Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Biographies & Memoirs

Larry King was a true-blue baseball fanatic. A lifelong love affair began the night he attended a Dodgers game at Ebbets Field as a kid in 1940s Brooklyn. That was a simpler era in America's history, a time when tickets to a game cost fifty cents and parish priests prayed for Gil Hodges to break out of a slump. In this heartfelt valentine to America's favorite pastime, King recalls the many pleasures the game brought him for more than sixty years. This ode to baseball is a must for all fans and will be treasured by lovers of the game everywhere.

On Thursday, August 28, 1947, a 30-year-old millionaire named Manuel Laureano Rodriguez—Manolete—and a Miura bull named Islero killed each other. The Death of Manolete recounts the extraordinary life and demise of this young bullfighter, from the childhood that made the Spanish boy and the sacrifice that made the man to the girl who brought him love and the acclaim that brought him incredible success.

Seldom has the world seen a man with the grace, style, intellect, and success of journalist, author, publisher, Broadway and film producer, and husband to long-time Cosmopolitan head Helen Gurley Brown, David Brown. Throughout his remarkable life, he was a friend, acquaintance, and confidant of the world's most powerful, most famous, and most notorious.

Joe Eszterhas knows a lot about darkness. A writer of sinister, sexually graphic, violent films like Basic Instinct and Jagged Edge, he awoke one hellishly hot day in 2001 and found God. Or, rather, God found him. Crossbearer is the powerful, poignant story of how a streetwise, cynical man who must overcome his addictions to stay alive found faith in some of the most mundane sources: a game of baseball, a child's photo of a cloud, a dying mother's dying roses.

For seven years, Hannah Nyala and her two children were physically and psychologically abused by her husband. Although they escaped, he soon found the trio and abducted the children. Seeking solace in the desert wilderness to make sense of her loss, Hannah joined a search-and-rescue team. In doing so, she developed skills as a tracker and dedicated herself to saving the lives of lost children. Becoming attuned to nature's messages, she can read the history of a footprint and the clues in stones and desert sand. But one day, she made a chilling discovery—someone was tracking her.

In A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson documented her brave decision to take a year of solitude away from her marriage. In this moving sequel, Anderson gives fresh hope for all women and men negotiating their own marital passages. Using the same approach, she explores the challenges of rebuilding and renewing a marriage with her trademark candor, compassion, and insight. Anderson shows us her own rocky path to renewing a marriage gone stale and charts the new journey that she and her husband began, seasoned by years of marriage but awakened to the possibilities for their future.

From one of the most successful and influential producers in the entertainment industry—responsible for such classics as Roots, The Thorn Birds, and L.A. Confidential—comes a fascinating memoir of life at the very hub of Hollywood. Wolper enjoyed staggering success yet remained down-to-earth. By combining flexibility, resourcefulness, and determination, Wolper produced landmark documentaries, films, miniseries, and other cultural touchstones of the twentieth century. Producer is the engaging and inspiring memoir of a true entertainment pioneer.

Harry Cohn was the cofounder and president of Columbia Pictures, which he ran from the 1930s through the 1950s. Cohn—who abhorred personal publicity—left no writings, made no speeches, and rarely submitted to interviews. Despite this, acclaimed biographer Bob Thomas brilliantly illuminates the life of the powerful but elusive studio head in King Cohn: The Life and Times of Hollywood Mogul Harry Cohn. Thomas details the studio head's rise from a New York City song-plugger to a Poverty Row impresario, highlighting his reign as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.

Though he was a great statesman, one of America's founding fathers, and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson suffered from depression. In Jefferson's Demons, Michael Knox Beran examines episodes of melancholia in Jefferson's life. In particular, he focuses on the journey Jefferson made to Europe in 1787 to escape the depression that set in due to his tumultuous experience as governor of Virginia following the Revolution and his wife Martha's death.

In this startling and original work, best-selling author Charles Higham (Howard Hughes: The Secret Life) addresses one of the greatest historical mysteries: Did John Wilkes Booth act alone on the night of Good Friday, 1865, or was he part of a wide conspiracy? Drawing from letters, diaries, previously unstudied records of official hearings, railway timetables, and obscure shipping manifests, Higham weaves a spellbinding account of intrigue.

More than 85 years after his untimely death at just age 37, Irving Thalberg remains a legendary Hollywood figure. Called the “Boy Wonder of Hollywood,” Thalberg quickly climbed the ranks at MGM studios to become one of the most powerful and high-profile producers of the time, elevating filmmaking to an art form. In this definitive biography, Bob Thomas brings Thalberg's legend to life, recounting how the producer's remarkable talent for developing stars and scripts led to the creation of beloved movies such as Ben-Hur, Romeo and Juliet, and Camille.

A collection of coast-to-coast murder and mayham, including these unabridged short stories: "Vaudeville" by Whitley Strieber, read by Roddy McDowell; "Lucky Day" by Mary Higgins Clark, read by Betsy Palmer; "Starstruck" by Jon A. Breen, read by James Stacy; "Snookered" by Gerald Tomlinson, read by David Birney; "It Was Bad Enough" by Ron Goulart, read by Arte Johnson and Gee Whiz; "My Lovely" by Betty Buchanan, read by Joan Rivers.

In 1980, at the age of 31, Brandon Tartikoff became president of NBC Entertainment; he was the youngest person ever to hold such a position. When he left NBC in 1991, he had held the job longer than anyone and NBC had attained a streak of dominance never equaled, after finishing first in the Nielsen ratings 68 weeks in a row. In The Last Great Ride, Mr. Tartikoff chronicles television history in this insightful and sometimes hilarious account of what goes into the job of providing viewers with 24-hour-a-day programming.

It is the beginning of the Gulf War. While Iraq is being bombed, deep in the heart of Minnesota the Kling family saga unfolds. Award-winning playwright and author Kevin Kling builds a carefully constructed universe out of materials both familiar and astonishing. He shares touching and humorous stories based on his childhood in Minnesota. This live performance was originally released on the now-defunct Gang of Seven spoken-word label.

Narrating his riveting memoir, beloved actor Dick Van Patten reflects on his prolific career, vibrant life, and the people who shaped both. From growing up during the Great Depression when poverty and racially biased ideologies dominated America, to witnessing the advent of television and its subsequent influence on culture, Dick Van Patten's life is a rich record of change and progress in America and Hollywood.

Lisa Kron invites her audience on a roller coaster ride through the Kron family album in 2.5 Minute Ride. Rising and falling between high hilarity and deep disquiet, Kron demonstrates with disarming simplicity that humor and horror can share the same human moment. Kron's' performance switches back and forth between her journey to Auschwitz with her septuagenarian father, a Holocaust survivor; her Michigan family's annual pilgrimage to a Sandusky, Ohio amusement park, and more.

Selections from Reader's Digest magazine's most popular series The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met. All of these stories have one thing in common: Somehow, each of the characters featured struck home in the memory of the storyteller. These characters enriched lives through humor, wisdom, adventure, and affection, each possessing a unique regard for humanity, each a gem reflecting its own light.

Here is the absolute best of Dave Barry; selections from four of his most popular books, including the hilarious Guide to Guys. Dave Barry is on the loose and no one is safe....

After the New York Post's Cindy Adams lost her beloved husband, the famed comedian Joey Adams, the last thing on her mind was finding a companion. But that's exactly what she got when a visitor arrived with a surprise: a Yorkshire terrier named Jazzy. This is the true story of a tell-it-like-it-is gossip columnist who takes on society's most powerful and glamorous every day, but is ultimately redeemed by a tiny dog who teaches her more about joy and survival than any human ever could.

It's hard to believe there's only one Steve Allen! This same person has: created the Tonight show, written 28 books, composed over 4,000 songs, made some 40 record albums, starred on Broadway and in motion pictures, composed Broadway, television, and film scores, starred in his own television series, and created, written, and hosted the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Meeting of Minds. We invited Steve into our studios so he could tell you his own story.