Book Description
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was one of the masters of 18th-century art. This stunning book, published to accompany a major international exhibition, covering the artist's entire career, reveals the sheer range, quality, and originality of Gainsborough's work, from his engagingly naturalistic landscapes and touching images of children to his sophisticated and glamorous society portraits.
In their revealing essay, Michael Rosenthal and Martin Myrone explore Gainsborough's dynamic involvement with the social world of his day, while other essays explore his subtle approach to the lucrative world of fashionable portraiture and the often pointed social commentary behind his seductive landscapes. This volume provides new and refreshing insights into Gainsborough as an artist who succeeded in creating an experimental and modern art for his own time, and whose works remain vital and rewarding today.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Artist.......2006-03-19
I was totally amazed at the extra-ordinary talent of Thomas Gainsborough. He is truly one of the all-time great artist. I appreciated the fact that his paintings were shown in color. This book also gave a thorough description of his life. I am happy I purchased this book!
Dwight
To remember past emotions..........2005-09-10
This catalogue contains beautiful reproductions of all the drawings and paintings from the last great Gainsborough's exhibition. It helps to remember the emotions I've felt in front of the true works. Every notice is sensitive and informative. And all texts are from eminent specialists. I just regret that bibliography doesn't refer to the old great Paris exhibition.
Book Description
In this brilliantly witty satire -- a bestseller in the UK -- a prestigious British museum launches an ambitious new exhibit...which quickly becomes a seasonal nightmare. Think that a day in the life of a London museum director is cold, quiet, and austere? Think again. Giles Waterfield brings a combination of intellectual comedy and knockabout farce to the subject in this story of one long day in a museum full of scandals, screw-ups?and more than a few scalawags. At the beginning of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner, Auberon, the brilliant but troubled director of the Museum of British History, is preparing one midsummer's day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition his museum has ever staged. The centerpiece is a painting of the intriguing Lady St. John strikingly attired as Puck, which hasn't been shown in London in a hundred years. As the day passes, the portrait arouses disquieting questions, jealousies, rivalries -- and more than a few strange affections -- in the minds of the museum staff. As guests and employees pour in, the tension rises -- and Auberon himself has the hilariously ridiculous task of keeping the peace, without losing his own sense of reality as well. For everyone who loves the farce of David Lodge and Michael Frayn, or even the Antiques Roadshow, the fast-paced, hilarious satire of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner is sure to delight and entertain.
Customer Reviews:
A museum director's midsummer's nightmare.......2005-02-07
"We're thinking out of the box, looking at a new museum concept, a museum about people, not objects," boasts Sir Lewis Burslem, the chairman of the board of the Museum of British History (trendily renamed BRIT), one of the villains of Waterfield's tart and hilarious satire at the politics and commercialism that hinder a museum's ultimate goals of preservation and education.
BRIT is about to host a new blockbuster of an exhibit called, simply, "Elegance," and Burslem, with advertising opportunities in mind, is proposing an extension to the museum for "showcasing material culture, popular music, sport, shopping..." A gala dinner and party will open the exhibit later that day, and members of the royal family will be in attendance, providing the museum with a perfect public relations opportunity for announcing the expansion.
At the center of the show is a newly discovered Gainsborough portrait, graciously donated by the chairman himself yet unexamined by the museum staff before its display. When Jane Vaughan, the chief curator, finally sees the painting mounted the night before the exhibit, she begins to think that something is not quite right. And therein lies a midsummer's nightmare for Auberon Booth, the museum's harried director.
Waterfield is a former curator and gallery director himself, so his heroes and targets are certainly no surprise, nor is the frenzied finale all that unexpected. Yet, in spite of its predictability, there are laughs aplenty, and the mirth mushrooms as the plot progresses. Along the way, the author skewers scholars, high-society donors, picture restorers, art dealers, journalists, security guards, and even caterers (who provide the most over-the-top hilarity).
But something is missing. As one of the scholars on the institution's board of directors argues, "The only thing that makes museums special is their collections," and Waterfield's underlying message is that museums are, at heart, about art. Yet the art itself is mostly absent from this book. All we really learn about the mysterious "Lady St. John Impersonating Puck" is that it is a portrait of a noblewoman and a hound. Gainsborough's biography and artistic qualities and technique are beside the point; the painting could just as easily have been a missing Hogarth or Reynolds--or any other English artist. In the end, even in this clever and wicked satire, politics and commercialism overshadow the art itself.
"Museums are just extensions of the marketplace".......2004-11-23
Anyone who has ever worked in a large State Library or Art Gallery that has big exhibition or preservation departments is going to find a lot to identify with in this whimsical, fun, and totally satirical novel by Giles Waterfield. Waterfield obviously knows his subject well, as he recounts over a twenty-four hour period, the office politics, the snobbery, the workaholic mentality, and the class machinations of the (fictional) Museum of British History in London. With a simple, direct narrative that is almost journalistic in style, the book may put some off as it literally has a cast of thousands. Still, it's marvelously effective as a cutting, rambunctious satire on the world of museums where quality exhibitions that reflect the integrity of history and scholarship have become secondary to making money and being commercially viable.
The novel opens with the museum staff preparing to hold a gala dinner in the Great Hall for the premier of its latest blockbuster, an exhibition called Elegance. A certain royal presence will be attending, so everyone from the hospital administrators, to curatorial staff, to security is in a state of controlled alarm. Most panicked is the museum's young, maverick director Dr. Auberon Booth, who is engaged in a bitter power struggle over the future direction of the Museum with Sir Lewis Burslem, a overbearing property tycoon and the museum's chairman. Sir Lewis has just loaned to the exhibition a painting from his own private collection - the Lady St John as Puck, a little known painting by Gainsborough.
Dr. Jane Vaughan the museum's chief curator becomes convinced that not all is, as it seems with the painting. Jane tries to uncover the curious history behind the painting, and in the process she finds some devious shenanigans going on which not only implicate Sir Lewis but also dubious figures from the stylish art world, a Japanese tycoon, and the scheming Lucian Bankes, the museum's head of exhibitions. Running concurrently with this, is the behind the scenes story of Angel Cooks, the catering company run by Mr. Rupert and their disastrous preparations for the ambitious gala dinner.
The action is divided up into short episodes throughout the day, as the narrative jumps from person to person, but at the heart of the story is the true provenance of the Gainsborough and Jane's inimitable efforts to find out the truth behind the painting. The astute reader will probably guess quite early on what the scam is, but this shouldn't detract you from finishing the story. When evening arrives and the ambitious ball is underway, the reader is in for a real treat as the snotty guests get unadulteratingly drunk and are forced to eat a cold dinner of crab and vegetables when the power to the portable ovens accidentally goes out. The conclusion is wonderfully ludicrous with the rich gallery of absurd, self-obsessed, and neurotic characters, all coming together for the final, glamorous showdown underneath the Lady St. John as Puck. The Hound in the Left Hand Corner is de-rigor entertainment for lovers of fine art, and probably for lovers of art in general. Mike Leonard November 04.
Laugh Out Loud.......2004-07-01
Waterfield's fantastic farce leads you through a rollicking day in the life of BRIT--the fictional museum of British History. While this piece of fiction is definitely a satire, one suspects that perhaps it is not too far fetched in its descriptions of the cast of characters involved in the opening of the exhibition "Elegance". The star of the exhibition is an almost unknown Gainsborough painting, which also happens to be the property of Sir Lewis Burslem, chairman of BRIT. The painting is to be unveiled that evening at a gala dinner of 400 people, including the Duke of Clarence and other "very important people." However, as the day goes by, things begin to go very wrong, and you will find yourself laughing out loud at this unique and thoroughly entertaining novel. For museum buffs, this is a must read! And, if you're not a museum buff, read it anyways! You'll love it.
Delightful book.......2004-05-01
Witty, literate and quotable - I missed the Midsummers Night connection also but didn't find it diminshed my enjoyment at all.
Interesting insight into the world of museums; certainly nothing dry about it or its inhabitants. As the author has extensive experience in that venue, he would know the truth of it....
Read it!
Political correctness unmasked with wit and verve.......2004-03-06
26 February, 2004
Reviewer: Ronald Haak from Cork, Ireland
I'm grateful to Mary Whipple's analysis (below) for exposing the Shakesperian depths that will add to my enjoyment of this book when I reread it. I admit my own reading was far more superficial and I enjoyed it none the less for that. I found it simply ravishing on its simplest level and revelled in its unmasking of the pretensions of so many varieties of political correctness. ("You have to hand it to him. He took his wife's name on marrying. A very effective move.") The book is replete with gambits like this, oozing in PC-one upmanship, but these are shown to be affectations. For all their fashionable utterances of making musuems more nitwit, more accessible, less elitist, less historical, less scholarship-and-research oriented, the big musuem banquet at the book's climax is as snobbish and haughty as any GENUINE aristo banquet of the 18th century (the theme of of the banquet is "elegance"). The politically correct staff are positively reeking with status envy and the chapter on these people getting dressed for the royal bash shows them trying to alleviate their status-anxiety by designer gowns, lavish jewellry and order of precedence to the extent they are almost literally sick at the thought of being humiliated by the absence of some bauble or the lack of a trendy remark. To me, these insecurities and hypocritical maneuveurings were THE deliciously major, wicked theme of the book and I had one whale of a ride, demanding of it no more than that. The treatment is wonderfully multi-faceted and witty, and readers will engage it on many levels, with no single monolithic interpretation of the book possible. Definitely the product of a wicked and perceptive intelligence.
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- Belsey Offers a Compelling Portrait of Early Gainsborough
- Thomas Gainsborough: A Country Life by Hugh Belsey
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Thomas Gainsborough: A Country Life (Art & Design)
Hugh Belsey , and
Thomas Gainsborough
Manufacturer: Prestel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 3791327844 |
Book Description
This new study on Thomas Gainsborough concentrates on the early life and works of the great eighteenth-century artist. Gainsborough's talent was evident at a young age, and before he established himself as one of London's leading portrait artists he was able to indulge himself in his true passion, landscapes, as well as providing portraits for a provincial clientele.
Graced with the light and gentle shadows of the English countryside, these early works provided the foundation for much of Gainsborough's later work. But many of them, including the renowned Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, and His Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, can be called masterpieces in their own right. It was in Suffolk that the artist developed a naturalistic approach to portraiture by abandoning "conversation pieces" and painting instead a number of straightforward head-and-shoulder portraits. This lively and accessible volume features eighty color and black-and-white reproductions of Gainsborough's paintings, etchings, and drawings. They not only shed light on the development of one of England's most revered painters, but also offer an intimate look at the work of a young painter in the thrall of his subjects, and just beginning to realize his full talents.
Customer Reviews:
Belsey Offers a Compelling Portrait of Early Gainsborough.......2003-09-04
This is an engaging book focusing on the earlier landscape paintings and portraits completed in Ipswich and Bath. The observations on the details of the paintings are acute and perceptive. The author illuminates with a thorough knowledge of the social mores and conventions of 18th Century England. For painters and artists, the insights on formal composition and color are instructive.
The narrative text is laced with a wit, humor, and irony that perhaps one can only find in an English art historian writing about a consummate English artist. The book is also mercifully focused and short, alleviating some of the bludgeon like tediousness of many art history tomes.
Thomas Gainsborough: A Country Life by Hugh Belsey.......2002-12-19
Mr Belsey has truimphed with this book - it is packed with detail that is conveyed in an accessible style of writing that enables the reader to absorb information whilst, at the same time, enjoying the whole experience.
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Gainsborough: Colour Library (Phaidon Colour Library)
Nicola Kalinsky
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
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Whistler: Colour Library (Phaidon Colour Library)
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ASIN: 0714831786 |
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- A best loved book, for best loved paintings!
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Best Loved Paintings: Pinkie and Blue Boy
Robert R. Wark
Manufacturer: Huntington Library Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0873281705 |
Book Description
This handsome gift volume reveals the stories behind the Huntington's best-known paintings, The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and Pinkie by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Purchased by Henry E. Huntington in the 1920s, the two masterpieces have resided together in the railroad magnate's mansion-turned-art gallery in San Marino, California, for more than seventy years. Who were the children in these paintings and why did these leading artists choose them as subjects? These and many other intriguing questions are answered by renowned art historian Robert R. Wark. Sixteen color plates feature Pinkie and the Blue Boy as well as other related paintings.
Customer Reviews:
A best loved book, for best loved paintings!.......2000-10-28
I love art history and I got some old prints of these paintings. However, I wanted to learn more about them. After much time and research I finally came across this book. It helped me out more then any other resource. I fell in love with it when I read it. It answered all my questions I had about the paintings, like why they are displayed together even though they were painted by different artists? or, Who was bluleboy and pinkie? The book also touches on other paintings by the same artists, which I found helpful and made me want to learn more. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves art, or art-history. It would be a good source for art-history teachers too!
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- Proving it is a Gainsborough
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The search for Gainsborough
Adrienne Corri
Manufacturer: Vanguard Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 081490906X |
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Proving it is a Gainsborough.......2005-03-17
A British Actress finds a painting in a theatre. A picture of an actor & she sets out to prove it is a Gainsborough.
Written in diary form.... It is her first book and a good one. I love the Art freference, art world critics and especially the Bank information that is available. Great book!
The author actress is in a movie entitled The River, if you would like to see her as an actress.
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Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough (Paul Mellon Centre Studies)
John Hayes
Manufacturer: Yale Univ Pr
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ASIN: 0300014252 |
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The Letters of Thomas Gainsborough (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis)
Manufacturer: Paul Mellon Center BA
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ASIN: 0300087322 |
Book Description
The eighteenth century saw a radical change in the depiction of country life in English painting: feeling less constrained by the conventions of classical or theatrical pastoral, landscape painters attempted to offer a portrayal of what life was really like, or was thought to be like, in contemporary England; and this inevitably involved a new approach to the depiction of the rural poor. John Barrell’s influential study shows why the poor began to be of such interest to painters, and examines the ways in which they could be represented so as to be an acceptable part of the décor of the salons of the rich. His discussion focuses on the work of three painters: Thomas Gainsborough, George Morland and John Constable. Throughout the book, Barrell draws illuminating comparisons with the contemporary literature of rural life and with the work of other painters. His terse and vigorous account has provided a landmark for social historians and literary critics, as well as historians of art.
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Gainsborough Drawings
John T. Hayes , and
Lindsay Stainton
Manufacturer: Tuttle Pub
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ASIN: 0883970465 |
Book Description
This is the true story of a young American missionary woman courage and triump of faith in the jungles of New Guinea and her four years in a notorious Japanese prison camp. Never to see her husband again, she was forced to sign a confession to a crime she did not commit and face the executioner's sword, only to be miraculously spared.
Customer Reviews:
A book to challenge you to greater faith!.......2007-10-12
I read this book several years ago and will never be the same because of it. Darlene Deibler Rose's story is burned into my heart because it changed my view of God and how He deals with His children. Her wisdom gained through intense suffering rings true to what I read in Scripture, and how wonderful to hear someone whose faith has been severely tested come out on the other side and say to the rest of us "what the Bible says is TRUE!" A loving God sometimes allows us to suffer and yet never leaves us nor forsakes us, all the while causing our faith to truly grow and be perfected as we trust Him. Quite simply, Darlene Deibler Rose is one of my heroes of the faith, and her story is not to be missed!
Missionary Biography.......2007-09-17
This is the best missionary story of God's faithfulness that I've ever read. I recommend it to everyone.
Evidence Not Seen is Must Reading.......2007-09-15
This book tells the story of Darlene Deibler's incredible survival during almost four years in a World War 2 Japanese prison camp. But more than that, it tells the story of incredible faith that blossomed and bloomed under the most horrendous conditions. When faced with pain, illness and even the death of her husband, Darlene sensed the Presence of God in a way that enabled her to go on and to survive without bitterness for her captors or for God.
I loved the drama of how Darlene at first spurned the attention of the man who fell in love with her and felt sure she was destined to become his wife and missionary partner. It didn't take long for her to return the feelings, and off they went, expecting a long and fruitful ministry in the East Indies. They landed in Java on their first wedding anniversary.
But I hated how the tentacles of war ripped the Deiblers apart and landed them in different camps. Darlene, who served as a barracks leader and nurse, suffered herself and nursed the wounds of others who were abused. Many, Darlene included, were left weak and thin by beriberi, malaria and dysentery. However, as she cared for fellow prisoners physically, Darlene inspired them spiritually by establishing a daily time in the barracks to read the Bible and pray. And no matter what daily heartaches she endured, God whispered encouragement to her heart through memorized scripture and hymns.
Evidence Not Seen will bolster your faith and assure you that God is real and present in every experience of life.
The transforming power of God.......2007-08-29
Evidence Not Seen: A Woman's Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II - by Darlene Deibler Rose. Published by HarperSanFrancisco in 1988
This is the most powerful Christian book I have ever read. My introduction came in a friend's letter. She mentioned this "inspiring and challenging" book and said about it; "Oh, to love Jesus like that!" I ordered a copy immediately and have ordered many more to give to friends.
Four years spent in a POW camp in the jungles of Indonesia don't make for comfortable reading. After you lend it or recommend it you hope that the other person can stand to read the awful details of deprivations and hardships endured in such a location. Food was always scarce and insufficient, but somehow they coped.
Darlene Deibler only had a few years of married life before she and her husband were separated and confined in different camps. Russell Deibler did not survive. Darlene became a very young widow. She had been gifted with such a cheerful spirit and leadership qualities that she was chosen to be the leader of one of the women's barracks at the camp. Her enthusiastic Christian spirit brought solace to many around her.
So this is the kind of book which could change your life. Certainly life will never be quite the same.
Before war interfered that small group of missionaries, were preparing, some of them, to bring the Good News to the primitive tribes in the vast interior of New Guinea. This would have been only 70 years since earlier missionaries had discovered that the people they were planning to work amongst had a culture of cannibalism. This was "hardship" missions in every way: isolated territory, no medical resources, difficult terrain and climate. Their faith had to be strong. The prison camp experience was a traumatic testing ground of that faith.
You sense the gift of love for those New Guinea tribesmen. After the war the mission work resumed and Darlene returned as Darlene Deibler Rose. You may ask if this kind of mission work had any noticeable results. Consider this news story which came to our attention just as I was preparing this review.
The Papua New Guinea tribesmen wanted to apologize publicly for their ancestors having cannibalized Methodist missionaries 129 years ago. What a thrill then to read: "Thousands of villagers attended the apology ceremony in East New Britain province and listened to words of praise for the English missionary who had brought the Gospel to their region. The apologetic Papuans, led by the Governor General of Papua New Guinea, offered their apologies to the High Commissioner of Fiji. Four Fijian missionaries, under the command of Rev. George Brown of the London-based Wesleyan Missionary Society, had been slain and eaten in 1878 by Tolai tribesmen, directed by their warrior chief Taleli. "We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," Fijian High Commissioner Ratu Isoa Tikoca told the apologetic tribesmen at the August ceremony. Fiji itself had practiced cannibalism but gave up their meal habits under the influence of earlier missionary efforts.
The power of God so evident in Darlene's life story is evident on a larger scale in the new nation of New Guinea.
Read Darlene's story and let the Lord work in your life.
Great Book!!!.......2007-08-09
Great book. I wanted this book after hearing about it on an online radio broadcast of this woman's story. Fantastic. Great book, I could hardly put it down.
Book Description
A gripping chronicle of courage in captivity, of sacrifice and survival, Conduct Under Fire recounts the fierce, bloody battles of Bataan and Corregidor through the eyes of the author's father and three fellow navy doctors taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. During their three and a half years of imprisonment, the doctors struggled daily against disease and starvation, fighting for their own lives as well as the lives of their fellow prisoners. Based on extensive interviews with American, British, Australian, and Japanese veterans, as well as diaries, letters, and war crimes testimony, Conduct Under Fire is an unforgettable account of bravery and ingenuity, one that reveals the long shadow the war cast on the lives of those who fought it.
Customer Reviews:
Grim, Gripping, and Inspirational........2007-08-06
Talk about one's world being turned upside down. One moment four young military doctors are enjoying good marriages and pleasant military postings in exotic locations, and in the next they are thrust in the midst of horrific battle and subsequently imprisoned under grotesquely inhumane conditions. That these men were able to endure such horrid conditions and go on to live important, useful, satisfying lives is awe inspiring.
In light of Japanese Premier Abe's recent denials of Japanese Imperial Army atrocities concerning so-called "Comfort Women," this reading takes on special significance. This story is further evidence of the shameful brutality foisted by Japan during its brutal and unprovoked aggressions during the 1932-1945 wars it foisted upon its much weaker Asian neighbors and, ultimately and self-defeatingly, with the U.S. and its allies.
If you can find the CD version of this book on tape, it is well worth purchasing. The narration is superb.
--Bill Todd-Mancillas
Communication Studies
Ca. St. Univ. at Chico
an amazing story.......2007-01-02
I had seen this story on cable and bought the book afterwards. It is a very moving story and written so well. I have to say I am ashamed of the way the US treated these people during their horrible ordeal.
Great book, but with a lost intent........2006-11-18
The title and synopsis of "Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945" led me to beleive that I would read about the in-depth personal experience of four US doctors as P.O.W.s. However, the book does not read like a memior or biography, but rather like any third-person account written by a historian from a distant vantage point.
That is not to say that "Conduct Under Fire" is a bad book, but the fact that the title men are hardly mentioned throughout the greater part of the book is a serious flaw. John Glusman does provide the reader with background information of the four doctors, one of which is father, Murray Glusman. Unfortunately, the details of the doctor's personal experiences were infrequent once the book covered the time frame of World War II. In fact, I could not help but wonder if the author's research into his father's time as P.O.W. was limited to rummaging through sparse stash of old letters and a fireside chat with his old man. Glusman (the author) does record the harsh condition of Japanese P.O.W. camps for American troops based on the writings of others, but the reader is left to assume that the doctors' tenure as P.O.W.s was identical to that experienced by thousands of other American P.O.W.s. While it the suffering they endured at the hands of Japanese was certainly horrific and they deserve our respect, "Conduct Under Fire" lacks a unique element that could have distinguished it from numerous of other P.O.W. books.
If you are simply looking for an account of Japanese prisoner camps or even of the struggle against Imperial Japan, then "Conduct Under Fire" is worth the time. Glusman does give remarkable detail to the pre-war climate in the Phillipines and Shanghai, the seige of Bataan and Corrigedor, the American submarine campaign that strangled Japanese shipping, and the B-29 raids that led to massive firebombings and yes, the atomic bombs.
Although "Conduct Under Fire" promised to deliver an account of the war through the eyes of the author's father and three other doctors, the reader is left with text that could have been placed by a historian far removed from the horror.
An important book.......2006-10-19
This book is terrific. It is a well researched piece of scholarship and heartfelt. The author is not judgmental towards the Japanese despite their treatment of his father. As a result, the author's descriptions of the Americans "conduct under fire" shows how brave they really were.
I could not help but get angry when I read that these men have had no proper compensation for their loss or even an apology from the Japanese government.
The View from the Under-side of the Pacific War.......2006-05-31
A half-century after the end of World War II we now see an extraordinary tide of books revealing the under-side of the conflict. The passing of time, the opening of previously restricted documentation, and a less romantic view of events have conspired to produce this literature. Among them are Ghost Wars, Fatal Voyage, Burma Road. These well researched volumes open to the reader the true character of war unembellished by governments eager to maintain the spin of patriotism for the sake of public morale. The latest and most formidable book in this genre is Conduct Under Fire: Four American Doctors and Their Fight for Life as Prisoners of the Japanese (N.Y.: Penguin Group, 2005). John A. Glusman, editor in chief of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is the author and son of one of the four doctors. He sets the story in the larger context of the war in the Pacific so it is not simply the chronicle of medical doctors working in prisoner of war camps in the Philippines and Japan. A narrow focus would have been sufficient to describe the bravery and skill of the doctors in their years of suffering as and with POWs. But Glusman opens for the reader the larger picture of the military and political events that inevitably had a profound impact on the POWs. It was a fate of the POWs not only to deal with often sadistic Japanese captors, but they also were faced early on with the results of the U.S. failure energetically to prosecute the Pacific war in favor of the European theater, the frightful toll of more than 10,000 prisoners who died when US submarines sank Japanese ships ferrying prisoners to Japan, and the terrifying effects of fire-bombing of Japanese cities where additional POWs lost their lives. In the midst of this harrowing period, the US doctors heroically saved lives, improvised medical procedures without even minimal supplies, and managed to maintain the highest vision of their vocation. Glusman has honored his father and the thousands of POWs by telling this honest story. He also boldly reminds us all of the frightful cost of war on the human spirit in a time when inevitably warfare's result is annihilation of everything human.
Average customer rating:
- Eyewitness to history
- Review
- Review
- An Eye Opener, This book will not put you to sleep.
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Life As An American Prisoner of War of the Japanese
Charles Balaza
Manufacturer: 1st Books Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1403333645 |
Customer Reviews:
Eyewitness to history.......2002-10-10
Easy to read ...hard to put down ...unable to forget.
Review.......2002-06-12
Charlie has written a very good book about his life as a POW. It speaks the truth that many Americans are not fully aware of the types of sacrifices that are made to protect our country. For his first, and hopefully not his last book, he did an excellent job of story telling.
Review.......2002-06-12
Charlie has written a very good book about his life as a POW. It speaks the truth that many Americans are not fully aware of the types of sacrifices that are made to protect our country. For his first, and hopefully not his last book, he did an excellent job of story telling.
An Eye Opener, This book will not put you to sleep........2002-05-19
A true story told as it happened by a prisoner of war of the Japanese during WW2. This is a descriptive and illustrated book of one person determined to survive the most grueling time of his life. Nothing is exaggerated or played down. All stories are true and described just how the author witnessed them. From the very first chapter to the last, it's written in a way that makes you feel as if you are there and actually part of the action.
Although it's free of vulgar language some of the pictures are graphic and may be disturbing to a young reader. The book is written for the mature reader. I feel it would be a good book for every high school senior student to read. This would give the student an idea of what someone their age was going through 60 years ago. Historical events are kept to a minimum as to not bore the reader but enough information is provided to inform
you of the era. At times I found the book hard to put down wanting too know what would happen next. This is a book on real survival.
After reading this book I have found a new respect for the people in our armed forces, a new respect for the older veterans of WW2 who put their lives on the line for our freedom. A freedom that should not be taken for granted by any American citizen.
It is possible that the hardships of his youth, helped to give him the determination and will to survive the horrendous three and one half years that he was a prisoner of war, or his strong faith in the Lord above? You be the judge.
Average customer rating:
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Wild Daisies in the Sand: Life in a Canadian Internment Camp
Tom Sando , and
J. P. Desgagne
Manufacturer: NeWest Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1896300510 |
Book Description
Wild Daisies in the Sand reopens a chapter of North American World War II history. This book is a series of diary entries beginning in 1941, when author Tom Sando was imprisoned in concentration camps, first in Petawawa and then Angler, Ontario—a young Japanese Canadian imprisoned only because he was willing to stand and fight for his rights as a Canadian. The Japanese Canadians relocated to Petawawa and Angler were imprisoned in maximum security penitentiaries: compounds encircled by three layers of barbed wire fences, and under constant surveillance by rifle-armed guards stationed in watchtowers. These people were not prisoners-of-war or even criminals, but Canadian civilians deemed dangerous by the Canadian government because of their race.
Wild Daisies in the Sand is a unique first-hand look at a part of the Japanese internment that many people are still unfamiliar with. Tom Sando relates his story of loneliness, fear, and eventually friendship and hope, candidly and with careful thought.
Average customer rating:
- GREAT BOOK!!
- A war memoir well worth reading
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The Hike into the Sun: Memoir of an American Soldier Captured on Bataan in 1942 and Imprisoned by the Japanese Until 1945
Bernard T. Fitzpatrick , and
John A. Sweetser
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0899508502 |
Book Description
Sergeant Bernard T. Fitzpatrick endured the long road to Japanese prisoner of war camps, an event known thereafter as the Bataan Death March. In Japan he was forced to work at the Yawata Steel Works at Kokura-the original target of the Allies' second atomic bomb. Fitzpatrick's service at Clark Field in the Philippines, the brutal fighting on Bataan, and the harrowing details of his time as a Japanese POW are detailed. Interspersed are his thoughts on U.S. preparations for the Pacific war, his Japanese captors, and the American, Filipino and Japanese men and women who risked their lives to ease the harsh conditions in the camps.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK!!.......2002-11-17
My teacher read this book to me in class. It's excellent! Especially if you're interested in Social Studies!! You have to read this!!
A war memoir well worth reading.......2001-02-25
Bernard Fitpatrick is a Minnesota man and was drafted in April 1941. He left for the Phillipines in September of 1941. He was captured when Bataan fell and eventually ended up in Japan. This is a good book, and is not unreservedly horrible. He tells of Japanese atrocities but also of human and good Japanese. The story is artlessly but engagingly told, and is a war memoir I am glad I had a chance to read.
Average customer rating:
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Behind the Fence: Life as a Japanese P.O.W.
Les Chater
Manufacturer: Vanwell Publishing
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1551250640 |
Book Description
Chater was captured by the Japanese in April 1942 and remained a prisoner until July 1945. His secret diaries were ultimately presented as evidence in the Tokyo War Crimes trials.
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Captive Community Life in a Japanese Internment 1941 1945
Fern H. Miles
Manufacturer: Mossy Creek Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0961889500 |
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Life Behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawaii Issei
Yasutaro Soga
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0824820339 |
Book Description
Yasutaro Soga's Life behind Barbed Wire (Tessaku seikatsu) is an exceptional firsthand account of the incarceration of a Hawai`i Japanese during World War II. On the evening of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Soga, the editor of a Japanese-language newspaper, was arrested along with several hundred other prominent Issei (Japanese immigrants) in Hawai`i. After being held for six months on Sand Island, Soga was transferred to an Army camp in Lordsburg, New Mexico, and later to a Justice Department camp in Santa Fe. He would spend just under four years in custody before returning to Hawai`i in the months following the end of the war.
Most of what has been written about the detention of Japanese Americans focuses on the Nisei experience of mass internment on the West Coast--largely because of the language barrier immigrant writers faced. This translation, therefore, presents us with a rare Issei voice on internment, and Soga's opinions challenge many commonly held assumptions about Japanese Americans during the war regarding race relations, patriotism, and loyalty.
Although centered on one man's experience, Life behind Barbed Wire benefits greatly from Soga's trained eye and instincts as a professional journalist, which allowed him to paint a larger picture of those extraordinary times and his place in them. The Introduction by Tetsuden Kashima of the University of Washington and Foreword by Dennis Ogawa of the University of Hawai`i provide context for Soga's recollections based on the most current scholarship on the Japanese American internment.
Average customer rating:
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Philippine Diary: A Journal of Life As a Japanese Prisoner of War
Robert A. Barker
Manufacturer: Robert a Barker Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0962499919 |
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- Visionaire No. 50: Artists Toys (Visionaire)
- Who Is a Stranger and What Should I Do? (An Albert Whitman Prairie Book)
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