abandonment. The first stage consists of accepting and assenting to God's will as it manifests itself in all circumstances of life. The second is actively doing God's will at every moment of one's life. In the third stage, abandonment to God is so complete that one has become a tool in God's hands. At this stage it is no longer I who do God's will, but God who accomplishes his will through me.

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Page Count

106

Publisher

Ignatius Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1681492679

ISBN 13

9781681492674

In Love with Daylight

A Memoir of Recovery

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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In Love with Daylight

A Memoir of Recovery

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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Page Count

268

Published Date

ISBN 10

1888173874

ISBN 13

9781888173871

FRANK MAISIE

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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FRANK MAISIE

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0671628135

ISBN 13

9780671628130

The Boys of Winter

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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The Boys of Winter

By: Wilfrid Sheed

Sheed writes the perfect comic novel about art, life, and sex in a literary hamlet in the Hamptons. Two rivals are forced into an alliance of convenience as they tackle the profoundly serious business of organizing the local writers' softball team for combat with the visiting cast of a Hollywood movie.

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Page Count

292

Publisher

McGraw-Hill Companies

Published Date

ISBN 10

0070564973

ISBN 13

9780070564978

The Morning After... and Long After

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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The Morning After... and Long After

By: Wilfrid Sheed

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

376

Publisher

Common Reader Editions

Published Date

ISBN 10

1585790389

ISBN 13

9781585790388

Book's by Wilfrid Sheed

The House That George Built

The House That George Built

The House That George Built

The House That George Built

My Life as a Fan

My Life as a Fan

FRANK MAISIE

FRANK MAISIE

In Love with Daylight

In Love with Daylight

The Morning After... and Long After

The Morning After... and Long After

Into Your Hands, Father

Into Your Hands, Father

In Love with Daylight

In Love with Daylight

FRANK MAISIE

FRANK MAISIE

The Boys of Winter

The Boys of Winter

The Morning After... and Long After

The Morning After... and Long After

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