The first book on Virginia O'Brien, the most unique talent under contract to Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

For five decades, as a singer, musician, songwriter, and producer, Tim O’Brien has ceaselessly explored the vast American musical landscape. While Appalachia and Ireland eventually became facets of the defining myth surrounding him and his music, he has digested a broad array of roots styles, reshaping them to his own purposes. Award-winning biographer Bobbie Malone and premier country music historian Bill C. Malone have teamed again, this time to chronicle O’Brien’s career and trace the ascent of Hot Rize and its broadening and enrichment of musical traditions. At the beginning of that career, O’Brien moved from his native West Virginia to the Rocky Mountain West. In just a few years, he became the lead singer, mandolin and fiddle player, and principal songwriter of beloved 1980s bluegrass band Hot Rize. Seeking to move beyond bluegrass, he next went to Nashville. O’Brien’s success in navigating the shoals of America’s vast reservoir of folk musical expressions took him into the realm of what is now called Americana. The core of Tim O’Brien’s virtuosity is his abiding and energetic pursuit of the next musical adventure. As a traveler, he has ranged widely in choosing the next instrument, song, style, fellow musicians, or venue. Written with O’Brien’s full cooperation and the input of family, friends, colleagues, and critics, Traveler provides the first complete, behind-the-scenes picture of a thoroughly American self-made musical genius—the boy who grew up listening to country artists at the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree and ended up charting a new course through American music.

Q: How many female CEOs does it take to break the glassceiling? A: That's the wrong question! Numbers alone simply don't tell the real story of how women aredoing in today's corporate world. Success on Our Own Terms does.It's filled with real stories -- stories of ordinary women who aremaking an extraordinary difference in the way corporationswork. Success on Our Own Terms features women of different ages, ethnicbackgrounds, and educational levels. Their combined experiencesoffer a fascinating portrait of how the corporate landscape haschanged for women over the last few decades. This book is filledwith the wisdom of these experiences, from important lessons onnavigating corporate corridors and influencing the system tojuggling work and personal life, helping local communities, andmuch more. Exploring the multidimensional definition of success shared bythese women, this book reveals how they are working hard to reachtheir goals, balance their lives, and make a positive contributionto society. It shows how they --and others like them --aretransforming the organization from the inside out through their ownunique management style, values, vision, and determination. By designing, achieving, and owning their success, women areexploding conventional definitions of their progress in theworkplace. The female voices in Success on Our Own Terms inform,encourage, and inspire us all. "Wonderful, timely, and absolutely refreshing. Reading this bookexcited and inspired me, and reaffirmed my belief that the futurewill be a great place for women." --Sally Helgesen, author of TheFemale Advantage: Women's Ways of Leadership and EverydayRevolutionaries: Working Women and the Transformation of AmericanLife "Virginia O'Brien tells the real story --that 'we are entering anew phase in which women are becoming full participants with men inconducting the nation's business.'. . . It's a heartening read, anda good antidote to media tales of doom and gloom." --Caryl Rivers,coauthor of She Works, He Works: How Two Income Families AreHappier, Healthier, and Better Off "A must read to understand the multidimensional new valuessuccessful women bring to the marketplace of ideas. . . . [Readers]will find themselves, a friend, or a loved one on every page."--Carol R. Goldberg, President of the Avcar Group, Ltd. and formerPresident and COO of Stop & Shop Companies, Inc. "Insightful and informative. This excellent work brings the storiesof successful women executives to the forefront." --Charles E.Rice, Chairman and CEO, Barnett Banks, Inc. "These are inspiring stories, which I highly recommend." --RichardMcCormick, Chairman and CEO, US West, Inc.

A description of the construction, battles, and historical impact of the Civil War battleships, the Monitor and the Virginia, known to Union forces as the Monitor and the Merrimack, focuses on the Battle of Hampton Roads, where it was evident that the age of wooden warships was gone forever. Reprint.

"Country Girl is Edna O'Brien's exquisite account of her dashing, barrier-busting, up-and-down life."-National Public Radio When Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, it so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien was undeterred and has since created a body of work that bears comparison with the best writing of the twentieth century. Country Girl brings us face-to-face with a life of high drama and contemplation. Starting with O'Brien's birth in a grand but deteriorating house in Ireland, her story moves through convent school to elopement, divorce, single-motherhood, the wild parties of the '60s in London, and encounters with Hollywood giants, pop stars, and literary titans. There is love and unrequited love, and the glamour of trips to America as a celebrated writer and the guest of Jackie Onassis and Hillary Clinton. Country Girl is a rich and heady accounting of the events, people, emotions, and landscape that have imprinted upon and enhanced one lifetime.