On May 25, 1977, a problem-plagued, budget-straining independent science-fiction film opened in a mere thirty-two American movie theaters. Conceived, written, and directed by a little-known filmmaker named George Lucas, the movie originally called The Star Wars quickly drew blocks-long lines, bursting box-office records and ushering in a new way for movies to be made, marketed, and...

The inspiring story of Adelina Sotnikova, the first Olympic champion in women's single skating in Russian history. In the book you will find practical tips to help you improve your figure skating skills, QR codes with videos on how to complete each element, professional life hacks that will accelerate your path to success. With this book you will dive into the world of figure skating and love...

When Dean Nicholson left his life in Scotland to cycle around the world, he wanted to learn as much as he could about our troubled planet. Then, on a remote road in the Bosnian mountains, Dean came across an abandoned kitten. He couldn't leave the bedraggled creature, so he put her on his bike, smuggled her over the border to Montenegro, and nursed her back to health with the help of local...

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter. How Christopher Johnson McCandless...

Carl Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager spacecraft expeditions to the planets, for which he received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Dr. Sagan received the Pulitzer Prize and the highest awards of both the National...

Wolfgang Leonhard was a 13-year-old boy when he had to leave Nazi Germany with his mother and emigrated to the Soviet Union. There he grew up after the arrest of his mother in a home for German and Austrian emigrants, studied at the Moscow Pedagogical College of Foreign Languages and joined the Komsomol. He experienced the outbreak of the German-Soviet war in Moscow and was forcibly resettled...

American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 'father of the atomic bomb,' the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation-one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern...

He has always been popular, and his world literary status is now recognized: the author Hans Fallada has been completely rediscovered in recent years. It is time to take a new approach to his biography and to evaluate the rich, previously unexplored material.

The first major biography about the GDR's most fascinating author. Carsten Gansel's comprehensive biography provides an exciting reassessment of a writer's life in its ups and downs and a complex work that is currently being discovered and celebrated internationally.

To the large exhibition in the German Historical Museum, curated by Dr. Monika Boll, this special volume is published about one of Germany's most famous songwriters: Wolf Biermann.

The book contains for the first time memories of the Russian Soviet front-line poet, translator David Samoilov (1920-1990). The collection includes memoirs of the poet’s relatives, students, and friends: Veniamin Smekhov, Evgeny Yevtushenko, Igor Guberman, Alexander Gorodnitsky, Alexander Davydov, Viktor Perelygin, Lydia Libedinskaya, Mikhail Kozakov, Yuliy Kim, Tamara Zhirmunskaya, etc. The...