Chronicles the creation of television from the earliest prototypes to courtroom battles for the control of the market, and offers portraits of the inventors

Tube: The Invention of Television

Science & Math

FISHER, David E.

Fisher, Marshall Jon

Technology

Mariner Books

Before Federer versus Nadal, before Borg versus McEnroe, the greatest tennis match ever played pitted the dominant Don Budge against the seductively handsome Baron Gottfried von Cramm. This deciding 1937 Davis Cup match, played on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon, was a battle of titans: the world's number one tennis player against the number two; America against Germany; democracy against fascism. For five superhuman sets, the duo’s brilliant shotmaking kept the Centre Court crowd–and the world–spellbound. But the match’s significance extended well beyond the immaculate grass courts of Wimbledon. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the brink of World War II, one man played for the pride of his country while the other played for his life. Budge, the humble hard-working American who would soon become the first man to win all four Grand Slam titles in the same year, vied to keep the Davis Cup out of the hands of the Nazi regime. On the other side of the net, the immensely popular and elegant von Cramm fought Budge point for point knowing that a loss might precipitate his descent into the living hell being constructed behind barbed wire back home. Born into an aristocratic family, von Cramm was admired for his devastating good looks as well as his unparalleled sportsmanship. But he harbored a dark secret, one that put him under increasing Gestapo surveillance. And his situation was made even more perilous by his refusal to join the Nazi Party or defend Hitler. Desperately relying on his athletic achievements and the global spotlight to keep him out of the Gestapo’s clutches, his strategy was to keep traveling and keep winning. A Davis Cup victory would make him the toast of Germany. A loss might be catastrophic. Watching the mesmerizingly intense match from the stands was von Cramm’s mentor and all-time tennis superstar Bill Tilden–a consummate showman whose double life would run in ironic counterpoint to that of his German pupil. Set at a time when sports and politics were inextricably linked, A Terrible Splendor gives readers a courtside seat on that fateful day, moving gracefully between the tennis match for the ages and the dramatic events leading Germany, Britain, and America into global war. A book like no other in its weaving of social significance and athletic spectacle, this soul-stirring account is ultimately a tribute to the strength of the human spirit.

A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played

History

Americas

Crown

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Seventeen and Oh: Miami, 1972, and the NFL's Only Perfect Season

Publishing on the 50th anniversary of that magic season, the definitive chronicle of the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only undefeated team in NFL history—from the award-winning author of A Terrible Splendor\nThe 1972 Miami Dolphins had something to prove. Losers in the previous Super Bowl, a ragtag bunch of overlooked, underappreciated, or just plain old players, they were led by Don Shula, a genius young coach obsessed with obliterating the reputation that he couldn't win the big game. And as the Dolphins headed into only their seventh season, all eyes were on Miami. For the last time, a city was hosting both national political conventions, and the backdrop to this season of redemption would be turbulent: the culture wars, the Nixon reelection campaign, the strange, unfolding saga of Watergate, and the war in Vietnam.\nGenerational and cultural divides abounded on the team as well. There were long-haired, bell-bottomed party animals such as Jim "Mad Dog" Mandich, as well as the stylish Marv Fleming and Curtis Johnson, with his supernova afro, playing alongside conservative, straight-laced men like the quarterbacks: Bob Griese and the crew-cut savior, 38-year-old backup Earl Morrall. Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, nicknamed "Butch and Sundance," had to make way for a third running back, the outspoken and flamboyant Mercury Morris. But unlike the fractious society around them, this racially and culturally diverse group found a way to meld seamlessly into a team. The perfect team. Miami native Marshall Jon Fisher's personal perspective makes Seventeen and Oh a unique, compelling account of a season unlike any other.

Harry N. Abrams

Traces the progress of the diverse group of iconoclasts including an Idaho farm boy, an eccentric Scotsman, and two Russian Americans from the laboratory prototypes that drew public laughter to the vicious courtroom battles for control of what would become an enormous market power. With devilish character sketches, compelling stories, and scientific explanations that are easy to follow, the Fishers capture the brilliance, vision, and frustration behind the invention of television. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Tube: The Invention of Television (Sloan Technology Series)

Humor & Entertainment

Television

Counterpoint

Presents a history of humankind's attempts to discover extraterrestrial life, including the Mars Underground, SERENDIP, and Project Phoenix

Strangers in the Night: A Brief History of Life on Other Worlds

Astronomy & Space Science

Counterpoint / Perseus Books

It’s the late 1980s, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Robert Cherney, a 30-year-old aspiring writer, has left New York City for a job teaching tennis in Munich. Aside from private lessons, he coaches the Maccabi Club men's league team, a motley group of neurotics whose eccentricities seem exacerbated by their situation as Jews living in Germany. They have made fortunes in postwar Germany but are hounded daily by the ghosts of the past and wracked with guilt over living so blithely among their parents’ tormentors. One of the players on Robert's team is his best friend in Munich, Max Altmann, a successful and wealthy young businessman who is also Robert’s employer, landlord, provocateur, and guide to Munich's nightlife. In addition to trying to figure out his life and not go crazy teaching tennis, Robert is trying to forget Lexa, the focus of years of erotic obsession back in New York. Helping him are Ingrid, a 40-ish Maccabi member and tennis pupil, and Veronique, a 25-year-old Jewish graduate student whom Max tries to set up with Robert. Love, tennis, sex, frustrated artistic ambition, and the dilemma of being a German Jew are all ingredients of this literary delight that is at turns serious and comedic.

A Backhanded Gift: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Literary

New Chapter Press

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Books by Fisher, Marshall Jon