Grant Hayter-Menzies's Books
May.01.2011
In winter 1902 in the ruins of post-Boxer Uprising Beijing, two women from two different worlds joined hands in friendship-the former concubine and legendary tyrant Empress Dowager Cixi, and the Midwest-born, devoutly Christian Sarah Pike Conger. Together, they made history. Middle-aged Iowan Sarah Pike Conger came to China in 1898 knowing nothing of its people or its culture,...
May.01.2009
"In almost 80 movies," wrote Hollywood biographer Donald Spoto, "she was a pixie with a canny charm. Her bubbly, breathless tremolo and her fluttery delicacy were endearing rather than exasperating. There was really no one like her."
Spoto was describing the one of a kind Billie Burke, who from her first professional appearance on the London stage in 1903 to...
Jan.01.2008
Daughter of a Manchu aristocrat, granddaughter of a Boston merchant, educated like a boy in the Confucian classics, a baptized Catholic blessed by the hand of Pope Leo XIII, a woman who donned chic Western fashions in China and her ceremonial court robes in the United States, and wife of an American soldier of fortune, Princess Der Ling was a fascinating human battleground of...
May.28.2007
Charlotte Greenwood never intended to become a comedienne, but she was unfashionably tall at 5’ 10" and her early aspirations to become a great dramatic actress eventually led her to the field of comedy. Greenwood, whose early life had taught her nothing if not how to be optimistic, stifled her disappointment and used her considerable skill to become one of the greatest...
"Only connect." - E.M. Forster”
About Grant
Grant Hayter-Menzies is the author of "Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling", "The Empress and Mrs. Conger: The Uncommon Friendship of Two Women and Two Worlds", both published by Hong Kong University Press, and the first biographies of stage...
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Grant’s Favorite Books
A few books and authors I can read over and over again: "The Mill on The Floss"; "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon"; "A Dream of Red Mansions"; "A Distant Mirror...
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