Ed Smith Books Archives - Rare Book Insider

Ed Smith Books

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ROCK CONCERT. An Oral History as Told By The Artists, Backstage Insiders, and Fans Who Were There. Uncorrected Proof

Myers, Marc Decades after the rise of rock music in the 1950s, the rock concert retains its allure and its power as a unifying experience - and as an influential multi-billion-dollar industry. In Rock Concert, acclaimed interviewer Marc Myers sets out to uncover the history of this compelling phenomenon, weaving together ground-breaking accounts from the people who were there. Myers combines the tales of icons like Joan Baez, Ian Anderson, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller, Roger Waters and Angus Young with figures such as the disc jockeys who first began playing rock on the radio; the audio engineers that developed new technologies to accommodate ever-growing rock audiences; music journalists, like Rolling Stone's Cameron Crowe; and the promoters who organized it all, like Michael Lang, co-founder of Woodstock, to create a rounded and vivid account of live rock's stratospheric rise. Rock Concert provides a fascinating, immediate look at the evolution of rock 'n' roll through the lens of live performances, spanning the rise of R&B in the 1950s, through the hippie gatherings of the '60s, to the growing arena tours of the '70s and '80s. Elvis Presley's gyrating hips, the British Invasion that brought the Beatles in the '60s, the Grateful Dead's free flowing jams and Pink Floyd's The Wall are just a few of the defining musical acts that drive this rich narrative. Featuring dozens of key players in the history of rock and filled with colourful anecdotes, Rock Concert will speak to anyone who has experienced the transcendence of live rock. 311 pages. A fine copy in the original perfect bound wrappers with photo illustration
  • $25
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TELL. Love, Defiance, and the Military Trial at the Tipping Point For Gay Rights

Witt, Major Margaret with Tim Connor Signed by the author on the title page. Major Margaret H. Witt, a decorated 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force won a landmark legal battle against the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and now is retired with full benefits at age 60 with a completely restored service record. Back in 1993 Margie Witt was a young Air Force nurse chosen as the face of the Air Force's "Cross into the Blue" recruitment campaign. This was also the year that President Clinton's plan for gays to serve openly in the military was quashed by an obdurate Congress, resulting in the blandly cynical political compromise known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Contrary to its intent, DADT had the perverse effect of making it harder for gay servicemen and women to fight expulsion. Over the next seventeen years more than 13,000 gay soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guard, and airmen and women were removed from military service. That is, until Margie Witt's landmark case put a stop to it. This is the riveting story of Major Margaret Witt's dedicated and decorated military career as a frontline flight nurse, and of her love and devotion to her partnerâ€"now wifeâ€"Laurie Johnson. This book captures the tension and drama of the politically charged legal battle that led to the congressional repeal of the controversial law and helped pave the way for a suite of landmark political and legal victories for gay rights. Tell is a testament to the power of love to transform hearts and minds, as well as a celebration of the indomitable spirit of Major Witt, her wife Laurie, her dedicated legal team, and the brave men and women who came forward to testify on her behalf in a historic federal trial. Illustrated from photographs. 258pp with index. A fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket
  • $100
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SILENT SEASONS. Twenty-One Fishing Stories By Thomas McGuane, William Hjortsberg, Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin, Charles Waterman, Jim Harrison & Russell Chatham

Chatham, Russell 4to. First published in 1978. Edited and illustrated by Russell Chatham. Re-issued by Chatham's Clark City Press for the sake of the writing it contains. With 27 drawings and 7 photographs. Jacket design by Anne Garner, cover painting by Russell Chatham. Why fish? The answers laid forth in Silent Seasons are wildly divergent. Thomas McGuane cites both "the longest silence," and the opportunity to encounter a bass that runs with "the solid, irresistible motion of a Euclid bulldozer easing itself into a phosphate mine." William Hjortsberg admits to writing about fishing "for the money," while Russell Chatham remembers each detail as if it were intended for one of his paintings. To Jack Curtis, "The fish is a flash of beauty and action enticed from an unfathomable element"; to the late Harmon Henkin, angling "has no greater claim to spiritual purity than sex, dope, or any other recreation in contemporary America." Charles Waterman points out that fishing writers' sunsets are generally "more brilliant than those seen by milkmen and grain-combine operators." Jim Harrison argues psychiatric virtues: "Few of us shoot ourselves during an evening hatch." Silent Seasons has won praise for its assembly of fine writers and the tough stance they take on the ruin of the environment. Besides, as McGuane writes, "You can't say enough about fishing. Though the sport of kings, it's just what the deadbeat ordered." 217 pages. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket
  • $75
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IN PEACE AND FREEDOM My Journey in Selma. Foreword by Congressman John Robert Lewis Afterword by Raymond Arsenault

LaFayette, Bernard Jr and Kathryn Lee Johnson This copy is signed and inscribed by both authors on the front endpaper and dated November 15, 2014. Laid into this copy is a brochure; SOCIAL JUSTICE, CONFLICT RESOLUTION, AND RECONCILIATION: An Introductory Workshop to Kingian Nonviolence with Dr. Lafayette that was held in Seattle in 2014. Bernard LaFayette Jr. (b. 1940) was a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, an associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the national coordinator of the Poor People's Campaign. At the young age of twenty-two, he assumed the directorship of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in Selmaâ€"a city that had previously been removed from the organization's list due to the dangers of operating there. In this electrifying memoir, written with Kathryn Lee Johnson, LaFayette shares the inspiring story of his years in Selma. When he arrived in 1963, Selma was a small, quiet, rural town. By 1965, it had made its mark in history and was nationally recognized as a battleground in the fight for racial equality and the site of one of the most important victories for social change in our nation. LaFayette was one of the primary organizers of the 1965 Selma voting rights movement and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, and he relates his experiences of these historic initiatives in close detail. Today, as the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is still questioned, citizens, students, and scholars alike will want to look to this book as a guide. Important, compelling, and powerful, In Peace and Freedom presents a necessary perspective on the civil rights movement in the 1960s from one of its greatest leaders. 195 pages illustrated from photographs. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket
  • $125
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THE LIBRARY BOOK

Orlean, Susan On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was ‘Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the libraryâ€"and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and presentâ€"from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as "The Human Encyclopedia" who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves. Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean's thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just booksâ€"and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist's reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever. A fine copy in red cloth with gilt lettering, issued without dust jacket
  • $50