Download or read book 740 Park written by Michael Gross and published by Crown. This book was released on 2006-10-10 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of House of Outrageous Fortune For seventy-five years, it’s been Manhattan’s richest apartment building, and one of the most lusted-after addresses in the world. One apartment had 37 rooms, 14 bathrooms, 43 closets, 11 working fireplaces, a private elevator, and his-and-hers saunas; another at one time had a live-in service staff of 16. To this day, it is steeped in the purest luxury, the kind most of us could only imagine, until now. The last great building to go up along New York’s Gold Coast, construction on 740 Park finished in 1930. Since then, 740 has been home to an ever-evolving cadre of our wealthiest and most powerful families, some of America’s (and the world’s) oldest money—the kind attached to names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Niarchos, Houghton, and Harkness—and some whose names evoke the excesses of today’s monied elite: Kravis, Koch, Bronfman, Perelman, Steinberg, and Schwarzman. All along, the building has housed titans of industry, political power brokers, international royalty, fabulous scam-artists, and even the lowest scoundrels. The book begins with the tumultuous story of the building’s construction. Conceived in the bubbling financial, artistic, and social cauldron of 1920’s Manhattan, 740 Park rose to its dizzying heights as the stock market plunged in 1929—the building was in dire financial straits before the first apartments were sold. The builders include the architectural genius Rosario Candela, the scheming businessman James T. Lee (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s grandfather), and a raft of financiers, many of whom were little more than white-collar crooks and grand-scale hustlers. Once finished, 740 became a magnet for the richest, oldest families in the country: the Brewsters, descendents of the leader of the Plymouth Colony; the socially-registered Bordens, Hoppins, Scovilles, Thornes, and Schermerhorns; and top executives of the Chase Bank, American Express, and U.S. Rubber. Outside the walls of 740 Park, these were the people shaping America culturally and economically. Within those walls, they were indulging in all of the Seven Deadly Sins. As the social climate evolved throughout the last century, so did 740 Park: after World War II, the building’s rulers eased their more restrictive policies and began allowing Jews (though not to this day African Americans) to reside within their hallowed walls. Nowadays, it is full to bursting with new money, people whose fortunes, though freshly-made, are large enough to buy their way in. At its core this book is a social history of the American rich, and how the locus of power and influence has shifted haltingly from old bloodlines to new money. But it’s also much more than that: filled with meaty, startling, often tragic stories of the people who lived behind 740’s walls, the book gives us an unprecedented access to worlds of wealth, privilege, and extraordinary folly that are usually hidden behind a scrim of money and influence. This is, truly, how the other half—or at least the other one hundredth of one percent—lives.

Download or read book House of Outrageous Fortune written by Michael Gross and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Michael Gross’s new book…packs [in] almost as many stories as there are apartments in the building. The Jackie Collins of real estate likes to map expressions of power, money and ego… Even more crammed with billionaires and their exploits than 740 Park” (Penelope Green, The New York Times). With two concierge-staffed lobbies, a walnut-lined library, a lavish screening room, a private sixty-seat restaurant offering residents room service, a health club complete with a seventy-foot swimming pool, penthouses that cost almost $100 million, and a tenant roster that’s a roll call of business page heroes and villains, Fifteen Central Park West is the most outrageously successful, insanely expensive, titanically tycoon-stuffed real estate development of the twenty-first century. In this “stunning” (CNN) and “deliciously detailed” (Booklist, starred review) New York Times bestseller, journalist Michael Gross turns his gimlet eye on the new-money wonderland that’s sprung up on the southwest rim of Central Park. Mixing an absorbing business epic with hilarious social comedy, Gross “takes another gossip-laden bite out of the upper crust” (Sam Roberts, The New York Times), which includes Denzel Washington, Sting, Norman Lear, top executives, and Russian and Chinese oligarchs, to name a few. And he recounts the legendary building’s inspired genesis, costly construction, and the flashy international lifestyle it has brought to a once benighted and socially déclassé Manhattan neighborhood. More than just an apartment building, 15CPW represents a massive paradigm shift in the lifestyle of New York’s rich and famous—and is a bellwether of the city’s changing social and financial landscape.

Download or read book Unreal Estate written by Michael Gross and published by Broadway. This book was released on 2011 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of lucrative real estate in Los Angeles shares the lesser-known contributions of a range of figures from Douglas Fairbanks and Marilyn Monroe to Howard Hughes and Ronald Reagan. By the best-selling author of Rogues' Gallery.

Download or read book Genuine Authentic written by Michael Gross and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-07-24 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and comprehensive look into the life of American fashion designer Ralph Lauren, now with an afterword. “Deep-dish...sharp-clawed...honestly admiring.”—New York Times There are at least two Ralph Laurens. To the public he's a gentle, modest, yet secure and purposeful man. Inside the walls of Polo Ralph Lauren, though, he was long seen by some as a narcissist, an insecure ditherer, and, at times, a rampaging tyrant. Michael Gross, author of the bestsellers Model and 740 Park, lays bare the truths of this fashion emperor's rise, and reveals not only the secrets of his meteoric success in marketing our shared fantasies, but also a widely unknown side that's behind the designer’s chic façade.

Download or read book Artists Magazines written by Gwen Allen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How artists' magazines, in all their ephemerality, materiality, and temporary intensity, challenged mainstream art criticism and the gallery system.

Download or read book Attack on Titan Kuklo Unbound written by Ryo Suzukaze and published by Kodansha America LLC. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prequel to the blockbuster Attack on Titan series, Before the Fall is a three volume young adult fiction fantasy novel series set years before the events that transpire with Eren and Mikasa. Together, the second and third volumes of Before the Fall are yet another prequel story and they are for the most part separate from the story of Angel and Wall Maria. In this collection we are introduced to a new character, Kuklo, who was found as a baby crying in a mass of Titan vomit, amidst the dead titan corpses. He is called “a child of titan” and is essentially hated by the people inside the walls. Kuklo, despite his horrible beginnings and a single-functioning eye, also seems to grow unnaturally fast. He parts himself from his past and gambles on the fate of humanity by enlisting in the Survey Corps. This group functions primarily outside of the safety of the walls. And here with his strength and determination Kuklo survives and thrives. But to accomplish this he gets his hands on the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. Although the gear is still imperfect and causes a troublesome incident for Kuklo, he fights the titans. Whether it is because it is his fate to fight them, or it is because of his past, he fights against them.

Download or read book My Generation written by Michael Gross and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2000 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the Baby Boom generation, the driving force of modern American culture--how it grew up, shaped the history of the 20th century, and set the course toward the 21st.

Download or read book Focus written by Michael Gross and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This thoroughly absorbing narrative dazzles with the most profound investigation and research. Focus is an enthralling and riveting read.” —Tim Gunn “Smart, well-researched…engaging…canny” (New York Times Book Review), Focus is a “fast-paced—and clearly insider—look at the rarefied, sexy world of fashion photography” (Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada). New York Times bestselling author Michael Gross brings to life the wild genius, egos, passions, and antics of the men (and a few women) behind the camera, probing the lives, hang-ups, and artistic triumphs of more than a dozen of fashion photography’s greatest visionaries, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Bill King, Helmut Newton, Gilles Bensimon, Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, and Bob and Terry Richardson. Tracing the highs and lows of fashion photography from the late 1940s to today, Focus takes you behind the scenes to reveal the revolutionary creative processes and fraught private passions of these visionary magicians, “delving deep into the fascinating rivalries” (The Daily News) between photographers, fashion editors, and publishers like Condé Nast and Hearst. Weaving together candid interviews, never-before-told insider anecdotes and insights born of his three decades of front-row and backstage reporting on modern fashion, Focus is “simply unrivaled…a sensation….Gross is a modern-day Vasari, giving us The Lives of the Artists in no small measure” (CraveOnline).

Download or read book Model written by Michael Gross and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigative journalist Michael Gross delves into the history of models and takes us into the private studios and hidden villas where models play and are preyed upon, going beyond modeling’s carefully constructed facade of glamour to expose the scandal and untold truths that permeate the seemingly glamorous business. Here for the first time is the complete story of the international model business—and its evil twin: legalized flesh peddling. It’s a tale of vast sums of money, rape both symbolic and of the flesh, sex and drugs, obsession and tragic death. At its heart is the most unholy combination in commerce: beautiful, young women and rich, lascivious men. Fashion insider Michael Gross has interviewed modeling’s pioneers, survivors, and hangers–on, and he tells the story of the greats: Lisa Fonssagrives; Anita Colby, Candy Jones; Dorian Leigh and her sister Suzy Parker; Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy; Veruschka and Lauren Hutton; and today’s supermodel trinity, Christy, Naomi and Linda.

Download or read book The Psychotronic Video Guide To Film written by Michael Weldon and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1996 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bible of B-movies is back--and better than ever! From Abby to Zontar, this book covers more than 9,000 amazing movies--from the turn of the century right up to today's Golden Age of Video--all described with Michael Weldon's dry wit. More than 450 rare and wonderful illustrations round out thie treasure trove of cinematic lore--an essential reference for every bad film fan.

Download or read book The Art of the Metropolitan Museum of New York written by David Charles Preyer and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Seeing with Different Eyes written by Patrick Curry and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05-05 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeing with Different Eyes: Essays in Astrology and Divination represents the cutting-edge of contemporary thought and research on divination. The thirteen authors come from a variety of academic disciplines, ranging from anthropology and classics to English literature and religious studies, and all address the question of divination, astrology and oracles in a spirit of critical but sympathetic inquiry. The emphasis is on a participatory and reflexive approach which is firmly post-positivist, seeking to understand the divinatory act on its own terms within widely varying contexts – ancient Greek and Chaldean philosophy and theurgy, Theravadan Buddhism, Biblical studies, Elizabethan Hermeticism, Jacobean drama, Heideggerian philosophy, Medieval scholasticism, 19th century occultism, contemporary Guatemalan divination and Western medical practice. The authors are all teachers or researchers in the area of divination and symbolism, which is a new disciplinary focus developing at the University of Kent, Canterbury under the aegis of the MA programme in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination. The essays in this volume originally contributed to an international conference of the same name held there in April 2006.

Download or read book The Making of the Golden Bough written by Robert Fraser and published by Springer. This book was released on 1990-05-25 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Similes Dictionary written by Elyse Sommer and published by Visible Ink Press. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language "Appealing As Sunlight After a Storm." A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. —Henry David Thoreau Prose consists of ... phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. —George Orwell Whether it invokes hard work or merely a hen-house, a good simile is like a good picture—it's worth a thousand words. Packed with more than 16,000 imaginative, colorful phrases—from “abandoned as a used Kleenex” to “quiet as an eel swimming in oil”—the Similes Dictionary will help any politician, writer, or lover of language find just the right saying, be it original or banal, verbose or succinct. Your thoughts will never be "as tedious as a twice-told tale" or "dry as the Congressional Record." Choose from elegant turns of phrases “as useful as a Swiss army knife” and “varied as expressions of the human face”. Citing more than 2,000 sources—from the Bible, Socrates, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and H. L. Mencken to popular movies, music, and television shows—the Similes Dictionary covers hundreds of subjects broken into thematic categories that include topics such as virtue, anger, age, ambition, importance, and youth, helping you find the fitting phrase quickly and easily. Perfect for setting the atmosphere, making a point, or helping spin a tale with economy, intelligence, and ingenuity, the vivid comparisons found in this collection will inspire anyone. Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. —William Shakespeare A face like a bucket —Raymond Chandler A man with little learning is like the frog who thinks its puddle a great sea. —Burmese proverb Peace, like charity, begins at home —Franklin Delano Roosevelt You know a dream is like a river ever changing as it flows. —Garth Brooks Fit as a fiddle —John Ray’s Proverbs He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. —Arthur Miller Ring true, like good china. —Sylvia Plath Music yearning like a God in pain —John Keats Busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. —Pat Conroy Enduring as mother love —Anonymous

Download or read book Poetry Teaching and Scholarship written by Josephine Miles and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection compiles oral history interviews, transcripts, and related materials focusing on the teaching and scholarship of poetry in the late 1970s. The interviews provide insight into the perspectives and experiences of notable poets, professors, and scholars during a pivotal time in poetry's evolution as an academic field. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book Temple Kent written by D. G. Devon and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fashion model, Temple Kent, investigates the sudden disappearance of her reckless teenage friend, Deirdre Allen

Download or read book It Seemed Important at the Time written by Gloria Vanderbilt and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elegant, witty, frank, touching, and deeply personal account of the loves both great and fleeting in the life of one of America's most celebrated and fabled women. Born to great wealth yet kept a virtual prisoner by the custody battle that raged between her proper aunt and her self-absorbed, beautiful mother, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up in a special world. Stunningly beautiful herself, yet insecure and with a touch of wildness, she set out at a very early age to find romance. And find it she did. There were love affairs with Howard Hughes, Bill Paley, and Frank Sinatra, to name a few, and one-night stands, which she writes about with delicacy and humor, including one with the young Marlon Brando. There were marriages to men as diverse as Pat De Cicco, who abused her; the legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski, who kept his innermost secrets from her; film director Sidney Lumet; and finally writer Wyatt Cooper, the love of her life. Now, in an irresistible memoir that is at once ruthlessly forthright, supremely stylish, full of fascinating details, and deeply touching, Gloria Vanderbilt writes at last about the subject on which she has hitherto been silent: the men in her life, why she loved them, and what each affair or marriage meant to her. This is the candid and captivating account of a life that has kept gossip writers speculating for years, as well as Gloria's own intimate description of growing up, living, marrying, and loving in the glare of the limelight and becoming, despite a family as famous and wealthy as America has ever produced, not only her own person but an artist, a designer, a businesswoman, and a writer of rare distinction.