My First Thirty Years

Download or read book My First Thirty Years written by Gertrude Beasley and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Thirty years ago, I lay in the womb of a woman, conceived in a sexual act of rape, being carried during the prenatal period by an unwilling and rebellious mother, finally bursting from the womb only to be tormented in a family whose members I despised or pitied, and brought into association with people whom I should never have chosen." Shortly after its 1925 publication, Gertrude Beasley's ferociously eloquent feminist memoir was banned and she herself disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Though British Nobel Prize winner Bertrand Russell called My First Thirty Years "truthful, which is illegal" and Larry McMurtry pronounced it the finest Texas book of its era, Beasley's words have been all but inaccessible for almost a century—until now. Beasley penned one of the most brutally honest coming-of-age historical memoirs ever written, one which strips away romantic notions about frontier women's lives at the turn of the 20th century. Her mother and sisters braved male objectification and the indignities of poverty, with little if any control over their futures. With characteristic ferocity, Beasley rejected a life of dependence, persisting in her studies and becoming first a teacher, then a principal, then a college instructor, and finally a foreign correspondent. Along the way, Beasley becomes a strident activist for women's rights, socialism, and sex education, which she sees as key to restoring bodily autonomy to women like those she grew up with. She is undaunted by authority figures but secretly ashamed of her origins and yearns to be loved. My First Thirty Years is profoundly human and shockingly candid, a rallying cry that cost its author her career and her freedom. Her story deserves to be heard. Praise for My First Thirty Years: "For almost a century in Texas literary circles, Gertrude Beasley's 1925 memoir has been more a legend than a book... The tangled history of My First Thirty Years, and Beasley's horrific personal fate, are case studies in society's merciless treatment of women of her era who gave voice to socially unspeakable truths. The memoir's republication this month, which makes it widely available for the first time in 96 years, is a long-overdue moment of reckoning. It's also a rich gift to the Texas literary canon."—Texas Monthly "We should all be as fierce, loud, and convinced of our own self-worth as Gertrude Beasley was. This story of a justifiably angry woman living ahead of the world she lived in will resonate deeply today."—Soraya Chemaly, activist and award-winning author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger "Gertrude Beasley's 1925 memoir grabs the reader by the arm and holds tight, speaking with a voice as compelling as if she had just put down her pen this morning. Feminist, socialist, and acute observer of both herself and the world around her, Beasley gives us stories that illuminate the costs of poverty and of being a woman. To read My First Thirty Years is to be in conversation with an extraordinary mind."—Anne Gardiner Perkins, author of Yale Needs Women

Download or read book The Thirty Years War written by C. V. Wedgwood and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Europe in 1618 was riven between Protestants and Catholics, Bourbon and Hapsburg--as well as empires, kingdoms, and countless principalities. After angry Protestants tossed three representatives of the Holy Roman Empire out the window of the royal castle in Prague, world war spread from Bohemia with relentless abandon, drawing powers from Spain to Sweden into a nightmarish world of famine, disease, and seemingly unstoppable destruction.

Download or read book The First Thirty written by Jillip Naysinthe Paxton and published by . This book was released on 2015-01-19 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography recounts the story of Greg Forbes--Ivy League reject turned social entrepreneur and philanthropist. Siegman--recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service--runs a Chicago-based nonprofit foundation that raises scholarships for overlooked students. Based on a true story.

Download or read book Thirty Years a Slave written by Louis Hughes and published by 1st World Publishing. This book was released on 2006-05-22 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I was born in Virginia, in 1832, near Charlottesville, in the beautiful valley of the Rivanna river. My father was a white man and my mother a negress, the slave of one John Martin. I was a mere child, probably not more than six years of age, as I remember, when my mother, two brothers and myself were sold to Dr. Louis, a practicing physician in the village of Scottsville. We remained with him about five years, when he died, and, in the settlement of his estate, I was sold to one Washington Fitzpatrick, a merchant of the village. He kept me a short time when he took me to Richmond, by way of canal-boat, expecting to sell me; but as the market was dull, he brought me back and kept me some three months longer, when he told me he had hired me out to work on a canal-boat running to Richmond, and to go to my mother and get my clothes ready to start on the trip. I went to her as directed, and, when she had made ready my bundle, she bade me good-by with tears in her eyes, saying: "My son, be a good boy; be polite to every one, and always behave yourself properly."

Download or read book Through a Window written by Jane Goodall and published by HMH. This book was released on 2010-04-07 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned British primatologist continues the “engrossing account” of her time among the chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania (Publishers Weekly). In her classic, In the Shadow of Man, Jane Goodall wrote of her first ten years at Gombe. In Through a Window she continues the story, painting a more complete and vivid portrait of our closest relatives. On the shores of Lake Tanganyika, Gombe is a community where the principal residents are chimpanzees. Through Goodall’s eyes we watch young Figan’s relentless rise to power and old Mike’s crushing defeat. We learn how one mother rears her children to succeed and another dooms hers to failure. We witness horrifying murders, touching moments of affection, joyous births, and wrenching deaths. As Goodall compellingly tells the story of this intimately intertwined community, we are shown human emotions stripped to their essence. In the mirror of chimpanzee life, we see ourselves reflected. “A humbling and exalting book . . . Ranks with the great scientific achievements of the twentieth century.” —The Washington Post “[An] absolutely smashing account . . . Thrilling, affectionate, intelligent—a classic.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Download or read book My First Ladies written by Nancy Clarke and published by Sellers Pub Incorporated. This book was released on 2011 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author describes her life and her work as the chief floral designer at the White House.

Download or read book Conjuror's Game written by Catherine Fisher and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alick is fascinated by Luke Ferris - the Conjuror! Where does he get his strange powers of healing? Why has he got six fingers? What is his connection with the sinister goings-on at the Mere in Halcombe Great Wood? Then Alick follows the Conjuror to the secret chamber under the hillside. There he discovers the ancient game of Fidchell and accidentally removes a key piece in the game - unleashing dark and terrifying forces on to the world.