This book features transcripts of the most engaging and entertaining letters handwritten by Edie Beale from 1977-1987 and 2000-2001, up until a few months before Edie's death in 2002. During her lifetime, she wrote [the author] approximately 100 letters and cards. Letters of little Edie Beale : Grey Gardens and beyond is a sequel to memoraBEALEia : a private scrapbook about Little Edie Beale of Grey Gardens. -- From the introduction.
A Warrior-Adventurer's Book of Campfire Verse is a fun volume of poetry (free verse, 2,3,and 4 liners, and limited essays) that is filled with adventurous stories in poetic form that will delight both young and old alike. Each poem has an element of truth and moral content. This volume is formatted in very easy to read text. This book has verse about TacomaWashington, war, everyday living, Sasquatch, Unicorns, and real life issues. Truth is stranger than fact.
THE STORY: The hilarious and heartbreaking story of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, once bright names on the social register who became East Hampton's most notorious recluses.
"Lois Wright was a lifelong friend of both 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale and 'Little Edie', and she went along for the ride when the Beales were immortalized in the 1976 cinema verite documentary Grey Gardens. Most fans of the film--if they know her at all-think of Lois as the silent party guest who gave Big Edie a little index card box. Although her role in the documentary was minimized because it complicated the Maysles' vision of the documentary, Lois played an important role in the Beales' lives, including the little-known fact that she actually lived in the house"--Cover, p. 4.
One of the strangest and subtlest films ever made, the Maysles Brothers' 1975 documentary Grey Gardens today boasts as devoted a following as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Harold and Maude. Shot at Grey Gardens, the dilapidated East Hamptons mansion of "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" Beale, aunt and cousin to Jackie Onassis, this classic of cinema verite tracks the Beales' eccentric and sequestered lives - which consist mostly of doing nothing, but with a mesmerizing zest and volubility. Little Edie's magical aphorisms ("Raccoons and cats become a little bit boring," she sighs towards the end of the film, "I mean for too long a time") are gems of unwitting camp, and between her observations, her costumes, the incredibly bizarre mother daughter tensions, the cats, raccoons and the beautiful ruins of Grey Gardens itself, "doing nothing" amounts to everything; indeed, it amounts to a tragicomedy of enormous emotional punch. This eclectic volume offers a myriad of collaged illustrations, photographs, film stills, production notes and other archival materials alongside transcripts of the Beales' own stories and conversations edited from unreleased Grey Gardens sound recordings. Structured to mirror the Maysles' own approach to the world of the Beales, it closely resembles the enchanting clutter of the mansion, a self-contained world littered with mementos and telling ephemera. It also reproduces unpublished photographs by both Albert and David Maysles. With an introduction by Albert Maysles, drawings and illustrations by Albert's daughter, Rebekah Maysles and an appendix with the full transcript of Grey Gardens, as well as an audio CD of sound recordings capturing the Beales at their best, this book is the essential companion to the film and a beautiful testimony to its legacy. The 60-minute CD that comes with the book contains conversations with the Beales and their friends, songs and poetry recited by the two Edies and audio of the Beales during and after watching the film for the first time.
Growing up together in a mysterious castle in northern Queensland, Rose and Vivien Blake are very close sisters. But during the Second World War their relationship becomes strained when they each fall in love with the same dashing but enigmatic American soldier. Rose's daughter, Linda, has long sensed a secret in her mother's past, but Rose has always resisted Linda's questions, preferring to focus on the present. Years later Rose's granddaughter, Stella, also becomes fascinated by the shroud of secrecy surrounding her grandmother's life. Intent on unravelling the truth, she visits the now-ruined castle where Rose and Vivien grew up to see if she can find out more. Captivating and compelling, Castle of Dreams is about love, secrets, lies - and the perils of delving into the past...
The culture of twenty-first century America revolves around narcissistic death, violence, and visions of doom. Foster explores this culture of the apocalypse, from hoarding and gluttony to visions of the post-apocalyptic world.
In this heartwarming essay collection, dozens of authors, actors, artists and others imagine one last lunch with someone they cherished. A few years ago, Erica Heller realized how universal the longing is for one more moment with a lost loved one. It could be a parent, a sibling, a mentor, or a friend, but who wouldn’t love the opportunity to sit down, break bread, and just talk? Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to ask those unasked questions, or share those unvoiced feelings? In One Last Lunch, Heller has asked friends and family of authors, artists, musicians, comedians, actors, and others, to recount one such fantastic repast. Muffie Meyer and her documentary subject Little Edie Beale go to a deli in Montreal. Kirk Douglas asks his father what he thought of him becoming an actor. Sara Moulton dines with her friend Julia Child. The Anglican priest George Pitcher has lunch with Jesus. And Heller herself connects with her father, the renowned author Joseph Heller. These richly imagined stories are endlessly revealing, about the subject, the writer, the passage of time, regret, gratitude, and the power of enduring love.
Join Fern and a colorful cast of characters in her debut memoir titled Mah Jongg Mondays. Fern, married and a mother of three sons takes us into her modern middle-class suburban Long Island world where one day she gets the "Big Idea" to learn the Chinese tile game called mah jongg. Weekly games provide the setting for deep-seeded relationships to form around the mah jongg table. These Monday gatherings become a source of support and strength for Fern as her husband is diagnosed with cancer. Fear, insecurity and potential heart-wrenching loss become challenges she must overcome. The author weaves the themes of destiny, faith, friendship, time and love throughout the story. Fern takes us on her journey around the mah jongg table, eastward to the seaport town of Greenport and through her husband's battle with cancer as she relies on faith, friendship and her personal relationship with God. Read this heartwarming story about the wonderful things that can happen when five women are destined to come together to play an old Chinese game, sitting around a table with 152 tiles, dice and a mah jongg card. Love always; love all ways, for time has no guarantee.
