John Wiley – författare

One month after her novel Gone With the Wind was published, Margaret Mitchell sold the movie rights for fifty thousand dollars. Fearful of what the studio might do to her story—“I wouldn’t put it beyond Hollywood to have . . . Scarlett seduce General Sherman,” she joked—the author washed her hands of involvement with the film. However, driven by a maternal interest in her literary firstborn and compelled by her Southern manners to answer every fan letter she received, Mitchell was unable to stay aloof for long.In this collection of her letters about the 1939 motion picture classic, readers have a front-row seat as the author watches the Dream Factory at work, learning the ins and outs of filmmaking and discovering the peculiarities of a movie-crazed public. Her ability to weave a story, so evident in Gone With the Wind,makes for delightful reading in her correspondence with a who’s who of Hollywood, from producer David O. Selznick, director George Cukor, and screenwriter Sidney Howard, to cast members Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel.Mitchell also wrote to thousands of others—aspiring actresses eager to play Scarlett O’Hara; fellow Southerners hopeful of seeing their homes or their grandmother’s dress used in the film; rabid movie fans determined that their favorite star be cast; and creators of songs, dolls and Scarlett panties who were convinced the author was their ticket to fame and fortune. During the film’s production, she corrected erring journalists and the producer’s over-the-top publicist who fed the gossip mills, accuracy be damned. Once the movie finished, she struggled to deal with friends and strangers alike who “fought and trampled little children and connived and broke the ties of lifelong friendship” to get tickets to the premiere.But through it all, she retained her sense of humor. Recounting an acquaintance’s denial of the rumor that the author herself was going to play Scarlett, Mitchell noted he “ungallantly stated that I was something like fifty years too old for the part.” After receiving numerous letters and phone calls from the studio about Belle Watling’s accent, the author related her father was “convulsed at the idea of someone telephoning from New York to discover how the madam of a Confederate bordello talked.” And in a chatty letter to Gable after the premiere, Mitchell coyly admitted being “feminine enough to be quite charmed” by his statement to the press that she was “fascinating,” but added: “Even my best friends look at me in a speculative way—probably wondering what they overlooked that your sharp eyes saw!” As Gone With the Wind marks its seventy-fifth anniversary on the silver screen, these letters, edited by Mitchell historian John Wiley, Jr., offer a fresh look at the most popular motion picture of all time through the eyes of the woman who gave birth to Scarlett.

Are things starting to get tougher in geometry class? Don''t panic. Dr. Math--the popular online math resource--is here to help you figure out even the trickiest of your geometry problems.Students just like you have been turning to Dr. Math for years asking questions about math problems, and the math doctors at The Math Forum have helped them find the answers with lots of clear explanations and helpful hints. Now, with Dr. Math Presents More Geometry, you''ll learn just what it takes to succeed in this subject. You''ll find the answers to dozens of real questions from students in a typical geometry class. You''ll also find plenty of hints and shortcuts for using coordinate geometry, finding angle relationships, and working with circles. Pretty soon, everything from the Pythagorean theorem to logic and proofs will make more sense. Plus, you''ll get plenty of tips for working with all kinds of real-life problems.You won''t find a better explanation of high school geometry anywhere!

Hurry! Hurry! Come one, come all. Meet a man who can pull two railroad passenger cars with his teeth and a real-life human cannon ball. Come face to face with a dead rattlesnake that still bites. And unlock the secrets to the magician''s bodiless head.Welcome to Jearl Walker''s Flying Circus of Physics, 2nd Edition, where death-defying stunts, high-flying acrobatics, strange curiosities, and mind-bending illusions are all part of everyday life. You don''t need a ticket; you only need to look to the world around you to uncover these fascinating feats of physics.Completely updated and expanded, this Second Edition of Jearl Walker''s best-selling book features more than 700 thoroughly intriguing questions about relevant, fun, and completely real physical phenomena. Detailed explanations and references to outside sources guide your way through the problems.You''ll discover answers to such questions as:* Can you start a fire with ice?* Why does the sky turn green just before a tornado?* Why do wintergreen LifeSavers glow in the dark when you bite them?* If you are falling in an elevator, should you try to jump up at the last second or lay flat against the floor?* How do electric eels produce their electric field?* Why is wet sand darker than dry sand?* What causes an oasis mirage?* Why do stars twinkle?* Could you drive a car on a ceiling?