Dark Genius

Swint (political science, Kennesaw State U.) provides a portrait of Roger Ailes, the formidable president of Fox News. The book, part media criticism and part history, follows Ailes from his first political campaign with Richard Nixon on 1968 to his ascension to the leadership of the Fox News Channel. This account of the conservative media mogul displays his tenacity, his style-over-substance approach, his ruthless, Machiavellian way of conducting business, and his imprint and influence on American politics and communications.

An inspiring message for all ages: Find your inner bird. If you’re looking for wisdom and joy in your life, go straight to Sesame Street and heed the words of its most beloved and profound resident, Caroll Spinney, who has spent the past thirty-four years in a bird costume (and a trash can) as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Three decades inside a giant puppet have taught Spinney a valuable and surprising lesson: Being a bird can make you a better person. In The Wisdom of Big Bird, the living legend of Sesame Street describes how we can all find our inner bird (or grouch). Each chapter illustrates a piece of useful wisdom Spinney has gleaned from a career in feathers. The lessons Big Bird teaches children every day on Sesame Street are the same ones that have brought Spinney success and satisfaction in his own life. Warm, witty, and affirming, Caroll Spinney’s memoir proves that being a bird can make you a better and happier person. “Every day on Sesame Street, we strive to give our innocent young audience the basis of a lifelong education. It is no accident that spending the past thirty-four years in the Bird suit teaching these lessons to others has taught me a few things, too.”—from The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch)

A New York Times bestseller imagines the life of Jules Verne in this “rollicking whopper of a novel [that] glides down smoothly” (Publishers Weekly). Captain Nemo is the fictional life story of one of Jules Verne’s most memorable characters from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. This alternate history covers his boyhood friendship with the dreamer, Jules Verne, adventures aboard sailing ships, battles with pirates, and survival on a mysterious deserted island. Each time he returns home to his beloved France, Captain Nemo shares the tales of his exploits with the struggling writer Verne. We follow Nemo’s exploration of hidden caverns that lead to the center of the earth, travels across darkest Africa in a hydrogen balloon, and his imprisonment by an evil Ottoman caliph who commands the dark genius to construct a sub-marine boat, the Nautilus, in order to attack merchant ships that venture through the newly completed Suez Canal. “K. J. Anderson seamlessly blends events of Jules Verne’s real life with the plotlines of his fictional works. His portrayal of Verne is masterful: a man able to break free from the circumstances that stifle him through his vivid imagination and the inspiration provided by his lifelong friend, Nemo.” —Harry Turtledove, New York Times–bestselling author of The Guns of the South “A swashbuckling mix of Jules Verne, Daniel DeFoe, and Michael Crichton.” —Terry Brooks, New York Times–bestselling author of The Sword of Shannara

Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the robber baron's robber baron, the most astute financial and business strategist of his time and also the most widely hated. In Dark Genius of Wall Street, acclaimed biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr., combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to paint the portrait of the most talented financial buccaneer of his generation-- and one of the inventors of modern business.

James Genius is a traveler hiding a secret. While trying to fit into a community that thrives off death, James begins building a new life that quickly turns into a personal hell in futuristic America. A new Civil War brews in America while James simultaneously fights his own internal demons and hallucinations as he attempts to locate the survivors of his hidden family. While the government promises to protect and separate citizens from one another, obsessive political control and suspicious behavior begins to confuse and upset the public. As a result, survival groups start preparing for the collapse of the government while a news organization, The Zoo Trials, tries to explain and solve the country's seemingly inevitable demise. James holds the key to a major change, but in a futile attempt to protect himself, he pretends he doesn't recall his past. Meanwhile, others encourage James to reveal his true self, but he waits for the right moment to fuel his transformation. Only time will tell if James finds the real life he's been desperately seeking and if the citizens of this revolutionary community will pull together and plant the seeds of positive change.

Roger Ailes, former Republican political consultant, and current president of Fox News Channel, is a dominant media figure of our age. His made-for-TV imagery and mastery of “style over substance” has overtaken earlier methods of reporting the news, and radically refashioned our political and communications landscapes. Yet, no book has ever been published on this Oz-like figure: Dark Genius is the definitive study of Ailes and his controversial career. The 1960 television encounter between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was the moment when slick television imagery began to take over politics. Ailes, a young TV producer, absorbed the lessons of the new video age, and put them into practice. While a director on “The Mike Douglas Show”, he met Richard Nixon, who soon hired Ailes to help him conquer the fledgling medium. Riding the wave of that triumph, Ailes went on to aid other key Republican figures like Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Rudy Giuliani. In the 1990s, Ailes was hired to run CNBC, the first cable financial network, bringing a talk radio sensibility to the small screen. Then, Rupert Murdoch hired him to implement the media mogul’s vision for a different kind of cable news network. Now, with Murdoch (whose News Corp. has recently acquired the Wall Street Journal), Ailes is launching the FOX News business channel in 2007. Over the span of several decades, Ailes has played a key role in the growing reach of conservatism, first in politics, then in mass media. Part history, part media criticism, part current events, Dark Genius tracks the rise, dominance, and relevance of political television, and how it has been used and abused by its master.

Examines "melancholia" as a philosophical, medical, and social phenomenon in early modern art. Argues that, despite advances in art and science, the topos of the dispirited intellectual continues to function metaphorically as a locus for society's fears and tensions.

At the dawn of sound, he wrote the story for the Academy Award-winning musical The Broadway Melody and collaborated memorably with Gloria Swanson and Joseph Kennedy for The Trespasser. He excelled at anti-war drama (White Banners, The Dawn Patrol, We Are Not Alone), fantastic Bette Davis weepies (Dark Victory, The Old Maid, The Great Lie), lilting romantic dramas (The Constant Nymph, Claudia), big-budgeted literary adaptations (The Razor's Edge), and even film noir (Nightmare Alley).