Random House New Releases - Biography & Autobiography - Historical

Arik by David Landau

2014-01-21T00:30:00-05:00

Arik The Life of Ariel Sharon
Written by David Landau

Hardcover, 656 pages | Knopf | Biography & Autobiography - Political; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Israel | $35.00 | 978-1-4000-4241-8 (1-4000-4241-0)

From the former editor in chief of Haaretz, the first in-depth comprehensive biography of Ariel Sharon, the most important Israeli political and military leader of the last forty years.

The life of Ariel Sharon spans much of modern Israel's history: A commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, Sharon participated in the 1948 War of Independence, and played decisive roles in the 1956 Suez War and the six day War of 1967, and most dramatically is largely credited with the shift in the outcome of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. After returning from the army in 1982, Sharon became a political leader and served in numerous governments, most prominently as the defense minister during the 1983 Lebanon War in which he bore "personal responsibility" according to the Kahan Commission for massacres of Palestinian civilians by Lebanese militia, and he championed the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. But as prime minister he performed a dramatic reversal: orchestrating Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Landau brilliantly chronicles and analyzes his surprising about-face. Sharon suffered a stroke in January 2006 and remains in a persistent vegetative state. Considered by many to be Israel's greatest military leader and political statesman, this biography recounts his life and shows how this leadership transformed Israel, and how Sharon's views were shaped by the changing nature of Israeli society.

ARIK by David Landau

2014-01-21T00:30:00-05:00

ARIK The Life of Ariel Sharon
Written by David Landau

eBook, 656 pages | Knopf | Biography & Autobiography - Political; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Israel | $16.99 | 978-0-385-35109-6 (0-385-35109-7)

Cadwallader Colden by Seymour I. Schwartz

2013-12-10T00:30:00-05:00

Cadwallader Colden A Biography
Written by Seymour I. Schwartz

Hardcover, 220 pages | Humanity Books | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) | $39.00 | 978-1-61614-853-9 (1-61614-853-5)

The first complete biography of Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), the longest-serving Lieutenant Governor of New York and a brilliant intellectual, multifaceted colonial Renaissance man, and consummate royalist.

This is the first complete biography of Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), one of the most accomplished intellectual and political figures in the American colonies before the Revolution. As the longest-serving Lieutenant Governor of New York he was intimately involved in the tumultuous political life of the times. His History of the Five Indian Nations (1727) was the first English history of the Iroquois and a popular book both in the colonies and in Europe.
     Colden was also a trained physician. Though he never practiced, he significantly improved the public health of the colony. Furthermore, he was an internationally recognized botanist, the author of the first scientific paper published in the colonies, and an accomplished cartographer who published the first map in the colony of New York.
     A prolific letter writer, Colden corresponded with many of the major intellectuals of his day, including Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Johnson. In addition, he wrote extensively on a wide range of topics, including philosophy, history, the natural sciences, and mathematics.
     Why has this distinguished individual fallen into obscurity? As an ardent royalist he was the most vilified of the colonial leaders and was even burned in effigy. This well-researched and long-overdue biography tells the fascinating story of this multifaceted colonial Renaissance man.

Cadwallader Colden by Seymour I. Schwartz

2013-12-10T00:30:00-05:00

Cadwallader Colden A Biography
Written by Seymour I. Schwartz

eBook | Humanity Books | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - United States - Colonial Period (1600-1775) | $14.99 | 978-1-61614-854-6 (1-61614-854-3)

The Heir Apparent by Jane Ridley

2013-12-03T00:30:00-05:00

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince
Written by Jane Ridley

Hardcover, 752 pages | Random House | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Royalty; History - Great Britain | $35.00 | 978-1-4000-6255-3 (1-4000-6255-1)

The Heir Apparent by Jane Ridley

2013-12-03T00:30:00-05:00

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince
Written by Jane Ridley

eBook, 752 pages | Random House | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Royalty; History - Great Britain | $ | 978-0-8129-9475-9 (0-8129-9475-2)

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

2013-10-29T00:30:00-05:00

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Unabridged Audiobook Download | Random House Audio | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Rich & Famous; History - Great Britain | $17.50 | 978-0-8041-4848-1 (0-8041-4848-1)

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

2013-10-29T00:30:00-05:00

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Trade Paperback, 304 pages | Broadway | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Rich & Famous; History - Great Britain | $15.99 | 978-0-385-34496-8 (0-385-34496-1)

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

2013-10-29T00:30:00-05:00

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

eBook, 304 pages | Broadway | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography - Rich & Famous; History - Great Britain | $9.99 | 978-0-385-34497-5 (0-385-34497-X)

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset

2013-10-15T00:30:00-05:00

Queen Anne The Politics of Passion
Written by Anne Somerset

Hardcover, 656 pages | Knopf | Biography & Autobiography - Royalty; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Great Britain | $35.00 | 978-0-307-96288-1 (0-307-96288-1)

She ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702, at age thirty-seven, and five years later united two of her realms, England and Scotland, as a sovereign state, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. By the end of her comparatively short twelve-year reign, Britain had emerged as a great power--the succession of outstanding victories won by her general, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough--had humbled France, and laid the foundations for Britain's future naval and colonial supremacy.

While the Queen's military was performing dazzling exploits on the continent, her own attention--indeed her realm--rested on a more intimate conflict: the female friendship, on which her happiness had for decades depended and which became for her a source of utter torment.

At the core of Anne Somerset's fascinating new biography, just published to acclaim in England ("Formidable" --Sunday Times, London; "Wonderfully pacy and absorbing" --Daily Mail), is a portrait of this fraught, complex bond between two very different women: Queen Anne, reserved, stolid, shrewd; and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the Queen's great general--beautiful, willful, outspoken, whose acerbic wit was equally matched by her fearsome temper.

The book tells the extraordinary drama of how Sarah goaded and provoked the Queen beyond endurance, and, after the withdrawal of Anne's favor, how her replacement, Sarah's cousin, the feline Abigail Masham, another lady-in-waiting, became the ubiquitous royal confidante and, Sarah publicly claimed to great scandal, the object of the Queen's sexual infatuation.

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset

2013-10-15T00:30:00-05:00

Queen Anne The Politics of Passion
Written by Anne Somerset

eBook, 656 pages | Knopf | Biography & Autobiography - Royalty; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Great Britain | $17.99 | 978-0-307-96289-8 (0-307-96289-X)

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

2013-10-01T00:30:00-05:00

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Written by Jill Lepore

Hardcover, 464 pages | Knopf | History - United States - Revolutionary Period (1775-1800); Biography & Autobiography - Women; Biography & Autobiography - Historical | $27.95 | 978-0-307-95834-1 (0-307-95834-5)

From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians--a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin's youngest sister, whose obscurity and poverty were matched only by her brother's fame and wealth but who, like him, was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator.

It is a life that has never been examined before: that of the sister of one of the most remarkable men of their time, living unknown to the world at large, but a constant presence and influence in her brother's life through their correspondence (he wrote more letters to her than to anyone else). Making use of an astonishing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one extraordinary woman but an entire world. Lepore's life of Jane Franklin, with its strikingly original vantage on Benjamin Franklin, is at once a wholly different account of the founding and one of the great untold stories of American history and letters.

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

2013-10-01T00:30:00-05:00

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Written by Jill Lepore

eBook, 464 pages | Knopf | History - United States - Revolutionary Period (1775-1800); Biography & Autobiography - Women; Biography & Autobiography - Historical | $13.99 | 978-0-307-95835-8 (0-307-95835-3)

Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll

2013-09-24T00:30:00-05:00

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
Written by Sean B. Carroll

Hardcover, 576 pages | Crown | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Science - History; History - Military - World War II | $28.00 | 978-0-307-95233-2 (0-307-95233-9)

The never-before-told account of the intersection of some of the most insightful minds of the 20th century, and a fascinating look at how war, resistance, and friendship can catalyze genius.

In the spring of 1940, the aspiring but unknown writer Albert Camus and budding scientist Jacques Monod were quietly pursuing ordinary, separate lives in Paris. After the German invasion and occupation of France, each joined the Resistance to help liberate the country from the Nazis, ascended to prominent, dangerous roles, and were very lucky to survive. After the war and through twists of circumstance, they became friends, and through their passionate determination and rare talent they emerged as leading voices of modern literature and biology, each receiving the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.

Drawing upon a wealth of previously unpublished and unknown material gathered over several years of research, Brave Genius tells the story of how each man endured the most terrible episode of the twentieth century and then blossomed into extraordinarily creative and engaged individuals. It is a story of the transformation of ordinary lives into exceptional lives by extraordinary events--of courage in the face of overwhelming adversity, the flowering of creative genius, deep friendship, and of profound concern for and insight into the human condition.

Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll

2013-09-24T00:30:00-05:00

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
Written by Sean B. Carroll

eBook, 576 pages | Crown | Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Science - History; History - Military - World War II | $13.99 | 978-0-307-95235-6 (0-307-95235-5)

Sydney and Violet by Stephen Klaidman

2013-09-03T00:30:00-05:00

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham Lewis
Written by Stephen Klaidman

Hardcover, 288 pages | Nan A. Talese | Biography & Autobiography - Literary; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography | $27.95 | 978-0-385-53409-3 (0-385-53409-4)

A long overdue biography of the power couple that nurtured and influenced the literary world of early twentieth-century England

"I write primarily to pay homage to a beloved friend, but also in the hope that some future chronicler of the history of art and letters in our time may give to Sydney and Violet Schiff the place which is their due."
—T. S. Eliot, in a letter appended to Violet Schiff's obituary, Times of London, July 9, 1962

Largely forgotten today, Sydney and Violet Schiff were ubiquitous, almost Zelig-like figures in the most important literary movement of the twentieth century. Their friendships among the elite of the Modernist writers were remarkable, and their extensive correspondence with T. S. Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, Proust, and many others strongly suggests both intimacy and intellectual equality. Leading critics of the day considered Sydney, writing as Stephen Hudson, to be in the same literary league as Joyce, Eliot, and D. H. Lawrence. As for Violet, she was a talented musician who nurtured Sydney's literary efforts and was among the first in England to recognize Proust's genius and spread the word. Sydney and Violet tells the story of how the Schiffs, despite their commercial and Jewish origins, won acceptance in the snobbish, anti-Semitic, literary world of early twentieth-century England, and brings to life a full panoply of extravagant personalities: Proust, Joyce, Picasso, Mansfield, Wyndham Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, and many more. A highly personal, anecdote-filled account of the social and intellectual history of the Modernist movement, Sydney and Violet also examines what divides the literary survivors from the victims of taste and time.

Sydney and Violet by Stephen Klaidman

2013-09-03T00:30:00-05:00

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham Lewis
Written by Stephen Klaidman

eBook, 288 pages | Nan A. Talese | Biography & Autobiography - Literary; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; Biography & Autobiography | $13.99 | 978-0-385-53410-9 (0-385-53410-8)

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

2013-08-27T00:30:00-05:00

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak
Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Unabridged Compact Disc | Random House Audio | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Jewish | $40.00 | 978-0-449-01013-6 (0-449-01013-9)

A magnificent wartime love story about the forces that brought the author’s parents together and those that nearly drove them apart

Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s parents, Hanna and Aladár, met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was a rising star in the foreign ministry—a vocal anti-Fascist who was in talks with the Allies when he was arrested and sent to Dachau. She was the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, the industrialist patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family that owned factories, were patrons of intellectuals and artists, and entertained dignitaries at their baronial estates. Though many in the family had converted to Catholicism decades earlier, when the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, they were forced into hiding. In a secret and controversial deal brokered with Heinrich Himmler, the family turned over their vast holdings in exchange for their safe passage to Portugal.

Aladár survived Dachau, a fragile and anxious version of himself. After nearly two years without contact, he located Hanna and wrote her a letter that warned that he was not the man she’d last seen, but he was still in love with her. After months of waiting for visas and transit, she finally arrived in a devastated Budapest in December 1945, where at last they were wed.

Framed by a cache of letters written between 1940 and 1947, Szegedy-Maszák’s family memoir tells the story, at once intimate and epic, of the complicated relationship Hungary had with its Jewish population—the moments of glorious humanism that stood apart from its history of anti-Semitism—and with the rest of the world. She resurrects in riveting detail a lost world of splendor and carefully limns the moral struggles that history exacted—from a country and its individuals.

Praise for I Kiss Your Hands Many Times

“I Kiss Your Hand Many Times is the sweeping story of Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s family in pre– and post–World War II Europe, capturing the many ways the struggles of that period shaped her family for years to come. But most of all it is a beautiful love story, charting her parents’ devotion in one of history’s darkest hours.”—Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief, the Huffington Post Media Group

“In this panoramic and gripping narrative of a vanished world of great wealth and power, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák restores an important missing chapter of European, Hungarian, and Holocaust history.”—Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story and Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America

“How many times can a heart be broken? Hungarians know, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s family more than most. History has broken theirs again and again. This is the story of that violence, told by the daughter of an extraordinary man and extraordinary woman who refused to surrender to it. Every perfectly chosen word is as it happened. So brace yourself. Truth can break hearts, too.”—Robert Sam Anson, author of War News: A Young Reporter in Indochina

From the Hardcover edition.

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

2013-08-27T00:30:00-05:00

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak
Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Unabridged Audiobook Download | Random House Audio | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Jewish | $22.50 | 978-0-449-01014-3 (0-449-01014-7)

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

2013-08-27T00:30:00-05:00

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Hardcover, 400 pages | Spiegel & Grau | Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs; Biography & Autobiography - Historical; History - Jewish | $27.00 | 978-0-385-52485-8 (0-385-52485-4)

Random House New Releases - Biography & Autobiography - Historical

Arik by David Landau

Arik The Life of Ariel SharonWritten by David Landau

ARIK by David Landau

ARIK The Life of Ariel SharonWritten by David Landau

Cadwallader Colden by Seymour I. Schwartz

Cadwallader Colden A BiographyWritten by Seymour I. Schwartz

Cadwallader Colden by Seymour I. Schwartz

Cadwallader Colden A BiographyWritten by Seymour I. Schwartz

The Heir Apparent by Jane Ridley

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy PrinceWritten by Jane Ridley

The Heir Apparent by Jane Ridley

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy PrinceWritten by Jane Ridley

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset

Queen Anne The Politics of PassionWritten by Anne Somerset

Queen Anne by Anne Somerset

Queen Anne The Politics of PassionWritten by Anne Somerset

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane FranklinWritten by Jill Lepore

Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane FranklinWritten by Jill Lepore

Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel PrizeWritten by Sean B. Carroll

Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel PrizeWritten by Sean B. Carroll

Sydney and Violet by Stephen Klaidman

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham LewisWritten by Stephen Klaidman

Sydney and Violet by Stephen Klaidman

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham LewisWritten by Stephen Klaidman

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in HungaryWritten by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in HungaryWritten by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in HungaryWritten by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

Arik The Life of Ariel Sharon
Written by David Landau

ARIK The Life of Ariel Sharon
Written by David Landau

Cadwallader Colden A Biography
Written by Seymour I. Schwartz

Cadwallader Colden A Biography
Written by Seymour I. Schwartz

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince
Written by Jane Ridley

The Heir Apparent A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince
Written by Jane Ridley

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Lady Catherine, the Earl, and the Real Downton Abbey
Written by Countess Fiona Carnarvon

Queen Anne The Politics of Passion
Written by Anne Somerset

Queen Anne The Politics of Passion
Written by Anne Somerset

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Written by Jill Lepore

Book of Ages The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Written by Jill Lepore

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
Written by Sean B. Carroll

Brave Genius A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize
Written by Sean B. Carroll

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham Lewis
Written by Stephen Klaidman

Sydney and Violet Their Life with T.S. Eliot, Proust, Joyce and the Excruciatingly Irascible Wyndham Lewis
Written by Stephen Klaidman

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak
Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak
Read by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary
Written by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak