Haunts Of The Black Masseur

Author : Charles Sprawson
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2012-08-29
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780307823649

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Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson Pdf

In a masterful work of cultural history, Charles Sprawson, himself an obsessional swimmer and fluent diver, explores the meaning that different cultures have attached to water, and the search for the springs of classical antiquity. In nineteenth-century England bathing was thought to be an instrument of social and moral reform, while in Germany and America swimming came to signify escape. For the Japanese the swimmer became an expression of samurai pride and nationalism. Sprawson gives is fascinating glimpses of the great swimming heroes: Byron leaping dramatically into the surf at Shelley’s beach funeral; Rupert Brooke swimming naked with Virginia Woolf, the dark water “smelling of mint and mud”; Hart Crane swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico; Edgar Allan Poe’s lone and mysterious river-swims; Leander, Webb, Weissmuller, and a host of others. Informed by the literature of Swinburne, Goethe, Scott Fitzgerald, and Yukio Mishima; the films of Riefenstahl and Vigo; the Hollywood “swimming musicals” of the 1930s; and delving in and out of Olympic history, Haunts of the Black Masseur is an enthralling assessment of man—body submerged, self-absorbed. It is quite simply the best celebration of swimming ever written, even as it explores aspects of culture in a heretofore unimagined way.

Author : Charles Sprawson
Publisher : Random House
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2009-10-06
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9781409043454

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Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson Pdf

A new re-issue of the cult swimming classic, a beautiful read filled with detailed description and powerful prose. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY AMY LIPTROT ‘A luminously romantic history of swimming’ Guardian Haunts of the Black Masseur is a dazzling introduction to the great swimming heroes, from Byron leaping into the surf at Shelley's funeral to Hart Crane diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico. Bursting with anecdotes, Charles Sprawson leads us into a watery world populated by lithe demi-gods – a world that has obsessed humans from the ancient Greeks and Romans, to Yeats, Woolf, Fitzgerald and Hockney. Original, enticing and dripping with references to literature, film, art and Olympic history, this cult swimming classic pays sparkling tribute to water and the cultural meanings we attach to it. ‘This splendid and wholly original book is as zestful as a plunge in champagne’ Iris Murdoch

Author : Charles Sprawson
Publisher : Random House
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : Swimmers in literature
ISBN : 9780099223313

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Haunts of the Black Masseur by Charles Sprawson Pdf

"Charles Sprawson - himself an obsessional swimmer and diver - explores the meaning that different cultures have attached to water. He gives the reader glimpses of the great swimming heroes- Byron leaping dramatically into the surf at Shelley's beach funeral; Hart Crane, swallow-diving to his death in the Bay of Mexico; Ulysses, Leander, Weismuller, Spitz and a host of others."

Author : Antonio Argüelles
Publisher : Reverte
Page : 263 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2020-04-21
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9788429195637

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The Forever Swim by Antonio Argüelles Pdf

Plunge into the water, accompany Antonio Argüelles on his Oceans Seven adventure, and, along the way, find out how to achieve your own dreams and goals. On August 3, 2017, Antonio Argüelles swam 35 kilometers from Northern Ireland to Scotland. When he arrived on the Scottish shore after a swim of nearly 14 hours through hypothermic currents wearing only a speedo, cap, and goggles, he became just the seventh person ever to conquer the Oceans Seven, an aquatic achievement on par with the Seven Summits. His feat made international news, in part because at 58 years old, he became the oldest athlete ever to complete the challenge. Despite all warnings and his own self-doubt, he endured stormy seas, 24-hour swims, venomous jellyfish blooms, and a host of other hazards to accomplish his dream. But no goal seized is an isolated incident, and Antonio's story is no exception. The Forever Swim is not only a tale of success; it is also the tale of how a hyperactive overweight boy would discover swimming, chase an Olympic dream, attend Stanford, and wade into the tangled web of Mexican politics. This is a story of risk, fear, confidence, failure, and loss. It shows how the ability to adapt, focus, and manage the mind enabled Antonio to overcome each setback that sought to take him down in and out of the water. The Forever Swim illuminates key strategies anyone can utilize to pursue their own goals and reminds us that no dream, however bold, is ever out of reach, as long as we are willing to chase it down with relentless discipline and joy.

Author : Matt Bondurant
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2012-01-10
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781451625318

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The Night Swimmer by Matt Bondurant Pdf

An “evocative and often lyrical” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel about a young American couple who win a pub on the southernmost tip of Ireland and become embroiled in the local violence and intrigue. The Night Swimmer, Matt Bondurant’s utterly riveting modern gothic novel of marriage and belonging, confirms his gift for storytelling that transports and enthralls. In a small town on the southern coast of Ireland, an isolated place only frequented by fishermen and the occasional group of bird-watchers, Fred and Elly Bulkington, newly arrived from Vermont having won a pub in a contest, encounter a wild, strange land shaped by the pounding storms of the North Atlantic, as well as the native resistance to strangers. As Fred revels in the life of a new pubowner, Elly takes the ferry out to a nearby island where anyone not born there is called a “blow-in.” To the disbelief of the locals, Elly devotes herself to open-water swimming, pushing herself to the limit and crossing unseen boundaries that drive her into the heart of the island’s troubles—the mysterious tragedy that shrouds its inhabitants and the dangerous feud between an enigmatic farmer and a powerful clan that has no use for outsiders. The poignant unraveling of a marriage, the fierce beauty of the natural world, the mysterious power of Irish lore, and the gripping story of strangers in a strange land rife with intrigue and violence—The Night Swimmer is a novel of myriad enchantments by a writer of extraordinary talent.

Author : Scot Gardner
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780544232747

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The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner Pdf

Aaron Rowe's new job at a funeral parlor may be his salvation from sleepwalking, dreams he cannot explain and memories he cannot recover, but if he doesn't discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up. Simultaneous eBook. 20,000 first printing.

Author : Tanya Shadrick,Rachel Playforth
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 131 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Swimmers
ISBN : 0957068875

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Watermarks by Tanya Shadrick,Rachel Playforth Pdf

Author : Howard Means
Publisher : Hachette Books
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2020-06-02
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 9780306845642

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Splash! by Howard Means Pdf

Choose a stroke and get paddling through the human history of swimming! From man's first recorded dip into what's now the driest spot on earth to the splashing, sparkling pool party in your backyard, humans have been getting wet for 10,000 years. And for most of modern history, swimming has caused a ripple that touches us all--the heroes and the ordinary folk; the real and the mythic. Splash! dives into Egypt, winds through ancient Greece and Rome, flows mostly underground through the Dark and Middle Ages (at least in Europe), and then reemerges in the wake of the Renaissance before taking its final lap at today's Olympic games. Along the way, it kicks away the idea that swimming is just about moving through water, about speed or great feats of aquatic endurance, and shows you how much more it can be. Its history offers a multi-tiered tour through religion, fashion, architecture, sanitation and public health, colonialism, segregation and integration, sexism, sexiness, guts, glory, and much, much more. Unique and compelling, Splash! sweeps across the whole of humankind's swimming history--and just like jumping into a pool on a hot summer's day, it has fun along the way.

Author : Amy Liptrot
Publisher : Canongate Books
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2015-12-31
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781782115496

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The Outrun by Amy Liptrot Pdf

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2016 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 ONDAATJE PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 WELLCOME PRIZE At the age of thirty, Amy Liptrot finds herself washed up back home on Orkney. Standing unstable on the island, she tries to come to terms with the addiction that has swallowed the last decade of her life. As she spends her mornings swimming in the bracingly cold sea, her days tracking Orkney's wildlife, and her nights searching the sky for the Merry Dancers, Amy discovers how the wild can restore life and renew hope.

Author : Geoff Nicholson
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2008-11-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781101079096

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The Lost Art of Walking by Geoff Nicholson Pdf

How we walk, where we walk, why we walk tells the world who and what we are. Whether it's once a day to the car, or for long weekend hikes, or as competition, or as art, walking is a profoundly universal aspect of what makes us humans, social creatures, and engaged with the world. Cultural commentator, Whitbread Prize winner, and author of Sex Collectors Geoff Nicholson offers his fascinating, definitive, and personal ruminations on the literature, science, philosophy, art, and history of walking. Nicholson finds people who walk only at night, or naked, or in the shape of a cross or a circle, or for thousands of miles at a time, in costume, for causes, or for no reason whatsoever. He examines the history and traditions of walking and its role as inspiration to artists, musicians, and writers like Bob Dylan, Charles Dickens, and Buster Keaton. In The Lost Art of Walking, he brings curiosity, imagination, and genuine insight to a subject that often strides, shuffles, struts, or lopes right by us.

Author : Lena Lencek,Gideon Bosker
Publisher : Penguin Group
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Bathing beaches
ISBN : 0140278028

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The Beach by Lena Lencek,Gideon Bosker Pdf

An absorbing, original account of the beach--its history, customs, spectacles, and how it has become the undisputed Nirvana for pleasure seekers. 75 illustrations.

Author : Edwin Williamson
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 720 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2003-07-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780141937441

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The Penguin History Of Latin America by Edwin Williamson Pdf

Now fully updated to 2009, this acclaimed history of Latin America tells its turbulent story from Columbus to Chavez. Beginning with the Spanish and Portugese conquests of the New World, it takes in centuries of upheaval, revolution and modernization up to the present day, looking in detail at Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Cuba, and gives an overview of the cultural developments that have made Latin America a source of fascination for the world. 'A first-rate work of history ... His cool, scholarly gaze and synthesizing intelligence demystify a part of the world peculiarly prone to myth-making ... This book covers an enormous amount of ground, geographically and culturally' Tony Gould, Independent on Sunday

Author : Philip Hoare
Publisher : Fourth Estate
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2018-06-14
Category : Ocean
ISBN : 0008133700

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Risingtidefallingstar by Philip Hoare Pdf

Rich and strange from the tip of its title to its deep-sunk bones' Robert Macfarlane From the author of Leviathan, or, The Whale, comes a composite portrait of the subtle, beautiful, inspired and demented ways in which we have come to terms with our watery planet. In the third of his watery books, the author goes in pursuit of human and animal stories of the sea. Of people enchanted or driven to despair by the water, accompanied by whales and birds and seals - familiar spirits swimming and flying with the author on his meandering odyssey from suburbia into the unknown. Along the way, he encounters drowned poets and eccentric artists, modernist writers and era-defining performers, wild utopians and national heroes - famous or infamous, they are all surprisingly, and sometimes fatally, linked to the sea. Out of the storm-clouds of the twenty-first century and our restive time, these stories reach back into the past and forward into the future. This is a shape-shifting world that has never been certain, caught between the natural and unnatural, where the state between human and animal is blurred. Time, space, gender and species become as fluid as the sea. Here humans challenge their landbound lives through art or words or performance or myth, through the animal and the elemental. And here they are forever drawn back to the water, forever lost and found on the infinite sea.

Author : Edith Wharton
Publisher : The Floating Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2011-05-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781775452478

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The Reef by Edith Wharton Pdf

Though best remembered for her novels The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton's 1912 novel The Reef ranks among her most critically acclaimed works. The book offers a piercingly insightful look into a complicated family dynamic that stems from the intertwined relationships of several generations of star-crossed lovers.

Author : Michael Herr
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2011-11-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780307814166

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Dispatches by Michael Herr Pdf

"The best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" (The New York Times Book Review); an instant classic straight from the front lines. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time. Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.