Solomon Northup

Sam Sloan

Twelve Years A Slave is the true story of a man who was born as a free man in Upstate New York. In 1841, He had a wife and two kids and a house in Saratoga, New York. He was a skilled violinist who often performed in parties and events. He was approached by two men who asked him to come to Washington DC to perform for a circus company. After arriving in Washington, he was given a dinner and much to drink which turned out to be drugged. When he awoke he found that all his legal documents had been taken away from him and he was locked up in a cell and in chains. He was sold down the river and reached New Orleans Louisiana. He was given a new name and new papers. Whenever he protested he was beaten. Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details his being tricked to go to Washington, D.C., where he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Deep South. He was in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before he was able to secretly get information to friends and family in New York, who in turn secured his release with the aid of the state. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans, and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation and slave treatment on major plantations in Louisiana. The work was published eight years before the Civil War by Derby & Miller of Auburn, New York, soon after Harriet Beecher Stowe's best-selling novel about slavery, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), to which it lent factual support. Northup's book, dedicated to Stowe, sold 30,000 copies, making it a bestseller in its own right. After being published in several editions in the 19th century and later cited by specialist scholarly works on slavery in the United States, the memoir fell into public obscurity for nearly 100 years. It was re-discovered on separate occasions by two Louisiana historians, Sue Eakin (Louisiana State University at Alexandria) and Joseph Logsdon (University of New Orleans). In the early 1960s, they researched and retraced Solomon Northup's journey and co-edited a historically annotated version that was published by Louisiana State University Press (1968). The memoir has been adapted as two film versions, produced as the 1984 PBS television film Solomon Northup's Odyssey and the Oscar-winning 2013 film 12 Years a Slave.

12 Years a Slave

Adelle Davis

Let's Cook It Right

Philip Lambert

Hedy Lamarr

J. Lewis Bruce

This is the autobiography of Hedy Lamarr, who is famous for two things: First: Her movie career, as she was regarded as the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. She was also the first woman ever to appear nude in a movie. Second: She is famous as an inventor, a scientist and a researcher, especially during the Second World War, as she developed and patented a method to defend against torpedoes and missiles. She also developed an anti-aircraft system where the anti-aircraft fire would not hit the aircraft but would explode nearby. Nowadays, in the aftermath of the shooting down of Malaysian Airline 17 over Eastern Ukraine, killing 298 passengers, a new look is being taken at the process developed by Hedy Lamarr. The missile that shot down the Malaysian Airplane used a system similar to the one developed by Hedy Lamarr, and the defense against torpedoes she developed might have applications to prevent future commercial aircraft from being knocked down.

Ecstasy and Me My Life As a Woman

George Pólya

George Polya was a Hungarian mathematician. He wrote this, perhaps the most famous book of mathematics ever written, second only to Euclid's "Elements." "Solving problems," wrote Polya, "is a practical art, like swimming, or skiing, or playing the piano: You can learn it only by imitation and practice. This book cannot offer you a magic key that opens all the doors and solves all the problems, but it offers you good examples for imitation and many opportunities for practice: If you wish to learn swimming you have to go into the water and if you wish to become a problem solver you have to solve problems." The method of solving problems he provides and explains in his books was developed as a way to teach mathematics to students.

A New Aspect of Mathematical Method

How to Solve it

Henry Wickham Steed

Thomas Garrigue Masaryk

Toma Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 1850 - 14 September 1937), sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who was the most prominent advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I and became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia. This book describes those events leading up to the creation of the State of Czechoslovakia.

The Making of a State - Memories and Observations 1914-1918

1889 10 29 1927 4 28 Li Dazhao is among the most honored and respected persons in Chinese History even today. He is considered to be a "Great Father" to the modern Chinese People. Li Dazhao was born on October 29, 1889. He co- founded Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. He worked as a librarian at the Beijing University Library and was among the first of the Chinese intellectuals who supported the Bolshevik government in the USSR. Chairman Mao was an assistant librarian during Li's tenure at the library and Li was one of Mao's earliest and most prominent influences. By many accounts, Li was a nationalist and believed that the peasantry in China were to play an important role in China's revolution. Under the leadership of Li, the CCP developed a close relationship with the Comintern. At the direction of the Comintern, Li was inducted into Sun Yat-sen's Guomindang Party in 1922. Li was elected to the Guomindang's Central Executive Committee in 1924. The CCP's relationship with the Guomindang was controversial, particularly to many members of the CCP and the relationship gradually deteriorated. Tensions between the Comintern, the Guomindang, and the CCP presented opportunities for political intrigue and opportunism. As part of early efforts to liquidate communists, mass detentions of suspected communists began in early 1927. During the during a raid on the Soviet Embassy in Guangzhou, Li was captured and, with nineteen others, he was executed on the orders of the Manchurian General Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin) on April 28, 1927. Ishi Press has launched a program where we are reprinting out of print books in Chinese. These are books that we believe are no longer readily available in China but nevertheless should be preserved. These titles are concerned primarily with Chinese traditional medicine including Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, Chinese massage, Chinese literature and Chinese history plus the Holy Bible translated into Chinese. These books are all entirely in Chinese. Some are in Simplified Chinese. Others are in Traditional Chinese. These are not translations except that the titles have been translated into English. Thus far, all of these books were first published before 1998 but after 1949."

Li Dazhao Collected Works

Arthur Koestler

The Thirteenth Tribe is a ground breaking work of great importance, if only because it has shaped the way that people think about The Jews. It is based on the theory that European Jews, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe, are not descendants of Abraham but rather are the remnants of a tribe, the Khazars, that converted to Judaism in the Eighth Century. We know little about the Khazars, but we do know for certain that they existed and that they were Jewish. The Jews, Russians, Georgians and Armenians all wrote about the Khazars, but the Khazars left no literature, no books. This was perhaps because the Khazars existed during the Dark Ages, a period from which few books survive today. Koestler's thesis is that while the Khazars as a unified tribe may have disappeared, their descendants survived, only that they were no longer known as the Khazars. Instead, these people are now Eastern European Jews and they continue to live in the same places where the Khazars lived such as in Kiev and Odessa. The view of Arthur Koestler who himself was Jewish is that none of the mass movements of the Jewish people happened at all. Rather, the Jews stayed in exactly the same place where they have been all along because the Eastern European Jews are the Khazars. They are the same people. Just their name has been changed. Which is more logical: The Traditional Jewish view or Arthur Koestler's theory?

The Thirteenth Tribe the Khazar Empire and Its Heritage

Minnesota Fats

The movie The Hustler was without doubt the greatest movie ever made about the game of pool and was one of the greatest movies ever made about any subject. It was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. Although Fast Eddie Felson was an entirely fictional person, Minnesota Fats was a real man and was a real pool hustler but was largely unknown outside of the world of pool until the movie came out. His real name was Rudolf Walter Wanderone. His family had come from Switzerland. He never won a major championship but often won money from the best players in the world. He was definitely a money player, winning money when the stakes were high. On these pages "Fats" gives you instructions on the Fundamentals of Pool with photographs showing the proper stance, bridge, stroke and follow through. Fully illustrated instructions for making bank shots, rail shots, straight-ins, and more plus "English" and its use. All game rules including bank pool, one pocket, Kelly, nine ball, bumper pool, and others with referee instructions. Interesting facts on cues, their maintenance and repair plus detailed instructions on re-covering your pool table.

Minnesota Fats on Pool

Milton L. Hanauer

This is a book about the most fascinating game in the world. It is both a manual for beginners and a refresher course for experienced players. Clear and methodical explanations begin with the various chess pieces and proceed to subtle, advanced plays. Each step is copiously illustrated with diagrams to help you learn the game. Chess, a game that enriches your leisure time, can be played throughout your life. Chess is almost an international language for it is played all over the world. Contents: The Powers of the Pieces Good Moves for the Pieces The Opening Gambits Attacks, Defense, Combinations, Counterattacks Checkmate and Stalemate The End Game The Middle Game The Openings of Champions The Laws of Chess

Chess Made Simple

This is a guide to the practical art of plausible reasoning, particularly in mathematics but also in every field of human activity. Using mathematics as the example par excellence, Professor Polya shows how even that most rigorous deductive discipline is heavily dependent on techniques of guessing, inductive reasoning, and reasoning by analogy. In solving a problem, the answer must be guessed at before a proof can even begin, and guesses are usually made from a knowledge of facts, experience, and hunches. The truly creative mathematician must be a good guesser first and a good prover afterward; many important theorems have been guessed but not proved until much later. In the same way, solutions to problems can be guessed, and a good guesser is much more likely to find a correct solution. This work might have been called "How to Become a Good Guesser." Professor Polya's deep understanding of the psychology of creative mathematics enables him to show the reader how to attack a new problem, how to get at the heart of it, what trains of thought may lead to a solution. There is no magic formula here, but there is much practical wisdom. Volumes I and II together make a coherent work on Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning. Volume I on Induction and Analogy stands by itself as an essential book for anyone interested in mathematical reasoning. Volume II on Patterns o f Plausible Inference builds on the examples of Volume I but is not otherwise dependent on it. A more sophisticated reader with some mathematical experience will have no difficulty in reading Volume II independently, though he will probably want to read Volume I afterward. Professor Polya's earlier more elementary book How to Solve It was closely related to Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning and furnished some background for it.

Volume II Patterns of Plausible Inference

Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning

I. A. Horowitz

This book is the original and much imitated Solitaire Chess by I.A. Horowitz. Sixty two master games are presented. The reader is asked to guess the next move by the player of the white pieces. If he guesses correctly, he is awarded points. At the end of the game, his score is graded according to how many points he has earned. All the great grandmasters of chess, from Bobby Fischer on down, have used and have recommended the "Solitaire Chess" method to study and improve their play. This book presents a collection of 62 of the greatest attacking games ever played. Games by Fischer, Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Steinitz, Reti, Marshall, Pillsbury and almost all the other great masters are included here. The author, International Master I.A. Horowitz, provides notes to every game. In addition, the book has been expanded. All the games have been translated into algebraic notation, although the notes are in descriptive.

Solitaire Chess

Judith Campbell Exner

Biography of Judith Campbell Exner, Mistress to President John F. Kennedy

The Judith Exner Story : the Life of the Mistress of John F. Kennedy

Mafia Moll

Reuben Fine

This book presents the indispensable foundations for the understanding of the variations of the chess openings. It has been said that ideas are weapons. That is certainly as true in chess as in any other field. A mastery of a little theory which conveys real understanding of the game is infinitely more valuable than a carefully memorized compilation of endless moves. Paradoxically, a thorough grasp of the ideas behind the openings, which are relatively few in number, is a royal road to knowledge which eliminates much of the drudgery associated with remembering a long series of variations. My object in this work is to present the necessary "ideology" as concisely as possible. This is one of the great classic works on chess by one of the strongest chess players in history. All to often the most recent chess books are just database dumps based on millions of chess games. Our young chess players often undertake the task of memorizing thousands of variations. Let me let you in on a little secret: The world's leading chess grandmasters do not memorize thousands of opening lines. Rather, they study and work them out. They remember the ideas behind the moves, not necessarily the moves themselves. Once they recall the reasons for the moves, they can work out and re-discover the best moves themselves. There are many new moves and opening variations that have become popular and fashionable since this book was published. However, the ideas behind these openings have remained the same. This book is just as valid as when it was first published. Reuben Fine was one of the world's strongest grandmasters of chess.

The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings

Arthur M. Stevens

This is THE book that first introduced a concept that has revolutionized tournament chess for most players. The concept is simply to create a database of chess games, sorted by openings, and then see which opening moves produce the best results. This book concludes that the overall winning percentage for White is 59%. It shows that the moves 1. d4 and 1.c4 win 60% of the time whereas 1.e4 scores only 59%. Regarding the second move, this book shows that against 1. e4, both 1. . . . c5 and 1. . . . e5 score equally well with 42% for Black, whereas the French Defense 1. . . . e6 and the Caro-Kann Defense, 1. . . . c6, do much worse, scoring only 38% for the Black side. This book is based on 56,972 games, all compiled and sorted, showing the winning and drawing position for each best move in the chess openings. For example, after the moves of the French Defense, 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5, it surprisingly shows that the move 3. e5, the Advance Variation, produces the highest winning percentage, as opposed to 3. Nc3 or 3. Nd2.

The Blue Book of Charts to Winning Chess

Nan Gilbert

I was not 16 any more but me and my friends could not get a date. The other girls had been dating since junior high school. We did not know what to do. So me and my two friends formed a little club of our own. We called ourselves "The Unchosen." We could not understand why the boys were asking the other girls out, but not us. So sad, but what could we do? We had to try something. So, we decided to hold a party, invite the boys and see if we could get them to come.

Sam Sloan

About

Books

Join the club