Hortense Calisher’s revelatory novel of celebrity, small-town values, and a young woman’s coming of age Famous playwright Craig Towle has decided to return to his New Jersey hometown, a suburb of New York City. He arrives with his world-renowned reputation and a new wife who is half his age. It is the 1950s, and the new couple raises plenty of eyebrows—in particular, those of the narrator, an adolescent girl who is full of observations, but not judgments. At the center of this layered novel is the narrator’s unconventional family and their odd fixation on Towle, which goes beyond his mere celebrity. The secrets of their past and the potential involvement of Towle in the family’s lineage intertwine in a potentially devastating turn.

THE STORY: Margaret Turner is a happy and successful woman, with few regrets that she has chosen a legal career in place of marriage and a family. She occupies a respected judgeship; provides a good home for her teenaged sister, Susan; and enjoys t

Teenage girls seem to have been discovered by American pop culture in the 1930s. From that time until the present day, they have appeared in books and films, comics and television, as the embodied fantasies and nightmares of youth, women, and sexual maturation. Looking at such figures as Nancy Drew, Judy Graves, Corliss Archer, Gidget, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Britney Spears, American Sweethearts shows how popular culture has shaped our view of the adolescent girl as an individual who is simultaneously sexualized and infantilized. While young women have received some positive lessons from these cultural icons, the overwhelming message conveyed by the characters and stories they inhabit stresses the dominance of the father and the teenage girl's otherness, subordination, and ineptitude. As sweet as a cherry lollipop and as tangy as a Sweetart, this book is an entertaining yet thoughtful exploration of the image of the American girl.

A comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians, this book presents a detailed exploration of the breadth of visually arresting, consumer-driven styles that have emerged in America since the 20th century. What are the origins of highly specific denim fashions, such as bell bottoms, skinny jeans, and ripped jeans? How do mass media and popular culture influence today's street fashion? When did American fashion sensibilities shift from conformity as an ideal to youth-oriented standards where clothing could boldly express independence and self-expression? Street Style in America: An Exploration addresses questions like these and many others related to the historical and sociocultural context of street style, supplying both A–Z entries that document specific American street styles and illustrations with accompanying commentary. This book provides a detailed analysis of American street and subcultural styles, from the earliest example reaching back to the early 20th century to contemporary times. It reviews all aspects of dress that were part of a look, considering variations over time and connecting these innovations to fashionable dress practices that emerged in the wakes of these sartorial rebellions. The text presents detailed examinations of specific dress styles and also interrogates the manifold meanings of dress practices that break from the mainstream. This book is a comprehensive resource that will prove invaluable to fashion historians and provide fascinating reading for students and general audiences.

Some issues include separately paged sections: Better management, Physical theatre, extra profits; Review; Servisection.

Girls used to be second-class citizens. Today they are coming into their own. Still, girlsʼ lives, their experiences and their roles in the social, cultural, economic and political history of the United States have been widely overlooked. This groundbreaking reference work presents more than 100 signed articles by 98 high-profile interdisciplinary scholars, covering girlhood in North American from the first settlements to the present from a multitude of historical perspectives. Readers will find an impressive array of information, research data, scholarly interpretations and observations. Girlhood in America describes how portrayals of girls in childrenʼs literature, magazines, movies, toys, music and other media have deeply influenced girlsʼ perceptions of themselves and examines rites of passage in multicultural contexts. Excerpts from diaries, memoirs and autobiographical novels, along with more than 150 photographs, illustrate girlsʼ subjective experiences throughout history.

Hollywood Movie Songs concentrates on movie music after sound took over-from the dazzling Busby Berkeley movies of the 1930s to the present day. Included are more than 700 colorful sheet music covers from famous movies, featuring beloved film stars from Al Jolson through each decade of development, including biographical sketches and representative photos of stars on sheet movie covers. "You ain't heard nothing yet!"