Most Popular Books by John Richardson

St. John Richardson Liddell (1815--1870), a conspicuous combat leader in the Army of Tennessee, was an important eyewitness to the making of history. A prominent Louisiana planter, he also served on the staffs of P.G.T. Beauregard, William J. Hardee, and Albert Sidney Johnston during the conflict and traveled in the upper circles of the Confederate military and political high command. In 1866, disillusioned and embittered by defeat, Liddell penned his memoirs for his sons. More than a description of his wartime experiences, Liddell''s Record is one man''s judgment on why the Confederacy failed, offering blunt, often harsh criticisms of Confederate leadership and fellow soldiers rarely found in such personal accounts.

In "Hardscrabble," John Richardson captures the grit and resilience of rural life through a rich, evocative narrative interwoven with themes of hardship and perseverance. The novel''s style employs a blend of lyrical prose and poignant realism, drawing on the struggles of its characters as they navigate the complexities of existence in a harsh landscape. Set against the backdrop of a dwindling farming community, Richardson''s work illuminates the rhythms of everyday life and the indomitable human spirit, exploring how individuals are shaped by both their environment and socio-economic challenges. John Richardson, a lifelong observer of the rural experience, infuses the narrative with personal insights drawn from his own upbringing in a farming family. His deep understanding of agricultural traditions, coupled with a keen awareness of the socio-political changes affecting rural America, enables him to craft a narrative that is both authentic and relatable. Richardson''s background as a skilled writer and storyteller shines through, reflecting his passion for illuminating the often-overlooked stories of those living in the margins of society. This compelling exploration of human resilience makes "Hardscrabble" a must-read for those who seek an authentic portrayal of rural life and the bonds that unite us in our struggles. Readers will find themselves captivated by Richardson''s nuanced characters and beautifully rendered landscapes, making it a significant contribution to contemporary American literature.

NOW A PENGUIN MODERN CLASSIC: Twining revenge tragedy with gothic romance, John Richardson''s Wacousta is a story of betrayal, false identity, and wasted love during one of the most violent episodes in the history of the Canadian frontier. On the northwest frontier in 1763, a mysterious man named Wacousta lies at the heart of a violent attack on the British garrison Fort Detroit. Consumed by a thirst for vengeance that borders on madness, this monstrous figure assists Pontiac''s Indian alliance to satisfy a deeply personal vendetta--one whose roots stretch back across decades and continents. Thrilling and suspenseful, Wacousta creates a world of deception and terror in which motive is ambiguous and the boundary between order and anarchy unclear.

This book challenges the popular recent view of Nietzsche as an anti-systematic, anti-traditional thinker, and argues that his work is in fact highly systematic, and therefore congruent with the main traditions of western philosophy.

The third volume of Richardson’s magisterial Life of Picasso, a groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. Here is Picasso at the height of his powers in Rome and Naples, producing the sets and costumes with Cocteau for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and visiting Pompei where the antique statuary fuel his obsession with classicism; in Paris, creating some of his most important sculpture and painting as part of a group that included Braque, Apollinaire, Miró, and Breton; spending summers in the South of France in the company of Gerald and Sara Murphy, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. These are the years of his marriage to the Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova—the mother of his only legitimate child, Paulo—and of his passionate affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was, as well, his model and muse.

Many marine mammals communicate by emitting sounds that pass through water. Such sounds can be received across great distances and can influence the behavior of these undersea creatures. In the past few decades, the oceans have become increasingly noisy, as underwater sounds from propellers, sonars, and other human activities make it difficult for marine mammals to communicate. This book discusses, among many other topics, just how well marine mammals hear, how noisy the oceans have become, and what effects these new sounds have on marine mammals. The baseline of ambient noise, the sounds produced by machines and mammals, the sensitivity of marine mammal hearing, and the reactions of marine mammals are also examined. An essential addition to any marine biologist''s library, Marine Mammals and Noise will be especially appealing to marine mammalogists, researchers, policy makers and regulators, and marine biologists and oceanographers using sound in their research.

John Richardson''s riveting memoir about growing up in England and, at twenty-five, beginning his twelve-year adventure with the controversial art collector Douglas Cooper. With a new introduction by Jed Perl, here is John Richardson''s richly entertaining memoir of his life with the brilliant but difficult British art expert Douglas Cooper--a fiendish, colorful, Evelyn Waugh-like figure who single-handedly assembled the world''s most important private collection of Cubist paintings. John Richardson tells the story of their ill-fated but comical association, which began in London in 1949 when Richardson was twenty-five and moved onto the Château de Castille, the famous colonnaded folly in Provence that they restored and filled with masterpieces by Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Juan Gris. Richardson unfurls a fascinating adventure through twelve years, encompassing famous artists and writers, collectors and other celebrities--Francis Bacon, Jean Cocteau, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Dora Maar, Peggy Guggenheim, and Henri Matisse, to name only a few. And central to the book is Richardson''s close friendship with Picasso, which coincided with the emergence of the artist''s new mistress, Jacqueline Roque, and gave Richardson an inside view of the repercussions she would have on Picasso''s life and work. With an eye for detail, an ear for scandal, and a sparkling narrative style, Richardson has written a unique, fast-paced saga of modernism behind the scenes.

Insightful and opinionated, erudite and amusing, this collection by the author of "A Life of Picasso" provides a personal, close-up look at a marvelously eclectic mix of artists and writers, tastemakers and tycoons.

The beautifully illustrated fourth volume of Picasso’s life—set in France and Spain during the Spanish Civil War and World War II—covers friendships with the surrealist painters; artistic inspiration around Guernica and the Minotaur; and his muses Marie-Thérèse, Dora Maar, and Françoise Gilot; and much more. Including 271 stunning illustrations and drawing on original and exhaustive research from interviews and never-before-seen material in the Picasso family archives, this book opens with a visit by the Hungarian-French photographer Brassaï to Picasso’s chateau in Normandy, Boisgeloup, where he would take his iconic photographs of the celebrated plaster busts of Marie-Thérèse, Picasso’s mistress and muse. Picasso was contributing to André Breton’s Minotaur magazine and he was also spending more time with the likes of Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Lee Miller, and the poet Paul Éluard, in Paris as well as in the south of France. It was during this time that Picasso began writing surrealist poetry and became obsessed with the image of himself as the mythic Minotaur—head of a bull, body of a man—and created his most famous etching, Minotauromachie. Richardson shows us the artist is as prolific as ever, painting Marie-Thérèse, but also painting the surrealist photographer Dora Maar who has become a muse, a collaborator and more. In April 1937, the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War inspires Picasso’s vast masterwork of the same name, which he paints in just a few weeks for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. When the Nazis occupy Paris in 1940, Picasso chooses to remain in the city despite the threat that his art would be confiscated. In 1943, Picasso meets Françoise Gilot who would replace Dora, and as Richardson writes, “rejuvenate his psyche, reawaken his imagery and inspire a brilliant sequence of paintings.” As always, Richardson tells Picasso’s story through his work during this period, analyzing how it shows what the artist was feeling and thinking. His fascinating and accessible narrative immerses us in one of the most exciting moments in twentieth century cultural history, and brings to a close the definitive and critically acclaimed account of one of the world’s most celebrated artists.

This collection surveys the contemporary landscape of audiovisual media. Contributors from image and sound studies explore the history and the future of moving-image media across a range of formats including blockbuster films, video games, music videos, social media, experimental film, documentaries, video art, pornography, theater, and electronic music.

The River of Nine Dragons (Song Cuu Long) is the name given to the nine "tails" or distributaries of the Mekong River that flow through the thick, verdant, watery world of the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The first of these to break away from the Mekong is the Bassac, starting in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and making up one of the star of four converging waterways upon which Phnom Penh sits. Jack Logan, a nave country boy from North Carolina, joins the Army with his cousin Joseph and becomes a U.S. Army Ranger. The Vietnam War is about to change his life forever. Like so many warriors of the past, he has learned to love the effects of war, the adrenaline rush, and the heat of battle. He rediscovered a love that he thought he lost along the way, while discovering a new love in the process. Now he''s torn between the love of war and the love for two women. Who will he choose, the War, Rana or Maya?

Illuminates the aesthetics of a major American composer.