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Mike Nichols: a life

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Publisher:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Pub. Date:
2021
Language:
English
Description
"A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges--some of the worst largely unknown until now--by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back. Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind without parallel: while still in his 20's, he was half of a lucrative hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four hit Broadway plays, picking up the Best Director Tony for three of them, and by his mid-30's the first two films he directed, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, were the highest-grossing movies of 1966 and 1967 respectively, and The Graduate had won him an Oscar for Best Director. Well before his 40th birthday, Nichols lived in a sprawling penthouse on Central Park West, drove a Rolls Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Avedon and the Aga Khan as good friends. Where he had arrived is even more astonishing given where he began: born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1931, he and his younger brother were sent alone to America on a ship in 1939. Their father, who had gone ahead to find work, was waiting for them; their mother would follow, in the nick of time. His name changed by his father to "Michael Nichols," the young boy caught very few breaks: his parents were now destitute, and his father died when Mike was just 11, leaving his mentally unstable mother alone and overwhelmed. Perhaps most cruelly, Nichols was completely bald: as a small child an allergic reaction to an immunization shot had caused total and permanent hair loss. His parents claimed they could not afford to buy him even a cheap wig until he was almost in high school. Mark Harris gives an intimate and even-handed accounting of success and failure alike; the portrait is not always flattering, but its ultimate impact is to present the full story of one of the most richly interesting, complicated, and consequential figures the worlds of theater and motion pictures have ever seen. It is a triumph of the biographer's art"--
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ISBN:
9780399562242
9780593394434
9780399562259
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDc22ff528-ceb9-aac0-e3fa-26df2ca628a2
Grouping Titlemike nichols a life
Grouping Authormark harris
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-28 02:11:39AM
Last Indexed2024-03-27 15:40:10PM

Solr Fields

accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Harris, Mark, 1963-
author_display
Harris, Mark
display_description
"A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges--some of the worst largely unknown until now--by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back. Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind without parallel: while still in his 20's, he was half of a lucrative hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four hit Broadway plays, picking up the Best Director Tony for three of them, and by his mid-30's the first two films he directed, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, were the highest-grossing movies of 1966 and 1967 respectively, and The Graduate had won him an Oscar for Best Director. Well before his 40th birthday, Nichols lived in a sprawling penthouse on Central Park West, drove a Rolls Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Avedon and the Aga Khan as good friends. Where he had arrived is even more astonishing given where he began: born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1931, he and his younger brother were sent alone to America on a ship in 1939. Their father, who had gone ahead to find work, was waiting for them; their mother would follow, in the nick of time. His name changed by his father to "Michael Nichols," the young boy caught very few breaks: his parents were now destitute, and his father died when Mike was just 11, leaving his mentally unstable mother alone and overwhelmed. Perhaps most cruelly, Nichols was completely bald: as a small child an allergic reaction to an immunization shot had caused total and permanent hair loss. His parents claimed they could not afford to buy him even a cheap wig until he was almost in high school. Mark Harris gives an intimate and even-handed accounting of success and failure alike; the portrait is not always flattering, but its ultimate impact is to present the full story of one of the most richly interesting, complicated, and consequential figures the worlds of theater and motion pictures have ever seen. It is a triumph of the biographer's art"--
format_catalog
Book
eAudiobook
eBook
format_category_catalog
Audio Books
Books
eBook
id
c22ff528-ceb9-aac0-e3fa-26df2ca628a2
isbn
9780399562242
9780399562259
9780593394434
itype_catalog
Adult Book Non-Fiction
Adult Fiction
last_indexed
2024-03-27T22:40:10.156Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780399562242
publishDate
2021
publisher
Books on Tape
Penguin Press
Penguin Publishing Group
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- Biography
Nichols, Mike
title_display
Mike Nichols : a life
title_full
Mike Nichols : a life / Mark Harris
Mike Nichols A Life
title_short
Mike Nichols
title_sub
a life
topic_facet
Biography & Autobiography
History
Motion picture producers and directors
Nichols, Mike
Nonfiction
Performing Arts

Solr Details Tables

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overdrive:0944363f-107e-4f74-b7b0-bc059a743e46-2Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeAudiobookAudio Books1falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online
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ils:.b26569462.i84705012Folsom Reading RoomBIOGRAPHY Nichols, M. 20211falsefalseOn Shelffolam

record_details

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overdrive:9c6048ed-4d37-4ca5-b196-51e48beb2586eBookeBookEnglishPenguin Publishing Group2021
overdrive:0944363f-107e-4f74-b7b0-bc059a743e46eAudiobookAudio BooksEnglishBooks on Tape2021
ils:.b26569462BookBooksEnglishPenguin Press2021xiii, 673 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

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