Seventy-five years after he came to life, Superman remains one of
America’s most adored and enduring heroes. Now Larry Tye, the
prize-winning journalist and
New York Times bestselling author of
Satchel,
has written the first full-fledged history not just of the Man of Steel
but of the creators, designers, owners, and performers who made him the
icon he is today.
Legions of fans from Boston to Buenos Aires
can recite the story of the child born Kal-El, scion of the doomed
planet Krypton, who was rocketed to Earth as an infant, raised by humble
Kansas farmers, and rechristened Clark Kent. Known to law-abiders and
evildoers alike as Superman, he was destined to become the invincible
champion of all that is good and just—and a star in every medium from
comic books and comic strips to radio, TV, and film.
But
behind the high-flying legend lies a true-to-life saga every bit as
compelling, one that begins not in the far reaches of outer space but in
the middle of America’s heartland. During the depths of the Great
Depression, Jerry Siegel was a shy, awkward teenager in Cleveland.
Raised on adventure tales and robbed of his father at a young age, Jerry
dreamed of a hero for a boy and a world that desperately needed one.
Together with neighborhood chum and kindred spirit Joe Shuster, young
Siegel conjured a human-sized god who was everything his creators
yearned to be: handsome, stalwart, and brave, able to protect the
innocent, punish the wicked, save the day, and win the girl. It was on
Superman’s muscle-bound back that the comic book and the very idea of
the superhero took flight.
Tye chronicles the adventures of
the men and women who kept Siegel and Shuster’s “Man of Tomorrow” aloft
and vitally alive through seven decades and counting. Here are the savvy
publishers and visionary writers and artists of comics’ Golden Age who
ushered the red-and-blue-clad titan through changing eras and evolving
incarnations; and the actors—including George Reeves and Christopher
Reeve—who brought the Man of Steel to life on screen, only to succumb
themselves to all-too-human tragedy in the mortal world. Here too is the
poignant and compelling history of Siegel and Shuster’s lifelong
struggle for the recognition and rewards rightly due to the architects
of a genuine cultural phenomenon.
From two-fisted crimebuster
to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman—perhaps
like no other mythical character before or since—has evolved in a way
that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this
deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America
over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who
continues to embody our best selves.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VOGUE
“One of the great culinary stories of our time.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
It
begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves
to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast
chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The
boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the
world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to
food and family in all its manifestations.
Yes, Chef chronicles
Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in
New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come
together at Aquavit, earning him a
New York Times three-star
rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of chasing
flavors had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been
White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and,
most important, the opening of Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster,
Samuelsson has fulfilled his dream of creating a truly diverse,
multiracial dining room—a place where presidents rub elbows with jazz
musicians, aspiring artists, and bus drivers. It is a place where an
orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at
home.
“The rise and fall of Venice’s empire is an irresistible story and
[Roger] Crowley, with his rousing descriptive gifts and scholarly
attention to detail, is its perfect chronicler.”—The Financial Times
The
New York Times bestselling author of
Empires of the Sea
charts Venice’s astounding five-hundred-year voyage to the pinnacle of
power in an epic story that stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and
sheer opulent majesty.
City of Fortune traces the full arc of the
Venetian imperial saga, from the ill-fated Fourth Crusade, which
culminates in the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, to the
Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499–1503, which sees the Ottoman Turks supplant
the Venetians as the preeminent naval power in the Mediterranean. In
between are three centuries of Venetian maritime dominance, during which
a tiny city of “lagoon dwellers” grow into the richest place on earth.
Drawing on firsthand accounts of pitched sea battles, skillful
negotiations, and diplomatic maneuvers, Crowley paints a vivid picture
of this avaricious, enterprising people and the bountiful lands that
came under their dominion. From the opening of the spice routes to the
clash between Christianity and Islam, Venice played a leading role in
the defining conflicts of its time—the reverberations of which are still
being felt today.
