{"product_id":"the-kindness-of-strangers-paperback-1","title":"The Kindness of Strangers - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSalka Viertel\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eLawrence Weschler\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by), \u003cb\u003eDonna Rifkind\u003c\/b\u003e (Afterword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA memoir about showbiz in the early 20th century that travels from the theaters of Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, to Hollywood during the golden age, complete with encounters with Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, and Greta Garbo along the way.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSalka Viertel's autobiography tells of a brilliant, creative, and well-connected woman's pilgrimage through the darkest years of the twentieth century, a journey that would take her from a remote province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Hollywood. \u003ci\u003eThe Kindness of Strangers \u003c\/i\u003eis, to quote the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker \u003c\/i\u003ewriter S. N. Behrman, \"a very rich book. It provides a panorama of the dissolving civilizations of the twentieth century. In all of them the author lived at the apex of their culture and artistic aristocracies. Her childhood . . . is an entrancing idyll. In Berlin, in Prague, in Vienna, there appears Karl Kraus, Kafka, Rilke, Robert Musil, Schoenberg, Einstein, Alban Berg. There is the suffering and disruption of the First World War and the suffering and agony after it, which is described with such intimacy and vividness that you endure these terrible years with the author. Then comes the migration to Hollywood, where Salka's house on Mabery Road becomes a kind of Pantheon for the gathered artists, musicians, and writers. It seems to me that no one has ever described Hollywood and the life of writers there with such verve.\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSalka Viertel \u003c\/b\u003e(1889-1978) was born Salomea Sara Steuermann in Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the late 1920s, Salka and her husband, Berthold Viertel, left Berlin for Hollywood, where Berthold wrote screenplays and directed films and Salka began acting in motion pictures. There, she befriended Greta Garbo on the set of \u003ci\u003eAnna Christie \u003c\/i\u003eand co-wrote screenplays for many films. During World War II, the Viertels started a salon in their home for other émigrés. In 1942, Salka was put on an FBI watch list and later her salon was dissolved under the inquisition of the Hollywood film industry. After the war, she returned to Europe where she lived until the end of her life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eLawrence Weschler\u003c\/b\u003e, the grandson of the eminent Viennese-born Weimar-era emigre (and Hollywood) composer Ernst Toch, has written several celebrated works of of literary nonfiction, including \u003ci\u003eVermeer in Bosnia\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSeeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing of One Sees\u003c\/i\u003e. He was a staff writer at \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e for over twenty years and is a contributing editor to \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney's\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Threepenny Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Virginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e. The recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, he recently retired as director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University. He is currently completing a biographical memoir of Oliver Sacks.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 7.9 x 5.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 22, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51770369507616,"sku":"9781681372747","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6a93a72f50d12247599dfc5cc228c403.webp?v=1780370327","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-kindness-of-strangers-paperback-1","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}