Biography: adventurers and explorers Books

Book SynopsisA lively and compelling portrait of one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature, Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company is a clear-eyed but sympathetic account of a complex individual at odds with his country, his family, his times, and himself.The only American writer of any stature to fight in and survive the Civil War, Bierce discovered in the conflict a bitter confirmation of his darkest assumptions about man and his nature. Profoundly disillusioned, Bierce spent the next fifty years struggling to disabuse his fellow Americans of their own cherished ideals -- be they romantic, religious, or political. His groundbreaking short stories of the war, including his most famous work, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, have had a lasting influence on every subsequent American author dealing with war. And the heartless, hilarious aphorisms in his caustic lexicon The Devil''s Dictionary have entered, often uncredited, our national consciousness.In this insightful, criTrade ReviewRay Morris Jr. has written a rousingly good life of a lesser but still captivating American figure. * Washington Post Book World *[Morris] resists oversimplified or fashionable answers to complex questions posed by Bierce's life, but always entertains the reader with his own forceful and precise writing...likely to rank among the notable biographies of the year. * Atlanta Journal Constitution *

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Book SynopsisWas she a selfless political activist? A feminist heroine? A gifted writer who rose from poverty to become a leading journalist and author of the cult classic Daughter of Earth? A spy for the Soviet Union? Or all of these things? Drawing on fifteen years of intensive research and unprecedented access to previously unpublished documents, this vibrant book brings to life one of the twentieth century''s most fascinating women. Ruth Price traces Agnes Smedley''s unlikely trajectory from a small Missouri town to the coal country of Colorado; to Berkeley and Greenwich Village; to Berlin, Moscow, and China. Fueled by a fury at injustice, Smedley threw herself headlong into the crucial issues of the time, from Indian independence to birth control, women''s rights, and the revolution in China. Her friends included such figures as Margaret Sanger, Langston Hughes, Emma Goldman, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong, and many others. Perhaps most important, Price uncovers an astonishing truth: Smedley, lTrade ReviewAn exceptionally rich and exhaustively researched biography of one of the cold war's most enigmatic characters.... Price's painstaking portrait of this tenacious iconoclast is a revelatory wonder, confirming what intense government investigations could not, but successfully depicting Smedley's motivations as sincere rather than sinister. * Booklist *Price has clearly devoted a significant amount of time and effort to researching Agnes Smedley, and her careful examination pays off in this intimate yet inclusive biography. * Library Journal *Masterful, beautifully written.... Price paints a vibrant portrait not only of her subject but of the many worlds in which she was a major player. Price captures neatly and with great nuance the complicated, often contradictory impulses and activities of these political movements. But at the heart of the book is her clear-eyed portrait of the very complicated Smedley, who acted out of humane motives but not always for the best causes.... Smedley shines here as the prototype of the 20th-century feminist who is driven not only to claim her own personal, sexual, and political freedom but to play it out on the international stage. * Publishers Weekly *It is owing to the strength and brilliance of Price's rivetingly well-written book that one can disagree with her conclusion and her desire to depict Smedley as a heroine, and still recommend her work as a moving and genuinely dramatic biographical portrait. * National Review *Based on astonishingly thorough research in newly available Chinese, Russian, British, and American archives.... Her account of how a poorly educated woman from a dysfunctional Midwestern family became a figure in the public and clandestine drama of twentieth-century radical politics is a fascinating story. * Weekly Standard *A deeply sympathetic and yet starkly revealing portrait of one of our best known feminist heroines. It beautifully evokes the tensions of a radical life, without exonerating her for the questionable choices she made. Best of all, this carefully researched biography reads like a novel. You wont be able to put it down. * Alice Kessler-Harris, author of In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America *

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Book SynopsisFebruary 1, 2002 marks the 100th birthday of Langston Hughes. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary and prolific American writer. In young adulthood Hughes possessed a nomadic but dedicated spirit that led him from Mexico to Africa and the Soviet Union to Japan, and countless other stops around the globe. Associating with political activists, patrons, and fellow artists, and drawing inspiration from both Walt Whitman and the vibrant Afro-American culture, Hughes soon became the most original and revered of black poets. In the first volume''s Afterword, Rampersad looks back at the significant early works Hughes produced, the genres he explored, and offers a new perspective on Hughes''s lasting literary influence. Exhaustively researched in archival collections throughout the country, especially in the Langston Hughes papers at Yale University''s Beinecke LibraTrade ReviewRampersad's two-volume biography, re-released to commemorate Hughes' centennial, is the definitive account of the poet, playwright, and novelist who was the leading light of the Harlem Renaissance. New afterwords offer perspective on Hughes' literary legacy. * The Orlando Sentinel *Arnold Rampersad's biography of Langston Hughes sweeps up the reader like a novel does....Rampersad's book serves as a foundational introduction to the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as to others in politics, literature, and the arts. Its dramatic, even painful, last chapter will lead you straight out to search for the second volume. * Topica Tip World *Excellent....Mr. Rampersad [leaves] you eager to see what he makes of the rest of the story, and confident that his second volume will be as good as his first. * John Gross, The New York Times *Throughout this comprehensive and enthralling account of Hughes's life and his development as a writer, Rampersad offers a precise assessment of his work and its importance...This may be the best biography of a black writer we have had. * David Nicholson, The Washington Post Book World *An exquisite orchestration of the fully lived life. * Michael S. Harper, The Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisFebruary 1, 2002 marks the 100th birthday of Langston Hughes. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary and prolific American writer. The second volume in this masterful biography finds Hughes rooting himself in Harlem, receiving stimulation from his rich cultural surroundings. Here he rethought his view of art and radicalism, and cultivated relationships with younger, more militant writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Amiri Bakara. Rampersad''s Afterword to volume two looks further into his influence and how it expanded beyond the literary as a result of his love of jazz and blues, his opera and musical theater collaborations, and his participation in radio and television. In addition, Rempersad explores the controversial matter of Hughes''s sexuality and the possibility that, despite a lack of clear evidence, Hughes was homosexual. Trade ReviewRampersad's two-volume biography, re-released to commemorate Hughes' centennial, is the definitive account of the poet, playwright, and novelist who was the leading light of the Harlem Renaissance. New afterwords offer perspective on Hughes' literary legacy. * The Orlando Sentinel *Excellent....Mr. Rampersad [leaves] you eager to see what he makes of the rest of the story, and confident that his second volume will be as good as his first. * John Gross, The New York Times (on Volume I) *Throughout this comprehensive and enthralling account of Hughes's life and his development as a writer, Rampersad offers a precise assessment of his work and its importance...This may be the best biography of a black writer we have had. * David Nicholson, The Washington Post Book World *An exquisite orchestration of the fully lived life. * Michael S. Harper, The Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisMahatma Gandhi, through his indomitable will and selfless determination transformed himself into a model of courage and integrity for India''s people to emulate in their non-violent struggle for political power. More than half a century after his death, Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India seems to have abandoned much of his non-violent vision, joining the nuclear arms race. Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and profound biography of India''s ''Great Soul''.Wolpert compellingly chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days as a child of privilege to his humble rise to power and his assassination at the hands of a man of his own faith. This trajectory, like that of Christ, was the result of Gandhi''s passion: his conscious courting of suffering as the means of reaching divine truth. From his early campaigns to end discrimination in South Africa to his leadership of a people''s revolution to end the BTrade Review"The fruit of more than 50 years of reflection by a distinguished Asian scholar, Wolpert's biography cuts through the misconceptions surrounding the father of modern India, untangling the complex relationship between his personal spirituality and his public influence."--Booklist "A dense, comprehensive survey of the events of Gandhi's life, tracing his metamorphosis from pampered child to 'great soul'....A clear-eyed chronicle of an exemplary life....Appropriately complex biography, deftly maintaining a balance of sophistication and explication."--Kirkus Reviews "In reminding us of the details of his extraordinary life, Stanley Wolpert has done the Mahatma--and all of us--a signal service."--The Washinton Post Book World "There have been many books about Gandhi, including those by the subject himself. What has always been needed is a full, literate account by someone closely familiar with India and Indian history who is also an accomplished writer and historian. This, we now have. Henceforth no one can claim knowledge of one of the greatest and most enigmatic figures of the last century who hasn't read it. And, I might add, no one will read it without interest and approval."--John Kenneth Galbraith "An excellent introduction to the work of the most compelling of 20th century leaders."--The Christian Century "[Wolpert] presents what many other biographers have failed to supply: a rationale for the indisputably great leader's seeming inconsistencies."--The Associated PressTable of ContentsI. Midnight in Calcutta ; II. Dawn in Gujarat ; III. The Impact of Victorian London ; IV. Brief Interlude at Home ; V. Early Traumas and Triumphs in South Africa ; VI. Between Two Worlds ; VII. Satyagraha in South Africa ; VIII. Victory Through Suffering ; IX. The Impact of World War I ; X. Post-War Carnage and Nationwide Satyagraha ; XI. Cotton Spinning ; XII. Rising of the Poison ; XIII. The Road Back to Satyagraha ; XIV. The Salt March and Prison Aftermath ; XV. From Prison to London and Back ; XVI. Imprisoned Soul of India ; XVII. Return to Rural Uplift ; XVIII. Prelude to War and Partition ; XIX. War and Peaceful Resistance ; XX. War Behind Bars ; XXI. No Peace ; XXII. Walking Alone ; XXIII. Freedom's Wooden Loft ; XXIV. Great Soul's Death in Delhi ; XXV. His Indian Legacy ; XXVI. His Global Legacy ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis exceptionally readable and down-to-earth handbook is destined to become the definitive guide to psychobiological research, the application of psychological theory and research to individual lives of historical importance. It brings together for the first time the world''s leading psychobiographers, writing lucidly on many of the major figures of our age - from Osama Bin Laden to Elvis Presley.The first section of the book addresses the subject of how to construct an effective psychobiography. Editor William Todd Schultz introduces the field, provides valuable definitions of good and bad psychobiography, discusses an optimal structure for psychobiographical essays, and offers a blueprint for striking psychological paydirt in biographical data. Dan McAdams explores the question of what psychobiographers might learn from current research in personality psychology. Alan Elms delivers wise advice on the tricky subject of theory choice in psychobiography. William Runyan asks why Van GogTrade Review"William Todd Schultz's Handbook of Psychobiography is a very welcome contribution in many ways. Above all, it keeps alive the 'revolution' in understanding individual human lives that Gordon Allport, Henry Murray, and Erik Erikson launched, and it carries that 'revolution' into the post-September 11 era. One could hardly ask for more." --Lawrence J. Friedman, Visiting Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University "An invaluable professional collection, bridging both art and science, that should do much to legitimize this whole tradition of thought that is so critical to the future of our intellectual life." --Paul Roazen, Professor Emeritus of Social and Political Science, York University in Toronto and author of On the Freud Watch: Public Memoirs "A welcome addition to an increasing number of contributions validating the claim that narrative should be taken as the root metaphor for psychology. The various chapters reveal lives as lived, a refreshing alternative to traditional personality studies that can only satisfy the researcher's appetite for large numbers of subjects, in the process sacrificing any claim to depth of understanding." --Theodore R. Sarbin, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Criminology, University of California-Santa Cruz "Drawing on leading contributors to psychobiography, Professor Schultz has created a handbook that defines and advances the state of the art and applied science. It tells the reader how to do it, and maybe more importantly, how not to do it, and it illustrates psychobiography at its best, illuminating the lives of notable artists, psychologists, and political figures. It is a solid contribution to the idiographic and holistic study of personality. It would make an excellent text for advanced undergraduates or graduates. And, unusual for a handbook, it is just a very good read." --M. Brewster, Professor Emeritus, University of California-Santa Cruz "Disciplined psychobiographical studies are finding a place within the scientifically respectable main currents of personality psychology. This book, which brings together methodological and substantive contributions by the major scholars who do psychobiography studies, should set the standard for the field. Fortified with the advice and examples from this Handbook, personality psychologists and others interested in deeper interpretations of significant contemporary and historical gures will be encouraged and emboldened." --David Winter, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan "A definitive, rewarding, clearly written collection, essential for students and professional alike interested in personality and biography or the application of psychological theory to life-stories." --Bertram J. Cohler, William Rainy Harper Professor, The University of Chicago "The book certainly deserves the designation 'handbook' because it not only provides sections on methodology and content but also blends the two to illustrate critical points about the field...This volume should see wide use."--CHOICE "This is a landmark book. All the major living psychobiographers are represented here as chapter authors... This Handbook, more than any other singular contribution, will move psychobiography forward."--PsycCRITIQUES "All academic libraries worth their name should immediately add the Handbook of Psychobiography to their collection. It is a useful text for both student and advanced practitioners. Anyone doing psychobiographical work should have the Handbook close by at all times--it is that good."--Henry Lawton, Clio's Psyche "As befits a 'handbook,' its coverage is broad and diverse....All historians of psychology are likely to find something of interest in the five insightful psychobiographical sketches of individual psychologists... [Alan] Elm's chapter well reflects the overall message of this handbook writ small: Psychobiography offers a fascinating and enormously promising approach to both psychology and history."--Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences "A rich smorgasbord of biographies, as well as of methodologies...Schultz's Handbook of Psychobiography is a collection of essays significantly advancing our knowledge of the discipline...It can also be read with great value by biographers, clinicians, historians, journalists, political psychologists, psychohistorians, and scholars from many other disciplines."--Paul Elovitz, Journal of Psychohistory "The book certainly deserves the designation 'handbook' because it not only provides sections on methodology but also blends the two to illustrate critical points about the field...This volume should see wide use."--CHOICE "This is a landmark book. All the major living psychobiographers are represented here as chapter authors... This Handbook, more than any other singular contribution, will move psychobiography forward."--PsycCRITIQUES "All academic libraries worth their name should immediately add the Handbook of Psychobiography to their collection. It is a useful text for both student and advanced practitioners. Anyone doing psychobiographical work should have the Handbook close by at all times--it is that good."--Henry Lawton, Clio's Psyche "As befits a 'handbook,' its coverage is broad and diverse....All historians of psychology are likely to find something of interest in the five insightful psychobiographical sketches of individual psychologists... [Alan] Elm's chapter well reflects the overall message of this handbook writ small: Psychobiography offers a fascinating and enormously promising approach to both psychology and history."--Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences "A rich smorgasbord of biographies, as well as of methodologies...Schultz's Handbook of Psychobiography is a collection of essays significantly advancing our knowledge of the discipline...It can also be read with great value by biographers, clinicians, historians, journalists, political psychologists, psychohistorians, and scholars from many other disciplines."--Paul Elovitz, Journal of PsychohistoryTable of ContentsPART 1: HOW TO WRITE A PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY ; PART 2: PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF ARTISTS ; PART THREE: PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF PSYCHOLOGISTS ; PART FOUR: PSYCHOBIOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL FIGURES

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Book SynopsisProvides a fresh look at both the literary and material representations of Agrippina. This study exposes both the contrivances of the commissioned artists whose idealized portraits served to buttress the image of the regime and the contrasting designs of the historians whose rhetorical stereotypes and negative depictions aimed to undermine it.Trade ReviewThere is much to be praised here. * Kristina Milnor, Barnard College *[The editors'] decision to publish the text with only the lightest editorial intervention is entirely justified by the quality of Judith Ginsbury's work. But it is also, in its unfinished state, an affecting memorial to its author, dramatizing in its loose ends the loss of the discipline that her death represents. * Llewelyn Morgan, TLS *

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Book SynopsisLandon Carter, a Virginia planter patriarch, left behind one of the most revealing of all American diaries. In this astonishingly rich biography, Rhys Isaac mines this remarkable document--and many other sources--to reconstruct Carter''s interior world as it plunged into revolution. The aging patriarch, though a fierce supporter of American liberty, was deeply troubled by the rebellion and its threat to established order. His diary, originally a record of plantation business, began to fill with angry stories of revolt in his own little kingdom. Carter writes at white heat, his words sputtering from his pen as he documents the terrible rupture that the Revolution meant to him. Indeed, Carter felt in his heart he was chronicling a world in decline, the passing of the order that his revered father had bequeathed to him. Not only had Landon''s king betrayed his subjects, but Landon''s own household betrayed him: his son showed insolent defiance, his daughter Judith eloped with a forbiddenTrade Review"A detailed, persuasive picture of a world so different from our own as to be almost unimaginable."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World"A major contribution to the study of the American Revolution.... Readers will be fascinated by Carter's impassioned narratives, masterfully placed in their time by Isaac's brilliant analysis. This admirable study joins Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys as an example of the finest scholarly analysis of personal diaries."--Library Journal (starred review)"As an expert and incredibly knowledgeable editor, Rhys Isaac guides us through the diaries of the great and deeply human Virginia patriarch, Landon Carter, ultimately the owner of over 700 black slaves, as he responds with both joy and furious anger to the coming of the American Revolution and to the seismic shocks it brought to Virginia's old regime and to his own authoritarian family."--David Brion Davis"A poignant tale of crumbling patriarchy in a world of revolutions.... Unlike most historians, who try to maintain the appearance of objectivity, Isaac, like many anthropologists, feels that his personal perspective and subjective reactions should be made explicit.... The result is a very personal and intimate portrait of a Virginia patriarch."--Gordon S. Wood, The New York Review of Books"An outstanding work of history.... An extraordinary, fascinating set of firsthand accounts from the revolutionary era."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Full of rich cultural and psychological insights. Isaac sympathetically reveals Carter as a tragic figure, almost as cruel to himself as he was to others. Driven by a perverse but pervasive sense of duty, he alienated almost everyone in his angry wake."--Alan Taylor, New Republic"Offers fresh insights into the character of the plantocracy and its evolution. There is no doubt about the importance of Landon Carter's diary as a window on the planter class and Carter himself. It reveals a man who saw himself as a link in the long chain of patriarchy, whose history stretched back to time immemorial."--Ira Berlin, The Nation"If for nothing else, we should read Landon Carter because he was an honest man, and Rhys Isaac's Landon Carter's Uneasy Kingdom because it is a skilled and honest depiction of the man, his place, and his age."--Christianity Today"Isaac convincingly portrays Carter, one of Virginia's twelve richest men, as a figure ensnared by contradictions: In his energetic defense of American liberty, Carter appreciated that he was helping to destroy a hierarchical world to which he was intensely attached....Isaac is a sensitive guide to Carter's world, and reading his systematic exploration is the only way for the layman to comprehend the diaries properly."--Ben Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly"By creatively exploiting the remarkable diary of the eighteenth-century Virginia planter Landon Carter of Sabine Hall--a character out of a Fielding novel if there ever was one--Rhys Isaac has written an extremely imaginative book that brings to life the world of this well-meaning but often ludicrous slave-master in all its humanity and inhumanity. From Isaac's rendition of Carter's story-filled diary we learn, among other things, how rebellions against patriarchal authority both in Carter's own household and in the British empire were transforming American society."--Gordon S. Wood"A captivating view of a leading planter's personal life and political transformation during the Revolutionary era. Isaac deftly blends pungent extracts from Carter's diary with illuminating biographical details and historical commentary.... A splendid addition to our understanding of the Virginia gentry--and of ourselves."--David Shi, Christian Science Monitor"A lively portrait of a busy, prolific character who went from being a monarchist to a reluctant revolutionary in the course of one lively adulthood. An irascible figure among neighbors, a respected member of Virginia's pre-Revolutionary House of Burgesses, and an often-brutal, sometimes-charitable master to his slaves and children, Carter embodied the paradoxes of his age. Carter was a dutiful chronicler of this changing world. And Mr. Isaac, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for "The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-90," proves to be a strong advocate for Carter's voluminous musings."--New York Sun"An eloquent and unique look at the beginnings and consequences of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of early America's finest diarist, Landon Carter.... Isaac weaves entries from Carter's diary with a splendid biographical narrative to provide a profound and intimate glimpse into one portion of early America."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Masterfully, creatively, Rhys Isaac uses the words of one of America's great patricians to tell the story of the birth of the new republic and the psychological traumas that resulted. Deftly, Isaac moves between the public and the domestic, the political and the psychological in a tale as complex, nuanced and fascinating as was the figure it describes." --Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Mary Frances Berry Collegiate Professor of History and American Culture, University of Michigan"Landon Carter's diary is an unedited literary masterpiece full of Faulknerian stories. Now it has found a worthy editor and commentator in Rhys Isaac, a great storyteller in his own right. The result is a fascinating tale of public storms and personal furies that illuminates not only the dying world of the eighteenth century slaveholder but the dawning age of democratic revolution. Landon Carter's Uneasy Kingdom is itself a literary and historical masterpiece." --John Gillis, Rutgers University, author of A World of Their Own Making: Myth, Legenc and the Quest for Family Values

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Book SynopsisKnown as the Great Dissenter, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote some of the most eloquent opinions in the history of the United States Supreme Court. A brilliant legal mind who served on the high court into his nineties, Holmes was responsible for some of the most important judicial opinions of the twentieth century. Now, in this superb short biography, G. Edward White offers readers a lively, informative portrait of this singular individual. The book first sketches Holmes''s early years--his childhood in Boston, his undergraduate years at Harvard (which his father and both grandfathers also attended), and his valiant service in the Civil War, during which he was severely wounded three times. After the war, Holmes went into private law practice, wrote his landmark treatise The Common Law in 1881, had a short tenure on the Harvard Law School faculty, and spent 20 years as a judge on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts before being named to the U.S. Supreme Court. The author focuses on his remarkable 30-year service as a Supreme Court Justice, beginning in 1902, and details Holmes''s most significant cases--Abrams v. United States, Northern Securities Co. v. United States, Lochner v. New York, Schenck v. United States, and others--which limited working hours, set a mandatory minimum wage, protected women''s rights, legalized labor unions, and defined freedom of speech. These decisions--as well as The Common Law--are highly regarded to this day. A new volume in the Lives and Legacy series, this marvelous short biography offers an ideal introduction to a towering figure in American law.Trade Review"G. Edward White has crafted both an exceptional biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and an incomparable example of American judicial biography. Holmes leaps from every page--philosophical skeptic, poet, lover of literature, adventurer, and seminal figure of law and the Supreme Court. While Holmes was the oldest justice to ever serve, White convincingly reminds us that he has never become obsolete." --Kermit L. Hall, editor of The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, Second Edition "G. Edward White has crafted both an exceptional biography of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and an incomparable example of American judicial biography. Holmes leaps from every page--philosophical skeptic, poet, lover of literature, adventurer, and seminal figure of law and the Supreme Court. While Holmes was the oldest justice to ever serve, White convincingly reminds us that he has never become obsolete." --Kermit L. Hall, editor of The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, Second Edition

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Book SynopsisThe illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II, Felice della Rovere became one of the most powerful and accomplished women of the Italian Renaissance. Now, Caroline Murphy vividly captures the untold story of a rare woman who moved with confidence through a world of popes and princes.Using a wide variety of sources, including Felice''s personal correspondence, as well as diaries, account books, and chronicles of Renaissance Rome, Murphy skillfully weaves a compelling portrait of this remarkable woman. Felice della Rovere was to witness Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, watch her father Pope Julius II lay the foundation stone for the new Saint Peter''s, and saw herself immortalized by Raphael in his Vatican frescos. With her marriage to Gian Giordano Orsini--arranged, though not attended, by her father the Pope--she came to possess great wealth and power, assets which she used to her advantage. While her father lived, Felice exercised much influence in the affairs of Rome, even egotiaTrade ReviewMurphy has recreated Felice della Rovere's life with agility and tact. She successfully fleshes out the customs and historical background of her Machiavellian princess. * Bruce Boucher, New York Times Book Review *One feels in reading this vivid biography that one has gotten to know a woman of energy and talent who became 'the most powerful woman in Rome of her day.' * Publishers Weekly *The Pope's Daughter firmly establishes the once-forgotten Felice della Rovere as one of the most powerful women of the Italian Renaissance, at the same time demonstrating that Murphy is perhaps headed for a fruitful career breathing life into history's overlooked heroines.... Though Rovere's life has been long overlooked as a subject worthy of the ever-growing genre of historical biography, in Murphy's deft hands, her fascinating life in the shadowy recesses of the Vatican offers extraordinary insights into what was possible for a strong-minded woman during the rinascimento. * San Francisco Chronicle *Murphy has achieved the near-miraculous; she has brought someone back from the dead. She has reconstructed the character of Felice della Rovere with such masterly empathy that she seems to breathe again. Along the way, she gives a magnificent portrayal of what life in Renaissance Rome was really like, showing how religion, family, and money could all combine to bring advancement to the skillful, or disaster to the unlucky. Felice was one of the skillful: Caroline Murphy has painted her vividly and unforgettably as a character to equal her mercurial father, Julius II. * Iain Pears, author of An Instance of the Fingerpost *Impossible to put down, Caroline Murphy brings to life the streets of sixteenth century Rome, the intrigues of the papal court, and the extraordinary character of Felice della Rovere. The Pope's Daughter overturns many of our assumptions about what was possible for women in Renaissance Italy. * Lyndal Roper, Professor of Early Modern History, Oxford University *A superb study.... The Pope's Daughter is a masterpiece. * Damian Thompson, The Daily Telegraph *Enhanced by an extensive bibliography, this absorbing book belongs in any collection of women's studies, Renaissance history, or the history of popes. * Library Journal *One feels in reading this vivid biography that one has gotten to know a woman of energy and talent who became 'the most powerful woman in Rome of her day.' * Publishers Weekly *Murphy has recreated Felice della Rovere's life with agility and tact. She successfully fleshes out the customs and historical background of her Machiavellian princess. * Bruce Boucher, New York Times Book Review *Murphy has achieved the near-miraculous; she has brought someone back from the dead. She has reconstructed the character of Felice della Rovere with such masterly empathy that she seems to breathe again. Along the way, she gives a magnificent portrayal of what life in Renaissance Rome was really like, showing how religion, family, and money could all combine to bring advancement to the skillful, or disaster to the unlucky. Felice was one of the skillful: Caroline Murphy has painted her vividly and unforgettably as a character to equal her mercurial father, Julius II. * Iain Pears, author of An Instance of the Fingerpost *The Pope's Daughter firmly establishes the once-forgotten Felice della Rovere as one of the most powerful women of the Italian Renaissance, at the same time demonstrating that Murphy is perhaps headed for a fruitful career breathing life into history's overlooked heroines.... Though Rovere's life has been long overlooked as a subject worthy of the ever-growing genre of historical biography, in Murphy's deft hands, her fascinating life in the shadowy recesses of the Vatican offers extraordinary insights into what was possible for a strong-minded woman during the rinascimento. * San Francisco Chronicle *Impossible to put down, Caroline Murphy brings to life the streets of sixteenth century Rome, the intrigues of the papal court, and the extraordinary character of Felice della Rovere. The Pope's Daughter overturns many of our assumptions about what was possible for women in Renaissance Italy. * Lyndal Roper, Professor of Early Modern History, Oxford University *A superb study.... The Pope's Daughter is a masterpiece. * Damian Thompson, The Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWorshipped by her fans, denounced by her enemies, and forever shadowed by controversy and scandal, the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was a powerful thinker whose views on government and markets shaped the conservative movement from its earliest days. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rand's private papers and the original, unedited versions of Rand's journals, Jennifer Burns offers a groundbreaking reassessment of this key cultural figure, examining her life, her ideas, and her impact on conservative political thought. Goddess of the Market follows Rand from her childhood in Russia through her meteoric rise from struggling Hollywood screenwriter to bestselling novelist, including the writing of her wildly successful The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Burns highlights the two facets of Rand's work that make her a perennial draw for those on the right: her promotion of capitalism, and her defense of limited government. Both sprang from her early, bitter experience of life underTrade ReviewBurns has crafted a superb biography that traces her influence, places Rand in historical context, avoids both condemnation and hagiography, and undercuts the view, fostered by Rand herself, that she was a self-created genius. * Lewis A. Erenberg, Journal of Historical Biography *a pleasure to read * Political Studies Review *[an] important study * Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement *A smart assessment of Rand's life and ideas and how they influenced each other... As Ms. Burns successfully demonstrates, Rand's ideas have remained an important part of the American ideological mix, especially in how she honored the creative powers of American business in a free market to improve human lives. Ms. Burns' readers will see Rand still has the power to instruct on the meaning and scary implications of government growth in the age of Barack Obama. * Brian Doherty, The Washington Times *Burns has the edge, though, in identifying Rand's intellectual legacy. She describes Rand as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right" elaborating: "Just as Rand had provided businessmen with a set of ideas that met their need to feel righteous and honorable in their professional lives, she gave young people a philosophical system that met their deep need for order and certainty. * Washington Monthly Magazine *Burns, a professor of history, more ably situates Rand within and against the world of American conservatism * The New Yorker *A well-written and absorbing biography of Rand, it also places her ideas and influence in three overlapping contexts. Goddess of the Market goes a long way toward explaining both the popularity of Rand's ideas and their somewhat marginalized status. * U.S. Intellectual History *This is a significant contribution to Rand scholarship and an engaging read for anyone interested in Rand or 20th-century politics and intellectual life * M. L. Jackson, CHOICE *balanced and engaging * Alex Goodall, Literary Review *At last! A well-balances book about Ayn Rand (1905-82), the guru of selfishness. After all the attack memoirs and right-wing adulation, Jennifer Burns has finally given us an intellectual biography * Tribune *a well researched and readable account of Objectivist philosophy, Rand's life and accounts of the sometimes misanthropic personalities if not the philosophy involved. * Martin Jenkins, Chartist *Excellent * Time magazine *Burns contributes so much to understanding the philosophies behind Rand's literature, libertarian thinking, and the philosophical underpinnings of the American right, that this book is sure to be of interest to many. * John Krueckeberg, Literature & History *Table of ContentsI. THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905-1943 ; 1. From Russia to Roosevelt ; 2. Individualists of the World, Unite! ; 3. A New Credo of Freedom ; II. FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944-1957 ; 4. . The Real Root of Evil ; 5. . A Round Universe ; III. JOHN GALT SPEAKING, 1957-1968 ; 6. . Big Sister is Watching You ; 7. . Radicals for Capitalism ; 8. . Love is Exception Making ; IV. CODA: 1968 AND EVERYTHING AFTER ; 9. . It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand ; 10. The Ayn Rand School for Tots

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Book SynopsisHere is the first biography to appear in fifty years of Harvey Cushing, a giant of American medicine and without doubt the greatest figure in the history of brain surgery.Drawing on new collections of intimate personal and family papers, diaries and patient records, Michael Bliss captures Cushing''s professional and personal life in remarkable detail. Bliss paints an engaging portrait of a man of ambition, boundless, driving energy, a fanatical work ethic, a penchant for self-promotion and ruthlessness, more than a touch of egotism and meanness, and an enormous appetite for life. Equally important, Bliss traces the rise of American surgery as seen through the eyes of one of its pioneers. The book describes how Cushing, working in the early years of the 20th century, developed remarkable new techniques that let surgeons open the skull, expose the brain, and attack tumors--all with a much higher rate of success than previously known. Indeed, Cushing made the miraculous in surgery an everTrade Review"This masterwork of narrative brings to vibrant life one of the most complex, brilliant, and endlessly fascinating medical personalities of recent times. In a book that will stand as the definitive biography of Harvey Cushing, Michael Bliss demonstrates once again why he is that ideal combination of storyteller and scrupulous historical researcher craved by general readers and envied by academics."--Sherwin Nuland"Monumental. Bliss begins before the cradle and ends beyond the grave, touching both on the material facts of Cushing's remarkable successes and on his convoluted inner life.... It is difficult to imagine how any future writer might improve on this masterpiece of compassion and erudition." --Richard Barnett, Lancet"An absorbing chronicle of the career of one of the greatest medical innovators ever produced by the US--or any other country.... One of the most extraordinary lives any biographer might wish to study.... It is Bliss's great accomplishment that he has made accessible not only the science, medicine, and professional atmosphere of Cushing's career, but also the character and personality of the man.... What Bliss has given to his subject is what Cushing himself, or any of us, would ask of a biographer: understanding."--Sherwin Nuland, New York Review of Books"A fast paced, engaging portrait of one of America's great pioneers and heroes. Bliss gives important insight into Cushing's motivations, inspirations, demons, and flaws, thus revealing how he was motivated to change a field and bravely create a new outlook on the functioning of the brain as well as a fundamentally new approach to medicine and research." --Henry Brem, Harvey Cushing Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins"As cleanly efficient as a successful operation.... As this solid, accessible biography reveals, Cushing may have been the very devil to live with, but with a scalpel in his hand, he did God's work."--Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune"Brings back to life an amazingly accomplished man who was the father of American neurosurgery, a leading authority on the pituitary gland, a pioneer of endocrinology and a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer."--Denver Post"Bliss...had a voluminous treasure trove of primary documents with which to work. His readable and thoroughly documented book presents Cushing as both an icon and a human being whose family and colleagues suffered from his single-minded devotion to work and blunt perfectionism. Written almost 60 years after the last major Cushing biography, this illustrated work calls on new resources and provides a more contemporary perspective."--Library Journal"The essence of biography is the elucidation of personality, and this is accomplished in a superb fashion in Michael Bliss's splendid modern biography of Harvey Cushing, with each chapter providing a facet of insight into a complex and fascinating icon of 20th century medicine and surgery." --Edward R. Laws, MD, FACS, Professor of Neurosurgery and Medicine, University of Virginia"Bliss has provided us with a definitive biography of the founder of American neurosurgery. It is a book about glitter and intensity, about vision and persistence, and about the emergence of America as a world leader in medicine. Sophisticated, balanced, and thoughtful it is a story of interest to physicians, surgeons, and lovers of history." --Peter M. Black, MD, PhD, Franc D. Ingraham Professor of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School and Neurosurgeon-in-Chief, Brigham and Women's Hospital"Another tour-de-force by Michael Bliss. Like Bliss' William Osler: A Life in Medicine, it will be a classic of medical history." --Jock Murray, Medical Humanities Program, Dalhousie University"It is beautifully written and illustrated, a pleasure to read, and paints Cushing 'warts and all.' A must for anyone with an interest in the development of our profession and with the life of this extraordinary man."--British Journal of Hospital MedicineTable of ContentsOpening: The Surgeon and the General ; 1. Western Reserve: The Cushings of Cleveland ; 2. Making a Yale Man ; 3. Making a Harvard Doctor ; 4. Making an American Surgeon ; 5. A Window on the Brain ; 6. Opening the Closed Box: The Birth of Neurosurgery ; 7. The Bottom of the Box: Interrogating the Pituitary ; 8. Adieu the Simple Life ; 9. Adieu America: Cushing Goes to War ; 10. An American Surgeon at Passchendaele ; 11. Fathers and Sons ; 12. Johnson and Boswells: Chief and Harem ; 13. Sprinting to the Tape ; 14. Regius Professor at Yale ; Closing: Inheritance and Memory

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Book SynopsisThe life of Arsinoë II (c. 316-c.270 BCE), daughter of Ptolemy Soter, the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, is characterized by dynastic intrigue. Her marriage to her full brother Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, was the first of the sibling marriages that became the dynastic signature of the Ptolemies. With Ptolemy II, she ended her days in great wealth and security and was ultimately deified. However, in order to reach that point she was forced to endure two tumultuous marriages, both of which led her to flee for her life, leaving war, murder, and bloodshed in her wake. Throughout much of her life, Arsinoë controlled great wealth and exercised political influence, but domestic stability characterized only her last few years. Arsinoë was the model for the powerful role Ptolemaic women gradually acquired as co-rulers of their empire. Her image continued to play a role in dynastic loyalty and solidarity for centuries to come. Despite the fact that Arsinoë was the pivotal figure in the eventuaTrade ReviewThe Hellenistic Age continues to fascinate. One of the latest, and best, books it's stimulated is Arsinoë of Egypt and Macedon A Royal Life, by that fine fistorian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney... Parsing the propaganda, skilfully plugging the gaps in our tattered evidence, as compulsively readable as she's critically sharp, Carney offers us a work of high scholarship that's also a compulsive page-turner. * Peter Green, The Times Literary Supplement *An interesting and enriching book. * Jean Bartels, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Table of ContentsAbbreviations ; Timeline ; Genealogical Tables ; Map of Eastern Mediterranean ; Introduction ; Chapter 1: Arsinoe's background and youth: 318-14-300 ; Chapter 2: Arsinoe as the wife of Lysimachus: c.300-281 ; Chapter 3: Arsinoe and Ptolemy Ceraunus: 281-279-6 ; Chapter 4: Arsinoe's return to Egypt and marriage to Ptolemy II: 279-275 ; Chapter 5: Arsinoe II as wife of Ptolemy II: c. 275-270 (268) ; Chapter 6: Arsinoe's Afterlife ; Appendix: Sources on the life of Arsinoe II ; Notes ; Glossary ; Important People in the life of Arsinoe II ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisCrossing Hitler is a biography of the German trial lawyer Hans Litten (1903-1938), who dedicated his brief career to an uncompromising struggle against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and suffered accordingly in Hitler''s concentration camps. Through the prism of this one remarkable advocate, the book explores the rise of the Nazis, the vibrant criminal courts of the Weimar Republic, and the terror of Nazi rule in Germany after 1933. During the trial of four Nazi paratroopers in 1931, Litten grilled Hitler in a merciless three-hour examination, forcing Hitler into multiple contradictions and evasions and finally reducing him to helpless and humiliating rage. Two years later Hitler was in power, and Litten was sent to the concentration camps of the Third Reich, where he worked on translations of medieval German poetry and operated as a one-man university. After five years of torture and hard labor, Litten gave up hope of survival, and took his own life 1938.

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Book SynopsisDean Acheson was one of the most influential Secretaries of State in U.S. history, presiding over American foreign policy during a pivotal era--the decade after World War II when the American Century slipped into high gear. During his vastly influential career, Acheson spearheaded the greatest foreign policy achievements in modern times, ranging from the Marshall Plan to the establishment of NATO. In this acclaimed biography, Robert L. Beisner paints an indelible portrait of one of the key figures of the last half-century. In a book filled with insight based on research in government archives, memoirs, letters, and diaries, Beisner illuminates Acheson''s major triumphs, including the highly underrated achievement of converting West Germany and Japan from mortal enemies to prized allies, and does not shy away from examining his missteps. But underlying all his actions, Beisner shows, was a tough-minded determination to outmatch the strength of the Soviet bloc--indeed, to defeat the SovTrade Review...a mature and lively account of the activities of the Secretary of State... * S.R. Dockrill The English Historical Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Acknowledgments Definitions of Acronyms and Abbreviations 1: Introduction: "The Shiniest Fish that Ever Came Out of the Sea" Part I 2: Rare Meat: Adding Reach to Power 3: Patterns of Peril: Joining the Cold Warriors 4: Rome and Carthage: The Truman Doctrine 5: The Marshall Plan and the Return to Private Life Part II 6: The Inner and Outer Acheson 7: Acheson, the President, and the State Department 8: Keeping the Americans In, the Russians Out, and the Germans Down, 1949 9: Strategy in Europe: Backing the West, Probing the East 10: Looking for Chance in China, 1949 11: Neither Wood nor Ivory: Checkmated in China, 1949-1950 12: Other Early Encounters with Asia and the Middle East Part III 13: Weapons: The H-Bomb 14: Words: NSC-68, Public Opinion, and Total Diplomacy 15: Real Diplomacy, in Europe, 1949-1950 16: Plunge into the Unkown: The United States, Indochina, and China on the Eve of the Korean War 17: Friends in Place: Acheson and Alger Hiss 18: Evil Days Part IV 19: Testing Ground-Korea 20: In the Cockpit 21: Prodding Evolution with Action: German Rearmament 22: Acceleration from a Running Start Part V 23: In Thrall: Ironic Failures in Korea 24: Job's Comforter and the Mad Satrap 25: Captives of War 26: At Different Ends of the Triangle: Domestic Debates, European Armies, British Allies Part VI 27: Command in Japan 28: Failure in Indochina and China 29: Razor Edge Sensibilities: ANZUS and India 30: Falling between Two Stools: The Middle East, North Africa, and Africa 31: Picking Up Sticks in Egypt and Iran 32: Jousting with Mosadeq, Waiting for Nasser 33: Latin America: Critical, but not Serious Part VII 34: Lisbon to Letdown: The Fate of the EDC 35: Apples of Discord: Germany and the Soviet Union, 1952 36: Scope for the Exercise of Every Vital Power

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Book SynopsisThe letter-books of the Royal African Company of England form the most substantial and important source of material on English trade in West Africa in the late seventeenth century. The original texts, covering the period 1681-1699, are being published in full in three or four volumes. This first volume contains the letters for the years 1681-1683.Trade ReviewRobin Law is to be commended for editing the Rawlinson collection in an important, scholarly, three-volume set. * African Affairs *

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the practical world in which the writer and his peers worked, following Montaigne through his various roles as manager, magistrate, diplomat and mayor. The author examines the sources of income available to 16th century writers and their involvement in the financial and editorial aspects of publishing itself.Trade ReviewGeorge Hoffman's work opens up new territory, takes us into the background of book production, and makes us consider the practical conditions in which the essays were written ... This is a thought-provoking book. It plays down religion, war and politics, and projects an essentially local image of Montaigne ... Hoffman raises important general issues about the Essais and about writing. * Margaret M McGowan TLS, 8/10/99 *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; Note on Editions and Abbreviations ; Introduction: The Practice of Writing ; 1. Working at Home ; 2. The Company of Secretaries ; 3. Wagering on Publication ; 4. The Art of Proofreading ; 5. The Montaigne Monopoly ; 6. Books and Careers: A Conclusion ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

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Book SynopsisThis is the first edition of the life of St Modwenna, an obscure Irish saint whose bones supposedly came to rest in the West Midlands abbey of Burton. Abbot Geoffrey of Burton's account of her life sheds much light on the Latinity, religious attitudes, and historical consciousness of this Benedictine author.Trade ReviewRobert Bartlett's edition ... is clear, accurate and furnished with a splendidly lucid translation ... For his edition of these miracle stories, Bartlett deserves our thanks. For rescuing a little known but fascinating example of Anglo-Irish hagiography, he places us still further in his debt. * English Historical Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Vita sancte moduenne virginis/Life of the Virgin Saint Modwenna ; Indexes

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Book SynopsisThis is a biography of Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928), who spent most of her life at Newnham College, Cambridge, and was renowned for her work on Greek art and religion. Despite many difficulties, both academic and personal, her brilliant mind and strength of character enabled her to open up new possibilities for academic women.Trade ReviewAnnabel Robinson has written an excellent, readable biography of this fascinating woman ... I compliment Robinson for crafting a cohesive and persuasive portrait of an extraordinary woman. * MODERNISM/modernity *... authoritative biography ... well researched. * Woolf Studies Annual *The Life and Work of Jane Ellen Harrison is a well-written and lively account of this pivotal figure, one that should interest classical scholars, historians of women , and intellectual historians alike. * The Journal of Classics Teaching *Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Origins; 1850-74 ; 2. A Room of Her Own; Newnham College 1874-9 ; 3. 'Salvationist for Greek Art': London 1879-86 ; 4. Mythology and monuments: Greece and London, 1886-99 ; 5. Women and Knowledge: Newnham 1898 - 1901 ; 6. Ker and heiron: Jane Harrison and Gilbert Murray 1901-3 ; 7. Prolegomena to the study of Greek religion: Newnham 1903-6 ; 8. The Pillar and the Maiden: Newnham 1906-7 ; 9. Crabbed age and youth: Cambridge 1908-9 ; 10. Heresy and humanity; Cambridge 1907-10 ; 11. Unanimism and Conversion: Cambridge and Europe 1910-14 ; 12. Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse: Cambridge and Paris 1914-16 ; 13. Via crucis, via lucis: Cambridge, France, Spain, and London 1916-28

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Book SynopsisI am aware that, once my pen intervenes, I can make whatever I like out of what I was.'' Paul Valéry, Moi.Modernism is often characterized as a movement of impersonality; a rejection of auto/biography. But most of the major works of European modernism and postmodernism engage in very profound and central ways with questions about life-writing. Max Saunders explores the ways in which modern writers from the 1870s to the 1930s experimented with forms of life-writing - biography, autobiography, memoir, diary, journal - increasingly for the purposes of fiction. He identifies a wave of new hybrid forms from the late nineteenth century and uses the term ''autobiografiction'' - discovered in a surprisingly early essay of 1906 - to provide a fresh perspective on turn-of-the-century literature, and to propose a radically new literary history of Modernism. Saunders offers a taxonomy of the extraordinary variety of experiments with life-writing, demonstrating how they arose in the nineteenth century as the pressures of secularization and psychological theory disturbed the categories of biography and autobiography, in works by authors such as Pater, Ruskin, Proust, ''Mark Rutherford'', George Gissing, and A. C. Benson. He goes on to look at writers experimenting further with autobiografiction as Impressionism turns into Modernism, juxtaposing detailed and vivacious readings of key Modernist texts by Joyce, Stein, Pound, and Woolf, with explorations of the work of other authors - including H. G. Wells, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, and Wyndham Lewis - whose experiments with life-writing forms are no less striking. The book concludes with a consideration of the afterlife of these fascinating experiments in the postmodern literature of Nabokov, Lessing, and Byatt.Self Impression sheds light on a number of significant but under-theorized issues; the meanings of ''autobiographical'', the generic implications of literary autobiography, and the intriguing relation between autobiography and fiction in the period.Trade Reviewvery wide-ranging and intellectually stimulating ... Conspicuous in its originality ... an outstanding contribution * The Pater Newsletter *Saunders's account ... is the most important recent contribution to the genealogy of modern literature ... The paradoxy of autobiografiction never disorients him; rather, it inspires plentiful pithy wisdom in a book that seems to end every paragraph aphoristically. Theory and history, history and form get their due recognition, and the book as a whole is an apt and exciting tribute to its subject, capable of everything necessary to prove that life-writing has meant everything to literary modernity. * Jesse Matz, Modern Language Quarterly *fascinating study * William Baker, Years Work in English Studies *Overall, this is a hugely impressive enterprise, in which Saunders wears his formidable erudition and theoretical expertise gracefully and wittily. * Andrew Radford, Years Work in English Studies *It is likely to become a major critical resource, not just for research on early twentieth-century life-writing, but also as part of the ongoing revision of the whole century's literary history. * Bharat Tandon, Times Literary Supplement *a remarkable book, in its length, its historical range (Pater to Byatt) and its fluid genre crossings... Saunders explores the relationship of autobiography to fiction in general, the relationship of the synthetic category 'autobiografiction' to modernism, and by so doing gives us an unusually unified account of modernism... The sheer weight of research and knowledge is astonishing and lightly, even conversationally, worn; Saunders seems to have read every fiction, auto-fiction and pseudo-fiction from the last 150 years... Too many excellent features of this magisterial book can be mentioned only in passing * Review of English Studies *Saunders can rearrange the familiar landmarks of modernist prehistory to fit an entire tradition of imaginary autobiography that has been occluded or marginalised by the grand narrative of modernisms impersonality... its new readings of well-known authors and works are dazzling; its new scholarship on unknown or little-known authors and works is fascinating. It revitalises the old literary-historical category of the transition (that is, from Victorian to modern, 1880-1920) * Australian Book Review *Saunders' mode of presentation is very precise and sharp... a very important book for the discussion of the relationship between Modernism and Life-Writing. * Yata Keiji, Virginia Woolf Review *A breathtakingly comprehensive study... Self Impression is an important book that will inspire further work on life-writing in the modern period... Recent publications provide other examples of books that call out for the application of Saunders's approach. The first volume of the complete and authoritative edition of the Autobiography of Mark Twain has just been published... Once again, we are in the realm of autobiografiction that Saunders has so brilliantly mapped out. * English Literature in Transition *compendious in the best sense of the term... Saunders's knowledge of, and ability to critique with extraordinary critical sensitivity, the wide swathes of European literature is remarkable. Even more impressive is his handling of the intricate filaments which bind these texts together, which make them constantly mutually allusive. This makes for a constant fascination... It is a measure of the depth of thinking in this book that the complexities of autobiographical modes and the relevance of the category of impressionism, while compelling in themselves, tend to recede and to be replaced by larger questions. Who am I when I write? Who am I when I read? What is it like to be 'carried away' by a book?... These are questions which, as Saunders delicately puts it, have been raised in one form or another by de Man, Hartman, Derrida; but here they receive a rare depth and range of articulation which puts flesh on the bones of abstract argument * David Punter, Modern Language Review *Self Impression remains a remarkable achievement, laying the foundation for future studies of life-writing genres and their relationship to fiction; it provides us with the critical tools and methodologies that will diversify our understanding of life-writing genres and their evolving place in literary history.' * Journal of Victorian Culture *wide-ranging and consequential new account of British literature from 1870 to 1930 ... In modernism, as Saunders demonstrates in impressive detail, we may find an astonishing variety of experimental interactions between biography, autobiography, fiction, and criticism ... With this vast body of evidence, quoted generously and treated expertly, Saunders makes a compelling case for reading modernism as a discourse of im/personality. [One of] two exceedingly good books - stimulating in their arguments, rich in attention to literary and scholarly detail, and engagingly written. * Adam Parkes, Modern Fiction Studies *Table of ContentsPART I: MODERN IRONISATIONS OF AUTO/BIOGRAPHY AND THE EMERGENCE OF AUTOBIOGRAFICTION: VICTORIAN AND FIN-DE-SIECLE PRECURSORS; PART II: MODERNIST AUTO/BIOGRAFICTION; CONCLUSION

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Book SynopsisEach year brings a glut of new memoirs, ranging from works by former teachers and celebrity has-beens to disillusioned soldiers and bestselling novelists. In addition to becoming bestsellers in their own right, memoirs have become a popular object of inquiry in the academy and a mainstay in most MFA workshops. Courses in what is now called life-writing study memoir alongside personal essays, diaries, and autobiographies. Memoir: An Introduction proffers a concise history of the genre (and its many subgenres) while taking readers through the various techniques, themes, and debates that have come to characterize the ubiquitous literary form. Its fictional origins are traced to eighteenth-century British novels like Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones; its early American roots are examined in Benjamin Franklin''s Autobiography and eighteenth-century captivity narratives; and its ethical conundrums are considered with analyses of the imbroglios brought on by the questionable claims in Rigoberta Trade ReviewCouser has carved out a place on the reading list of any undergraduate life writing module as well as in any bibliography where the classification of genre is a concern ... the book thoughtfully introduces the theoretical foundations upon which the contemporary study of life writing rests; not least of these is the idea that selves are not recorded in life writing but constructed therein. * Claire Lynch, Modern Language Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Introduction ; 1. What Memoir Is, and What Memoir Isn't ; 2. Memoir and Genre ; 3. Memoir's Forms ; 4. Memoir's Ethics ; 5. Memoir's American Roots ; 6. Contemporary American Memoir ; 7. The Work of Memoir ; Works Cited ; Index

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Book SynopsisWith his signature insight and compelling style, Christopher Hibbert explains the extraordinary complexities and contradictions that characterized Benito Mussolini. Hibbert traces his unstoppable rise to power, examines his legacy and reveals why he continues to be both revered and reviled by the Italian people.Table of ContentsPreface Family Tree Showing Mussolini's Ancestry and Descendants PART I: THE FIGHT FOR POWER The Young Rebel July 29, 1883-December 1912 The Interventionist October 1913--May 1915 The Fascist in the Making August 1915--October 28, 1922 The Head of the Government October 28, 1922--June 13, 1924 The Dictator June 13, 1924--June 10, 1940 PART II: EMPIRE AND AXIS The Diplomat October 28, 1922-June 10, 1940 The Commander-in-Chief June 10, 1940--October 23, 1942 PART III: THE FALL OF THE COLOSSUS 'The War is Going Badly' October 23, 1942--January 23, 1943 The Conspirators November 1942--July 24, 1943 The Grand Council Meeting July 24-25, 1943 The Rest at Villa Savoia July 25, 1943 The Prisoner July 25, 1943--August 28, 1943 On the Gran Sasso August 28, 1943--September 12, 1943 The Rescue from Gran Sasso September 12, 1943 The Meeting at the Fuhrer's Headquarters September 15, 1943 The President at Gargnano-- The First Year September 27, 1943--September 27, 1944 The Civil War November 1943--December 1944 The President at Gargnano-- The Final Months December 1944--April 1945 The Germans Surrender February--April 1945 The Move to Milan April 19-25, 1945 The Flight from Milan April 25-27, 1945 The Capture April 27, 1945 'Colonel Valerio' April 27-28, 1945 Death at Villa Belmonte April 28, 1945 The Piazzale Loreto April 29, 1945 Notes on Sources Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisCon Coughlin is the executive foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph and a world-renowned expert on the Middle East. He is the critically-acclaimed author of several books, including Saddam: His Secret Life. He appears regularly on television and radio in Britain and America to comment on international security issues.

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Book SynopsisAn account of one journalist's experience from 1992-93 of the conflict in Bosnia, this work is an attempt to come to terms with the overwhelming questions that are provoked by witnessing the destruction of a nation. It explores the universal nature of war and unravelling of a once stable society, uncovering stories of rape, torture and death as well as the acts that assert humanity in the face of such devastation.

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Book SynopsisMadeleine K. Albright, born in Czechoslovakia, was confirmed as the 64th Secretary of State in 1997. Her distinguished career in government included positions in the National Security Council and as US ambassador to the United Nations. She lives in Washington D.C. and Virginia

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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