Gordon F. Sander

In 2000, after a long bureaucratic struggle straight out of Kafka, Jesse Braverman was removed as coach of the varsity baseball team of Bethlehem Central High School of Bethlehem, New York, nearly destroying him. But the baseball gods were not done with the beloved diamond strategist. Hired by La Salle Institute of Troy, Braverman took its baseball team, the Cadets, to new heights, including an unprecedented twenty-seven-game winning streak. Written with distinguished journalist and his long-time friend Gordon F. Sander, Comeback Coach tells the story of Braverman's remarkable, dual career as multi-sport athletic coach and special education teacher. Packed with human interest, Coach follows Jesse's forty-year journey from the sandlot baseball fields of his youth, learning about life and baseball at the knee of his mentor, Joe Austin-with whom he would be elected to the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015-to his initial successes with his numerous Bethlehem teams; to his heartbreaking firing and inspiring "redemption" with the Cadets.

Amerikkalaiskirjailijan teoksessa paljastuksia Urho Kekkosen ensimmäisestä kaudesta.Ensimmäisen presidenttikauden alussa lähes puolet kansasta vihasi Urho Kekkosta. Kauden lopussa hänelle ei ollut varteenotettavaa vaihtoehtoa. Yhdysvaltalainen Gordon F. Sander kertoo, miten se tapahtui.Yllättäviä paljastuksia sisältävä teos kuvaa, kuinka täpärästi presidentiksi valittu Kekkonen teki itsestään korvaamattoman niin kotimaassa kuin ulkopoliittisesti, ja sijoittaa UKK:n ja Suomen osaksi paljon suurempaa, Neuvostoliiton ja USA:n välistä šakkiottelua, joka oli tuon tuosta vähällä kuumeta tuliseksi.Gordon F. Sander kirjoittaa poikkeuksellisen vauhdikkaasti ja tarkastelee Kekkosen ensimmäistä, käänteentekevää ja dramaattista presidenttikautta amerikkalaisin silmin, vapaana suomalaiskirjoittajien rintamalinjoista.Yhdysvaltalainen toimittaja ja historiakirjoittaja Gordon F. Sander on perehtynyt Urho Kekkosen presidenttikausiin kuuden vuoden ajan käännättäen suomenkielisiä lähteitä, kahlaten arkistoja ja tehden haastatteluja Suomessa ja Yhdysvalloissa. Aiemmin Sander on julkaissut muun muassa Suomea käsittelevät kirjat Taistelu Suomesta 1930-1940 ja Usein unohdettu Suomi. Sander oli Pulitzer-ehdokkaana kirjallaan Serling: The Rise And Twilight Of Television's Last Angry Man. Sander asuu Riiassa ja toimii Baltian kirjeenvaihtajana useille yhdysvaltalaisille laatulehdille.

When the Red Army invaded Finland in November 1939 most observers expected a walkover. Instead, in a gallant stand that captured the world's imagination, the tiny Finnish army was able to hold off Stalin's mechanized echelons for 105 days.Gordon F. Sander peels away the layers of myth surrounding this Nordic Thermopylae to reveal the conflict in its full military, political, and cultural contexts. A bestseller in Finland, the English-language version of Sander's book draws on interviews with both Finnish and Russian veterans of the war, in addition to a bountiful archive of articles from both the Western and Finnish press, to create the most comprehensive and up-to-date single-volume history of the war.Written in ""real time"" to give the reader a you-are-there feeling, the book describes the Finns' stunning defeat of the Soviets' initial massive offensive, including the destruction of several Red divisions by Finnish ski troops; the deceptively calm January interregnum, when the two sides engaged in a complicated diplomatic minuet; and the final, titanic Red assault itself, which finally drove the Finns to the peace table-though not before they had forged one of the great legends of modern military history.Using his intimate knowledge of Finland and Finnish history, the author explains how the Finns' winter skills, their innate sisu, or toughness, and their devotion to both their young republic and their brilliant and inspiring commander-in-chief, Gustaf Mannerheim, together enabled them to make their historic stand.Sander explores such oft-ignored aspects of the conflict as Finnish press censorship; the abortive Allied ""rescue mission"" across Scandinavia that was a factor in Stalin's surprising decision to bring the war to a halt; the Kremlin's novel use of paratroopers in the war; and the pivotal role played by the Lotta Svard, the Finnish all-purpose women's auxiliary.Illustrating Sander's fast-paced text are nearly 50 photographs, including numerous never-seen-before images of both the battlefront and the home front.Hailed by Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's leading daily, as ""a bittersweet morality play"" that ""opens up this quintessentially Finnish tale to a much wider and admiring readership"" and by STT, Finland's leading news agency, as ""an outstanding book that combines brilliant writing with a rock-solid factual foundation,"" Sander's compelling book fills a key gap in the record of the Second World War.

"Serling's complex life was very like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone, and Gordon F. Sander uniquely captures all the twists and ironies of a talented man struggling against the conventions of society and the insecurities of self. Sander's haunting portrait is of a writer indeed caught between light and shadow."—from the Foreword by Ron Simon "Sander has fashioned a vivid and fascinating portrait of this complex innovator from television's Golden Age."—Library Journal "The story of Serling's career doubles as a history of the television industry itself, and Sander vividly depicts the heady early days of live TV, when the highest artistic achievement seemed attainable. Highly recommended."—Booklist "Sander's strong, straightforward portrait of Serling as an industry goad who confronted his corporate bosses forms the most unexpected and powerful part of the book. Rod Serling merited this fine book."—Philadelphia Inquirer Gordon F. Sander's acclaimed biography of Rod Serling is at once a portrait of a prodigiously talented writer and a history of the first-quarter century of television. A former paratrooper in World War II, Serling rose to fame in the 1950s with his hard-hitting plays Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight during the "golden age" of live television in New York City. In 1959, excited by the prospect of writing and producing his own dramatic anthology show, the angry young man of television followed his fortune—and the burgeoning video medium—to Hollywood. Serling's anthology show, of course, was the landmark The Twilight Zone. Still considered one of the greatest television shows ever produced, Serling's surreal video showcase ran for five seasons, adding to Serling's record clutch of Emmys, and continues to be a cult favorite today. Meanwhile Serling also tried his hand at writing for movies, turning out the screenplays for Seven Days in May and Planet of the Apes before his death in 1975 at age fifty. Sander's historical biography—for which he interviewed more than two hundred of Serling's friends, family members, and colleagues, including Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack, Kim Hunter, and William Shatner—follows the video bard's odyssey from Binghamton, the small upstate city that served as the template for some of the best-remembered episodes of The Twilight Zone to his searing and equally influential wartime experiences in the South Pacific; from his apprenticeship as a Midwestern radio and television writer to his successes in New York and Hollywood, before he himself was consumed by the commercialism of the medium he had helped create.

Ylistyslaulu suomalaiselle puolustustahdolle ja sotilastaidolle.Yhdysvaltalaisen Gordon F. Sanderin teos talvisodasta kertoo, kuinka pystypäinen kansa torjui ylivoimaisen vihollisen ja herätti koko maailman ihailun.Neuvostoliitto valloittaa Suomen muutamassa päivässä. Stalin oli asettanut marraskuun lopussa 1939 alkaneelle talvisodalle päämäärän, johon uskoi myös länsimainen lehdistö. Suomen pienet ja heikosti varustetut joukot aloittivat lyhyeksi povatun puolustustaistelun monin verroin vahvempaa puna-armeijaa vastaan.Kun Suomi taisteli menestyksellä puna-armeijaa vastaan vielä Stalinin 60-vuotispäivänä joulukuussa, maailmalla herännyt myötätunto ja ihailu pohjoista kansaa kohtaan kasvoi entisestään. Miten näin tehokas vastarinta oli ylipäätään mahdollista - ja keitä olivat peräänantamattomat suomalaiset?Taistelu Suomesta 1939-1940 kertoo talvisodan syttymisestä ja etenemisestä jännittävästi ja suomalaisten kohtaloihin eläytyen. Tuloksena on helposti lähestyttävä yleiskuvaus sodan tapahtumista niin kotirintamalla kuin juoksuhaudoissa - toisen maailmansodan keskeisiä hahmoja ja venäläisten kokemuksia unohtamatta. Kirja antaa nykylukijalle valaisevan näkökulman suomalaiseen sisuun ja sinnikkyyteen, joiden maine on kantanut näihin päiviin saakka.Gordon F. Sander on yhdysvaltalainen toimittaja ja tietokirjailija, joka on vieraillur Suomessa vieraillut säännöllisesti 1970-luvulta lähtien. Sander on kirjoittanut viisi kirjaa mukaan luettuna Urho Kekkosesta kertova tietokirja Kansalainen Kekkonen. Hän on ollut myös Pulitzer-ehdokkaana. Sander asuu Riiassa, josta käsin hän kirjoittaa useille yhdysvaltalaisille laatulehdille.

Told by the grandson of the head of the family, this is the gripping odyssey of another Frank family from the deceptively good life of Berlin in the 1920s, through the rise of Hitler and their flight to apparently safe Holland, the nightmarish ordeal of their thousand-day-long "submersion" in a small apartment in The Hague, to the joy and pain of liberation and their final journey to America, the same route Anne Frank might have taken had she not been betrayed. Based on personal testaments, records, and family interviews, the book describes their life behind closed curtains in constant fear of discovery. In 1945, after many adventures and appalling vicissitudes, they finally emerged to face the uncertainties of postwar Holland and the promise of the New World. Both a history and a memoir, this extensively researched book gives the first account of the war in Holland, the occupation, and the resistance (including the Jewish resistance) to be published for several years. Despite that resistance, and the help of the Dutch citizens who sheltered their Jewish neighbors, most of Dutch Jewry was destroyed.

Presents a story of a German-Jewish family named Frank which, like Anne Frank's family and 25,000 other Dutch and other 'stateless' Jews, 'dived under' in Nazi-occupied Holland in 1942 - but miraculously survived. This book is based on personal testaments, records and family interviews.