Books published by UNKNOWN

Brenda Ueland was a journalist, editor, freelance writer, and teacher of writing. In If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit she shares her philosophies on writing and life in general.

First published in 1848, "The Communist Manifesto" is a political pamphlet by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which initiated in one of the greatest movements of political change that the world has ever seen. At the heart of the economic writings of Marx and Engels is the materialist conception of history, or that productive capacity is the primary organizing factor of society. This conception gives rise to the fundamental inequality that exists between the socioeconomic classes. By controlling the means of production, the wealthy, or "bourgeoisie", gain a power over the working class, or "proletariat". The writings of Marx and Engels would brilliantly expose the causes of the vast division between socioeconomic classes that had existed throughout history. From its initial publication "The Communist Manifesto" was intended to help unite the working class in a common goal of forming a political party based on the philosophies of communism. To that aim, it was very successful and helped to unleash a wave of sweeping political change across the globe. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

'Live at the Continental'...The inside story of the world famous Continental Baths I built the Continental Baths in 1968 and discovered Bette Midler in 1969. The Baths were not only an expression of sexual liberation, but also heralded in a rebirth of Cabaret in the city of New York. Artists of the ilk of Barry Manilow, Manhattan Transfer, Peter Allen, Margaret Whiting, Melba Moore, Liz Torres, Patti LaBelle and countless others in addition to Bette got their first big break at the Continental Baths.The Baths and I are the subject of several chapters in the latest biography of Bette called Bette (1995 Birch Lane press, Carol Publishing Group). The Baths and I have also been extensively written about in Bette's own book, A View From A Broad, Barry Manilow's autobiography My Sweet Life; James Gavin's Intimate Nights; The Golden Age of Cabaret, Stephen Maclean's The Boy From Oz, and countless other books depicting the age of sexual revolution etc. In addition the Baths were the subject of a major motion picture The Ritz, which was released in the late seventies. The Continental was a phenomenon that came out of a pre-AIDS world that we will probably never experience again. But more than just being a bathhouse and showplace, the Baths were a place where people came out of their closets and found out who they were. It was the first gay establishment to treat gay people as equals and not exploit them. It was instrumental in having the laws against homosexuality rescinded and gave birth, along with Stonewall, to a whole generation where gay was in. Beyond that it ushered in an era of sexual liberation and alternative lifestyles that, to this day, has never been equaled.I feel that it is now time for me to tell the whole story of the Baths for the first time. The inside story of how and why it came about, and the whole subculture is engendered. But far from being just another chronicle of a bygone era, and as I was a rather prominent fellow in the gay world, having been crowned 'King Queen' in a 16-page Rolling Stone article, I also relate my own life story, leading up to what motivated me to create such a place and the ramifications it had on myself and my family as I, too, was liberated together with the Baths.Much has been written about the Baths, but the story of how it came about---the 200 raids by the New York Police Department; the pressures from the Mafia; the famous people who visited it; the relationships that were formed; the drug culture that existed in the city; the political upheaval in the city of New York---all of this has never been revealed.During the 8 years that the Continental was in vogue, over 1 million people a year came through its doors. I believe that there is a large market for this book in the gay world, where it is internationally famous, and in the straight world, because of the prominence of its stars. The gay population of the US, using Kinsey's formula of about 10% to 16% of the population, would be well over 20 million. Latest census figures show that 25% of that population is over the age of 40. These 5 million people, I would presume, would be our primary target.The book, however, would not only appeal to those who lived through the 70's, but also to the young amongst us to whom the 70's, the Baths and Bette Midler represent a fascinating golden era that they will never experience, but can only read about.Woven through the book is my own journey as I simultaneously pursued an operatic career, having sung with some of the most famous opera stars in the world in Germany, France, the United States, Canada and Australia. I also try to explore and share the confusion and frustrations I have felt as a bisexual, not understood by the gay or the straight world.

Anybody who does it need not be a genius. Genius has never been supposed to be a particularly good teacher of any art. It is better that the teacher of the Art of Thinking should not be a person who knows no difficulty in thinking, or produces such brilliant thoughts that they will be disheartening to the tyro. A delicate physician does not give the example of health-any woodsman can do that-he only gives the example of a small capital of health intelligently increased: yet, we know he can be more useful from his comprehension of indifferent health and from his appreciation of hygiene, and we often prefer him.

Lost Horizon first published in 1933, this novel won Hilton the Hawthornden Prize in 1934. Hilton is said to have been inspired to write Lost Horizon, and to invent "Shangri-La" by reading the National Geographic Magazine articles of Joseph Rock, an Austrian-American botanist and ethnologist exploring the southwestern Chinese provinces and Tibetan borderlands. Still living in Britain at the time, Hilton was perhaps influenced by the Tibetan travel articles of early travelers in Tibet whose writings were found in the British Library.

Jan Struther was asked to contribute a series imagining the life of an "ordinary" woman, although her definition of "ordinary" was doubtless a reflection of her own background. Mrs Miniver has both a town and a country house, with servants in both. Her eldest boy is at Eton, and every August she motors up to Scotland for the grouse-shooting season (or should that be "grice-shooting"?) In other words, she lives a lifestyle that was representative of a tiny minority in 1930s Britain.

Aldous Huxley's book may have been written in 1931, but it still seems futuristic and disturbingly convincing. Some of the elements he portrays in his dystopia are coming true right now. From genetically modified citizens to a hierarchy based on intelligence, many of these predictions ring uncomfortably true.