2013, ISBN: 9780520247604

October House. hardcover. Good. . library notation on spine, October House, 2.5, New York. 2013. February 2013. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780307271723. 326… Mehr…

October House. hardcover. Good. . library notation on spine, October House, 2.5, New York. 2013. February 2013. Knopf. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780307271723. 326 pages. hardcover. Jacket image: Montage with background poster art by Jules Cheret. Jacket design by Jason Booher. keywords: . FROM THE PUBLISHER - The extraordinary story of a young man's plunge into the unique and wonderful world of the circus - taking readers deep into circus history and its renaissance as a contemporary art form, and behind the (tented) walls of France's most prestigious circus school. When Duncan Wall visited his first nouveau cirque as a college student in Paris, everything about it - the monochromatic costumes, the acrobat singing Simon and Garfunkel, the juggler reciting Proust - was captivating. Soon he was waiting outside stage doors, eagerly chatting with the stars, and attending circuses two or three nights a week. So great was his enthusiasm that a year later he applied on a whim to the training program at the Ecole Nationale des Arts du Cirque - and was, to his surprise, accepted. Sometimes scary and often funny, The Ordinary Acrobat follows the (occasionally literal) collision of one American novice and a host of gifted international students in a rigorous regimen of tumbling, trapeze, juggling, and clowning. Along the way, Wall introduces readers to all the ambition, beauty, and thrills of the circus's long history: from hardscrabble beginnings to Gilded Age treasures, and from twentieth-century artistic and economic struggles to its brilliant reemergence in the form of contemporary circus (most prominently through Cirque du Soleil). Readers meet figures past - the father of the circus, Philip Astley; the larger-than-life P. T. Barnum - and present, as Wall seeks lessons from innovative masters including juggler JErôme Thomas and clown AndrE Riot-Sarcey. As Wall learns, not everyone is destined to run away with the circus - but the institution fascinates just the same. Brimming with surprises, outsized personalities, and plenty of charm, The Ordinary Acrobat delivers all the excitement and pleasure of the circus ring itself. inventory #40790 ISBN: 9780307271723., 0, A tight, clean, and unmarked copy-" April 18, 1955, was an auspicious day for Thomas Stoltz Harvey. As chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital, he had been called to do an autopsy on a corpse seven hours old. It was a routine procedure with one significant difference: This was the cadaver of Albert Einstein. Harvey saw, in Einstein's corpse, a chance to do something "noble, "to contribute in some way to the annals of science. So before he stitched the body shut, Thomas Harvey removed the brain of the twentieth-century's greatest intellectual hero. He took it without permission but struck a deal with Einstein's family to keep it, becoming the custodian of this remarkable relic and preserving it for posterity and the scientists he deemed worthy to study it. He promised to guard the brain against souvenir hunters and publicity seekers and vowed that any information about it would appear only in serious scientific journals. He had no idea that the power of Einstein'' celebrity would engulf the rest of his life. Possessing Genius tells the story of a man obsessed with his conviction that a collection of brain tissue might someday solve the mystery of genius. Painstakingly researched, it includes never-before-published correspondence between Harvey and the executor of Einstein's estate that sheds new light on how the brain fell into one manÕs hands. It dramatically evokes the shift from scientists' morbid curiosity about an amazing specimen to the serious questions and hypotheses inspired by the existence of the organ, including the widely touted work on Einstein's brain by Canadian neuropsychologist Sandra Witelson. Possessing Genius won the Canadian Science Writers' Association's 2001 Science in Society Book Award and has been nominated for the 2002 Governor General's Award for Nonfiction." About the Author: Carolyn Abraham is the medical reporter for The Globe and Mail in Toronto. The winner of two national awards from the Canadian Newspaper Association, she won the Hollobon Science in Society Award for her articles on the business of genetics. She lives in Toronto with her husband., Penguin Canada, 2002, 4, University of California Press, 2006. Hardcover. Like New/Very Good . 6x0x9. A short tear to dustjacket. In this highly original history of the world’s most famous bicycle race, Christopher S. Thompson, mining previously neglected sources and writing with infectious enthusiasm for his subject, tells the compelling story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage Thompson links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. He argues persuasively that this hugely popular sporting event has been instrumental in French attempts to grapple with the great challenges they have confronted during their tumultuous twentieth century from World Wars, political divisions, and class conflict to economic modernization, women’s emancipation, and threats to public health. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, Thompson explores how their public images have changed over the past century. He concludes with a discussion of the longstanding practice of doping and considers the complex case of the seven-time champion Lance Armstrong., University of California Press, 2006, 4<