The politics of memory

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Deborah Davis

Although Katharine Graham is surely one of the most powerful women in the world, few people are aware of the extent of her influence. World leaders meet with her; presidents meet with her; anyone moving up in the circles of power in the nation's capital tries to meet with the owner of the Washington Post and Newsweek--a communications conglomerate. Katharine the Great is a full-length biography of Kay Graham, a woman born into wealth and power. The second daughter of multimillionaires Eugene Meyer and Agnes Ernst, she grew up among the elite. Her mother's friends included Picasso, Rodin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Thomas Mann. She went to Vassar and the University of Chicago. After a brief stay on the West Coast she returned to the East, where her father had just purchased the Washington Post. When Katharine married, her husband, the brilliant, mercurial Philip Graham, became publisher of the Post. Katharine Graham settled down to home life while her husband ran the newspaper. But during the 1950s Philip Graham was battling manic depression, and their marriage suffered. In 1963, twenty-five years to the day after he took over the Washington Post Company, Philip Graham committed suicide. Middle-aged and inexperienced, Katharine Graham took over the newspaper. Together with Ben Bradlee she made the Post a successful and powerful newspaper. In 1970 she published the Pentagon Papers to international repercussions. In 1972 the Post began the Watergate investigation, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation from the White House. From the Meyer Family to Phil Graham's era at the Post, to the CIA and Deep Throat, and beyond to the changing politics of the Reagan-Bush years, Deborah Davis reveals how Katharine Graham has helped to shape the destiny of the United States.

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Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund

In this first interpretive narrative of the life and work of Christian Wolff, Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund trace the influences and sensibilities of a contemporary composer's atypical career path and restless imagination. Written in full cooperation with Wolff, including access to his papers, this volume is a much-needed introduction to a leading avant-garde composer still living, writing music, and speaking about his own work. Wolff has pioneered various compositional and notational idioms, including overtly political music, indeterminacy, graphic scores, and extreme virtuosity. Trained as a classicist rather than a musician, Wolff has never quite had both feet in the rarefied world of contemporary composition. Yet he's considered a "composer's composer," with a mind ensconced equally in ancient Greek tragedy and experimental music and an eccentric and impulsive compositional approach that eludes a fixed stylistic fingerprint. Hicks and Asplund cover Wolff's family life and formative years, his role as a founder of the New York School of composers, and the context of his life and work as part of the John Cage circle, as well as his departures from it. Critically assessing Wolff's place within the experimental musical field, this volume captures both his eloquence and reticence and provides insights into his broad interests and activities within music and beyond [Publisher description].

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Benjamin Nugent

"It is rare for a recording artist to move fans so deeply that news of his death sparks instant tributes and concerts across oceans and continents - from Dublin to Boston, Manhattan to Nashville, Toronto to L.A. But that is exactly what happened soon after October 21, 2003, the day Elliott Smith died in Los Angeles of two stab wounds to the chest." "Known best for his Oscar-nominated song "Miss Misery" from the Good Will Hunting soundtracking, Elliott Smith was catapulted to the status of indie rock star after performing at the 1997 Academy Awards. Some of his albums, XO and Either/Or among them, would become '90s classics, helping to define an understated aesthetic that owed as much to the melodic emphasis of The Beatles as it did to punk." "Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing begins with Smith's childhood outside Dallas and his years in Portland, Oregon, where he first became known locally as a singer and guitarist with the band Heatmiser. But even as a teenager Smith was composing solo material, writing songs that would bring instant attention to his homemade debut Roman Candle. His music soon caught the ear of another Portland auteur, Gus Van Sant, the director of Good Will Hunting." "In the afterglow of the success of "Miss Misery," Smith's fame grew - alongside his struggles with depression and substance abuse. First relocating to Brooklyn, and then finally to L.A., he fell into a downward spiral evident to friends and fans alike, even as he continued to write such beautifully realized songs as "Walts #2 (XO)."" "Drawing on interviews with those who knew and loved Smith, and focusing on the crucial interplay between Smith's life and music, Benjamin Nugent portrays an enormously gifted, yet troubled, artist."--BOOK JACKET.

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Robert A. Schanke

"In the first book-length biography of Mercedes de Acosta, theater historian Robert A. Schanke adroitly mines lost archival materials and mixes in his own interviews with de Acosta's intimates to correct established myths and at last construct an accurate, detailed, and vibrant portrait of the flamboyantly uninhibited early-twentieth-century author, poet, and playwright." "Born to wealthy Spanish immigrants, Mercedes de Acosta (1893-1968) lived in opulence and traveled in the same social circles as the Astors and Vanderbilts. She was introduced to the New York theater scene at an early age, and her dual loves of performance and of women informed every aspect of her life thereafter. De Acosta was notorious for walking the streets of New York in mannish pants, pointed shoes trimmed with buckles, a tricorn hat, and a cape. With her chalky white face, deep-set eyes, thin red lips, and jet black hair, de Acosta was labeled "Countess Dracula" by Tallulah Bankhead. And Alice B. Toklas's observation, "Say what you will about Mercedes, she's had the most important women in the twentieth century," was well justified, as her romantic conquests included such internationally renowned beauties as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Isadora Duncan, as well as Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Tamara Karsavina, Pola Negri, and Ona Munson." "Not merely a record of her personal life and infamous romances, this account offers the first analysis of de Acosta's complete oeuvre, including three volumes of poetry, two novels, two film scripts, and a dozen plays. Although only two of her plays were ever published during her lifetime, four of them were produced, featuring such stage luminaries as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Eva Le Gallienne. When she published her first volume of poetry, Moods, in 1919, critics praised her achievements and predicted her rise to literary fame. Unfortunately, the love of other women that fueled her writing also limited her opportunities to fulfill this destiny. Failing to achieve any lasting fame, she died in relative poverty at the age of seventy-five." "Aided by twenty-seven photographs, Schanke establishes Mercedes de Acosta's rightful place as a pioneer - and indeed a champion - in the early struggle for lesbian rights in this country. The famous portrayal of her as "that furious lesbian" should now be considered an admiring description rather than a scornful slur."--Jacket.