ULTIMATE BIOGRAPHY was written and published to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Biography channel on A & E. Out of 1000 subjects that have been presented on the program, they've chosen to profile the lives of 250 people that they're calling "the world's most influential people." It's necessary to understand that premise because when you look inside you're sure to disagree with some of the individuals that are mentioned and wonder about others who are not in the book. I wasn't particularly interested in the entertainment stars that were chosen to be included but I did enjoy reading the fascinating stories of the good and not so good people who have made up our world.

Reading this book is like reading a who's who in the world of the Arts, American History, Human Achievement, World History and Human Spirit. There are a lot of photographs and each subject has a very brief biography explaining what made them a person of world influence and then some interesting tidbits of information are given. I enjoy history and here are some things that I learned from the book:

Eleanor of Aquitaine took 300 women with her on the Second Crusade.

Benjamin Franklin was the 15th child in his family.

Queen Victoria, the mother of nine children hated childbearing, which she called "the shadow side of marriage."

Mao Zedong's childhood heroes were George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Writers, Langston Hughes and Ernest Hemingway were friends and attended

bullfights together.

ULTIMATE BIOGRAPHY would make a good coffee table book! There's just enough information on each subject to wet the appetite and possibly make the reader want to learn more.

Here is editors collection of in their words "250 of the moost powerful, revered, infamous, and interesting people who have ever lived."

Their profiles of chosen few are excellent. See other reviews which list all categoreies.

But how can anyone argue Burt Bacharach over Bach and Beethoven? Or Jennifer Capriatti over Arthur Ashe? In annals of time, this reviewer is convinced there is no comparison. Poor choices in many categories.

What is chosen is done very well, with great capsulized profiles, all excellently done with art and photos and crisp journalism. Great reference and starting point, and to debate 250 most influential.

"Ultimate Biography" gives an overview on the lives of 250 influential people throughout history. The individuals are divided by categories: Arts, American History, Human Achievement, World History, and Human Spirit and are further divided into several sub-categories such as founding fathers, gangsters, pop stars, and despotic rulers. As you can see by the categories, people from all walks of life are featured. Each feature has at least one photograph (generally more than one) as well as a brief biography and some "Did You Know?" trivia. Of course featuring so many individuals in one book, there is only a brief biography for each one. It makes a great reference book or a great way to spark interest in the lives of many influential people through history.

Are you looking for a marvelous animal fantasy story? Then that's "Harry's Mad" by Dick King-Smith is just the book for you. The main characters are Harry and his parrot, Madison. Harry is very brave to go to Washington D.C to get Madison and to dare to finally talk to Madison. This talking African Gray Parrot is very clever because he knows about presidents and he also knew how to fly away from the thief who kidnapped him. The story takes place in London because that's when Harry tries to find Madison. This is a modern time story because everything in the story is not about anything in the past. The story is about a young boy name Harry. After his great uncle, George died he had to take care of his great uncle, George's parrot which is an African Grey Parrot name Madison. Mad is a genius and knows how to talk very well. One day Madison got kidnapped by a thief and no one knew. What wells Harry do and how long would Madison have to stay with the thief? I recommend this book because this book has my favorite kind of parrot that is call an "African Grey Parrot." Also in each chapter in this book it always makes me wants to keep on reading. Now you know what's Harry's Mad about. You might want to get this book or buy this book so you could start reading this outstanding animal fantasy story now!

I chose this book because in the past I read another book by the same author. This book takes place in Paris, France. There are four main characters. The characters are Mom, Dad, Madison, the African Gray Parrot. I like Madison the most because he can talk and play more games than the average parrot, and because madison is the center of the whole story. The story begins when Harry inherits an African Gray Parrot, named Madison, from his Great Uncle George. harry spends much time with the parrot, and becomes attached to him. One day, when no one was home, a burglar breaks in and steals Madison. While Madison is at the robber's house alone, he calls the police. The policeman could not believe what madison told him because Madison's stoy was unbelievable. Madison had even told the police man that he was 9 inches tall. Later in the story Madison manages to pry a hole in the chimney and get away. Going up the chimney he got covered in suit and could not fly. Then you should read the book to see what happens next. I thoght this was a great story. i would reccomend this book to you to read

The book I am going to talk about is called Harry's Mad. It is an adventurous book. There are two main characters. The first character is Harry he is a blonde hair boy and he has black eyes. He is ten years old and has no brothers or sisters. He lives with his parents. The second character is an African parrot with gray and black eyes and has a dark gray beak.
They live in a famous city called London. The story takes place in November. Harry got a parrot from his uncle who passed away and whom he never met. Harry went out with his mom and a robber break in. The robber robs Mad and Harry couldn't find Mad. The parrot flew away from the robber. At last Harry and Mad meet again.
I recommend you read this book because it is incredibly, exciting, and interesting.

This book is great for those interested in hearing all the rumors about this great American eccentric, but it fails as a comprehensive book for those who want to read more about his life and studies. Despite the repitition over interviewees covering the same material over and over, the visual element in the book is reproduced quite well. I think a better editing job on the book would have held me better. But for those interested in Harry Smith, this book is a must, as well as the book of interviews released earlier this year, "Think of the Self Speaking: Harry Smith Selected Interviews"

Harry Smith was a legend, a behind-the-scenes facilitator and cultural force. Harry was an avante-garde filmmaker, jazz fan, compiler of the seminal Anthology of American Folk Music, "Occultist" of a benevolent sort, and collector. Unfortunately Harry had his "demons" and was prone to destroying his valuable and unique belongings and creations, and lashing out and alienating his friends at times. His incredible skill at drawing was arguably ruined by drink and drugs. But when Harry died he was sorely missed. This book gives a taste of the aesthetic and mindscape of a unique American treasure. It is very well written and beautifully illustrated. It will amaze people who have not heard of Harry Smith and will bring a smile and a tear to those who knew him.

Harry Smith was an amazing artist and it is about time there is a book about him. I first met him in 1966, and there has been almost nothing written about his amazing accomplishments until now. If you want to understand the one of the most important influences on Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, and Allan Ginsberg (pardon my spelling), this is a must. He is one of the most important figures in the evolution of American art.

This book falls into some strange no-mans-land where definitions, proofs, and the underlying statistical theory are skipped, but formulae are stated in a symbolic language complex enough that it is hard to imagine any readers that could understand the book yet not desire more mathematical rigor. The authors do give extensive references to material they don't explain--on the other hand, for $90 most readers probably want the explanations. The authors also present many of their own opinions about the relative merits of certain statistical quantities. While their opinions, based on their years of experience as researchers, may have some merit, all too often they are forced to admit that other researchers, with comparable credentials, have opposing opinions! In that case, why include the opinions _in a textbook_? Debate in scientific journals. Explain in textbooks.

The organization at a chapter level is clear enough, but within chapters the exposition is ad-hoc. This is probably a side effect of the authors' commitment to eliminating explanations and proofs--there's no need to organize since they are just enumerating formulae and opinions.

I used this book for an undergraduate class in college. It was on the bookshelves of most of my Statistics professors (older editions of course). I found it to be a very intuitive and strait forward introduction in Regression Analysis. It contains all the basics needed to understand the bread and butter of Regression.

Draper and Smith have long had a reputation for an outstanding book on regression analysis written at an elementary to intermediate level. I have long had a copy on my bookshelf and continue to purchase the revisions. They are careful to keep the book current by always incorporating new advances. This edition includes many of the recent advances in regression diagnostics as well as a description of the bootstrap approach to regression problems. Those interested in regression graphics should consult the book by R. Dennis Cook. More on the bootstrap can be found in my book "Bootstrap Methods: A Practitioner's Guide" or the other fine books by Efron and Tibshirani, Davison and Hinkley, and Lunneborg.

My attention was returned to this book by Amazon's "Buried Treasure" link. I tend to treasure it as such and strongly recommend it remain buried. If you would enjoy succumbing to the rantings of a decrepid, self-bombed, relentless little thief, then this book may be for you.

Wild amazing mind of Harry Smith, poet, archivalist, anthropogist, shaman, revealed in sudden bursts of illuminating starfall. Read these interviews and dance with a firebreath world. Planets spin and we spin with them. Great.

The Autobiography of Harry Smith was written, by his own admission in the same way he lived his life - at a gallop. It is wonderful that they have republished this book because it was first released around the turn of 1900 and so was desparately difficult to get a hold of.

This book is the first, and best volume, of the two that were published posthumously. They cover his military life as an officer in the 95th Regiment from his first disastorous expedition to South America when he was still a teenager through his years campaigning on the Peninsular (1808-1814) Waterloo and the occupation of France.

His writing style, while stilted to modern ears, does not take long to learn to enjoy and he packs his book with hundreds of anecdotes of various army characters and snippets of life. He is just so good humoured and his stories so energetic without malice that you cannot help but enjoy him.

I know Harry Smith best for his highly romantic and impetuous marriage to a young Spanish girl, following the seige of Badajoz in 1812. Their life together, and her rapid adjustment to the harsh realities of campaigning were fascinating enough to be the subject of at least one historical novel in the past - Georgette Heyer's book "The Spanish Bride" - but I think I like reading the original story in Harry and Juana's word's better.

There are other truly wonderful biographies from officers of the 95th (which was later called 'The Rifle Brigade') in the Peninsular War also available in reprint I see from Amazon including George Simmon's "A British Rifleman" and John Kincaid's "Adventures in the Rifle Brigade." But Harry Smith is a gem.

Well thought and displayed information clearly. My knowledge on the univers has truly expanded.

This was what I needed to know - no less!

Working in the close protection industry, I have been faced with numerous problems when staying in Hotels around the world! THIS BOOK IS MY BEST ASSISTANT! It contains answers to almost every question, regarding hotel security, including; the structure of hotel security, management problems, who to get help from etc..

This book contains excellent choices from the writings of Jonathan Edwards, the first great philosopher in the American colonies, including some of his earliest writings, mostly just philosophical or biological musings. It reflects some interesting developments in the maturation of his thinking. It also has letters to friends, colleagues, and family members. Some of his most well-known sermons are alongside some representative samples of his sermons. Unfortunately, there is room for only excerpts from his longer works, such as The Religious Affections, but that can't be helped in an affordable popular anthology. If you want all of his works, but the complete works from the same publisher. If you just want a representative sample of some of the best works of this great theologian and philosopher, get this.

If I could give this half a star, I would. The only redeeming value of this book are the statistical citations (i.e. where she was born, where she went to school, etc.). The author is clearly trying to cash in on J.K. Rowling's success by writing a piece of drivel that is reminiscent of the desperation in final essay time in college; lots of padding little substance.

Smith makes giant leaps of logic in trying to detect inspiration from Rowling's life in her novels. These leaps are transparent and many of them seem more unlikely than possible.

I truly hope that either J.K. Rowling writes and autobiography or that she allows an accomplished biographer of some quality to interview her and access some of her old letters and so on. That would be worth a read. This was a waste of my time. Don't waste your money.

...

High on padding, low on truly insightful detail, this is a sad attempt at a biography by a man who seems to have only grasped the superficial aspects of the Harry Potter books anyway.

I look forward to the autobiography that I'm sure Joanne Rowling will be encouraged to write sometime in 2006 when the whole series is finally out. I do not recommend this book as being a particularly good substitute, but it's the best we'll get till then, I suppose.

I found this book very entertaining. JK Rowling's life has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride but the downs like her messy marriage and her mother's long term illness made me want to turn the pages all the more to see how it all turned out for her. It's an unpretentious read packed with facts about the author that I had no idea about. You can't always believe what you read in the newspapers! It's fun joining the author in trying to find Harry Potter references in her own life story and this book doesn't take itself too seriously. JK Rowling is a good writer but her own story is a great one. Thoroughly recommended.