Margaret Cheney

Tesla - Man Out of Time
'A VISIONARY GENIUS AS FERTILE AS ANY IN THE MODERN HISTORY OF SCIENCE.' (The Sunday Times, London.)

Flamboyant, eccentric, almost supernaturally gifted, Nikola Tesla was perhaps the greatest inventor the world has ever known.

It was Tesla who harnessed the alternating electrical current we use today…Tesla who actually invented the radio...Tesla who invented fluorescent lighting and the incredible bladeless turbine. He introduced us to the fundamentals of robotry and computer and missile science, which continue to create and transform the future.

Margaret Cheney received the International Tesla Gold Medal of the Serbian Academy of Science for this first modern biography of the inventor.


Reviews

"A dramatic and poignant portrait..." Discover

"Fascinating…an irresistible subject." Kirkus Reviews

“Uncommonly colorful...absorbing.” The Sunday Times, London

“Excellent...a significant contribution to the recent history of science...informative and delightful to read.” American Scientist

“Well documented, sympathetic, and engaging.” Publishers Weekly

“Cheney's excellent biography of one of the most idiosyncratic and truly enigmatic ‘scientists’ is both comprehensive and well written...very warmly recommended.” Choice

Tesla - Master of Lightning
This is the story of a genius--the enigmatic Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)--and his vast contribution to science. Years in the making, this thoroughly researched volume presents important new materials: archival documents and photographs; excerpts from Tesla's writings, lectures, and diaries; selections from his correspondence (some previously unpublished). By placing Tesla's patents and inventions in historical context, the book documents how aspects of television, X-rays, satellite transmission, and advance defense systems such as the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) were foreshadowed in Tesla's work. The 250 black-and-white and duotone images create an invaluable record of the man and his times vividly showcasing his inventions and working methods. Tesla: Master of Lightning illuminates the life and grand achievements of this eccentric wizard.


Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A WINNING COMBINATION, August 4, 2002
By M. R. ZOGLIO - (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)
How could Margaret Cheney (Tesla : Man Out Of Time) and Robert Uth (Tesla : Master Of Lightning) improve upon their past individual works (a book and documentary video, respectively)? By combining their efforts to produce this wonderful book, that's how. The informative text is interspersed with 250 b&w and duotone images that show Tesla and the era in which he excelled (truly a man out of time). Also included are 36 sidebars that explain some of the technical aspects of Tesla's works. After reading several other books on Tesla, I thought I knew it all. I'm happy to say that this one proved me wrong. Not to be missed by true Tesla fans.


Who was Tesla ... and why is he important!
Reader Rating See Detailed Ratings
Posted April 30, 2000, 12:21 PM EST: I purchased this book in a B&N bookstore, where I love to browse and relax. I associated the name of Tesla with the 'Tesla Coil', but like many engineers my age, did not study him in college or know much about his career. What an eye-opener! I only wish that I had Ms. Cheney's book when I was in high school. I read it in one sitting, then re-read it again, quoting passages to my wife and anyone else who would listen. The book is fantastic, and about an incredibly talented electrical engineer. I wish it was required reading in all college engineering courses.

Midnight at Mabel's - The Mabel Mercer Story

Cheney (Tesla: Man Out of Time) here chronicles biracial cabaret singer Mercer (1900-84) in a breezy style. Spanning her early years in England, her years as a rising teenage star in Paris at Bricktop's Club, and her efforts to break the color barrier in New York from 1940 on, this work delves into Mercer's complicated personal life--her marriage to musician Kelsey Pharr, long-time relationship with manager Harry Beard, and search for the father she never knew. Her social life was just as twisted: she mingled with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor but had to tolerate racial slurs from New York City taxi drivers. Mercer was a strong influence on singers such as Frank Sinatra and received accolades such as the National Medal of Freedom but, sadly, is less remembered today... Library Journal


Quotes and Reviews

“There will never be another Mabel Mercer. She was the single greatest storyteller in intimate singing. Her performances made the public laugh and cry and sent chills up and down our spines. Unforgettable.” Tony Bennett

“What a lesson to watch that entrance-a monarch adored by and adoring all her subjects.” Bobby Short

“Everything I know about phrasing, I learned from Mabel Mercer.” Frank Sinatra

“…each song its own little vignette of life.” Langston Hughes

“I always thought she was royalty, yet so much of the earth. So warm and honest. She was majestic.” Margaret Whiting

“Margaret Cheney has brought to life again the great cafe singer. Glory hallelujah!” Bobby Short

5.0 out of 5 stars Singing from the heart, July 1, 2000
By A Customer
Mable Mercer was the best...her voice, her style, her passion. All the great cabaret singers learned so much from her, about phrasing and interpretation. Few people know much about her life, so this biography is very welcome. She was of mixed race, and mixed cultures...she became a star very early, and then had a long career. Her fans were madly devoted. I was lucky enough to see her perform in her later years...powerful. A great, inspirational story; a terrific read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Some thoughts on Midnight at Mabel's, September 24, 2000
By Terry Y. Allen (Amherst, MA USA) - See all my reviews

The composer Cole Porter preferred her rendition of his "It Was Just One of Those Things" to any other singer's. A skinny blue-eyed young crooner named Frank Sinatra used to jot down notes on a cocktail napkin when he came to hear her perform at Tony's, a club on Manhattan's 52nd Street. Sinatra would later say, "Everything I know about phrasing I learned from Mabel Mercer." Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Bobby Short, even Edith Piaf and the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor discovered in Mabel Mercer an artist of incomparable style and eloquence. From the 1930s until her death in 1984, Mercer was a singer's singer-a consummate interpreter of the popular song…
For much of her career, she performed almost exclusively in small nightclubs in Paris and New York. Not just any nightclubs, it should be noted, but the legendary cabaret clubs Bricktop's and Le Boeuf sur le Toit in Paris, Tony's,the Café Carlisle, and the St. Regis Room in Manhattan. Margaret Cheney's marvelous biography, the first full-length study of Mercer's life and times, will introduce many music lovers to one of the twentieth century's greatest unsung vocal stylists and fill in the missing pieces for the aficionados. The life itself was eventful from its conception. Born 100 years ago, in Staffordshire, England, Mercer was the daughter of an Anglo-Welsh teenaged mother and an African-American father. The child--of light complexion, blue-eyed, freckled, with frizzy black hair--was essentially orphaned…At the tender age of 14, Mercer graduated from convent school and entered the music hall world that was her family inheritance. She took to it like a fish to water.
…Eventually Mercer found herself living and working among black artists who were welcomed by Paris-the Paris of the Jazz Age. Midnight at Mabel's is especially fine on this formative period in the young singer's life. It was at Bricktop's, the great cabaret at 66 Rue Pigalle, that Mercer arrived at her elegant signature style. And it was at Bricktop's that the world of popular music composers and performing artists took note. In the 1920s and 1930s, and mostly in the wee hours, Mercer played with the best of them: Cole Porter, Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli…In 1938, with the Nazi invasion of Europe looming, Mercer reluctantly, and with great difficulty, made her way to the United States. Several lean and lonely years passed before she reclaimed her rightful place as the toast of the cabaret world. But by the late 1940s, Cheney tells us of the New York music scene, "It became customary to say, `Let's go to Mabel's!' Any club she sang in was automatically `Mabel's.'"
…In her knowledgeable, insightful and sensitive telling of her subject's life story, Cheney has succeeded in enlightening the grateful reader while managing to preserve a measure of Mercer's privacy. Mercer died of a heart attack in the early spring of 1984. Among the honorary pallbearers at her funeral mass were her good friends Bobby Short, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Johnny Mathis. One need hardly add that Mercer's legacy lives on in the great repertoire of American popular song.

Why: The Serial Killer in America
Many unknown serial killers are prowling the homes, schools and streets of this nation. Only a few have been caught. This book takes you on a terrifying journey inside the mind of one of the first known serial killers. In the early 70's Edmund Kemper III stalked young women on the coastline of California. Against these scenic backdrops, he butchered six coeds, then his mother and her friend.

Meanwhile Farm
Margaret and her friend Barbara, who had spent most of their lives in urban settings, were intrigued by the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970's.
Five acres on a huge Spanish land grant named "Swamp of the Hawk" in central California became the memorable "Meanwhile Farm".

"I guarantee you won't have a water shortage here," said the real estate agent.

Aside from the underlying earthquake fault line and the wetness, there were only a few drawbacks.

The Benevolent Cement Company, the leading polluter, had a right of way through the middle of the bog...At sunset when the southeastern hills were starkly illuminated, they looked both wild and sinister.