Sunday, November 1, 2009

Biographies “Book Reviews: Ayn Rand biographies - Dallas Morning News” plus 4 more

Biographies “Book Reviews: Ayn Rand biographies - Dallas Morning News” plus 4 more

Book Reviews: Ayn Rand biographies - Dallas Morning News

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 09:58 PM PDT

The Panic of 2008 was bad for the economy, good for advocates of big government and great for Ayn Rand, philosopher, novelist and high priestess of individualism, who died in 1982.

Sales of Rand's novels soared last year as life began to imitate her art – specifically the fictionalized world of Atlas Shrugged. In Rand's final novel, published in 1957, a government desperate to fix a collapsing economy confiscates the wealth of the most productive members of society. The producers go on strike, in her fiction at least, refusing to work for the sake of anyone else.

Two timely, well-researched biographies should complement the renewed interest in Rand. Jennifer Burns' Goddess of the Market focuses on Rand's ideas, while Anne C. Heller's Ayn Rand and the World She Made is a thorough recounting of her life and the forces that shaped her philosophy, known as objectivism.

Almost too thorough. The first few chapters of Heller's book are filled with minute parallels between Rand's early years and her life and work. For example, Rand's first boyfriend resembled a character from a book she read at age 9. She then went on to fictionalize her real-life love in We the Living.

This may be of interest to Rand scholars, but as for the rest of us, who cares?

Nevertheless, either of these biographies will acquaint readers, both casual and obsessed, with fascinating details of Rand's life and ideas.

books@dallasnews.com

Goddess

of the Market

Ayn Rand and the American Right

Jennifer Burns

(Oxford University Press, $27.95)

Ayn Rand and the World She Made

Anne C. Heller

(Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $35)

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Great White Way shines in 3 books - Asbury Park Press

Posted: 01 Nov 2009 01:16 AM PST

If there is one thing theater fans love as much as music from Broadway shows, it's reading about The Great White Way's legendary stars, writers, musicians and directors. And three books recently released by Applause are all worth owning.

First, there's "Journeys in the Night: Creating a New American Theatre with Circle in the Square," a memoir by Theodore Mann, the guiding force behind Circle since its inception in 1951. The book is full of behind-the-scenes stories and some touching moments about actors and directors — as well as about his family.

With director Jose Quintero, a Circle co-founder, Mann helped define off-Broadway with shows such as Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" in 1952 and Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" in 1956. The story of how they won the rights to O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" is one of the book's highlights.

Season by season, Mann takes us through the shows — and thankfully provides a brief summary of each one. Even longtime theatergoers probably don't know every play — especially some of the lesser known works that Circle was known for producing — so it helps to know the background.

The book comes with an 85-minute DVD from the company's 25th anniversary. Interviews with Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave and George C. Scott, among others, are shown with clips from some of the theater's productions. This alone is a treasure worth keeping.

"I'm the Greatest Star" by Robert Viagas, the founding editor of Playbill.com, profiles Broadway's top musical legends from 1900 to today. All your favorites are here, from George M. Cohan to Fanny Brice, Ethel Merman to Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane to Kristin Chenoweth. Sure, there are more in-depth biographies on many of these stars, but it's nice to have them in one place. Also included are some "lost stars," including Bert Williams, Ziegfeld Follies' first black star, whom W.C. Fields called "the funniest man I ever saw."

Finally we have "Geniuses of the American Musical Theatre: The Composers and Lyricists" by Herbert Keyser. You can find a lot of material about Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin and Stephen Sondheim — and more than 20 others — elsewhere, but having one volume of mini-biographies (and they are well-researched and longer than you might think) makes a great resource.

Though not the strongest entry in the book, I enjoyed reading about Kurt Weill, best known in this country for "The Threepenny Opera" and "Lady in the Dark."

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Inside Vince Lombardi's debut season - Delaware Online

Posted: 01 Nov 2009 01:47 AM PDT

You don't need to be a football fan to know Vince Lombardi's immortal line: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

The legendary coach relied on that philosophy 50 years ago to turn the Green Bay Packers from a raw, undisciplined squad into the near-flawless team that went on to win the first two Super Bowls.

Plenty of books have been written about Lombardi and his career, but author John Eisenberg was interested in just one year -- 1959, the year the coach first came to Green Bay. That's the focus of "That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages, $25).

Even with seven future Hall of Famers on the roster, the team was coming off a 1-10-1 record that included a humiliating 56-0 drubbing by the Indianapolis Colts. Under Lombardi's iron-fisted rule, the Packers posted a stunning turnaround the next season to finish 7-5.

To document what happened that year, Eisenberg interviewed dozens of former players, pored over newspaper records and studied more than a dozen biographies and autobiographies.

The result is often engrossing. He provides detailed play-by-play highlights of all 12 games, and he gives us keen nuggets about what the players were thinking and feeling.

Certainly, Lombardi was a no-nonsense coach who dictated a my-way-or-the-highway philosophy from Day One. He demanded perfection, he enforced discipline like a drill sergeant and he motivated through fear.

But deeper questions remain. If all it takes to produce a winning team is to constantly berate players, insult them in front of the team and force them to repeat drills for hours, surely every coach would do exactly that.

There must have been something else, some additional intangible. But we don't get a whiff of what that secret was.

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Lombardi book thrills but leaves secret to coach's methods untold - Oshkosh Northwestern

Posted: 01 Nov 2009 02:06 AM PST

You don't need to be a football fan to know Vince Lombardi's immortal line: "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

The legendary coach relied on that philosophy 50 years ago to turn the Green Bay Packers from a raw, undisciplined squad into the near-flawless team that went on to win the first two Super Bowls.

Plenty of books have been written about Lombardi and his career, but author John Eisenberg was interested in just one year — 1959, the year the coach first came to Green Bay.

Even with seven future Hall of Famers on the roster, the team was coming off a 1-10-1 record that included a humiliating 56-0 drubbing by the Indianapolis Colts. Under Lombardi's iron-fisted rule, the Packers posted a stunning turnaround the next season to finish 7-5.

To document what happened that year, Eisenberg interviewed dozens of former players, pored over newspaper records and studied more than a dozen biographies and autobiographies.

The result is often engrossing. He provides detailed play-by-play highlights of all 12 games, and he gives us keen nuggets about what the players were thinking and feeling.

That information would be great for a book subtitled "A Detailed Look at the Packers' 1959 Season." But the subtitle he did pick suggests that we'll learn Lombardi's secrets. What is it that made him so tremendously effective that the NFL eventually named its Super Bowl trophy in his honor?

Certainly, Lombardi was a no-nonsense coach who dictated a my-way-or-the-highway philosophy from Day One. He demanded perfection, he enforced discipline like a drill sergeant and he motivated through fear.

But deeper questions remain. If all it takes to produce a winning team is to constantly berate players, insult them in front of the team and force them to repeat drills for hours, surely every coach would do exactly that.

There must have been something else, some additional intangible. We don't get a whiff of what that elusive secret was.

To be fair, Eisenberg didn't have access to the coach, who died in 1970. And Lombardi was more than just a bully — he also had a keen football mind and he knew when to replace tough discipline with an occasional pat on the back.

The tale will still captivate football fans, especially Packers fans who are notoriously rabid about their team. Even if it doesn't reveal the secrets of Lombardi's success, Eisenberg's book still provides a thrilling look at the coach and players who legends shine brightly in Titletown even decades later.

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Author says Taylor knew early on 'How To Be A Movie Star' - Desert Sun

Posted: 01 Nov 2009 01:09 AM PST

Even as a child on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot, Elizabeth Taylor knew she was destined for more than the other girls in the studio school.

Her mother, Sara Taylor, told her so.

Sara, who lived in Palm Springs in her later years, did everything possible to make sure her little girl was the exception to all the young stars who failed to make the transition into more adult roles.

Taylor would be the one to grow up to be a bona fide movie star, no matter what it took.

How she became that world-famous star is the focus of William J. Mann's latest book, "How To Be A Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood." The author will sign copies of the book from 4 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Just Fabulous in Palm Springs.

According to Mann's book, no other former child actor broke away from the studio system as successfully as Taylor. By the time time she began work on "Cleopatra" in 1960, she was the highest-paid actress in the business, earning $1 million plus points for the Academy Award.

"That was unheard of. She set the pattern for every other actress in Hollywood to follow," said Mann, who has written several biographies, including "The Edge of Midnight" about director John Schlesinger and "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn."

"This book was a lot of fun to write," Mann said during a break from his book tour. Its release comes at a time when Taylor is once again in the headlines for health problems.

But more than anything, what Taylor learned from the Hollywood studio machine was how to handle her image.

"She understood that there had to be an exchange between her and the press," Mann said. "Headlines were required, but that there had to be substance to back them up and to keep people interested in her."

For Mann, who lives with his partner in Palm Springs and Provincetown, Mass., it's time to relax for a bit now that his book tour is winding down. "I've lived with Liz for three years and I need a break," he said.

His next project? Another celebrity biography.

"Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand" is the working title. "She's another tough lady," he said. "It should be interesting."

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