The Socialite Who Killed a Nazi with Her Bare Hands and 143 Other Fascinating People Who Died This Past Year: The Best of the New York Times Obituaries, 2013
400
The Socialite Who Killed a Nazi with Her Bare Hands and 143 Other Fascinating People Who Died This Past Year: The Best of the New York Times Obituaries, 2013
400eBook
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Overview
Returning for its second year but reimagined in a new impulse format, with a new title, new cover, new mission, and new sensibility, here is The Socialite Who Killed a Nazi with Her Bare Hands, a pithier, quirkier collection of the 164 best page-turning obituaries from The New York Times.
Written by top journalists, each story is a gem of a bio, a full life in miniature. There’s the famous: Steve Jobs, including the story of how he was reunited with a sister he never knew, the novelist Mona Simpson. And the almost famous: Ruth Stone, a poet who worked in relative obscurity until she won the National Book Award at the age of 87. The behind-the-scenes, like Arch West, inventor of the Dorito, who pulled America’s snacks out of the 1950s doldrums and created a $5-billion-a-year product, and the out-there, like self-styled anarchist and maverick artist (and real estate mogul and museum director) Bob Cassilly, who died at the controls of his bulldozer while building “Cementland” in St. Louis. And because of the chronological organization of the book, the stories, one next to the other, make for an addictive-as-salted-peanuts book: Mark O. Hatfield, the celebrated antiwar Republican senator from Oregon, next to Nancy Wake of the title, the impoverished New Zealander who grew up to become a high-society hostess and heroine of the French Resistance—the socialite who did, indeed, kill a Nazi with her bare hands.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780761175063 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Workman Publishing Company |
| Publication date: | 10/30/2012 |
| Sold by: | Hachette Digital, Inc. |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| File size: | 8 MB |
About the Author
William McDonald has been the obituaries editor at The New York Times since 2006. He started at the Times in 1988 and held numerous editorial positions, including being on the team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for the series “How Race Is Lived in America.” He lives in New York City.
Table of Contents
Foreword Tom Rachman ix
Introduction William McDonald xi
August 2011
Branded in Pink at Buchenwald Rudolf Brazda 1
A Battler for Women's Health Undone by 9/11 Bernadine P. Healy 3
Governor to City: I'm Here for You Hugh L. Carey 5
A Belle of Paris, a Heroine of War Nancy Wake 10
A Liberal, Anti-War, No-Nukes Republican Mark O. Hatfield 12
From Abstract Art to Alien Abductions Budd Hopkins 14
The Power Couple From Motown Nick Ashford 16
Wordsmith of Rock 'n' Roll Jerry Leiber 18
Bibles for a Babel-Like World Eugene A. Nida 20
He Rode With the Han, and Exposed It Stetson Kennedy 22
A Simple Invention, a Shipping Revolution Keith W. Tantlinger 24
On a Foggy Night, War Came to Long Island John Cullen 26
Up From the Delta, Singing the Blues David Honeyboy Edwards 28
Breaking Barriers With Wheels or Wings Betty Skelton 30
September 2011
Spouting Whales Were Par for the Course Ralph J. Lomma 33
A Pop Art Pioneer Hired by the Beatles Richard Hamilton 34
Incident in the Snow at 26,000 Feet Walter Bonatti 37
Think of His Brainchild as Everyman Tom Wilson 39
The Makings of a President, Some Said Charles H. Percy 41
On the Origin of Doritos Arch West 44
A Poetic Rebuke, as Eliot Sat Listening Emanuel Litvinoff 45
Tree by Tree, a Path to the Peace Prize Wangari Maathai 48
A Builder of Wonderlands Bob Cassilly 50
The Tinkerer and the Pacemaker Wilson Greatbatch 52
"The Mother of Hip-Hop" Sylvia Robinson 55
A Nobel Prize, Three Days Late Ralph M. Steinman 56
October 2011
The Age of Apple Steven P. Jobs 59
Leading 300 Nuns Out the Church Door Anita Caspary 66
Challenging the Academy, and America, on Race Derrick Bell 68
A Man of the Cloth Bloodied in Birmingham Fred L. Shuttlesworth 70
Football's Most Valuable Renegade Al Davis 73
His Firing Ignited a Gay-Rights Struggle Franklin Kameny 77
Ladies in White, Marching for the Jailed Laura Pollán Toledo 79
'Mean Streets' Became Salvation Road Piri Thomas 80
Love in the Shadow of Auschwitz Jerzy Bieleck1 82
A Brutal Dictator, a Violent End Muammar El-Qaddafi 84
But to Her Young, Unsure Readers, Just 'Beth' Elizabeth Winship 92
A Home of Her Own Was Her Victory Yvonne McCain 93
A Blooming TV Eccentric, He Was Jimmy Savile 94
November 2011
What She Never Had, She Gave Her Daughter Dorothy Rodham 97
America's Front-Porch Philosopher Andy Rooney 99
An Everlasting Link to His Rival, Ali Joe Frazier 103
Daring Young Man on His Flying Skis Jamie Pierre 108
Restoring Violins to Pitch-Perfect Health Rene Morel 109
An Athlete's Toughest Opponent Was Racism Basil D'oliveira 111
Acclaim Finally Knocked on the Farmhouse Door Ruth Stone 113
After an Arrest, a Gay Rights Hero John G. Lawrence 115
The First Lady Refused to Play Hostess Danielle Mitterrand 117
The Strange Odyssey of Stalin's Daughter Lana Peters 119
David and Goliath in West Texas Oscar Griffin Jr. 123
A Child of Hollywood Kept in the Dark Judy Lewis 125
A Must-Read on American Politics Tom Wicker 127
From the Fields of Oxford to Bloody Nigeria Odumegwu Ojukwu 131
December 2011
A 'Laugh-In' Regular Was Hiding Something Alan Sues 134
The 'Duke of Uke' Bill Tapia 136
Achilles With an Uzi: Updating the 'Iliad' Christopher Logue 137
Much More Than a Soccer Star Sócrates 140
Harlem's Family Doctor Muriel Petioni 141
Personal Trainer for a Flabby America Bonnie Prudden 143
A World Watched Her Every Stitch Erica Wilson 145
Opeta Impresario of the Lower East Side Anthony Amato 147
Bookseller on the Seine George Whitman 149
A Quiver Full of Arguments, Laced With Wit Christopher Hitchens 151
The Unknowable 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-Il 155
A Photographer's 'Pygmalion' Doe Avedon 160
The Playwright in Prague Castle Vaclav Havel 162
On Talk Radio, Not One of the Guys Lynn Samuels 167
Stained Canvas and a New School of Art Helen Frankenthaler 169
High Art Next to the Knife and Fork Eva Zeisel 173
January 2012
A World War II Battle Belatedly Won Gordon Hirabayashi 176
Glimpses of Unscripted Hollywood Eve Arnold 178
A Last Link to the Silent Movies Frederica Sagor Maas 180
Before Disaster in the Sky, a Warning Roger Boisjoly 182
When the Ships Came In, the Bar Got Busy Pilar Montero 184
"The Godfather of Rhythm and Blues' Johnny Otis 186
'At Last' Will Always Be Hers Etta James 188
In Surreal Designs, East Met West Eiko Ishioka 190
He Was Penn State, in Glory and Disgrace Joe Paterno 193
Opera History Made, Then Forgotten Camilla Williams 197
February 2012
And in This Comer, Behind the Champion… Angelo Dundee 201
Every Saturday Morning, Soul Music for All Don Cornelius 203
Her Spy Came in From the Garden Dorothy Gilman 206
The Last Veteran of World War I Florence Green 207
Bored With Piracy, He Rowed the Oceans John Fairfax 209
Soaring Star, Fallen Idol Whitney Houston 211
Rediscovered Negatives and a Career Renewed Lillian Bassman 214
Wounds Dressed in Song Dory Previn 217
The 'Kid' Who Loved Baseball Gary Carter 219
Dateline: A Region Torn Anthony Shadid 222
Old-Time Fiddling Rollicked Again Joe Thompson 225
The First Amendment Prefaced Every Book Barney Rosset 227
Witness to War to the Last Marie Colvin 231
Is God Dead? He Had an Answer William Hamilton 233
A Plane Crashed, and a Life Pivoted Anna Lou Dehavenon 235
Monkees Heartthrob Davy Jones 237
March 2012
'Bulldog for the Conservative Cause' Andrew Breitbart 240
Crime and the Importance of Fixing a Window James Q. Wilson 242
The 'Lipstick Killer' Who Terrified Chicago William Heirens 245
Making Mr. Coffee Samuel Glazer 247
The Murder Charge Listed 27,900 Counts John Demjanjuk 248
An All-American Jewish English Muffin Murray Lender 252
In One Book, 'to Be' Is Not to Be Found Christine Brooke-Rose 253
Feminism's Poet Laureate Adrienne Rich 255
Holding Aloft the High Art Banner Hilton Kramer 258
The Man Who Ate a Car, and Other Tales Harry Crews 261
April 2012
Simon Says, Read This Obit Lou Goldstein 264
The Black Experience in Clay and Stone Elizabeth Catlett 266
On '60-Minutes,' a Weekly Grilling Mike Wallace 268
Vampire of the Afternoon Jonathan Frid 273
The Ambassador of Rock 'n' Roll Dick Clark 275
Deep-Rooted Music in the Age of Rock Levon Helm 279
Dirty Tricks Led to Prison, and a Rebirth Charles Colson 283
Mustard, Relish and Some Times Square History Fred Hakim 286
Thomas Austin Preston Jr. Was a Gambling Man Amarillo Slim 288
May 2012
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch 290
The Saboteur Who Posed as a Nun Robert De La Rochefoucauld 293
The Wild and Wonderful Things of Childhood Maurice Sendak 295
The Queen of Disco, but More Than That Donna Summer 299
'One of the Most Remarkable Voices in History' Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau 302
He Handed the World the Remote Eugene Polley 305
Bee Gee Robin Gibb 307
He Didn't Need to See the Guitar to Master It Doc Watson 310
In the Friendship Hall of Fame, Too Jack Twyman 313
June 2012
Her Young Readers, She Said, Were Too Old for Fairy Tales Rosa Guy 316
The Poet Laureate of Science Fiction Ray Bradbury 318
Goodfella Henry Hill 322
The World Watched His Beating, and Heard His Plea Rodney G. King 324
Bon Vivant With a Vivid Brush Leroy Neiman 328
Follow the Money Supply, the Economist Said Anna J. Schwartz 329
Wit, Wisdom and a Hollywood Touch Nora Ephron 332
A Star in the League of Their Own Doris Sams 336
From the Underground to the Pinnacle in Israel Yitzhak Shamir 338
July 2012
America's Aw-Shucks Sheriff Andy Griffith 342
The Might-Have-Been Champion Jimmy Bivins 346
Forever Marty and McHale Ernest Borgnine 348
The Food That Matters Most Is on the Kitchen Table Marion Cunningham 350
The Barnum of Bloomingdale's Marvin Traub 353
She in the Spotlight, Nazis in the Dark Florence Waren 355
A Song About Women Rang True About Men Kitty Wells 358
Building a Better Treadmill Bill Staub 360
Her Soul Food Became the Heart of Harlem Sylvia Woods 361
Just Two Ordinary People Collecting Masterworks Herbert Vogel 363
A Ceiling in Space Was Shattered Sally Ride 366
As He Himself Might Have Said, There Will Never Be Another Gore Vidal 370
Indexes 377
Photography Credits 383
Permissions 384
Acknowledgments 385