Brazil That Never Was

Brazil That Never Was PDF Author: A.J. Lees
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1912559226
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
A famed British neurologist embarks on an expedition in Brazil to follow the trail of Percy Fawcett, an occult-obsessed explorer who went missing in the Amazon rainforest and was the subject of the 2016 film The Lost City of Z. As a boy growing up near Liverpool in the 1950s, Andrew Lees would visit the docks with his father to watch the ships from Brazil unload their exotic cargo of coffee, cotton bales, molasses, and cocoa. One day, his father gave him a dog-eared book called Exploration Fawcett. The book told the true story of Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 had gone in search of a lost city in the Amazon and never returned. The riveting story of Fawcett's encounters with deadly animals and hostile tribes, his mission to discover an Atlantean civilization, and the many who lost their own lives when they went in search of him inspired the young Lees to believe that there were still earthly places where one could "fall off the edge." Years later, after becoming a successful neurologist, Lees set off in search of the mysterious figure of Fawcett. What he found exceeded his wildest imaginings. With access to the cache of "Secret Papers," Lees discovered that Fawcett's quest was far stranger than searching for a lost city. There was a "greater mission," one that involved the occult and a belief in a community of evolved beings living in a hidden parallel plane in the Mato Grosso. Lees traveled to Manaus in Fawcett's footsteps. After a time-bending psychedelic experience in the forest, he understood that his yearning for the imaginary Brazil of his boyhood, like Fawcett's search for an earthly paradise, was a nostalgia for what never was. Part travelogue, part memoir, Lees paints a portrait of an elusive Brazil, and of a flawed explorer whose doomed mission ruined lives.

The Madman and the Butcher

The Madman and the Butcher PDF Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 0143178830
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
Based on newly uncovered sources, The Madman and the Butcher is a powerful double biography of Sam Hughes and Arthur Currie and the story of one of the most shocking and highly publicized libel trials in Canadian history. Sir Arthur Currie achieved international fame as Canadian Corps commander during the Great War. He was recognized as a brilliant general, morally brave, and with a keen eye for solving the challenges of trench warfare. But wars were not won without lives lost. Who was to blame for Canada's 60,000 dead? Sir Sam Hughes, Canada's war minister during the first two and a half years of the conflict, was erratic, outspoken, and regarded by many as insane. Yet he was an expert on the war. He attacked Currie's reputation in the war's aftermath, accusing him of being a butcher, a callous murderer of his own men. Set against the backdrop of Canadians fighting in the Great War, this engaging narrative explores questions of Canada's role in the war, the need to place blame for the terrible blood loss, the nation's discomfort with heroes, and the very public war of reputations that raged on after the guns fell silent.

The Alice Behind Wonderland

The Alice Behind Wonderland PDF Author: Simon Winchester
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199753342
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 123

Book Description
On a summer's day in 1858, in a garden behind Christ Church College in Oxford, Charles Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics, photographed six-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of the college dean, with a Thomas Ottewill Registered Double Folding camera, recently purchased in London. Simon Winchester deftly uses the resulting image--as unsettling as it is famous, and the subject of bottomless speculation--as the vehicle for a brief excursion behind the lens, a focal point on the origins of a classic work of English literature. Dodgson's love of photography framed his view of the world, and was partly responsible for transforming a shy and half-deaf mathematician into one of the world's best-loved observers of childhood. Little wonder that there is more to "Alice Liddell as the Beggar Maid" than meets the eye. Using Dodgson's published writings, private diaries, and of course his photographic portraits, Winchester gently exposes the development of Lewis Carroll and the making of his Alice. Acclaim for Simon Winchester "An exceptionally engaging guide at home everywhere, ready for anything, full of gusto and seemingly omnivorous curiosity." --Pico Iyer, The New York Times Book Review "A master at telling a complex story compellingly and lucidly." --USA Today "Extraordinarily graceful." --Time "Winchester is an exquisite writer and a deft anecdoteur." --Christopher Buckley "A lyrical writer and an indefatigable researcher." --Newsweek

Of Philosophers and Madmen

Of Philosophers and Madmen PDF Author: Richard Askay
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9401207143
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description
Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Cast of Characters -- Play Setting -- Of Philosophers and Madmen -- On the Nature of Humans: Sigmund Freud -- Finding Oneself in Heidegger's Early Philosophy -- Stemming the Tide: Martin Heidegger's Critique of Freudian Psychoanalysis -- A Creative Misunderstanding: Ludwig Binswanger -- In Search of a Humanistic Grounding for Psychoanalysis: Medard Boss -- Toward an Integration of Psychoanalysis and Phenomenological Ontology -- Bibliography.

The Insanity of Advertising

The Insanity of Advertising PDF Author: Fred S. Goldberg
Publisher: Council Oaks Distribution
ISBN: 9781571783387
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Book Description
Mad Men's Don Draper has nothing on Fred Goldberg, and this memoir is the real story of mad men in a very mad world This celebrated ad man cut his teeth in the late 1960s with the legendary agency Young & Rubicam, took over operations at Chiat/Day as COO for almost 7 years, and then founded his own firm, Goldberg Moser O'Neill. His client list reads like a who's who of 20th-century innovators: Steve Jobs (Apple), Andy Grove (Intel), John Chambers (Cisco), Larry Ellison (Oracle), and Michael Dell (Dell) are just a few of the movers and shakers who turned to him when they needed ads that would make their products household names.The Insanity of Advertising presents an unforgettable glimpse into the chaos, drama, and outright wackiness that fuels one of the most of loved and hated industries in the world. Goldberg reveals behind-the-scenes dirt on what it was like to craft ad campaigns for some corporate titans, and also shares stories of the mad men who worked alongside him.

Humiliation

Humiliation PDF Author: Wayne Koestenbaum
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 9781429977289
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Wayne Koestenbaum considers the meaning of humiliation in this eloquent work of cultural critique and personal reflection. The lives of people both famous and obscure are filled with scarlet-letter moments when their dirty laundry sees daylight. In these moments we not only witness the reversibility of "success," of prominence, but also come to visceral terms with our own vulnerable selves. We can't stop watching the scene of shame, identifying with it and absorbing its nearness, and relishing our imagined immunity from its stain, even as we acknowledge the universal, embarrassing predicament of living in our own bodies. With an unusual, disarming blend of autobiography and cultural commentary, noted poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum takes us through a spectrum of mortifying circumstances—in history, literature, art, current events, music, film, and his own life. His generous disclosures and brilliant observations go beyond prurience to create a poetics of abasement. Inventive, poignant, erudite, and playful, Humiliation plunges into one of the most disquieting of human experiences, with reflections at once emboldening and humane.

The Witness

The Witness PDF Author: Robert Borelli
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781499108521
Category : Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Raised in the heart of an aging Brooklyn neighborhood, Robert was a small but fiery, attention-deprived Italian boy, drawn to the flashy lifestyle of neighborhood wiseguys. His early years ushered in the opportunity to become a part of that world, as he began running errands and selling illegal goods for these same men. Simultaneously, his reputation as a fierce fighter grew, and by the time he was a young adult, he had made an impression on influential members of the Gambino crime family. After beating a murder rap, he was on his way to Mafia stardom, mentored and protected by one of the most prominent wise guys In New York City. While the pleasure of notoriety was fulfilling, a powerful addiction to drugs soon overrode it, negating Robert's credibility among his mobster brothers. Even the bond of fatherhood wasn't enough to draw him out of his chemically-dependent prison. In his mind, the situation left him with only two possible conclusions; either he will die overdosing, or the men to whom he swore allegiance will silence him before the drugs have a chance.The Witness is the compelling account of the hard and fast life of an "up-and-coming star" within the Mafia ranks, the downward spiral created by his addiction to drugs, and his spiritual rebirth spurred by the heart-wrenching plea of his little girl.

The Making of a MAD Man

The Making of a MAD Man PDF Author: Mateen Ajala Diop
Publisher: Alhaven Group Publishing
ISBN: 9780578245232
Category : Education, Urban
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description


Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment

Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment PDF Author: A.J. Lees
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1910749389
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
A fascinating account by one of the world's leading neurologists of the profound influence of William Burroughs on his medical career. Lees relates how Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and troubled drug addict, inspired him to discover a ground-breaking treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Lees journeys to the Amazonian rainforest in search of cures, and through self-experimentation seeks to find the answers his patients crave. He enters a powerful plea for the return of imagination to medical research.

The Psychedelic Reader

The Psychedelic Reader PDF Author: Timothy Leary
Publisher: Citadel
ISBN: 080654130X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Originally published: New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1965. New introduction by Erik Davis, 2007.