Thorndike Press large print biography series

A New York Times best seller. Millions of people worldwide know Chuck Norris as the star of more than twenty motion pictures, a martial arts expert, and the only man in the Western Hemisphere to hold an eighth degree Black Belt Grand Master in Tae Kwon Do. Countless others see him daily in syndicated reruns as the hero of the longest running CBS series to date, "Walker, Texas Ranger." What many don't know is that Chuck Norris is a sincere Christian–a...

Among America's greatest entertainers - think Sinatra, Judy Garland, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis, Jr. - Tony Bennett alone is still here and at the top of his game. In the first complete biography of the singing legend, award-winning author David Evanier offers an intimate and unvarnished portrait of the incredible life and sixty-year career of one of the most beloved singers of all time, and vividly captures the musical history of an era.

From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama it was her performance in her twenties as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's memorable Old Vic production that turned her into a star. But it is her role as 'M' in six James Bond films beginning with Golden Eye in 1995 that has gained her worldwide recognition. This book is, however,...

Alan Arkin knew he was going to be an actor from the age of five. "Every film I saw, every play, every piece of music fed an unquenchable need to turn myself into something other than what I was." Following Arkin's professional journey as an actor and his personal development along the way, An Improvised Life is a revealing look into the creative mind of one of the craft's best practitioners on stage or screen.

Mark Bego's freshly updated biography traces Aretha Franklin's life and career from her start in a church choir, to becoming one of the twentieth century's most beloved singers. Every album, every accolade, every personal heartbreak is examined in this unfolding of Franklin's story. With detailed research and in-person interviews, including a rare one with the star herself, Bego gives us an understanding of what made Aretha the "Queen of Soul."

The first full-length biography of the farm girl from North Carolina who became a Hollywood goddess. It recreates a life of glamour, hedonism, and self-destruction, painted in bold colors on the canvas of big-studio Hollywood in the forties and fifties, exotic locations, the Rome of La Dolce Vita, and the Spain of bullfighters and dictators. Her stunning beauty and lack of inhibition led to a tumultuous private life and a long search for love, including...

"A kitchen-maid's through-the-key hole memoir of life in the great houses of England--now a bestseller in the UK. At fifteen, she arrived at the servants' entrance to begin her life as a kitchen maid in 1920s England. The lowest of the low, her world was one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and even bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5:30am and went on until after dark. In this captivating memoir,...

They were the Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Army Airborne, the legendary fighting unit of World War II. And there was one man every soldier in Easy Company looked up to--Major Richard D. Winters. Here is the compelling story of an ordinary man who became an extraordinary hero--from Winters's childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through the war years in which his natural skill as a leader elevated him through the ranks in combat, to now, decades...

"... a stunning biography of Bruce Springsteen describing his life and work in vivid intimate detail"-- Publisher's description.