Author: Manchán Magan
Publisher: Brandon Books
ISBN: 9780863223686
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This entertaining, offbeat travelogue is a true story of deluded maharajahs, murderous environmentalists, sex-obsessed yogis and bizarre high-society belles. It stretches from women throwing themselves on funeral pyres in the deserts of Rajasthan to mind-reading children in Himalayan forests.

Author: Bill Dedman
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345534522
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Get Book Here

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms. Praise for Empty Mansions “An amazing story of profligate wealth . . . an outsized tale of rags-to-riches prosperity.”—The New York Times “An evocative and rollicking read, part social history, part hothouse mystery, part grand guignol.”—The Daily Beast “Fascinating . . . [a] haunting true-life tale.”—People “One of those incredible stories that you didn’t even know existed. It filled a void.”—Jon Stewart, The Daily Show “Thrilling . . . deliciously scandalous.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Author: Manchán Magan
Publisher: Brandon Books
ISBN: 9780863223891
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
A young man travels overland from London to Nairobi in a truck with a group of squabbling, treacherous cast-offs from Thatcher's Britain, including privately educated schoolgirls, a predatory market gardener, a former torturer from the British Army, a locksmith claiming to be a UFO abductee, three conniving nurses and a prim quantity surveyor. A non-stop rollercoaster ride of adventure, anecdote and fresh observations about the nature of Africa and what it means to be passing through.

Author: Douglas Keister
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 1586857738
Category : Caravans
Languages : en
Pages : 168

Get Book Here

Book Description
What do Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Mae West, Howard Hughes, John Madden, the Partridge Family, Ken Kesey, The Who, and Barbie have in common? Each had a home on wheels-be it an old converted school bus, a massive RV cruiser, or elegant house car. These celebrity motorhomes are only the frosting on the cake in Douglas Keister's entertaining and informative new book Mobile Mansions. From the eclectic to the exquisite, the luxurious to the rare, Keister's incredible photography showcases the history and diversity of some of the most historic and lovingly restored RVs on the road today. Keister documents an amazing range of vehicles, including small camp cars from the 1920s, house cars from the 1930s, campers from the 1950s and finally modern-day motorhomes that first emerged in the 1960s. Well-known brands like Winnebago, GMC, and Travco are featured as well as one-of-a-kind vehicles like the Lamsteed Kampcar, built by Anheuser Busch, the Zeppelin House Car, and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion car. Step inside a wide variety of motorhomes, from diminutive camp cars to diesel-belching, lumbering leviathans complete with saunas, balconies, and gourmet kitchens. Mobile Mansions details this fascinating chapter of America's history with lively text, luscious full color photographs, rare vintage photographs and offers a concise history of the recreational vehicle.

Author: James Monaghan
Publisher: Brandon Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
Three Irish Republicans - James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly - were arrested at Bogota airport by the Colombian army, who alleged that they had been training FARC rebels, and were members of the IRA. Now, for the first time, James Monaghan tells the inside story of the Colombia Three."

Author: Cynthia Drew
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1564747816
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
After her first husband is presumed killed in World War I, milliner Carsie Levy marries Chat Nussbaum and together with Carsie's daughters, Sarit and Sophia, they settle into a quiet routine. But between the World Wars life outside the walls of the Nussbaum's red brick mansion on New York City's East 66 th Street is anything but quiet-the politics and pace of the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression contrive in ways Carsie cannot imagine to wrest her of her family, her business and, ultimately, her sanity.

Author: Bill Dedman
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345534530
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Get Book Here

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch When Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money? Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world. Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else. The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic. Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.

Author: Thomas DOOLITTLE
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Get Book Here

Book Description

Author: Ken McKowen
Publisher: Wilderness Press
ISBN: 0899975542
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
This two-color traveler’s companion features more than 130 of California’s best missions, mansions, and museums. In addition to insider information on many of the destinations, the guide features themed tours that will appeal to tourists and armchair travelers alike, history buffs, as well as teachers and parents. Every entry details the highlights of a particular place and includes operating hours, entrance fees, location, a phone number, and website information. Themed tours range from famous Californians, to lighthouses, ghost towns, and much more. This guidebook is a must-have for anyone interested in California's eclectic history.

Author: J. Frazer Smith
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486142221
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
DIVRich survey ranges from pioneer cabins to French Provincial and Neoclassic revivals. Extensive commentary on each building, with over 100 detailed illustrations, including 36 floor plans. Bibliography. /div