As the star of these classic Broadway musicals, Mary Martin captivated theater audiences with her impish persona and magnificent voice. Now Ronald L. Davis fills a major gap in theater history, moving beyond Martin's own 1976 memoir to provide a complete picture of her life and career.
Lively and engaging, Davis's biography is the first book-length portrait of the theater icon, spanning her lifetime to reveal facts about her childhood, marriages, and friendships - as well as artistic collaborations that included the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, and Elia Kazan.
Born in Weatherford, Texas, and mother to the future actor Larry Hagman, Martin went to California after the failure of her first marriage. There, she auditioned for every studio without success. 'Audition Mary' finally had her big break when she won a talent contest, leading to her breakthrough 1938 performance in Leave It to Me - in which she wowed audiences singing 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy,' Davis traces Martin's numerous appearances on Broadway, in touring productions, and on television, showing how, through hard work and persistent optimism, she built a career that lasted nearly fifty years and earned her the adoration and respect of fans and colleagues alike.
Davis also looks behind the glitter of showbiz to delve into the star's personal life, as revealed in interviews with friends, colleagues, and Martin herself. He uncovers facts about her life that have never before been disclosed, from details about her problematic marriage to husband-manager Richard Halliday to insights into her work as a performer, and addresses long-standing questions concerning Martin's sexuality.
Because Martin's life was entwined with many luminaries of the stage, this biography offers rich insights into theater history, including accounts of how various productions were developed. No other book tells her story in such detail - it is must reading for fans and an essential resource for theater aficionados everywhere.

'Sandy Pylos' was a term used by Homer to refer to the prehistoric Bronze Age Kingdom located in what is now southwestern Greece. However in later years its meaning and location has changed in the region. Both senses of the name are relevant in this second edition of a work reporting on the archaeological investigations of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project and also incorporating findings of natural scientists, historians, and art historians in an effort to understand the evolution of the entire region in reference to the cultural and environmental forces that have influenced the political, economic, and social organizations of those who lived there. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

'The archeology of the so-called Byzantine era in Greece remains a poor stepchild of classical archeology,' particularly in regard to the period in which the current nation of Greece was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire, according to Davies (specialist, history of Venetian Greece) and Davis (American School of Classical Studies, Athens). Their substantial introduction includes a case study of the island of Kea. Reflecting growing interest in this era, 13 interdisciplinary essays--based on the volume's namesake 2003 U. of Cincinnati workshop subtitled 'Colonial Landscapes in Early Modern Greece ca. 1500-1800 AD,' treat diverse topics including approaches to historical documentation, and migration patterns. Illustrations include maps, photographs of settlements, and color images of the artifacts discussed. Books from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens are distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Serving as a wilderness crossroads and eventual stopover and trade location on the world-famous Erie Canal, Utica fulfilled a vital function in New York State's overall role as the gateway to the American West.

Spanning the entirety of Hopper's career, but with particular emphasis on his heyday in the twenties, thirties, and forties, Edward Hopper highlights his greatest achievements while discussing such topics as his absorption of European influences, critical reactions to his work, the relation of realism to modernism, his fascination with architecture, his depiction of women, and the struggle in his last years to produce original works. Illustrated with more than 150 of his oils, watercolors, prints, and drawings, and including essays by several noted scholars in the field and an extensive chronology and bibliography, this is the most comprehensive volume on Hopper to be published in many years.

Words into Images: Screenwriters on the Studio System is an engaging look into the inner workings of Hollywood's big studio system as experienced by thirteen veteran screenwriters. All taped between 1980 and 1991 and all previously unpublished, these interviews are novel and insightful. Interviewer Ronald L. Davis draws the screenwriters into explorations of a broad range of topics, including studio politics, production problems, frustrations caused by directors and producers, and the contributions and difficulties presented by movie stars.

In most cases, these writers were resigned to being part of a team assigned the high-pressure, high-volume task of turning out commercial entertainment for mass audiences. Sometimes they knew they were working on low-budget productions or rehashes of previous projects. Yet these conversations reveal how writers found satisfaction in jobs well done and aspired to graduate to quality films. In some cases, they labored on novels or plays penned during private hours.

Conducted after all the writers had retired from or moved beyond the studio system, these interviews offer a candid, vivid, underdocumented vision of American moviemaking during Hollywood's heyday.

Interviews with Charles Bennett, Robert Buckner, Julius J. Epstein, Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner, Jr., Mary Anita Loos, William Ludwig, Winston Miller, Robert Nathan, Edmund North, Robert Pirosh, Oscar Saul, and Melville Shavelson

Ronald L. Davis is professor emeritus of history at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of The Glamour Factory: Inside Hollywood's Big Studio System.

The distinctive environment of the Southern United States has played a greater part in its history than perhaps some of its residents know. For example, why was cotton king? Why is it now not? How did the early growth of large-scale mechanized agribusiness affect slavery and its antecedents? In this series of eight sequential essays and a set of three significant case studies contributors describe the ecological impact of the Pleistocene ice age, the meltdown of the Holocene and the woodland period, the spread of Mississippian culture, the clearing of the coasts in colonial days, the overwhelming affects of the plantation, the effects of hunting and livestock, the ravages of urbanization, and the efforts to reclaim environmentally damaged portions of the South. The case studies come from the Okefenokee Swamp, Louisiana's chemical corridor, and imperiled and extinct birds. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This volume describes the historical and economic geography of a particular region of the Ottoman Empire--the southwestern Peloponnese (or Morea), Greece--in the early 18th century. It combines an examination of unpublished Ottoman documents and other historical sources with the results of archaeological fieldwork. The volume also features a translation of an official Ottoman survey of properties in the district of Anavarin. The CD-ROM contains a facsimile edition of this document, as well as digital versions (most in color) of the volume's illustrations. Zarinebaf teaches Middle Eastern and Balkan history at Northwestern U. Distributed in the U.S. by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The autobiographies of former slaves contributed powerfully to the abolitionist movement in the United States, fanning national--even international--indignation against the evils of slavery. The four texts gathered here are all from North Carolina slaves and are among the most memorable and influential slave narratives published in the nineteenth century. The writings of Moses Roper (1838), Lunsford Lane (1842), Moses Grandy (1843), and the Reverend Thomas H. Jones (1854) provide a moving testament to the struggles of enslaved people to affirm their human dignity and ultimately seize their liberty.

Introductions to each narrative provide biographical and historical information as well as explanatory notes. Andrews's general introduction to the collection reveals that these narratives not only helped energize the abolitionist movement but also laid the groundwork for an African American literary tradition that inspired such novelists as Toni Morrison and Charles Johnson.

Diaries by Kentucky Rebels are a rarity; the soldiers, cut off from their homes and families in the Union Bluegrass, were themselves atypical. In this massive and eloquent journal, Captain Edward O. Guerrant evocatively portrays his unusual wartime experiences attached to the headquarters of Confederate generals Humphrey Marshall, William Preston, George Cosby, and, most notably, John Hunt Morgan. Able to see the inner workings of campaigns in the little-known Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and east Tennessee, where some of the most vicious small-scale fighting occurred, Guerrant made scrupulous daily entries remarking upon virtually everything around him.

Details the daily life of sailors, merchants, and muleteers in the societies that grew up around early California missions.

Discusses why various artisans came to live and work in early California and describes the activities of some of them.

Describes the daily life of townspeople and ranchers at early California missions.

Describes the life and works of the Franciscan priests who helped the Spanish colonize California by establishing missions for the native peoples and new settlers.

With this book those who build and research software can rediscover fundamental facts, and a few fallacies, about management, the software development life cycle, quality, and software research. For each fact, there is a general discussion, then material on related controversies, and a list of recent and 'ancient' (1970s and 1980s) sources of information. Glass has written many books on software engineering. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)