Book Description

An illustrated collection of essays about the various people, events, and experiments from Henry Ford's lifetime. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Get to know the REAL Benjamin Franklin...
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is well written... even young children could enjoy the stories. Franklin was a remarkable man, he was a man of character. He excelled in many areas as a scientist, inventor, and politician. There are many lies being told about him today to defame his character, and this book will help you understand the REAL man! ... Read more

Amazon.com

84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 years, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, "The phrase 'antiquarian booksellers' scares me somewhat, as I equate 'antique' with expensive." Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic--but unsure she'll ever conquer "bilingual arithmetic." By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she's sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much." ... Read more

Reviews (71)

Wit, charm, and genuine friendship
After meaning to read this classic for ages, yesterday I came across the cassette version at the library. Put it on this afternoon and never turned it off. Charing Cross is a delightful memoir, and this reading of it is all the more so as each correspondent's letters are read by a different narrator, all of them wonderful. The quintessential postwar (WW II) New Yorker meets the quintessential Londoner in this series of letters brimming with warmth, wit, and humor. Surprisingly, Helene Hanff did not develop her passion for good literature through conventional educational experience, but via an encounter with A. Quiller-Couch in a library. She would have made a fantastic English lit professor. (The reader of her letters reminds me of Debra Winger in Shadowlands). Frank Doel, his family and co-workers bring the 50's and 60's with all England's deprivation alive, and respond to Helene's heartfelt American generosity in kind. Wish I had read this gem long ago; just glad I've done so at last. Will now begin a search formy own print copy, hopefully, in an "antique" edition.

Heart-warming cult classic
"84 Charing Cross Road" is a series of letters charting the twenty-year correspondence between a would-be playwright in NY and Frank Doel, a London antiquarian bookseller.From such a modest premise, Helene Hanff has created something with an almost unique charm which continues to endure as a successful book, play and film.

To me the great joy of Hanff is her style.She is wonderfully conversational, humorous and self-depreciating.She describes her life - learning ancient Greek or watching endless English films - with panache.However, in truth very little happens in these pages.Rather, it is the gently teasing nature of her relationship with Doel which shines out, the feistiness of the young American lady chaffing against the more reserved nature of the quiet, polite English gent, as they read their way through the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

On her death, the London Times said tartly, "Seldom has a writer sailed to literary fame in so slender a craft."It is true that 84 CXR is a very slim tome.Yet it is one that bears much re-reading, as it seems that somewhere between the lines there lie more than a few life-lessons for us all.

Pilgrims to the real-life 84 Charing Cross Road will be sad to find that it no longer exists as such.Look out for an "All Bar One" outlet however and a dull, bronze plaque commemorating the bookstore.

Pour l'amour des livres...
Je me suis fait prendre par ce petit livre! Je l'ai juste feuilleté un peu. Après quelques pages, j'étais accro et je ne pouvais plus le lâcher. Je l'ai donc lu en moins de 2 heures.

J'ai adoré cet échange de lettres entre deux passionnés des livres qui finissent par devenir amis sans s'être jamais rencontrés. C'est touchant, humain, parfois drôle mais toujours passionnant. C'est aussi très intéressant de voir les messages devenir de moins en moins professionnels et de plus en plus personnels à mesure que l'amitié grandit.

Un très belle lecture et un gros coup de coeur! À lire sans faute!

One of the most charming books I've ever read
This book is a collection of letters; mainly correspondence between Hanff and her London book seller, Frank Doel.The letters are witty and filled with literary reference that is sure to make any true reader fall in love with both Hanff and Doel.The imagery of New York and London, too, are there if you're looking for it.

I'd recommend reading 84 Charing Cross Road and Q's legacy as the two are intertwined in Hanff's life.

Letters from a buyer to a bookseller/An enchanting vignette
This is a charming and memorable read. It is also a paen to the disappearing art of letterwriting. The book is a selection of correspondence between Helene Hanff in New York and Frank Doel, a bookseller in London. The correspondence spans 20 years from Helene's first request for books in 1949 to Frank's death in 1969. The correspondence rapidly changes from the formal to that between kindred souls who love books and ultimately extends to Frank's coworkers and family. Unfortunately Helene never made it to London to visit the bookstore until after Frank's death. When I first visited Charing Cross Road, which was lined with bookstores, I thought I was in booklovers'heaven. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Benjamin Franklin Amazing American
This is a book of high interest to my 5th and 6th grade students. Benjamin Franklin came alive on the pages of this book, and even inspired one young man to do further research into the life of this truly amazing American. The language is simple and straight forward making comprehenshion possible even for my students who are struggling with a very limited knowledge of the English language. I believe that this book is not only appropriate for children, but also an enjoyable reading experience for adults that are reading along with their children, or adults who are building their own reading skills. It never "talks down" to the reader. The world is hungry for heroes, and leaders who live and teach old-fashioned virtues. This book meets this need in an entertaining way.

The Story of Benjamin Franklin Amazing American
This book has been very informative for both my 6th grade and my college-aged ESL students. It brings to life one of the most inventive and creative personalities in American history. He is presented in a very positive way, making him a role model that can be an example to younger and older people alike. This book is written in language that is easily understood by young or foreign readers. While it uses vocabulary that stretches the limits of a young person's ability, it also gives explantion for difficult passages. It gives thoughtful insight into American history preceding the Revolutionary War and the reasons for the War. ... Read more

Amazon.com

One of this book's great strengths is writer Melissa Müller's ability to situate Anne Frank's famous diary within a larger historical and biographical context--more than half of it covers the years before the Franks went into hiding. Equally important is her discovery of the existence of five pages Otto Frank removed from his daughter's original diary and entrusted shortly before his death to Cor Sujik, international director of New York's Anne Frank Center. Sujik showed these pages to Müller, who accurately notes in the biography that they "enhance our understanding of the diary's author."

Until now, readers have known the eight people sequestered in the secret annex through Anne's eyes only. Müller reveals everyone's correct names (they were changed for the diary's publication) and tactfully corrects a teenager's skewed perceptions when necessary, always reminding us of the claustrophobic closeness and material deprivation that sometimes fueled Anne's uncharitable comments about, for example, the middle-aged dentist with whom she was forced to share a room. Müller also plausibly identifies the Dutch informant who betrayed the secret annex's inhabitants to the Gestapo. Horror suffuses Müller's grim recap of the Franks' ordeal at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, though there is some comfort in survivors' reports that Anne, her mother, and her older sister formed "an inseparable trio," all former quarrels forgotten in their fierce struggle to save each other. They failed, and Müller does not gloss over that tragedy. But she reminds us that, "In the end, the Nazi terror could not silence Anne's voice, which still rings out for all of us." ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Fantastically researched
I recently went to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam which prompted me to reread the diary. When I was in my local bookstore I came across this book and bought it. I am glad i did.

This book, while not telling me anything I hadn't really heard before somewhere in all the history books, manages to portray the living conditions of Jews before WII broke out in a simplistic manner. This biog gives a superb timeline as such, of the events preceding the Franks going into hiding.

I also went to Dachau while in Germany, which affected me more than I thought it would, while reading about Anne's time in the camp. I knew before going to Europe and before reading Melissa Mullers book about the conditions the Nazi victims were kept in, but again this book pulled it all together. It may have been that I've been to a camp since reading anything on the subject or itmay just have been the incredibly well detailed portrayal of it in this book (I suspect it may be both) but it was all brought home to me hard. As well as being detailed this became personal. In the epilogue Miep Gies writes she doesn't like to hear Anne Frank being labelled the face of the 6 million, but that is inevitable and I don't feel that it lessens the importance of any other victims.

This is a superb biography and I recommend it be read in conjunction with Anne franks Diary. I also recommend visiting the Anne Frank House should you ever have the opportunity to be in Amsterdam

Fifty years later the horror still lingers
From the years of 1939 to 1945 mankind endured the darkest period of evil and brutality that has gone unparalleled in the modern (and ancient) era.One wicked man's irrational, murderous hatred and insatiable lust for power, combined with the cruel, sociopathic personalities of cowardly henchmen such as Hoess, Himmmler, Goering, and Eichmann, to name a mere few, swept the continent of Europe into total devastation and near destruction, destroying dreams and cancelling the futures of the soldiers who fought for both sides, those who were simple bystanders in bombing raids, and others who simply had the misfortune to be considered "undesirable" and who perished in inhumane, intolerable conditions in horrendous concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Neuengamme.The dreadfulness of their pain and the senseless of their deaths cannot be imagined, described, forgiven, or forgotten.

One of the millions who was murdered during the Holocaust was Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who lived in hiding with her older sister Margot, their parents Otto and Edith, Hermann and Auguste Van Pels, their son Peter, and Dr Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist, in Amsterdam, Holland, in the secret annexe of the office building which still stands at 263 Prinsengracht. As a literary work and historical document, Anne's diary is perhaps one of the most important volumes to emerge from the twentieth century.However, when reading it, one must remember that it was written by an ordinary teenage girl who was forced to exist under extraordinary and wearisome conditions that would have strained the patience of the Lord himself.Neither Anne nor her co-habitants saw anyone but each other and their benefactors day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out. Hence I feel that the above situation must be considered when reflecting on her often harsh views of her fellow annexe dwellers.

Melissa Muller's book is a great companion to the diary but should not be read instead of it - to do this would be severely shortchanging to oneself.It provides a rounder, fuller narrative of the times, places, and people in Anne's life and of those that decided her fate.From the rise of the Nazi's and their use of bullying tactics as their tyranny and terrorism begins, to Anne's formative years, and a broader, wider, more objective description of the Frank's life in hiding.Particularly heartrending are the chapters in which Melissa Muller describes 4 August 1944, the day the annexe dwellers were arrested, betrayed, like Judas betrayed Jesus, for a symbolic twelve pieces of silver, and previously little known details of Anne's life in the death camps Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen as she bravely fought, and bravely lost, the battle for survival. The tears will fall as the words are read, as they will fall as we share the moment that Otto Frank learns of the terrible fate of his daughters.To lose a beloved spouse is bad enough, but to lose your child, to lose both your children, is an unfathomable and unimaginable grief that never fades even with the passage of many years.And Otto Frank was only one of many parents during the war whose children would never come home..............

Yes, this is a great biography of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who became world famous because of her diary, who became world famous because she expired in a concentration camp.But Anne is not merely ashes or dust - her soul lives on.And what of her diary?Her diary, the contents of which she guarded so fiercely, has become a gift to millions.

The heart still aches for her and her family...
This is one of the most poignant biographies that I have ever read. As with most teenagers in the late 60's and in the 70's, Anne's diary was required reading in our highschool. I remember reading it, but not paying the attention I should have, because as a teenager, her story seemed to be a part of a world that no longer existed. Teenagers cannot appreciate the reality of that time, and though I grew up during the angst of the civil rights era and the Vietnamese War, it was not until some other life happenings occurred that I can now appreciate her story. This includes becoming a mother and an activist for disability rights, and seeing for myself in small and distant ways, man's inhumanity to man.

Muller did an exquisite job in the biography. She avoided speculation, which seems to be a problem for writers of biographies. Anne's story cannot be fully appreciated without more knowledge of her family and the people who protected them. As Anne and her father lived without bitterness for their fate, so too did Melissa Muller write with patience and understanding far beyond the abilities of most of us.

The book is eloquent in its simple praise for the goodness of people who made the right choices during that conflict between good and evil. I hope that reading of the courage of Miep Gies and her husband, and the others in the business formerly owned by Otto Frank, will inspire all of its readers to stand up for what is right whatever situation we may find ourselves in.

My heart still aches for the waste of human potential. And yet, Anne fulfilled so much of that potential and continues to inspire long after her life was over. Much of my heartache was felt for her parents, who in their desire to be with their children, left it until too late to get their children to safety. I understand their choices, and I know they must have lived with the knowledge that they put their children at great risk and berated themselves.

My admiration for the people in Holland and other occupied countries who helped those singled out for destruction on the basis of race and prejudice is immense. I continue to be surprised at how much was done by people who were not perfect, and at their own risk. This is a near perfect biography, in writing and in intelligence. I wish there were more like this out there...
Karen Sadler
University of Pittsburgh

An Excellent Piece of Work!
I am in the process of reading this book now, and can tell you it is a great companion book to Miep Gies' great book, Anne Frank Remembered.It goes much more into the background of the family members and also details much more of the political atmosphere and uneasiness that allowed Hitler's Third Reich to come to power.Ms. Mueller had to have done exhaustive research, and it really shows in her book.Excellent!

A realistic portrait of Anne Frank
Ever since her diary was published back in the 1950's, Anne Frank has been portrayed as a martyr, a symbol of the Holocaust, and Hitler's "most famous victim."Though she may be all these things, we often have an idealized view of the girl herself.Remember, her diary only chronicles two years of her life."Anne Frank: The Biography" fills in the blanks and gives us a more realistic view of the girl who captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide.The biography is exhaustive, covering her family background and the political situation as it unfolded.More importantly, though, it gives a detailed description of what happened to Anne and her family in the concentration camps.Though hard to read at times (I cried a few times while reading it), it is important to know what happened to her and the other 6 million Holocaust victims.After reading her diary at age 13 for my English class, I had always wondered what happened after she stopped writing.I knew they were caught by the Nazis and were sent to concentration camps, where she eventually died, but I had no idea what her experience was like.

The detail in this book is staggering.Melissa Muller did an exceptional job of tracking down every bit of information she could possibly find, not only on Anne herself, but her friends and family as well.(She even dug up personal information about the SS officer who arrested the Franks in the Annex.)She managed to interview surviving friends and family (even those who were initially reluctant to talk with her), including Miep Gies, the woman who helped the Franks while in hiding (and who writes a touching note at the end).

So if you've ever read Anne Frank's diary, I would highly recommend reading this book to get a more complete portrait of what she was like, the times she lived in, her family, and her experiences. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Private Franklin
This is an excellant book on the private life of Benjamin Franklin.You see, Ben retired in his early 40's and this book tells, quite eloquently I might add, the story of his personal life.I would highly reccomend it. ... Read more

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Surviving Freud
The author of this absorbing, near-tragic, in places hilarious memoir was born into a family possessing nearly every advantage: great wealth, intellectual brilliance, artistic talent and (as photographs attest)beauty. The lives of the women of the family, however, were thrown radically off track into near wreckage by their addiction to Freudian analysis. The author was analyzed into sexual activity in her early teens,long before she was ready for it; then analyzed into a wretched marriage; then told to accept her subordinate female role as handmaiden to male genius and forget her own supposedly neurotic artistic ambitions.While Webster describes movingly the dismaying self-doubts she lived with during those years,she also mentions that she was raising three children, getting a doctorate, writing two scholarly books that got her great professional respect in high places (though she was a housewife, not an academician)and then becoming a distinctive and admired novelist. Not a bad record for a supposedly helpless, dysfunctional emotional invalid; Webster mentions her achievements in a modest,just-giving-the-news manner.In the end she says she has won a happy life, for her family and herself; it is a tough wrestle,though, and the reader feels she has earned what she achieves, in spades. The accounts of her adventures with psychiatrists are sometimes uproarious, and the reader--if at a safe distance from the analyst's couch--will surely laugh out loud.

Freudian therapy gone poignantly amok
Brenda Webster, in this beautifully written, wrenchingly poignant, and highly fascinating memoir, tells of growing up in a world where her ordinary and not so ordinary life events were, at the behest of her brilliant and wacky mother, routinely scrutinized by Freudian psychoanalyists. Her memoir reads like the very best of novels. I found myself entranced by her story, mouth open in shock, heart pounding in indignation and fighting back tears. Readers interested in memoirs, in psychoanalysis, in coming of age novels, or in cults will find this a fascinating read. ... Read more

Book Description

A study of Henry Ford and rural America in the 1920s
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Reviews (1)

An interesting perspective on five literary greats
Thanks for scholars like Nicholas Delbanco who hunt down biographical details that enrich our knowledge of famous authors lives.Here is a book that offers a savory meal for the literary gourmet.Henry James liked donuts.Stephen Crane chain smoked.Conrad the English stylist spoke with a thick Polish accent.Ford Madox Ford embellished his recollections with untruths.H. G. Wells treated offers of help with cocky independence.

The author contends that for a certain interval these men associated with and admired each others literary accomplishments."South of London in 1900, a galaxy of talent assembled that beggars in accomplishment anything the English language has since produced."He provides quotations and photographs that demonstrate social intercourse between the big five.Between the initial overview and the concluding summary, three chapters provide respectively a view of Stephen Crane on a visit to England to meet the other masters of ficti! onal prose, a study of the collaboration between Ford Madox Ford and Joseph Conrad, and an examination of one of English literature's most famous disputes - James vs. Wells.

I found the book informative and interesting and recommend it to any admirer of any of the five writers singularly or in combination.About those we admire our curiosity is insatiable.Did Shakespeare like his eggs over easy or sunny side up?We have his Hamlet, his Lear, isn't that enough?Some might say no.We have Crane's "Open Boat", Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", Ford's *Good soldier, James' *Ambassadors, Wells' *Time Machine*.Still, it's natural to inquire about the virtues, quirks, and foibles of their creators.*Group Portrait* gives us a taste of the traits that rounds out these illustrious authors.

A sad epilogue to which Mr. Delbanco refers in his lead chapter is that this literary summer was so brief.Crane died in 1900.Eventuallythe other associations wither! ed.By 1906 the friendship between Conrad and Ford had coo! led.*Boon* published in 1915 dissolved Wells' ties to James with its ridicule of the latter.For a while there was Camelot albeit a loose confederacy of brilliant writers.A genius needs a tough ego to sustain him for the long haul to fortune and fame.An alternate lesson from *Group portrait, perhaps one not intended, but nevertheless patent, is that collaboration must eventually give way to ego. ... Read more

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"From ""the preeminent historian of the Revolution"" (Jonathan Yardley), a groundbreaking study, many years in the making, of Benjamin Franklin the man, Benjamin Franklin the myth, and the roots of American character. Central to America's idea of itself is the character of Benjamin Franklin. We all know him, or think we do: In recent works and in our inherited conventional wisdom, he remains fixed in place as a genial polymath and self-improver who was so very American that he is known by us all as the first American. The problem with this beloved notion of Franklin's quintessential Americanness, Gordon Wood shows us in this marvelous, revelatory book, is that it's simply not true. And it blinds us to the no less admirable or important but far more interesting man Franklin really was and leaves us powerless to make sense of the most crucial events of his life. Indeed, thinking of Franklin as the last American would be less of a hindrance to understanding many crucial aspects of his life-his preoccupation with becoming a gentleman; his longtime loyalty to the Crown and burning ambition to be a player in the British Empire's power structure; the personal character of his conversion to revolutionary; his reasons for writing the Autobiography; his controversies with John and Samuel Adams and with Congress; his love of Europe and conflicted sense of national identity; the fact that his death was greeted by mass mourning in France and widely ignored in America. But Franklin did become the Revolution's necessary man, Wood shows, second behind George Washington. Why was his importance so denigrated in his own lifetime and his image so distorted ever since? Ironically, Franklin's diplomacy in France, which was essential to American victory, was the cause of the suspicion that clouded his good name at home-and also the stage on which the ""first American"" persona made its debut. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document, covering the life and work of Benjamin Franklin Schemmer, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 444 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

This digital document, covering the life and work of Frank MacShane, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 1700 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Reviews (1)

A Book for the scholars
I wasn't going to assign stars since I'm not qualified to judge the scholarship, but the system forces me to do so. Jennings claims to have examined previously ignored sources, and one must surely commend him for that. The book is generally impressive, but some of the cases where I can judge Jennings' reasoning make me wonder about his judgement in the cases where I have to take his word. My remarks are as a general reader with an interest in Franklin (I've read 3 biographies). The title is a little deceptive here. The book starts off as a biography of Franklin, and ends there, but the topic for most of the book changes to politics in Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s, and the focus is no longer particularly on Franklin, it could easily be said to focus as much on William Smith or Thomas Penn. I don't know what other people are expecting, but I don't think that Jennings has pulled any mask off of Franklin, revealing some previously unknown qualities. Two of the biographies I have read also affected to be iconographic, but neither of those surprised me either. Jennings certainly tries hard, and sometimes a little too hard. I agree with him completely that we should avoid mythologizing people and events, but I don't think this is a good way to go about reversing the trend. I am reminded of the advice to a new lawyer: if the law is with you, pound the law; if the facts are with you, pound the facts; if neither is with you, pound the table. He amply demonstrates that Franklin's Autobiography is selective and self-serving, but I don't think this is a new insight, and indeed is what one might expect of almost any autobiography, which is why I seldom read them. He is pounding the table in chapter 5, however, when he focuses special attention on a passage in the Autobiography where the Proprietary party offers to make it worth Franklin's while to stop opposing Penn. Franklin says that he replied that he fortunately didn't need their favors. Jennings calls this a near lie since Franklin had enjoyed their favors earlier. To prove this, he quotes Franklin's account in the Autobiography, some 60 pages earlier, of the honors that he had received. Since Franklin told his readers about these earlier honors, he isn't being deceptive and we are left with only a petty argument about word usage that isn't worth pursuing. Jennings also holds up a number of examples of what he apparently views as Franklin's bigotry, but he may find that many of his readers do not find Franklin as distasteful as he hopes, for many of these issues are with us today: how do we react to people who refuse to learn English or assimilate? Is it possible or desirable for us to affirm all of the varied and often contradictory views of our fellow citizens? Can we sharply disapprove of some aspect of another person's life and still work with them for shared social goals without being a hypocrite or seeming to approve of everything they do? ... Read more

Book Description

Somehow Henry Ford knew what Americans were hankering for: “Everybody wants to be someplace he ain’t. As soon as he gets there, he wants to go right back.” And so, he pioneered the Model T–the first affordable car for the masses.
David Weitzman has meticulously documented the development of the assembly line and the many innovations and adaptations Ford put to use in making his famous Tin Lizzy. When the Ford plant first opened, the crew could make 18,000 cars a year at a cost of $950 each. In just ten years, they had refined the process enough so that they could build one million cars in a year and the price had come down to about $350. Filled with detailed black-and-white drawings, helpful text and captions, and fascinating quotes from Ford employees, this elegant book gives young readers a look at a mechanical genius in action.
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