Sea Wolf of the Confederacy: The Daring Civil War Raids of Naval Lt. Charles W. Read

Book Description

In June1862, just days before the epic clash at Gettysburg, a small party of the Confederate Navy mounted a devastating series of raids on the New England coast. At the center of the conflict was the hotheaded young adventurer, Charles W. Read. Serving aboard the CSS FLORIDA off the coast of Brazil, Read hatched a daring plan to sail a captured brig directly into the Union's home waters and wreak havoc on their shipping lanes. Burning or capturing more than twenty merchant vessels in less than three weeks, Read's rampage caused widespread panic in Northern cities, and brought enormous pressure to "stop the rebel pirate." At one point there were nearly forty Union ships sent to hunt down Read in a cat-and-mouse chase that finally led to his dramatic capture off the coast of Maine. SEA WOLF of the Confederacy brings to light this fascinating yet little known episode of the war, combining Shaw's flair for powerful storytelling with extensive research. Taking readers to the heart of the action on the decks of the burning ships, Shaw offers a compelling portrait of the complex Read and an insightful new perspective on the divisions splitting North and South during this dark time in American history. “…[a] lively account…” —Booklist

Download Description

"In June 1863, just days before the epic clash at Gettysburg ended the last rebel land invasion of the North, a small party of the Confederate Navy mounted a devastating series of raids on the New England coast, culminating in a battle off Portland, Maine. Veteran author David W. Shaw brilliantly re-creates this almost forgotten chapter of the Civil War in rich narrative detail drawn from accounts of the participants. At the center of the conflict were two men: the hotheaded young adventurer Charles W. Read, who resigned his commission as a Union midshipman to become a lieutenant in the Confederate Navy; and Secretary of the United States Navy Gideon Welles, a well-connected politician who ably oversaw the explosive growth of the fleet -- including the revolutionary ironclads -- during the war despite his lack of maritime experience. Serving aboard CSS Florida off the coast of Brazil, Read hatched a daring plan to sail a captured brig directly into the Union's home waters and wreak havoc on their shipping lanes. Burning or capturing more than twenty merchant vessels in less than three weeks, and switching ships several times to elude capture, Read's rampage caused widespread panic in Northern cities, made headlines in the major daily newspapers, and brought enormous pressure on Welles to ""stop the rebel pirate."" At one point there were nearly forty Union ships sent to hunt down Read in a cat-and-mouse game that finally led to his dramatic capture off the coast of Maine. Sea Wolf of the Confederacy brings to light this fascinating yet little known episode of the war, combining Shaw's flair for powerful storytelling with extensive research culled from contemporary newspapers, journals, and official war records. Taking readers to the heart of the action on the decks of the burning ships, Shaw offers a compelling portrait of the complex Read and an insightful new perspective on the divisions splitting North and South during this dark time in American history. "

Customer Reviews:

A Brave Man Does What He Can for His Country.......2007-04-01

Charles W. Read was an inept student, he graduated last in his class at Annapolis in 1860 just before he re-signed his commission in the US Navy. What he showed (just like US Grant and a lot of other military minds) was that some people do best by doing, not studying. Having lost his steam ram in a battle on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. He is called to work on a "Raider" out of Mobile Bay.

Once on the open ocean "Florida" sailed into the Caribbean where they attacked Union commerce and merchant marine. Taking a captured ship "Tacony" with one howitzer and some fake (Quaker) wood guns, Read proceeds to damage over twenty ships on his way up to Portland Maine where they are caught but only after they steal a US Revenue Cutter and blow it up. The story is a lot like that of the "Shenandoah" which had two books about it published in 2005; more interesting from an historical point of view but not that thrilling. (How exciting can it be to read about the capture and burning of fishing Schooners?)

Well-written account of a forgotten episode of the Civil War.......2005-06-28

Although a life-long Civil War buff I had never heard of this attempt by a young Confederate Naval officer to take the war to the seas off New England. Lt. Charles A. Read had previously served on the ironclad "Arkansas" and the commerce raider "Florida" and had seen a lot of hard fighting - which he seemed to relish. In February, of 1863, the "Florida" captured a Union merchant vessel and Read was given permission to take over and convert this captured ship into another commerce raider. Read promptly sailed to the North and with only one small cannon on board began to wreak havoc on the New England fishing industry. The Northern states then began beseeching Washington for more protection - threatening to divert resources from the bloackade of Southern ports. Shipping insurance rates started rising, too.

Shaw skillfully interweaves the two sides of the story - the motives and actions of the protagonist, Read, and his antagonist, Union Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles. The author may have a Northern bias but it does not ruin the story. There are many good accounts of Civil War naval actions - we can add this one to the list.

Amazon.com

Most scientists are lucky if they can base a career on one big discovery. Carl Djerassi, who first synthesized the birth control pill, has managed to squeeze two careers--so far--out of that feat. His memoir, This Man's Pill, published on the pill's 50th birthday, is a warm and funny reflection on his work as research chemist and man of letters; with several novels and plays under his belt, Djerassi is an insightful writer far past the journeyman stage. Exploring the pill's reception and the various battles it's faced internationally, he offers his own thoughts on the subjects of medical ethics, sexuality, and politics while sharing his complex life story. Reminiscent of Richard Feynman's playfully free spirit, Djerassi's voice will inspire readers interested in the confluence of science and art. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

October 15, 1951 marks the birthday of one of the key episodes in 20th century social history: the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive in a small laboratory in Mexico City - an event that triggered the development of the Pill. Carl Djerassi has been honoured worldwide for that accomplishment, which ultimately changed the life of women and the nature of human reproduction in ways that were not foreseeable. On the 50th anniversary of this pivotal event, Djerassi weaves a compelling personal narrative full of self-reflection and occasional humour on the impact this invention has had on the world at large and on him personally. He credits the Pill with radically altering his academic career at Stanford University to become one of the few American chemists writing novels and plays. This Man's Pill presents a forcefully revisionist account of the early history of the Pill, debunking many of the journalistic and romantic accounts of its scientific origin. Djerassi does not shrink from exploring why we have no Pill for men or why Japan only approved the Pill in 1999 (together with Viagra). Emphasizing that development of the Pill occurred during the post-War period of technological euphoria, he believes that it could not be repeated in today's climate. Would the sexual revolution of the 1960s or the impending separation of sex ("in bed") and fertilization ("under the microscope") still have happened? This Man's Pill answers such questions while providing a uniquely authoritative account of a discovery that changed the world.

Average customer rating:

Informative and useful

Will I get Alzheimer's Disease?

Highly Recommended, Very Reader Friendly

what a great book

Great tricks to improve memory!

The Memory Cure : How to Protect Your Brain Against Memory Loss and Alzheimer's Disease
Majid Fotuhi
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Nervous System | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Alzheimer's Disease | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Healthy Living | Personal Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 007143366X

Book Description

"Credentials don't come much loftier than Fotuhi's."

--Washington Post

"The book is a message of hope and reassurance for laymen, especially aging members of the baby-boom generation alarmed by all the attention being paid to Alzheimer's and imagining worst-case scenarios for themselves."

--Washington Times

Dr. Majid Fotuhi, one of the world's foremost experts in the field of Alzheimer's Disease and brain function, outlines a highly effective plan to guard against memory loss.

Customer Reviews:

Informative and useful.......2007-08-11

The book begins by pointing out that sometimes people and it seems even doctors mistake depression or other health problems which can be treated successful for Alzheimer's disease which may be untreatable.

He then offers a ten step plan for prevention of memory loss, which consists of proper diet, as well as daily physical and mental exercise. Some nutrients that have been found useful for better functioning of the brain are blueberries, spinach, and other fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants, almonds and other nutrients rich in vitamin E, less salt in diet, as well as general nutrition that contributes to low cholesterol and normal blood pressure. High blood pressure and high cholesterol seem to be detrimental to memory. He further suggests cutting the quantity of food people consume, perhaps in half. Fasting is good. Daily physical exercise envigorates the entire body including the brain. As as the saying goes "use it or lose it", constant mental stimulation, learning new things, solving puzzles, challenging oneself intellectually in different ways through reading or even calculating totals in one's head when grocery shopping are all helpful to keep the brain active and in good shape throughout one's life.

Will I get Alzheimer's Disease?.......2006-08-19

So many of us worry about whether we might get this disease.
Dr. Fotuhi says that of the many who fear they may get it, only a
very few will get it.

He describes our brain in a very interesting fashion. He explains how our brain stores our memories, and, what amazes me,
how the brain knows what to store. We all know what we were doing when 9/ll happened. We certainly don't remember what we
were doing on Sept. l0!

It is a fascinating read and teaches us a lot about the brain,
and how to protect ourselves from memory loss, about advances
that are being made toward a cure.

An easy book to read-not too scientific.

Highly Recommended, Very Reader Friendly.......2003-02-20

This recently released book on Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most reader friendly book I've come across in quite a while. I've seen this book first-hand, and it is impressive. It describes the complicated neurology of the brain in an easy to follow manner. Also, Dr. Fotuhi describes (in plain language) the latest AD research findings and discusses their implications. If I had to recommend only two books on Alzheimer's disease for caregivers it would be this one and, "The 36-Hour Day." In contrast to some books on AD, Dr. Fotuhi's book is optimistic. Not only does he describe how AD develops, but more importantly he discusses what people can do to reduce their individual risk factors for developing AD. I find myself constantly recommending this book to all the families of patients participating in AD research projects I coordinate.

what a great book.......2003-02-11

I found this book extremly useful and easy to read... it covered the latest research on brain and memory, in addition to giving tips on how to prevent memory loss..
Dr. Fotuhi's credentials are very impressive and I hope he will continue passing on his expertise to us as he has in this book

Great tricks to improve memory!.......2003-02-06

I found this book very easy to read, well researched, and super useful! Fotuhi really knows his stuff. The best part for me was the chapter on the practical steps that can be taken to sharpen one's memeory. The ATTENTION formula is easy to adopt and very effective. While I can't say my memory is already sharper, I am more aware of what's going on up there and what can be done to make sure everything continues to work like fine oiled machine.

Book Description

In this book Dr Fotuhi outlines an exciting and highly effective plan that targets the 13 factors contributing to the development of memory loss.

Download Description

A world-renowned neurologist presents the first groundbreaking memory-loss protection plan

Book Description

The charming town of Yountville, California, is fast becoming a culinary mecca, boasting such famous sons as Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Philippe Jeanty of Bistro Jeanty. And with the growing popularity of the renowned Villagio Inn & Spa, Yountville has become a place to embrace the art of wellness and rejuvenation as well. In ESCAPE TO YOUNTVILLE, best-selling cookbook author Sally James combines Yountville's two favorite pastimes—eating and relaxing—in her pursuit of the good life. More than 50 of Sally's seasonal recipes as well as signature recipes from 15 of the Napa Valley's finest chefs accompany preparations for pampering spa treatments such as a sake and rose petal foot bath, an olive oil-ginger salt glow, and a lavender-infused body wrap. Much more than just another cookbook, ESCAPE TO YOUNTVILLE pairs gourmet spa cuisine with luxurious treatments to feed both body and soul from the inside out.

Customer Reviews:

Clean and Architectural Food.......2004-08-12

Recall dining at a restaurant that puts a plate in front of you and it has a garnish (crispy wonton, parmesean twirls, etc.)...We eat with our mouth and eyes.

This book satisfies both. Buy it. Enjoy. You could be dead tomorrow!

Book Description

Among the storied, craggy, and pine covered hills and in its fertile valleys live the descendants of immigrants and pioneers that make up New England. Closely intertwined in their lives are the useful and beloved animals. Well trained Veterinarians fill a need among them caring for their monetary necessity and, more importantly, for the deeply held loving bond that people feel with them.

In contemporary times came monied people buying land and and they were ignorant of the delicate natural balance understood inherently by country people. Veterinarians understood and had access to all the social levels simply because they dealt with a common entity--animals.

This is the story of one animal doctor.......

Customer Reviews:

A Tincture of Time.......2001-11-12

The Following book review was printed in the ³Sherman Sentinel² in Sherman, CT. It was embarrassingly positive, and was so close to my intended writing target that I would like my readers to see it.

³I came to Sherman when Dr. Everett Vreeland was retiring from veterinary practice, so it naturally followed that I inherited some of his previous clients. They regaled me with tales of a white coveralled, tall, gregarious man who would be seen careening through town on his way from one animal medical emergency to the next. He was described as decisive, well-liked, a good ³cow-man², a man who dares to experience and love life,
³Doc² Vreeland has distilled his rich experiences acquired during forty years of general veterinary practice into a book, A Tincture of Time¹.
The gold standard with which to compare any veterinarian¹s memoirs is, of course, the work of English country veterinarian, James Herriot. Everett Vreeland is James Herriot with the bark still on him. He is Ernest Hemingway as an animal doctor. An experience of my own serves to illustrate my first impression of Dr. Vreeland¹s book. I was working on a local dairy farm and had just met the herd¹s veterinarian for the first time, a colorful character quite similar to Dr. Vreeland. I mentioned to the herdsman that I didn¹t quite know how to take this fellow, to which he replied, Sometimes you take him right between the eyes!¹
I found A Tincture of Time¹ often hilarious, sincere, opinionated, and sometimes prurient. It is a book for adults, describing with sometimes brutal honesty the joys and tribulations of being a solo veterinarian in rural New England. His recountings of his dealings with colorful clients, whose identities are disguised with clever cognomens, are keenly observant, accurate and well articulated. His interpolations of non-veterinary experiences make the book genuine and interesting.
This book is a labor of love, written by a man with a calling to be a veterinarian. In a profession that can offer unmatched rewards and pressures, he has managed to convey his formula towards achieving happiness.²
Paul Biagiotti DVM

Average customer rating:
Tincture of time: The story of 150 years of medicine in Atlanta, 1845-1995
Martin Moran
Manufacturer: Williams Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books | Anatomy | Biochemistry | Embryology | General | Genetics | Histology | Immunology | Microbiology | Nosology | Pathophysiology | Physiology
General | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006F608K

Average customer rating:

Easy Instructions

Very Useful Tip Book - Worth Having On Your Reference Shelf

Great for a new or intermediate knitter

not for machine knitters

A real gem!

Knitting Tips & Trade Secrets: Clever Solutions for Better Hand Knitting, Machine Knitting, and Crocheting (Threads On)
Threads Editors
Manufacturer: Taunton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Knitting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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The Prolific Knitting Machine

ASIN: 1561581569
Release Date: 1996-08-19

Customer Reviews:

Easy Instructions.......2007-08-15

I'm a kinetic learner, so many books of instructions leave me more puzzled than informed. This one's an exception--the excellent line drawings illustrate techniques so that even I get it.

Lots of great ideas in here.

Very Useful Tip Book - Worth Having On Your Reference Shelf.......2007-03-08

I borrowed this book from the library to see if it was "worth" buying for myself. After I found myself referring to it constantly and renewing it for an additional 30 days, I realized it was a "keeper." Although I don't do machine knitting, the tips for handknitters are many and diverse. The illustrations are clear and relevant. Most importantly, i found tips here that i had never seen before in other sources. All in all, a valuable and worthwhile purchase.

Great for a new or intermediate knitter.......2006-09-22

I've only been knitting for about a year and I learned so much from this book. At first it seemed like a collection of knit tips from a magazine, but once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. The ideas are from people who know all about different stitches and methods of knitting - things you only learn from having done a project many times. Some ideas I knew, but most of the ideas presented are practical "how tos" that will really help improve my knitting and how I approach projects. I have recommended this book to several people. I keep it in my knit bag and have used it frequently. I only gave it 4 stars (I would have chosen 4+), because some of the concepts needed more or better illustrations.

not for machine knitters.......2006-08-01

This book is really not worth it for machine knitters. (I hand knit, too, and I'm still not convinced it's worth owning a copy!) There are only a few machine knitting tips in the entire book, and most of them are either basics covered in any knitting machine's owner's manual or tips for highly specialized items that wouldn't be useful unless you had the pattern in front of you.

A real gem!.......2005-10-30

I can't tell you how often I have reached for this little book either for myself, or to clarify an explanation to my knitting students. Some items are a review of skills already known, some give a new perspective, and some are just little nuggets of delight- new tricks and techniques. I find myself saying over and over "ah, now I understand how that goes" or "mmmmm, that looks like a much better method". I have notes written all over the margins of my copy if that is any indication of it's constant use. Highly recommended!

Average customer rating:
Green things in small spaces: Apartment gardening indoors, outdoors, on-the-cheap
Marnie Collins
Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0458930709

Average customer rating:

very useful

Of all of the breastfeeding books I have, this is the best.

I can't put it down!

User Friendly!!

how did this book get 4+ stars?

So That's What They're For: Breastfeeding Basics
Janet Tamaro
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Pregnancy & Childbirth | Women's Health | Personal Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Household Hints | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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The Breastfeeding Book: Everything You Need to Know About Nursing Your Child from Birth Through Weaning

Accessories:

Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 1580620418

Customer Reviews:

very useful.......2007-03-30

This is a very fun book and useful about breastfeeding.
It was recommended to me by several people.
It was an easy read.

Of all of the breastfeeding books I have, this is the best........2006-07-07

When I was pregnant, my sister gave me a whole stack of breastfeeding books -- the entire La Leche series, plus this one. I have to say this book tops all of them, for readability and digestibility of information. At times the author does come off a little preachy and a tad superior, but also strongly reaffirms commitment to nursing.

In a conversational style aimed at new mothers, Janet Tamaro walks the reader through the essential basics of breastfeeding, breastmilk, and newborn nutrition needs. With everything that she covers, you really don't need any other book; however, with that said, more illustrations would have been nice, and nothing is a substitute for one-on-one help from another breastfeeding mother.

Breastmilk is THE best food for baby. Regardless of what formula marketing campaigns and the modern media would have consumers believe, breastmilk is what babies are SUPPOSED to eat. Janet Tamaro makes this clear in her book, and doesn't water it down: she tells it like it is, and she gives mothers the knowledge base they need to provide this vital food to their babies.

My recommendation: read this book, keep it, use it as a reference, but make sure you also have another nursing mother you can call on for help when the going gets rough.

I can't put it down!.......2006-06-12

I'm still in the middle of reading this book but I absolutely love it! It's really opened my eyes to Breastfeeding and what to expect. The book is mostly educational, not as "funny" as I thought based on the title. But that's okay! The author talks about her own struggles and triumphs with breastfeeding her daughters. Reading it now is an education but I know later it'll be a great resource to help combat any problems I may encounter.

User Friendly!!.......2005-11-19

This book is one of the best breastfeeding books ever written. I expected it to be light and anecdotal, which it is. What I didn't expect was that it would be so comprehensively informative. If I were going to give a woman one book on breastfeeding it would be this one!!!

how did this book get 4+ stars?.......2005-10-26

This was the first book I read about breastfeeding and I was greatly disappointed with it. I bought it because it looked like it would be funny and informative but did not find it useful.

A large part of the book is repetitive and much time is spent trying to convince you to breastfeed instead of just giving facts about breastfeeding. I already knew I wanted to breastfeed, did not need convincing and it was tedious to keep reading about the reasons why I should.

Nothing is related in an organized manner and I had no greater understanding of what I could expect or what I should do after reading it.

The book, The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers by Jack Newman is FAR superior. (And, should you have sore nipples his recipe for nipple cream is the most amazing stuff out there- I couldn't believe how well it worked!)

Average customer rating:
Making Faces: Memoirs of a Caricaturist
Aline Fruhauf
Manufacturer: Seven Locks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cartooning | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Artists, Architects & Photographers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Satire, General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0932020461

Average customer rating:
MAKING FACES MEMOIRS OF A CARICATURIST
Aline Fruhauf
Manufacturer: Seven Locks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWHVBA

Average customer rating:
Making Faces. Memoirs of a Caricaturist
Aline Fruhauf
Manufacturer: Seven Locks Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NULD58

Average customer rating:
MAKING FACES: MEMOIRS OF A CARICATURIST
Aline Fruhauf
Manufacturer: Seven Locks Press Cabin John, MD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IX1EYK

Average customer rating:

Portrait of the Artist in an affordable Manhattan

a sweetheart of a writer

sadly and sweetly written

A Very Dear Book

Excellent first half; second half trails off

Missing Men: A Memoir
Joyce Johnson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000HWZ40M

Amazon.com

Joyce Johnson has led the kind of life the rest of us only see in novels; who else gets to share a childhood stage with Marlon Brando dressed up as a bear? In her first two works of nonfiction, Door Wide Open and the award-winning Minor Characters, Johnson chronicled a beat coming of age through the lens of her brief relationship with Jack Kerouac. Missing Men fills in the gaps in this bohemian life story even as it highlights them. Fittingly enough for a woman who married two abstract painters, it's a book about negative space. Three extended reminiscences--one for her childhood, one for each of her marriages--tease out the patterns in a life that "shaped itself around absences." Missing men defined those she loved: her iron-willed mother, whose immigrant father killed himself when she was five; her two husbands, each fatherless, each with his own burden of tragedy and rage; Johnson herself, left behind with her freedom and her art. The writing, as always, is lovely and precise. Whether she is recounting the home-sewn dresses of her mother's lonely girlhood or the "metallic sputter" of the old red motorbike that ends her first marriage, Johnson breaks your heart with the tellingly chosen detail. --Mary Park

Book Description

Joyce Johnson's classic Minor Characters is valued not only for its portrayal of her relationship with Jack Kerouac but also for its stunning evocation of what it meant to grow up female in the 1950s. In Missing Men, Johnson gives us an even more revelatory self-portrait as she examines—from a unique woman's perspective—the far-reaching reverberations of fatherlessness.

Born in 1935, she was an orphan's daughter, named for her grandfather, an immigrant poet from Warsaw who killed himself when her mother was only five. Johnson would marry two artists who were also fatherless. James Johnson died in a motorcycle accident, making her a widow at twenty-seven. Peter Pinchbeck, obsessed with reinventing abstract painting, was unable to commit himself to marriage and fatherhood. Telling a compelling story that has “shaped itself around absences,” Missing Men presents us with the arc and the flavor of a unique New York life—from the author's adventures as a Broadway stage child managed by her implacable mother to the fateful encounters that later brought her love and ultimately left her to make her way alone as an artist in her own right.

Customer Reviews:

Portrait of the Artist in an affordable Manhattan.......2006-05-23

Joyce Johnson pays an eloquent tribute to the two men she married in the fifties and early sixties. Both men, Jim Johnson (who died in a motorcycle crash and left Joyce a widow at 27) and Peter Pinchback were, in a sense, "failed" abstract expressionists whose work never was commercially successful. And both were temperamental men who frankly, sounded impossible to live with. Joyce gave her husbands both financial and emotional support, in addition to working full time as an editor and raising a son alone after her marriage with Pinchback ended. Johnson describes a rich artistic life in what now is a lost and faraway world--a grubby, but affordable Manhattan where even impoverished artists could casually move from the Bowery to the East Village or Soho in search of the perfect space. "In those days it was still possible to be gracefully poor in New York," she writes. From what's been written about the lives of artists like Pollack and deKooning, we know what it was like to be a successful painter in New York in the fifties. Johnson's book is valuable in another way; she chronicles what it was like to be part of the second wave of abstract expressionists. These artists were, by and large, ignored by dealers and critics and their fragile careers were dealt a final blow by the conceptual and Pop art movements.

Johnson writes that she was raised in a family of women, mostly without men, and that the emotional absence she experienced in both of her difficult marriages replicated the male absences of her childhood. Ironically, it's Joyce Johnson herself who has achieved the fame and recognition that so eluded both of her husbands. But the loving (and exasperated) portraits she paints of them here show that she is a powerful artist in her own right.

a sweetheart of a writer.......2005-09-26

If you read "Missing Men", no doubt you'll be drawn to Joyce Johnson's other two memoirs, "Minor Characters" and "Door Wide Open". All three books are wonderfully intimate sketches of people and places. Whereas "Minor Characters" and "Door Wide Open" focus on Joyce's friendships with notable personalities within the "Beat Movement"(especially her romantic involvement with Jack Kerouac), "Missing Men" addresses her relationships to her father and her two husbands, artists James Johnson and Peter Pinchbeck.

"Missing Men" is beautifully written. Johnson's economy with language is always worth savoring, tracing scenes which stay with the reader forever--be it gathering apples for a pie with her friends, Jack Kerouac in a sleeping bag in your spare room, or (in this volume) the haunting trip to her deceased husband Peter's pitifully small, loudly-colored house in the country.

Joyce Johnson is simply too good of a writer to miss. Do yourself a favor and go quickly to the nearest bookstore or library to find out for yourself (...or just use that friendly little clicker in your hand.)

sadly and sweetly written.......2004-12-21

Joyce Johnson's "Missing Men" is a wrenchingly sad account of her life, coming of age in 1950s Bohemia. An only child, she details her mother's unhappy journey as an orphan who made a late and unfulfilling marriage and who became a "stage mother," lavishing her daughter with love.

Joyce Johnson broke away from the homelife that stifled her, and gave her heart, several times, to abstract artists: This book is about blankness and absence. Although she writes without excessive self-pity, nevertheless bleakness, sorrow, and longing permeate its pages. There is little here about her successful career, her life in publishing, which might mitigate the wistful tone of her memoir.

A Very Dear Book.......2004-09-11

It's 2am and I meant to be in bed by 10 tonight but couldn't put Missing Men down until it was done. And now it is done, and I'm sad that it is.

Like Minor Characters and In the Night Cafe, two other truly wonderful books, Joyce Johnson writes so personally that the book's end feels like the end of a visit with a dear friend, a friend you see much too rarely. She captures so well that hunger to replay life's moments -- painful and joyous both, over and over like a song, as she put it -- to feel what they have meant, to hear them right, to savor and take them inside you and somehow keep living them long after they're gone.

And she shares the scary lack of fulfilling resolution when the little enlightenments don't simply add up to resolution and love. She doesn't hide her fear of dying alone, and the three books of hers that I have read all bring me home to my own fear of this too. And that's something so few writers have the courage or ability to really share. And that's very honest. And that's something very dear.

Excellent first half; second half trails off.......2004-07-18

I really enjoyed reading about Joyce Johnson's childhood family. What a crew! I enjoyed reading about her life with Jim Johnson -- her descriptions of their marriage made his death really poignant. But I wasn't all that fascinated by Peter Pinchbeck. I realize the book is "Missing Men," but he was just too missing for me. I never really understood him. I would have preferred to know more about her career in publishing and the fascinating people I'm sure she met. But that wasn't the point of the book, I guess. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about women's lives.

Average customer rating:

Missing Men : A Memoir
Joyce Johnson
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJCYII

Average customer rating:

The Missing Men A Memoir
Johnson Joyce
Manufacturer: Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF53R0

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