Reveals what the wills of famous people--Bob Fosse, Judy Garland, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Andrew Carnegie, Lou Gehrig, and others--contained and what the heirs thought of their legacies

Where There's a Will...Who Inherited What and Why

Business & Money

Silverman, Stephen M.

Education & Reference

Harpercollins

Where There's a Will...: Who Inherited What and Why

Perennial

Surveys the life and films of the renowned British director, best known for his works "Doctor Zhivago," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," and "Lawrence of Arabia"

David Lean

A. Deutsch

The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tycoons and politicians, preachers and outlaws, musicians and spiritualists, outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudson’s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention, resulting in New York’s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution, causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests “one-hundred percent restricted” accommodations (“Hebrews will knock vainly for admission”), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack “Legs” Diamond and Dutch Schultz, among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains, and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families, giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossinger’s, the original “Disneyland with knishes”—the Concord, Brown’s Hotel, Kutsher’s Hotel, and others—in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps, with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, et al.), and others who learned their trade there, among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals), Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration, finding it instead in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure-romances, which provided a pastoral history, describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Church, and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture, color, and form to Irving’s and Cooper’s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich, plundering the resources that had been likened to “creation,” the Catskills’ tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity, beauty, vastness, and lunacy.

The Catskills: Its History and How It Changed America

Arts & Photography

Silver, Raphael D.

History & Criticism

KNOPF

Experience the electrifying, never-before-told true story of amusement parks, from the middle ages to present day, and meet the colorful (and sometimes criminal) characters who are responsible for their enchanting charms. Step right up! The Amusement Park is a rich, anecdotal history that begins nine centuries ago with the "pleasure gardens" of Europe and England and ends with the most elaborate modern parks in the world. It's a history told largely through the stories of the colorful, sometimes hedonistic characters who built them, including: <ul>
<li>Showmen like Joseph and Nicholas Schenck and Marcus Loew </li>
<li> Railroad barons Andrew Mellon and Henry E. Huntington </li>
<li> The men who ultimately destroyed the parks, including Robert Moses and Fred Trump </li>
<li> Gifted artisans and craft-people who brought the parks to life </li>
<li> An amazing cast of supporting players, from Al Capone to Annie Oakley</li>
</ul>And, of course, this is a full-throttle celebration of the rides, those marvels of engineering and heart-stopping thrills from an author, Stephen Silverman, whose life-long passion for his subject shines through. The parks and fairs featured include the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Coney Island, Steeplechase Park, Dreamland, Euclid Beach Park, Cedar Point, Palisades Park, Ferrari World, Dollywood, Sea World, Six Flags Great Adventure, Universal Studios, Disney World and Disneyland, and many more.

The Amusement Park: 900 Years of Thrills and Spills, and the Dreamers and Schemers Who Built Them

Humor & Entertainment

Black Dog Leventhal

Fox That Got Away

Random House Value Publishing

Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and his Movies

Movies

Lively, sophisticated, and filled with first-person tributes and glorious images, Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy&nbsp;lifts the curtain on a Broadway legend--a man who stood at the pinnacle of the American musical theatre for more than sixty years. Brimming with insights from a veritable Who's Who of Broadway Babies and complemented by more than two hundred color and black-and-white images, Sondheim:&nbsp;His Life, His Shows, His Legacy offers a witty, multidimensional look at the musical genius behind Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and the landmark West Side Story and Gypsy. Exploring the unique bond between Sondheim and his audiences, author Stephen M. Silverman further examines the challenging Sondheim works that continue to develop devoted new followings: Anyone Can Whistle, Pacific Overtures, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, and Passion. The result is a lavish, highly engrossing documentation of the dynamic force who reshaped twentieth-century American musical history.

Sondheim: His Life, His Shows, His Legacy

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Kick off the holidays with the official 90th anniversary celebration of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has delighted millions of fans in Herald Square and around the world since 1924. The book is filled with exclusive and archival images of the spectacular floating balloons that have charmed millions of old and young alike for decades, and offers readers a never-before-seen look at the planning and preparation of the parade. It also features spectacular images of hundreds of dazzling floats throughout the years and the thousands participating in marching bands and as costumed performers. Of course, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ends the way the actual parade does—with the arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus, who welcome the world to start their holidays in the most joyous way possible. With a special foreword written by New York’s own Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, this book is sure to be a perennial addition to every family’s holiday tradition.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: A New York City Holiday Tradition

Photography & Video

Universe

Harry N.Abrams, Inc.

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Books by Silverman, Stephen M.