Search:

Cold warriors : writers who waged the literary Cold War / by White, Duncan,1979-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.A brilliant, invigorating account of the great writers on both sides of the Iron Curtain who played the dangerous games of espionage, dissidence and subversion that changed the course of the Cold War. During the Cold War, literature was both sword and noose. Novels, essays and poems could win the hearts and minds of those caught between the competing creeds of capitalism and communism. They could also lead to exile, imprisonment or execution if they offended those in power. The clandestine intelligence services of the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union had secret agents and vast propaganda networks devoted to literary warfare. But the battles were personal, too: friends turning on each other, lovers cleaved by political fissures, artists undermined by inadvertent complicities. In Cold Warriors, Harvard University's Duncan White vividly chronicles how this ferocious intellectual struggle was waged on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The book has at its heart five major writers--George Orwell, Stephen Spender, Mary McCarthy, Graham Greene and Andrei Sinyavsky--but the full cast includes a dazzling array of giants, among them Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, John le Carr, Richard Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Boris Pasternak, Gioconda Belli, Arthur Koestler, Vaclav Havel, Joan Didion, Isaac Babel, Howard Fast, Lillian Hellman, Mikhail Sholokhov--and scores more. Spanning decades and continents and spectacularly meshing gripping narrative with perceptive literary detective work, Cold Warriors is a welcome reminder that, at a moment when ignorance is celebrated and reading seen as increasingly irrelevant, writers and books can change the world.
Subjects: Biographies.; Cold War in literature.; Politics and literature.; Authors; Literature, Modern;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Cold crematorium : reporting from the land of Auschwitz / by Debreczeni, József,1905-1978,author.; Freedland, Jonathan,1967-writer of foreword.; Olchváry, Paul,translator.; translation of:Debreczeni, József,1905-1978.Hideg krematórium.English.;
"The first English language edition of a lost memoir by an Auschwitz survivor, offering a shocking and deeply moving perspective on life within the camps. When Jaozsef Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944, his life expectancy was forty-five minutes. This was how long it took for the half-dead prisoners to be sorted into groups, stripped, and sent to the gas chambers. He beat the odds and survived the "selection," which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the "Cold Crematorium"-the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution. But as Soviet and Allied troops closed in on the camps, local Nazi commanders-anxious about the possible consequences of outright murder-decided to leave the remaining prisoners to die. Debreczeni survived the liberation of Auschwitz and immediately recorded his experiences in Cold Crematorium, one of the harshest, most merciless indictments of Nazism ever written. This haunting memoir, rendered in the precise and unsentimental prose of an accomplished journalist, is an eyewitness account of incomparable literary quality. It was published in the Hungarian language in 1950, but it was never translated, due to Cold War hostilities and rising antisemitism. More than 70 years later, this masterpiece that was nearly lost to time is now being published in more than 15 different languages for the first time, and will finally take its rightful place among the greatest works of Holocaust literature"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Debreczeni, József, 1905-1978.; Auschwitz (Concentration camp); Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews, Hungarian; World War, 1939-1945;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The secrets we kept / by Prescott, Lara,author.;
A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice--the real-life story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the twentieth century: Doctor Zhivago. At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dares publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world--using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, and under Sally's tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops and invisibly ferry classified documents. The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story--the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago's heroine, Lara--with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk. From Pasternak's country estate outside Moscow to the brutalities of the Gulag, from Washington, DC, to Paris and Milan, The Secrets We Kept captures a watershed moment in the history of literature--told with soaring emotional intensity and captivating historical detail. And at the centre of this unforgettable debut is the powerful belief that a piece of art can change the world.
Subjects: Spy fiction.; Historical fiction.; Pasternak, Boris Leonidovich, 1890-1960.; United States. Central Intelligence Agency; Cold War; Private secretaries; Man-woman relationships;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
unAPI

Cuba libre! : Che, Fidel, and the improbable revolution that changed world history / by Perrottet, Tony,author.;
"Historian and travel writer Tony Perrottet chronicles the events of the Cuban Revolution and the figures at the center of the guerrilla uprising: Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the scrappy band of rebel men and women who followed them. Most people are familiar with the general timeline of the Cuban Revolution of 1956-1958: It was led by two of the 20th century's most iconic figures, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; it successfully overthrew the island nation's US-backed dictator; and it quickly went awry under Castro's rule. But less is commonly remembered about the amateur nature of the upstart movement, or the lives of its players. In this wildly entertaining and meticulously researched account, Tony Perrottet unravels the human drama behind history's most improbable revolution: a scruffy handful of self-taught revolutionaries--many of them kids just out of college, literature majors, art students and young lawyers, and including a number of women--defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow thedictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Cuba Libre's deep dive into the revolution reveals fascinating details: How did Fidel's highly organized lover Celia Sanchez whip the male guerrillas into shape? Who were the two dozen American volunteers who joined theCuban rebels? How do you make lethal land mines from condensed milk cans -- or, for that matter, cook chorizo à la guerrilla (sausage guerrilla-style)? Cuba Libre is an entertaining look back at a liberation movement that captured the imaginationof the world with its spectacular drama, foolhardy bravery, tragedy, and, sometimes, high comedy--and that set the stage for a buildup of Cold War tension that became a pivotal moment in history"--"A pop-history account of the Cuban Revolution"--
Subjects: Castro, Fidel, 1926-2016.; Guevara, Che, 1928-1967.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI