History Celebrity

Before there was a red carpet, there was a bowler hat, a cane, and a walk the whole world recognized without a single word. By the mid-1910s, Charlie Chaplin was arguably the most famous human being on the planet — not famous the way a king or a general is famous, known but unseen, but famous the way it works now: a face millions of strangers felt they knew personally, a private life the public felt entitled to weigh in on, and a scandal cycle that could turn admiration into outrage almost overnight. Charlie Chaplin, The Tramp, and the Making of Modern Celebrity argues that the machinery ...

The first all-encompassing biography of Elliott Smith, offering an intimate portrait of his life and musical legacy with brand-new interviews, lyrics, and correspondence from the people closest to him, many speaking for the first time Nobody Broke Your Heart is a tender, nuanced narrative of...

In Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton's America—tells the story of one of the great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained 'colonial boy' traveled to America, in search of Africa, only to return to Nigeria and transform his sound into a battering ram against the state—creating a new musical language of resistance called Afrobeat.

You may think you know Jerry Springer—the iconic TV host who presided over America's most controversial daytime talk show for 27 years. In that time, Springer’s name became synonymous with outrageous guests, taboo confessions, and vicious on-stage fights. But before The Jerry Springer Show made him infamous all over the world, Springer was something else entirely: a respected Midwestern politician whom many saw as a future leader in the Democratic Party. So how did this serious-minded idealist with lofty political aspirations take such a turn in such a radically different direction?

The year 1972 saw the beginning of a five-year span in which Stevie Wonder released five groundbreaking, critically acclaimed albums, garnering him more than half a dozen Grammys and more than 10 million albums sold, securing his place as one of the most important American musicians and songwriters in history. For the first time, uncover the untold story of an extraordinary artistic journey that shaped the greatest creative era in popular music history.

The autobiography of global human rights icon Nelson Mandela is "riveting . . . both a brilliant description of a diabolical system and a testament to the power of the spirit to transcend it" (Washington Post). Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an...

With his trademark acerbic wit, incisive humor, and infectious paranoia, one of our foremost comedians and most politically engaged civil rights activists looks back at 100 key events from the complicated history of black America. A friend of luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and...

Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles. “When asked, ‘What was it like, growing up with Diana?’, my first thought is always, But I don’t know what it was like not to grow up with her…” In September 1997, Charles Spencer...

Hollywood star Dakota Fanning narrates the audio of one of the most anticipated books of the year, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner. The New York Times bestseller, now in development as a feature film from Universal Pictures, written and directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino...

"Outrageously entertaining." —New York Times From the author of the bestselling phenomenon Dietland comes a razor-sharp, subversive thriller about motherhood, obsession, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Violet “West” Shelley, a self-described “low-brow” crime journalist...

Charlie Chaplin made an amazing 71 films by the time he was only 33 years old. He was not only known as the world’s first international movie star, but as a comedian, film director, and a man ripe with scandal, accused of plagiarism, communism, pacifism, liberalism, and anti-Americanism. He seduced young women, marrying four different times, each time to a woman younger than the next. In this animated biography of Chaplin, Joyce Milton reveals to us a life riddled with gossip and a struggle to rise from an impoverished London childhood to the life of a successful American film star.

A fascinating look at Hollywood’s most turbulent decade and the demise of the studio system—set against the boom of the post–World War II years, the Cold War, and the atomic age—and the movies that reflected the seismic shifts “The definitive book on 1950s Hollywood.” —Booklist...

Pulling back the many hidden layers of John Lennon’s life, Lesley-Ann Jones closely tracks the events and personality traits that led to the rock star living in self-imposed exile in New York - where he was shot dead outside his apartment on that fateful autumn day 40 years ago.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER Priscilla Presley chronicles her difficult, inspiring journey beyond the walls of Graceland and behind the elegant image the world sees in this long-awaited memoir. "A heartfelt record of stepping into one’s own." —Publishers Weekly...

Authors Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key build on the popularity of their 2022 Webby Award-winning podcast and delve deeper into the world of sketch, helped along with new essays created expressly for the book by comedy greats.

Willie Nelson shares his life story in this captivating bestselling memoir of true love, wild times, best friends, and barrooms. "Unvarnished. Funny. Leaving no stone unturned." ... So say the publishers about this book I've written. What I say is that this is the story of my life, told as clear...

From the legendary Ted Turner, who reinvented TV—and the world—by breaking all the rules, a tell-all memoir. "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise!" These words of fatherly advice helped shape Ted Turner's remarkable life, but they only begin to explain the colorful...

Stanley Kubrick, the director of a string of timeless movies from Lolita and Dr. Strangelove to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, and others, has always been depicted by the media as the Howard Hughes of filmmakers, a weird artist obsessed with his work and privacy to the point of madness. But who was he really?

The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet: the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 . . . and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty...

From the house authors of the critically acclaimed oral history on Eddie Van Halen, Eruption, a revealing narrative biography of legendary British guitarist Jeff Beck featuring brand new interviews with the icon himself as well as his famous colleagues, collaborators, and loved ones With his...