I Cover The Waterfront

“Distinctive, original, fresh in in tone and manner, with a quaint whimsicality of feeling and expression.”—The New York Times Life on the Western waterfront has always fascinated Max Miller, a special reporter for the San Diego Sun. Embraced by all the waterfront folk, he has joined them on their cruises, has learned the mystery of their crafts, and knows them like brothers. Max himself has become a part of the waterfront. Not a fishing boat ties up to the wharf without Max Miller getting the story. Not a submarine comes in nor an airplane soars out over the water without Max Miller’s being invited to go. He is one of the first men to climb up the ladder of the Pacific lines, especially when celebrities are aboard. A combination of newspaper reporter, philosopher, and poet, the author writes his charming sketches in his “studio” upstairs in the tugboat office, where he can look out over his domain. But reporting is not simply a job with Max Miller; it is the greatest pleasure of his life. He delights in setting down his impressions of the Western shore, where life is a constant flux and reflux, seasonal, immutable, and yet ever exciting—the departure of the sardine fleet, the hunt for elephant seals for the zoo, the sailing of the California fruit liners. I Cover the Waterfront was first published in the early 1930s and has since gone on to become a classic. It is as memorable for its unique stories as it is for its individual style—so keenly sensitive to the personalities of men and to the romantic environment of the harbor and deep-sea life.

Can you still have a home if you don't have a house? In the spirit of The Truth About Jellyfish and Fish in a Tree comes a stunning debut about a family struggling to find a place to belong. To climb a tree, always think in threes and you'll never fall. "Two feet, one hand. Two hands, one foot," Cora's father told her when she was a little girl. Now Cora is in middle school, her father is gone, her family is homeless, and Cora has to look after her younger sister, Adare, who needs a lot of looking after. When their room at the shelter is ransacked, Cora's mother brings them to an old friend's apartment, and Cora hopes this will be a place she can finally call home. When doubt seeps in, Cora makes an escape of her own and discovers something that will change how she sees her family and her place within it. The beautiful debut by Melissa Sarno, the author of A Swirl of Ocean, will take root in your heart and blossom long after you've turned the last page. "[A] heartbreaking yet hopeful story of a family searching for a place to belong." --Publishers Weekly "[A] thought-provoking debut about the meaning of home and the importance of family." --The Horn Book Magazine

The rise and fall of America's first truly interracial labor union For almost a decade during the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the CIO era. For much of its time, Local 8 was majority black, always with a cadre of black leaders. The union also claimed immigrants from Eastern Europe, as well as many Irish Americans, who had a notorious reputation for racism. This important study is the first book-length examination of how Local 8, affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, accomplished what no other did at the time. Peter Cole outlines the factors that were instrumental in Local 8's success, both ideological (the IWW's commitment to working-class solidarity) and pragmatic (racial divisions helped solidify employer dominance). He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union's destruction.

I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody.' So speaks the haunted former boxer Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to his brother Charley (Rod Steiger) in a scene from On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) that is one of the most famous in all cinema. Set among unionised New York longshoremen, Kazan's film (from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg) recounts Terry's struggle against corruption and his ultimate, hard-won victory. The marvellous performances of Brando, Steiger and Eva Marie Saint (as well as Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb), Boris Kaufman's photography and Leonard Bernstein's score all justify the film's fame. But On the Waterfront is also notorious, regarded by many as an attempt at justifying the decision on the part of Kazan (and Schulberg) to name names before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. That controversial decision is still incendiary today (as was evidenced in the furore that surrounded Kazan's Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1999). With Kazan's death in 2003 and Brando's in 2004, a reappraisalof On the Waterfront is timely and necessary. In this definitive study, Leo Braudy tells the complicated story of the film's production. He revisits the facts behind the controversy of Kazan's testimony but, above all, he analyses the elements which contribute to the enduring appeal of On the Waterfront: the Method-inspired acting, the music and cinematography, the use of authentic locations and its powerfully symbolic depiction of post-war American values.

"Empires on the Waterfront offers a new spatial framework for understanding Japan’s extended transition into the modern world of nation-states. This study examines a largely unacknowledged system of “special trading ports” that operated under full Japanese jurisdiction in the shadow of the better-known treaty ports. By allowing Japan to circumvent conditions imposed on treaty ports, the special trading ports were key to achieving autonomy and regional power.Catherine L. Phipps uses an overtly geographic approach to demonstrate that the establishment of Japan’s maritime networks depended on initiatives made and carried out on multiple geographical scales—global, national, and local. The story of the special trading ports unfolds in these three dimensions. Through an in-depth assessment of the port of Moji in northern Kyushu, Empires on the Waterfront recasts the rise of Japan’s own empire as a process deeply embedded in the complicated system of maritime relations in East Asia during the pivotal second half of the nineteenth century."

This book evokes the world of Fantini, a “factory of Italian design” strongly connected to its territory, Lake Orta, the genius loci of its creations. The fascinating story of this business starts in the small village of Pella, on the shores of Lake Orta, in northern Italy, yet its high-end design products created by the best-known designers, including Piero Lissoni, Michael Anastassiades, Matteo Thun, Antonio Rodriguez, Vincent Van Duysen, Naoto Fukasawa, and Paik Sun Kim, went on to travel the world in an international circuit. Water is the common thread running through the whole book. This is the water of Lake Orta, found in the images of great photographers such as Gianni Basso, Franco Fontana, Giorgio Lotti, Gabriele Basilico, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Ferdinando Scianna, Gabriele Croppi, and Walter Zerla, who have interpreted it over time at the invitation of Fantini. However, water is also the main element of the jewellike taps produced by the company, small everyday masterpieces that bring it to our homes, renewing this great magic every day.

Reggae's influence can be heard in the popular music of nations in a variety of continents. In Dubwise, Klive Walker takes a fresh look at Bob Marley's global impact, specifically his legacy in the Caribbean diaspora. While considering Marley's status as an international reggae icon, Walker also discusses the vital contributions to reggae culture authored by other important Jamaican innovators such as poet Louise Bennett, hand drummer Oswald ''Count Ossie'' Williams, jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott, ska trombonist Don Drummond and singer Dennis Brown.