Leonard Pitt

This is Leonard Pitt’s story of growing up the misfit in Detroit in the 1940s and 50s. In a later age he would have been put on Ritalin and paraded before psychiatrists because he couldn’t pay attention in school. In 1962, at the end of a misguided foray towards a career in advertising he took the ultimate cure, a trip to Paris. He thought it would only be a visit. He stayed seven years. There in the City of Light, Leonard’s mind exploded. And it hasn’t stopped since. Studying mime with master Etienne Decroux and living in Paris were the university he never knew. This inspiration unleashed a voracious appetite to understand the “why” of things. He asked a simple question, “Why did the ballet go up?” While building a theatre career performing and teaching, he embarked on a quest to study the origins of the ballet, the history of early American popular music, the pre-Socratic philosophers, early modern science, the European witch hunt, the history of Paris, and more. To his unschooled mind it all fits together. Who would see a historical arc between Louis XIV and Elvis Presley? Leonard does. And he’ll tell you about it.

Paris and Other Obsessions

My Brain on Fire

In Paris: A Journey Through Time, Leonard Pitt presents a stunning array of archival and contemporary photos that peel away the many layers of this iconic city to document its architectural transformation. Readers can easily follow along to see where old cobblestone roads and buildings have given way to wide streets, avenues, and boulevards. Detailed maps for walking tours are accompanied by old schematics and plans for construction, illustrating the strange ways that Paris has developed over hundreds of years. Painstakingly researched and gorgeously illustrated, Paris: A Journey Through Time is a tour through Paris, seen through the lens of photographers who lived during each golden age of demolition and constructionùand all compiled into Leonard Pitt's tremendous account of the true hidden Paris.

A Journey Through Time

Paris

Charts the social and ethnic history of Spanish-speaking California and the displacement of California's Mexican ranching elite following the Mexican War and the gold rush of 1849.

A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890

Decline of the Californios

The Decline of the Californios

A full-color traveler's volume outlines four walking tours through some of its most significant historical areas, offering insight into how specific regions and buildings have changed, in a resource that provides specific coverage of the work of Georges-Eugne Haussmann. Original.

Leonard Pitt

Books

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