Justin Spring: Secret Historian

The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade. USA 2010, 478pp., hardbound, € 27.95
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Drawn from the secret, never-before-seen diaries, journals, and sexual records of the novelist, poet, and university professor Samuel M. Steward, this is the reconstruction of one of the most hidden lives of the 20th century. An intimate friend of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Thornton Wilder, Steward maintained a secret sex life from childhood on and documented his experiences in vivid and often funny detail. After leaving the world of academe to become Phil Sparrow, a tattoo artist on Chicago's notorious South State Street, Steward worked closely with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex research. During the early 1960s, Steward changed his identity once again, this time to write exceptionally literate, upbeat pro-homosexual pornography under the name of Phil Andros.

John Waters: Role Models

USA 2010, 304pp., hardbound, € 23.95
Kostenloser Versand innerhalb Europas.
Here, from the incomparable John Waters, is a paean to the power of suversive inspiration that will delight, amuse, enrich, and happily horrify readers everywhere. »Role Models« is, in fact, a self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities - some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the playwright Tennessee Williams, from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena, from the English novelist Denton Welsh to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathis - these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness. This is a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse artistic minds of our time.

Michael Epkenhans, Ralf Stremmel (Hg.): Friedrich Alfred Krupp

Ein Unternehmer im Kaiserreich. D 2010, 364 S. mit Abb., geb., € 30.79
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Beck Verlag
Der Großindustrielle Friedrich Alfred Krupp gilt als derjenige, der dank guter Kontakte zum kaiserlichen Hof und imposanter Aufträge durch die deutsche Politik den Krupp-Konzern vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg erst richtig groß gemacht hat. An sich peilte Krupp weit über den eigenen großbürgerlichen Horizont hinaus eine geradezu fürstlich-dynastische Familienplanung an. Die schlossartige Anlage der Familienresidenz Villa Hügel in Essen spricht Bände. Doch als Gerüchte über Krupps schwule Ausschweifungen mit Kerlen auf Capri in Deutschland verbreitet wurden, kam es zu einem Skandal, an dessen Ende der Großindustrielle vom Kaiser fallengelassen, von der Presse fertiggemacht wurde und schließlich in eine für ihn derart aussichtslose Situation geriet, dass er Selbstmord beging.

Andrew Graham-Dixon: Caravaggio

A life Sacred and Profane. UK/USA/CAN 2010, 514pp. illustrated, hardbound, € 39.95
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The patrons of the church competed to have the leading artists jostled for their favour. In a fight Caravaggio, a particularly violent man, killed Ranuccio Tomassoni, a pimp, and fled afterwards to Naples and then Malta, where he escaped from prison following his convicton for another vicious assault. Fleeing once more he fell victim himself to a crippling vendetta attack. Shortly afterwards, he died while returning to Rome to seek a papal pardon for his crimes. He was 38 years old. In the course of his desperate life Caravaggio created the most dramatic paintings of his age, using ordinary men and women - often prostitutes and the very poor - to model for his depictions of classic religious scenes. For 400 years Caravaggio's tumultous life and mysterious death have been surrounded by speculation. This is the first biography to present all the main evidence at first hand. Startling new light is shed on the friendships and enmities that shaped his art and brought about his premature death.

Richard Canning: E.M. Forster

UK 2009, 120pp., brochure, € 11.49
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A century after his first novels were published, E.M. Forster remains one of the most widely read and best-loved authors of the 20th century. He made his name with novels such as »A Room with a View«, »Howard's End« and »A Passage to India« which, with their detailed analyses of English snobbery and xenophobia, established him as an uncompromising critic of hypocrisy. Still at the mercy of some social mores, however, he went to some lengths to conceal his sexuality during his lifetime, and wrote, but never published, a novel of gay love, »Maurice«. With characteristic flair, the author juxtaposes Forster's public persona as a member of the English literary establishment with the joys and torments of his private life.

Andrea Wüstner: Ich war immer verärgert, wenn ich ein Mädchen bekam

Die Eltern Katia und Thomas Mann. D 2010, 380 S. mit Abb., geb., € 20.56
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Piper
Eigentlich hätte jemand wie er besser gar keine Kinder haben sollen - das befand jedenfalls Thomas Mann selbst. Seine Frau Katia vertrat den konträren Standpunkt: sie habe überhaupt nur geheiratet, um Kinder zu haben. Auf dieser Basis wurde eine der berühmtesten Familien Deutschlands in die Welt gesetzt. Mit so prominenten Aushängeschildern wie Klaus und Erika Mann. Dementsprechend dramatisch ist auch der Verlauf der Familiengeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. In diesem Buch werden Thomas und Katia Mann als Eltern beschrieben. Das Verhältnis von Thomas Mann zu seinen Kindern schwankte zwischen distanzierter Liebe und eisiger Kälte. Ungeliebte Kinder wie Golo erlebten unwürdige Qualen. Und Katia Mann wendete ihre eigenen Methoden an, um aus ihren Kindern etwas ganz Besonderes zu machen.

John Wilcock: The Autobiography and Sex Life of Andy Warhol

USA 2010, 256pp., illustrated, hardbound, € 39.95
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Even with the staggering volume of articles, books, movies, and consumer products dealing with all things Warhol, there still remains an interest in his life and artistic career. This book - contradicting the title - is neither an autobiography nor a sex exposé, but was the very 1st oral biography of the artist. In addition to capturing what the artist was really like, it presents lyrical anecdotes set against the colorful cultural backdrops of the 1960s and early 1970s. This book collects over 20 interviews with Warhol's closest associates, friends, and his superstars. It depicts the infamous Factory scene of the 1960s and provides an intimate look into the career, personality, and private life of Warhol during the early years of his burgeoning fame.

Dieter Burchhart (Hg.): Basquiat

D 2010, 244 S. mit farbigen Abb., geb., € 51.19
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Der Maler und Zeichner Jean-Michel Basquiat gehört zu den schillerndsten Persönlichkeiten der jüngeren Kunstgeschichte. Um Geld zu verdienen, verkaufte der aus dem New Yorker Underground stammende Autodidakt in Downtown Manhattan zunächst bemalte T-Shirts und xerografierte Collagen als Postkarten. Bekanntheit erlangte Basquiat durch Graffitis. Seine Freundschaften mit Andy Warhol, Keith Haring und Madonna gelten inzwischen als legendär. Zum 50. Geburtstag vereint dieser Kunstband wichtige Arbeiten des bereits mit 27 Jahren auf tragische Weise ums Leben gekommenen Künstlerstars - sie zeichnen seine künstlerische Entwicklung nach. Außerdem enthält das Buch auch ein Interview, das er 1985 Becky Johnston und Tamra Davis gab und das hier erstmals publiziert wird.