The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer

Hobbies, Collecting, and Other Passionate Pursuits

Susan Sheehan, Howard Means (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

304 Seiten

2007
Simon & Schuster (Verlag)
978-1-4165-7520-7 (ISBN)

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We Americans love to look at ourselves. How we vote, where we work, what we think about church and school -- studying ourselves is a national pastime. What has been missing in all this self-examination, until now, is a book about the greatest national obsessions of all: the hobbies we pursue, the collections and amateur sports to which we devote so much of our lives.

The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer chronicles the amazing variety of ways in which we relax, compete with others and ourselves, and indulge some of our richest fantasies. Here are wonderfully warm and witty accounts of Americans as they: attempt to swim all the Great Lakes, often in horrible conditions; quit a job and begin raising sheep to accommodate a newfound passion for spinning; eat at every McDonald's in the nation; carve The Last Supper from wood; cross all the world's suspension bridges; build huge banana sculptures; roller blade, scull, and bake; and collect marbles, Noah's arks, talking birds, and much more.

In these pages you'll meet a marvelous array of ordinary people who do unusual things, sometimes to extremes, as they define for themselves worlds of imagination, contest, and excellence. These are people who thrill to the chase and sometimes plain wear themselves out having fun, whether it's flying kites as big as a king-size mattress, canoeing in the Canadian wilderness, or meticulously recording the daily details of their everyday existence.

In Working, Studs Terkel gave us an unforgettable oral history of the working life of an earlier generation. The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer is a history for our own times -- of the passionate pursuits by which so many of us define ourselves and of the universal search for happiness and a sense of fulfillment.

Maybe you'll find yourself in the forty people profiled here. Maybe you'll find a hobby that you'll want to make your own. Either way, your life is likely to be enriched, just as the lives of the people you will read about are enriched by the depth of their commitment and the beauty of their accomplishments.

Susan Sheehan is the author of seven books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Is There No Place on Earth for Me? She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1961 and has written for The New York Times and Architectural Digest, where she is a contributing writer. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Contents

Preface

Part 1 Artful Expressions

Doug Fishbone: Lots of Bananas

James Pettus: Essential Natures

Robin Tarbell-Thomas: To the Fair

Ann and Sam Ritter: To Fly

Leonard Lauder: The Beauty of Small Things

Part 2 Thrill of the Chase

Alexandra Stafford: Food of Life

David Hanschen: On the Road Again

Barry Popik: First Words

Cathy Henderson: Buried Treasures

Henry Sakaida: The Go-Between

Part 3 Going to Extremes

Gig Gwin: Wordly Riches

Jim Dreyer: Far Shores

Peter Holden: Macs Without End

Marietta Phillips: Bossing Around

Roger Swicegood: Song of Myself

Part 4 Pleasures Small and Large

Cathy Runyan: Got Her Marbles

Peggy Dickson: Bird Brains

Harry Kloman: Matters of Fact and Fiction

Judy Konnerth: Two by Two

Steve Spreckelmeier: All Steamed Up

Patricia Corrigan: "Thar She Blows!"

Part 5 Motion Pictures

Lisa Ball: Snow Job

Steve Everett: Blade Runner

Mike Gaines: Hot into the Corner

Jim Murphy: Call of the Wild

Part 6 Callings

Jerry Traufler: Masterwork

Walter Pforzheimer: I, Spy

Claire Miller: Family Ties

Ted Furey: For God and Man and Old Ireland

Rose Kramer: Spinning Yarns

Part 7 The Sporting Life

Tom Blake: Tiger! Tiger! Burning Bright

Robert Strupp: Good Deals

Kim Eisler: Odds-on Favorite

Larry Kahn: Tiddly Wonks

Matt Dodyk: Holing Out

Part 8 Passionate Pursuits

John Sylvester Jr.: The Things We Die for

Sonia Young: Color Me Purple

Claudia Perry: Love of the Game

Daniel Chapin: Route Man

Don Betty: Crossover Artist

Acknowledgments

Erscheint lt. Verlag	24.8.2007
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 216 mm
Gewicht	329 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Freizeit / Hobby ► Hausbau / Einrichten / Renovieren
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Persönlichkeitsstörungen
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-4165-7520-0 / 1416575200
ISBN-13	978-1-4165-7520-7 / 9781416575207
Zustand	Neuware