RICHARD RHODES is most recently the author of "The Twilight of the Bombs," the last volume in a quartet about nuclear history. The first, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," won the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a National Book Critics Circle Award.
"Hedy's Folly" is one of the "Huffington Post"'s Best Film Books of
2011!
Praise for "Hedy's Folly" "Rhodes's talent is making the
scientifically complex accessible to the proverbial lay reader with
clarity and without dumbing down the essentials of his
topics...along the way he expertly weaves social and cultural
commentary into his narrative.... Behind the uniqueness of this
story lie deeper themes that Rhodes touches upon the gender biases
against beautiful and intelligent women, the delicate interpersonal
politics of scientific collaboration and...the neverending,
implacable conflict between art and Mammon in American
culture."--John Adams, front page of the "New York Times Book
Review " "It's to Mr. Rhodes's credit that he gently makes this
implausible story plausible.""--"Dwight Garner, "New York Times"
"This is a smart, strange and fascinating book, which deserves to
find an audience.... Rhodes is particularly good when describing
intellectual milieus, whether Vienna in the first years of the 20th
century, the Paris of James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Sylvia Beach and
-- for that matter -- the permanent bureaucracy of the Pentagon.
Many will have forgotten the brutal Soviet attack on Finland in
1940, but Rhodes sums it up poignantly and succinctly in three
pages about the death of Antheil's brother Henry. Finally, Rhodes
is one of those few writers capable of explaining complicated
scientific ideas to the general public, invariably with clarity and
precision and sometimes wit and poetry as well.""--"Prof. Tim Page,
"Washington Post" "In "Hedy's Folly," Rhodes weaves a
fascinating...account of Lamarr's journey into scientific
exploration and the political machinations of war, mixing thorough
techno research with Hollywood glam.""--"Bill Deskowitz, "USA
Today
"
"Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood starlet and inventor of a torpedo guidance
system during World War II? Who knew? Richard Rhodes, the
Pulitzer-winning auth
"Hedy's Folly" is Amazon.com's December 2011 Best of the Month
Spotlight Selection!
"Hedy's Folly" is a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2011 (Adult
Nonfiction)!
Praise for "Hedy's Folly"
"Richard Rhodes...unites the social history of Vienna, the classic
era of Hollywood film, Paris in the '20s, experimental music,
weapons design, the niceties of patent law and the technology of
information transmission -- a real grab bag of elements -- in this
short, charming and remarkably seamless book. He makes a rigorous
effort to establish exactly what Lamarr contributed.... 'She
deserved better, ' Rhodes writes, than to be judged by that
spectacular face alone, and now, at last, she is.""--"Laura Miller,
" Salon" "Actresses often long to turn director, but how many of
them yearn to turn inventor? Given the success that the screen
siren Hedy Lamarr achieved in that realm--revealed in Richard
Rhodes's fascinating biography, "Hedy's Folly"--it's a pity more of
them don't
Advance Praise for "Hedy's Folly" "Actresses often long to turn
director, but how many of them yearn to turn inventor? Given the
success that the screen siren Hedy Lamarr achieved in that
realm--revealed in Richard Rhodes's fascinating biography, "Hedy's
Folly"--it's a pity more of them don't consider it.... Rhodes's
beguiling book shows Hedy Lamarr to have been a secret weapon in
more ways than one.""--"Liesl Schillinger, " Daily Beast"
..".[M]ost people were reluctant to believe that the most beautiful
woman in the word had an invetor's brain; but one man who came to
believe in her was George Antheil.... Richard Rhodes...is the
perfect historian to describe the abilities of Hedy Lamarr and
George Antheil as scientists and inventors. In "Hedy's Foll"y,
Rhodes is also very good on culture-rich Vienna...[and] the
Hollywood of the '30s and '40s.""--"Larry McMurtry, " Harper's
Magazine" "Literary luminary Rhodes is not the first to write about
movie starh
Advance Praise for "Hedy's Folly" ..".[M]ost people were reluctant
to believe that the most beautiful woman in the word had an
invetor's brain; but one man who came to believe in her was George
Antheil.... Richard Rhodes...is the perfect historian to describe
the abilities of Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil as scientists and
inventors. In "Hedy's Foll"y, Rhodes is also very good on
culture-rich Vienna...[and] the Hollywood of the '30s and
'40s.""--"Larry McMurtry, " Harper's Magazine" "Literary luminary
Rhodes is not the first to write about movie star Hedy Lamarr's
second life as an inventor, but his enlightening and exciting
chronicle is unique in its illumination of why and how she
conceived of an epoch-shaping technology now known as frequency
hopping spread spectrum. As intelligent and independent as she was
beautiful, Jewish Austrian Lamarr quit school to become an actor,
then disastrously married a munitions manufacturer who got cozy
with the Nazis. Lamarre
Advance Praise for "Hedy's Folly" "Literary luminary Rhodes is not
the first to write about movie star Hedy Lamarr's second life as an
inventor, but his enlightening and exciting chronicle is unique in
its illumination of why and how she conceived of an epoch-shaping
technology now known as frequency hopping spread spectrum. As
intelligent and independent as she was beautiful, Jewish Austrian
Lamarr quit school to become an actor, then disastrously married a
munitions manufacturer who got cozy with the Nazis. Lamarr coolly
gathered
weapons information, then fled the country for Hollywood. As she
triumphed on the silver screen, she also worked diligently on a
secret form of radio communication that she hoped would boost the
U.S. war effort, but which ultimately became the basis for cell
phones, Wi-Fi, GPS, and bar-code readers. Lamarr's technical
partner was George Antheil, a brilliant and intrepid pianist and
avant-garde composer whose adventures are so fascinating, he n
Advance Praise for "Hedy's Folly" "The author of "The Twilight of
the Bomb" (2010) returns with the surprising story of a pivotal
invention produced during World War II by a pair of most unlikely
inventors--an avant-garde composer and the world's most glamorous
movie star....A faded blossom of a story, artfully restored to
bright bloom."--"Kirkus Reviews" "If the subtitle of this
book--"The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the
Most Beautiful Woman in the World"--doesn't make you want to read,
nothing we say is likely to change your mind. But we will add this
much: Rhodes, who has written about everything from atomic power to
sex to John James Audubon, is apparently incapable of writing a bad
book and most of what he does is absolutely superior, including
this tale that has Nazi weapons, Hollywood stars, 20th century
classical music, and the earliest versions of digital
wireless."--"The Daily Beast"
Praise for Richard Rhodes:
Advance Praise for "Hedy's Folly"
"If the subtitle of this book--"The Life and Breakthrough
Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the
World"--doesn't make you want to read, nothing we say is likely to
change your mind. But we will add this much: Rhodes, who has
written about everything from atomic power to sex to John James
Audubon, is apparently incapable of writing a bad book and most of
what he does is absolutely superior, including this tale that has
Nazi weapons, Hollywood stars, 20th century classical music, and
the earliest versions of digital wireless."--"The Daily Beast"
Praise for Richard Rhodes:
"The Making of the Nuclear Age "(four volumes)
"Every age finds the writers it needs, and the nuclear age has
found Richard Rhodes."--Jonathan Schell, "The Nation
"
"Rhodes deserves considerable praise for his four books. He writes
with remarkable confidence and clarity about these terrible
devices. He tells stories well. H
Praise for Richard Rhodes:
"The Making of the Nuclear Age "(four volumes)
"Every age finds the writers it needs, and the nuclear age has
found Richard Rhodes."--Jonathan Schell, "The Nation
"
"Rhodes deserves considerable praise for his four books. He writes
with remarkable confidence and clarity about these terrible
devices. He tells stories well. He loads his text with interesting
facts. His technical command is impressive."--Nicholas Thompson,
"New York Times Book Review
""No one writes better about nuclear history than Rhodes does, ably
combining a scholar's attention to detail with a novelist's
devotion to character and pacing . . . The ingenuity and
progressive spirit he reveals inspire optimism."--George Perkovich,
"The Washington Post
""This long, rich book ["The Making of the Atomic Bomb"]. . . is
the comprehensive history of the bomb, and it is also a work of
literature."--Tracy Kidder, "John James Audubon: The Making of an
American"
"
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