Biographies/Memoirs

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. This gripping work of literary nonfiction delves into the mystery through unprecedented access to the hikers’ own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and the author’s retracing of the hikers’ fateful journey in the Russian winter. A fascinating portrait of the young hikers in the Soviet era, and a skillful interweaving of the hikers narrative, the investigators’ efforts, and the author’s investigations, here for the first time is the real story of what happened that night on Dead Mountain.

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was one of the most innovative and influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Best known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, Fuller sought out long-term, technology-led solutions to the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems.

This beautiful volume celebrates one of the twentieth century’s most important photographers, Dorothea Lange. Led off by an authoritative biographical essay by Elizabeth Partridge (Lange’s goddaughter), the book goes on to showcase Lange’s work in over a hundred glorious plates.

Buried within the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History exists an astonishing group of historical relics from the pre–Revolutionary War era to the present day, many of which have never been on display. Donated to the museum by generations of souvenir collectors, these ordinary objects of extraordinary circumstance all have amazing tales to tell about their roles in American history.

Verlyn Klinkenborg’s regular column, The Rural Life, is one of the most read and beloved in the New York Times. Since 1997, he has written eloquently on every aspect, large and small, of life on his upstate New York farm, including his animals, the weather and landscape, and the trials and rewards of physical labor, as well as broader issues about agriculture and land use behind farming today.

Available in English for the very first time, In the Kitchen with Alain Passard is the first graphic novel to enter the kitchen of a master chef. Over the course of three years, illustrator Christophe Blain trailed acclaimed chef Alain Passard through his kitchens and gardens.

First published in 1914, Gertrude Stein’s revolutionary poetic work Tender Buttons is a must-read for every serious lover of literature. Delighting in the rhythm of words, its first section, “Objects,” runs playful linguistic circles around teacups, ribbons, umbrellas, and other quotidian artifacts.

From James Beard Award-winning writer Elissa Altman comes a story that marries wit to warmth, and flavor to passion. Born and raised in New York to a food-phobic mother and food-fanatical father, Elissa was trained early on that fancy is always best. After a childhood spent dining everywhere from Le Pavillion to La Grenouille, she devoted her life to all things gastronomical, from the rare game birds she served at elaborate dinner parties in an apartment so tiny that guests couldn't turn around to the eight timbale molds she bought while working at Dean & DeLuca, just so she could make tall food.

Amazon.com. Facebook. FedEx. CNN. They are names recognized around the world today, but just how did these companies grow into global giants? Built for Success now spotlights 16 flourishing corporations and introduces the leaders who guided them to prominence. Each title surveys the featured company’s complete history, examining its triumphs and failures, products and innovations, and the impact it has had on the lives of people around the globe.

According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, more than 565,000 new businesses were created in 2010 in the United States alone—each one of them hoping to strike gold. The Startup Playbook will help them succeed.

After the loss of his wife in a tragic accident, beloved artist Danny Gregory chronicled his grief in the medium he knows best—the pages of his illustrated journals. This intimate volume reproduces these journal pages in a stirring visual memoir of Gregory’s journey towards recovery.

For 125 years, Columbia Records has remained one of the most vibrant and storied names in prerecorded sound, nurturing the careers of legends such as Bessie Smith, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and many more.

Jim Henson’s iconic puppet characters, fantastic worlds, and warm humor have delighted millions of people of all ages. His incredibly diverse body of work, from the Muppets to the world of The Dark Crystal, reveals his charm and genius to fans old and new.

Bestselling writer Jane Heller thought she’d found her dream man—until he turned out to be a “frequent flier,” the term doctors and nurses use to refer to patients who land in the E.R. more often than the average person goes to Starbucks.

In the decade of the Beatles and the moon landing, cybernetics and megacities, an ambitious group of young British architects burst on the scene with a bold manifesto for urban building. The Archigram group pioneered a playful brand of architecture that was visionary, utopian, and grounded in social need. Through a provocative series of publications and exhibitions, the avant-garde cooperative challenged an architectural establishment they felt had become reactionary and self-serving.

In this riveting chronicle, which accompanies a documentary to be broadcast on PBS in the fall, Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns capture the profound drama of the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

Sixty years after his father left to be a mapmaker in the war in Europe, Emerson Johansson received a package that had been lost in the mail for decades. An exquisite book, lovingly handmade by his father, details an extraordinary adventure they shared together just months before his departure.

The work of Japanese architect Toyo Ito explores the dynamic relationship between buildings and their environments. His principal focus is on developing an architecture free of the grid system, which he believes homogenizes people and their lives. Toyo Ito: Force of Nature documents the architect’s 2009 Kassler lecture at Princeton University School of Architecture.

The newest volume in our popular Conversations series features Japanese architect Tadao Ando. One of the most celebrated living architects, Ando is best known for crafting serenely austere structures that fuse Japanese building traditions with Western modernism.

F*ck! Everyone has that moment—the realization that adulthood has arrived, like a runaway train, and there’s no getting out of its way. In attempt to express the contradictions and anxieties that come with being over-educated, minimally employed, mostly single, and on your own, Emma Koenig turned to the blogosphere. In this collection of her most popular posts from her blog of the same name (along with over 50% new material) Emma harnesses the power of illustrations, graphs, checklists, and flowcharts to explore this twenty-something life.

The New York Times Magazine’s original “Ethicist” Randy Cohen helps readers locate their own internal ethical compasses as he delivers answers to life’s most challenging dilemmas—timeless and contemporary alike.

Yoko Ono created An Invisible Flower when she was just nineteen years old, at the very start of her artistic career.

Sabrina Ward Harrison, beloved artist behind the cult classic The True and the Questions, invites her dedicated fans on an all-new voyage of self-expression.

David Wild’s ‘photomemento’ tells an Englishman’s story lived to a soundtrack of jazz. At its heart are photographs made during a two-year stay in America in the mid-1960s, on a passage through New York, Chicago, Detroit, St Louis, New Orleans. These pictures, in turn, formed the basis of photomontages. Jazzpaths is a partial document of the jazz scene of that time, mixing remarkable pictures of musicians with biting images of life on the streets.

The history of the Boston Red Sox professional baseball team from its inaugural 1901 season to today, spotlighting the team’s greatest players and most memorable moments.

The history of the Chicago Cubs professional baseball team from its inaugural 1876 season to today, spotlighting the team’s greatest players and most memorable moments.

A look at the origins, leaders, growth, and holdings of eBay, the online auction and shopping company that was founded in 1995 and today sells a multitude of collectibles and other consumer products.

A look at the origins, leaders, growth, and products of Apple, the consumer electronics company that was founded in 1976 and today manufactures some of the world’s most popular computer products.

The history of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team from its inaugural 1890 season in Brooklyn to today, spotlighting the team’s greatest players and most memorable moments.

What happens when an Indian chef and consummate city dweller buys a farm in the country and endeavors to raise farm animals and grow vegetables? Delicious food, of course! From acclaimed chef and author Suvir Saran, Masala Farm offers a fresh twist on a farm-to-table approach to cooking and welcomes readers into the kitchen.

This lavishly produced two-volume catalog raisonné, created with the full participation of Yoshitomo Nara, is the most extensive, authoritative, and beautiful expression of the artist’s work ever published. Featuring two 400-page volumes bound in fabric featuring Nara’s designs, the catalog covers all of the artist’s prolific output over the span of his career to date, including more than 4,500 paintings, drawings, editions, sculptures, photographs, and collaborations with other artists.