International standard book number
9781447253433
Shelfmark
Classroom.Kes
Author
Title
Shanghai Grand : forbidden love and international intrigue in a doomed world / Taras Grescoe.
Publication, distribution, etc.
London : Macmillan, 2016.
Physical description
xiii, [1], 455, [9] p., [16] p. of plates : ill. (some col.), map ; 25 cm
Note
"First published 2016 by St Martin's Press"--Title page verso.
Note
"First published in the UK in hardback 2016 by Macmillan an imprint of Pan Macmillan"--Title page verso.
Note
Publisher's black paper boards, blocked in gilt on spine; coloured map on endpapers.
Formatted contents note
Contents: Map: Shanghai, 1935 -- Prologue: Zhujiajiao Water Town, Shanghai Municipality, March 28, 2014 -- Part 1 -- Shanghai, January 28, 1932 -- Where China Meets the World -- The Sassoon Gamble -- Part 2 -- St. Louis, 27 May 1916 -- The Flapper's Progress -- Shanghai Grand -- Mickey Checks In -- On the Shanghai Beat -- Part 3 -- Shanghai, April 12, 1935 -- Cathay and the Muse -- The Fantastic Mr. Pan -- Cosmopolis-on-the-Whangpoo -- Part 4 -- Shanghai, November 3, 1936 -- The Rise of the Dwarf Bandits -- Sweetie Pie Goes to Nanking -- Part 5 -- Shanghai, August 14, 1937 -- After Saturday -- The Solitary Island -- Waking from the Doze -- Part 6 -- Shanghai, August 1, 1941 -- The Last Light in a Dark World -- Check-Out Time -- Settling the Bill -- Epilogue.
Summary, etc.
Scope and content: "On the eve of WWII, the foreign-controlled port of Shanghai was the rendezvous for the twentieth century's most outlandish adventurers, all under the watchful eye of the fabulously wealthy Sir Victor Sassoon. Emily 'Mickey' Hahn was a legendary New Yorker journalist whose vivid writing played a crucial role in opening Western eyes to the realities of life in China. At the height of the Depression, Hahn arrived in Shanghai after a disappointing affair with an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter, convinced she will never love again. After checking in to Sassoon's glamorous Cathay Hotel, Hahn is absorbed into the social swirl of the expats drawn to pre-war China, among them Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, Harold Acton, and a colourful gangster named Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen. But when she meets Zau Sinmay, a Chinese poet from an illustrious family, she discovers the real Shanghai through his eyes: the city of rich colonials, triple agents, opium-smokers, displaced Chinese peasants, and increasingly desperate White Russian and Jewish refugees--places her innate curiosity will lead her to explore first hand. Danger lurks on the horizon, though, as the brutal Japanese occupation destroys the seductive world of pre-war Shanghai, paving the way for Mao Tse-tung's Communists rise to power"-- Provided by publisher.
Provenance
Given to ECL by Nicholas Kessler, 2016.
Provenance
Inscribed to Nicholas Kessler from Michael Kadoorie.
Provenance
Bookplate of Nicholas Kessler.
Binding
With publisher's full colour and gilt dust-jacket.
Subject
Sassoon, Elias Victor, 1881 - 1961 Friends and associates.
Subject
Hahn, Emily, 1905 - 1997 Relations with men.
Subject
Hahn, Emily, 1905 - 1997 Travel
Subject
Subject
Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 Social aspects China Shanghai.
Subject
Aliens China Shanghai Biography.
Subject
Adventure and adventurers China Shanghai Biography.
Subject
Americans China Shanghai Biography.
Subject
Shanghai (China) Biography.
Subject
Shanghai (China) Social life and customs 20th century.
Genre/Form
Biographies.
Added entry--name
Added entry--name
Macmillan Publishers publisher.
Added entry--place
England London.
Identifier
B43505