Laurence Bergreen

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself.

Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe

Over the Edge of the World

The award-winning author of Over the Edge of the World chronicles the lesser-known voyages of Columbus after his famous 1492 landfall in the Americas, explaining how they reflected Columbus's uncanny navigational skills before taking an extreme toll on his health and personal circumstances.

The Four Voyages

Columbus

From Venice to Xanadu

Marco Polo

Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire

In Search of a Kingdom

A portrait of the thirteenth-century explorer, adventurer, and global traveler follows Marco Polo from his youth in Venice to his journey to Asia and role in the court of Kublai Khan, to his return to Europe, and discusses his influence on the history ofhis era.

Presents a portrait of the notorious gangster that includes the little-known story of his older brother--a lawman and Prohibition officer--and brings to life the 1920s and 1930s in America

The Man and the Era

Capone

Sara Fray

How China's Treasure Fleet Conquered the Sea

Seven Voyages

Originally published: New York: Viking Adult, 2011.

Louis Armstrong was the founding father of jazz and one of this century's towering cultural figures, yet the full story of his extravagant life has never been told. Born in 1901 to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a slave, he came of age among the prostitutes, pimps, and rag-and-bone merchants of New Orleans. He married four times and enjoyed countless romantic involvements in and around his marriages. A believer in marijuana for the head and laxatives for the bowels, he was also a prolific diarist and correspondent, a devoted friend to celebrities from Bing Crosby to Ella Fitzgerald, a perceptive social observer, and, in his later years, an international goodwill ambassador. And, of course, he was a dazzling musician. From the bordellos and honky-tonks of Storyville--New Orleans's red light district--to the upscale nightclubs in Chicago, New York, and Hollywood, Armstrong's stunning playing, gravelly voice, and irrepressible personality captivated audiences and critics alike. Recognized and beloved wherever he went, he nonetheless managed to remain vigorously himself. Now Laurence Bergreen's remarkable book brings to life the passionate, courageous, and charismatic figure who forever changed the face of American music.

An Extravagant Life

Louis Armstrong

A biography of American novelist, critic, poet, and screenwriter James Agee discusses his youth, education, marriages and affairs, literary career, profligate lifestyle, and early death and analyzes Agee's role in American letters

A Life

James Agee

The Rise of Network Broadcasting

Look Now, Pay Later

As the first European to travel extensively throughout Asia, Marco Polo was the earliest bridge between East and West. His famous journeys took him across the boundaries of the known world, along the dangerous Silk Road, and into the court of Kublai Kahn, where he won the trust of the most feared and reviled leader of his day. Polo introduced the cultural riches of China to Europe, spawning centuries of Western fascination with Asia. In this lively blend of history, biography, and travelogue, acclaimed author Laurence Bergreen separates myth from history, creating the most authoritative account yet of Polo's remarkable adventures. Exceptionally narrated and written with a discerning eye for detail, Marco Polo is as riveting as the life it describes.

A voyage into history, a tour of the world emerging from the Middle Ages, a chronicle of a desperate grab for commercial and political power, and more, this captivating tale rivals the most exciting thriller fiction.

Irving Berlin (1888–1989) was unable to read or write music and could only play the piano in the key of F-sharp major; yet, for the first half of the twentieth century he was America's most successful and most representative songwriter, composing such hits as "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Cheek to Cheek," "Let's Face the Music and Dance," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "White Christmas," "Anything You Can Do," "There's No Business Like Show Business," and "God Bless America." As Thousands Cheer, winner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, explores with precision and sensitivity Berlin's long, prolific career; his self-doubt and late-blooming misanthropy; and the tyrannical control he exerted over his legacy of song. From his immigrant beginnings through Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood to his reclusive and bitter final years, this definitive biography reveals the man who wrote 1500 songs but could never quash the fear that, for all his success, he wasn't quite good enough.

The Life Of Irving Berlin

As Thousands Cheer

"An exploration narrative of the highest order: the bestselling author of Over the Edge of the World brings alive the extraordinary life and adventures of Sir Francis Drake, whose mastery of the seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I changed the course of history-as a pirate raiding Spanish galleons, as the first explorer to successfully circumnavigate the globe, and as a naval hero who defeated the Spanish Armada and reshaped the global order"--

“Sexy, surprising, funny, insightful, and wildly entertaining” (Huffington Post)—the definitive biography of Giacomo Casanova, the impoverished boy who became the famous writer, notorious libertine, and self-invented genius in decadent eighteenth-century Europe. Today, “Casanova” is a synonym for “great lover,” yet the real story of this remarkable figure is little known. A figure straight out of a Henry Fielding novel, Giacomo Casanova was erotic, brilliant, impulsive, and desperate for recognition; a self-destructive genius. Over the course of his lifetime, he claimed to have seduced more than one hundred women, among them married women, young women in convents, girls just barely in their teens, women of high and low birth alike. Abandoned by his mother, an actress and courtesan, Casanova was raised by his illiterate grandmother, coming of age in a Venice filled with spies and political intrigue. He was intellectually curious and read forbidden books, for which he was jailed. He staged a dramatic escape from Venice’s notorious prison, I Piombi, the only person known to have done so. He then fled to France, ingratiated himself at the royal court, and invented the national lottery that still exists to this day. He crisscrossed Europe, landing for a while in St. Petersburg, where he was admitted to the court of Catherine the Great. He corresponded with Voltaire and met Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte—assisting them as they composed the timeless opera Don Giovanni. And he wrote what many consider the greatest memoir of the era, the twelve-volume Story of My Life. Laurence Bergreen’s Casanova recounts this astonishing life in rich, intimate detail, and at the same time, paints a dazzling portrait of eighteenth-century Europe, filled with a cast characters from serving girls to kings and courtiers, “great fun for any history lover” (Kirkus Reviews).

The World of a Seductive Genius

Casanova

"A middle grade adaptation of Bergreen's adult title of the same name, about Magellan's historic voyage around the globe"--

Magellan

Urodził się w Wenecji. Najbardziej rozpustnym mieście ówczesnego świata. Jako dziecko uchodził za opóźnionego w rozwoju i nic nie zapowiadało, że zostanie pisarzem, wynalazcą, szpiegiem i najsławniejszym uwodzicielem swoich czasów. Wystarczyło ponoć kilka minut, by przypadkowo poznana kobieta zapragnęła spędzić z nim noc, jednak najwierniejszą towarzyszką jego życia była choroba weneryczna. Pamiętniki Casanovy sprzedano Bibliotece Francuskiej za 9 milionów dolarów. To największa kwota, jaką kiedykolwiek zapłacono za rękopisy. Właśnie one posłużyły Laurence’owi Bergreenowi do stworzenia tryskającej dowcipem i erotyzmem biografii kochanka wszech czasów. Oto najnowsza biografia jednej z największych ikon popkultury. Kochanka i awanturnika. Mężczyzny, którego nazwisko po dziś dzień jest synonimem mistrza sztuki miłosnej i genialnego uwodziciela.

Laurence Bergreen

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