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At Last
The golden age of the Hollywood musical celebrated through the life of unsung hit-maker Harry Warren. Eliciting a swell of nostalgia, Harry Warren’s jaunty melodies lift our spirits as much today as they did for Depression-era moviegoers. Navigating a business already known for its glamour, excess, and ruthless business practices, Warren quietly but resplendently helped create a new American art form. A self-taught musician, Warren was nominated for eleven best original song Academy Awards and took home three Oscars. He composed twenty musicals including 42nd Street and unforgettable American standards such as "We’re in the Money," "Chattanooga Choo Choo," and “That’s Amore.” At Last brings readers on a journey through yesteryear's Tin Pan Alley, Busby Berkeley set pieces, cocktails with the Gershwins, and the creative and collaborative process of a prolific musical genius.
Relentless Visionary
If asked to list important inventors, few remember to include Alessandro Volta. Yet, his is a household name more spoken than that of Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, or even Thomas Edison. That’s because the terms “volt” and “voltage” can be attributed to Volta, the inventor of the “Voltaic pile,” which is recognized as the first electric battery. A product of the Age of Enlightenment—a time when ideas about reason, science, literature and liberty took center stage—Volta employed a very modern, hands-on approach to his work. Though he had no formal education, he was the first person to identify the gas known as methane, and created the first authoritative list of conducting metals. Alessandro Volta saw things not just as they were, but as what they could be. He was a disrupter, an innovator and a visionary. Above all, he was relentless. Without Volta’s hunger to create and his drive to invent and discover, we might not have electric cars, laptops, cellphones, and hearing aids today.
The Soul of a Child
The Soul of a Child places brilliant educator and reformer Maria Montessori in the context of her time. It examines the relationships, inner struggles, and inspirations of Montessori, a woman with heart, empathy, and resilience. As a strong woman who lived through two world wars, the rise of Fascism in Spain and Italy and the dawn of the nuclear age, she remained undeterred in her faith in the possibility of positive change through education. Her life spanned both the joys of innovation and the horrors of destruction of the twentieth century. Her influence on education and humanism remains resonant and enduring.
Music's Guiding Hand
It was too big a secret to keep and too great a price to pay. Though few details are known of 11th-century Benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo, he is widely recognized for inventing the language of music. The Hand of Music offers a fictional account as to how an unlikely friendship between two medieval monks might have inspired one of the most important and enduring innovations of the Western world. When a fellow monk continually struggles to learn the sacred songs by rote, Brother Guido devises the musical staff as a way of precisely notating pitch. But in an institution that thrives on tradition and routine, his challenge to the status quo is met with skepticism, resistance, and even punishment. Torn between obedience and his convictions, Brother Guido must decide to submit or rebel—with immediate and enduring consequences.
Building Wealth
This book holds top secrets on how you can build real wealth and explains in accessible terms: The Mindset of Wealth Power Earning Investing in Real Estate Family Development Mastery “Wealth isn’t about money. All my adult life, people have asked me, ‘Robert, how did you make money? How did you become wealthy?’ I’ve shared that with them—and now with you. First of all, I want you to understand that those are two different questions. Yes, of course, money can help you create wealth. But wealth is far more than a number on your bank statement. So if wealth isn’t about money, what exactly is it? Wealth is independence. Real wealth is the ability to live your life on your own terms. It’s the freedom to switch careers, spend time with your family, improve your community, and make a difference in the world. Building Wealth will help you not only to reach your own financial goals, but also to attain this level of wealth.”—Robert Barbera
Little by Little We Won
Women marched for equal pay, the President of the United States advocated an anti-immigration policy, and the income gap between the rich and poor continued to grow. And it was just the beginning of the 20th century. As a girl growing up in Italian Harlem, Angela Bambace needed answers. How could it be acceptable for women not to earn equal pay for equal work? Why were immigrants relegated to the factory jobs no one else would take and working under such dangerous and inhumane conditions? And why were the businessmen at the top getting richer and richer while the poor who worked for them struggled to provide for their own families? How could any of this be okay? But perhaps Angela’s most consequential question was If not me, then who? Born to a father and married to a man who both believed a woman’s place was in the home, Angela Bambace defied her family and social expectations to lead a labor union—organizing women’s marches, strikes, and protests “to build a better world, a better place for everybody.” Today, Angela’s story might be more significant than ever as others continue her fight and call to action.
Soldier, Diplomat, Archaeologist
He fought for himself. He fought for his country. He fought for acceptance. As the son of an Italian count, Cavalry Colonel Louis Palma di Cesnola had more military experience than most of the leading officers in the Civil War. Objecting to his general’s orders, di Cesnola led his men into battle, earning himself a Medal of Honor. When di Cesnola was captured and thrown into the notorious Libby Prison, he was forced to examine his life decisions. Upon release, di Cesnola was torn between his desire to return to war or to his wife and daughter—a battle of his heart and his duty. Once the war ended, di Cesnola became America’s consul for archaeological excavators, and eventually became the first director of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. With every step of success, di Cesnola was forced to prove himself in a country that emphatically disapproved of immigrants. His plight forged a path of national acceptance of Italian-Americans throughout the entire country.
The Dream of Life
Too young to hear the drum beat of a world preparing for war, little Federico daydreamed on the shores of Italy's Adriatic Sea. At night the boy soared over his provincial town, his head swimming with fantastical visions unconstrained by earthly boundaries and limitations. As he came of age, Fellini found his soul in the heart of Rome. Through his work as a caricaturist and journalist he played a leading role in the city's avant-garde scene and soon found his inspiration behind the film camera. Fellini held tight to the world of childhood, imagination and the dream state. His ability to capture the frailty and wonder of what it is to be human, and to find irony, humor and beauty in the life of post war Italy earned him four best Foreign Language Oscars. Film directors worldwide study his craft in neo-realist masterpieces such as I Vitellonni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 the magic of which gave birth to the well-familiar addition to our lexicon—Felliniesque.
Dreams of Discovery
A determined man with a dream whose mentors and friendships supported him through his difficult life’s journey. John Cabot was born Giovanni Caboto in Genoa, Italy. As a child, he dreamed of captaining a ship across a mysterious, uncharted ocean, from Europe to the riches of China. There was another boy in Genoa at the same time, with the same dream: Christopher Columbus. The Turks, in the fifteenth century, had a stranglehold on the trade routes to the Far East. Europe’s race to find an alternative passage was heating up. But an explorer needed patrons, funds, ships—and a vision. Whereas Columbus had taken a south and west route from Spain, Cabot was convinced a more northern route from England would lead directly to China. Cabot remained convinced, even on his deathbed, that he’d reached China—not realizing he’d claimed much of North America for his patron, the King of England, and made an amazing contribution to the fabric of America.
The Judicious Use of Intangibles
The story of how a chance encounter with an Italian countess helped one man reach for the sky and bring us closer to the divine. Luck, talent, and hard work. Pietro Belluschi was blessed with all three—whether crossing paths with Ernest Hemingway or Ayn Rand, surviving World War I battlefields, or with the Ivy League scholarship that brought him to America. Belluschi’s designs at an Oregon architectural firm garnered national attention. Whether in homes, churches, or office buildings, his “judicious use of such intangibles as space, light, texture, and color” distinguishes him as a pioneer of modern architecture. His respect for the environment, carefully selected materials, and eloquent designs endure in the Equitable Building—the first constructed of aluminum and glass—the Pan Am Building (now Met Life), and thousands of others. Mentored by Frank Lloyd Wright and mentor to thousands as the dean of M.I.T.’s School of Architecture, Belluschi’s influence on the American landscape cannot be overstated.
