ePub The Butler: A Witness to History download

by Wil Haygood

Author:

Wil Haygood

ISBN13:

978-1476752990

ISBN:

1476752990

Language:

English

Publisher:

Atria / 37 INK; 1st Edition edition (July 30, 2013)

Category:

Biography

Subcategory:

Ethnic & National

ePub file:

1261 kb

Fb2 file:

1467 kb

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Rating:

4.5

Votes:

325

Wil Haygood Ethnic and National English

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Wil Haygood blends the political with the personal in this portrait of White House butler Eugene Allen. The Christian Science Monitor)

Wil Haygood blends the political with the personal in this portrait of White House butler Eugene Allen. Allen, an African-American, served eight US presidents (from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan) for 34 years – a span of time that included remarkable gains in civil rights. The Christian Science Monitor). The Butler: A Witness to History should get just as much, if not more, attention than the film which uses its story for thematic foundation. Wil Haygood adds Eugene Allen’s chronicle to his impressive list of essential works on great figures in black and American history.

I remember Wil Haygood sharing with me his inspiration for writing his original article. On the cusp of Obama’s election he sought to find an African American butler who had seen firsthand the civil rights movement from both within and outside the White House. Wil knocked on Mr. Allen’s door and was greeted by a humble and elegant man and his gracious wife, who spent the afternoon sharing stories and showing treasure troves of memorabilia discreetly lining the walls of his basement. He was both a witness to history and unknown to it. Come right in, he said, opening the door to his home on that cold November day in 2008. He had already taken his morning medications.

Электронная книга "The Butler: A Witness to History", Wil Haygood. Эту книгу можно прочитать в Google Play Книгах на компьютере, а также на устройствах Android и iOS. Выделяйте текст, добавляйте закладки и делайте заметки, скачав книгу "The Butler: A Witness to History" для чтения в офлайн-режиме.

Wil Haygood details the life of Gene Allen, a black butler who worked in the White House for 34 years

Wil Haygood details the life of Gene Allen, a black butler who worked in the White House for 34 years. In a new gift book, The Butler: A Witness to History, Haygood tells us how his story and the film came to be. The author ably captures Allen, a shy, discreet man who rose from a Scottsville, V. plantation to live in the hard shadow of power. He was there, for example, trying to cheer up young John and Caroline Kennedy in the days after their father had been slain. He did so well at it that for a little while at least, Haygood writes, there was the cacophony of little voices squealing with delight.

Wil Haygood (born September 19, 1954, in Columbus, Ohio) is an American journalist and author who is known for his 2008 article "A Butler Well Served by this Election" in The Washington Post about Eugene Allen, which served as the basis for the 2013 movie The Butler. Since then, Haygood has written a book about Allen, The Butler: A Witness to History.

Butler: A Witness to History" which tells the story of Eugene Allen who worked for eight US Presidents. The event hosted was hosted by The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College and was part of the 2013 Brooklyn Book Festival.

it/wilhaygood), talks about his biography "The Butler: A Witness to History" which tells the story of Eugene Allen who worked for eight US Presidents. This video was recorded by Troy Johnson of AALBC.

The Butler: A Witness to History. This mesmerizing companion book to the award-winning film The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century American history through the eyes of Eugene Allen-a White House butler who served eight presidents over the course of thirty-four years. During the presidencies of Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, Eugene Allen was a butler in the most famous of residences: the White House

This mesmerizing companion book to the award-winning film The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century Am. 0 5 Kirjailija: Wil Haygood.

This mesmerizing companion book to the award-winning film The Butler traces the Civil Rights Movement and explores crucial moments of twentieth century Am. Saatavilla e-kirjana. During the presidencies of Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, Eugene Allen was a butler in the most famous of residences: the White House.

From Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow Wil Haygood comes a mesmerizing inquiry into the life of Eugene Allen, the butler who ignited a nation's imagination and inspired a major motion picture: Lee Daniels' The Butler, the highly anticipated film that stars six Oscar winners, including Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey (honorary and nominee), Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Vanessa Redgrave, and Robin Williams; as well as Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Alan Rickman, and Liev Schreiber.With a foreword by the Academy Award nominated director Lee Daniels, The Butler not only explores Allen's life and service to eight American Presidents, from Truman to Reagan, but also includes an essay, in the vein of James Baldwin’s jewel The Devil Finds Work, that explores the history of black images on celluloid and in Hollywood, and fifty-seven pictures of Eugene Allen, his family, the presidents he served, and the remarkable cast of the movie.

Ylal

I was expecting some interesting facts and a great storyline... But what I got was information about the movie. Waste of money... Quite disappointed!

Hugifyn

A complete waste of money. Nothing more than a promo news release for the movie. This is the worst excuse for a book I've ever read. Read the movie reviews, you'll get more out if it for nothing.

Nidor

I bought this book because I wanted to read the full story of the butler's life and time in the White House. Instead, it was an article about the writer meeting the butler and his wife. It took me less than an hour to read the entire part about the butler. Halfway through the book the butler dies and the book becomes a book about blacks in film. Not what I paid for or wanted.

Nightscar

I can see three, no...four great ideas for non-fiction books in this one book. One could be about the reporter Wil Haygood's conception of his idea for the article that started all this and his quest to find Eugene Allen. The second could be Eugene Allen's story itself. The third could be about the history of African Americans in cinema (I'm sure books like this already exist, but let Mr. Haygood have a go at it...he's got some promising stuff in this book here.) And finally, the fourth book could b about the making of "The Butler" and all the film-making challenges that came with it. All of these are fascinating stories that I'd like to know more about. That being said, this is still a great book. But it's just too short. I have a hunch that this audio book is abridged, but regardless, I feel that Mr. Haygood has so much more material which could be put to good use...I mean, how much could they have cut out for this abridgement? One final thing I must comment on is this book's forward, written by Lee Daniels, the director of the film adaptation of Eugene Allen's life. Normally I do not like forwards. This is an exception. Mr. Daniels explains to the reading audience why he made the changes he did that caused Lee Daniels' The Butler to deviate so much from Eugene Allen's life. Knowing what his mindset was and the story he wanted to tell, I can respect his directing decisions in that film much more and I make an exception and appreciate this forward. But as for the book itself, it's an amazing story told by a great writer. Mr. Eugene Allen is an unsung figure in American history and I thank Mr. Wil Haygood for sharing his story with the world. This is a must-read. It's just too short. But nevertheless, enjoy.

Cherry The Countess

Whilst the original article on this man's history did inspire an uplifting film, and this book does provide a good insight into the financing and making of a movie, the story of the historic events as presented in this book is little more than a brief scan across one remarkable man's story and quick glimpses at some of the key moments in his life. This reader would like to have a view of the sweep of history that was a little richer than that presented here, and (had it been possible) a sampling of the central character's personal views on significant events and people. Sadly, a man who made history by quietly living his life and applying his talents, is remembered by a book that feels like no more than a teaser.

Invissibale

I really enjoyed Wil Haygood's tale of the way he searched for, and found, Eugene Allen, a Black White House butler who served presidents from Truman through Reagan, and endured the racism of the White House servant system while observing, close up, the progress and success of the Civil Rights movement. Like the good reporter he is, prompted by the election of Barack Obama, Haygood doggedly pursued every lead until he found Allen, his wife, and son, then interviewed and befriended them, eventually bringing Allen to Obama's inauguration. Haygood's Washington Post article about Allen was the basis for the heavily fictionalized movie The Butler, and this book, while a very slightly expanded version of that article, is also a fairly shameless plug for the movie. Frankly, I went to the Post website to find the original article, but it is (surprise!) no longer available, clearly because of this "book." Is behind-the-scenes information about how the movie business works interesting? Well, yes and no. Yes, it's interesting enough, but come on, Haygood has already been paid, presumably quite well, for the rights to his original story, and, no, the account of how the movie came about isn't especially fascinating. Haygood's writing is always engaging, and that's especially true of the Allen story, but to charge book prices for this publication is, well, shameless.

Kuve

Have not yet read the Lee Smith. The Butler is a scandalously brief book, very superficial, and with more emphasis on the writer than on Eugene Allen, the real butler. I had hoped for something of the substance of Ike Hoover's Forty-Two Years in the White House; the jobs were comparable, and Hoover could write well. Allen is not given a chance to say much, if anything. Very disappointing; the pictures are pretty good. I have scanned the Smith: She is a brilliant, sensitive writer of the South, focusing here on the Asheville, NC, hospital where Zelda Fitzgerald (and many others) received the primitive mental health care of the thirties/forties and burned in a hospital fire. I expect it will be a seminal Smith book, and her acknowledgments are particularly honest and brave. (So my stars there will no doubt be much greater than those I generously eked out for The Butler. See the movie, folks! The reviews of five presidents at the end are, I do admit, quite accurate and to the point.

It's not a story book in the traditional sense. But it does offer important information on Eugene Allen the White House butler the movie is based on. It also offers important information on the movie.
These negative reviews reflect that the reviewer expected one thing and got another. That is not reason enough to not read the book.
As I write this it's still a week before the movie is released. Get the book. Read the book. Look at the pictures. (Did I mention it's got lots of glossy pictures.) Then go see the movie. I have a feeling the movie is going to be critically acclaimed and well received by the viewing public. The fantastic cast is also detailed in the book.

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