Alexandra Deford, a precious and precocious girl, was just eight years old when she died in 1980 following a battle against the debilitating effects of... cystic fibrosis, the number-one genetic killer of children. Her poignant and uplifting story touched the hearts of millions when it was first published and then made into a memorable television movie. A new introduction contains information on the latest cystic fibrosis research, and a touching postcript reveals how the Deford family came to terms with the loss of Alex. Whenever he speaks, sportswriter Frank Deford knows people will bring articles for him to sign. But what makes him happiest is when someone attends a sports-oriented lecture and brings a copy of Alex: The Life of a Child for him to sign. "Invariably, and happily, there's usually someone at each appearance who either brings that book or wants to talk about their connection to cystic fibrosis." Deford says. "It's tremendously gratifying to me. Rarely does a week go by that I don't get a letter about that book. People leave things at her grave. They really do. I have people tell me that she changed their lives. It's terribly dramatic, but they literally say that. I heard from a woman who became a pediatric nurse after reading the book. Hearing from people like that means more to me than anything."

La literatura narrativa ocupa un lugar importante en la obra de Agustin Yánez. La vida de la provincia y su propia vida han ido dando la materia con... que se tejen sus novelas. A fuerza de mirarse a si mismo y de contemplar el medio en que nacio y crecio adquirieron en su imaginacion perfil y relieve personajes y sucesos, libros y juegos, consejos y entretenimientos, amistades y lecturas, esperanzas y deseos. Y ya modelado por la imaginacion, todo este variado repertorio fue pasando facilmente a la pagina escrita.

La literatura narrativa ocupa un lugar importante en la obra de Agustin Yanez. La vida de la provincia y su propia vida han ido dando la materia con que... se tejen sus novelas. A fuerza de mirarse a si mismo y de contemplar el medio en que nacio y crecio adquirieron en su imaginacion perfil y relieve personajes y sucesos, libros y juegos, consejos y entretenimientos, amistades y lecturas, esperanzas y deseos. Y ya modelado por la imaginacion, todo este variado repertorio fue pasando facilmente a la pagina escrita.

One of the most influential black South African leaders of his generation, Alfred Bitini Xuma has been praised, criticized, obscured, and now partly... forgotten. After receiving a missionary education in the Transkeian territories, Xuma traveled to the United States in 1913 to continue his studies, returning to South Africa fourteen years later to enter the cultural and political world of the educated African elite. In December 1940 he became president of the African National Congress. Xuma's leadership revived the ANC and helped bring about a dramatic resurgence in African protest politics. In 1949, however, a new generation dedicated to mass action gained control of Congress and swept Xuma from power. In this political biography, Steven Gish situates Alfred B. Xuma's life within the context of black South African nationalism, and explores the impact of African-American ideas on Xuma's political thought, as well as the degree to which Xuma reshaped these ideas to fit the South African political climate of the 1930s and 1940s. By tracing Xuma's reaction to white paternalism and "trusteeship," Steven Gish demonstrates that the philosophy of "Africanism" had earlier roots than previously thought.

Book Description Classic reflections on the Gospel by a 20th century martyr." Alfred Delp (1907-1945) was a German Jesuit condemned to death by the... Nazis for anti-Hitler activities. While awaiting execution Delp composed this series of meditations on Advent, the Lord's Prayer, the tasks of the future, the meaning of happiness, and other spiritual themes. Written on the edge of eternity Delp's reflections continue to bear a special power and poignancy. His words snow the ongoing relevance of the Gospel in an age of idolatrous power and capricious violence. "These are the thoughts of a man who, caught in a well-laid trap of political lies, clung desperately to a truth revealed to him in solitude, helplessness, emptiness, and desperation . . . ."--Thomas Merton Review of this book - "Alfred Delp SJ, 1907-45, was a German Jesuit hanged by the Nazis on 2 February 1945 at Berlin-Plotzensee prison. He had been arrested the previous August, charged with being involved in the July Plot against Hitler. Although Delp was friends with members of the Kreisau Circle, which included some of the plotters, the charges against him were flimsy and he had hopes of being exonerated. However his judge, Roland Freisler, was notorious for his hatred of priests, especially Jesuits, so the outcome of his trial became a foregone conclusion. His execution, ironically, took place shortly before the collapse of the Third Reich itself. These writings include two short diary extracts, meditations on Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, brief essays on the Our Father and on the Holy Spirit and a last, poignant, ‘Letter to the Brethren’, in which he asked their pardon and that ‘care may be given to my aged sick parents.’ Why are these writings so memorable? They are charged with honesty about himself, urgency and originality, written with the knowledge that his life was about to end ignominiously and too soon. In his diary extracts Delp reflected o

Nicholas Haeffner provides a comprehensive introduction to Alfred Hitchcock¿s major British and Hollywood films, navigating the audience through a... wealth of critical commentaries.  One of the acknowledged giants of film, Hitchcock¿s prolific half-century career spanned the silent and sound eras and resulted in 52 films of which Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960) are now seen as classics within suspense, melodrama and horror genres. 

In a career that spanned six decades and more than sixty films, Alfred Hitchcock became the most widely recognized director who ever lived. His films --... including The 39 Steps, Notorious, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds -- set new standards for cinematic invention and storytelling Élan. Since his death, Hitchcock has become crystallized in the public imagination as the macabre Englishman, the sexual obsessive, the Master of Suspense. But this remarkable biography draws on prodigious new research to restore Hitchcock the man -- the ingenious craftsman, the avid collaborator, the constant trickster, provocateur, and romantic. Like Hitchcock's best films, Patrick McGilligan's life of Hitchcock is a drama full of revelation, graced by a central love story, dark humor, and cliff-hanging suspense: a definitive portrait of the most creative, and least understood, figure in film history.

Even twenty years after his death and nearly fifty or more years after his creative peak, Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) is still arguably the most... instantly recognizable film director in name, appearance, vision, and voice. Long ago, through a combination of timing, talent, genius, energy, and publicity, he made the key transition from proper noun to adjective that confirms celebrity and true stature. It is a rare filmwatcher indeed who cannot define "Hitchcockian." As the director of such films as Psycho, North by Northwest, Spellbound, Vertigo, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Notorious, and The Birds, Hitchcock has become synonymous with both stylish, sophisticated suspense and mordant black comedy. He was one of the most interviewed directors in the history of film. Among the hundreds of interviews he gave, those in this collection catch Hitchcock at key moments of transition in his long career--as he moved from silent to sound pictures, from England to America, from thrillers to complex romances, and from director to producer-director. These conversations dramatize his shifting attitudes on a variety of cinematic matters that engaged and challenged him, including the role of stars in a movie, the importance of story, the use of sound and color, his relationship to the medium of television, and the attractions and perils of realism. His engaging wit and intelligence are on display here, as are his sophistication, serious contemplation, and playful manipulation of the interviewer. Sidney Gottlieb, a professor of English at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the editor of Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews.

Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has... all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. Twenty years after his death, Alfred Hitchcock is still a household name. He was both a great artist and dynamite at the box office. As well as an introductory essay, each of Hitchcock's films is individually reviewed and analyzed in this book. In addition, the effect he has had on the industry is explained—virtually every big action movie of the past three decades has been influenced by his work. Additionally there's a handy multimedia reference guide for more Hitchcock information.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook collects some of the finest essays on this groundbreaking film--a film that is ideal for teaching the language of... cinema and the ways in which strong filmmakers can break Hollywood conventions. Psycho is a film that can be used to present the structures of composition and cutting, narrative and genre building, and point of view. The film is also a highpoint of the horror genre and an instigator of all the slasher films to come in its wake. The essays in the casebook cover all of these elements and more. They also serve another purpose: presented chronologically, they represent the changes in the methodologies of film criticism, from the first journalist reviews and early auteurist approaches, through current psychoanalytic and gender criticism. Other selections include an analysis of Bernard Hermann's score and its close relationship to Hitchcock's visual construction; the famous Hitchcock interview by François Truffaut; and an essay by Robert Kolker that, through the use of stills taken directly from the film, closely reads its extraordinary cinematic structure. Contributors include Robert Kolker, Stephen Rebello, Bosley Crowther, Jean Douchet, Robin Wood, Raymond Durgnat, Royal S. Brown, George Toles, Robert Samuels, and Linda Williams.

Treasury of verse by the great Victorian poet includes the famous long narrative poem, Enoch Arden, plus "The Lady of Shalott," "The Charge of the Light... Brigade," "Break, break, break," "Flower in the crannied Wall" and more. Also included are excerpts from three longer works: The Princess, "Maud" and "The Brook."

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), co-discoverer of natural selection, was second only to Charles Darwin as the 19th century's most noted English... naturalist. Yet his belief in spiritualism caused him to be ridiculed and dismissed by many, leaving him a comparatively obscure and misunderstood figure. In this volume Wallace is finally allowed to speak in his own defense through his grand evolutionary synthesis The World of Life published nearly a century ago in 1910. More than just a reprinting of a near-forgotten work, Michael A. Flannery places Wallace in historical context. Flannery exposes Charles Darwin's now-famous theory of evolution as little more than a naturalistic cover for an extreme philosophical materialism borrowed as a youth from Edinburgh radicals. This is juxtaposed by his sympathetic account of what he calls Wallace's intelligent evolution, a thoroughly telcological alternative to Darwin's stochastic processes. Though based upon very different formulations of natural selection, the Wallace/Darwin dispute as presented by Flannery shows a metaphysical clash of worldviews coextensive with modern evolutionary theory itself - design and purpose versus randomness and chance. This book will be of value to scholars and students alike seeking to understand the historical and philosophical roots of a controversy that still rages today.